Reflections of Easter

Easter this year started out wonderfully.  I ring in the handbell choir at church (as well as a handbell quartet) and the choir rang at the sunrise service…I had to be “ready to ring” at 6am!  Yee Haw!  It was dark and cold and early.  I was pretty tired to say the least!  Being afraid I wouldn’t have time for a shower I needed to shower before sunrise service…so I was up and at ’em at 5:20am.  But I wasn’t the first one up in the house!  DS beat me to it!  He was up around 5am watching TV!  Yikes!

I made it to church with a little time to spare so I had the opportunity to fellowship with friends.   It was nice to ring to His Glory that early in the morning actually.  I really enjoyed the sound of the choir in the crisp morning air.  We sang a few hymns and prayed.  An elder from the church delivered a nice “sermon” on why we have a solid faith in Christ.  That without the truth of the Resurrection we have a faith based on nothing and we are wasting our time if the Resurrection never happened.  How wonderful it is to say that the Resurrection is real and our faith is not based on myths.  Jesus conquered the grave!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Hallelujah!

During the sermon we could hear a church in the distance having their service…a brass choir was playing Easter hymns that resonated throughout the neighborhoods.  Then the birds came alive as the sun arose!  It was wonderous to hear all the birds singing their songs, a brass choir playing praise, and a sermon delivering the Truth all at the same time.  I imagine that is what Heaven will be like one day!  All creation praising His glory for ever and ever!  Amen!

Read Full Post »

Last Day of Women’s Study

Today we celebrated our last day of our women’s bible study at church with a wonderful luncheon.  It was a nice time to spend with the ladies from the church.  We had a wonderful lunch of salad and spinach souffles (fancy food, huh?).

It has been a great study this year.  We studied the Names of God from scripture.  Each week we learned a new name and dived into what that name meant and how that described a different characteristic of the LORD.  At the luncheon we all spoke about which name of God meant the most to us during the study.  It was quite nice to listen to all the ladies speak about the names that meant the most to them.  All the names spoke to us in one way or another so it was a great review of the study.

The names that were the most meaningful to me were Jehovah -M’Kaddash, Jehovah-Shalom, and El Elyon.  These three names spoke to me and ministered to me throughout the year.  Jehovah-M’Kaddash means the LORD sanctifies.  He uses everything and all things to sanctify us to become more like Christ.  There is a work that He wants to do in us and he will set us apart from the world to accomplish these works.  We can’t do this on our own…He must do the work in us.  This name was powerful to me in the Fall.  My DS is struggling so and was lashing out so much and I was not looking at him the right way.  The LORD used Jacob to redirect me.  I was shown how my son’s “issues” are being used by the LORD to sanctify me and my husband.  It was a hard pill to swallow!  And I didn’t like it!!  The following week we studied Jehovah-Shalom.

Jehovah-Shalom means the LORD provides peace.  And He did!  In the week that followed my struggle with my sanctification the LORD blessed me with rest and peace at our annual women’s retreat at the beach.  I was allowed to spend 3 1/2 days away from “my life” at home and rest in the LORD.  It was wonderful.  He pushed me to a place the week before of pain and brought me to a place of rest and restoration.  He realized how hard it was for me to face up to my sin that needed to be sanctified and provided a place for me to “come to grips with it” and “rest in Him.”  It was wonderful and I am so thankful!

In the new year (2009) we studied El Elyon.  I have a full post dedicated to this name on the blog.  Just look under Bible Study.  El Elyon is the God Most High – the Sovereign LORD.  He is sovereign over all things in this world and all things not of this world.  HE is the MOST HIGH GOD!!  In control at all times.  All things happen according to His purposes.  It is a comforting thought in times of struggle and in times of uncertainty that the LORD that I love is in control.  Especially when I feel like things are out of MY control!!

I am looking forward to the study to begin in the Fall of this year.  The Summer off will be nice, but it is always nice to be in fellowship and study with other women of faith.  Until then…God Bless the women of our bible study.

Read Full Post »

Compassion and Christianity

After reflecting a few days after the irate comment left on my blog, I’ve come to a few conclusions.  A friend on facebook also point this out…a lot of Christians lack compassion.  Why is that?  We should be looking at people making decisions that don’t line  up with scripture with compassion.  That dear girl was so ANGRY at me for something I quoted.  Or so it seemed…  I think she was hurting from living in a sinful world and a Christian (maybe) who lacked a fundamental of our faith…compassion.  I’m glad that this young woman found my blog and I was able to give her some compassion…at least I hope she read my response.  I have definitely prayed for her.  But for now, I want to address compassion in Christianity.  This might be a long post people…forgive me!

The word compassion is mentioned in scripture a minimum of 88 times. Most of those times it refers to the character of God or God’s compassion on His people.  When looking at the Lord’s “official” names you will see many that imply His compassion.  For example, El Shaddai and El Roi.  Let’s take a brief look at these two names.

El Shaddai means “God Almighty” but when looking a the Hebrew a little closer a deeper understanding lays just beneath the surface.  El stands for His power, creatorship and covenant making.  Shaddai describes an all-bountiful power coming from the Hebrew word “shad” meaning a woman’s breast.  It implies a “poured forth” blessing as a mother nurses her child.  This name thus reveals a very tender and loving parent-child relationship with the Creator.  Psalm 1:1-3 can clearly outline this blessing of love when we stay “in Christ.”  Shouldn’t we, as Christians, spread forth the joy of this blessing?  He is and has been very compassionate us when we did not deserve it!

