Proverbs 14:10
"Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy."

I found this proverb to be so true...........though every once in awhile, I'm blessed with that deep sense of unity with brothers and sisters in love for and joy in - Jesus. Anyone who knows me- even a little bit, is probably annoyed every now and again by my question "What is God doing in your life?" (Charlie calls it the 'subway game' - makes it seem less invasive I think)

That's my feeble attempt to talk about things more important than the weather - or even ministry. But sadly it doesn't work too often.......we often fall into this "private life with Jesus" mentality that my catholic grandparents lift up. That is SOOO not how we are supposed to be....we were not meant to be Lone Rangers.
The depth of relationships that we all desire - we will never have if we do not take a chance- and open our hearts to our friends. Agh - American "individualistic" culture needs to be disciplined out of our hearts so that we can be more like the church in the book of Acts.

I thank the Lord (almost) every day for my best friends.......those people who in those times when we talk about how it will feel to be before the Throne of Grace, before the Mercy seat....
Thinking about it - together - bringing up abstract thoughts of Christ and texts that God calls to our hearts- I really think that we do feel something of what heaven will be like........
UNITY in JOY. We can look at each other while we're talking and somehow KNOW that the other person is feeling what we're feeling about Jesus and the truths that we're talking about.......JUST a tremendous blessing to focus upward with our family in the Lord.
(Of course, we laugh together too - but even the joy in that, is of those who know why we have no need to fear death.........nor man, nor demons......because of the magnanimous love of God in Christ.)

To my friends that I love to dwell on truth with - your being in my life is precious to me, and I thank God that you can be so open and genuine. (Rockers, BBCer's)
Jesse and Sarah, Huey and Louie, Toys, Charlie and Alyssa, Tex and Steph, Mike K, James and Anne, Kristin......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ on a side note - related, sort of.......
This morning, JUST floored by an older song called "I boast no more" No idea who sings it.....and I'm not going to look it up......since the brother probably doesn't want accolades anyhow :)

"The best obedience of my hands
Dares not appear before Thy throne;
But faith can answer Thy demands,
By pleading what my Lord has done."

God demands our whole hearted 110% full obedience in all things..........which if a person would just think about for 10 minutes - in light of the reality that God is the I AM and can command of us anything - and he is right IN his commanding us since he has creator rights....
If I didn't know Christ - I would never leave my house!!

Focus on Him today............and eveything will fall into line.
with love from above,
Jen2

Sunday School Basics

Praise the Lord for story time in my Preschool I class.
A dear brother teaches the HUGE truths so very well that it rocks my faith once in awhile....bringing me back to the beauty found in the basics.

He and his wife made up this little song called "Faith is"

"Faith is, O faith is, believing what God said.
Faith is, O faith is, believing what God said.
Faith is, O faith is, believing what God said; God will do it like He said."

Ah ! The great grace given to the BBC parents to take critical truths and turn them into catchy little songs - such a blessing.....

So, our lesson was about how the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness after Israel's disobedience and the grumblers were all bit by poisonous serpents.........but of those who were bitten, if they looked upon the bronze serpent - God told them that they would be spared.
It was not that the bronze serpent could do anything.....but the point was that God had given a simple command that was to be obeyed in Faith that what He said was true.
(He also made such a great point about how the bronze serpent is a "type" of something to come....and how it points to God's plan to save us from our sins by "looking unto Jesus.")

Seeing Jesus as the only promise of forgiveness offered to us by God. The only way of escaping the inevitable future of wrath and fury that a sinner should expect to come upon them.
If we have put our faith in what God said as truth (as in that little song) and we fix our eyes on Jesus - the author and perfecter of our faith.......we will be saved. God said so.

Our hearts goal should be to not take our eyes off of Him.......

1 Cor 15:55
"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

Rev 12:11
"And they have conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives even unto death."

To our great High Priest, King, Prophet, the Sacrifice and the Altar that makes the sacrifice Holy.......Jesus the Christ......1 4 3.

