Not remembering circumstances, but my brother, Joe, was hauling a washer and dryer to Hot Springs from Arkadelphia. I had an extra set. That happens in the property management business. You accumulate stuff. Joe, or someone, needed a set, so he was using his flat-bed trailer to haul them to Hot Springs. It was normal procedure—get them loaded and tie them down. Or, it might have been, get them loaded, and ASSUME they will stay on the trailer. Anyway, whatever happened, after the nice, relaxed trip, upon reaching the destination, and getting out of the truck and walking back to the trailer, it was a shock to see the trailer empty. It was one of those moments that you stand there in dis-belief. You think, “Wait a minute! I thought I put a washer and dryer on the trailer!” You mentally re-play the day to check to see if somewhere along the way, you might have just stepped into Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone! But no, you snap back into the real world, blink your eyes just to make sure, and realize that sure enough, there are no washer and dryer on the trailer. For whatever intended good cause those items were destined, they never reached that destiny. Perhaps someone needed a washer and dryer more than the intended party. That part might be the great mystery, but it was no mystery that the washer and dryer were gone. The whole trip was made with no clue they had slipped off. That same brother taught me the lesson that when you break the word “assume” into three component parts, you have one of life’s greatest lessons spelled out in clear terms. We don’t need to assume anything! As Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet would say in his deadpan way, “Just the facts, ma’am.” We need to get the facts; we need to make sure we do what is necessary to successfully reach the destination with the goods. So much more important is that we do this concerning eternal spiritual things. The facts are this: the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work with God on our behalf to insure we are blessed here, and hereafter. When we realize that we are in a state of being separated from Him because of sin, we can turn from that condition, trusting that what He did for us is what makes us right with God. We can embrace the Word of God that tells us this good news, and we can commit our life into His loving hands with a total surrender to Him. By this, we can know that we are received by God for blessing here, and hereafter. By believing on Jesus in this manner, we know we are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). With this heart transformation, we are to be baptized in water, identifying with Him, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. With this, we don’t assume. We know Him in present blessing, and in future eternal life.