Good day dear friends.
We start a new sermon series on The Psalms. The series is called "Singing Your Way Through Life." Here is the study guide for this week:
Monday: Psalm 1, 2, 3 What are “the two ways” the Psalmist refers to in Psalm 1?
Tuesday: Psalm 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 What images of God do we find in Psalm 8? What image do you see of us as humans in that Psalm as well?
Wednesday: Psalm 18, 19 What message does the Psalmist try to convey to God about his feelings?
Thursday: Psalm 22, 23 There is a Lenten/Easter message in Psalm 22 and a hope/resurrection message in Psalm 23. What is it?
Friday: Day of Prayer Continue your Lenten prayers to the Lord. Reflect on your life and needs and ask God to bless you, your family, and others.
Saturday: Day of Action Write a prayer note to someone on your personal prayer list. Let them know you have been praying for them.
Sunday: Bring your Bible, family or friends with you to church!--------------------------------------------------------------------9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up the other; Eccl. 4 NRSV.
In August, 1974, I completed all my coursework for my undergraduate degree at Southwestern University (Go Pirates!) in Georgetown, Texas. My school required, they still may, you walk across the stage or you do not get your diploma and since there are no graduation ceremonies between August 74 and May 1975, my diploma says I graduated in 1975. My ring says '74. I had no thoughts about getting married for I knew no one that felt called to be my wife. In August 1974 I entered Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. I think I finished SU on the second week of August, by the next week I'm on campus at SMU. I had been promised an apartment off campus due to the high number of Perkins students, but a last minute cancellation put me in a dorm where my roommate had already unpacked and I'm staring at a guy dressed in a Confederate uniform in front of a Confederate flag. Great. My roommate's Jethro Bodine, thinks I, and not a friendly one for he's probably more KKK and double-knot spy. Long story short, I had a great roommate who was not anything as I had prejudged him to be. To this day we're great friends and we stay in touch.
It wasn't until my internship year that I thought I would have fun in dating without a worry about marriage. I know my grandmother worried she would die without ever seeing her oldest grandchild hitched. She made sure to point out all the eligible young ladies from our church in Houston. No thanks, grandma, I would lovingly say. They're nice and everything but we're from different worlds. My prayer was simply, God lead me to the one, if it be Your will.
Yesterday was Nellie and my thirtieth anniversary. On February 25th at 2 p.m. we married at her home church of El Mesias UMC in Mission, Texas. One of the things I promised her was in marrying me she would live in most of Texas and New Mexico, the geographic area of our former annual conference. After our marriage we moved to Dallas in May for my last year in seminary. Upon graduation, we were assigned to Rio Grande City, which was really no Rio, no Grande, and no city; and we were thirty miles from Mission. It was while there that God blessed us with our first baby, Nellie Maria. Our next move was to Edinburg, which was now 13 miles from Mission. It was there that God blessed us with Sarai and Carli. After six years in Edinburg we moved to San Antonio where I was the conference council director for the Rio Grande Conference. It was a job that required my traveling about sixty percent of the time. It was hard on Nellie and the girls my being out so much. Sarai who was about six years old said, "Dad, you just come home to change suitcases." So, after one year we were assigned back to...you guessed it, Mission, where we served eleven years. While in Mission our fourth baby was born, yet another blessing from God in our Caitlin. From Mission to San Antonio and a new conference where I served six years, then assigned to here, where our first grandbaby was born.
Two are better than one, Scripture says, and it's true. My ministry thus far has been blessing after blessing, and challenge after challenge, all of which I could not have faced alone, but blessed with Nellie, I've enjoyed it all.
PRAYER: Thank you Lord for all the blessings you have shared with me. Let me see Your hand in all things. Continue to bless and use me in all things. I pray in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
We start a new sermon series on The Psalms. The series is called "Singing Your Way Through Life." Here is the study guide for this week:
Monday: Psalm 1, 2, 3 What are “the two ways” the Psalmist refers to in Psalm 1?
Tuesday: Psalm 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 What images of God do we find in Psalm 8? What image do you see of us as humans in that Psalm as well?
Wednesday: Psalm 18, 19 What message does the Psalmist try to convey to God about his feelings?
Thursday: Psalm 22, 23 There is a Lenten/Easter message in Psalm 22 and a hope/resurrection message in Psalm 23. What is it?
Friday: Day of Prayer Continue your Lenten prayers to the Lord. Reflect on your life and needs and ask God to bless you, your family, and others.
Saturday: Day of Action Write a prayer note to someone on your personal prayer list. Let them know you have been praying for them.
Sunday: Bring your Bible, family or friends with you to church!--------------------------------------------------------------------9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up the other; Eccl. 4 NRSV.
In August, 1974, I completed all my coursework for my undergraduate degree at Southwestern University (Go Pirates!) in Georgetown, Texas. My school required, they still may, you walk across the stage or you do not get your diploma and since there are no graduation ceremonies between August 74 and May 1975, my diploma says I graduated in 1975. My ring says '74. I had no thoughts about getting married for I knew no one that felt called to be my wife. In August 1974 I entered Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. I think I finished SU on the second week of August, by the next week I'm on campus at SMU. I had been promised an apartment off campus due to the high number of Perkins students, but a last minute cancellation put me in a dorm where my roommate had already unpacked and I'm staring at a guy dressed in a Confederate uniform in front of a Confederate flag. Great. My roommate's Jethro Bodine, thinks I, and not a friendly one for he's probably more KKK and double-knot spy. Long story short, I had a great roommate who was not anything as I had prejudged him to be. To this day we're great friends and we stay in touch.
It wasn't until my internship year that I thought I would have fun in dating without a worry about marriage. I know my grandmother worried she would die without ever seeing her oldest grandchild hitched. She made sure to point out all the eligible young ladies from our church in Houston. No thanks, grandma, I would lovingly say. They're nice and everything but we're from different worlds. My prayer was simply, God lead me to the one, if it be Your will.
Yesterday was Nellie and my thirtieth anniversary. On February 25th at 2 p.m. we married at her home church of El Mesias UMC in Mission, Texas. One of the things I promised her was in marrying me she would live in most of Texas and New Mexico, the geographic area of our former annual conference. After our marriage we moved to Dallas in May for my last year in seminary. Upon graduation, we were assigned to Rio Grande City, which was really no Rio, no Grande, and no city; and we were thirty miles from Mission. It was while there that God blessed us with our first baby, Nellie Maria. Our next move was to Edinburg, which was now 13 miles from Mission. It was there that God blessed us with Sarai and Carli. After six years in Edinburg we moved to San Antonio where I was the conference council director for the Rio Grande Conference. It was a job that required my traveling about sixty percent of the time. It was hard on Nellie and the girls my being out so much. Sarai who was about six years old said, "Dad, you just come home to change suitcases." So, after one year we were assigned back to...you guessed it, Mission, where we served eleven years. While in Mission our fourth baby was born, yet another blessing from God in our Caitlin. From Mission to San Antonio and a new conference where I served six years, then assigned to here, where our first grandbaby was born.
Two are better than one, Scripture says, and it's true. My ministry thus far has been blessing after blessing, and challenge after challenge, all of which I could not have faced alone, but blessed with Nellie, I've enjoyed it all.
PRAYER: Thank you Lord for all the blessings you have shared with me. Let me see Your hand in all things. Continue to bless and use me in all things. I pray in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
