FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE

Greetings and Salutations Oh Ye Breathers of Oxygen....if you are reading this...you are not in a grave...yet.

They say the only thing that is a sure thing...is taxes...and death...and depending on the tax code...that is a moving target.

When I turned 60 years old back on August 15th 2011...I thought about how if I live to be 120 years old...then I am now...middle aged. But I get the feeling that I am actually closer to the downhill slide...that will result in my upward call in Christ...when I will be absence from my body...and present with the Lord.

It seems that more and more of my friends are assuming room temperature. Of course as a believer in the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus (aka D.B.R... nothing more...nothing less)...we have this hope...confident expectation... Christ in you...the Hope of Glory.

It's pretty amazing how we can go from one minute...the walking dead...to the next minute the walking life. This happened to me in the fall of 1970...when at one moment I was eating an onion ring in my car at Shoney's with Brenda... and then in the next moment...I was in her driveway at 426 Fourth Avenue...becoming a "new creation in Christ." (II Corinthians 5:17)




At that critical point in my life...I went from being an insecure, paranoid, addicted, 19 year old...to a secure, fear free, non-bound 19 year old...with a future and a hope.

As a child of the 50's/60's I had bought into the flower power, free love, rock and roll, love, sex, rock and roll, if it feels good do it...mentality...but did not realize, that the more I did what I wanted...the more bound I became...as a slave to my passions.

As the song said..."I was looking for love in all the wrong place." When I would get drunk...or high as a result of either drugs...or sniffing some sort of chemical or gasoline...or you would have sex and the sense of love would be fleeting as soon as the orgasmic experience was over...I would be left with a void within... that I tried to fill over and over again...but to none avail.

Religion was a bust...intellectualism was unfulling..pleasure was not very pleasing. When I confessed my sins and need for a Saviour and asked Jesus into my heart....that was the only thing for me that made a difference. I needed a perfect Saviour for my imperfect life...I found that JESUS...HUNG UP...FOR MY HANGUPS...and boy did I have hangups.


Since 1970...my whole life...the past...the present...and my future have become clear. I see where I was...I see where I am...and I see where I am going. I saw that "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

I began to see the grace of God...in my life...from the time of conception and the time of birth...to the time of me being "born again". Romans 8:28 became real to me..."We know that ALL THINGS (good, bad, ugly) work together for GOOD to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." I realized that I was called...and I had a purpose in my life.

One day...I will be laid to rest...and I will be in the present of my Lord. Until then..I hope to be "pleasing to Him"..."therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home (here on planet earth) or absent (died and in heaven)...to be PLEASING TO HIM." (II Corinthians 5:9)

Of course...to do this...I must continue to WALK BY FAITH and not by things REVEALED TO THE SENSES. (Hebrews 11:1) I must continue to (1) come to Him (2) and believe that He is (3) believe that He is a rewarder (4) diligently seek Him and not just passively inquire of Him. (Hebrew 11:6)

FINAL THOUGHT...FINALLY

Well...I need to write this for myself...but if it encourage you in some way...so be it. Write me and let me know.

Love and Living Kisses
Rodney "Still Kicking" Boyd