“Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

             -Hebrews 2:17

Last night I lay in bed meditating on this passage of Scripture and, just as I was about to fall asleep, an amazing thought occurred to me: we serve a God Who is both mercifully faithful and faithfully merciful. It is because of His mercy that He loves us, and yet because of His love that we are shown mercy. Though none of us could ever deserve forgiveness, the price for our redemption has been fully paid by Jesus Christ, our High Priest, and all we must do is repent and believe the Gospel in order to obtain it (Luke 13:3; Romans 10:9).

Though critics of our faith often say they won’t believe in God until He comes down from heaven and appears to them physically, they fail to realize that, for 33 years, that’s exactly what He did. The Word was made flesh, we beheld His glory, and then crucified it (John 1:5, 14). It’s never been about us lacking good reason to believe, but rather that people often reject the evidence God has already given and then blame Him for their own doubts. Like the Jews who wanted a sign of Christ’s deity after they’d just watched Him miraculously feed 5,000 people (John 6:30), it’s foolish of us to look any further than the cross in our search for God’s love. 

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

           -Romans 5:8

Unlike the brand of love we see at work in today’s world, love in its purest form cannot be expressed in words; it can only be proven by our actions. This is the type of love that filled the heart of our Heavenly Father, moving Him to demonstrate His undying affection for us by dying a sinner’s death on a cross at the hands of those He created. Such a love could never begin to be understood if all we had was the verbal promise of its existence. Of course some would probably still believe in it, but could we ever truly comprehend it? Now that we have such clear evidence that it does indeed exist, we are finally able to“comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”

                                                   -Colossians 3:15

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

                                                        -Matthew 28:19

Water baptism can be described as an outward declaration of an inward transformation. It represents not only the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3, 4), but the fact that we have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and now walk in newness of life with our Lord (Galatians 2:20). While the Scriptures clearly emphasize the importance of every Christian being baptized in water, many have been falsely taught that, if you haven’t been baptized yet, you are not truly saved at all. This is an attack against the very core of the Gospel (i.e. salvation by grace through faith), which I’d like to address in this post by examining the essence of what the Gospel truly is. After all, as Paul wrote, “…it is the power of God unto salvation.” (Romans 1:16)

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul defined the Gospel as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (v. 1-4). 1 Corinthians 1:17  makes it even clearer that, though it’s certainly important, baptism and the Gospel are two different things and should not be confused. If it is true that salvation is impossible apart from baptism, then it must also be true that the Gospel is not enough to save you and that the shed blood of Christ does not hold full redeeming power. Think about that. By suggesting that only those who have been baptized are saved, you are doing more than just saying faith is not enough; you are saying that what Christ did on the cross is not enough and that we must perfect our own redemption! Isn’t the fact that we can’t do that the whole reason Jesus died on the cross?

Nevertheless, I believe it’s important for us to remember that there is a very good reason for all those other verses that seem to tie salvation and water baptism together: they should always accompany each another! Asking whether you can be a Christian without being baptized is like asking whether or not you can live for Christ and disregard the beatitudes or the 10 Commandments. To neglect baptism is to neglect the commandment of the Lord and, when you neglect the Word of God, there will always be serious consequences. You might be forgiven of your sins at an altar of repentance, but rest assured that you are placing yourself right back under the wrath of God by disobeying the Lord - especially when you do so after being shown the truth (Hebrews 10:26, 28-29). The point of my writing this is not at all to diminish the importance of being baptized, but to show that faith, not baptism, is what saves a person from sin and an eternity in hell (see here for an explanation of saving faith). You should be baptized as soon as possible after receiving salvation, but you can be sure that, if you die on your way to the church, you will still go to heaven, as will your friend who was reconciled to God while lying on his or her deathbed. It’s not about what we can do, but about what He has already done for us!

I usually don’t do posts like this, but I received a couple comments this morning on one of my devotions with an urgent prayer request attached. I’d like to get as many people as possible praying for this family so, after you’ve finished reading the below message, please take a moment to seek the Lord on their behalf.

Hi Dakota,

Some of our friends got in a car crash yesterday, and I would like to ask you to pray for them. What happened was, a car spun out in front of them, and they hit it head on. There were 5 of there 8 children in the car along with there Mom and Dad. Everyone in the car had a serious injury, The mom had two broken ankles, the dad broke his wrist, I forgot what happen to the older daughter but some thing happened to her, one of the other children had a broken femur (she entered surgery last night), the youngest daughter had internal bleeding, and the youngest child lost most of his teeth. That's about all I've heard thus far. Keep them in your prayers,

Grant Fedewa

______________________________________________

I just heard that the mom also has a collapsed lung.

