Thursday, December 5, 2013

DP NN Town Square, December 5

Pick up a Daily Press in Newport News today and look for this in the Town Square Section


Looking for some new restaurants to visit over the holidays?  Three things I look for in a restaurant as I'm entering for the first time are a full parking lot, fat cooks, and retirees! I'm not talking about a spot for your next anniversary or where you might take your business clients. I'm talking about the place where you go when you are ready to give way to avarice, need a bib for your shirt, and leave the hand wipes at home because you have every intention of an unashamed finger-licking culinary event!

If Friday and Saturday nights aren't full-lot-nights, then you know the people who live in the area aren't excited about eating there.  Heavy kitchen staff you ask? Give me employees who just can’t stop eating every time the owners turn their heads; I want them plump and hopeful of their next bite!  Retirees may be the ultimate measure. Lots of hair the color of a pure driven snow not only says family friendly but great value. If you are on a fixed income, as many retirees are, you look for healthy servings at a great price. When these three factors converge, we are sure to find a local spot where appetites are quieted and palates are entertained!

This idea of criteria that are portents of coming satisfaction, I believe, was one of God's great motivations in giving us the Holy Scriptures.  In them we find stories that teach us how to live a life that leaves us feeling full.

I want to invite you to read three chapters of the Old Testament, Nehemiah 8-10. You find a profound picture of a city rediscovering the wisdom of God's commands and statutes, ultimately culminating into the rebirth of a nation. At first they weep, not just because they feel guilty for not having followed God's ways but out of sorrow for all the years they had lost, all the years they had settled for mediocrity, settled for emptiness when fullness had always been within reach.

Then as you read further in chapters nine and ten, you find them coming to moments of great celebration.  This celebration was because expectancy was rising in their hearts!  After confessing their own personal culpability for lives not well lived and also how their lives had led others astray, they vowed personally and publicly to no longer forsake His statutes.  Instead, it was time to forsake a life void of God's direction.  Scripture is filled with beautiful promises for a life overflowing with fullness.  Now Nehemiah and the people of Israel were once again sitting at the table of God, ready to feast upon the goodness He prepares of us all daily!

God wants you and I to discover the wonders and splendor of this existence, life this side of eternity.  I spent the first 23 years of my life believing that if I wanted to go to Heaven, I had to give up everything worth having in this life to get there.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Scripture has a lot to say about the Heaven to come, but God’s Word is also filled with lessons on how to possess a life that overflows with goodness here and now…or as we say at City Life:  heaven now…Heaven forever!


Is there anything you need to confess today?  Do you find anything that needs to change when you examine your life in light of Scripture?  Vow today to fully embrace God’s plan for you life…there is a table ready for you!

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