They had a little anniversary\birthday party for those of us celebrating work anniversaries yesterday. Karyn put together a calendar of funny pictures of Denise and I as a celebration of our 20th anniversary here. I thought you’d like to see what she does in her spare time.
I can say that it has been awesome being here and seeing what God has done. We’ve been blessed to be a part of it. But I have to admit, it feels like 20 years some times. That’s a long time and I’ve changed. This was my proverb for the day.
The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old. Proverbs 21:29
When I came here I was the strength and now I am “splendor.”J
I was also reminded how it all happened by this proverb today.
The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord. Proverbs 21:31
People ask me all the time – how does something like this Parkview thing happen, and I think this is the right answer. We got the horses ready and God won the victory.
(Speaking of victory, we had 6100 people in church this weekend – a record by approximately 700. So you could help us get the horses ready for the battle by avoiding the 11am service! We’re crammed in there again. Please think about Saturday if it works for you!)
But it all reminds me that we’re all a lot closer to Heaven than we realize. I’m getting older – and so are you. And then there is stuff in the news that reminds us even more. As the card for your wallet that I gave out last weekend says – IT DOES GET BETTER THAN THIS. I didn’t know how much we’d need that promise.
Please pray for the Dunkman family whose husband\father was killed in Frankfort Monday night. It’s just a horrible thing and they need us to lift them up in prayer.
I had another family tell me that the topic of heaven was timely because their Grandma passed away on Monday.
And then there is the Haiti situation that we are just digging out of. I have friends there and we have ministries we support there. Everyone I know is okay for now, but it’s a bad deal people. Take the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and add a devastating earthquake and you’ve got problems.
If you’d like to help, please visit Haiti Relief.
All of this is a reminder that this world is not our home – we’re just passing through.
When people talk of Heaven, they usually talk about “up.” They point up. The fact that a kid points up when we talk about heaven may sound simple but it’s one of the most significant things you can say about heaven. The word “heaven” has always had the idea of up. It has that idea in the Bible.
Psalm 123:1 Lord, I look up to You, up to heaven, where You rule.
Even Jesus looked up to heaven when He prayed.
Mark 6:41 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and looked up toward heaven and He asked God’s blessing on the food.
Heaven is up.
That doesn’t mean up in the sense that it’s out there somewhere beyond the orbit of Pluto. Up means higher. Higher than anything we experience on this earth. Up means beyond. Beyond anything that I can imagine on this earth. Up means ABOVE. Who amongst us does not wish, long sometimes to live above the pain that is in this world? There’s something in us that realizes this isn’t right. I should be able to live above this. We will one day. We look forward to that day. That’s where we’ll live for eternity.
See you this weekend!
Tim
God has certainly blessed the Harlow family in the last 20 years, but you all have in turn blessed all of us! God is so good! Thank you for the last 20, and we so look forward to the next 20... and beyond! Love you all!
The Clareys
Posted by: Kelly | January 14, 2010 at 06:25 AM
Thanks, Tim, interesting sermon series. I'm trying to resist the tyranny of the urgent and focus more on my "after I'm dead" box.
As an aside, I knew the stuff about the world ending on December 21, 2012 was bogus as soon as I heard it. No way the world ends on Joe Paterno's 86th birthday, just a couple weeks before Penn State plays Oklahoma for the BCS National Championship!
Posted by: Penn State Clips | January 17, 2010 at 08:54 AM