This was one of my brother's favorite artist: JOHN MICHAEL TALBOT. His music is beautiful and great for reflection. Been doing alot of that this week...SUNRISE is just the beginning...
IF THESE CHILDREN LIVE IN A COUNTRY called "the SAVIOR" but we have yet shown them "Who HE IS and How much HE LOVES them", How can they BE SAVED by JESUS?
EL SALVADOR needs the HOPE that is only found in Jesus Christ...will you be the ONE? Will you be that part of the body of Christ to say "YES"... I can help one more CHILD to LIVE eternally, but right now I'll help them LIVE for TODAY so they may come to know the real JESUS lives in each one!
Bloggers and Trip leaders: Molly Piper, Kelly Stamps, Heather Whittaker, Patricia Jones , (photos) Keely Scott and Shaun Groves. (Just click & be linked to their site where they share a part of their heart while in El Salvador). Pray for their families they’ll leave behind, their spiritual and physical and mental health/stamina, their ability to take in a lot of information quickly and experience a lot of emotions and find the words to write about it all.
For more information about Compassion International or to sponsor a child visit Compassion.com.
Just a quick post to stay accountable! I have not stopped READING GOD'S WORD and I am still THIRSTY for more of Him even though I have not been sharing my readings as I had started on Thursday. I promised that I would at least write what my theme and readings are each month.
Called to be Free to Give God Thanks and Praise
The readings with American Bible Society Reading Plan for November are:
1. Psalm 8 2. Psalm 145 3. Psalm 146 4. Psalm 147 5. Psalm 148 6. Psalm 149
7. Psalm 150 8. Exodus 35.1–29 9. Deuteronomy 26.1–19 10. Malachi 3.5–18
11. 2 Corinthians 8.1–24 12. 2 Corinthians 9.1–15 13. Psalm 46 14. Psalm 48
15. Psalm 64 16. Psalm 65 17. Psalm 66 18. Psalm 67 19. Psalm 84 20. Psalm 95
21. Psalm 96 22. Psalm 97* Bible Sunday* National Bible Week is November 22–29, 2009.
23. Psalm 98 24. Psalm 99 25. Psalm 100 Thanksgiving Day 26. Psalm 103
27. Psalm 107 28. Psalm 108 First Sunday of Advent 29. Jeremiah 33.1–26 30. Psalm 136
I have joined LEAH at South Breeze Farm in the CHALLENGE of GIVING THANKS each day during November. I 'd like to encourage all of you to join the 3rd Annual Giving Thanks Challenge! All you have to do is post one thing you're thankful for each day somewhere on your blog. It doesn't even have to be an actual thought-out post. You could do it even on your sidebar.
Week 42 Nov. 24th-31st: Galatians 5:22-23
SO, this week I am FOCUSING on SOWING and REAPING and as always expecting a plentiful HARVEST for the LORD! With HOPES that for each SEED planted, more will REAP eternal life.
2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-7
Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. verse 7The Heart That Sees God as Taker
The sparing heart has a relationship to God that feels him as a Taker rather than a Giver. If my life is being drained away by God because he is so incessantly and solely demanding, then I feel like grasping after the things of the world to meet my need. If every time I look up I see the pointing finger of God demanding, "Give me! Give me! Give me!" how can I look back down at the needs of the world and say "Take me: I will gladly spend and be spent for your good"?
O this person will give something! Because one of the draining demands that he hears when he looks to this ever-demanding, ever-taking God is: "Give something to the church!" So out comes the gift—the draining, life depleting, exhausting, sparing gift.
The Heart That Sees God as Giver
But what a difference between this gift and the gift that flows from the heart that has a relationship with God that feels him as a Giver rather than a Taker!
Beneath the bountiful giving of verse 6 and the cheerful giving of verse 7 is a heart that looks up to God and sees a Giver, a Supplier, a Helper. When this person looks to God, he feels replenished not drained. Just like the literal translation of verse 6 implies, his giving is based on blessing—God's blessing.
Even when this person hears a command coming from God, he hears it as a hopeful gift not a depleting demand. Like when a three-year-old starts toddling toward the street and his mother shouts from the kitchen window, "Barnabas! Stop!" The bountiful, cheerful givers have grown up enough in their relationship with God to know that his shouts are all love.
What Makes the Difference
What makes the difference, then, between the sparing giver and the bountiful giver is their relation to God. For one he is an incessantly demanding, draining Taker. For the other he is an inexhaustible Giver.
