He is mighty to save!

     Today's devotion comes from Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
     This is a very sweet verse.  How cool is it to know that the Lord is here with us all the time?  He is always here to help us through the day and to comfort us when we reach those hard points in our day.  When we do good and honor him he is rejoicing over our successes, and when we know we have sinned or not sinned he is there waiting to offer us grace and forgiveness.  It is amazing how big of a God he is...I don't think I realized how much he really cares until I read the parts of the bible that I hadn't read or heard of before.  He fought for his people and even pleaded with his people to follow and obey him, he cares and loves us more than we will ever know. 
     How cool is that?:)

Friday Challenge!

     I was going tanning the other day and I saw the neatest quote at the front desk!  I thought that could be our challenge for the day:
     Good Morning, this is God,
     I will be handling all your problems today
     so go ahead and give them to me and have a good day! 
    
     I also imagine there is probably an I love you somewhere in there as well.  So go ahead...give God your problems and have a great weekend:)

Waiting...

     As I approach my final week in the quest to read the best book ever written, I came upon a very cool verse!  It is from Romans 8: 24-25:
     For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  I find this verse so intriguing.  The verse before that said that we are in anticipation of eagerly waiting to be adopted into God's kingdom and the redemption of our bodies. 
     Isn't it true?  We never hope for things we have, because of course, what's the point!  I hope for a house...oh, wait I already have one.  I hope for a great job..oh, wait I have one of those too.  I hope for great friends...oh, wait I have those too.  It is kind of goofy to hope for the things we have..unless of course we don't appreciate the things we have.  God wants us to hope for the things unseen!  That is where faith comes in, waiting for the things that God has promised but not quite shown us yet.  He wants us to continue waiting patiently for his promises to be revealed but also to remember that hope is giving him glory and honor in the mean time?:)

     So today's devotion comes from Matthew 16:21-23: From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  "Never, Lord!" he said.  "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
     When I was reading this it made me realize that even Jesus had temptations.  He had to learn to control his thoughts, he had to be careful of his actions and he had to be strong in what he said.  Jesus was human just like us and faced the same things we do today.  As I make my way through the new testament I realize he gave us words and quotes to stand on as satan tries to tempt and control us!  Satan is nothing but a stumbling block, let us remember that Jesus is a rock and rocks never crumble. 
     As each and every day comes and we are tempted to think and say things that are not of God, remember to open your bible and look up quotes to stand upon!  God is our rock and our strength..satan can try whatever he wants and as long as we remember what our rock says we will not stumble:)

Making the difference!

     Sometimes, God puts us in a leadership role and we are asked to inspire, train and reach whoever we are leading.  We work hard and do everything we are asked and it just seems we may not be making a difference.  Let me give a new perspective:
     Since about the second week of dance classes I decided I wanted to teach my classes a "word of the day."  This word is meant only to plant a seed and inspire my dancers to be more than they think they can be.  Every week we discuss a word that I pick: integrity, persevereance, responsibility, respect, humility, generousity, etc.  Of course, we have had a lot more than that, but that is just a few.  Now it doesn't matter age or capability of understanding...which, yes it means I even do this with my four year olds!
     Well, a couple weeks I was stretching with my four year olds and one of them said it was too hard.  Somebody else yelled out perseverance!  Then later on in class when I was explaining that we had to keep our tap shoes quiet, someone else yelled out respect!  I honestly didn't think my four year olds would grasp these concepts.  It is quite advanced and I was just doing it because they seemed to enjoy it and it is always good to teach little kids big, apropriate words.
     These dancers not only remembered the words but used them in the correct context!  You see, even when we think that what we do can't make a difference, or we only see whoever we are leading for an hour a week, it can make a difference.  As long as we plant the seed then God will make sure to sow that seed:)
    

Sometimes you have to hear more than once!

     Okay, so I have read the parable of the sower so many times.  I have heard many variations and I have kind of understood but reading the whole story myself...a light bulb finally went off!
     Jesus sits among large crowds and tells this parable: A farmer scattered seed, some fell along the path and the birds ate it.  Some fell on rocky places and it sprang up quickly because it didn't have much soil.  When the sun came the plants were scorched because they did not have roots.  Some seeds fell among thorns which grew but chocked the other plants.  Other seed fell among good soil where it produced a crop.
     God wants us to be that good soil.  He wants us to have such faith and belief in his word that no matter what comes against us we stay strong because we have roots to ground us.  Some people will be the other seeds and completely fall apart when things come against them, we need to have our moments of panic, but then we need to look at who can turn those moments of panic into praise.  The bible is our root to keep us grounded and focused on what really matters.

Matthew 13: 1-9

Friday Challenge!

     Today's challenge is this: Find an extra person or charity to bless this season.  Jesus said whatever you do in my name for the least of these you do for me. 
     Let's show God how much we appreciate him and his faithfulness by giving a little extra this month.  Craig and I already sponser 2 children through World Vision, one from Zambia and one from Mozambique.  They send us a gift catalog every year around this time for this exact reason.  We have decided to send an extra amount of money to help go toward emergency food and shelter in the Horn of Africa.  We are giving this in honor of our "nieces" first birthday, she got so many presents this year we decided to do this instead. 
     It doesn't matter how much money...it doesn't even have to be money, it could be time.  Let's pay back how blessed we all are by paying the blessing forward!

Have a great weekend...I have a lot going on this weeknd so I won't be writing another one till Monday:)