Thank you, Jesus November 3, 2008

     Last week I was at a place in my life I had been before. I feel terrible about my sin and I get this feeling of excitement and feel like I can finally conquer it. I repent and I do well for awhile and then something happens and I fall flat on my face again and I’m right back where I started, but this time it hit me really hard.

    I started thinking, is God going to turn his back on me? Is he tired of dealing with me( I am)? I’m acting just like the Israelites and he got tired of them sometimes and took his word away from them. I was in a really low place.

    But with the help of my husband, friends, a book and ( most important) Jesus Christ, I am o.k.

    Jesus paid it all for me. Every sin I have ever committed and every sin I will commit, Jesus has already taken my punishment for  me. My Father and my Creator loves me and only looks at me with love. Even when he is disappointed in the things I do, he still loves me.

   The good news of the gospel is something I was not dwelling on because I figured I had heard it and accepted it and it was time to move on, but it is something I need to dwell on daily. It is my very reason for living. It is my faith, my hope, my peace, and my love.

    His grace is enough and every time I get upset with the sin in my life I need to praise God for his love and patience and his mercy and his beautiful gift ” that saved a wretch like me”.

hands show love September 13, 2008

                                                                             

 

   

 

 

      There are many ways to communicate love. Poets have filled volumes trying to find the perfect words. Preachers preach, teachers teach, prophets prophesy and so love spreads, from one person to the next. But we are not all good with words. Many would be lost if it weren’t for their hands- hands caress, hands wipe aways tears, hands scratch backs, message feet and hands work.

    Hands: functional body parts, used as grasping organs. But God made them for loving.

     Our hands can be God’s saving instruments in the lives of others.

     Our hands can preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, and comfort those who mourn. Isaiah61:1-2

in acts Dorcas used her hands to show love to the poor by sewing clothes for them.

what do you think? September 8, 2008

     What do you think “true forgiveness”, person to person is?

respect your spiritual leaders September 3, 2008

    WARNING: THIS POST HAS BEEN SEVERALLY CENSURED. DO TO IT’S HARSH COMMENT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT RESPECTFUL TO THEIR SPIRITUAL LEADERS. IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE SAID, BUT NOT AT THE COST OF SOUNDING DISRESPECTFUL MYSELF.

Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

   

fearfully and wonderfully made August 28, 2008

        psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me

   and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

   you perceived my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

 you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

   you know it completely,O Lord.

You hem me in-behind and before;

  you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for

      me,

  too lofty for me to attain.

Where can i go from your spirit?

   Where can i flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

 if I make my bed in the depths, you

  are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

  if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

  your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say,”Surely the darkness will hide me

  and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

  the night will shine like the day,

  for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;

  you knit me together in my mother’s

       womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

   your works are wonderful,

   I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

  when i was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the

     depths of the earth,

  your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

  were written in your book

  before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts’

    Oh God!

  How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

  they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake,

  I am still with you.

   

  I was planning my curriculum for my pre-schoolers today and their Bible verse to memorize the month of September is, Psalm 139:14- I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

     We will be talking about how God made everyone different and special and I started thinking about how in the eyes of God who created us we are completely known and unconditionally loved. There is absolutely nothing about us that God does not know; therfore nothing we think or do or say can surprise him or cause him to abandon us. He is constantly thinking of us – with love!

 

actions speak louder than words August 4, 2008

     you know that song by caedmons call (love alone) that i put with my post about being loved. well, it got me thinking about those four men who brought the paralytic man to Jesus to be healed in mark 2:1-12.

     Jesus was speaking and so many people had gathered to hear what he had to say there wasn’t even any room left in the doorway and these men came carrying their paralyzed friend. they wanted Jesus to heal him, but they couldn’t get in because of all the people. so they took their paralyzed friend up on the roof and started to dig a hole in the roof over where Jesus was speaking. once they had a hole they lowered the man on his mat down to Jesus. Jesus healed the man of his sin and told him to get up and take his mat and walk and he did. right there in front of everyone and can you believe there were people there that didn’t like that.

    the friends are showing great love for the paralytic and showing great faith in Jesus. no obstacle- not even a roof could slow them down. but even greater then their love was their faith. just like we wouldn’t waste our time cracking open a nut if we didn’t have hope of finding a treasure inside, these men wouldn’t have ripped open a ceiling unless they had believed that the treasure of their friend being healed could be found inside. Jesus healed the man because he saw their faith.

the beauty of their role doesn’t start with their muscles; it starts with their hearts.

you are loved July 25, 2008

psalms 147:11 the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his UNFAILING LOVE.

      God is holy and righteous. he is also Loving and compassionate. God reveals himself to us as a father and a husband. he provides for us and protects us like a loving father and as a husband he wants to meet our need for intimacy. the most intimate human experience is the relationship between a husband and a wife . God’s desire to have that relationship with us is revealed to us all over the Bible. from Hosea to Ephesians, Psalms to Revelation.  Isaiah  54:5 says “for your Maker is your husband- the Lord Almighty is his name”. in human relationships true  genuine love is hard to find but in the eyes of our creator we are completely known and unconditionally loved.