The one feels that if God is draining me, then what joy can I have if I don't drain the world? If life is being sucked out by a demanding God, then I must suck in whatever pleasure I can from this world—O, moral pleasures to be sure, nothing terrible. God IS a demander. But our basic disposition is still one of taking, keeping, sparing—because God is always taking, always demanding. He is the great Taker.
But for the other person described in this text the flow goes all in the other direction. God is the great Giver, Fountain, Father, flowing in with ever-replenishing blessing and grace and hope. And so what this person feels when he looks at the needs of the world is a free, internal impulse to give, to share. This impulse is called love or grace. Love is simply vertical grace bent outward to other people.
The Biggest Issue in Our Lives
And so THE big issue for our lives this morning is how we see God. What do we feel him to be when we look up into his face? Paul knows this is the issue. And so the burden of the rest of this text is to help us see God and feel God as a Giver and not a Taker. He is a Giver on both sides of our giving—on the back side, enabling our giving with his blessing, and the front side, rewarding our giving with even more blessing. ~ By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
So where is your HEART today? Not just in GIVING monetarily at church but GIVING in everything. How do YOU see GOD in your daily life, as a GIVER or as a TAKER?
NO ONE CAN OUT GIVE GOD! John Piper concludes with this after sharing what he subtitles as
THE FOUR ASPECTS of the HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS:
And when I am loved and needed and longed for, I want God to get the glory.
And to me the best news in all the world—the bottom line of all I preach, the reason I wrote Desiring God, my hope for S*P*A*N the Nineties,
the rock under the shifting sands of my emotions, the meaning of my parenthood, the bond of my marriage, the theme of my life, the heartbeat of my ministry—is this: that God wants to be the Giver in my life and your life so that he will get the glory.
TO THE GIVER BE ALL THE GLORY!
Dear Father, Righteous and Gracious God,
Create in me a holy readiness to give of that which You have given me, never as an exaction but as a willing gift.
Help me to sow bountifully so that I shall reap bountifully. Let me make up my mind about what to give.
Then let my giving be cheerful, not with reluctance or under compulsion.
And why shouldn't I give, since You give to me without reservation. You are able to provide me with every blessing in abundance, and You will provide so that I will always have enough for myself and some to give away.
Father, forgive me for the times I have been miserly with the abundance you have shared with me. Make me a conduit of blessings. I know that all I have is yours. Please help me use it as you would.
In the name of Jesus Christ, the truly generous Savior of mankind. Amen.
My computer IP gave up on me before I had a chance to finish with this :( sorry:
FOR MORE WONDERFUL WORD FILLED WEDNESDAY, please visit our hostess
Penny @ pennyraine.com/blog
and don't forget
Each week I have been taking a verse from the Father's Love Letter to share and allow us to soak in His LOVE from HIS Letter to Me & YOU: the Bible.
Today's comes from 2 CORINTHIANS 5:18-19...
All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.
(NIV Bible)
| Definition: | 1) to change, exchange, as coins for others of equivalent value 1a) to reconcile (those who are at variance) 1b) return to favor with, be reconciled to one 1c) to receive one into favor |
[It is when we understand the meaning and process of "reconciliation" (along with "propitiation") that we begin to appreciate the wonderful extent of God's grace and His love for mankind.
But God went beyond just sending His Son to die on the cross as a propitiation designed to reconcile man back to God; He has also developed... the MINISTRY of RECONCILIATION]
a. Reconciliation is not unconditional (we must respond!)
b. Reconciliation is not universal (some will be lost!)
Indeed, the grace and mercy of God offered in the death of His Son must not be received in vain!
RECONCILIATION is one of the steps in HEALING!
First, CONFESSION followed by REPENTANCE then comes the RECONCILIATION (expressing and receiving the forgiveness and pursuing intimate fellowship) finally RESTITUTION.
This is true for injustices in society and acts committed against other people groups in as well (such as with the Native Americans). There hopefully is RESTORATION as a result and RENEWAL.
I need to return this RECONCILIATION back to my personal marriage relationship. I believe that each of us tried to find a way at some point in our relationship to resolve our situations, they just never worked. Perhaps each of us had expectations to change the other. You see that is the part of the definition of "to reconcile". God can change us...God will change anyone who surrenders that part of their life that needs fixing. God desires for us to make changes in our life. In fact, each phase of our lives is a process of transformation.
Healthy relationships require compromise on a regular basis. I think that is where we are in our present status. Compromise shows wisdom and experience — that expecting only the other person to make all the changes in the relationship is unrealistic and simplistic. Many marriages encounter problems, and finding your way toward reconciliation can be a challenge. It takes time, commitment and hard work to make a marriage work. In my marriage, we accept each other and what each of us have chosen to do in our lives, including living apart to avoid continual conflicts.
