Family Friday: Am I Mericful?

Recently my children and I were out doing some errands and church visitation, when my youngest child began having an attitude problem, which then turned into a behavior problem.   After several warnings and stern reminders, I told him he would be getting a correction at home.   Of course, he asked could he please have a second chance!   I told him that mercy is given when a person is sorry for his sin and tries to stop doing that sin. With tears in his eyes, he said he would be sorry for his sin and asked me for forgiveness.   Hugs were exchanged, the attitude and behavior straightened out, and the atmosphere was peaceful once again. 

The situation made me begin pondering God's mercy to me. I don't ever truly deserve His mercy, but He gives it when I ask and repent of my sin.  What a great and awesome God!  How often am I guilty of judging and punishing my children, when what I should have given was mercy?  I learned the following song as a child, but its message is timeless:  God's mercy reaches past my sin.

There's a wideness in God's mercy

Like the wideness of the sea.

There is a kindness in His justice

Which is more than liberty!

Thoughtful Thursday: My Jesus Loves Me

Ever have one of the moments where a small, seemingly insignificant moment to most, makes you feel Jesus’ love for you greatly?  I call those “My Jesus Loves Me” moments!

Knowing my Jesus loves me makes me happy.

How do I know He loves me?

Well, it clearly states it in the Bible.  John 3:16 says:  "For God so loved the world...".

On the cross, Jesus proclaimed the greatest act of love E.V.E.R.

 

There are many other verses that proclaim the love of Jesus towards us also.

One of my favorites is Psalms 103:2  "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

On a daily basis, I think there are many ways that Jesus shows His love for us.  I encourage you to stop and notice the smaller, (unintentionally) over-looked ways.  Just look for anything that makes you feel like Jesus just gave you a hug and whispered "I love you!".

It could be:

• Something nice someone did for you.
• Kind words that made you smile.
• Your boss letting you leave a few minutes early.
• Turning on the car to find your favorite song on the radio.
•  A "for no reason" hug from someone you love.
• A beautiful flower growing in an odd place.
• A few quiet moments to yourself.
• A nice person letting you merge in traffic.

  I’d love for you to share your “My Jesus Loves Me” moments from this week.

My Relationship with God

My Relationship with God

Genesis 5:24

As a teenager there are many things that fight for your attention or focus: sports, dating, school, having a good time, driving a car, college, and many other things.  Your parents start to give you some freedom to choose what you would like do with your time and energy.  School takes up part of your time with homework, projects, and tests or quizzes.  You may decide to get involved in a sports program, or you may begin working a job as a young person.  You will realize as teenager, that you cannot do everything and that you must prioritize the things that are available for you to do. 

As a teenager in church, having a relationship with God will be emphasized.  Most teenagers will agree that this is important, but does that always move you to action?  I know that I did not always read my Bible and pray as a teenager.  Just because you are in church or your parents have a relationship with God does not guarantee that you will have a relationship with God.

Judges 2:10  And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

As a teenager you have to decide whether you are going to know God, or be satisfied with hearing other people tell you about Him!  I decided as a teenager that I wanted to know God for myself.  But how do you accomplish this, how do you get to know God? 

When I was a teenager, my youth pastor, Eddie Lapina, gave our youth group a challenge to read the entire Bible through before we turned 18.  I began thinking about what he had challenged us to do.  Yes that was a lot of reading, but I had several years to accomplish this task.  I decided that I would take the challenge and read the Bible all the way through.  As a teenager, I have to admit there were quite a few times that I stopped reading the Bible for a while, but before I turned 18 I had read through the entire Bible.  Many teenagers stop reading their Bible and just give up.  God knows that you will stop or forget to read the Bible, but He wants us to restart each time that we stop!   Proverbs 24:16 

It is also important that we learn to get things from God as a teenager.  There are two specific things that stick out to me from my teen years in the area of prayer.  During my junior year, one of our teens in our youth group started a prayer meeting during lunch.  Several times a week we would get together and pray for our class during our lunch period.  This meeting kept me accountable to pray consistently. That same year one of my friends decided to have an all night prayer meeting at his house.  We were going to meet together and pray for camp which was the following week.  I remember wondering how we would pray all night long!  I remember gathering around the campfire that night at my friend’s house and starting to pray.  We prayed by the fire together, we walked around his property and prayed by ourselves, and came back together and finished praying by the fire.  I remember feeling very close to God that night, and the following week of camp was incredible!  Jeremiah 33:3

I learned as a teenager how it feels to get close to God.  I was not perfect, I still did dumb things and got into trouble like everyone else.  But as I got close to God, there were several times that I got to see God use me!  Do you want to feel that closeness with God, and see Him use you as a teenager?  Do you want to see truth out of His Word as you read?  Don’t wait until you become an adult to get close to Him, walk with Him now.  James 4:8 

Monday's Message: In the Garden

In the Garden

 

       Here is the account of how this beautiful hymn was written—from the hymn-writer C. Austin Miles himself:

       One day in April, 1912, 1 was seated in the dark room, where I kept my photographic equipment and organ. I drew my Bible toward me; it opened at my favorite chapter, John 20--whether by chance or inspiration let each reader decide. That meeting of Jesus and Mary had lost none of its power and charm.

       As I read it that day, I seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramatic moment in Mary's life, when she knelt before her Lord, and cried, Rabboni!

       My hands were resting on the Bible while I stared at the fight blue wall. As the light faded, I seemed to be standing at the entrance of a garden, looking down a gently winding path, shaded by olive branches. A woman in white, with head bowed, hand clasping her throat, as if to choke back her sobs, walked slowly into the shadows. it was Mary. As she came to the tomb, upon which she placed her hand, she bent over to look in, and hurried away.

