I hope that you all aren't getting tired of me putting these kind of posts on, but I was reading my Bible again this morning and found a very interesting verse:
It's the 12th verse of the 7th Chapter of 2nd Corinthians. I believe that Paul is refering to his first letter to the Corinthians in this verse.
"Wherefore though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you."
Reading this verse gave me a little different outlook on the kind of attitude to have when I want to help those that are in sin, discouraged etc. If I'm just out to fix a problem, that seems like a good cause, but I should really be out there helping them because I care for them as souls that God wants to save.
I know that sometimes I'm afraid to reach out to those that really need it because I'm afraid to push them farther away; but if I can have this right attitude. That I can truly be out to save their souls, and not just to fix everything that I see that's wrong in their life. If I can figure out how to convey to them that I just want to save their souls and not just point a finger at them I wonder if I could reach them better, and actually help them?
I really don't often extend myselves to help those that are truly in need of this kind of encouragement. It's really out of my comfort zone. There's sometimes that I think of different ones who have strayed from the faith and wonder if there's any way I can help them, but I don't act on that thought; besides praying for them of course. Maybe sometimes that's all God wants me to do, but if there's anything else I can do I sure would like to have the right attitude about it and do what I can to save them, "For God is not willing that any should perish."
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
A Good Memory
Sis. Cherrie has a post on her blog titled "Lost and Found". It reminded me of something that happened to my dad. Some of you might have heard this story before; but it's worth telling again.
As most of you know, my dad owned his own roofing business before he became blind. He had a wrist watch that he used to keep track of his workers hours. If I remember right it was actually a pretty beat up watch, but it had an important purpose. Somehow he lost it. I don't know it it had been lost for a few days, or just one, but he couldn't find it.
He was going to bed one night; his watch was still missing. He decided to pray that God would help him find it. He said that he'd had a dream in the night. In that dream, he'd looked under his bed, and his watch was face down in a certain spot. He turned it over and it said a certain time (I think it was 9 something). The next morning he got up like usually and started going about his day. After awhile he remembered his dream; so he thought he'd go look under his bed for his watch. Sure enough, there it was, face down in the exact same spot as in the dream! He turned it over, and it said the same exact time as in his dream!
Now that story in itself is pretty neat, but it doesn't stop there...
Sometime after this happened my dad misplaced his olive oil bottle. (For those of you who don't know, my dad always carries a tiny bottle of olive oil in his pocket so that he'll always have it handy if he needs to annoint someone, or something). He couldn't remember where he'd put it and he couldn't find it anywhere. He went to go to bed, and remembered how God had helped him find his watch. He thought surely, if God can help me find my wristwatch, surely he will help my find my olive oil bottle. So once again he prayed before going to sleep that God would help him find his olive oil bottle. He woke up the next morning, and he hadn't had a dream like the last time. He was kind of dissapointed because he'd really thought that God would help him find it. Then he went to roll out of bed, and there was his olive oil bottle in his hand!
God is soo amazing! Sometimes we forget the great power of God; It's nice to be reminded by things like this.
As most of you know, my dad owned his own roofing business before he became blind. He had a wrist watch that he used to keep track of his workers hours. If I remember right it was actually a pretty beat up watch, but it had an important purpose. Somehow he lost it. I don't know it it had been lost for a few days, or just one, but he couldn't find it.
He was going to bed one night; his watch was still missing. He decided to pray that God would help him find it. He said that he'd had a dream in the night. In that dream, he'd looked under his bed, and his watch was face down in a certain spot. He turned it over and it said a certain time (I think it was 9 something). The next morning he got up like usually and started going about his day. After awhile he remembered his dream; so he thought he'd go look under his bed for his watch. Sure enough, there it was, face down in the exact same spot as in the dream! He turned it over, and it said the same exact time as in his dream!
Now that story in itself is pretty neat, but it doesn't stop there...
Sometime after this happened my dad misplaced his olive oil bottle. (For those of you who don't know, my dad always carries a tiny bottle of olive oil in his pocket so that he'll always have it handy if he needs to annoint someone, or something). He couldn't remember where he'd put it and he couldn't find it anywhere. He went to go to bed, and remembered how God had helped him find his watch. He thought surely, if God can help me find my wristwatch, surely he will help my find my olive oil bottle. So once again he prayed before going to sleep that God would help him find his olive oil bottle. He woke up the next morning, and he hadn't had a dream like the last time. He was kind of dissapointed because he'd really thought that God would help him find it. Then he went to roll out of bed, and there was his olive oil bottle in his hand!
