The Image of God - What Does it Look LIke to You?

The Image of God – What Does He Look Like To YOU?

It was a dark night in the souls of the Israelites.  God had brought them through the plague visited on Egypt.  He had brought them through the Red Sea on dry land.  The Egyptian task masters following after them were drowned in the sea.  They marched onward until their leader Moses left them alone for a while.  Then the foolishness in their hearts was shown in what they did.  They decided to make an image of god/God.  I don’t know who decided the God who saved them looked like a golden calf.  And, I also don’t know if they decided fully to dump God altogether and accept Baal as their god.  Anyway, for some rebellious reason, they decided to make an image of god/God so they could worship it.  I don’t know why they wanted an image of god, because they had the presence of God and the power of God with them.  But I do have a guess as to why they wanted an image of God.

An image such as a golden calf was the people’s way of going to God or replacing God with a god who required nothing of them.  It was limiting God’s power to tell them what to do.

 An image of a god is made by mankind.  It is made to suit mankind instead of God.  God made man in His image. When man makes an image of god, he is really promoting himself to god, and demoting God to the created being. 

 This behavior, this conforming God to one’s own image of God, loses God altogether.  The conformed image is not God at all.  It is just an image that cannot do anything.  It may be a mental image or a literal image, but it still can’t do anything for the individual or mankind as a whole.

 God is actually a very complex being to say the least.  He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.  That means the God of the Bible really does know everything, He is everywhere, and He is all powerful.   He is the God of love and mercy.  He is ALSO the God of judgment.  He really is continually perfect in every way.  And that is just to name a few of the attributes of God.  Now, how can all those qualities be put into an image?  They answer is they cannot!  The only thing an image might do is capture something like a one dimensional snapshot of God’s eyelash.

 There are many images of God today that are shaping the world as a whole.  Let’s take look at a few.

 Here is a very common image of god running rampant throughout Christianity.  It is the image of God as love.   That’s it.  In the mind of the individual God may be imagined as an elderly grandfather type, or a soft spoken shepherd walking about a mountain meadow playing with the animals.  Regardless, He is seen only as a God of love.  God IS love, but He is also much more.  An image of God without also seeing the God of judgment is incomplete.  It does not give the believer the necessary knowledge to make sound decisions.  Yes God loves His children, but that does not give them a free pass to ignore what the Bible has to say about Christian living.

 Another common image of God is that of judgment only.  God is seen as someone trailing you like a hungry grizzly bear.  He is just waiting for you to slip up so He can punish you.  How unfair is that?  The devil is the hungry lion wanting to destroy you.  God is the Good Shepherd wanting to keep you from harm.  Any parent knows it is far better to give a precious little hand a small spat to keep them from playing with light sockets than it is to let them actually stick their finger into the light socket.  Certainly God does the same for us.

 There is another image of God that shows Him to be a negotiator.  The Bible clearly states there is one way to God the Father and that is through Jesus Christ the Son.  Yet, from the very first family until now, there have been multitudes who try to go to God in a way that suits themselves.  Cain tried it.  He didn’t like the blood sacrifice, so he decided to negotiate with God instead of doing the thing God required.  Cain offered God the produce from his garden.  It wasn’t a case of Cain ‘just offering what he had’.  It was a case of Cain trying to negotiate his way into heaven by his own way. 

 Another image of God is that of a great collectivist.  In the end He is going to ‘collect’ all the souls of mankind and take them to heaven.  He is ultimately going to let everyone into heaven because everyone deserves it as much anyone else.  To the ‘everyone is going to the same place crowd’, God will finally cave in and let all the un-regenerated souls into heaven along with those who followed God’s instructions on how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 There is also the image of God as the frazzled ineffective parent whose children are out of control.  The world is in a mess, and God is without power to deal with what is going on.  He can’t keep the world running by Himself.  He needs ‘co-saviors’ who come in the form of little children remembering to turn off light bulbs and signing petitions to stop global warming.  Co-saviors are those who preach a social and/or globalist gospel.  Those who get on the ‘save the earth’ bandwagon are little saviors of the world.  The God of their salvation just can’t do it by Himself anymore.

