In Luke 10:25-37 there is a very interesting conversation between Jesus and an expert in the law!  The original question was asked by the expert was:  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The question reveals a lot – He basically wanted to know what was the minimum requirement?  A lot of us live our lives trying to do just enough to satisfy the minimum requirement!

Jesus answered, as he often does with a question:  “What is written in the law? – How do you read it?”  In other words how do you understand it?

The expert responded with:  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself!”  Good answer!  Proving that we know what we are supposed to do, but often fall way short of doing it!

Jesus said”  “Right Answer – Do this and you will live!”  Jesus was giving the guy the secret to really living in this life and the next!  We don’t need another formula or strategy, we need to do what we know!

The expert still needed clarity or was looking for excuses, I tend to think it was the latter!  He wanted to know “Who is my neighbor?”  This is a tactic that we use a lot of times.  We want to talk about it, analyze it or think through it, rather than just jump in and get done what needs to be done!

Real living is not living to satisfy the minimum requirements, it is living to glorify our God!  I challenge you to move out of and beyond the limitations of excuses, justifications and playing the blame game and live in the wide open freedom of pursuing the magnificent will of our God, Who has an amazing plan for each of our lives!

This has been a crazy week!  It has flown by and each day has been jammed packed with activity and amazing ministry!  I have really enjoyed it, but I was more than ready for a little break today and I was actually blessed with a couple of hours on the bike after breakfast this morning, just scooting around town and soaking up a little sun.

Week started off with a great opening Monday at Grace Place.  Every week God shows up and continues to amaze us with confirmation that He is all over and through this thing!  Grace Place would end up being amazing all week.  We ministered to a lot of people and we got a lot accomplished!

Tuesday blessed me with the opportunity of meeting with our Non-Profit Roundtable Group.  We met at the Taylor’s Free Medical Clinic and had an opportunity to see first hand – what they do and how they do it!  This is a very special ministry and meets some big time needs for people who have no health care options in our community and yes they are a whole lot more people with no options than you realize!

I love The Non-Profit Roundtable, because we all seem to have our hearts and spirits in the right place and it is so great to be able to work together!  Tuesday night was another great night of ministry at GP and it was especially fun getting to visit with some of the Disable American Veterans!

Wednesday was a big day, because Eugenia (One of our GP volunteers) and I had a goal of getting our “winter resort project” cleaned up and packed away!  There were many who said that it could not be done, but with a lot of hard work, sweat and the assistance of two MFUGE Teams = Mission Accomplished!

Wednesday night gave me the opportunity to spend some time with some of my favorite people as we gathered together for FOCUS WORSHIP TIME.  While I was teaching on God’s Power, a big powerful storm began to blow in, but it could not even come close to the power that we were talking and learning about!  I hope we are learning to let the power flow into and through our lives for His glory!

I was hoping to take a little time off on Thursday, but it just didn’t look like it was going to happen.  The mortuary had called me and asked if I could do a funeral for a young man who I did not know.  I was glad for the opportunity to minister to the family and so I agreed.  When I called one of the family members, I could tell that this was going to require my meeting and investing a little time with them and so we arranged to meet later in the afternoon and was very blessed to begin a new friendship!

I then got a call from MFUGE and their outside mission projects were rained out and they needed something for two groups to do during their mission time.  We had finished the project at GP, so I had to think fast.  I remembered we had over 1200 cans that needed to be divided and delivered at Northwood, so we set the teams to sorting and I arranged visits and tours at four local ministries.

I am very thankful for the Greer Soup Kitchen!  Martha Littlefield O’Neal and her staff do an amazing job making sure that food and hope are given out everyday to people who are hungry for both.  The passion of the lady that provided the tour stirred the passion in my heart for reaching the unreached!

I am very thankful for Greer Relief!  Caroline Robertson has been very helpful in helping me to understand how things work and how to be effective in helping others.  She is always willing to take and make time to help others.  Greer Relief sees a lot of hurting people, but more than seeing them, they help them make a plan and work it!

I am very thankful for Greer Community Ministries!  Craig Dittmar their new Executive Director seems to have a very good handle on ministering to seniors in our area.  And I can tell you that our seniors are blessed to have Craig and his team of volunteers working so hard to make sure that meals are made, entertainment is provided and relationships are grown.

The MFUGE Teams got to deliver canned goods to each of these ministries and then got to tour and see what these ministries do and who they minister to!  After we finished up with the tours, we headed over to Grace Place for a little lunch, a tour and a little more work!  It was a great day for all of us!

Friday was my funeral day and it was amazing.  I will simply say that I feel very blessed that Woods Mortuary would give me the opportunity to minister in this way.  I really had a great chance to minister to a hurting family and lift up Christ at the same time.  We capped the day off with a great Grace Dinner and some shopping at Grace Place!

I got up this morning and met a group of our men at 7:30 AM for breakfast at Denny’s.  We have a great group of men and I really love being able to fellowship with them!  They encourage and bless me and I am glad to call them friend!

Tonight we celebrated my sister’s birthday at Outback!  I don’t even need to say anything about this, it was a lot of fun being with the family, but if I took nerve pills, I would take two and go straight to bed.  Speaking of bed, I better finish this up and head that way, because a brand new week starts tomorrow and I already know it is going to be something else!

“The consequences of today are determined by the actions of the past.
To change your future, change your decisions today.”

If we could remember this simple truth in the moment by moment living of life, it would make such an incredible difference in the way that we live our lives and in the way that our lives treat us!

Life does not have to be complicated!  Life does not have to be frustrating!  We are the ones that tend to complicate and frustrate life with our decision or indecision.  Think about your life right now – the things that you are facing and dealing with!  What do you need to do to make things better?  What can you do to make things better?  What are you going to do to make things better?

We don’t need action, just for the sake of action!  We need the right actions and reactions.  Right actions produce right results and right results change not just your day, but your eternity!

It does not matter who you are or what mistakes you have made, God has a plan and it is the most amazing plan that you could ever dream up, if you had the ability to dream it up.  So take some time today to practice some good actitions that make today count and tomorrow better!