To live is....

To live is _________. A speaker this morning challenged us with this question. To live is Basketball?? To live is wealth? To live is paying off my mortgage? To live is safety? To live is justice? What would you fill into the blank? TO live is _________.

We know the Bible says to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now we can not say the second part without the first. If to live is athletics then dying is not gain because we are taken from that which we live for. If to live is Christ then to die is gain. What a thought! Who/What am I living for?

Another interesting thing he said was that he distinguished between "Call" and "the Lord's leading". God calls us to present ourselves as living sacrifices Holy and acceptable to Him for this is our spiritual act of worship. That is the call that He gives us. After we have wholly given ourselves to him then we are led by Him to where He can use us. But the call on our lives is to sacrific our own desires and give in to what He wants.

To live is Christ and to die is gain. Serve Christ by serving others. Love the Lord and your neighbour. Powerful statements that we can choose this day to do.

Hillcrest Basketball

Hillcrest Basketball is now mid-season and we are out of the King Town Tournament. The girls were 3-2 and the boys were 2-2. In our pool the teams were very evenly matched and we had 3 of our games within 4 points. One team we beat by 3, then lost one by 4, and lost one by 3. Heart breakers but great games and it was fun to see the team respond in the crunch. Unfortunately we did not get the wins but we played extremely hard and in the end it came down to inexperience and making bad mistakes. Turn overs, turn overs, turn overs.

Janna and I are also playing in this same tournament with Indonesian teams and both of our Indonesian teams are moving into the playoffs. The girls into the semi-finals and the boys into the quarter finals. Should be interesting. It is fun to once again play on teams with refs and the crowd and the whole bit. It has been awhile.

In all of this basketball it has been hard to find time for family and so we need prayer during this time. Satan just seems to use any thing that he can to get in between couples. As Janna and I prayed last night together we just prayed that all the marriages (in our families especially) would just remain focused on God and his love. May God fill us this Sunday and may He richly bless all of you as you serve Him.