Some people have a limited idea of what Christian faithfulness should look like. They see at as a life-long matter. It is more than that. God never intended for his people to see Christian faithfulness as limited to life-long faithfulness. He intended for us to think, not in terms of a lifetime, but in terms of generations of faithfulness to God. The Old Testament speaks of God’s blessing to a thousand generations of those who fear him and keep his commandments.

Two of the young ladies in our Verity Program have covered their door with little “post-it” notes. Each of these notes has something for which they are thankful. Bright kids, don’t you think. Reminds you of Deuteronomy 6 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Friday night the family did a concert at Bethel Baptist Church in St. Clair Shores. Sunday night we returned from a weekend in Shipshewana, Indiana where we sang and preached at Emmanuel Christian Fellowship. We were hosted by the Robert Weaver family. It was a nice weekend. On Saturday we had a little time to explore the village of Shipshewana. The whole village was glowing with Christmas lights and ringing with carols. We strolled through the village, sampled the good “Amish-style” food and spent …

Paul Jordan has an interesting habit. Paul is one of the most effective and valuable members of our staff. He is our information technology guy. Every day he sends me an e-mail synopsis of what he has done. I’m grateful for the e-mail but I usually understand very little of what he reports. Sometimes I wonder if he just uses big-sounding computer words to make himself sound busy and important as cover for the fact that he spends hours in his room playing computer games.

I was just finishing some yard work when I saw a Hispanic man drive up in a pick-up truck. A young man was with him, later I found out it was his son. I smiled and waved, he smiled a waved back. They unloaded some equipment and went to work. I finished packing my things away.

For my birthday my daughter-in-law made me snicker-doodle cookies. I love that girl. She’s top drawer. We didn’t get there on my birthday so she saved them for me. When I got there she apologized that they weren’t fresh. I am used to eating cookies fresh from the oven.

Fall has lingered on this year as long as I have ever seen it do, like an old friend who hates to leave. We hate to see him go and keep coaxing him to stay one more night. There was still brilliant color in many trees on my birthday the third of November and I never remember seeing that before. I just considered it a personal birthday present from the Lord. Reluctantly we will have to say goodbye to fall this week and watch him go …

Last night we visited the Dave Diedrich home. The Diedrichs have four sons, three daughters and a huge yellow lab named Murphy. Dave and his wife invited the Eternal Vision Ministry Team and our family to their home for a relaxing fall evening. We walked the grounds and watched the river run by. We toured their outbuildings and tossed the football out in the autumn air until near dark when we were called in for supper.