Recently a number of people have commented that God certainly has blessed me. Eight kids, 6 son-in-laws, and a daughter-in-law who all are doing well in life who love the Lord and us. A great marriage of 46 years. 22 grandchildren. A successful ministry that is growing. We have the usual trials and problems that are common in life, but we have the strength and wisdom from God to turn them into an adventure. Life is fun and fulfilling. Many tend to think that God’s blessings are random, arbitrary, and come by luck. The Bible teaches that God’s blessings are conditional, that is there is a requirement, and when we know what the requirements are and meet them God blesses. It is an easy Bible study to discover what the conditions are, just type in “bless”, “blessing”, “blessed”, and “blesses” in your computer Bible program and look up all the verses. I have done that and regularly evaluate my life on the basis of those things God says He will bless. I want God to open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings on my life and my families life until I can’t hold them all. One of the conditions is that we would love His church. It is easy to see the reasonableness in that when we understand that the church is the “Bride” of Christ. How you treat my bride is a major factor in whether I like you or not. Loving our church is not the “in” thing right now. Church is seen as a glorified Walmart store, we go when we need something from God and we aren’t particularly interested in sacrificing much for the church, after all a bunch of hypocrites go to it. The conditions God has set for Him to bless our life aren’t hard, but they do need to be met faithfully or He won’t bless. That is pretty much how we raised our kids, do the right thing and you are rewarded for it. Do the wrong thing and there are loss of privileges and consequences. That is what loving parents do, that is what God does. Jesus loves the Church and gave His life for the church and those who love her and who are devoted to making her beautiful receive great favor from God. I love my church with all my heart. If you don’t have a church home try try JBC this weekend.