Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

The Good of Law

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1 Tim. 1:8, "But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully"

Rom 7:12, "So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good."

Stuart Briscoe was born in Millom, Cumbria England in 1930, and after graduating from high school, he began his preaching career and in 1959 he devoted himself to full-time ministry. He is best known as the pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, his radio and television show entitled “Telling The Truth” and he is the author of twenty-five Christian books.

During the Korean Conflict, Stuart was drafted into the Royal Marines. He came under the control of a particularly imposing regimental sergeant major. He was a stern disciplinarian who taught Briscoe the marine way of doing things. The day Stuart was discharged from the marines; he stood with his discharge papers in one hand and breathed a sigh of relief. He put one hand in his pocket and slouched a little, a posture never allowed in the marines. He then saw the sergeant major striding toward him. Immediately Stuart braced to attention, but then he realized he was no longer a marine and the sergeant major no longer had any power over him. He was free from the constraints of the marine’s rules.

Likewise, Christians are free in Jesus Christ. The law of God is good and its intent is to bring us into a relationship with the Lord. Are you thankful for the Lord’s laws? Today in prayer, thank Christ for the grace we have in Him and look to His law to learn how to live by His grace.

“The law sends us to the gospel, that we may be justified, and the gospel sends us to the law again to enquire what is our duty, being justified.” – Samuel Bolton

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