My HOPE would be to RESTORE my marriage if that is God's will. Of course, God wants marriages restored and healed. I'm not sure that this is so in my case. But I remain open at all times. I do believe that we are RECONCILED although our differences are yet to be reconciled.
Each summer that I go home, I go home with the expectation that God will RESTORE what we selfishly destroyed. We have gone through the healing steps but some things have not changed. He is who he is and I am who I am but still remains the question if we were meant to be together...yes, God allowed our paths to continually cross but perhaps marriage was not meant to be the outcome. Without knowing each of us, I'm sure this is confusing. Our relationship is FIRE PROOF but perhaps God never intended us to marry. You see, my spouse is one of what we see as the LOST. He believes in GOD but not in God as I know Him. He does not accept Jesus as LORD, knowing about Him and though he is very much a humanitarian, which blinded me - He believes there are many ways to GOD. So, I continue to pray for his hardened heart to be tender and open when God sends someone to reap the harvest of his soul. Maybe you can join me in praying for him/us.
This relationship failure leaves me many times feeling as a "failure". It reminds me of my MAZES in my life and the many dead ends and trails of following the path around and around, hoping to find my way out or the right way to RESTORE or RECONCILE my relationship. It leaves me wondering if all of this MESS is part of a consequence for choosing to marry in REBELLION. So I take my failed marriage and whatever part I had in that failure to the Cross, I lay it at His feet, I ask for His forgiveness and direction. I ask Him to show me how I can be reconciled or restored. To lead me.
God loves to shed light on us when we are lost and points us in the direction of reconciliation.
Reconciliation is made possible through Jesus Christ.
In other words...
1) God took Christ, who knew no sin, to represent our sin and to receive the punishment due for sin in His death on the cross
2) So that we, who were enemies, alienated from God by our sins, might be reconciled back to God!
3) And through Christ's death:
a) We might become the righteousness of God in Him - 2Co 5:21a
b) We might be holy, blameless and irreproachable in His sight, because our trespasses are not imputed to us - Col 1:22; 2Co 5:19; Ro 4:6-8
Indeed, reconciliation is possible because God has offered Jesus as a "propitiation" for our sins!
a. The word "propitiation" describes a sacrifice that is designed to appease for sins
b. It was used to describe those sacrifices that Gentiles offered to their gods
c. But in the NT, it is GOD who offers the "propitiation", not man!
This illustrates the great love God has for us, and how far He has gone in trying to reconcile man back to Himself! This is also the love required in a marriage between the bride & the spouse. God's relationship with the church as His Bride is intended to show forth this great LOVE! His love covers us with His aMazing Grace! His eyes reflect His love and affirmation. He celebrates your triumphs! Here is how the Father's Love Letter ends:
While God is righteous and holy and sin cannot dwell in His presence, the issue of our sin has been dealt with once and for all by the death of Jesus Christ. Because of the cross, when God looks at us, He does not see our sin but only the precious blood of His Son. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we have been reconciled to God and our sins have been separated from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
What a glorious thought! God is not counting my sins! God is not counting your sins! Hallelujah!
PRAYER:
Father, I thank You for not counting my sins against me. I believe that You are not an angry judge but You are my loving Father! I thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for me to take upon Himself all my sin. I thank You that His death, burial and resurrection have made a way for me to be completely forgiven and fully reconciled to You as Your little child.
I wait and am ready for whatever is Your will as regards my marriage reconciliation, restoration. You saw when I worked diligently to REBUILD but I'm sure it takes more than one to do that...and that is why I turn to You. I believe LORD that there is a time for everything and all in Your time. I surrender to Your will. I surrender my marriage to Your purpose. I surrender my husband to You.
In the name of Your beloved Son Jesus I pray, AMEN. I love You and thank You!
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14: 1-4 
How could I ever say thank You
When the whole of this life’s not enough
Though I offer each breath back in worship
It never could match Your great love
So great are Your ways
Such encompassing grace
Love that reaches beyond each defense
Your mercy disarms the most broken of hearts
Such complete and profound faithfulness
How could I thank You
How could I ever repay You
When You laid aside Heaven for me
You came to the earth its Creator
Incarnate to set sinners free
I love You Lord
I love You Lord
I love You Lord
I love You Lord
————–
How Could I Ever Say Thank You © 2007 Vertical Worship Songs/ASCAP,
written by Kathryn Scott.
http://monday4missions.blogspot.com/
HEM OF HIS GARMENT with Ameerah
.......HIS WAYS are not OUR WAYS