 There are those who have an image of God as ‘The Great Acceptor’.  They are sort of like Cain, in that they want to give to God the work of their own hands, or their own preferences.  You see them taking their music preference to church without regard to what God prefers.  You see them ignoring part of the Bible that cause them to feel uncomfortable, or passages that offend the ungodly.  They do what is right in their own eyes and just ‘know’ God will eventually accept it.  (An aside here to parents – don’t let you kids wear you down into letting them do something you know is not right.  Parents are the first image a child has of God.  If you set aside what you know is right because of their continual pressure, they get the idea that is all it takes to get their own way.  You are free to say no to wrong behaviors and stick to your right decision.)

 The truth is that there are many who would rather have an image of God than God because it is just easier.  God has standards by which His followers are to live.  If someone makes an image of God, they can put into what they want.  If they don’t like some of the boundaries God has set, then leave those out of the image.  If they don’t like the judgment aspect of God, then that can be left out as well. 

 Images always give a small view of a great God.  They also do not have the truth in them.  It is true that:

God loves you.

God is with you.

God has a plan to help you.

It is also true that:

The Lord chastises those He loves.

 Most believers begin their Christian life with an image of God.  He can’t be seen clearly to begin with.  God really can’t be seen clearly this side of heaven.  But, what begins to happen in true believers is that changes begin to occur in their view of the greatness of the God of the Bible.  As they hear the truth preached and as they personally study the Bible for themselves, they begin to get a glimpse of God that cannot be contained in any image the human mind can conceive.  They begin to realize their idea of God, the God of their salvation, is just too small.  And then they begin to dig deeper into the teachings of the Bible.  They begin to desire that be made over again in the image of God.  Their heart desires all that the Lord has to offer them.  They want to be more like God instead of making God more like them.  Transformation begins in the life of the believer when he or she sets out to be more like God. (This is NOT to become God, but to conform to His image.) The Holy Spirit begins to work in such believers and enable them to conform to the image of Christ.  They have stopped MAKING an image. They want to BECOME the image.  They want to no longer conform to the image of the world, but instead be transformed into someone whose life shows other Jesus Christ. 

 Changing one’s life to be more like Christ is hard work.  In fact, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible.  Change requires the Holy Spirit’s help, and constant determination on the part of the believer.  Those who have changed the Gospel Message to a social gospel are impatient people, preferring that Christ work on their time table and produce the level of obvious fruit they want.  And, no matter how hard they work, they are ultimately lazy people because it is much harder to work at changing your own life than it is to work at changing the lives of others.

 Is the leading guiding light in your life the Holy Spirit?  You will not be led to create mental images of God that limit Him to one realm by the Holy Spirit.  Neither will the Holy Spirit lead you to try to do things that only God can do.  The Holy Spirit leads believers to be more like Christ.  Through Christian actions, impossible things can be done.   

Emotionally Needy People and Pity Addicts

Emotionally Needy People and Pity Addicts      

Do you have to deal with anyone in particular that you would consider ‘needy’.  I don’t mean they are in need of something physical.  They are just needy.  They need constant assurance.  They need to feel good about themselves, and their need is usually filled at someone else’s expense.  Actually their needs can never really be filled.  They can never have enough assurance or self-esteem.  They can never have enough adoration or encouragement from others. They can never have enough power to make them feel fulfilled. They can never have enough emotional support or things to make them feel secure or satisfied. 

 In the category of emotionally needy people, there are two sub-categories.  The first  

sub-category is made up of the type person who needs other people to look up to them.  They want to be seen as sort of a savior to someone, or a bunch of people, or something.  They are often in the limelight whether they are in a very small group or in a large group.  They are the control freaks who want to control everything.  It doesn’t have to be important.  If it is a reality, they feel they should be in charge of it.  It satisfies their need to be important to someone in some way.  Disgustingly enough, these people don’t confine themselves to the work place and families.  They creep into the public eye, and even worse into public office. 

The second sub-category is filled with people who are fearful, or filled with fear.  They are afraid of life.  The emotionally needy politicians give these fearful emotionally needy people a little.  The poor are told they can never escape the bondage of poverty, but that they will never actually starve to death.  All they have to do is realize just how pitiful they are, and from that point, the needy politician has the emotionally needy poor person trapped.  The needy person becomes not only emotionally needy, they become addicted to pity.  It is a sort of vicious circle.    The emotional need feeds on pity and pity feeds on the emotion.  The emotionally needy leader has the emotionally needy person trapped.  Addiction to pity in an emotionally needy person is something from which it will take a miracle to escape. 

