Years ago I committed to memory the first six verses of John 14

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

While I know there is certainly the danger of “being so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good”, it is somehow reassuring knowing where you are headed. Take for instance our land that I mentioned last Sunday morning. You will remember from my message that Kathy, along with her three brothers, all stand to inherit forty acres each of their parents farm in Leake County near Carthage, Mississippi. (Actually it is near Edinburg. Come to think of it, it is more precisely near a place called Four Corners. When you come right down to it, it is really not near anything - which is exactly how we all like it.) Through all our minister moves “the farm” has been a constant. So it comes as no great surprise that many years ago we decided that one day, Lord willing, we would retire there. For this preacher it is comforting to know that when I am put out to pasture, I know what pasture I will be going to. In fact it is our dream to begin the process in the next few years by building a barn on our place with a one room cottage attached for a country get a way on our very own land. What about your today? Do you know where you are headed? Having a earthly pasture to go to is one thing, but what you need most today is to be certain that you have a heavenly pasture that you can call home.

City raised, but farm bound,
Bro. James