I've been so occupied this week with planning, attending, and leading funerals & Memorial services (5) that I had lost track of this newsletter article. Driving in this morning I was working on it in my mind and God kept taking me back to an article I wrote 40+ years ago, before I came to Belview. I don't know what you are thinking right now, but I am thanking God I can remember that far back.
  The article was on 'arm-chair quarterbacks'. You know the type. They are guys, and some women, that can call every play during a football game, execute it to perfection, score on every drive, and never get dirty. I have always wondered why these guys aren't playing on Saturdays and Sundays.
   The rest of the story for these gridiron warriors is that they never get sacked by a 300-pound defensive lineman and buried under the turf or pounded into the asphalt-based Astroturf, but neither will they ever dance in the end zone after actually scoring a touchdown.
  Don't get me wrong-I have a drawer full of OSU t-shirts and a closet of OSU hats, and an OSU diploma hanging on my wall, but I too watch games from my recliner or the stadium seats.
  As I was pondering whether to update the old newsletter or go in another direction, I opened my morning Devotion book, and it took me to James. I usually read more than the 'focal' passage, and as I did this morning, I landed on James 1:22. "Be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves" or the modern translation, "Get in the game and quit just sitting and watching, who do you think you are fooling?
  OK God, I got it. Many Christians are missing out on the JOY and THRILL of the Christian life because we are watching it go by instead of 'getting in the game'. We will never be sacked and pounded, but neither will we ever 'dance in the end-zone'. It's NOT enough to read the stories of what God has done in the lives of others, we need to experience and share the stories of what God has done and IS doing in our lives.
  Nothing in this world will ever compare with the joy you experience when God uses you to lead a person to Jesus Christ. Nothing will ever put a bigger smile on your face and in your heart than when you show kindness and grace to someone who may not deserve it but very definitely needs it. Sometimes it's just a simple thing, but it is a simple thing that can change eternity.
  Too often when church is over, we just turn it off like a TV set, walk to our cars, and head home. Right now, in my mind's eye (whatever that means), I see someone 'dancing in the end zone' that is the Altar of God, and you are dancing with them!
BLESSINGS, PRAYERS & LOVE, GO GOD--BEAT satan!!!!

                                    Blessings Prayers and Love,
                                             Bro Tom and Sister Sue