TO MY FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND ENEMIES

After more than seventy years of living as "a virtual nobody," (mostly by choice), I have discovered that I have "arrived" as the Patriarch of the Mutschler Family.  Oh, I know there are many Mutschler families around the globe, but none of them are the descendants of Horace John "Jack" Mutschler: just us.  Unfortunately, unlike the patriarchs of the Bible, I have rarely heard God's voice, and I have found most of my "clan" could care less about what I have to say.  Few if any will be reading this, but I am sure that if I say something embarrassing, they will all "look into it."  Maybe I should say something embarrassing just to insure they all read it.  LOL

 For years, I have told my wife and kids that I didn't expect to live past thirty, then forty, then fifty....  Now, here I am at seventy-one and three quarters (that's for the teens who might care about what embarrassing thing I have written about them), and I have to sleep in a recliner, I have a dozen or so damaged vertebrae so that I have to have my wife apply medication to my two swollen legs, which is the result of congestive heart failure.  I need cataract surgery on both eyes, I have few teeth, and the ones which remain are broken or chipped.  I get muscle cramps and extremely short of breath just walking to the mailbox.  But, I am still here!  I am still breathing.  God has a strange sense of humor! 

So why am I still here?  People tell me that He must still have a purpose for me, a job for me, in this horrible, corrupt, despicably-evil world.  And they must be right.  And fortunately, I know what it is!  I am still alive because people I love are racing through life on the fast track to hell!  Not all, but the majority.  How do I know that, you might ask?  The answer is simple:  Jesus Christ is not the focal point of their lives.  Some attend church, but not regularly, and those who do, more often than not, come away with a list of things they didn't like about members, the choir, the preacher, or the temperature, music selection, etc.  Oh don't get me wrong; unfortunately, born again believers often do that too; I know because I have. 

No, the thing that shows me who is who, when it comes to being a child of God, is how close they want to be to Jesus.  Do they want to live their lives like children who constantly want their parent to "come see what I have done," or do they want to live like children who would prefer that their parent "stay out of their business?"  Do they want to be close to Him, or do they want to know how far away from Him they can get and still consider themselves Christians?  Do they want to know the "rules" so that they can live as close to the edge, or do they want to know so they can please Him? 

I do not profess to be the ideal spiritual role model, and for that, I am ashamed.  I wish I could say as Paul and Peter, follow my example (Phil. 3:17; 2 Thes. 3:17; 1 Pet. 5:3), but I wouldn't dare.  My desire is that you care what Jesus wants from you; that you humble yourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you; that you forget about what you CAN do, and focus upon what you SHOULD do! 

This may be my last blog post, or it may not; I do not know.  But, as the oldest living Mutschler, the patriarch of the family, I beg you to consider what I have written, just in case it is my last!  I know this:  I will never have to worry as to whether or not I warned my family to accept Jesus Christ as the LORD of their lives; to submit to His will and to make every effort to live accordingly. 

HE IS WORTHY!