Two funerals last week for folks related to members of my family. Neither funeral was expected. Both were younger than me: one eight years; the other, eighteen years. It reminded me that the value of a life is not determined by the years accumulated. It also reminded me of what James wrote, \u201cYou do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away\u201d (James 4:14). I doubt if you have this verse cutely painted on a magnet, displayed on your refrigerator. It really doesn\u2019t lend itself to that. Besides most of us are so in love with tomorrow that we can hardly think of not experiencing it. That\u2019s why unexpected deaths are such a shock to our system. It\u2019s hard to think about life as a vapor, a vanishing mist. It has long since disappeared, but I can still see it \u2013 that faded blue cardboard poster, the sliver glitter, worn off of the lettering. Given to me by my parents, the poster hung on my wall for many years. The quote on the poster was attributed to English missionary, C.T. Studd who said on his deathbed, \u201cOnly one life, \u2018twill soon be past. Only what\u2019s done for Christ will last.\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m praying for the following global concerns this week. Join me?
\n\u2022 As I write this, hurricane Gustav has already been responsible for many lives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and much property loss in western Cuba and the Cayman Islands and is bearing down on the Louisiana coast. May those in its path know that God\u2019s grace is sufficient in every circumstance of life.
\n\u2022 From missionaries in Serbia: Sunday, September 7th, the groups in Cacak will meet together for the first of weekly house church. Pray for those who attend Bible study during the week to be excited about fellowshipping and worshiping with others every Sunday.
\n\u2022 From Taiwan: Pray for someone to volunteer to be the stateside (U.S.) prayer advocate for the missionary team working in Taichung City.
\n\u2022 Give thanks that missionaries Chris and Cathie are the proud parents Caytlin Elisa, born on August 28, 2008. Continue to pray for Cathie\u2019s health and recovery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two funerals last week for folks related to members of my family. Neither funeral was expected. Both were younger than me: one eight years; the other, eighteen years. It reminded me that the value of a life is not determined by the years accumulated. It also reminded me of what James wrote, \u201cYou do not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}