And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!
Well, my afternoon today is kinda empty. Yes, I know there is lots I could be doing, but when it feels like its a hundred degrees, and you are dripping sweat, in your church clothes, you want as LITTLE movement as possible!! It looks as if we are in for yet another storm. One of the lovely assets of living in the great North! :P Not!
I just found out about a new photo site! Our Pastor is now selling his verse photos, great for decorating your house! Visit it HERE! We have a few of them, and they are beautiful! Such a treasure!
Well, I'm off to finish my list of things to do on the computer before my brother kicks me off! Just kidding, he would never do that, though I probably deserve it sometimes!
This was so cute, I just had to share it. It was actually an email, but it works here!
You are My Sunshine, My only Sunshine'
(Be prepared to get watery eyes!)
Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They found out that the new baby was going be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her.
The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown , Tennessee. In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor.
Would a C-section be required? Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst. Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot.
They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral. Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. I want to sing to her, he kept saying.
Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over.
Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care. Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not.
If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket.
The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, 'Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed.' The mother rose up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. 'He is not leaving until he sings to his sister' she stated.
Then Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing. In the pure-hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang:
'You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,you make me happy when skies are gray.'
Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond.
The pulse rate began to calm down and become steady.
'Keep on singing, Michael,' encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes.
'You never know, dear, how much I love you,
please don't take my sunshine away.'
As Michael sang to his sister, the baby's ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr.
'Keep on singing, sweetheart.'
'The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping,I dreamed I held you in my arms'
Michael's little sister began to relax as rest,
healing rest, seemed to sweep over her.
'Keep on singing, Michael.'Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse.
Karen glowed.
'You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..
Please don't take my sunshine away.'
The next day...the very next day the little girl was well enough to go home.
Woman's Day Magazine called it The Miracle of a Brother's Song.
The medical staff just called it a miracle.
Karen called it a miracle of God's love.
NEVER GIVE UP ON THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE.
LOVE IS SO INCREDIBLY POWERFUL.
Life is good.
Have a Wonderful Day!Just send this to (4) people and see what happens.
Do not break this, please There is no cost, but lots of rewards.
In God We Trust!
'The evidence of God's presence far outweighs the proof of His absence.'
We are home now! We got in last night. Thank you all for praying for me, I am doing much better, I can BREATHE!!! I am taking natural things for digestion, and they have been helping a lot! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!I just read this, and it is very good!
From The Destiny of One
Ambassador of… What?
By Sarah H.
“Have you met Tracy?” Rachel asked one of the five girls standing in a little huddle in the fellowship hall.
“Tracy who?” Karen asked
“Tracy Smith,” Rachel replied.
“I think I have,” Hannah responded. “Isn’t she the one that is always wearing the really low cut dresses?”
“That’s the one,” Rachel responded.
“Oh, so she was the girl sitting in front of me who couldn’t keep her hands off her boyfriend. Didn’t that girl hear the pastor’s sermon on purity last week?” Karen asked, shaking her head.
“Well, she does go to public school,” Emily said with a knowing tone. Emily looked over at Bethany, who remained silent with her arms crossed.
“Public school is ruining that girl,” Karen agreed. “Did you see her this morning? She had on so much make-up I don’t think you could see her face.” This brought giggling from all the girls; all that is, except Bethany, who sat just listening.
“I sat behind her two weeks ago, and she kept talking through the whole service. She has a horrible mouth. Well, she didn’t say that many bad words, but she was disrespectful to her mom and she was criticizing every one,” Hannah said.
“Oh, I know it,” Rachel said with a nod. “My mom says that she is a manipulator and can get her mom to do anything.”
“Maybe her mom needs to learn who is in control,” Emily interjected. “Why, if Tracy were my child she would be leaning a few of life’s hard lessons right now.”
“That girl needs to be out of the public school system and in her home or she will end up getting her self in jail or something,” Karen remarked.
“I don’t think Tracy would …” Bethany started to say but was interrupted.
“And to think that she signed that pledge of abstinence a year ago,” Rachel said shaking her head.
“It is sad, but she is running her life,” Hannah said. All the other girls agreed, and there was a pause for a moment.
“Excuse me, girls, but whose ambassadors are we?” Bethany asked, and four sets of eyes turned to her with questioning looks. “I mean, listen to yourselves! You are all going on and on about how bad Tracy is and what she needs to do, but not one of you is even close to fixing the problem.”
Hannah, Rachel, Emily and Karen looked blankly at Bethany. Bethany sighed.
“It would seem from this conversation that Tracy’s crime is that her parents have not chosen to home school her and that her greatest issue in life is that she has chosen to date. But is that her real issue? The four of you are so busy looking at her make up, low cut dresses, and her boy friend that not one of you sees the real problem.
“Rachel, whose ambassador are you? Or for what? Homeschooling? What about you, Hannah? Are you now the official advocate for modesty? How about you, Emily? Are you now part of the purity police force? And you, Karen, when did you begin to listen to what was going on behind you instead of the sermon?
