Happy Birthday Jesus

It has been too long since my last blog. Since the last one, we have sold our home, in a market where homes do not sell easily, thank you Jesus. Then we moved in with my wonderful brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their two boys and then we finally found a home, so our life has been just a little hectic for the past year, but as always, BLESSED.

That is enough about me, the real reason I felt prompted to blog again is the "go tell it on the mountain" feeling I get about Christmas. It amazes me every year that God would choose come to Earth, as a baby, to provide salvation for ANYONE who wants it. We are so not worthy of his mercy and grace, but He chooses to give it to us anyway. A free gift, no charge. Not only a free gift but the BEST gift of all.

I'm at the end of my daily Bible since it is December and it is a lot of reading about the end times. I feel like I'm reading a book about our society today. I read Jude a few nights ago and it was like a newspaper article of our nation. Just a little excerpt from the chapter, "Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" Jude 1:3-4. Please read the rest of Jude and leave comments on what you think about it.

I am so very thankful that Jesus came and we celebrate Christmas only because of Him. I can't wait until He returns again. I can't wait to spend eternity with my heavenly Father. I can't wait to worship Jesus everyday face to face. Like the song says "I can only imagine"..............and when I imagine, I get so stirred up inside with such joyous, wonderful emotions.

 

Jesus come soon!!!!!!!!

"What is your Egypt?"

I have been reading so much about the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land after God used Moses to  lead them away from Egypt and the slavery of it. I'm reading about it through my daily Bible and also in a Bible study I'm doing. Sometimes it is difficult to apply some of the Old Testament to my life, so I began wondering how I can apply these parts of scripture to my life to grow as God's child.

As I read about the Israelites complaining about their living conditions, I would think, how dare they? After all God has saved them from, the cruel slavery of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Isn't that what they wanted, to be free? But then God stopped my thinking like He does often and asked, "what is your Egypt, Candy?"

What? Ugh? Oh my, what is my Egypt? What is the thing or are the things that hold me back from serving God completely where He can take me to the most inner peace I could ever imagine. What or who do I cling to for comfort instead of my Christ? Oh wow, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on those Israelites, considering I'm just like them.

I will share one of my "Egypts" that consumes me daily and it is my struggle with food and self-image. I must say, I have done much better in the last few years, but the thought is always in my head. I know God can release me from this, but I choose to keep running back to it. So I'm not so different from the Israelites who, at times, wanted to go back to the slavery of Egypt rather then be free of it. I often choose to go back to the slavery, the torment, the guilt of my self image issue.

So I ask you today, what is your Egypt? You may have more than one, as I do. I only shared one with you. God is so good to us, even when we choose not to love Him with our all. Of course, our goal is to completely love Him with all of our heart, mind and soul. I know I desire to do this more than anything.

"We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." Ephesians 1:7-8    =)

"Let Us Not Belittle God's Grace"

My title came from something I heard last night at our Wednesday night Bible study. The entire quote is actually "let us not belittle God's grace by doing stupid things." What a powerful truth. This really made me think about how I want to represent Christ. Everything I do reflects Him because I claim Him as my savior. So how dare I belittle His grace? Grace that He has freely given you and me. Am I perfect? Of course not, but I'm not going to take His grace and then say, "well I can do whatever I want because I'm going to heaven anyway because it is a gift He has given me." My love for Him is too great to treat God in such a disgraceful manner.

I choose to try with all I have to do as James 1:22 says "do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. DO what it says." And according to 2 Timothy 3:16, which is "ALL scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" so I know that ALL of God's word is good for applying to my life and instilling in my children and my desire is to DO what God wants me to do.

As Christians, we sometimes forget that we are God's witnesses not only with our words but more importantly with our actions and the way we live our lives. I would rather someone not even say they are a Christian if they are not living according to what God's word would have them live. How can Christians never attend church? live together without being married? get drunk every weekend? and the list can go on and on and on. How are these people representing Christ? These are just a few examples of belittling our Savior. These things represents the world, not what the Bible says. So then I ask what do we do about it? Our brothers and sisters in Christ who proclaim to be Christians but are just like the rest of the world, there is no difference in them at all, what are we to do? I say we go to God's word and find out what He wants us to do.

Galatians 6:1 "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." Well He tells us here what we are to do. Speak with them with love, with God's word not our own opinion and also He warns us to not be tempted as well. Sin is a very real thing that can  be very deceiving to ANYONE!!!!!! So lets stay in God's word, encourage one another and remember that we represent Jesus Christ. If it would not please Him, then DON'T do it, why? Because we love Him and want to please Him and He knows what is best for us so He is just trying to protect us from the consequences He knows that follows sin.

I always like to end with some scripture so lets remember "whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Colossians 3:23.

Hiding Behind THE Tree

Have you ever considered hiding from God? Where would you hide? He is kind of hard to escape from, right? Well Adam and Eve sure tried to hide after the serpent was able to trick them into sin. Genesis 3:8 "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

Whenever I read this, I always think, they really thought they could hide from God. Then I wonder why God didn't just end it there. He could have destroyed both of them, He could have left them alone, He could have done whatever He wanted to with them. But instead, He first met their need, Genesis 3:21 states "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." We see his compassion and love here for Adam and Eve. Were there consequences to their sin? Of course there were major consequences. And for our sin, there are consequences as well, but God showed from the very beginning how much He loves us and only wants what is best for us.

The world we live in is not what God planned and we will face consequences for our sin, but we will not face the ultimate consequence of death and eternity in Hell if we belong to Him. 1 Peter 2:24 states "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the TREE, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by His wounding you have been healed." So I ask again, can we hide from God? Well, maybe we can hide behind THE TREE, that is, hide in the cross of Christ. Behind the cross, we are blameless, holy and righteous before God. Thank You Jesus!!!!!!