God is soo amazing! Sometimes we forget the great power of God; It's nice to be reminded by things like this.
Monday, February 4, 2008
5th Chapter of 2nd Corinthians
I almost didn't read my Bible today because I had so much to do today. Maybe that's why I decided to; so I could prolong the dreaded housework! Whatever my reason was I decided to sit down and read a Chapter in the Bible this morning. Unless I feel otherwise inclined I just pick up where I left off last time. So today I read the 5ht Chapter of 2nd Corinthians. I thought I would share with all of you some of what I found; and the insight that I feel God gave me. I should stope being amazed at how this happens a lot to me. Anyway, here goes...
"For we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven:...
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life....
Therefor we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
(For we walk by Faith, not by sight)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent we may be accepted of him.
Now I did skip a few verses in this part of the chapter. I'm sure if you want to read the whole thing you can. Sometimes it's hard to put into words what the Lord shows us. I prayed about how I would explain in words what I felt God was telling me when I read this morning. Basically I'm not supposed to be comfortable here on earth in this earthly body. That's not to say that I shouldn't strive for certain comforts here on earth. I felt like God was telling me that my desire for Heaven should be greater than my desire for earthly things. If my soul stops "groaning" for the Heavenly home which is in Heaven; (or it's just become a muted thing in the back of my mind); then I need to re-examine my life. I feel like God was reminding me that I am here on earth so I can earn that home in Heaven. I should stop giving these earthly comforts so much importance and concentrate on what is important for me to make it to Heaven.
There was another verse farther down in the chapter (the 20th verse) that I guess I've never really examined before:
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christs' stead be ye reconciled to God."
I've heard over and over again the ministers saying how we are ambassadors for Christ. It wasn't until this morning that I really thought about what an ambassador was. An ambassador is someone sent to another country to speak on behalf of their home country; to try and persuade the foreign country to conform to their way of thinking. We are supposed to be speaking on behalf of Christ, beseeching others to be reconciled to God. I guess I really already knew this, I just did't quite think of it in this way before.
The last verse of the chapter (21st verse) speaks for itself:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
I would like to make a note to everyone:
For some reason spellcheck hasn't been working for me; so if there's any misspellings, you'll have to bear with me. I'm not sure what the problem is, but hopefully it stops pretty soon.
"For we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven:...
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life....
Therefor we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
(For we walk by Faith, not by sight)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent we may be accepted of him.
Now I did skip a few verses in this part of the chapter. I'm sure if you want to read the whole thing you can. Sometimes it's hard to put into words what the Lord shows us. I prayed about how I would explain in words what I felt God was telling me when I read this morning. Basically I'm not supposed to be comfortable here on earth in this earthly body. That's not to say that I shouldn't strive for certain comforts here on earth. I felt like God was telling me that my desire for Heaven should be greater than my desire for earthly things. If my soul stops "groaning" for the Heavenly home which is in Heaven; (or it's just become a muted thing in the back of my mind); then I need to re-examine my life. I feel like God was reminding me that I am here on earth so I can earn that home in Heaven. I should stop giving these earthly comforts so much importance and concentrate on what is important for me to make it to Heaven.
There was another verse farther down in the chapter (the 20th verse) that I guess I've never really examined before:
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christs' stead be ye reconciled to God."
I've heard over and over again the ministers saying how we are ambassadors for Christ. It wasn't until this morning that I really thought about what an ambassador was. An ambassador is someone sent to another country to speak on behalf of their home country; to try and persuade the foreign country to conform to their way of thinking. We are supposed to be speaking on behalf of Christ, beseeching others to be reconciled to God. I guess I really already knew this, I just did't quite think of it in this way before.
The last verse of the chapter (21st verse) speaks for itself:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
I would like to make a note to everyone:
For some reason spellcheck hasn't been working for me; so if there's any misspellings, you'll have to bear with me. I'm not sure what the problem is, but hopefully it stops pretty soon.