El Roi comes from the Hebrew root word that means “of sight” thus implying a God who sees.  It is used one time in the scriptures (see Gen 16-1-6).  It is the story of Hagar, a woman thrown out with her child from the camp of Sarah and Abraham.  The Lord heard Hagar’s cries and went to her in a time of need.  He had compassion on her while she was in distress.  Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  Psalm 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  Compassion.  Not judging.  Let’s look at Jesus, shall we?

Read John 4 – the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well.  She was there at the 6th hour (noon) collecting water…not the typical time of day for women of the scriptures to collect water.  This was done during the morning hours when it was cool.  This woman felt she could no longer associate with the others in the mornings…she avoided them.  She was in pain from her sin.  Jesus knew this and met her at the well to give her “living water” and provide hope and care for her soul.  He was compassionate to her in her pain from living in a sinful world and making poor choices.  He was gentle and loving to her.  He saved her life through compassion!

Looking at Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 5 you can determine what was on His mind concerning this world:

¹Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ²and he began to teach them saying:
³“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
⁵Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
⁷Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
⁸Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
⁹Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus taught compassion for a hurting world.  Healing for the sick.  Salvation for our souls.  As Christians we need to reflect upon these basic tenants of our faith.  Drawing upon the compassion of Christ to reach out to the hurting people living in this sinful world.  Yes, they have made bad choices.  We should not let them off  the hook for their sinful choices, BUT we are to do this in love and with compassion.  This world piles upon us more burdens than we can bear.  Christians are fortunate that we have Christ and the Holy Spirit to draw upon in the trials of our lives.  Non-believers do not have this luxury…they turmoil without hope.

Please, fellow Christian, if you find yourself confronted with a person needing to hear Christ, speak with compassion.  Jesus was strong in His message of salvation for he never let anyone off the hook, but He was compassionate in the delivery.  I’ll end with this from Matthew 11:28-30:

²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Let’s not burden the hurting anymore than they already are, dear Christian.

Read Full Post »

Blessings from God

God’s blessings are sent our way everyday.  The question is do we recognize them?  If you have been reading along you know that I have had a struggle with finding wire hangers!  Ugh.  I just need to trust the Lord more.  My friends from church and my neighborhood gladly donated hangers without me really asking directly.  And wouldn’t you know it…but the number of hangers they gave were the exact number I needed.  I didn’t have any leftover hangers and didn’t have any leftover clothes.  God is so good!

Now I realize that some people may simply see this as a coincidence and may even suggest that I asked for the right number of hangers.  But I strongly disagree!  First off, I don’t believe in coincidences.  I believe in a LORD that ordains all things in the universe and everything is done according to a greater plan.  There is nothing too small or too big for my God to be concerned with in my life.  He loves His children and desires to give us what we need if we ask Him (see Matthew 7:11).  Secondly, I never asked for a certain number of hangers.  My friends gladly provided what they had or what they were able to give.  The number worked on it’s own!  Yay God!

So now that I’m done tagging and hanging items I’m able to see where I should not have worried.  That if it was in God’s plan for me to send all these items to consignment all would work out and work out well.  It’s so easy in this life to worry about things that we should not worry about.  If we pray about our circumstances, no matter how small or large, the LORD will provide and answer our prayers.  We (I) need to practice leaving my requests at the LORD’s feet and not taking them back!  Things would be much easier if I would remember this promise of His…

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~Matthew 6:31-34

I think everyone who can call themselves a Child of God needs to keep these verses in our minds and in our hearts in the months to come.  Our privileged lives in America will not be easy in the coming months.  But take heart!  The LORD knows what we need and will provide for those who love Him.  He will not leave us unattended!  Even something as small as a provision of hangers is within His grasp!  Wow!

Read Full Post »

El Elyon

I’m in a weekly bible study at my church and we are studying the names of God this year.  It’s been a really good study.  I’ve really enjoyed it.  I have found that understanding the Hebrew names of God and when they are used in the bible have hightened my reading.  It’s truly wonderful!

This past week we studied El Elyon or The Most High God.  This name of God is used with Abram, Daniel, Joseph and Jesus.  One of the scriptures we read this week came from Acts.  Luke wrote:

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being.  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.'”  Acts 17: 24-28

I really like this passage.  It provides peace and calm for me.  There is nothing in the world that happens that is out of God’s control.  There is nothing to fear or be anxious about.  I also like the part where Luke says, “he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”  I’m an adoptive mom…God chose to have my children born in a different country.  But they are surely MY children!  He intended them to be mine!  Awesome!

Our leader made 4 good points that I will end with concerning our El Elyon:

1. God is sovereign over our enemies.  He protects us from them in times of trouble.  He is our sheild.

2. God is sovereign over all rulers, governments, and world powers.  He put them in power and can take them out of power.  (See Daniel  Chapter 4.)

3.  God is sovereign over the circumstances in our lives.  There is nothing He does not know and nothing He cannot do!

4.  God is sovereign over evil and what satan and his demons seek to do in our lives.  They know He is all powerful and must beg his permission do to anything to God’s children.  (See Mark 5:1-8 )

Read Full Post »