Feast of Trumpets

It was simply an amazing Holy Day all around but it started in a very unique way. Jake left the apartment on Friday afternoon to Minnesota to see Lisa's baby and bask in the glory of being an uncle. I had passed out in the couch sometime during his packing and by the time I woke up Mike had come in to the apartment and was anxiously waiting to play Madden on my PS2. So we did that for a couple of hours with some thrilling finishes. He left at around 9ish and we planned for him to pick me up at noon on the Sabbath...
Funny thing is that we knew it was Trumpets as well but it did not register with either one of us that we had morning services as well. Luckily he had called a friend and was reminded of the occassion and he called me to tell me, "Martin, we have morning services tomorrow." I never had something like that happen to me. Usually I remember things like that so I set out to get to bed early. There were problems of course with going to bed early.
I tried going to bed but could not fall asleep for the life of me. Being so alert at that time I decided to bust out my Bible and do some studying and praying. Make myself productive and all, it was good. I felt that I was taking advantage of my time and growing as well. It's the way I've been feeling lately too. Growing and learning because it's what sustains me not because I feel like I should. I'm glad I realized it in spite of the past year and all. A couple of weeks ago I told Mr. Millich that the only thing that helps me keep my sanity is my faith. We're the ones who continually fail, God never does but we find a way to do so. In most cases, we find the most painful way possible.
Trumpets was simply amazing. We had Mr. Wells come up from Kansas City and he gave what I considered one of his top-5 sermons he's given in the 4 years I have been attending in Des Moines. We all left to eat at Ryan's Steakhouse and pigged out for about 2 hours and made our way back. I for one thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Apartian's sermon. He went through a lot of basics and fundamental things regarding the Kingdom of God and that's NEVER a bad thing to hear constantly. We need that message to be ingrained in our heart, our mind and our soul more than ever before.
You'd be surprised how simple things are when you take a step back and think the way God intended us to think. Life has its thrills, its highs and its lows but God is the one constant we have. There was something from Mr. Blackman's sermonette that caught my attention. He was relating to us a story he heard from a member back from the WCG days. The man had a dream about the Feast of Trumpets and saw the firstborn being taken up into the clouds to meet the Messiah. In the dream this man kept trying to jump to get up in the air and join the others. Apparently he was not ready for entrance into the Kingdom.
It got me thinking on how prepared I (we) am (are) for the time of Christ's coming. Are we doing ALL that we should in preparing for such a monumental event? It is a humbling thought to ponder and I think it should make us more grateful of what we have. We need to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called because we represent that Truth that He revealed in us. It was good meat in due season. I hope we're all preparing for the rest of the fall Holy Days and make it a very productive season for us.