Honestly, everyone is emotionally needy.  We need hope.  We need love.  We need peace of mind.  We need God.  Then those having found God and His companionship have a personal need to serve Him whole heartedly. They don't need to exploit others in order to have feed their own emotional needs.  

Emotionally needy people have a hard time going to God in the way He requires.  The leaders among the emotionally needy have a great deal of trouble doing that because it requires that they give up the emotional control they have over others.  The emotionally needy who are addicted to pity also have a difficult time in giving up their addiction and their emotional instability.  To go to God following His instructions requires that the individual makes changes.  To stay in one’s comfort zone requires nothing except to keep doing the same things. 

When people accept a lesser god over Almighty God, their emotional neediness grows to the point of instability. (There are no gods equal to the Most High God of the Bible.) Emotionally needy people are driven by emotions.  How they feel at the moment is what drives their decisions and their moods.  Solid footing is not in their life.  They are tossed about by whatever they feel like at the moment.  Often they get an emotional high from the pity of others.  Or, the emotionally needy in the public eye get an emotional high from being the emotional savior of others.  The so called elite/celebrity of the emotionally needy may also cast themselves in role of savior of the earth, or the whale, or choosing the direction of a club or group of people, pets, wild animals, or something they consider being led in a wrong path.  It doesn’t matter what is actually going on.  The emotionally needy will invent a cause for which they will become the savior.  They are dreadfully dangerous when given power of even the pencil sharpener in the office supply closet.

We are seeing this today in America and around the world.  The emotionally needy politician/celebrities/saviors of the world are busy saving the world and sucking the life out of the people who depend on them.  They are also causing a great deal of trouble for the rest of the population as well.

Then there are the emotionally needy who are addicted to pity as well.  They are afraid and dissatisfied with the world in which they live, but they are even more afraid of change.  They are afraid of giving up the pity given to them by others.  In their hearts, they know there is a better future possible than living the way they live.  But, they have no clear cut way out of their lifestyle, and they are afraid of an unknown future.  Then there is the addiction problem.  Like an alcoholic or drug addict, they know they need to change, but it is very hard and they don’t really see a way to change without a lot of pain and risk.  So, they crawl back to their pity party and go ahead with their lives the way they are.  It will take a miracle to change their mindset.  It will take the REAL Savior.  (This is not about gaining wealth – it is about gaining a better life which would rely on Christ for help instead of the government.)

And so, as we see the political upheavals going on around the world, the cultural collapse, preachers of the Gospel denied the right to speak and preach the world of God in public, Believers driven from their homes and imprisoned around the world, what should we do?  We, those who have believed on Jesus Christ and follow Him, should work to at least give people a chance to hear the word of God Almighty so they can make a choice based on facts instead of emotion.

We can have compassion on the emotionally needy.  It is true that but for God’s grace it could be one of us sitting in an emotional tornado, afraid of life, and addicted to pity.

More than compassion is needed.  Work is needed.  Support for the full time Christians workers is needed.  A sound mind is needed.  A Biblical world view is needed by believers.  One’s eternal destination is serious!  Those who know the way of salvation need to take it seriously and work to give everyone a chance to clearly hear the truth.  What they do with the truth is up to them, but they at least need to hear it.

It is time that Christians come out from among the people of the world and show themselves to be different.  The things of this world passing for Christian need to be spoken against.  Some wickedness needs to be thrown out of the church. 

First, and most dangerous, the preaching of the world instead of the gospel is in many churches of every denomination.  The church is the place to preach the truth above all else.  It is not the place to greet and get along with the world.  It is not the place to put not offending people above everything else.  It is the place to where the truth should be told above everything else.  It is not the place for accepting all the things of the world in order to make people feel at home. Sadly, many members of the church are more concerned with pleasing themselves.  They are more at home in the world than in the church.  Rather than give up church entirely, they make the church into the world.     They offer what they want to the Lord instead of what the Lord requires.  Eastern mysticism in any form has no place in the church.  Paganism has no place in the church.  Ungodliness has no place in the church.  Here’s a hint – preachers and church workers addicted to pornography need removed from all positions of authority.  They actually need kicked out of the church until they repent.

 As you know, the music of the world is in the church.  People are offering to God as praise what pleases their emotional instability.  They are not offering what God wants to hear.  He is holy.  Make no mistake about it.  Music either praises God or it praises the world.  The purpose of music in the church is to praise and glorify God.  An emotional response is not the first purpose, but it certainly can bring about an emotional response on the part of the congregation.  It is just wrong to put an emotional response or personal preference above pleasing God.