“Really, you girls you ought to be ashamed. Whose ambassador are we supposed to be? Homeschooling’s? Courtship’s? “Respect’s? Well, I don’t know about you, but I am not an ambassador for homeschooling, courtship, honoring your parents, or even the pastor. I am not even the advocate of abstinence, prayer in schools, modesty, or any of the other things that you have mentioned. I am an ambassador for my lord Jesus Christ, and nothing else, I hope.
“Which one of you has tried to be her friend? Which one of you has tried to love her and show her the way to God? Until you lead her to the point were she is broken at the feet of the cross, nothing will change Tracy. It isn’t that homeschooling isn’t a good thing. It’s not even that I wouldn’t like to see her stop dating and start having godly relationships. Rather, it’s that until you give her God it won’t make any difference.
“We have been sent to this earth to bring salt and light to a world that desperately needs it. We have been called to live radically different lives to be a witness to a country that is going downhill. But if we start preaching step sixteen before we have even said anything about step one, they are going to be confused and not listen to us any more.
“Have we forgotten that we are the privileged few? Not many kids are raised in radical churches and radical homes. We have been given much but we must remember that to whom much is given, much is expected. God did bless us with believing, homeschooling parents, not so that we would walk around with a holier-then-thou attitude. He gave it to us so that we could be his lights in a dark room.
“Tracy does not need to hear a sermon from you on how to dress; she needs to know that there is a white robe waiting for her in heaven if she will believe in Jesus. She doesn’t need us to tell her about how she is being brainwashed in school; she needs us to tell her that there is a God willing to wash her sins away and make them white as snow. She doesn’t need to be told that her love life is wrong; she needs to be told that there is a God that loves her and will fill the emptiness that is obviously in her heart.
“We will have many Tracys in our lives, girls, and they need us to be ambassadors from God to them. In order for us to do that, though, we have to deicide whose ambassador we are. I am my Lord and Savior’s, for even though I have never been ‘as bad as most,’ I killed Jesus with my sins, and he spilled his blood for me as much as he did for the murderer and the adulteress. It will be hard, I know. I don’t like Tracy and girls like her, but Christ spilled his blood for them, and he wants her to know that. Can I despise one to whom God extends his love?
“Let us decide today, girls, for whom or for what we are ambassadors.”
Would you like to share this with your readers? You my copy this to your blog as long as it still has my name on it and a link back to my blog.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about a missions trip I went on with my family a few years ago. We went to
About 6 years ago my grandpa married a lady from
About a year later we switched churches. We had been going to a liberal sit-back type of church, and we started attending a good, independent, fundamental,
His son was a Missionary to
Then the LORD allowed us to meet them when they came home for a short furlough for CHIRSTmas. It was like the LORD was saying “Hurry up, Go! Just GO!!!!!!!!!!!”
My dad has the whole summer off since he is a teacher, so we started planning the trip. As were looking at plane tickets, and talking to others who had been down to visit them, we were going “this is so expensive its not worth only going for a week or two.” So we went for 4. We had a wonderful time. I will re-tell it as best as I can remember.
My Grandpa lives in MA, so we visited him like we normally did each summer, and flew out from
We stayed in a hotel in
We set 5 alarms for the next morning. We set the cell-phone, the alarm on the clock, 2 watches and we had them call our room at 3:30am. I woke up to none of them, and they let me sleep for another half hour.
We made it to the airport on time, and we eventually boarded our plane. It was the first time any of us kids had flown. Thankfully I didn’t get sick!
We were met at the airport by the entire family(they had 5 children at the time and she was expecting another.) We had a great 3 hour ride to the church where we stayed, then back to their house.
One of the weeks we were there we had a day camp for the children who went to church. One day we went to the Pyramids. That was awesome. It was scarey being up soooo high, but it was fun- except for the fact that I tripped and skinned my knee.
It was sweltering hot that day, and noone had thought to bring any water, so by the time we got to the last one, we were all crawling along, dying of thirst! Then Jeremy, the missionary, went and got a box of water bottles. Each of us were allotted half of a bottle. That half was hard not to exceed!
One day we went to a zoo. It was fun, but we only got to see part of it that day because there were so many of us.
The following week we went to a childrens museum in
The whole long trip ended too quickly for all of us, and before we were ready it was time to head home. We ate Dominoes pizza at the air port, but it was VERY different. There was absolutely NO Tomato Sauce on any of it. Imagine that! Pizza without sauce! Nevertheless, it was a ton better than some of the native food we had eaten. :P
We flew back into
On the way home I slept on the floor of the van because all of our stuff was on the seats.
And that is all the details I can remember by myself. I Praise the LORD I had the chance to go on this trip. It has been a great blessing and reminder that I could have been born in some other country where they don’t have everything as well as we do in the
Ha! Ha! Whew, I am glad its not that cold here!
Thanks to Miss Serenity I have now been awarded! She is such a sweet young lady! I have just recently gotten to "know" her, and she has been a great blessing to me!