Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
As years go, this has not been one of my best. I have had four stays in the hospital. After the first three episodes, i tried to reestablish the devotions only to have them interrupted each time. After the third stay, I decided to call it "quits" so to speak. The devotions started in 1999 and ran for 20 years. My most recent stay would have interrupted the once more. It turns out that my body is getting more and more frail as the years go by, in fact even as the days go by. My eyesight and hearing are getting worse and worse each day. which makes it difficult to type a devotion. The one thing that seems to still be present is my voice. During my last stay in the hospital, I was sitting on the bedside commode waiting for the nurse to return and decided to sing a verse of "When the Roll is Called up Yonder." The nurse opened the door and surprisingly said, "Are you singing?" Well, it worked better and quicker than the call bell. Yep, I still sing wherever I am at maybe to the dismay of some other people. Ecclesiastes 12:6-8 says, "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity."
God has His ways and the progression of life is one of them. We may not like it, but it still happens. People may joke about it, but we start out naked and helpless and end up the same way, dependent upon the care of others. We can thank God that there are those whether they be professionals, or better yet, our family, that can take care of us. In the 1950's I memorized a portion of the Literature book for the tenth grade class in Rolling Prairie Hight School. It was Ecclesiastes 12:1-8. I didn't even know it was from the Bible at the time, but it was an assignment that had to be completed. It is the story of old age and one that I am getting to learn quite well through the final days of my life. The grinders are few, the eyes grow dim, the sound in the streets is low and the body shakes. There is comfort however in the final verses of the passage. It is found in the words, "...and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it." This part is inevitable and as inevitable as all the rest of the passage. For some some, it will result in eternal glory with God while for many others, it will result in eternal separation from God and all that is good. Some may ask if I actually believe that. Yes I do and I have preached it at may funerals. God is still working. He is not surprised at what is happening in the world nor that which is happening in my own life nor in the life of each and everyone of you all.
For the devotions, after twenty years, so long for now but I will be updating various things in our lives from time to time any way possible, whether it be on Facebook or other media. I thank God especially for each of your prayers and comments, and "Likes" and "comments" on Facebook. I praise God how He is working in each of our lives. As some of you know, I put together a collection of the devotions entitled, "Encouragement on the Road of Life" available on Lulu.com or Amazon or even Barnes and Noble. Praise God daily for what He is doing in all of our lives and if I never see your face again on this earth, "See you in glory" but probably only after I spend a few thousand years looking at the face of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your Brother in Christ,
Daniel Freeland, aka, pastor dan
