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Published: 01 January 2021

In the financial world, portfolio is a term used to designate the range of a person’s investments.  You may be one of those people who keeps up on that sort of thing or you may be oblivious to the world of long-term investing because you live day-to-day.   Either way, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a portfolio that is doing very well.  You have more spiritual blessings than you deserve!  You are blessed beyond anything you can imagine.  Your wealth in eternal dividends will last for eternity.  Lord willing, we’ll start a new series of messages on Sunday that I’m calling “Letters from Prison.”  When Paul was imprisoned for two years in Rome, he wrote three or four letters to churches he had left behind.  We’ll start with Ephesians, a letter that catalogs our spiritual blessings and then calls us to live in light of them.  Spiritually speaking, we have no business living like paupers with the wealth we have in Christ.  There is a lot of encouragement in Ephesians; author Ruth Paxson wrote, “It is impossible to live habitually in Ephesians and be depressed.”  There’s plenty to be discouraged about today but the Word of God has plenty to encourage us.  You are wealthier than you know, you are doing better than you feel and your future is brighter than you can possibly imagine.

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Published: 26 December 2020

We are only a few days away from saying “adios” to 2020.  I’m fine with that.  The first two months were good but March through December has been a season of trials for many.  I have heard from health care workers, teachers, truckers and pastors that they have seriously thought about getting into a different line of work.  Disruption of life.  Changes in plans.  Strained relationships.  Sickness.  Fear.  Ugh!  As humans we have the ability to think ahead and plan ahead.  That’s okay.  What is not okay is thinking we can do what we plan.  The human authors of the Bible warn us that life is unpredictable.  From Proverbs to James we hear the echo, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”  There were many great plans for 2020 that fell by the wayside.  We started with postponements that eventually turned to cancellations.  Weddings and funerals were affected in ways unseen in recent history.  Even March Madness was cancelled!  That’s when it became serious .  Lord willing, I’d like to take a look at the text in James 4 that warns us about boasting in our plans.  We can face our mortality and inability with discouragement or we can look to the One who holds the whole world in His hands.  Maybe one of the benefits of 2020 will be the reminder that we are not as “in-charge” as we thought.  Maybe we’ll realize that it takes more than human will-power to succeed.  Maybe we’ll pray the Disciple’s Prayer with a little more understanding and appreciate how good we have it in the Father’s care.  So long 2020, hello eternal life.