Tuesday, February 28, 2006
The life of a beggar may not be peaches and cream but the beggar knows what side of the bread is buttered and by who. The self-sufficient seem to be missing that point in their life. They think they are furnishing the bread and butter, choosing which side is going to be buttered, when and then spreading it themselves.
In reality we are all beggars in the sense that we are not self-sufficient and for those who think they are, are in self-denial. The beggar is dependant, understanding that his life is not his own but in the hand of the one who provides bread and water to sustain him or her.
In the spiritual world there is one who provides the bread of life and living water for those who are not self-sufficient but dependant as the poorest beggar. No wonder we must humble ourselves in the site of the Lord!
– Lyn Sahr
-Ps 149:4 NIV
For the LORD takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with salvation.
-James 4:10 NIV
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Monday, February 27, 2006
We came home late the other night and as we walked to the house in the dark we saw the stars lighting up the sky with all of their majesty. It was beautiful. I thought to myself, “Why do I not spend more time enjoying the beauty of God’s creation?”
Perhaps I am not the only one who spends their days with things. With the trend in health clubs/fitness centers, physical therapy clinics and mental health centers these days perhaps we have missed the obvious. Spending time with God’s creation doing the things that touch our body, souls and minds may help people more than the others combined.
And finally, the most help may come from enjoying less than perfect music and an average or less pastor speaking in a Sunday morning worship service in an old country church with the cemetery out back, if there are any left, with hard pews, no nursery or children’s church.
– Lyn Sahr
-Gen 1:31 NIV
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Last Sunday I was in a couple of services and there was the usual time for testimonies. One lady stood up to tell how she had been noticing a gas smell outside her house for a few days but couldn’t figure out where the leak could be. Finally someone came to check. There had been a stove outside the house and when it was removed, the gas line wasn’t shut off, but only a piece of plastic had been placed in the connection. That gas leak was huge and it was near the gas hot water heater. The man who checked this did not claim to be a Christian but his words were “It is a miracle the house didn’t explode. God has been watching out for you.” The lady shared with him that she believed that God had protected her.
As I heard this, I thought of this non-Christian who recognized the hand of God in this situation. How many times do we say we are lucky or fortunate when we realize we have been in danger and spared. We need to recognize that God is at work protecting us every minute of every day. Luck has nothing to do with our lives because we are held in His hands. And when tragedy strikes, we can rest assured that we aren’t alone and that He is in control. We can know that nothing happens to us unless He allows it.
-Ardis Rivera
-Psalm 77:13-14
Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?
You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
Saturday February 25, 2006
Go Vertical!
You’ve most likely heard it before. A strong Christian, someone who is looked up to in the community “slips” (or sins) and there is fallout between this leader and other believers in the community.
How can this happen? It’s pretty simple…..WE ALL SIN…and when we do we replace the Vertical!
Even that pastor or Christian leader can take their eyes off of Christ and fall into things (sin) which can destroy their ministry, their marriage, and their home. It’s easy to look at the “horizontal,” (or what we can see around us in the world) instead of the “vertical,” (looking to God) as we go through life. Once we take our eyes off the vertical, the enemy rushes in. In fact, so many pastors and Christian leaders are put on a “pedestal” or “above” others in certain circles. Whoa……now the vertical is merely another believer, and not God…which in reality is only horizontal. See how easy it is to replace the vertical in your life?
It’s time to replace any horizontals in your life and Go Vertical!
-Garrett Novak
Proverbs 23:26 (NIV)
“My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways”
Friday, February 24, 2006
Misguided critics are the curse of God’s people. They will always be there to squelch the movement of the Spirit and the divine direction of God whenever possible. This will never change in this life. Usually they are very, very unhappy with themselves and can’t look in their own spiritual mirror. So they cope with their bitterness and disappointments in life by redirecting their nasty feelings and emotions toward someone else. Often it is the pastor, a dear saint or some other leader in the church. Perhaps Rex Humbard, the legendary evangelist and pastor said it best, “If your detractors don’t have nail prints in their hands, don’t worry about them!” Good advice.
– Lyn Sahr
-Ps 109:1-5 NIV
O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
5 They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
When Moses led the children of Israel across the Red Sea , it was a supernatural act to solve a natural problem. If Moses had to do it in the natural it would have been futile. The people would have had to use some kind of buckets and would have spent the rest of their lives trying to empty the sea. Furthermore, they would have been overcome by the enemy, Pharaoh’s army, and destroyed.
