The Word

Since advent starts this Sunday, I thought we should start focusing on what Christmas means to us as Christians.

From John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ....
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It amazes me every year when I really start to think about what Jesus did. He IS GOD and He left heaven to come and live with us. To become one of us. He was tempted, yet was perfect. He lived a life that was full of love so that we would see the grace and love of His Father. He died to reconcile us to God. He is the Light, the Glory of the Father, wrapped in flesh.

Praise God today for sending His Light into the world to save us!

With Thanksgiving coming up here in America this week, I wanted to share one of my favorite psalms:

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations. - Psalm 100

**This is a short psalm, but contains so many important items. The first stanza is an element of sheer, unashamed praise. Shouldn't we always start our day like that?

The second stanza is an acknowledgement of who God is and who we are in context of His reign: He is our Creator, our loving Shepherd and we are the sheep. Remembering our place in the universe keeps us humble.

The third stanza is more praise, but it reminds us that only He makes us worthy to stand in His presence and bless His name. Wow!

The psalm ends with a reminder that the Lord is good. We have been showered with blessings, even though our lives are hard. We have a loving God; always with us, willing to do so much to bring us back to Him.

Praise God this week for His many, many blessings!

Article on Worship

I found this article at Crosswalk that uses several popular songs to discuss 'seeing' Jesus. It's something wonderful to think that someday we will have the opportunity to really see Him in all His glory, like John did in the book of Revelation.
  I don't know about anyone else, but "I can only imagine."

Great blog I found

I stumbled upon a really great blog called Talkwisdom the other day. It is unapologetically Christian and may be a bit right-wing for some people, but I'm not shy about saying that I am a conservative Christian. Whether or not you agree with it, there is always something that will give you pause to consider. There is also a website with forums and such at talkwisdom.com that I can only assume is related to this blog. There I found a well-done post on Recognizing Truth from Error: something of which we who call ourselves 'mature Christians' should be constantly aware.

Daily Surrender

This month's faithbook challenge at DSP was to talk about what the concept of 'daily surrender' means. Here is what I created:



Created with the Beautiful Bride kit by Beth Nixon available at DSP

Intentional Love

I had the great privilege of being in the courthouse earlier this week to watch as some friends of our legally added two little girls to their family. I had not been to an adoption hearing before and was considerably moved when each parent was asked the question, "Will you love this child?" Maybe all of us as parents should be willing to stand before our friends and family and say, "Yes, I will love this child in the best way I know how. I will provide shelter and food and moral guidance. I will kiss the scraped knees and wear macaroni necklaces. I will love this child through colic, the terrible twos, the endless questions, the messy rooms, the teenage angst and will rejoice when this child becomes a contributing member of our society." There is something so intentional about saying the words out loud.

Granted, people vow before God to love their husbands and wives at their wedding and plenty of people break those vows. We baptize or dedicate our babies and make a vow before God to raise them properly and many times we fall down on that vow too. But there is something about making a vow that is powerful and I believe is part of the reason that we are instructed to speak about our faith so often in the Bible. Saying out loud, "Yes, I love the Lord. Yes, I believe Jesus died for me. Yes, I will give Him everything" is powerful, intentional love. We should all be ready ALWAYS to share that with everyone.

One Minute

"...and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

I received the following email this week and whether or not the story is true, this is something that all of us should do more often. --Glynis


A KOREAN FRIEND ONCE TOLD ME THAT OUR CHURCHES DON'T GROW AND HAVE POWER BECAUSE OUR PEOPLE DON'T KNOW HOW TO PRAY. COULD BE HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT. HIS HOME CHURCH IN PUSAN HAD 58,000 MEMBERS AT THAT TIME. THIS CHALLENGE MAY BE JUST WHAT WE NEED.

2 CHRONICLES 7:14 IS GOD'S ANSWER.

0NE MINUTE EACH NIGHT

During WWII, there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour and for one minute they collectively prayed for the safety of England, its people and peace.

There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America.

If you would like to participate:
Each evening at (6:00 PM Pacific), (7:00 PM Mountain), (8:00 PM Central), (9:00 PM Eastern Time) stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, and for a Godly nation.

If you know anyone who would like to participate, please pass this along.

Someone said if we really understood the full extent of the power we have
available through prayer, we might be speechless. Our prayers are the most
powerful asset we have.

Thank you, and God Bless America.