It is a
good morning to be alive! I have the week stretching before me, and a good
weekend behind me. The “Igniting Leaders” gathering went very well yesterday at
4 pm in the choir loft. It was difficult for me to recover from Sunday morning
and prepare for the afternoon talk. It seemed to be one of the better ones we
have done.
The
National college football championship game is tonight – Notre Dame vs Alabama.
It should be a good game. I have not watched very much football this season,
neither college nor NFL. I have recorded a few games, and then flipped through
them. Last night Audrey and I watched a History Channel series about men who
built America, including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie. It was
interesting to learn more about these men, their times, their decisions, with
modern businessmen commenting on their work.
Genesis 8-10
(continuing in my new Chronological Life Application Study Bible)
These
chapters tell the story of Noah and his family after the flood. He was patient
and consistent in following God. He planted a vineyard and then embarrassed himself
while drunk on the wine. All humanity comes from Noah – he was essentially the
second Adam. After the flood, God promised never to destroy the world again
with a flood, and established the sign of the rainbow.
How will
my family’s legacy turn out? Will there be any grandchildren? This morning I
have been praying that all my energy, attention, and effort be well-directed in
serving God, building His kingdom, not my own. I am “setting my affections on
things above, not on things off the earth, for I am dead and my life is hidden
with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1)
I love
this time of the morning, as the sky is growing lighter by the minute, and the
day stretches out in its entirety. I have a dental cleaning and exam today, and
then from 2-4 Brian and I will film for our Spring Life Groups with the MSU baseball coach. At 6:30 I lead
the first of the Wesley Leadership Experience sessions. So this morning is my
discretionary time. The options for its use include – writing on Spring
training 2013, exercise, breakfast with Audrey, Baxter business, garage
cleaning. That which presses on me the most, given I am leaving town a week
from tomorrow is the Spring Training material. I will spend most of the morning
working on it.
Guide me
today, most holy Lord as I yield myself to your will and purposes. May the
covenant prayer I led the congregation in yesterday be my prayer today, and
each day of this year.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with
whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid
aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for
thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have
nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on
earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.