Beginnings and endings are important.  A right beginning is often the key to a good ending.

 We are currently at the end of a season in one place and about to start a season in another.  Our lives consist these days of short seasons in many places, so there are lots of beginnings and lots of endings, and we need to get all of them as right as we can.

What happens to us when we become consumed with anger and bitterness because other people have it better off than we do? And when those are people who have no place for God in their lives?

 Asaph had an experience just like that and, conveniently for us, he wrote it down. You can find it in the seventy-third Psalm. Asaph had become obsessed with the apparent financial success of people he describes as entirely undeserving of God’s blessing.

We need to ask God to give us eyes to see the kingdom.

 That was the subject of my message at a church last Sunday.  Just before the pastor introduced me, a member of the congregation got up to give a brief testimony.  He finished it by saying this: we need to ask God to give us eyes to see the kingdom.

 At that moment, if I didn’t realize it before, I knew I was on the right track.

I remember running my guts out on the football field on those brisk late September nights a very long time ago.  We had a small school with a small team, and I had to play both offence and defence. Sometimes I never came off the field. On top of that, I was given the ball for 11 other players to chase and tackle me. I can remember as a very young player years laying on the bottom of a pile with the opposing team pinching me while I was down. Then in high school I remember our opponents hitting hard to tackle me and then putting their whole body weight on my chest as they pushed themselves up,  saying in a mocking voice “How do you like that, Rookie?”  “Rookie” was the nickname they gave me because I was the youngest player on the team. They thought it was a slam, but for me it was a badge of honour. 

“Land for sale - 120 acres”

 The sign just went up on the other side of the road where we are currently staying in south-western Michigan.

 To the urban eye, it’s just a bunch of flat open fields you’d drive past without even thinking about it. But to the shrewd farmer (and I’ve rarely met a farmer was wasn’t shrewd) it’s a potential goldmine - depending, of course, on the commodity prices. You’d be amazed at how much money people will pay for 120 acres of land.

 Opportunity knocks. Or does it?