Pressing Toward the Mark...

Dennis returned back to work this morning after having a week off.  He did manage to get Ricky's heater coil replaced...took all week to do it.  He also managed to get in some hunting, which resulted in our yearly quota of venison being filled (2 big fat does to add to the buck he killed earlier).

Saturday, I watched a TV episode that was based on "It's a Wonderful Life", which had gotten me to thinking.  I lay awake that night thinking about what things would be like if I had never been born.  It was depressing to think how little things would differ (other than the fact that my 3 wonderful children wouldn't be alive).  Then Dennis spoke Sunday morning on our potential. It was an excellent lesson...perfect for starting a new year, and it meshed so well with my musings from the night before.  I want my "dash" (the line between my birth date and day of my death on my tombstone) to mean something.  I left the (wonderful!) assembly with renewed motivation to make a difference...to be all that God wants me to be.  I may not be a 5 talent Christian, but I can take what God has given me and use it and increase it to His glory.

One of the examples that Dennis used was from basic training.  He had always heard about the obstacle course that recruits had to face.  When he got to boot camp, he was informed that they didn't have an "obstacle course"...they had a "confidence course".  What a difference that makes!  When we look at "obstacles" in our lives, we can get discouraged and feel overwhelmed.  However, if we view the same situations as "confidence builders", we see opportunity.

Dennis left us with 5 challenges:
*  Don't resent life and its Maker...God sees the big picture; we, only our limited perspective  -  Isa 29:15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? 16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
*  Learn how God's creation works and work with it...TRUST in God to do His part  -  Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
*  Be aware that we MUST participate...we have to make choices  -  De 11:26  Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
*  Don't just hope things will improve by themselves...we have to use the talents God gives us  -  Mt 25:25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 26  His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

We have the ability to affect changes...giving glory to God in everything!

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.