Talk about living each day in uncharted territory, but, we know the One who knows the way forward!

Hello and welcome back. The countdown continues. It is Monday, March 23, 2020, and, I do hope since we last visited you were able to get some spiritual nourishment from reading the Word of God, watching services online, or spending time with God in prayer. I was perusing some of the different obituary sites I monitor the other day and I noticed something. It was a photo of a fellow who had passed away. He had lived a long and productive life. The photo caught my attention. He looked like he was sitting in his favorite recliner and I couldn't help but notice he was wearing his Life-Alert necklace. The thought came to me how there is a time coming for each of us when we will no longer reach anyone at Life-Alert or 9-1-1. I'm not being morose here. It's a fact and his photo reminded me of that. For those of us who have been blessed with a good long run, well, we most likely have fewer days ahead of us than we have lived out in our past. The only thing that might preempt this event is the Rapture when Jesus returns and calls out His own, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." (Inspired word of the Lord as found in 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18) I do hear a lot of folks saying they want this to come now. I get that. However, we still have folks in our family that need to be included when this event happens so they will not have to go into and through the Great Tribulation. They can only do that by putting their faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary. That's my prayer. If and when they do, when He comes 'we all' will be ready. Amen.

The wife and I have become watchers of Netflix during this time of us being self-imposed homebodies. We have been working through the six seasons of episodes of the BBC/PBS series "Father Brown". It is a 'whodunit' mystery show featuring an amateur sleuth, Catholic Priest Father Brown. The series is actually in its 10th year now but Netflix has the first six. We've seen maybe 30 episodes over the past two weeks and we are just in the early time of the 4th season now. Good acting, excellent production values, and typically good stories are why we enjoy these shows. The ruse is one that is a well-known vehicle in the storytelling world. The amateur detective is at odds with the professional policing authorities, but, typically they are first to solve the mystery at hand. We also enjoyed the 'Miss Marple' series that had the same basic configuration and a whole bunch of others with similar themes. I haven't really tried to figure out why that particular set-up makes for good entertainment, at least to us. I'm sure some shrink somewhere might have some ideas about that. My guess is when they come to figure me out they would want to show up real early and plan on staying all day. Meanwhile, we will continue to enjoy them together.

Yesterday, the first day of the week, we got up and went through the preparations to attend services with our brothers and sisters in Christ at our local meeting place. The difference came when we climbed the stairs to watch the service on my personal computer screen in my home office. Someone had suggested this approach on Facebook as opposed to watching in our pajamas. We thought it was a novel idea and a welcome change from our routine of not having a routine, therefore, we did it. Our associate pastor taught a Bible study class at 9 a.m. from Romans Chapters 3 and 4, and at 10:30 a.m., a small worship team sang before our pastor brought a powerful, timely message from John Chapter 11. During the interlude between the two portions of our service, the wife called those she could reach who are in her Care Group. It was not the same as being together. No handshakes and hugs. No sweet fellowship and the things that God does when His people are physically together. We are believers in 'Church' in every sense of the word. We know we are the Chruch wherever we go, but, we also know God has ordained for His people to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior as we meet together. We miss that hands-on, but, we are thankful for the technology available that permitted us to attend virtually. We so look forward to when we can once again all assemble together in person. We know we are always blessed when we do. Amen. ....More later.