Grant

Stay tuned here for any updates.

 

How does your average prayer begin? With complaints, concerns, or requests? The Scriptures remind us that every prayer should begin with heartfelt praise to our heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9), and yet too often we find it easier to just give the Lord a list of things we want Him to do for us instead. We take His blessings for granted, despite the fact that we’ve already been given more than we could ever deserve.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

             -Psalm 100:4

As my photo illustrates, we serve a God Who is actively preserving all Creation. Nothing that was, is, or ever will be, could exist without His sustaining power and provision! Even the angels of heaven, who have never experienced redeeming grace like us, still find reason to eternally praise Him simply because of Who He is as God (Revelation 4:8). How is it, then, that our praise is usually dependent on whether or not we get everything on our spiritual “wish-list”, and then battle thoughts of doubt and discouragement when something doesn’t go our way? Truthfully, praising the Lord only when we get what we want is no praise at all; it’s selfishness.

Just like Job, I believe each of us must come to the realization that God is God no matter what (Job 1:21). Sometimes praising Him despite our circumstances isn’t an easy thing to do, but that’s why it’s called a sacrifice (Hebrews 13:15). Even though every situation we face may not always be praiseworthy, our God is and we must learn to worship Him in the good times and bad.

“Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all….”

              -2 Chronicles 31:1

In our society of lukewarm churches and half-hearted Christians, it doesn’t take much to impress the people around you. Simply decide to serve God with your whole heart and live a life of obedience to His Word, and you’ll soon find yourself labeled as a religious nut by the world and praised by fellow believers for your “amazing” commitment to Christ. The problem with this, however, is that we tend to suggest such people are doing more than is really necessary when God has called each and every one of us to do the exact same thing. It’s not that the truly devoted are earning extra credit for being good Christians; most of the time they are simply fulfilling the basic obligations of our faith.

“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

     -Luke 17:10

As humans we are members of a fallen race, but, as Christians are also members of a chosen and redeemed people (Romans 3:23-25). We’ve been given life instead of death, grace instead of wrath, and hope rather than despair. It seems apparent that the only One deserving of glory for our redemption is the Redeemer Himself, and yet so many times we act as if we should get at least some credit for who we are today. The Scriptures, on the other hand, are quick to remind us that whatever we do for the Lord is only our reasonable service in light of what He has done for us (Romans 12:1), and that we must all guard against becoming “wise in our own conceits” (v. 16). If serving the Lord wholeheartedly makes one a radical, then each of us should pursue a truly radical walk with God and not just pat others on the back for fulfilling the calling we’ve learned to ignore!

The reason we view certain Christians as radicals, at least most of the time, is because they have chosen to follow a path rarely traveled in our society. In reality, what we consider radical commitment is usually just the bare minimum God expects from His people, and anything else should be viewed as unacceptable. In a world where the average Christian spends less than 5 minutes each day in prayer, exceeding expectations just isn’t enough.*

*http://www.victorylifechurch.org/pdf/Prayer%20-%20Call%20to%20be%20above%20average.pdf

A few days ago as I was walking through our yard, I spotted what seemed to be an old, yellow yard ornament lying some distance away. I didn’t give it much thought at first since my Grandma has an abundance of such things lying around the yard, but just as I was getting ready to go back inside several minutes later, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to go ahead and check it out. As someone who spends a good amount of time outdoors, I was confident I should’ve noticed something like that before then.

Surprisingly enough, as I got closer and closer to the suspicious object, I began to slowly realize that it was not some broken yard ornament at all; it was actually my Grandma’s crocuses beginning to bloom after a long and hard winter, boldly declaring that spring was on its way. I reasoned that there was no reason at all for me to be surprised because, in reality, it had been fairly warm over the past few days and it hadn’t snowed in quite a while. “Why shouldn’t they be blooming?” I told myself

Anyway, a couple mornings later I was very surprised to wake up to 4” of snow on the ground. Having been told by the friendly crocuses that winter was over, I felt betrayed and vowed never to trust the first flowers of spring, groundhogs, or any such wives’ tales again. After the snow was at least partially melted, I went back outside to see what had become of that old, broken down yard ornament and this is what I saw:

Spring, they told me, was still on its way. Snow and freezing temperatures couldn’t change that and they were proving it. The fact that they’d spent the last 24 hours covered in snow didn’t matter; they were made to bloom, nothing was going to stop them, and that was that.

