BOUNTIFULLY BLESSED

 

Blessed be the Lord,

Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!
Selah  (Psalm 68:19)

Glory to the God of all grace!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  Every day, He loads down my wagon with goodness.  How about you?  Stop and count your blessings.  In the words of the old hymn, “name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Foremost, I am grateful that the Lord my Shepherd sought patiently for this wandering lamb.  He saved me, cleaned me up and secured me in His fold.  Oh what a price He paid to rescue me!  From this great salvation, every spiritual blessing is mine in Christ Jesus!

Behind that eternal relationship, is the next best—my earthly relationships with my family.  What a gift from God my wife is to me!  She is all I could have ever hoped for—a dream come true!  Marilyn has given me five precious children, and thus far, eleven grandchildren—and they are grand.  It is possible there might be even more to come.  I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home and still have my parents with me.  Insofar as I know, the family circle will be unbroken in heaven for all profess to follow Christ.  How inexpressibly wonderful this is!

Besides the blessing of my faith, and family, there is the blessing of my flock—the privilege of serving the church through the call to preach the Word of God!  To exchange the position of serving as a pastor for that of a prince, would be to take a step down!  If you had told me that I would teach a Sunday School class as large as the congregation I served in the first two churches, I would have found that hard to believe, but I do.  In the little country church where I first ministered, I often thought that to preach to one hundred each Sunday would be thrilling, and yet I preach to four and five times that amount each week!  I would have laughed at that as an impossibility, but it is a reality.  To think, that as I type these words—through social media—I can instantly reach around the world with the Gospel is amazing!  It is an amazing grace.

The particular church I serve—Pole Creek Baptist Church—has just honored me and our other ministers with Pastoral Appreciation Day.  They expressed their love with words of commendation, a meal they served and an offering they received.  Throughout this month, and really day after day, for the nearly twenty years I have served here, I have been prayed for and partnered with by a good and gracious people.  Sure, there have been some burdens, but the blessings have far outweighed them.  Indeed, every congregation I have served, has been wonderfully supportive of me and my family.  They have loved us, and we love them.  Out of those flocks, we have made many friends that remain dear to us.  When I hear the horror stories of what some pastors go through, and how I know that many serve faithfully while receiving condemnation instead of commendation, it makes me so thankful to God for the blessings He has given me in the churches I have led.

I am a prosperous man!  Compared to most people in the world today, I am rich.  No, I won’t be on a Fortune 500 list, nor be featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”  Nor would I want to be.  Nevertheless, God has prospered me far beyond anything I could have expected.  This morning I woke from a soft bed, dry and safe in the house I live in, with the health and strength to rise up.  I have filled my stomach with food and am drinking a cup of hot coffee.  I will take a warm shower in a little while, and then select some clothes and shoes to wear from a number of options.  Instead of walking where I need to go, I expect to sit down in my car and drive across town.  With all the problems facing our nation currently, I have the privilege still to cast a vote to help determine the government leaders we have, and the course of our country.  Indeed I have journeyed to many parts of the world, and witnessed much splendor in creation.  For the vast majority of people on this planet, all this would be a fairy tale, but it is my life.  I count my blessings and have no reason to complain!

There is so much more that might be said, but I will need eternity to say it—every minute can be filled with praise to the One who has filled me with bountiful blessing!  I will begin today, and will not stop, forever speaking of God’s goodness and grace! 

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.