Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Jesus, the Living Water

Made a few changes...


“Whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him or her will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4.14)

The living water of Jesus offers wholeness and peace in this world. And this is the path of eternal life. To drink now from Jesus’ teachings is to have the well of God in our very being. As our thirst begins to be quenched, the spring of God flows out to the broken around us.

Tonight, our family had a SWEET time during devotions, talking about Jesus being our Living Water. I've been thinking about all the things that we, as broken people, search for to try to satisfy that part of us that only Jesus can satisfy. Why is it that we struggle so much with this? We've been looking for something that can satisfy our souls, something that we think will make us happy...movies, video games, love songs, rap music, immorality, fashion, drugs, alcohol and partying...Any of us could be popular and still not be happy. We think to be known would be great! It's Christ in us that needs to be made known. The only thing that CAN and WILL satisfy your heart is Jesus Christ the Living Water!! He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE...the path to life... He will satisfy us with His Living Word, and refresh out hearts with His truth and His love.

This generation is full of wickedness- Romans 3

Monday, April 23, 2007

Beauty!!




Left: Sunset in the Marshall Islands!!
Right: One of the Islands in the Marshalls!!!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

"The Love of God"

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Cor 1:3-4

God gave us our feelings and emotions for a purpose and He can use them to enhance our walk with Him. Using the example of marriage to demonstrate what I mean. I know that my dad loves my mom, but if he doesn’t show that he does, then their marriage is likely to go through some pretty hard times. My mom needs to ‘know’ deep within her that she is loved. She also needs to trust my dad. Without trust the relationship is on a collision course with disaster. (FYI, my parents do love each other… it was just an example… that was all I could think of...)
Anyways, in the same way, to have a relationship with God, we have to be able to trust Him. If we do not know that He has our best interests at heart (that He loves us) then we will find it very difficult to trust Him in our lives. So many of us either did not know a father’s love, or received a perverted idea of what a father’s love should be, that when it comes to receiving love from our Heavenly Father, we tend to put our earthly experience of fatherly love onto Him.
Unfortunately, our natural fathers are very human and, very often any love that was shown to us as children was flawed. If your natural father is/was never there when you needed him; was angry or drunk; was unkind or uncaring; sometimes reliable but sometimes not, then your view of God is likely to be somewhat distorted. Another factor in our experience could be that your parents or grandparents used God as a threat in order to get you to behave; in which case you will tend to think of Him as some sort of a mad God to be feared and avoided if at all possible.
If you really long to know that the Father really loves you, then the first step is to forgive your earthly father for whatever made you uncomfortable with him. Then you can ask your Heavenly Father to show you how much He loves you!

Jesus said: "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24

Open yourself up to God and ask Him to show you how much He loves you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told us that when He was seated at the right hand of the Father, He would send the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth

"You may ask Me for anything in my name, I will do it. " If you love me, you will obey what I command 16. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor (Holy Spirit) to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you." John 14:15

If you have asked the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and to take over your life, then you have the Holy Spirit within you and can ask Him to show you how much God loves you. God is love. He is not there to slap us down whenever we get out of line or to send us to hell if we sin. When we do sin, we can ask for forgiveness, turn away from it and start all over again with a clean slate. His mercies are new every morning.

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning, is your faithfulness." Lam 3:22-23

Example: If you were asked to give over your son to be killed in order that the people next door could be saved, would you do it? ( Dumb example) God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for all of us. What more could He do to show you how much He loves you, just as you are?

"We love because He first loved us. "1 John 4:19

So before we knew Him, He loved us!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

A doll!!



Isn't she a darling?!?

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Favorite Quotes

Here are two of my favorite verses in the book of Proverbs...

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life!
Prov. 4:23
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones!
Prov. 16:24

Elia



Yesterday, I got to hold this beautiful little girl for at least 20 minutes before my noon set... and I was just thinking of how blessed I am to have her as my cousin!! I can't wait to see what the LORD has in store for her!! I love her and she's such a darling!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Bored...

Right now, I am doing a few pages in my Math book... I love Math, but there are times when you're just NOT IN THE MOOD to do any... ya know? Anyways, I am getting my GED soon, which I am SO EXCITED about, and then probably FMA in the Fall... ya!!!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Kissing Elia's foot



The other day, I was holding Lia and I happened to have grabbed that tiny foot and gave it a little smoochie!! :-)

Darling



As for those who don't know, my uncle and aunt adopted a VERY adorable little girl!!
Her name is Elia Jane... and we all love her very much!! Isn't she a cutie???