Don’t you see? As God’s children, we are called to be a living testament to our Creator. Whether or not we shine for Him cannot depend on whether the circumstances are convenient for us to do so; we must be faithful no matter what. Really, there’s nothing at all special about someone who serves God only when everything is going their way. It’s only when our lives begin to fall apart that we have the opportunity to make our faith real and, like flowers abloom in the snow, people are going to notice when we do.

In case you haven’t already noticed, I’ve once again been busy implementing new features to my blog. Rather than having my sidebar cluttered with all sorts of things you may or may not use like I did before, a number of widgets are now expandable and can be utilized or simply ignored. In addition, I’ve also added a new Contact Me button and a Top Commenters section that actually gives you and your blog publicity for commenting on my posts regularly.

So far, everything seems to be working properly with the exception of one of our older computers that doesn’t want to display my sidebar correctly. I can’t seem to pinpoint any coding errors and expect it’s probably not something the average user will experience, but I still wanted to get some feedback from my readers just to make sure. Can you see all the new features I mentioned as well as my archives, tag cloud, etc.? If not, I’d really like to know so I can continue my debugging efforts but, since I’ve not had any luck thus far, don’t want to keep wasting time if nothing is seriously wrong. Just comment and let me know what happens!

“Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.”

                                                  -2 Chronicles 25:1, 2

We are told in Ephesians 2:10 that it is God’s will for all of His children to follow after good works. We are saved by grace through faith apart from our works (v. 8), but are instructed to express our gratitude for that salvation through service to both God and others. Despite this truth, today’s verse is a sobering reminder that it is very possible for a person to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?...”

                                                     -John 21:15

I believe that, in order to fully comprehend the significance of what Jesus is saying here, we must first look at Peter’s background: this is the same Simon Peter who walked on water with the Lord during a raging storm (Matthew 14:29). This is the same Peter who zealously cut off the right ear of the High Priest’s servant for trying to take Jesus captive (John 18:10). He was the one who spoke up and expressed His resolve to stay with God even when everybody else was walking away (John 6:68), and couldn’t understand why the Son of God should wash his calloused and dirty feet (John 13:6). Of course he made his fair share of mistakes along the way but, at least most of the time, was the one everybody else needed to be more like. Yet in spite out his outward devotion, Christ presented the question, “Do you really love Me?” He didn’t ask whether he’d been faithful to go through the motions of Christianity, but instead wanted to know whether or not it was truly in his heart. When it comes down to it, a filthy heart will eventually corrupt our actions anyway (Luke 6:45), so it’s best to make sure we have everything right on the inside before concerning ourselves with the rest.

Perhaps you, like Peter, seem to be on par with everybody else when it comes to the external aspect of your faith. You raise your hands during church, never miss a youth group meeting, and read Christian devotionals on the internet during your spare time. And yet despite the fact that you’re doing everything you know you should be doing on the outside, it still feels like something’s missing in your life and you wonder what it is. Could it be that the Lord is asking you the very same question He asked Peter?

“And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”

                                                      -Luke 21:11

By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the news headlines of the enormous earthquake in Japan. It topped the Richter Scale at 8.9 which is about as big as they get, and nearly 3,000 have already been confirmed dead with many still missing. This was no ordinary earthquake and shouldn’t be treated like one. Millions (think about that number for a minute) are in need of food, water, and other basic essentials  most of us have never had to live a day without. Meanwhile, with no telephone lines or internet access, a large part of them still have to worry about whether or not their friends and family made it through alive. They are going through the darkest moments of their life and looking to us for help.

So what do we do?

First of all, pray….right now. Don’t wait until you’re done reading this post and give yourself the opportunity to forget; stop right where you are and pray. Pray for their broken homes and broken hearts. Pray for those in charge of relief efforts and that they would do their job as efficiently as possible. Pray for those mourning the loss of their parents, their children, and their best friends. Those are wounds the Red Cross simply can’t fix.

Secondly, if God has blessed you with more than you honestly need, let me urge you to seriously consider getting involved tangibly (see II Corinthians 8:14). I know we tend to be skeptical of charities and other organizations that ask for our hard-earned cash, but we can’t spend all of our time questioning their integrity while losing ours in the process. There are many honest and faith-based organizations that truly care about meeting the needs of the broken and will not misuse your donation. I’m sure none of us would hesitate to give if it was our family that was starving to death.

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

                                                       -James 2:17

This tragedy is the perfect opportunity to prove the faith we’re so quick to profess. Yes, the Lord said He is a father to the fatherless and a defender of the poor (Psalm 10:14; Deuteronomy 24:15); but it is only through His body that His light can shine in this world (I Corinthians 12:27; Matthew 5:14). We can’t sit back and wait for someone else to move when God is calling us to.

