​“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do this.” I Thessalonians 5: 23-24

This letter from Paul gives us a view of his initial missionary activity and it gives encouragement about how believers should live at that time. He wanted them to know that their entire being would be kept sound because Jesus was faithful about his promises to return. We all may have times in our lives when we did not have the faith to trust in the promises of God, or in our present situations, or in the people that are around us.

Having the faith to trust is something that I, personally, have had challenges with at various times in my life. Once, one of the insurance companies I worked for took all of their management staff to an outward-bound experience with a company called Pecos River Learning Centers. Pecos River worked with organizations to help train their employees to faithfully function together while doing various tasks.

I was worried about it before I went, and even tried to talk my boss out of making me go, which did not work. Those few days took me way out of my comfort zone. One of the activities was to climb up this tall pole, which was at least twenty feet up, and to jump off the pole to hit a bell some distance away, with nothing underneath you. You had to do this by trusting that your teammates would hold you up securely with ropes.

I am deathly afraid of heights and told my team mates this the day before we were scheduled to do it. I let them know that I did not want to do it. However, because we had some other team building events prior to that----I came to trust in my teammates. I was able to climb the pole and jumped off it in faith. Someone took a picture of me jumping off, and I still have the picture on my desk. It was a wonderful experience for me, and one I will always remember and one I am very grateful for.

On your spiritual pilgrimage please be faithful and trust, and thus believe that God will also keep you safe and sound, when you are asked to take a risk! Peace, Vernon T.

Copyright © 2024 Vernon T. Jones, All Rights Reserved

​Greetings----All-----I am pleased to announce that my third book is now in print. Winding Paths---My Spiritual Pilgrimage, joins my two previous books, Discipleship—A Lifelong Spiritual Pilgrimage (2013) and Nourishment for the Spiritual Pilgrimage (2017); all were written to help people on their spiritual journey.
 
Winding Paths---My Spiritual Pilgrimage, ---- Life Stories of a Disciple in the Making, is a book about some of the major events of my life and how my spiritual pilgrimage and life journey were full of winding paths. Even though I tried to trust in the Lord, my roads were not always straight and included its share of detours, curves, and bumps.
 
My prayer and hope by writing all three of these books is that in sharing what I have been through it might encourage others on their life’s walk. We are all being made new each and every day and are all disciples in the making. The human pilgrimage/journey is never perfect, nor is it ever finished on this side of God’s kingdom.
 
Go to the link below for a short video about all three of my books.
 
All three books can be obtained in paperback/hard copy and eBook/Kindle Editions from “wipfandstock.com” and “amazon.com” plus many other sites.
 
Thank you and blessings on your spiritual pilgrimage! Peace, Vernon T.
 
https://youtu.be/-I8MMYbaZEQ
 
Copyright © 2024 Vernon T. Jones, All Rights Reserved