The Twice Weekly Church Battle
In Brownsville we were very spoilt and had grandparents readily available to help with grandchildren. I think the hardest thing for us has been the difference in church. Our children took turns sitting with Gramma Linda, and every once in awhile one of them sat by my Dad and Mom; so we never had all of our children sitting by us in church.
Of course when we moved we have had to get used to dealing with all of our children in church, plus I think moving to a new place somehow made them act worse in church than they did before. Needless to say this has really been a trial for us. There's been times Matt has said he doesn't see the point in going because we didn't enjoy meeting because it was just one big battle field with our children. We did always go though, but it has really been hard for us to enjoy meeting and contribute to meeting in any way. This has been an ongoing battle ever since we moved. We've tried a lot of different things to try to get them to behave in church. We've even prayed about it, but they were still little terrors for us.
Last Thursday night all of the kids were especially bad. We had literally gotten to the end of our rope. As Matt was talking to them it dawned on me that we had never explained to them why we go to church and why it was important for them to behave so that we could enjoy meeting; so Matt and I took Christian and Ruby (the other two are too young to understand) and tried to explain to them why they needed to behave in church. It really seemed like they understood what we were trying to explain to them.
Yesterday when we were on our way to church, we stopped at the store and Matt went in to get a few things. While he was gone Ruby asked me if we ought to pray that they would be good in church. I thought that was a great idea! So me and all the children (except Garrison) took turns praying about it. I think being part of the solution instead of the problem really helped them because they were sooo much better than normal in church yesterday! I was so thankful! They weren't perfect (you can't expect perfect from a 5, 4, 2, and 1 year old). Garrison was his usual grumpy self in church, but having the other kids behaving better made that so much easier to deal with.
I am really praising God for this little victory; and I pray that this is the beginning of the end of the twice weekly church battle!
Of course when we moved we have had to get used to dealing with all of our children in church, plus I think moving to a new place somehow made them act worse in church than they did before. Needless to say this has really been a trial for us. There's been times Matt has said he doesn't see the point in going because we didn't enjoy meeting because it was just one big battle field with our children. We did always go though, but it has really been hard for us to enjoy meeting and contribute to meeting in any way. This has been an ongoing battle ever since we moved. We've tried a lot of different things to try to get them to behave in church. We've even prayed about it, but they were still little terrors for us.
Last Thursday night all of the kids were especially bad. We had literally gotten to the end of our rope. As Matt was talking to them it dawned on me that we had never explained to them why we go to church and why it was important for them to behave so that we could enjoy meeting; so Matt and I took Christian and Ruby (the other two are too young to understand) and tried to explain to them why they needed to behave in church. It really seemed like they understood what we were trying to explain to them.
Yesterday when we were on our way to church, we stopped at the store and Matt went in to get a few things. While he was gone Ruby asked me if we ought to pray that they would be good in church. I thought that was a great idea! So me and all the children (except Garrison) took turns praying about it. I think being part of the solution instead of the problem really helped them because they were sooo much better than normal in church yesterday! I was so thankful! They weren't perfect (you can't expect perfect from a 5, 4, 2, and 1 year old). Garrison was his usual grumpy self in church, but having the other kids behaving better made that so much easier to deal with.
I am really praising God for this little victory; and I pray that this is the beginning of the end of the twice weekly church battle!
The Character Building Chain
Yesterday in church Bro. Dennis read the first Chapter of 2nd Peter:
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue: and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to Godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I've heard this scripture a lot; and it's a very good scripture to examine myself with. It's amazing though how you can hear something so much, but every once in awhile you get some insight that you've never had before. As Bro. Dennis was reading this scripture I examined the order more closely. I thought about how it would be hard to be truly virtuous if you didn't have Faith first. He also explained how virtue had the same core word as virgin, meaning pure and undefiled. I thought about how it would be hard to have the true knowledge of God without first having virtue; because if you didn't have virtue it would be easy to have knowledge that wouldn't be the pure and undefiled knowledge of God. Again, it would be hard to have temperance if you didn't have the knowledge of God to help you be temperant; and I think it would be nearly impossible to have patience if you weren't temperant. I also think there is no way you could truly have Godliness if you didn't have all those other things first; and it would be hard to have true brotherly kindness if you weren't Godly first. My dad is always quoting the scripture that Charity is the end of a perfect work. I've never really thought what exactly was the perfect work it was the end of, but I think this scripture kind of explains that.
