Thoughtful Thursday: Lydia's Gotcha Day

 Written by Mrs. Evan Hoover

Oftentimes, when working in the children’s ministry, there are children that make such an impact on your life, you walk away feeling as if they taught you more than you could have ever taught them.  During my family’s time stationed with the military in Johnstown, PA, we experienced this often. One of these children was a little girl named Lydia. She amazed me from the very first time I met her because she just brightened up the room and her story touched my heart from the very start.

Lydia was born in China and later adopted by a wonderful Christian family who taught her to love and to love God.  I never talked about her adoption in front of her because I thought it might be a sensitive issue for her.  One day, during our Sunday school lesson, she looked up at me and said “Mrs. Evan, did you see my cool present I got for my Gotcha day?”  I had no idea what she meant so I asked her to explain.  She quickly told me, with the brightest smile on her face, about how her family loved her so much that they came to China and got her.  And even though her mom in China loved, her she knew how much her family loved her. They always celebrated that day.  She even had traditional Chinese dresses she got to wear and to use.  In her words it was, “Kinda awesome having two birthdays”. 

Lydia realized that even though she was born into what could have been a bad circumstance, she had to dwell on the many blessings God had given her through everything.  She was an orphan who could have just been discarded, but through her family adopting her, God provided love and every need she had.

Even though you may not have been physically adopted, if you are a saved child of God and have put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, you are spiritually adopted into the family of God. Knowing this, as a Christian I want to express for God the same love and excitement that Lydia expressed for her family and adoption story.  I ask the question, why can we not love the way she did with such openness of our circumstance?  Why can we not celebrate our “Gotcha Days” with as much excitement?  

Shortly after we moved from Johnstown, Lydia tragically passed away in an accident.  I have since realized that I need to live as Lydia did!  I want her story to inspire others to share their adoption story and never forget this bright, hysterical, quick-witted little girl with an amazing heart for Jesus.

Romans 8:15 “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

We Pray Wednesday: Why do we pray?

According to Mark 14:38, one reason that we pray is that we need help resisting temptation.  “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.  The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.  Upon salvation we received God’s Holy Spirit to guide and keep us until we reach Heaven.  Some believe if a person is truly saved he will no longer have trouble, but nothing could be further from the truth.    When a lost person gets saved, he receives a new spirit.  The Spirit of God moves in and begins His work.  However, living along side of the Holy Spirit is the old nature, the flesh, that part of us we were born with.  The new Christian now has a battle raging inside of them. 

The battle now taking place is one that will be fought until the Christian steps into heaven.  Since there are two distinct characters living inside of the Christian, the battle is to see who will be the more dominate.  Both desire to be in control!

Control is something we like to have.  It is difficult for us to relinquish control of anything to anyone.  We like things our way.  When someone tries to change us we get upset.  I imagine this is how things work in our battle. 

We’ve had the old nature or the flesh for so long that it likes things the way they are.  The flesh likes to be in control, to feel good and to be pleasured.  Now that the Holy Spirit of God has moved in He can only speak of the things of God.  1 Corinthians 2:10-11, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? evenso the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

We cannot know the things of God except the Holy Spirit of God shows them to us.  Here is the battle.  The Holy Spirit wants to do what God says we are to do and the flesh wants to do what it has always done, its own thing. 

Mark 14:38 tells us that we are to “watch…and pray” why?  So we don’t “enter in” or yield to the temptation of the flesh.  The Spirit of God is willing to do what God wants but the flesh doesn’t. 

We must spend much time guarding our lives through prayer and spending time in God’s Word allowing the Spirit of God to teach us and show us how God wants us to live our lives.  Then we must choose to yield ourselves to the Spirit’s control so that He can do His work of helping us to grow to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Christian, choose today to yield to the Spirit of God and not the flesh!

Teen Tuesday: God Turns Broken Pieces into Masterpieces

Written by Sarah Mears

            There may be moments in your life where everything goes wrong, but somehow, you should always remember that God is still on His throne and He is still in control. He will guide you through the storms of life.