 Even worse than offering personal music to God, churches are offering personal preferences on other things.  If a congregation doesn’t like what the Bible teaches, they go with personal preference over the words in the Bible. If the Bible is compromised on anything, why shouldn’t it be compromised on everything?  The traditions of man are set above God.  People who should know better follow the way of Cain and try to go to God on their own terms.  Repentance is not an issue.  God is likened to a merciful fellow who will eventually allow everyone into heaven because He is merciful.  The perfection and holiness of God is set aside as trivial.  The imperfection of man is set aside as trivial.  The unimaginable horror of hell is trivialized as non-existent or a place where people go to party for eternity.  People could be going to Glocca Morra instead of heaven or hell for all the preaching you hear in some churches on Sunday.

Our church is good.  The preacher does a very fine job.  Because of the distance some people drive, we have two services in the morning and none in the evening.  This breaks tradition, but it doesn’t break any scripture.  It is a good.  But, some people would rather blather about changes in the order of church service than confront unsound theology in the church.

The fundamentals of the faith are still the same.

1.    The Bible is inerrant.

2.     Jesus is eternal – and pre-existent prior to His birth in Bethlehem.

3.     He was born of a Virgin (no big deal for God who created the Adam and Eve from dirt.)

4.    Jesus was crucified and died.  He bodily rose up from the grave in three days.

5.    Jesus is the way into heaven.  God made one very expensive way into heaven and everyone gets a first class invitation.

6.    Jesus is coming again.

People are looking for so many things that God is willing to give us, but they are looking in the wrong places.  All they will ever get is a weak knock off of the true good things God has for those that love Him. 

 People are looking for the peace that passes understanding.  They look to yoga and mindless meditation instead of to the words of wisdom written in the Bible.

 People go the occult for answers.  The Bible has all the answers and it stays the same yesterday, today, and forever.  The unsaved don’t know this.  Would you like to know how many actual Christians know this?  Probablynot very many.

 Christians need to begin to take their faith seriously.  God is the Great Forgiver.  Most Christians know that.  But, they forget God is also the Great Judge.  There is a time of judgment coming.  In that day the emotionally needy people of the world, both the small and great, will see the truth that they need a savior.  But it will be too late then.  As of today, there are some who can come to a realization that they actually need more than the world can give them.  There is hope for those who begin to look for a better way to live.  At that point in time, if they hear the plan of salvation, perhaps they will be strengthened to step out of their comfort zone and accept Jesus Christ as their savior. 

 For Christians to do a good job in telling the lost that Christ died for them, they first need to come to terms with their own neediness.  Christians, those who are truly believers and followers of Christ, need a growing relationship with God.  We need the companionship and provisions He has for us hear on this earth.  We personally have a need deep inside us to please the God of our salvation.  We need to be about the business of spreading the gospel.  The emotional and physical needs of God’s children can be filled on this earth and in eternity as well.  The emotional needs of the children of this world cannot be filled either in this world or the next.

God have mercy on those who need Him

And God strengthen His children to tell those who need Him how to be saved.

I Want My Dull Life Back!

What has happened in your life thelast few weeks? It’s OK. You can tell me. Seriously, my email is tosergeant@gmail.com. The flip side is you have to listen to what happened to me the last fewweeks! And, just so this won’t be allabout me, I will tell you what happened to the Gano’s first.

Their son Spencer was burningbrush. He used gasoline to start thefire and got more than he bargained for. He personally caught on fire. From the photos Ray posted on facebook itlooks like it was a wonderful blessing that he was wearing a t-shirt. That protected him to some extent. He was burned pretty badly. He had to be taken to a burn unit. And of course, while I have a LOT of sympathyfor Spencer, as a parent I may have more sympathy for his parents Ray andTrayce. I think it may actuallyphysically hurt parents more than kids when a kid gets hurt.

In my life I have a bit of good newsmixed with bad. A doctor has a clue tomy extreme fatigue – and it isn’t something you die from. You just have fatigue. I was so tired I couldn’t even get on theplane for a planned visit to my mom. Ilost my money for the ticket and mom is still bawling. My doctor says he may be able to help me alot – so there is a silver lining there.

