When people ask me, "What is God saying to you?" or, "What do you learn in your quiet-time?" I feel redundant, but I have the same answer for the past several years now: To keep my eyes on Him. He is my anchor, my compass, my true north.

I was reading yesterday's My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers, and it pointed me to Psalm 123:

I lift up my eyes to You, to You whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He shows us His mercy. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we haven endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.

1Peter4:7&8: The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

'Without grumbling' eh? My Pastor, George Powell, shared in a sermon, "Hospitality is making others feel at home...when you wish they were!" So true!

We have so many great examples of hospitable people (who never act like they really wish their guests were 'really at home!')

Ron & Jill Shaddy are always having groups of people over (even when their house was much smaller!) - from a few little kids to huge YWAM groups! They are great at refreshing others.

Pastor Greg Strannigan & beautiful wife Shawn host so many out of town friends of their kids as well as travelling mission & music groups that I overheard one of their friends joke, "Yeah, the Strannigans forgot to spray for rock bands again!" (And we all knew that meant their house would be full of awesome young people for awhile!)

All for One!

Things in this life can be so hard. For me, the most difficult things has to do with "people stuff." At one point this summer I thought, "Church would be so great if it was only about God, and there weren't people involved!" Of course I didn't mean that literally, it was just an expression of frustration over recent events.

So then how do we press on, follow after Christ, live for Him in the midst of all the junk?

Simple (not easy, just simple): Keep our eyes on Him! We are for Him. We are His people, and He is our God! We keep our eyes on the Prize. He is our finish line, and our plumb-line along the way. We must take our eyes off ourselves, definitely off others, and put them back where our focus belongs - HIM only!

All for One! HE is the One!

1Peter4:7-11