Sunday, June 24...

Hi all. What a great day! Up at 2 AM (okay, Georgia time...)! Took a walk and got to see some of the neighborhood up close. A great way to begin Sunday.

I'm on the deck/patio drafting this entry, listening to Ben and Tibi and Shane and Jolayne warm up their guitars and voices for church. Dan and Katy Beth open their home for a multitude of kingdom uses--home English clubs, Sunday church services, hotel to visiting short term missionaries. Perhaps there's a spiritual maxim here: open your home to the spirit, open your heart to the spirit; open your heart to Him and He'll remain with you.

I'm working out the mechanics between God and me and others. God desires me, He desires my salvation, He loves me, so...I love Him, I desire salvation, I desire more of Him. Something like that. Why is this important? Becasue it informs how I approach others with the message of God's extraordinary grace. As a Lutheran I've been blessed to have been taught to think of salvation, to consider God's grace and His salvation and the extraordinary tools He used to strengthen, preserve and save us. But then I'm left with the fact that it boils down to God saying "I love you. Love me. Love each other." I'm afraid, after reading Jesus' attempts to simplify the great mysteries of His love, that we have returned to the complexities we find there, more comfortable in arguing about those mysteries than in reveling in the fact of His infinite love for us--and our need for that love.

So anyhow, I'm here to share God's love and tell of the truth of His existence and power, all the while working through the nuts and bolts of my own belief and salvation. Read the word. Pray for His peace and for the salvation of those who don't know him.

I've posted the basic pictures below--the house, preparations to hear God's word preached and His praises sung, the kids having fun with our camp friends. Work starts tomorrow--Anne and I will be working to put together our plans for the adult program. Please pray that God's words are spoken clearly through us, especially His love and the need we all have for that love and forgiveness. "Now is the time of God's favor. Today is the day of salvation."