THEN my son and husband were ready fortheir week at deer camp. They had set uptheir tent a few days earlier. They andmany other people do that every year. Well, this year someone went through and stole everything! So we had to replace a lot of expensive stuffon a minute’s notice.

Then I didn’t get to go because I amsupposed to be spending all my time resting. It isn’t that hard to lay down most of the time, but it is boring.

THEN, setting up the tent and cots mydaughter Raina had the tip of one finger crushed into smithereens. The Surgeon says he cannot help; and that sheshould expect extreme pain for around six months minimum. I think she needs a second opinion.

THEN, someone broke into the pickuptruck in the driveway last night and stole her new camera, a Zen, a back packfilled with hunting paraphernalia, a new set of Leopold binoculars, and othermiscellaneous items.

All these things going on here, and Iam thinking, ‘I am supposed to be at my mom’s right now eating my birthdaycake. It is a special cake that only mygrandmother and mother can bake. Well, Icould probably do it, but it takes a lot of work to make that sort of cake. It is called a Prune Cake – which mom alsomakes the complimenting prune frosting. (I don’t like prunes, and the name sounds awful but the cake isgood. I will get you the recipe if youwant it.) Instead I am sitting on mycouch, where I have been for weeks, (except for the 3 days I went to my sisterin laws house and laid on her couch), and thinking, ‘Wow! This is a lot to happen so closetogether.’

In categorizing my disasters, I haveto be honest, the only thing that really matters is my daughter’s finger. Shehas been in extreme pain ever since it happened. It is big mess. On a personal note, my doctor has a plan toimprove my health, so that is good. Thishas been an overwhelming few वीक्स.

So, thieves, accidents, and illnesshave all had an unusually high impact on our lives lately. And you know what that makes me? Homesick. That’s right. I want mymama! I also want my daddy, who is inheaven. In fact, I want everything thatis heaven. In heaven we know there willbe no thieves, and nothing will be eaten by moths or rats when you store it fora while. It will be a wonderful place. Heaven will never be dull. There will be no trauma in heaven. Who wouldn’t want to go there?

The current situation is the world hasa lot of problems, bad people, and hard times. We are stuck on this planet as long as we breathe air, or until the Kingof kings decides it is time for that great supernatural evacuation we call theRapture.

So, what are we supposed to do whilewe are here? How are we supposed to copewith disaster weeks in our lives? Whatare we supposed to do when disaster month, or even disaster year happens tous? There are disasters from which wecan never recover. I will never recoverfrom the death of my sister. I havelearned to sort of deal with it and cope with it. But, life has never been the same withouther, and it will never be the same. Don’tdo it, but if you sat down to make list of all the traumatic events in yourlife, I am guessing it would not be a short or trivial list. You would have plenty to say. What is more important than the list is howyou react to the difficulties that you personally face.

I believe there are two importantthings you have to do when there is even a small problem in your life.

First you have to actually admit thereis a problem. Being ‘tuff’ enough to keep going doesn’t include beingdelusional enough to convince yourself there wasn’t really a problem to beginwith, or that you pushed your way through the problem without any personalstress. Even small problems do requiretime to mentally recoup and come up with a plan of how you are going to facethe future. The best way to ‘rest yourbrain’ and unwind is through light reading of the Bible. Just pick a few chapters and read them overand over every morning and evening for a few weeks. Right now, I personally am using the firstfive chapters of Luke. It becomes like avisit with a dear friend by the time you have done that for a few days. I just finished reading the last 5 chaptersof the book of Psalms. I was stuck on that for nearly a month. Every chapter begins and ends with ‘praise theLord’. It is pretty clear. I learned that praise of the Lord is acommandment, a joy, and even a weapon. That is just my suggestion. Youmay have a better way to unwind, but this is a good and productive way tounwind for me.

Second, while you are in the mode of‘taking to the Lord’ you need to consider if there are any ways you can ‘tweak’your walk with the Lord. You may realize that more thankfulness and praise arein order. These two things are theattitude changers that will pull you toward the future instead of letting youspend an overly lengthy amount of time dwelling on whatever has happened to yourecently, or even what has happened long ago. From the vantage point ofthankfulness and praise to our God, you will likely get a twinge of sorrow forthe unsaved of the world. You will belooking forward to heaven and start thinking about the people you will see thereand how much you will enjoy seeing them again, and all the things you will dotogether for eternity. Then the faces ofthose you know won’t be in heaven start to creep into the pleasant thoughts ofheaven. You realize there will be gapsin your family and friends. Then youthink about where they will be. Theywill be in that eternal place of separation from all the good things ofGod. They will be in hell. It matters not what false god they followedhere on earth. They all lead to a placethat is separate from God Almighty. Itis a place of eternal torment.

