Thursday, November 13, 2008
Simple Christmas
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Looking Back
Monday, November 10, 2008
Week 2: Walking By Faith
Can you say food for thought? Definitely! Especially for this girl who likes to know everything, to be in control and to be in charge! Learning to walk by faith is definitely a life-long lesson, one step at a time!~ Only after I admit my insufficiency, yield to God, and receive His grace do I have something about which to boast.
~ If we settle into the position His grace has placed us, we'll see His strength made perfect there. And we'll experience the joy of our journey following Him.
~ God is the pilot, and we follow. We aren't invited into the cockpit because we are not in charge of the journey. Our pilot is completely trustworthy. We need not fret, for He is capable of navigating through any turbulence. So we can rest wherever He has lovingly placed us. And when we do, we'll experience the fabulous freedom of following.
~ To follow God, we must die to our own desires, one hammer blow at a time.
~ The desire for complete control denies us the power available to live a crucified life. God is the one in front; living by faith means that God leads as we follow.
~ It's hard to let go of our desire to be in charge, but the life of faith requires us to trust the Lord completely and not our own clever convictions.
~ I have to yield control to the One who is trustworthy, capable, and knows exactly where I need to go. He alone can get me there the best possible way. How silly for any of us shortsighted sinners to bark commands at the One who sees all of eternity. Since God Himself goes before us and prepares the way, following His loving leadership is the surest, safest way to travel.
"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it."
---Luke 9:23-24
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Halloween Snippets
For a narrative of our evening, see this post.
"You are the light of the world."
---Matthew 5:14 (NIV)
Trick or Treat!
Up until this year, we were comfortable with doing both neighbourhood trick-or-treating and also going to the church’s event. As you all might have read on my blog, we did go to the church’s event this year. But, after coming home and re-assessing our decision, we were convinced and convicted that God would have wanted us to stay at home all night and make a difference in our community that way on Halloween night. So, that’s what we’ll start doing next year --- a new tradition is born!Still quite unknown to us at that point in time was God's plan to lead us, a few months down the road, into a church plant whose focus is our own community! God was changing our hearts in preparation for something He had in store for us. That is just awesome!