I have to say that my baby got loud, and I had to leave while Bro. Dennis was still up; so I don't know what all he said, but I was glad that God allowed me to hear what I heard.
Now to start working on my character building list.....
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue: and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to Godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I've heard this scripture a lot; and it's a very good scripture to examine myself with. It's amazing though how you can hear something so much, but every once in awhile you get some insight that you've never had before. As Bro. Dennis was reading this scripture I examined the order more closely. I thought about how it would be hard to be truly virtuous if you didn't have Faith first. He also explained how virtue had the same core word as virgin, meaning pure and undefiled. I thought about how it would be hard to have the true knowledge of God without first having virtue; because if you didn't have virtue it would be easy to have knowledge that wouldn't be the pure and undefiled knowledge of God. Again, it would be hard to have temperance if you didn't have the knowledge of God to help you be temperant; and I think it would be nearly impossible to have patience if you weren't temperant. I also think there is no way you could truly have Godliness if you didn't have all those other things first; and it would be hard to have true brotherly kindness if you weren't Godly first. My dad is always quoting the scripture that Charity is the end of a perfect work. I've never really thought what exactly was the perfect work it was the end of, but I think this scripture kind of explains that.
I have to say that my baby got loud, and I had to leave while Bro. Dennis was still up; so I don't know what all he said, but I was glad that God allowed me to hear what I heard.
Now to start working on my character building list.....
Friday, February 1, 2008
Hundred Thousands Place
After reading Sis. Trina's blog titled "Faith in Children" I was reminded of something that happened quite a few years ago...
I was at my Aunt Mary's house helping her out. She homeschools her chidren and I used to go over there quite often to help her. That day Alyssa was working on her Math. She was learning about the number places (you know, ones, tens, hundreds, thousands etc.) Well she had gotten to the part where where she was supposed to be learning the hundred-thousands place. Now Alyssa is a smart girl; so it wasn't like she didn't understand her Math book. She just refused to believe that there was a such thing as the hundred-thousands place. No matter what we told her, or what her book said she would not do her work because there was no such thing! Needless to say we had a very frustrating day with her. We argued with her most of the day about it. She said she'd never heard of it before; so it wasn't so.
We were getting very aggrivated with her. It seemed like there was no way for us to get through to her so that she could continue with her schoolwork.
All of a sudden, it was like a light bulb came on in my head! I asked Alyssa if she believed what the Bible said; even if she wouldn't believe her me, her mom, or her schoolbook. She said she did; so I got a Bible and looked up in Numbers where the people were counted and found a place where there was a number that had a hundred-thousand place. I believe it was six-hundred-thousand something. Anyway, once she saw that it was in the Bible she finally was convinced it was real and went on with her schoolwork! It was as easy as that!
Looking back, it's kind of funny now; but it's always stuck with me that she believed the Bible when she wouldn't believe anything else. I hope that I instill that kind of faith in my children.
I was at my Aunt Mary's house helping her out. She homeschools her chidren and I used to go over there quite often to help her. That day Alyssa was working on her Math. She was learning about the number places (you know, ones, tens, hundreds, thousands etc.) Well she had gotten to the part where where she was supposed to be learning the hundred-thousands place. Now Alyssa is a smart girl; so it wasn't like she didn't understand her Math book. She just refused to believe that there was a such thing as the hundred-thousands place. No matter what we told her, or what her book said she would not do her work because there was no such thing! Needless to say we had a very frustrating day with her. We argued with her most of the day about it. She said she'd never heard of it before; so it wasn't so.
We were getting very aggrivated with her. It seemed like there was no way for us to get through to her so that she could continue with her schoolwork.
All of a sudden, it was like a light bulb came on in my head! I asked Alyssa if she believed what the Bible said; even if she wouldn't believe her me, her mom, or her schoolbook. She said she did; so I got a Bible and looked up in Numbers where the people were counted and found a place where there was a number that had a hundred-thousand place. I believe it was six-hundred-thousand something. Anyway, once she saw that it was in the Bible she finally was convinced it was real and went on with her schoolwork! It was as easy as that!
Looking back, it's kind of funny now; but it's always stuck with me that she believed the Bible when she wouldn't believe anything else. I hope that I instill that kind of faith in my children.
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