From the Home Place

April 20, 2026

Starting today at 30, headed for 80 as today’s high. Hot, dry and windy makes for an “elevated fire risk.” We are all praying that the Lord will stop any fires.

Yesterday was an amazing day at the CMA church here in Lusk. We are studying our way through the book of Ephesians and did a quick overview of Chapter 3 as our lesson. Three times within this chapter, the Apostle Paul mentions that he was a “prisoner of the Lord.” For the past five years, Paul had lived in a jail cell..

It would probably be good to mention here that jail in Paul’s days was nothing like jails today. For Paul the first two years of jail was in Jerusalem, like our county jail. The next three years he was in a Roman jail, like our federal prison. Paul is in the “big house.” As such, the government provided nothing except a 6 X 6′ cell carved in a rock ledge. Paul’s food, clothing and bedding all had to be provided by a friend, relative of church family member.

For the last 5 years, at the time of writing Ephesians, Paul has lived in terrible conditions. Yet he writes that he is “a prisoner of the Lord.” Though Paul was originally arrested because a powerful group of Jewish religious leaders didn’t like his message, Paul did not say that he was a prisoner of the Jews. Though Paul was now a prisoner in Rome because he had appealed to Caesar about his case, Paul did not say that he was a prisoner of Caesar. No Paul trusted God to always be in control of every situation, we call that the sovereignty of God. As such, Paul said that he was in prison as a result of God’s plan for his life.

So how about your circumstances? Will they be the result of someone else’s decisions, or a result of your decisions, or will your life circumstances be the result of a sovereign God? As I mentioned to the folks yesterday, we much never measure God by our circumstances, but that we must always measure our circumstances by God!

Keeping our eyes upon Jesus with you, Neal