From the Home Place

June 29, 2026

Good morning friends! We are starting with 58 degrees with a stiff WSW wind reaching 40 MPH. The weather report is calling for a high of 77 degrees. It sounds like we will be inhaling smoke from neighboring fires for most of the day.

What an amazing God we serve! I’m getting reports from other churches about how the Holy Spirit blessed yesterday’s services. Praise the Lord! He was very kind to us in Guernsey yesterday as we studied Ephesians 2:1-4. My personal love for this portion of Scripture is so rich in that I have lived these verses.

I was doing everything I could possibly do to run away from God – living out the word translated “trespasses” in verse 1. The word “sins” means to miss God’s mark. Man was I doing an excellent job of that one too. I was living my life like everyone else around me was living “in the lusts of our flesh.” We were all living for self, without a lot of care of how such a life was hurting those who had to put up with us. Sound familiar?

Well as painful as verses 1-3 are to admit, “been there done that,” verse 4 shows up just in time: “But GOD!” Even when I was running away from God, He was inviting me to walk with Him. What an amazing, loving, Heavenly Father. As verse 4 reminds us, God is “rich in mercy.” When considering the word “rich” don’t compare God’s wealth to that of any earthly being. God’s wealth far exceeds that of everyone else all put together, for God is exceedingly wealthy in “mercy.”

God’s mercy allows Him to not just snuff out guys like me. Instead of giving us what we deserve, He gives us His mercy and gives no-good bums like the man I was that which we do not deserve – forgiveness though His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Again today, I praise God for showing me HIs love that drew me out of a worthless life and replaced it with a life filled with the riches of walking with God!

Ephesians 2:4 makes it very clear that no matter how rotten our life may be, God’s mercy, compelled by His love, can set us free through the shed blood of Jesus. Wow! That ought to be the best news any of us has ever heard. Such news should blow across our life story in much the same way as the wind is going to blow smoke across Wyoming today.

For those of us who have lived verses 1-3, we should be the first to tell others about God’s mercy, His grace and His love, each being a special gift to His reborn children. Once you have lived it you can’t help but tell others about the amazing God you get to serve.

So, regardless of how nasty today’s weather might be, regardless of the tasks we “must” get finished today, regardless of how difficult today might be for some of us, “But God!” If we keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, praising God for where He rescued us from because of His great wealth of “mercy,” may we each be reminded that “by grace you are saved.” Oh, that amazing grace of God!

And by the way, just as our Heavenly Father continues to share His mercy and grace with us, perhaps we should do the same with those around us today? After all, we know that which God has given us is intended to be shared with others.

Giving God’s best with you, Neal