Faith, Hope, and Love

Jeff

Good morning. It is pre-Friday, May 1, 2014.

Today is School Principals’ Day. The principal is one of those roles that is often under-appreciated. After all, they always have to play the “bad cop” role, don’t they. Well, for all of the Schneiders in the world, happy Principals’ Day!

I’m going in to work at 7:00 this morning, so I don’t have a lot of time. I’m trying to knock this out in a short amount of time, so it may not be very deep.

Christi’s interview with BNSF went really well, yesterday. They are trying to get somebody in the position really fast (NOW they’re in a hurry?), so they even said that, if they do decided to hire her, they might want her to come in as a contract-to-hire position, so she can start sooner. They would do all the background and drug test and all that stuff during that period of time. She should know something pretty soon, based on what was said to her.

The interview with Etherios is this afternoon.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From The Divine Hours)

Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100:3
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
Psalm 62:5
Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.
Psalm 93:5
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.
Psalm 118:26

Today’s reading in Reflections for Ragamuffins is “The Crucial Question.”

“‘What think you of Christ, whose son is he?’ is the crucial question of the gospel.” The answer is the purpose of the New Testament.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:30-31

Jesus demanded faith, hope, and love in himself. He demanded faith when the disciples’ boat was storm-tossed. And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. (Matthew 8:26) He demanded hope in Mathew 11:28. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And he demanded that his disciples love him even more than their fathers and mothers! Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37)

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them,
he it is who loves me.
And he who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
John 14:21

Father, I pray that, as I continue to grow in discipleship, that I will find myself having the basic faith, hope, and love in Christ Jesus. I pray that, though I love my wife dearly, I will not love her more than I love Jesus. May I not love anything more than him! Increase my faith; increase my hope; increase my love!

I pray for this day. I pray that Christi’s interview with Etherios will go well. But I pray even more that the BNSF opportunity would come through. There is a possibility that she could be working as soon as Monday! We are trying not to hope to much on this, but it is hard not to. I pray that everything will work out on this, but only if it is your will. That trumps everything. May your will come to pass, on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for Stephanie today, that she would be drawn closer to your heart and deeper into your love. Please give her wisdom and understanding. May my work day go smoothly today, and may we get caught up on the work, as we have been short-handed.

Your grace is sufficient.

Faith, hope, and love. Three words that figure heavily in 1 Corinthians 13. But also three things that our Savior demands from us.

Grace and peace, friends.