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

                  -Romans 5:10

If you’ve been in more than a few church services and listened to more than a couple Christian songs throughout the course of your life, then you’ve probably heard it said that Jesus Christ is a “friend of sinners.” This is a very common misconception that has its root in Matthew 11:19 where the Lord quoted His enemies who, in an attempt to discredit Him before the people, proclaimed, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.”  Yet if this verse indicates that Christ is indeed a friend of sinners, then it would also indicate that He is a gluttonous winebibber and thus in violation of Old Testament teaching (Proverbs 23:21).

“Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” 

                                                        -John 15:14

Not only did Christ intentionally cast a negative light on the insults He received by the modern-day religious leaders, but completely contradicted their claim by describing His true friends as those Who keep His commandments. Since 1 John 3:4 defines sin as the breaking of God’s law and a sinner is one who does this habitually (3 John 1:11), it is utterly impossible for a nonbeliever to be meet God’s requirement for friendship. Just like the great patriarch Abraham, being called God’s friend requires us first to be justified and cleansed of the sin which serves as a divider between us and the Most High (James 2:23; Isaiah 59:2). It is only then that we can be saved from eternal destruction and enjoy personal and intimate fellowship with the Lord Himself (Revelation 3:20, 21).

Despite the sobering truth that all sinners are under the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3), our Lord is One Who practices His Own teaching. That is, just as He instructed us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), He also loves His, and desires above all that we be reconciled by the blood of His Son (Colossians 1:21; II Peter 3:9). Unfortunately, this does not always happen and many choose instead to always pursue a life of sin and rebellion without ever acknowledging the grace and forgiveness of God. Don’t let yourself be numbered among those who rejected the offer of God’s salvation; those who stand against the Lord will never prosper (2 Chronicles 13:12; Proverbs 28:13).

“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

                  -II Corinthians 12:9, 10

Think for a moment about how many times in a day you use the word “need.” If there’s something we want but don’t have - even if it’s nothing more than a new video game - we somehow think we can’t live without it and determine not to be contented until our often selfish desires are satisfied. After all, we reason, doesn’t God want us to be happy?

“Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.”

                                               -Psalm 144:15

The fact is, God does want you to be happy. As I mentioned in my last post, giving you more abundant life in Him is a stated priority of our heavenly Father and the joy of the Lord is something no Christian should be without (Galatians 5:22). Where we often make our mistake, however, is in assuming that the answer to our unhappiness could ever be found in earthly and material things and then set our heart on them in hope of fulfillment. According to Scripture, though, the abundant life described in John 10:10 can only be found when we delight ourself in the Lord and make Him the most sincere desire of our heart (Psalm 37:4), realizing the pleasures of this world last only for a season (Hebrews 11:25).

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”

                                                 -Ecclesiastes 5:10

Despite how much you’d love to have a new car, a nicer home, and a bigger salary, those things simply do not bring lasting satisfaction and never will. If you had more money, you wouldn’t be happy unless you spent it; if you spent it, you wouldn’t be happy until you had more money again. It’s a hopeless and endless cycle that leads to nothing but dissatisfaction and, as Solomon wrote, vanity (see also 1 Timothy 6:6). God can do without us, but we certainly can’t do without Him. The joy is there for the taking; don’t fly around the world just to get across the street.

I don’t know about you, but John 10:10 rates among the most frequently quoted verses I hear from fellow Christians. This is justifiable since it truly is a great passages that gives us clear insight into the intentions of the most influential beings ever to exist: Christ’s desire is to give us a more abundant life, while Satan’s is to steal, kill, and destroy us in any way possible. Unfortunately, I think that  many times we focus solely on Satan’s intentions while forgetting the fact that Christ, too, has an agenda worth mentioning.

Unlike the devil who goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8), “…the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) With such an amazing contrast between our two options, it is obviously important to make the decision of who we serve very, very carefully since, based on these verses, it will either destroy or fulfill us. Oftentimes the path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13) seems to be the most fulfilling, and the path of righteousness (Psalm 2:3) full of destruction; yet we must be careful to look past the brevity of this life and it’s hardships, and focus on the eternal fruit of the the decisions we make. In reality, 1,000 years from now whatever joy or sadness we are now experiencing will be long since forgotten as we finally begin to understand the concept of eternity.

