During Thanksgiving week, I began contemplating areas of my life and experience for which I am deeply thankful to God. I have identified dominant spheres in my life that fall into this category, and I want to share them with you, and especially thank God for them.

First and foremost, and the one reality without which, I could never hope to please God, is the continuous presence, the power and potential of the crimson stream of holy blood that Christ vicariously spilled at the cross. It speaks better things than the blood of Abel! It paid the horrible price for my salvation. It provides a sacred influence that colors all my fleshly attempts to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. It sustains me when I am without strength or resolve to remain engaged or to finish a formidable task. It undergirds all my frail efforts to achieve holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

These divine intrusions have poignantly formed a particular edge in my point of view. And it is because of these seasoned realities that I love to bask in the effulgent glow reflected from many of the old hymns. Songs like “There’s Power in the Blood,” or “I See a Crimson Stream of Blood,” or “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” and there are others, all of them causing me pause and a time of sacred rejoicing in the sacrificial provision that our Lord made for us all. None of this is available on “Black Friday”; it cannot be bought or sold!

The next most significant reality in my life is the comfort and spiritual counsel that I receive from my sweet wife, Diane. In fact, in a couple weeks we will celebrate 53 years of marriage [58 yrs in 2021!]. WOW, that sounds like a long time (and I guess it is), but it has all passed as a vapor in the night! Nevertheless, I thank God for this very special and dedicated woman, who was chosen by the Lord and given the task to come along side of me, and to face with me the challenges of life because of this unique ministry. She is my most faithful, determined, and dearest friend. In this prioritized list of exceptional people, I must thank God for my children—all grown, with families of their own—but they have been, and still are, frequent causes of thanksgiving. These four offspring are comprised of a daughter and three sons (and now grandchildren & great-grandchildren); most all are faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, I am thankful for the excitement and difficulty posed by the past years of ministry. It was during this time (from August 1989 until now) that God gave to me the penetrating and tearful invitation to develop the CTF ministry. I am overwhelmingly thankful to the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ for His faithful enablement…and I thank all our faithful partners for their prayer and finance (Isaiah 40:28-31).