Too often we try to solve the difficult natural problems of this life ourselves, in the natural. The enemy uses supernatural powers to overcome and destroy those who choose to use buckets to empty a sea of problems. Only God has a bucket that big!
– Lyn Sahr
-Jer 10:12-13 NIV
But God made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
the makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Trusting Him for tomorrow when you don’t know how you are going to get through today is not humanly possible. Trust, like love, is a God thing. It must be sought after through clinging to the one who loves you most. God has never dropped anyone who was holding on to Him!
– Lyn Sahr
-Ps 20:6-7 NIV
Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The beauty of the sunrise on Seekers Bay once again touches my life today. I have a lot to be concerned about with funding Ruby’s Pantry, regrouping and funding in Mexico after Ardis Rivera’s long illness and just making ends meet here on the home front. Yes, life is a challenge. But when I look out over the snow covered ice on the bay and the sun glisten majestically, I see the beauty of our creator who is and stands for something larger than life itself.
Perhaps you have some concerns and problems that are huge in your life today. Trust me, I understand the struggle. I do not pretend to understand why or the purpose of some of the struggles. But the good news is that God understands.
– Lyn Sahr
-Job 28:20-28 NIV
“Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds of the air.
22 Destruction and Death say,
‘Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.’
23 God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
24 for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
26 when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
27 then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
28 And he said to man,
‘The fear of the Lord-that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.'”
Monday, January 20, 2006
I told my four year old grandson something I wanted him to do and he said, “What are you talking about?” Sometimes that’s the way people respond to God when He asks them to do something. Often it is a reaction people have when they hear a sermon or read scripture that calls them to change. It seems like a more reasonable question coming from a four year old.
– Lyn Sahr
-Exodus 3:1-12 NIV
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God . 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight–why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt . I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey–the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt .”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt ?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
I came back to Monterrey this past week after spending 10 weeks in Minnesota and Wisconsin . All my things were put in storage when I left in December. Now I am going through everything. There are things I haven’t used the entire time I have lived here and I decided there is no use to keep them any longer. I guess I am doing my spring housecleaning now in February. A part of me wants to keep everything “just in case I might need it someday”. But right now I have no choice because my new place is too small to keep things I won’t be using.
I believe God wants us to do some spiritual housecleaning. But we need to let Him tell us the things in our lives that need to go. When He gives the “throw away” list, we need to be quick to obey. Cluttered spiritual lives are just as bad as a cluttered house that is full of things no one uses.
-Ardis Rivera
-Psalms 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
There was a time when attending church on Sundays was common place. Unfortunately, it is not as common of a place to be as it used to be. Too many people, including many who proclaim to be Christians, are found everywhere but church on Sunday mornings!
In the last few years we have had a lot of books written and movies produced about the end times, the rapture if you will. So I suppose it is fair to wonder when Jesus will return. The scripture is clear that only God the Father knows the time but if one were to guess…?
We know that it is impossible for us to know the year, month, day, hour or the minute. But I cannot think of a better time for the rapture to occur than when the church is gathered together worshipping on a Sunday morning. Consider that the next time you skip church!
– Lyn Sahr
-Matt 24:36-44 NIV
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Friday, February 17, 2006
What do you want to do with your life? Need a little bit of God’s help?
The empowering of the Holy Spirit will not give you the power to become what you want to be but rather the power to be what you were meant to be. Then you will know what to do with your life!
You have to be what God wants you to be before you can do what God wants to you to do.
– Lyn Sahr
-Rom 8:28-29 NIV
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Anger thwarts compassion. Thus, it can be the enemy of love.
– Martin Wishnatsky
-Luke 6:27
Love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Grace is unmerited favor from God but it is also can be us giving unmerited favor to others. Recently I was very offended by someone. I was angry because this person was so wrong and so stupid. Then I stepped back for a minute and took a look at him for just a moment and I found peace in seeing him in the light of grace.
Grace may not be easy to give to others; it may not help them and may in fact inflame them. But giving grace to others surely brings peace to those who have the love of Christ and are able to come to that place. Grace may not be the end of the world but is surely is the end to peace with God and man!
– Lyn Sahr
-2 John 3 NIV
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
If you can’t afford roses today, find an olive branch. The olive branch is a very strange symbol of peace. The olive is bitter; yet isn’t peace sweet? Many marriages could use a gesture of peace which may help them rediscover their love for one another.