When your evangelical zeal begins togrow, you will know that whatever trial you have just faced, be it great orsmall, that your trouble has begun to work for good. It is working for your good and for the goodof the lost.

In America today we are seeing stormson the horizon coming toward us quickly. Our first thoughts are usually regarding the safety of our families andourselves. Next we think of friends, Wewant to help those in danger. Whether itbe financial problems, personal loss, or even persecution of specificideologies, we would like to help. Mostly we would like to help if it costs us little to nothing. On a grander scale, we may even be willing tohelp if it costs us a little more money, but less personal effort. Honestly, just do what seems good at themoment. If you can help someone, youbetter do it.

Honestly, I believe the events of ourpersonal lives, as well as social and political trends at least partly designedto encourage Christians to evangelism. Evangelism is for our good as well. Can you imagine a better treasure to lay up safely in heaven than thesouls of the lost? Christ placed suchvalue on those separated from Him that He died so they would have theopportunity to choose life with Him in heaven. By His example we know that the lost won to Christ are treasures.

Honestly, I am not the most successfulof one on one soul winners For onething, I just am not around many people. I find that instead of a soul-winning event, I much more often have achance to make a right comment, or answer a question. That is usually as far as it goes. I have learned that you can’t push it. I sometimes have good luck by asking leadingquestions. In the United States, mostpeople have heard the Gospel and rejected it off hand. They are hard to even get to the meetingtable, much less convince to join the party. Their lack of response doesn’t give us an excuse not to try.

I believe the best success nationallyfor Christians to impact the world for Christ is for the individual Christianto begin to act a Christian. Forget themega church, church growth, and pay attention to your own actions. If you love the Lord, then keep Hiscommandments. They are not that hard to understand. Do the things Christ says to do. Treat others the way you want to betreated. There is no magic in the wordsof human beings. Just because someonesays, ‘I will keep the commandments. Ilove God. I will show Him I love Him bymy actions,’ doesn’t mean they have suddenly become a fine example of Christianbehavior. They have to actually DO theythings they say they are going to do. (Iam appalled at the number of people who say they are going to do something,then don’t do it, and then never even realize it didn’t get done.)

Remember that national evangelicalsuccess begins with the individual, then the family, then the churches, andthen the nation.

So, live like you are aChristiअ n. God doesn’t need you to lie,cheat, or steal, to accomplish His will in your life. He needs you to rely on Him for real comfortand help.

Be ready to speak a word or answer aquestion about Jesus Christ at every opportunity.

If you get someone who is reallyinterested in salvation, be ready to tell them what is required of them to besaved.

Recognize separation from God becauseHe is perfect and we are not.
Perfection cannot allow imperfectioninto heaven.
Don’t compare yourself to the goodnessof some good people you know, but to the utter perfection of God.

Turn from the life you now lead andput your faith in Christ.

You salvation is not based on works,but the proof of your salvation is based on your actions.

Live according to Bible teachings.

Tell others that Jesus Christ is the wayinto heaven.

No matter what is going on in thelives of Christians, there are certain guidelines by which they are tolive. One of those guidelines is tonever miss an opportunity to tell the world that Jesus Christ is the way, thetruth, and the life. Tell them that noone gets to God the Father except through Jesus Christ the Son.

One of the most interesting thingsthat has happened to me in recent years is to begin selling Siberian ForestCats. It is somewhat overwhelming thenumber of people we have met through the cats, and through our web site. Many are lost. Soon there will be a page on our web sitecalled ‘My Pet died. Did it go toheaven?’ We have quite a few hits to ourweb page, and a lot of people are looking for another pet because a well-lovedpet has died. We are telling them tofirst make sure where they are going when they die – because they want to makecertain that they and their pets wind up in the same place. Then we are telling them how to besaved. What an opportunity!

Wherever you are, whatever you do,there is opportunity to live like you take God’s instructions seriously. There are people who will notice how youact. Sometimes you will have anopportunity to speak out about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Don’t missthat opportunity to tell someone about Jesus.