January 7, 2013

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.