So where do you find an olive branch? I have no clue. But I would suggest you kneel and pray with your spouse. God knows a lot about peace and I am sure that He knows where the olive branch is that you need in your marriage!
– Lyn Sahr
-Gen 8:6-12 NIV
After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Tomorrow we celebrate Valentines Day in America . The other day I stopped at a flower shop to check out the price of a dozen roses and I was startled to find out they cost $89.95. Needless to say, I didn’t buy them. Perhaps this year I will only be able to afford one rose for my wife but she will appreciate it just as much. You see, it’s not about the number of roses she gets but the love of the man who gives the rose.
So it is with giving in the church. It’s not about the amount of money one gives but the love for God of the one giving the money.
– Lyn Sahr
-1 John 4:16-17 NIV
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
*********************
Received today from one of our readers in Pakistan:
Dear Lyn Sahr ,
Greetings from over cast skies of Gujranwala Pakistan .
Thanks for the ‘Frozen Food’
Sincerely
Sunday, February 12, 2006
While working with Ruby’s Pantry I have come to the conclusion that most people think they are poor! In the church we have the same mentality. Most people think they are too poor to tithe (the word tithe means 10%).
A couple of years ago I was preaching on tithing in a church and someone who had been attending church for years came to me after the service and said; I have never heard of such a thing before!” Could it be that the giving in our churches is down because we have neglected to teach people Christianity 101? Churches are being constantly accused of always asking for money. Could it be that the people sitting in the pews have not been taught about tithing and, therefore, do not understand why the church needs money or who is responsible for providing it? Tithing is not an opinion or an option but rather an outrageous worship experience and act of love for God from a thankful, grateful and loving heart believer.
Unfortunately, on the way to church not many people think or say; “My favorite part of the worship service is the offering. I can’t wait to get to church and put my tithes and offerings into the plate! Hallelujah!”
– Lyn Sahr
-Luke 11:42 NIV
Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Did you know that 50% of the groceries sold in grocery stores today are frozen foods. We have become so used to frozen pre-cooked meals that we seem to accept the same thing in our churches, frozen congregations with pre-cooked sermons!
– Lyn Sahr
-2 Tim 4:1-5 NIV
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Friday, February 10, 2006
God is not your enemy, but rather your friend. It is difficult for many people who are running from God to realize that God is trying to catch them to love them up, not beat them up! Anyway, too many people do a good enough job of beating themselves up and they have nothing left to beat!
Take a time out. Give God’s love some space today in your busy schedule.
– Lyn Sahr
-Job 16:18-22 NIV
“O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!
19 Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
20 My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as a man pleads for his friend.
22 “Only a few years will pass
before I go on the journey of no return.
Thursday, February 9, 2006
The greatest Christians the world has ever known were probably never known by the world!
– Lyn Sahr
-Heb 10:23 NIV
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Two years ago today, Lonna and I were both sick in bed with a horrible stomach flu. But in the midst of our distress our daughter gave birth to our first granddaughter. Early the next morning I struggled out of bed and headed to the airport to catch a plane to Monterrey , Mexico . It was difficult because we were at the hospital for both of our grandson’s births and I hated to leave for eight days without seeing this special gift from God. The next day Lonna felt good enough to go to the hospital to see her. When I called her that evening I asked her about the baby. She said, “She is beautiful!” When I returned from Mexico the first thing I did was go over to our daughter’s house to see this new gift from God. And truly, she was and is beautiful. For the past two years she has brought such joy into our lives. When she first learned how to talk she couldn’t say Grandpa so she called me “Bompa” and so the name remains. Truly it was a good day when she was born.
Often in life we have something go wrong in a day and we proclaim it was a bad day. In reality, there is good in every day as well as the usual negative sprinkling. When we laid in the bed with the horrible flu and our granddaughter was born, we remember today as her birthday, not our “fluday!”
– Lyn Sahr
-Ps 92:1-8 NIV
It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
6 The senseless man does not know,
fools do not understand,
7 that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be forever destroyed.