Whether big or small, we make countless decisions on a day-to-day basis that we rarely take the time to notice. Even though we generally consider big decisions to be the ones that permanently alter our life in a matter of minutes, those seemingly insignificant choices we make each day are the ones that impact us the most. The decision to serve God falls into both categories: we are saved at a specific moment in time as we make the decision to repent of our sins and believe the Gospel (Luke 13:3; Romans 10:9), but the decision to serve Him is one we must continue to make on a daily – even and hourly – basis in the little things we do. When we learn to make Christ part of every aspect of our lives, we will finally attain what He promised us in John 10:10. We will have life, and we will have it more abundantly.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

                    -Hebrews 2:14, 15

For most people death is a scary concept. It reminds us all that, contrary to what we’d like to believe, we are not immortal beings and that life as we know it will one day come to an end. Our wealth will be gone (Ecclesiastes 5:15), our accomplishments forgotten (Ecclesiastes 9:15), and our eternal destiny embraced once and for all. While some people allow their entire life to be consumed with the fear of death, I believe many more simply coast through life without giving  it a second thought. However a person chooses to look at it, though, research shows that 1 out of every 1 persons will die some day and that none of us are getting out of this alive (Hebrews 9:27). The only hope we have of escaping it is if the Lord hastens His return, which has all of the same effects of death mentioned above and will happen even more suddenly.

“…God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

         -Luke 12:20

Statistics show that around 64% of Americans believe they are going to heaven when they die, and that less than 1% believe they might go to hell. At first I didn’t find these numbers overly surprising, but when I considered the fact that 92% of Americans believe in God I was simply blown away. This means that more than 30% of those Americans who believe in God think they are neither going to heaven or hell when they die! Exactly what they believe I’m not sure, but I do know that these numbers perfectly illustrate the point I was making earlier: the vast majority of people simply don’t give death a second thought. If they did they would realize that, if God exists, we would naturally be held accountable to Him for the way we live our life (Romans 14:12) -  being either punished in hell according to our actions (Revelation 20:15), or rewarded in heaven according to Christ’s action on the cross (John 14:3; Revelation 5:9). It’s either one or the other.

Death, while probably not your favorite subject, isn’t something you can afford to sweep under the rug and pretend doesn’t exist. It does exist, and those who have ignored its reality won’t have time to consider the way they’ve lived their life when it comes knocking on their door. It will be too late then to pray or seek for second chances, so it’s best to get those things taken care of now while we still have time.

“…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

                                                  -2 Corinthians 6:2

 

By now, I’m you’ve all heard me talk about memverse.com. I don’t hesitate in saying that I truly believe this website to be the most powerful and effective tool out there when it comes to helping you memorize Scripture, and that I would have far fewer verses memorized without it. Rather than having to review all of your verses day after day, the software automatically determines the precise moment when you need to be reminded of each Scripture and quizzes you accordingly. In other words, it’s possible to memorize 100+ verses and only have to study a few each day while still retaining them firmly in memory!

Anyway, the owner of memverse recently mentioned that he would love to have a tutorial video explaining how to use the site, and so I spent last night making just that. This video shows you how to navigate the most important aspects of memverse, including how to add/delete a verse and complete a memorization session. It’s all very simple anyway, but I hope this makes the learning process a bit easier for those who sign up.  You can watch it here if you’d like, or on youtube to see the full-screen, HD version (which I would recommend). Enjoy!

Most people don’t know this, but Google Friend Connect has a really awesome feature that allows you to send newsletters to your blog’s subscribers via e-mail. I came across this feature a while back and thought it was pretty cool, but it wasn’t until Monday night that I utilized it for the first time and sent a message to 176 of my readers reminding you not to hesitate in sending me your prayer requests. Apparently, if you have somewhat lenient privacy settings you were automatically subscribed to any updates when you followed this blog, while those who have especially strict settings were not.

Anyway, I’ve decided to start sending out a periodic “newsletter” (for lack of a better term) once or twice a month that will consist of anything from prayer requests to recommended blogs and encouragement from Scripture. As I mentioned, around 80% of you are already subscribed to these updates, so you probably won’t find it necessary to subscribe manually; but if you do, simply find the appropriate widget on my sidebar and click subscribe. If you decide later on that you would like to cancel your subscription, just come back here and click unsubscribe or do so from your inbox. It’s that simple.

Unfortunately, there is no way for me to manually add your e-mail address to my list of subscribers or even to see exactly who my updates are sent to. This means you must have a Google account to subscribe and that any “sign-me-up” comments won’t do much good. On the other hand, Google makes it very simple for you to create an account with them and it will only take up a few seconds of your time to do so. Once you’re finished, just return here and follow the steps above to begin receiving my newsletter. As I mentioned, it will be sent out very periodically so don’t think something went wrong if you don’t receive anything right away. I just thought it would be a great way of passing along more important messages without having to worrying whether everybody saw it or not. Let me know what you think!