God's love for us

 

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah! Romans 5:1-11, The Message

Words from Jeremiah

 

"Surrender to Love"

The Wednesday Morning Bible Study is currently doing a study on "Seeking God: Finding Another Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dallas Willard" by Trevor Hudson. The above is from the study guide. 

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A Prayer

The Wednesday Morning Bible Study is currently doing a study on "Seeking God: Finding Another Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dallas Willard" by Trevor Hudson. The above is from the book. 

(click on photo to view larger)

Memories from Sunday School

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you (in thy sight), O Lord, my rock (strength) and my redeemer. Psalms 19:14                    

After reading Psalm 19 the other day, I felt all warm and happy reading verse 14. Rarely can I relate when I first heard a Bible verse, but verse 14 brought back great memories. I was in fourth grade Sunday School and our teacher during the first class of the fall had us memorize verse 14. Then each Sunday at the end of the class, we would recite it together like a prayer for the following week. I think this bonded us together in some way as we journeyed together later through Communicants class and the church's youth groups. This reinforced my belief in the early ministries of the church and their importance to our children.  

Prayer: Thank you, God, for all that are part of the ministries in the church for our children. Thank you for the resources available to us in this ministry. Thank you for people early in our own lives who invested in the future of our faith. Thank you for your word through the Bible that directs us to love and praise you, follow your guidelines for living, and teaches us about your son and your grace and how to love one another. Amen 

Nancy Hall

Words from Psalm 30

Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 

Words from John 3

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:1-21