       John, in flowing robe, appeared, looking at the tomb; then came Peter, who entered the tomb, followed slowly by John.

       As they departed, Mary reappeared; leaning her head upon her arm at the tomb, she wept.  Turning herself, she saw Jesus standing, so did I. I knew it was He. She knelt before Him, with arms outstretched and looking into His face cried, Rabboni!

       I awakened in sunlight, grip­ping the Bible, with muscles tense and nerves vibrating. Under the inspiration of this vision I wrote as quickly as the words could be formed the poem exactly as it has since appeared. That same evening I wrote the music.

 

In the Garden

      

(1)I come to the garden alone,

While the dew is still on the roses;

And the voice I hear,

falling on my ear,

The Son of God discloses.

      

CHORUS:

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

      

(2) He speaks, and the sound of His voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody

that He have to me

Within my heart is ringing.

      

(3) I'd stay in the garden with Him

Though the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go;

through the voice of woe,

His voice to me is calling.

Family Friday: Lead with your Head

Lead With Your Head

 

Do you ever have those days when you just don’t feel like acting as a

parent should act?  Do you ever want to just act like a child and have fewer

responsibilities?  I can answer both these questions for myself: YES! Most likely,

you have, too.  However, that is not how God instructed us to act. When I just

feel like “doing my own thing”, I must choose to lead by the knowledge of God’s

Word, not by my feelings.

  As a man, Jesus knew what it was to feel weary.  I’m pretty sure there

were times he was frustrated with his followers for their lack of understanding

or for failure to follow His instructions.  Many people misunderstood Him, and

some even hated Him.  At times, we parents may feel misunderstood and

unloved, too.  This is when we must choose to lead with our head, not our

heart.  

  There are many verses about how our heart will deceive us and cause us

to believe lies about others and the situations around us.  If I choose to follow

my heart, I will act childish, get my feelings hurt, and do what seems best for

me.  If I choose to follow the principles of God’s Word, I will dwell on His

goodness, consider others before myself, and demonstrate Godly actions.

Choose to lead with your head, not your heart!

Thoughtful Thursday: He is so good to me!

I read the following devotion in "a daily WORD" by Paul Chappell.  It was a blessing to me, so I asked for permission to share it with our readers to hopefully allow it to be a blessing to you also.

Nahum 1:7 

“The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."

Corrie Ten Boom was in a concentration camp in Germany with her sister during World War II.  Years after the war, as she reflected on God’s goodness, she wrote, “Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather, but God was also good, when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged.  Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart.  I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. “No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us.  Remember His Word: For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.’”

Have you ever praised God’s goodness when skies were blue, but questioned Him when the storm clouds rolled into your life? We easily praise God when things go well but neglect Him when we find ourselves in trouble.

We sometimes think the Christian life is a life of relaxation, happiness, and ease.  While there is joy and ease of burdens, God never said the Christian life would be a breeze.  We still face loss, trials, difficulties, and tough times.  It is often when things aren’t going exactly as we planned them, that we think God isn’t being good to us.  But just the opposite is true!  God always has our best interest at heart!  Everything He does is for our benefit –even trials.

Have you questioned God’s goodness during a trial? Don’t allow Satan to take your focus off God and onto difficulties.  Never forget that God has saved you from eternal punishment and has blessed you with so many things! Remember that God is always good no matter what happens in your life.

Monday's Message: Wonderful Grace of Jesus

Wonderful Grace of Jesus

   Haldor Lillenas was born in Norway. He immigrated to America as a child and lived in South Dakota for two years before settling in Astoria, Oregon.

   Mr. and Mrs. Lillenas traveled extensively throughout this country, conducting evangelistic meetings as well as furnishing songs and choir music for many of the foremost song leaders of that era.

   It was while pastoring the Church of the Nazarene at Auburn, Illinois, between 1916 and 1919, that Haldor Lillenas wrote Wonderful Grace of Jesus. He said—

   “In 1917, Mrs. Lillenas and I built our first little home in the town of Olivet, Illinois. Upon its completion, we had scarcely any money left to furnish the little home.

   “Having no piano at the time, and needing an instrument of some kind, I managed to find, at one of the neighbor’s home, a little wheezy organ which I purchased for $5.00. With the aid of this instrument, a number of my songs, were written which are now popular, including ‘Wonderful Grace of Jesus.’”

   “Wonderful Grace of Jesus was first published, in 1922, in the Tabernacle Choir Book, for which Mr. Lillenas was paid the grand sum of $5.00. Although we generally sing this hymn with an inspirational, brisk tempo, Mr. Lillenas often complained that most congregations sang the hymn too fast. A song should be performed in such a fashion that the words can be comfortably pronounced without undue haste, he often said.

—Adapted from Kenneth Osbeck

 

  

Wonderful Grace of Jesus

  

(1) Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin;

How shall my tongue describe it, Where shall its praise begin?

Taking away my burden, Setting my spirit free,

For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

  

Chorus:

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,

Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;

Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,

All sufficient grace for even me;

Broader than the scope of my transgressions,

Greater far than all my sin and shame;

O magnify the precious name of Jesus,

Praise His name!

  

(2) Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching to all the lost,

By it I have been pardoned, Saved to the uttermost;

Chains have been torn asunder, Giving me liberty,

For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

  

(3) Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the most defiled.

By its transforming power Making him God's dear child,

Purchasing peace nad heaven For all eternity-

And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.