Give Thanks

Appropriate for today and everyday.

give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Whether you are in a home feasting with loved ones, struggling with relationships, celebrating alone, sleeping on the street, sick with a burdened heart or grieving a loss, give thanks.  Your God sees you.  Your Christ lives and, by His blood, is making you new.  Though we have nothing, we have much reason for rejoicing.

10 Year-Old Brilliance

  Autism Speaks: How are you going to make friends in your own world?

Forgiven and Loved pt 3

“Forgiveness transcends finite human reason.  The mere thought that one’s entire sin account can be utterly eradicated is staggering.  Yet it is quite clear that the forgiveness of sins strikes at the very core of human need and experience.  It speaks of guilt gone, remorse removed, depression disappearing and emptiness of life eradicated.  What power there is in forgiveness!  And it all comes abundantly from the gracious hand of God.”

Lewis A. Drummond, quoted in The Voice from the Cross (Grand Rapids, 1990), page 18.

Forgiveness is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Forgiven and Loved pt 2

Two days after I had posted Forgiven and Loved, Scott Mehl preached the sermon, It is Finished.  Once again God's timing is stellar!  For me, it was the perfect Halloween sermon, reaffirming what God had been telling me all month. 
I highly recommend you take a listen.
The enemy wishes us to remember our lawless deeds.  Our merciful Father remembers them no more.  Jesus died once for all!

Autism the Musical and The Miracle Project

For the past five years I have been met with great frustration. I knew I had talents in acting, dance and music, but with a new illness my body was too weak to perform. I was heart broken and left to wonder why God would give me such passion for the arts without the ability to carry them out.

Two years ago I thought it would be cool to teach arts to underprivileged children. I was constantly looking in at locations for rent (there were so many after the recession) and dreaming of turning one into a studio. Even though I was excited, I knew I was still not well enough.

A year ago, as I was volunteering at a pregnancy clinic I was convicted. Although my help there was good, I was in the wrong place. God wanted me to work with children; children with special needs, who were outcast and undervalued.

This week I have taken the first step toward what I believe God made me for.   I see that if He hadn't broken my body, I might be an actress in Hollywood not using the spiritual gifts given to me at my new birth.  This epiphany and opportunity come as I am beginning to feel better... in God's perfect timing.

Here is a peek at what I hope to do:

Beautiful Things

I am SUPER tired, but wanted to share this song with you today.

Beautiful Things by Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way?
I wonder if my life could really change 

at all?
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground 

at all?

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found 

in You

Oh, you make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
Making me new

Oh, you make beautiful things
(You make me new)
You make beautiful things out of the dust
(You are making me new, making me new)

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new

Forgiven and Loved

"Child you are forgiven, and child you are loved.
Child you are forgiven and free!"

This is from one of my favorite Jimmy Needham songs.  A song I have been listening to on repeat all week.  It was Christ's love that first compelled me to Him.  I had been so wounded that it seemed to me impossible that someone could love me.  Someone does love me, so much that He died for me.  I couldn't believe it, but the Holy Spirit lead me to believe when it was impossible that I would.  Since then, there has been this conflicting pull in my heart.  The Holy Spirit pulling me up, reassuring me that I am a child of God; and my heart pulling me down retorting that that is too good to be true. 

This past week I was given a clearer look at my sin and wounds.  It looks pretty bleak.  My offenses against God are pretty horrific.  The worst of all is disbelieving that the God of the Universe, who sacrificed His only son - Christ the sinless God man - to be a propitiation for my sins so that I may be God's beloved child, loves me.  This is the worst insult to God.  I know it is, I believe it is, yet I still struggle to believe that the by nature pure blood is for me.  Doesn't that seem to good to be true?

What struck me this week is, in light of this great offense, God still loves me.  There is nothing I can do, nothing I can say (short of blaspheming the Holy Spirit) that will cause Him to love me any less.  Nothing I can do, nothing I can say will cause Him to love me any less.  Nothing you can do, nothing you can say will cause Him to love you any less.  Nothing anyone can do to us, nothing anyone can say to us will cause Him to love us any less.

In a world where father will forsake his child, a mother has no compassion on the child she bore, a trusted friend withdraws, a spouse betrays... our God will not.  Our God will not forsake us.  Our God has compassion.  Our God will be with us even to the end of the age.  It is easier for the king sitting at the head of the table to believe this, but oh, the reverence of the dog under the table, accustomed to being kicked when underfoot!