Hibby - Quote of the Week :)

"I’m in a weird mood myself today. Lyndon just called and I told him I was crazy once. That’s when they put me in the circle room and told me to sit in the corner. CORNER! There were no corners! So I started to dig. That’s when I found the worms. WORMS! I hate worms! They drive me crazy. …I was crazy once.

He told me I was weird."

She makes me feel less crazy......every time we talk......*sigh*
Thanks Hibby !!!

Challenged to examine blogging before the Lord......

It is a sweet thing that the Lord gives us brothers and sisters who have His spirit to challenge us. A dear brother, of whom I have come to respect his thoughts and opinions, brought up some really good thoughts about blogging.........and motives.

Ozzie said:

"The main idea in the region of religion is - Your eyes upon God, not on men. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer"

Is it not the nature of the fallen heart to desire to be appreciated and known and praised?
Even our dear Pastor John acknowledged the reality of the flesh's never ending desire to be made much of......and so how does that work with our blogging?

I dunno.....it's a good thing to think about though ~

Laters~
Jen2

More Joy in Heaven ~

You know what is amazing ? When someone you have loved and prayed for - one of whom you sinned with previously - comes to see the truths of God.
That there IS forgiveness, and you can tell that they are repentant toward God.
I'm on the edge of tears of joy this afternoon (and probably will be the rest of my day) as I just had lunch with just such a person....One that I've prayed for - who has known me IN MY sin - has come to realize that God forgives......... and more importantly, that he needs to be forgiven.

My deepest desire is that he will see and truly perceive - that Jesus is the treasure - the precious innocent Lamb - the one who took the punishment for our sins. There is definitely something going on that is not of the world in this man - and after talking to him -
I am left again, marveling about how I've been "kept" lately........through trials, in spite of sin and failures, some that I can't even see.............what kind of God are we talking about here??!!
dang.
Is there any human on earth that would go and put themselves in the electric chair - in the place of a proven guilty - child molester ?? Well, our sin, our lust, pride, lack of love etc - are ALL high treason against the God who created us, and He Himself came in human flesh as a baby, grew up was tempted in every way that we are as we grew up - yet was blameless - completely perfect - without sin - and having compassion on us, took our death penalty.....crushing the power of sin and death......

Christology - the most precious of the doctrines.......

love Him today ~
In Christ because He first loved me,
Jen2

True Lowliness of Mind
A lesson from Eddy, put into 2007 English terms :)
(Round 2)

Jonathan Edwards description of one who is truly of a humble disposition is that he is led by the vigor of a lowly spirit within, and that he does not put himself forward to be the one to teach, guide or manage others, he is far more apt to have the desire to be taught. "Be ye swift to hear, and slow to speak." And when they do speak, he says, it is not with a bold masterly air, but humility disposes them to speak, rather, trembling.

The best description I've read regarding true lowliness of mind was that the falsely humble will look upward - to the place that they feel their proper station is, and in view of the short distance that they have descended, they call this "humility" and admire it, and also, they think that God does too. The truly humble, on the other hand, will look down from where he is, no matter how low he is brought, and be convinced that it is a shameful thing that one so sinful as he is brought no lower before God. In his mind, he has not reached the depths of his proper station, and he calls that distance pride, and loathes it. Believing that any humility he may have is worthy to be called little, and therefore not worth mentioning in comparison to the remaining corruption.In lowliness of mind, consider others better than yourselves.......it should not be a hard thing to do, since we see our own insides.

We only need to get a better, a more true picture of the heights to which our love and obedience ought to ascend.The more we comprehend of what we ought to be doing, the more we will see how far we fall short......which produces the broken and contrite heart that the Lord God loves.
I only write what convicts my little heart....... my brother tells me to preach to myself...so this is sort of how I'm working that out.
May the Lord take us lower...and strip us of pride for His name's sake.
In Christ by sheer mercy - Still ~
Jen2

A re-post because that's just how amazing Edwards is.........by the grace of God.

