Subject: BibleGateway.com Verse of the Day - May 18 2021

 Subject: BibleGateway.com Verse of the Day - May 18 2021

   God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. Hebrews 6:10 NIV

 Dear Family and Friends,

 It's my birthday today and I'm sitting here with mixed emotions.  BibleGateway.com puts a verse-of-the-day in my gmail every morning and I try to look at it first thing to get my mind around the presence of Christ and his place in my day.  So... as I opened the email I wondered, what will I see on my birthday?

 This feels like a shameless promotion of my own goodness which would normally keep me quietly enjoying the message from God all to myself, but... I know myself, and I have thanked God many times for his goodness in my life.  I really do remember all the good things that you've done, and all the good things that you've helped me do...  This is really more than words to a song I once wrote--it is a realization that all I am and all I have come from God.  I've read in the Bible the words that say "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. " [Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV].

 Let me assure you that God the Holy Spirit has my number...He keeps exposing all the rotten things in my life that have no place in his kingdom and for that I am truly grateful, because he doesn't do it with guilt and shame, but with conviction and encouragement that he is being faithful to my prayers to forgive me and make me his own dear child. I know how hard it is and how helpless I am to deal with my selfish nature.

  I see in this verse of the day His goodness to me and his Calling that has taken me to wonderful places and to people who have become friends, to let me have a part in his ongoing work of redemption in this world.  I am another year older today and filled with thanksgiving and hope in sharing this with you that it encourages you to see and receive his goodness in your own life... 

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