You Have a Decision to Make That Will Change Your Life

Matt.9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

I was thinking this morning about Andrew Mark and the decision he and Grace have to make. Most people never have to make a life and death decision, or a decision of this magnitude, or do they?

In the early church the decision to follow Christ was life altering, life threatening and certainly life changing. An early church believer would risk losing "everything" to gain "nothing". They would almost certainly receive some form of threat to their life or livelihood. Today, a decision to follow Christ in America can seemingly have no impact on your life at all. How sad is that? Often, people don't want to tell others of their decision to follow Christ until someone else sees the change.

What if there were a cure for Andrew's physical situation and one of the doctors figured the Andrew might think he was "crazy" if he suggested it? What if he then never told Andrew of the possible cure? This would be the most unloving, uncaring, unspoken word I could imagine. Yet, there is a spiritual cure, a much more weighty decision, for every person in the world to make and often we walk right past them and don't lovingly, graciously, tell them of the "cure" we are all in such desperate need of.

One of my friends (A) just came and updated me on his father-in-law's situation. The FIL is not a believer and has blood clots in both legs and is not doing very well. A's wife has talked to her dad about the Lord and he won't have anything to hear of it. She told him last time they talked that she would like him to live so he could be with the grand kids. He is still not ready to listen. Our hearts ache for those we love who reject Christ, because we know what they are missing. The FIL must think that he has too much to lose by giving his life to Christ. God is gracious to save even one of us, we need to continue to love and speak the truth to those who are still holding on to what they "have", which is garbage. Pray that God would break his heart.

Grant is doing well. He golfed in a match yesterday, this is the last match before districts next week. The coach from the visiting team said that Grant had told him he was supposed to take it easy. He said he wished he could swing that hard "taking it easy". He looks great. It's nice to have him in our family.

I got an email from one of the doctors the other day concerning Grant's on going testing. They still really have no idea what is going on, but he wanted us to watch out for some signs like, shortness of breath, increased fatigue, difficulty swallowing... Teresa read the email and it was really hard on her. I guess we just think in the back of our minds, and the front of our hearts, that he will be ok from here on out. But there is no guarantee of this. He may live a long and healthy life, and he may have some severe difficulties right around the corner. Only God knows and we want to rest in His care for our entire family. Easier to write than to do. It seems as if there are many of those things in our lives.

Pray for the Marks,

• For strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.


• For the wisdom to make decisions that no one wants to make.


• That God would continue to glorify Himself through every detail.

Pray for the Halls,

• That Ryan would continue to heal.


• That he would get his DE homework done:)


• That he would not try to push too hard.


• That Jolie would get to enjoy this time with her sweet husband, and he is very sweet.

Pray for Teresa,

• She is speaking in 128 tonight to the young ladies.


• That she would trust that God can work out all the details.

ETPing,
Chuck

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