FROM REFORMATION PUBLISHERS

It has been an interesting 3 weeks_deep in Floyd County KY. The weekend saw the mid 70s and sunshine I pined for in MI. I kept Steve going while he survived flu and cold _ then Martha _ then I caught a cold. We're all up and going and doing well in this lovely pre-spring weather today and anticipating more.

Of the writing of books there is no end, wrote the wiseman of Ecclesiastes. Certainly it true. Aspiring writers of all kinds come through Reformation Publishers and Williams Printing ... new Church of God writers ... reprints of Chog classics ...and others. The work is never ending and Steve's work never ends. Balancing the hats of the publisher, the preacher-pastor, the husband and father is a never-ending task, and my young friend Steve does well to hang on.

I pray for him (and Martha). Yesterday I preached at morning worship as Steve and Martha travelled to Peebles, Ohio to install Pastor Harold Keaton. The Keatons' moved to Ohio from Kentucky after rehabilitating from a tough time in their ministerial journey. Steve is hopeful for them and the church here wishes them well.

The times are tough. Recession is rampant. People need jobs. People are hurting. Seldom have we faced an opportunity to make as much difference as we can today. It costs little to smile. It costs little more to give someone a positive word of hope. Christians, of all people, have a hope to share - of - strength for today ... and ... hope for tomorrow.

Seldom has the world been more in need of love, friendship, forgiveness, and wholesome relationships. The Christian has the fortifying of divine companionship, the sense of worth of being created in the image and likeness of God, and the promise of tomorrow's eternal hope.

We do not face a world of fixed options where some are predetermined to happiness and health and some others to whatever else is available. We live in a world ruled by a loving God who is full of grace and hope and love, and who is ever inter-acting with his created - as we respond to him. Jesus pictured the Heavenly Father as a lonely father looking out the door and over the hill, looking for a wayward son we call the prodigal (the waster). Even as we waste our lives, God longs for us with a divine love that is full of grace, mercy, and compassion, and awaits (only) our return home.

Give HIM a chance to kill the fatted calf, and bring out a new wardrobe, with a ring on your finger. Try Him! You may be surprised, but you could also be pleased. You couldn't be more wrong than that tragic Terrorist that blows up himself or herself for some sensual superpleasures in a warped vision of heaven. And you just might be right.

In the meantime, many others are finding peace and joy, meaningful self fulfillment, and a growing sense of community in God's world. It was Jesus who said Where 2 or 3 of my followers are, there I will be, and I find they such clusters are here n there and everywhere.

From deep in SE KY, this is Warner's World