Ephesians 2:10 says
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We should never forget that when life gets rough He is there to lift us up. God works in mysterious ways, but He will never give us something that is to much for us to handle. We just need to realize what we think is hard is easy to Him, and He just wants us to have faith that He will guide us through it.,’’For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.’’

We should never forget that when life gets rough, He is there to lift us up. God works in mysterious ways. He gives us things that are too much for us to handle, and that way we have to go to Him for help.   We need to realize that what we think is hard is easy to Him.  He just wants us to have faith that He will guide us through it. When you feel like your life is falling apart, God is always there to put us back together. For example, if a vase was to fall and break on the floor, we could not put it back together and make it look like it did originally.  However, when our life falls apart, God can pick up the pieces and turn us into that beautiful piece that He made us to be. Never forget that He is in control and that everything happens for a reason. God knows our hearts, and He knows what we need. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We should never forget that when life gets rough He is there to lift us up. God works in mysterious ways, but He will never give us something that is to much for us to handle. We just need to realize what we think is hard is easy to Him, and He just wants us to have faith that He will guide us through it.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We should never forget that when life gets rough He is there to lift us up. God works in mysterious ways, but He will never give us something that is to much for us to handle. We just need to realize what we think is hard is easy to Him, and He just wants us to have faith that He will guide us through it.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We should never forget that when life gets rough He is there to lift us up. God works in mysterious ways, but He will never give us something that is to much for us to handle. We just need to realize what we think is hard is easy to Him, and He just wants us to have faith that He will guide us through it.

Monday's Message: Be Available

The Word of God teaches, that there will be the judgment seat of Christ, where all the saved, all the saints of God since Adam will stand before Jesus Christ, and give an account, give an answer to the Lord for the work done in our bodies since the day we got saved.

We can accurately conclude  that many of those of whom we read of in scripture will be greatly rewarded for their faithful service.  And we can probably all think of some we know personally that may rub shoulders with some of these greats.

Many of these faithfully used the gifts and abilities the dear Lord gave them for His honor and glory.  And that’s what we all should do.

Some in the church today, are multi-talented.  They can teach the Bible to any age, they can sing, they can preach the word of God, and so on. 

But not all of us are blessed with multiple talents.  But there is one talent we can all have, if we’ll just decide and dedicate ourselves to being.  And that ability is availability.

We read: I Cor. 16:17  “I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such. The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.”

We have already read of the significance of the man Stephanas in the church of Corinth;  but we know of nothing of the other two men: Fortunatus, and Achaius.

We learn that they refreshed Paul’s spirit.  They might have never preached or taught a Bible class, or sang a music special, but they were a great help to the great apostle Paul. And we do not know of anything they did or said, but we do know they were there, they were present, they were available.

We read in Proverbs 28:20 “ A faithful man shall abound with blessings:”

There is nothing that teaches us that this will not also be true at the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ.

We may not all be able to be this or that, or do this or that, but we can all be available.  We can all be faithful, as a Fortunatus, and Achaius.

Family Friday: The Tree

(Source)

I stood in the forest growing so strong
From all of my companions I was numbered among
They picked me out as the rough barked tree
To crucify the Saviour of men on the hard wood of me
 

I felt each blow as they cut me down 
Then pared of the branches of my leaf topped crown 
And used one of them, the limbs of my loss 
To nail it to my trunk and form me as a cross 

They brought Jesus out with His thorn crowned head 
The wounds of His body were dripping blood red 
And they tossed me over His shoulder to carry me along 
But they had abused Him so much He was no longer strong 

He could not carry me but I carried His frame 
For He was fixed to my trunk and they pinned on me His name 
As they nailed His hands and feet I felt that I could 
Feel His pain; each nail through Him also pierced into my wood 

Secured to my timber, they lifted us both high 
And they stood back to mock and watch Jesus die 
In the long dreadful hours so solemn and dark 
I felt His poor body writhe on my bark