If you haven't hid yourself behind the cross of Christ, what are you waiting for?

Crazy Love

Crazy Love. What a perfect name for a book about Jesus!!!!!! I'm only on page 53, but I just couldn't wait to share =) I think this book is of perfect timing for me and our nation. We somehow have lost the AWESOMENESS of Who God really is, of how WORTHY He is of our love and our everything. Also that we are placed on this earth by Him and for Him. Francis Chan is the author of this book and I can really see his love for Christ through his writing.

Chan writes, "there is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia going around, and none of us is immune." Wow, isn't that the scary truth? Take one look at all the characteristics that people have given to God. All we have to do is take one look outside to be reminded of His creativity or one look at one of our children and be reminded of grace and love, but it is so easy to fall into our own little worlds and forget. Our God is so big and so much more than we can ever fathom, but I still want to try to fathom and be in AWE of the how He operates. He isn't just who I want Him to be and it isn't just whatever I want to believe about Him. God has a name, an identity, we don't change that.

Chan wrote about worry and stress and of course we all have these in our lives, but let me share with you a little about what he said. I have to quote him, it is just too good. I want you to really think deeply about this and how it relates to you as I did and am continuing to do, here goes "worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives." and "stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control." Just ponder that for a moment.

He goes on to say that these two behaviors basically say that it is okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in your life is somehow exceptional. Ouch!!! Compared to the big picture, ouch!!!!!!

One more thing of Chan's book I want to share is about how we live our lives no matter what the circumstances are. Here are just two scenarios, but the two pretty much cover it all. On one hand, your life is pretty good, so what do you do? Well you can show the world a person who enjoys the things of this life and blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God. Or maybe life is tough. God has allowed hard things to enter your life so you can show the world that God is awesome no matter what and He is what brings peace and joy even when life is hard.

I hope this little sneak peak into this book makes you think about how big your crazy love is for our Jesus, our Savior, the one who was and is and is to come.

My favorite verse this week is Revelation 5:5 "......the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed." I'm so thankful to be on the winning team, I've always been a bit competitive.

"I Love You, Mama"

I love when my kids call me "Mama." The older ones have already stopped, but my little guy, who is 3, still lets it slip from time to time.

I have had a bit of a sleep deprivation period over the last week. My husband, Neil, had surgery on his shoulder last week and the first few nights I got very little sleep taking care of him. I don't mind that at all, I'm here for him 110%. The sleep deprivation gets to me after a while though. On night five, Tucker, my 4 year old gets up at 2 in the morning with a nightmare, then gets up at 4 and vomits all over the floor, thankfully the hardwood, not the carpet. Now I'm thinking we are going to have to deal with a stomach flu on top of the shoulder recovery AND when you have little kids they share everything, including germs!!!!!! Needless to say, I was not in a positive state of mind, I envisioned cleaning up puke for a week, all the extra laundry, then of course me getting the virus and you know when the mom gets sick, there is no time for rest, especially not now.

During the cleaning up, around 4:30 in the morning, my 3 year old, Cade, decides to join the party. I place Tucker on the couch with a "puke bucket" and Cade joins me in my bed, which I'm not a fan of, but too tired to fight it. Out of the blue, he says "I love you, Mama" and my heart melts. I then turn to my husband and tell him how blessed I am and those little reminders out of my little angels' mouth makes everything I do worth every minute. It was funny because Neil couldn't believe I could say how blessed I was at a moment like that. Only having Jesus indwelling in me, that I can have peace at a moment like that. Trust me, it doesn't always happen. I'm not always the most patient, especially with a lack of sleep. Thankfully Tucker did not have a virus, just something he ate, I guess.

I pray that God will remind me frequently of all He has given me, most importantly the gift of Salvation. Isaiah 30:15 "This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." So I will rest in the serenity of my loving Father's arms.

A New Beginning

My oldest son, Little Neil, started at a new school today. It is a new school for him, but it is going back home for my husband, Big Neil. He attended, graduated and also taught at this school for 17 years, so he definitely has history there. My son is in the 1st grade and he is very outgoing and makes friends very easily so I have no worries there, but for some reason I cried my eyes out. Not sure why, maybe it was the uneasiness I saw in his little eyes.

I was reminded in Sunday School yesterday of Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I know my little guy is taken care of better by God then anyone else.

Little Neil asked Jesus in his heart when he was 4 years old and has since then been fully aware that he is a follower of Christ. One of the most special things I witnessed was when his youngest brother was not feeling well and while he was napping, I came across Neil, who was maybe 5 at the time, praying right outside the closed bedroom door of where Cade was sleeping. It was soooooo precious and I'll never forget it. Lately he has had quite a fascination with our pastor. He always wants to make sure we say hi to him whenever we can. He has also stated that he would like to one day become a pastor just like pastor Tim (our pastor). If God calls him to be a pastor, I hope he follows through, but whatever he chooses to do, I know my God will be there to comfort, protect, heal, discipline, correct, teach and guide him on his journey.

Little Neil, as well as all my children, is such a special blessing from God. He has chosen me to care for His children and I pray that I will continue to raise my kids in God's Word and His ways. His ways are so different from this world and He is so different from what this world would have us believe of Him. The only way to know how God wants you to live your life is by living by His word, the Bible, which we as Americans can freely read whenever we want. So lets not take advantage of that freedom and remember to read our Guide to life, His precious Holy Word, the Bible.

I kind of felt like breaking out in song right there, hee!hee! you know the one, The B-I-B-L-E, yeah that's the book for me, I stand upon the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E, BIBLE!!!!!!!!! So true right?  ;)