Good stuff

2nd Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

What a wonderful prayer! When dismissing the church from a service, my uncle prays this prayer. It's a wonderful way of saying farewell until we meet again. It pretty much covers all the bases in a short sentence. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Grace in all areas of your life. Physical, spiritual, mental, financial, and in every area may He shed His grace upon you......may you find favor where ever you are, in whatever you are doing. Wow. May the labor of your hands produce much fruit, and prosperity. May the love of God be with you. That love that's never selfish, or self seeking......may that love be with you, in you, and work through you. Eeeeee glory! And may the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. May you hear directly from God concerning all the issues in your life. May you walk in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit without measure that you would see marvelous signs and wonders on a daily basis. So much said in such a small farewell. I sure do pray that everyone receives Jesus, and gets their ticket to heaven paid for by Jesus death on the cross, and sealed by His resurrection. The time is growing short, and I know many will say, "We've heard that for two thousand years." and that's true. But the world ends for someone every single day. How shocked you are when you open up the newspaper and glance at the obituaries only to see a friend of many years who died at too young an age? I guess the older we get, the older that "young age" climbs as well. When I was a teenager, man 25 was OLD. Now that I'm older than that.....hehehehe (37) those dying at 45 and 55 seem really young. We don't have the luxury of going back and asking them if they know Jesus. That opportunity has passed. Do you want to know an alarming statistic? Of those who receive Jesus prior to the age of 18, 90 percent will be Christians their whole lives. Many may stray, but they will come back from their backslidden state to serve the Lord again. Those who don't receive Jesus prior to the age of 18, 90 percent never will. Now of course, God can do anything, and He can blow any statistic right out of the water. But what a sobering thought! We need to reach out to the youth, not look down our noses at them. First and foremost we need to be good role models for them. We need to show them we love them. Not just tell them, but show them. How about sponsoring a Christian youth night at your church, or contacting a Christian band to put on a concert? There are so many things that we can do to reach the youth. Perhaps have someone sing and play the guitar at church (or other venue) and invite the kids to come after their football games on friday night. Sure it'll be a late event, but how much is a soul worth? Priceless, right? We need to quit complaining about the way things are and say, "Here am I Lord, send me!" If you do that, He will answer you, and He will send you. He'll give you ideas, probably better than the ones I mentioned. (A friend of mine told me about the after football game thing.......that was great.) If we strive to reach out to the youth, we can indeed reach them, but we must be willing. And sometimes we must be willing to do things that don't make much sense to us, but will open up a whole avenue of understanding to a teenager. Let the Lord lead you, and as Nike says, "Just do it!" Have a great day folks. Sorry it's been so long in between blogs.....I'll do better. TTFN (ta ta for now) and God bless. :-) James