Reuben Ewert and Living the Truth Ministries

Our grandson, Nathan Thiry, and his wife Julie plus their three children, Elijah, Levi, and Eliana are headed to the Canary Island to start their first year as foreign missionaries. Check out their super website: http://thethirys.blogspot.com/ and you find some sharp pictures of the family.

There are twenty – six in our clan and we enjoy them all. Trina (daughter) and Andy Thiry live in Chattanooga. They love to disciple new Christians in Nicaragua. Charlene (daughter) has taught music in Christian schools for many years. Char is available for a teaching job. Contact us if you can help her find the job God has for her. Renae (daughter) and Rick Finley are busy serving the Lord at Fellowship Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina where Rick is the pastor. Tonia (daughter) and Aaron Ebert are very busy with family, church and responsibilities at Pensacola Christian School in Pensacola, Florida. “

Then come our grandchildren and their mates and children: Nathan and Julie Thiry plus Elijah, Levi, and Eliana; Jeremy and Heidi plus Jacob Thiry in South Carolina: Mark Thiry in the Marines; Matthew and Sarah Thiry in Chattanooga: Tyler and Jessica Weitz in Durham, North Carolina; Karrisa Finley; Joshua Finley; Kaleb Finley; Jacob Finley; Tyler Ebert, and Kari Ebert.

We drove from Syracuse, New York to New Castle, Indiana last Thursday and Friday Our home has is at the Steve Alford All American Motel. Steve has had a public testimony of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back in the late l980’s and early 1990’s he was an All-American on the Indiana team that won the NCAA championship with Bobby Knight as coach.

New Castle has had enough snow to cause us to cancel two services . The rest of the services were well attended and the people were ready for the messages. I preached on Proverbs 10:29, “The Way of the Lord is Strength to the upright” and “Equipping the Saints with the skills of Grace” My first meeting with Grace Baptist Church was bsck in 1992. The snow then was so severe that we had to cancel the meetings entirely.

We appreciate prayer for our clan of twenty-six. We continually find ourselves in a place of great dependence on the Lord for spiritual and physical strength and wisdom Finances are tight but sufficient, jobs are desired but scarce. One of our grandsons and his wife and three children are about to leave for the Canary Islands to serve as missionaries.

We have the privilege of seeing God recruit, call and place new pastors and missionaries in places of His choosing. Grace Baptist Church in New Castle has a group of five to ten young men who attended all of our meetings. They participated ,sang and were resposive. They were respectful to the preacher when often it is not cool to even shake hands with an older person.

We count it a privilege to be in the ministry.

We woke up this morning near Indianapolis, Indiana with five inches of snow covering our car. People give us strange looks when they see our Florida license plates as we travel through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Well, let them look. We are doing g-r-e-a-t . It’s great to be doing what God has called us to do and we have done for almost thirty years.

The attendance has been great even on weeknights. Many people join us from area churches where we have had meetings in past years. We are privileged to challenge many people to “walk in truth” (III John 4)

We continue to be challenged to write and provide other material which will help people weave the word into their daily walk. Aaron Ebert (our son-in-law) is doing a great job at developing our website. Charlene Ewert and Tonia Ebert have helped greatly with typing and editing. Will you examine that site and offer suggestions? I”m a big boy I can handle constructive criticism. The site is livingthe truthministries.org. Pray for ability and help in developing an extended outreach for the emphasis on Biblical Living.

We will start a conference in New Castle, Indiana tomorrow. This church is not far from Indianapolis. I thought that I might wear a New Orleans Saints tie tomorrow. What do you think?

We appreciate support in any form as we continue to move through the meetings we have scheduled in February. (see our schedule on our website)

In the future we will keep in touch primarily through our blog on our website. Please get familiar with our website and pray for wisdom as we seek to multiply our message and extend it beyond our lifetime. Remember the website is Living the Truth Ministries.org.

I shudder when I hear someone compare churches or pastors. We have preached in over four hundred churches across Europe and America and there are no two churches or pastors alike. In one church everyone stands while they sing hymns. In the next church they stay seated while they sing the first and last stanzas only. Offerings are often taken in a variety of ways from passing the plate down the row to providing a box at the back door. The list of these little differences can be lengthy.

Pastors differ in many little ways. Some roam across the platform and others stay frozen while reading from a manuscript. Some preach lengthy sermons while others preach twenty minutes and not one minute longer. This list can be lengthy as well.

If I continued to list the differences that are expressed you would probably put them in the category of “petty’. More often than not the real reason for the movement from one church to the next is “petty” or self centered.

Where has” loyalty” gone?. It used to be that there was loyalty throughout our culture. In the business place the employer was loyal to the employee and vice versa. They stuck together for thirty years working out their differences. The same was true in sports and marriage and in the church. In contrast, today I find people moving from one church to another for such unbiblical reasons as “everybody else was leaving”

Perhaps we should realize that we are not at the last church with the last pastor. We are placed in this congregation to help this pastor and this people to be an expression of His grace in this place, Leave the last church and the last pastor and move in to minister in this church and this pastor. Be loyal.

I will be posting helpful articles on my website very often. Go to “livingthetruthministries.org” When you look under “Resources” and click on “articles” you will find a growing archive of helpful articles which you can print and examine. I recently posted an article which began like this..

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? By Reuben Ewert

You can be strong, encouraged, refreshed, and passionate if you frequently keep your mind stayed on God’s sufficiencies (II Corinthians 12:9, Isaiah 26:3).

You will become downhearted, discouraged, depressed, and wore out if you focus your mind on your deficiencies…...

(Look at my website under”’Resources” for the rest of this article.)