Great for Kids

My husband got this Bible for my son, who is only eight months old right now, and I love it! It is an excellent Bible that keeps Christ at the center of every story. I love reading it to my son, and he loves looking at the beautiful pictures. The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the beautiful love story about God redeeming a people for Himself, through Christ- which is the heart of the Bible. I have not found many children's books that convey that message. It is also great because it uses child-friendly language and explains the truth without watering it down. This is something I would recommend for anyone to buy a younger child.

I have also used Read Aloud Bible Stories and Leading Little Ones to God in working with children. They are both excellent in content as well.

New Look

I want to thank my wonderful husband for making my blog look exactly the way I want it to look. He is the best! I am not good at most things dealing with technology, so I guess that is one of the reasons we are a perfect match.

All For Jesus

All For Jesus

By Mary D. James

All for Jesus! All for Jesus!

All my being's ransomed power;

All my thoughts and words and doings;

All my days and all my hours.

Let my hands perform His bidding;

Let my feet run in His ways;

Let mine eyes see Jesus only;

Let my lips speak forth His praise.

Worldlings prize their gems of beauty,

Cling to gilded toys of dust;

Boast of wealth and fame and pleasure -

Only Jesus will I trust.

Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,

I've lost sight of all beside,

So enchained my spirit's vision,

Looking at the crucified.

Oh what wonder! How amazing!

Jesus, glorious King of kings,

Deigns to call me His beloved,

Lets me rest beneath His wings.

Amen.

Take My Heart Lord!

I have been thinking a lot about how our hearts, especially mine, wander from God so easily. I long to love Him and seek Him with all my heart, yet I fall short time and time again. Why do I run to sin when I am called to "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." as it says in Romans 12:9? I want to hate my sin and to put it to death. I know that my heart can be so full of pride. Pride is an awful thing that is at the heart of most of the sin I do. Thanks be to God for providing a way that I might live through Him. I am so grateful that I am not left in my own prideful hands, but that Christ took all my sin on the cross (Romans 6:1-14). I am also in the hands of a loving Father who does not leave me in my sin. "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians1:6 God is going to finish what He has started in me. He is going to make me complete one day and I will not struggle with my flesh, but will be perfect. I still have to fight sin and hate it now. The way to do that is with God's Word.

Something to put to memory is His Word so that I will be ready to fight sin and temptation with a powerful weapon. As the Scripture says in Psalm 119:9-12 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!" Seek God, store His Word in my heart, praise God... That I might live a life worthy of Him, for His glory.

I need to bind my heart to God, as it says in the verse of a hymn I love Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing:

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be!Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

Philippians Part 2a

Commands/Instructions to the Philippians:

1 Be of the same mind. v2:2
2 Have the same love. v2:2
3 Be humble. Have no rivalry or conceit. v2:3
4 Think of others as more important than you are v2:3
5 Look to the interest of others. v2:4
6 Be like minded with Christ. v2:5
* We are not equal with God. v2:6
* We should be servants. v2:7
* Be humble. v2:8
7 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. v2:12
8 Do all things without grumbling, questioning, or complaining. v2:16
9 Be glad and rejoice. v2:18

They (and we) are commanded to live a life that thinks about others more than themselves (ourselves). What a hard task! We are so selfish and think that everything should go our way or else. We do not want to be servants, yet God’s word has called us to be just that…servants. To be humble, be like minded, love, rejoice… these are things that we can never do on our own. It is only through Christ and His Spirit that any of this can be accomplished. In Philippians 2:1 it states that we must be in participation with the Spirit. He must be working in us.

Kay Arthur put it beautifully in her study.

She says, “…since God has worked in you, let it flow out to others. Let it flow to other believers and to the world. Be of the same mind, maintaining the same love, remain united in Spirit, be intent on one purpose: glorifying God by walking worthy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let Christ’s attitude be in you. When you do this, you’ll see that other’s notice!”

Something to Ponder

God of Your goodness, give me Yourself;

for You are sufficient for me.

I cannot properly ask anything less,

to be worthy of you.

If I were to ask less,

I should always be in want.

In You alone do I have all.

Julian of Norwich

Good Movies to Rent

The Prestige

The Illusionist

Both of these were excellent movies that made me think. I like movies that I cannot figure out to easily! These are both similar in nature- they are about magic. But they have very different story plots and I truly enjoyed watching them. It is hard to find a good movie, but I think both of these are! Enjoy wathing them.

Powerful Words

Colossians 3:12-17

"12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

How we need to live out these verses for those of us who are in Christ! Amen

Salvation: Just click and confess

I was reading a blog and came across this article that was very disturbing to me. Salvation: Just Click and Confess! WHAT??

There is actually a web site that you can go to and confess your sins. Apparently there are others that are similar in nature. I guess that I must live in some kind of a bubble, because I did not know anything about this. According to the article a church created this web site and they have received some negative comments for it too.

Once I read the article, I thought about what confession really is. Is it only me saying what I did wrong so I will feel better about myself? Of course not! Confession should be connected to repentance. I suppose many people are just trying to feel better and getting their sins out, anonymously, is the best way of doing that (or so they may think). But true repentance is the only way to have forgiveness. Spurgeon says this about repentance:

There must be a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it in true repentance. A discovery of iniquity and a hatred of it, without which there can be no repentance.

I am not sure if that is what is going on. I know that not all who go to the site are believers in Jesus Christ, but shouldn't they be told what true repentance is and that there is no forgiveness outside of Christ! 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Says: As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

"They are not confessing to God, but a computer."

Another sad aspect of this is that the site is visited by more people who just want to read about what other people have done wrong. How twisted are we when the sins of other people become a form of entertainment to us! According to the article:

"So far, more people are reading the confessions than posting them. The site gets about 1,000 hits a day, with about 200 online admissions."

I am glad that this web site can reach out to people who probably would never enter church or who have been abused and need help. It just all seems a little odd to me. I pray that they are being told the truth by someone through their confession time. That they would produce the godly grief that would lead them to salvation.