St. Augustine Update

Greetings All!

I haven't written an update in a long time and thought that a report after Hurricane Matthew might be in order.  We are very busy here in St. Augustine after the storm.  The Island is abuzz with cleanup.  Our home church here, Anastasia Baptist Church is very involved in "St. Augustine Rebuild."  They are joining teams from around the country in working to get things back in order.  It is very encouraging to see the Body of Christ involved, as it should be, in the works of Jesus in caring for those in need.

I had gallbladder surgery on Wednesday morning at 9:30, October 5 and we were ordered to evacuate Anastasia Island that afternoon!  It was one of those times when you grab what you can and wonder "what will be here when you return?"  I don't remember much about it but Teresa loaded me up in the car and drove me to Tony and Barbara Kurtz's home in Lake City, Florida.  We spent three nights there before returning.  As we drove home we remarked that it had been like a vacation with friends!  We were cared for like family by Tony and Barbara.  We had to navigate our way home, keeping tabs on which bridges were open and which ones were closed.  We arrived after the major rush to come back to the island.  When we arrived home, other than a few palm fronds in the street, everything looked normal.  There is a lagoon about 20 feet from our back door so I had more than a few thoughts about that.  We live on the first floor.  Everything was normal!  Then the news began to come in about the rest of the First Coast.  Many lost something and some lost their homes and all their possessions.  We didn't hear of anyone who lost their life here in our area.  Everyone realized that we were so blessed!  Later after looking closely at the track of the storm the track took the storm to the East, away from the coast right at the center of Anastasia Island.  Teresa had been praying for the Lord to take His Hand and push the storm to the east!  It's always hard to understand why some lose nothing and some lose all!  Yet, we are grateful to God for His mercy in sparing lives.

Ministry has been picking back up of late.  We ministered at New Life in Saginaw, Michigan in September and at Christian Heritage in Lake City, Florida in early October.  Thank you for your love, prayers, concern and support through the years.  May the Lord continue to use us as He sees fit and May his rich blessing follow you!

Love and Blessings!
L. A.

Faith, Righteousness and Eternity

Pride and humility are two things that we believe we can easily identify.  We think of pride as loud, arrogant and "me" centered.  Humility on the other hand is quieter, self-effacing and willing to be unseen.  It sounds easy enough but the truth behind humility and pride are deeply rooted in the motivation of the heart.  For example, what if you heard someone say, "I can do anything!" What would be your impression?  It would probably be, "what arrogance."  In the same way if you heard someone say, "without the Lord I can't do anything!"  Certainly that would be humility!  Not necessarily.  The first statement was essentially what the Apostle Paul said in Phil. 4:13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."  Certainly he added, through Christ, but still he  believed that the Lord could accomplish anything through him.  The second statement, "without the Lord I can't do anything", could really be pride.  It is all about the attitude of the heart.  In reality the only two people that know the attitude of the heart would be the person making the statement and God.  Only God knows our hearts.  There are even times when we don't truly know our own hearts.  We often deceive ourselves in order to move forward with something we want or want to accomplish.  

Pride can sound like humility when it is faithless and passive and not willing to obey God and risk the possibility of failure, thereby bringing humiliation on itself.  Humility can sound like pride when it is confident of Christ leading and empowering and willing to be aggressive in obedience to the will of God.  Why would such inward musing matter?  It matters greatly and even has a bearing on eternity.  It has been said, "if you can't trust God now in this life, how do you know you can trust Him with the promise of heaven when you die?"  Faith is the "evidence of things not seen."  I once knew a man who truly loved the Lord. He had lived a life of sin and rebellion before the Lord saved him.  Many years after he became a follower of Jesus he would say often, "there is none good, no not one."  It sounded right and very humble.  Yet, it bothered me.  He also liked the quote "I'm just an old sinner saved by grace!"  I would challenge him and say, "no, we were old sinners but now we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus."  I could tell he was very uncomfortable with that statement.  In his latter years he began to express anxiety about heaven.  He would doubt that he could be accepted into heaven because of his past life.  There it is!!!  All those years of words that sounded like humility were really symptoms of a weakness in faith relating to his salvation that comes only by the blood of Jesus.  He was saved but his consciousness had never been fully redeemed by the works that Jesus did on the cross. His consciousness was still stained with a thought that his former life actions had something to do with entrance into heaven.  Our lesson here is to truly accept by faith what Jesus did and abandon every thought of what we did before our salvation.  Our lives before Jesus has nothing to do with heaven. Let it go and grab what Jesus did and never look back!