Tag: Hymn

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Just a closer walk

I want to welcome you to the July Ranch Family Fun Day (RFFD). I can’t believe it’s been a month already! It’s so great to see you all out here!

What’s God doing in your life? Is He able to lead you and guide you? Do you allow Him to lead you and guide you daily as you go out into the cold cruel world and face the trials, tests and temptations? Did you notice that I said daily? See, this walk with the Savior shouldn’t be a once a week, “I’ll get my “religion” in on Sunday and live for the Devil” type of thing!

Remember the great song, “Just a Closer Walk With Thee?” What a wonderful song! The 1st verse says, “I am weak, but Thou art strong; Jesus, keep me from all wrong; I’ll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.” And then the chorus, “Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea, Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.”

I love the song, but I’m thinking, “If I am not walking close to the Lord, it for sure isn’t His fault!” I mean sure, He is going to help us get through anything! He’s our provider and our strength and He is our life, but when we can’t seem to find Him and we’re in a dark place, whose fault do you think it is? “Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it Jesus is my plea!” And I can hear Jesus saying to me, “Hey, I’m right here where you left Me! You got all caught up in “stuff” that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of eternity and left Me standing here just waiting for you to get done with all of the things that you’re doing and realize you miss Me.” And all of those things could be great things we’re doing. We could be rodeoing with our kids, we could be camping with the family we could…you fill in the blank. Does it take you away from your time with the Lord and with His people?

As I’ve said before, your Heavenly Father wants a relationship with you so bad that He allowed His only Son to die for you! And once He has that kind of relationship with you He doesn’t want to let you go! He’ll do everything that He can to keep you around, but He will not force you to love Him. So if you’re not feelin’ it today, go back to that place where you last felt it. To the place where He’s still waiting for you!

God Bless You! Let us know if we can do anything for you. Naomi and I sure love all y’all!

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This World is Not My Home

Have you ever wondered what your thought pattern is going to be when you come down to the end of your life? Will you be like Paul and say “For I am ready to be poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:6-7) Do you long to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant?” I always talk tuff and say that I’m ready to go, but when it comes down to it we’ll see where my faith lies!
But remember the old song, “This World is Not My Home?” it’s true that we are just foreigners here and there is a promised land waiting for us in Heaven! That’s real folks! Life, at least to me, is great down here on this earth, but can you imagine what Heaven is going to be like? And we have a promise that we will be there if we know Jesus as our personal Savior! Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
So then, we have Faith to trust Jesus as our Savior, we have Hope that we are going to make Heaven our home, and then we have that agape Love that allows us to treat our neighbor as we would treat ourselves. And the best part of all of that is the fact that it all comes through the grace of God! We get God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense! We don’t have to work for it folks! We just get it because our Heavenly Father loves us so much!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve