Dear Brethren, Family, and Friends,

Greetings and blessings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. May you be reaping His blessings today.

 

As I write this morning from my home in beautiful God's Country, Oklahoma, it is a beautiful morning with fall in the air even though it is just past mid-July. With the latest cool front we turned off the A/C over night, and opened the windows for the cool night air to come in. I'm always trying to save a "buck", but with the temperature reaching the low 90's today, we will have the windows closed and the A/C on by afternoon. I wonder sometimes how we got by without air conditioning while growing up. We seem to depend on it so much these days. As a boy growing up in South Dakota it didn't seem like we needed it, and we didn't. When we moved to Florida in 1963 it didn't seem like we needed it there either. The house stayed cool during the day, and a fan in the window at night was enough as I recall. Times have changed since then. The last time Rebecca and I went to Florida in the summer to visit family, we thought we were going to melt. Has weather changed that much or are we just use to the air conditioning? My wife has an aunt who lives in deep south Texas who only uses A/C when she has company. I've been to that part of the country. It is miserably hot almost year round! How does she do it? 

 

On another note, the other day we needed to hall away some rubbish to the local dump. It consisted of a old mattress set that we bought when we were first married (almost 27 years old), a yard swing set, and a stove we recently replaced. Believe it or not, we are still using the first refrigerator that we bought when we were married. It works and hasn't given us any trouble in over ten years. It causes me to think about the Israelites while they were in the desert traveling to the Promised Land. During their journey their shoes and clothing didn't wear out over the course of 40 years, Deut. 29:5. On the way back from the dump we stopped at a road side stand selling water melons. I love water melons, and usually eat, at one sitting, till I am round and looking like one. I picked out one and asked the man how much. $12 was his answer which caused me to almost get back in my truck and drive off. But I thought, he brought them all the way from Rush Springs, Oklahoma. These are Okie Land water melons! And they sure looked nice. So without hesitation I asked him if he had change for a twenty. The melon was so big I couldn't hardly carry it to the truck. As we drove off I told Rebecca that I should have told him, as a produce manager in a Florida supermarket in the 1960's we would have water melon sales of 10 for a dollar. One summer there was a 60 acre water melon field across the road from our home. When the market dropped that summer the owner of the field decided they weren't worth picking, so he said come take all you want. I drove out onto that field several times with my VW bug loading it with all I could get into it at one time. We had melons sitting all around under a pecan tree in the front yard. That was such a different time from today, 10 cent water melons and even free. I am thankful though that I can afford $12 on occasion for a good ripe water melon. Ooooooh, so good! There is nothing like a mouth "watering" water melon. To ME. 

 

The Lord leads us through life, and all the things we experience have a part in shaping us into the person we are at the time, and prepares us for tomorrow. As a Christian, it plays a part to prepare us for calling and ministry, whatever that may be for each of us as individuals. As I look over my life, where I have been, what I have experienced, where I am today, and while I ponder tomorrow, I see one common theme in my life. The Lord has led, is leading, and will continue to lead. One of my favorite verses in Scripture is Proverbs 16:9. It reads "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps." That is so true, because this man's (me) mind has made many plans over the years, many of which didn't turn out. Other things took place that I didn't plan. I didn't plan to be in the Army, but got drafted. I never planned to live outside the state of Florida, but haven't lived there in 30 years. I never planned to live in Texas or Oklahoma, but it happened and here I am an Okie in Okie Land. A civil service career was part of my plan, but the career field in aircraft maintenance wasn't. I accepted the Lord when I was 9 years old, but where it has brought me over the years, and the church I am a member of today, wasn't my plan. Where I am in the "Body of Christ" and the ministry He has given me wasn't my plan. Oh, I have had plans about all these things and more, but the Lord says He directs my steps. As I look back, many things I wouldn't have planned that way, nor the outcome. Some of those things look pretty bad to the human eye, but God had His purpose, His plan in mind. It is a marvelous thing to me and gives me much peace and trust to know that God maintains His sovereign will (His plans for me), while allowing me the freedom to plan as well. I tend to goof things up, but God is always moving forward with His plans for me, and even uses my "goofs" as a part of His plan. I have come to the conclusion that my life and its content isn't a mistake, it isn't coincidence, and it is not by chance. Rather it is God at work with His purpose and plan in mind that He determined to do before time, Jer. 29:11; Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:11. 

 

I have plans today, and I am about to embark on a new adventure. (Now don't go thinking I am leaving "God's Country.) The Lord seems to be moving me in this direction, and I am getting excited. My mind may be planning my way as it says in Proverbs 16:9, but God is directing my steps. The future and out come of this and how God uses it during and after, are in His hands. Only He knows what His plan and purpose is for it. Part of my "plan" is simply to trust Him with His plan. I covet your prayer for that, because I don't always think of God in the scheem of things and trust Him. 

 

Ponder the verse below my friends, and consider God's plan and purpose for your life. God is awesome! He is good all the time, (Not a cliche). He has never and will never make a mistake.       

 

2 Tim. 1:9  who (Jesus) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

 

In the Love of Jesus Christ...Steven