Christology in Layman's terms ~


"I'm no holier than thou pal, I'm not bashin' you
I just want to be frank like a Hebrew National
Get it straight the human race's a death row inmate
One liberates, but He's the one that most men hate
When sin takes or should I say took the world captive
Death came after, then universal disaster
Just before they wrote the final chapter -
Out of the blue the best made a move like a true chess master
And absolutely brought sin and death to its knees
By dying on a tree with no leaves, true indeed
Jesus is who He be, the only One that saves men
From the heavenlies but down to earth like the pavement
Cheer this champion, no more dissin' Him
On the count of three start kissin' him1,2,3
ahhh feel the romance of the Father Abba,
The lover man with more rank than Shabba
Some think death ends the drama, but I'm a
Remind you death is not a period it's just a comma"

~ The Cross Movement

Bearing the Strong Family Likeness
(to Christ)

Lately, the thread of discussion regarding believers relating to each other across the male/female lines is growing long..... I can't figure out what to think about the odd ways between men and women and so I'm going to quit trying...........except when it comes to how we relate
as family in the Lord.

And talking about how - as the church, we are supposed to love one another AND how THAT is how the world will see the love of Christ....I figured out that P.O.D said (screamed) it best when they said "life doesn't have to be like this"
There shouldn't be such an awkward segregation between my guy friends and my girl friends.....if we could all just seek to be Christ like to each other.......innocent as to motives -to seek only to honor the Lord in our care of the sheep that He loves. (not letting the thoughts that they might be a potential spouse bombard us and determine how we treat them........but letting the Scripture guide how we treat all in our family)

At the church that I went to after I was first saved, the guys and girls were friends......really friends. Sure, there was the occasional question in their minds every now and again that "maybe so and so and I would be good together, hmm...." But that didn't cause any awkwardness that I noticed......they all just seemed to live and pray well together and believe the best about each other and sought to honor one another. Not in a weird - superficial way.....

Talking to a great friend last night.....It hit me a fresh -that men and women who are single should be serving - side by side for the sake of the gospel. But women seem to be a little scared that brothers will rush into pursuing them, without counsel and typically un prayed over
(zeal without knowledge)
We shouldn't be worrying about the 'how to's' of getting to know people.....just let it happen.

Since, don't we all want to be married to our best friend anyway?
And don't we want to see someone for who they really are....without the looming pressure to be squished into a mold - to feel that we need to gain approval ?
I call that the "dating dilemma" even though dating is hardly reality. Going out for coffee even......because while out of the heart the mouth speaks, I have heard many people say this and thus and it is contrary to the way they go about things in the reality of life.........so having right doctrine is worthless without having a heart that is more in love with Jesus because of the doctrine that is known.

Since none of us lives to Himself…….we belong to each other….we’re family -you know ?? And if we cannot show the world that we belong to the Messiah by our love and care for each other -bearing witness to who we treasure most (Christ)

What weight does our message carry?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(one of the verses I noticed was posted up at my little brother's house)

Men:
1 Cor 16:13-14
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."

(a sweet reminder that the Lord cares deeply about our heart most, that it is sweet and yielding to Him...external beauty is worthless before the Lord)

Women:
1 Peter 3:3-4
"Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing-- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

I have a sinus infection....again......
I'm working 10-11 hours a day lately with high stress and 15 minutes for lunch....
I am the only 'single' gal in my women's small group....
I'm having to go to court on a traffic ticket that I received unfairly.........
and I haven't been able to get to the gym for 3 days...(adds to stress level)

But what really gets my goat....(er sheep...whatever)
Our names are written in the Lamb's book of life and it can never be blotted out !!!!
So.....Blessed be the Name of the Lord !!

Don't you want to feel the weight of that sentence more and more -- as in, the depths that Job might have felt while HE said that....

Stand firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

** Remember to pray for the persecuted churches. We have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our own blood....but many ARE doing that as I type this.
Only 8,000 more unreached people groups to seek out before Jesus comes back for us.....

Press on~