Saturday, March 12, 2011

Encouragement

A highschool friend's baby passed and the funeral was today. I have never met the baby but she looked adorable from the pictures and videos. According to the parents, she was quite the fighter and she smiled tons despite what she had gone through. She must have been so precious....

During the funeral service, the pastor shared his message from 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

...because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence

Eventually, the one who raised Jesus will raise us with Him...! That was quite the wakeup call... Then the pastor reminds us that.. during our troubles... suffering... and trials we...

...Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

As we age and we feel like we're older by the day... we are actually renewed day by day when we're walking with God! I can definitely say that I don't feel that way everyday and it's easy to overlook.. because I focus on my troubles.. but Paul says:

...For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Simply amazing...

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Change

...is hard. Very hard. And if we try by our own strength and by our own ways, we are bound to fail. We may gain a little ground, but it's so easy to slide. But thank goodness it's not the end for us, we have His hope and strength - for my strength is made perfect in weakness

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Just words...

Pastor Tom walked us through Song of Songs this Sunday and I loved it. A lesson on love. It might seem like love between a man and wife - but on a deeper level, its God's love for man. Although this concept is really hard to grasp - the imagery is quite powerful!


One thing Tom said that stood out to me was: "If you don't have love, it's like clanging gongs", and by that he meant words without love... so before I had to look it up - I found this verse on my BB:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1