40 degrees...brrr....

     I still have some wood and was very tempted to fire up the wood stoves this morning.  I just put on more clothes and got moving to keep the blood flowing.  This is the summer that wasn't up here in the northern woods.  Our garden is feeling it but our greens are loving it.

      The house is on the market and the real estate agent took some great pictures.  It is a house in progress and today we will spend some of the day working on some more projects.












       I almost thought that last picture might have snow on the ground!!  And then there is the growing box mound!!!!


     Among all of this is our work in the church that is so important no matter where we are.  I am thankful that it looks like we will be able to complete the book of 1 Peter before we leave for our new assignment from the Lord.  This Sunday is the completion of chapter 4 and really the completion of Peter's instruction about what to do in the face of persecution for the name of Christ in a hostile environment and also what that persecution does for us and even how to rejoice through it.  When we get persecuted, we tend to focus just on ourselves (survival mode) and so it is no surprise that when Peter addresses the problem in chapters 1 through 4 that chapter 5 starts off by him instructing us to start to look at others.  The old classic that if you think you have it bad, look around and you will find someone who has it worse and then serve them.
    
     The phrase that jumped out at me this week was in 1 Peter 4.19, "faithful Creator".  Peter could have just said "God" but he gave description so that we would focus that when we entrust our soul it is to the One who created us and the One who keeps His promises and is solid and firm.  I am following the One who gave me life and it really should be the most natural thing I could do but sin changed all of that.  Chapter 4 ends with the phrase "in doing what is right."  Peter ends with what he started.  In a hostile environment when you are being persecuted for just holding the name of Jesus, Christians, continue to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and for the Lord's sake.  That witness of Jesus and Jesus working through it reveals Jesus to this world and we are to do this to the end.


 God bless your day...

 Adam


A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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