8 But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.
Tuesday, February 7, 2007
Sunday we worshiped in a black Baptist church and it was an enlightening service. February is black history month and a woman spoke during the service about black history in Minnesota . It was very, very interesting. But the part that really stuck in mind was when she talked about gangs and how most of them have a 3rd grade reading level. This effects their childhood and they are drawn to the gangs where reading is not a requirement. If you can’t read you can’t pass a drivers test or even fill out a job application. If we are going to lead these young people to Christ it is going to take something more than giving them tracts or Bibles they cannot read. Perhaps we could hand them faith, hope and love. What a novel idea!
– Lyn Sahr
-1 Cor 13 NIV
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Monday, February 6, 2006
If the hell hounds aren’t nipping at your heels, you must be running the wrong way!
-Lyn Sahr
-Matt 23:33-39 NIV
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
Sunday, February 5, 2006
When I get to heaven I want to discuss the spiritual warfare with the angels that are fighting the battles of the heavenlies. I believe that these battles are far more often and intense than anything we think or imagine. It is difficult for me to wait for the times when I really need God to move and things just seem to go from bad to worse. Spiritual Warfare? I am beginning to think there are plenty of battles that I have ignored in the past that were spiritual warfare. Perhaps you are facing battles in your life that you need God’s help. Frankly, we all do. And spiritual warfare is the battle that the Christians face, especially those in the front lines of ministry.
So if you want as few spiritual battles as possible; go to church, don’t get involved, don’t lead, don’t follow, don’t sing in worship services and don’t go to Bible studies. Just don’t do anything and you will be misidentified as Chuckie or Susie Righteous because you will be unblemished from the battle scars of the spiritual wars fought by the gallant believers.
Perhaps we should print T-shirts that say, “Just Don”t!”
-Lyn Sahr
-Dan 10:7-19 NIV
I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9 Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.
10 A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.
12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia . 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”
15 While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. 16 Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I am helpless. 17 How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.”
18 Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. 19 “Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”
Saturday February 4, 2006
There is a popular Christian song out today called “Lifesong,” by a popular Christian group, Casting Crowns. It talks about how each of us sings a different “lifesong” to our heavenly father. At first I liked the catchy melody and harmony in the song. But as I continue to listen to it, the words touched me deeper and made me realize that each of us truly does have a different lifesong. We each have a different harmony (family members), melody (things that drive us internally) and notes (life experiences) to make up our “lifesong”
No matter what your “lifesong” is singing today, remember that God created within you a melody and harmony that makes you unique. No one else will have the same lifesong as you. So look inside and find the “music in you.” That small still voice of God is singing a song to you.
“Let my lifesong sing to You
Let my lifesong sing to You
I want to sign your name to the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You”
(Casting Crowns/Mark Hall © 2005)
-Garrett Novak
-Judges 5:3 NIV
Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I will sing to the LORD, I will sing;
I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel .
Friday, February 3, 2006
We finished our 100th month of the “Thought for the Day” in January. It seems like only yesterday that on that fall day of October 1997 that I sent the first Thought for the Day.
Thursday, October 30, 1997
“They had to literally nail Jesus to the cross to keep Him from doing more. How much restraint does it take to hold us back?”
I wondering if anyone would even want to read them but here we are 100 months later and still feeling excited about writing. Last year I wrote very little as my schedule prohibited it. But now we are back on track with more new writers coming along side of us. It is going to be a great year for the ChurchMouse Chronicles.
So, my thought for today is simply this;
Walk in the light and let your critics follow you that they too may walk in the light and see the Jesus who died for them and loves them too!
– Lyn Sahr
-1 John 1:7 NIV
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Thursday, February 2, 2006
In order to live for Christ, you have to die to everything else.
– Martin Wishnatsky
-Matthew 10:37
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he
that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
My grandson is 26 months old and, for some reason, he enjoys numbers, shapes and letters. He can name all the letters in the alphabet and all the letters. A few weeks ago he was sitting on my lap and counted to 16. He recognizes shapes like circles, hearts, triangles and squares. When I asked his mother, our daughter, if she was working with him on these things all the time she said she worked with him some but that he picked up on a lot of it on his own.
That may work with small children but when it comes to learning about the things of God, most people do not just “pick it up on their own.” People need mature, disciplined, learned Christians to teach young Christians the A,B,C’s of the faith. I look at it this way;
A is for the attitude that it takes to teach others.
B is for the beautiful attitude it takes to teach others.
C is for the constant beautiful attitude that it takes to teach others.
So then why is it that it is so difficult to find teachers in the church these days? Must have something to do with attitude!
– Lyn Sahr
-Phil 2:5-11 NIV
Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
