2 Ibid.
3 Romans 5:8 (NASB).
4 Psalms 118:24 (NASB).
Sunday, February 23, 2020
February 23rd, 2020
“This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”1 How do we rejoice when nothing seems to be going our way? On February 16th, 2014 my earthly father died from a horrible disease the destroyed his brian. Watching his suffering and the way that he died broke my heart. I had been active as a Christian sharing my faith with others in my community, and nationally, open air preaching around large sporting events. After my father’s death, I decided to return to education. I was a registered nurse with an associates degree which I received from El Centro College in Dallas, Texas, December 11th, 1997. The summer after my father’s death I started taking classes online with the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, December 19th, 2015. I applied for a job as the cardiovascular nurse educator in the hospital that I worked at and was denied a job that all around me believed that I was the most qualified; a person with less education and less experience got the job. I turned once again to education, but not nursing, theology. I began taking classes with the Midwestern Baptist online you program, seeking a Master of Theological Studies. I did this program that I may grow in knowledge and understand about the Bible, the church, God and ministry. I graduated during a wonderful celebratory ceremony on the campus of Midwestern Baptist in Kansas City, Missouri, May 3rd, 2019. Darlene and I were looking forward to the marriage of our daughter in June. The engagement broke and we lost a great deal of money spent on the wedding. I thought as a graduate from a seminary I should be in a ministry and found no such place in my local church; therefore, I sought to become a traveling missionary who worked as a nurse when home but would go to some foreign land to teach what I had learned at Midwestern. In September, 2019, I went to Cuba with Paul McClung and I thought that I had found my occupation in God’s kingdom. While traveling, I saw things in Paul signs that reminded of my father when he began to develop disease. Paul has developed a disease, though different from my father has no cure. Paul is often dizzy, which causes him to feel ill and his moods are effected. We were to return to Cuba in December, 2019, but our religious visas were denied, but we were told that we could come in the spring of 2020. That has now been cancelled because of Paul’s illness. I had been working for the majority of my nursing career in the Cardiovascular intensive care. In April of 2018, one of my colleagues was arrested, he is accused of harming and murdering patients on the unit. I admit that I had a difficult time after his arrest and eventually left my long time work for cardiac rehab in January, 2019. I could no longer deal with the suffering and death that surrounds ICU nursing. Our relationship with our daughter is often strained because she, a 26 year old woman still lives in our home and should have been married. On Thursday, I heard that the prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Will Davis, my arrested former nursing colleague. Running is a mental release for me and I went running after work only to severely injure my foot. I am now in a brace for the next 6 weeks and cannot run. The Word says, ” This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”2 How do we rejoice when nothing seems to be going our way? The answer is that I have nothing to complain about. I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I deserving nothing less than death and hell for my disobedience to our creators commandments. I have broken all of the Ten Commands of God during my life. I have not loved God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I have not loved my neighbor as myself. ”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”3 We can all rejoice when nothing seems to be going our way because of the cross. The penalty for sin has been paid, and we are promised eternal life in the new heaven and new earth in the presence of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The proof , Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. Therefore, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”4
