Celebration to Come!

When I was 11 years old, my baseball team won the City League championship in Longview, TX.  We were the Colonels and my brother Andy was the bat boy and was so excited about the win that he did a flip on the pitcher's mound.  The celebration for a group of  11 year old boys and their parents was so exciting that I have considered that year to be one of my favorites memories and my favorite age.

That one championship became one of my accomplishments that I cherished in my heart.  One of my teammates passed away as a result of a car wreck he suffered later in his teens.  Bruce Fisher was a friend and I have been thinking about him and the rest of the team who I wish I could see again.  We grew up, and now as men we have our own lives that were all shaped by the events of that summer.

However, several years later, I became a Christian by being immersed for the forgiveness of my sins and there are several people who were there as a part of that are no longer living in this world. I have lost my mother, several of my close friends who became a part of the team that I knew at that time as a result of my decision, and the preacher who immersed me, J.D. Lancaster and many who encouraged me to become who I now am in life.

Today, I live and work with a team of Christians who are living to win the championship of life.  Heaven is our goal, the celebration will be sweet, and I know that my brother Andy will do a flip for me at the thrown of God as a celebration of being home. (Well, maybe!) My Christian team was and is my favorite team and many memories have surpassed those baseball memories some 40 years ago. I have lost many of my friends and church family to death, but I know that they are waiting for the final celebration to come in eternity.  I too, with my physical and spiritual family, can't wait to celebrate with Jesus who "pitched a perfect game" in this life and is waiting for us to come home.

I hope you are ready for that celebration.  I would love to see you Sunday at the West Freeway church so that we can worship and praise Him who was perfect in this life so that we would have the chance to join Him for that celebration.  He lived the perfect life to be the perfect sacrifice for us.  "Come, now is the time to worship." 

God bless you.  See you Sunday so that I will be to possibly see you in heaven.

Time was...!

Time was when you could walk down the street and be greeted by everyone who walked by.  Now, if you even get a glance from some you feel like you have accomplished a monumental feat of social elitism.  People just don't want to be bothered with the menial things in life.  Some don't even want to be recognized as those who walk among the living.

That is why I am so glad that I still speak and greet most of the people I come into eye contact with.  Today as I drove away from dropping my wife off, a lady was taking her morning walk down the street and as I stopped at the signal to wait I caught her eye and nodded "Good Morning" and she smiled and waved.  It broke me into a smile and the thought that not everyone was raised on dill pickles and some even don't mind sharing a smile and a warm greeting now and then.

How can I as a Christian do better?  I believe it is possible if I will just keep smiling and greeting.  It reminds me to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  It still works!

I'll see you later.