Hosanna Restoration Church

Today I am celebrating my 50th birthday. The life that I now live, I never imagined. For the first 30 years I never considered life with Christ. For the last twenty I have not been able to imagine how I lived without Him.

I never imagined that there could be such joy and yet I never realized how much joy I did not have. Truly there is nothing to compare life with Christ to, so it is very difficult to express exactly what life with Christ is like to anyone who has not experienced it.

I never imagined having a large family. Now I cannot imagine what life would have been like without the blessing of a quiver full of 5 children, and one in Heaven. No, I never imagined such a wonderful life, with a wonderful wife and a wonderful church family, living in a wonderful place.

It never occurred to me that there was someone who could take care of everything if I would just ask Him to help. I figured we needed to take care of everything ourselves. I learned a lot about the first 30 years of my life in short order after meeting Jesus in a personal way. I learned that even though it seemed like a good life, in comparison it was a pretty empty life. Another thing I did not imagine was that in 20 years life with Jesus would still be getting better. I always said there was more to Jesus and I wanted to find it all, but there was just no way to know how much more there was.

I also never imagined that after nearly twenty years I would still be fighting the good fight of faith. I sort of thought it would eventually all just come naturally, but it doesn’t just happen. You have to keep pressing. I never imagined I would still be working to have patience with my children. I never imagined that I would still be having bad attitudes toward my wife or others. There are lots of things that I never imagined, but the Bible says that God is able to do abundantly above and beyond what we could hope or imagine anyway. So I guess I keep Him busy!

So I just want to encourage you on this day that the Lord has made to make sure you have the life that only Christ can give. Don’t settle for anything less. And if you have life, expect it to just keep increasing and getting better and better. And if you struggle, don’t be discouraged just keep pressing. If you do, you will just press right into the next great place that God has for you.

To be honest, I am just sort of getting to the place where instead of just standing around in awe of what God has done and is doing, I am thinking about some extravagant imagining. I think I am old enough now to just let it rip and go leaping and dancing and praising God with reckless abandon. Yep, I think that is exactly what I am going to do. God bless you all. Have a happy day every day. Let the life that is in Christ possess you.