Oh Happiness!

"Oh Happiness! There's grace! Enough for us and the whole human race!"

(from "Oh Happiness" by David Crowder Band)

I can't stop singing that song. It's stuck in my head. Consequently, I've been thinking about the lyrics a lot.....

Romans 3:23-24 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

"Redeemed, How I love to proclaim it!..." Whoops. I'm singing again. :-)

I've been pondering:

Isn't it great how God planned grace?

And how it's free?

And how it's for everyone through His precious Son, Jesus?!

And how can I possibly keep the good news about His gift all to myself?

And why would I ever choose to wear a grumpy face when I know how much God loves me?

Knowing we have the gift of God's grace makes me happy. In fact, that makes me smile. A lot. What about you? Do you have your happy face on today? If you don't have one today, please let me share one of mine. We have lots of smiles down here in Sonshine School, and we really really love to share.

And by the way- Wow! Isn't it great how God made smiles? I just love the way He plans stuff.
They brighten your face and your eyes! They improve your mood! And they are very contagious!!

"It isn't any trouble just to s-m-i-l-e...."

God is Good, All the Time.

-Ms Christi

To Whom Shall We Go

I was just turning pages in my Bible looking for a certain verse when one of the section headlines caught my eye.  It read, "Many Disciples Desert Jesus."  I have read this section more than once before, but it was not the verse I was looking for.  For some reason, however, it stuck with me, and I found myself coming back to it to read again.  Jesus had just given his disciples some difficult teaching that many of them were having a hard time accepting.  Being aware of their thoughts and uncertainty, Jesus doesn't back away and John records that many who had been following turned away.

It was at this point that Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to leave as well.  Peter speaks up and actually gives a great response, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."  A powerful statement of faith and commitment, but it makes me wonder what was different about the Twelve who remained and the others who left?

I believe the answer is found in the first sentence of Peter's reply, "to whom shall we go?".  The Twelve that Jesus called had left everything to follow him.  They got up from their jobs and just walked away.  They had given up everything to be disciples.  These other followers were those that came to see the miracles and hear this new teaching.  It seems to me that they hadn't given up everything so it was easier for them to leave and go back.

This is something we see still at work today.  Many people can be attracted to certain aspects of following Jesus.  They may like the worship, the fellowship, activities or whatever.  However, let them hear some teaching that hits a little too close to home or asks too much of them, and they will just walk away.  They turn back to all the things they didn't leave in order to be a disciple.

It is the very reason the rich young ruler went away sad.  Jesus told him to give up the one thing that he knew would always be more important to this man and would be his safety net, his wealth.  Jesus knew he would not be completely committed and would easily turn away as long as he trusted in anything other than Jesus.

What about you?  To whom or to what do you turn other than Jesus?  The Twelve had no place else to go.  They had put all of their eggs in one basket so to speak.  Are you completely surrendered to the Savior or should things not go as you wish could you just walk away?  Half-hearted or part-time discipleship has never been an option with Jesus.  He gave himself completely for you and he demands all of you in return.

Exciting Times

These really are exciting times for our church family. There is just so much going on and coming together that makes me so excited about what God is doing here. My last post was about our new praise time on Wednesday evening. To be honest I really didn't know how that was going to work. I didn't know if the older people would come down to the youth center and participate. I didn't know how the teens would react to their space being invaded. I have to say I was greatly encouraged.

We had a number of older members come in and enthusiastically participate. At first the teens kind of moved away and huddled up out of the way. However, when we got ready to sing they came over and sat in the middle of everything and joined right in. I can see a lot of good things coming about as a result of these few minutes spent together in praise in the middle of the week.

Tomorrow is the great clean out. We are clearing out all the storage areas and reorganizing them. We will keep what is useful, sell what we don't need but is good, and trash the rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us so I hope we will have a lot of help show up to work.

Also, work has begun on sprucing up our old foyer and hallways around the auditorium. Even though we are a long way from being done, just the few changes that have begun have made a big difference. I am really looking forward to seeing the finished product and how it will help our facility reflect the warmth and friendliness of our family.

Over the last few weeks we have had new families coming to work with us with more being added this week and several others visiting. Add this to some additional changes we hope to be able to announce soon as well as some behind the scenes stuff that is going on and it is all pointing to a great future for this family.

God is good all the time!

Praise Time

I can't wait until this evening because tonight we begin our new praise time. I love all of the fellowship time we have during the Wednesday night meal and class is always great, but it has felt like something was missing. Then a couple of weeks ago about ten minutes before class started I walked down one of the hallways and heard beautiful singing. I walked toward it and discovered it was all of our elementary kids packed in a small class room having a pre-class devotional.

They seemed to be having a pretty good time and were really into the song they were singing. It was then that it dawned on me that the teens and adults could do the same thing. So, tonight at 6:40 anyone who wants to is going to gather in the youth center for about 15 minutes of nothing but praise. I think this is a great way to wrap up our wonderful fellowship time and prepare to go to class. I hope everyone will join us.

Habits are Hard to Make

I have always heard it said that bad habits are hard to break. As I reflect on my life there are a couple of bad habits that I have fought and fought to get rid of that I don't remember having any problem picking up. Yet, there are many good habits I would like to have that I have tried to incorporate into my life that just never seem to take. I have learned that good habits are as hard to make as bad habits are to break. For example, I had the idea for this blog after the first of the year and when I started it up it was my intention to post to it several times a week as well as encouraging others to post to it as well. I did pretty well for the first 10 days or so and then, well, life happened and next thing I knew it had been 2 weeks since I posted anything.

This is something I see as a good communication tool as well as something that can keep me focused on the spiritual development of our church family. I really believe it has the potential to be good for me and others, so why am I having a hard time making it become a regular part of my life?

Then I remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good i want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members."

This is a reminder of the continual struggle we have of the spirit versus the flesh. While my spirit longs to serve God and others there are a multitude of physical distractions pulling me to serve myself. It can become frustrating and discouraging to the point of wanting to quit when I time and again give into the flesh. It can seem hopeless. Paul goes on in that same letter to make a desperate statement, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Of course he doesn't leave it there. He gives the answer in a statement of praise, "Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Amen! We sometimes forget the victory has already been won. I think that all of us need to do a better job of understanding that we are flawed and weak. Left alone we will fall short. We will fail. But, through Jesus Christ we are made more than conquerors and can do all things. What may be impossible for us is made possible through the power of God. We need to stop trying to "make good habits". That is us working and that really never works. Instead, we need to start seeking God and opening up our hearts and souls to His leading and I believe we will see great things happen.

I guess what I am saying is this. Maybe we need to kick the habit of trying to control our habits and turn ourselves completely over to Him and let His Spirit lead us, teach us, encourage us, and empower us.