\n
Hi John,<\/span><\/p>\n This evening I picked up an article of yours\u00a0entitled “A Better End”\u00a0which you had written when Josiah and Kaylie were married, and it caught my attention.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the truths in it\u00a0really rang true in light of the hour we are in.\u00a0 I typed up a few things that I thought were especially important to fathers\u00a0and every believer, really.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here are the things you wrote\u00a0that stood out to me:<\/span><\/p>\n In Ecclesiastes, Solomon is quoted in the King James version as saying:\u00a0 “better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Eccl.7:8).\u00a0 But that is true only in cases of something bad. The end of disease in your body, for example, is better than the start of it; and the end of a war on earth is better than the beginning of that war.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n If marriage sanctioned by God ends in divorce, the end is certainly not better than the beginning.\u00a0 God hates that kind of end to a marriage he has sanctioned.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It is the<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>completion<\/span>, not the untimely end of a good thing that is better than the beginning of it.\u00a0 And that is true of every good thing in this life, including life itself.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n For our ends to be better than our beginnings we have to start something good, and then<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>complete<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span>it<\/span>.\u00a0 Continue in the good things God has given you; be patient, and let them bear fruit.\u00a0 If we love what good thing God has granted [us], then we will all do our part to give [each other] the help [we] need to reach that expected, better end.\u00a0 May God give us the grace to do so.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The thing that stood out to me was that to truly be like Christ,\u00a0we\u00a0can’t stop\u00a0short of\u00a0completion<\/span>.\u00a0 The changes God requires of us now\u00a0must happen, and then they must “stick.”\u00a0 That is the “better end”, that is\u00a0our victorious\u00a0testimony.\u00a0 That is the life God wants for us:\u00a0 faithful now, and faithful to the end.\u00a0 Changed now, and\u00a0walking in that change\u00a0till the end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And “any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5).\u00a0 I have always loved that verse.\u00a0 If we believe it, if our heart is in it, God will do it.\u00a0 Why wouldn’t He?\u00a0 That is our better end.<\/span><\/p>\n Gary<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi John, This evening I picked up an article of yours\u00a0entitled “A Better End”\u00a0which you had written when Josiah and Kaylie were married, and it caught my attention. Some of the truths in it\u00a0really rang true in light of the hour we are in.\u00a0 I typed up a few things that I thought were especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}