Out With the Old, In with the New

This pass year has been a spiritual challenge for me. A battle I will say, with overcoming fears and doubts and working through the challenges that come with teaching. In the midst though are also many encouraging, joyous moments with Jesus and His blessings.

The last few days of 2009 were very tough for me, and I had a hard time looking beyond the hard days. As 2009 turned to 2010 and everyone was saying Happy New Year and counting their blessings I couldn't seem to get enthusiastic about it all. I felt so guilty for my feelings and knew better then to be this way. I wasn't even sure what to pray, so all I could do is ask for God's mercy in this time.

This morning I was reading and looking for some ways to to teach again next week. I came across 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 and it was a good reminder for me.

" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. "

2009 is over and so are the struggles of the past. I need to now look at what is today and think on the good God has in store for me. I need to put my focus on the purpose and plans He has for me, and get busy with the work He is asking me to do in 2010.His grace will be sufficient once again. He will never leave us!

Each step I take my Saviour leads me on. Some steps I will be carried right through and some I will have to walk up hill as He leads.

God's Great Gift

                                                             
                                                            God’s Great Gift

We cannot fully comprehend

The unfailing love which God did send

He gave us so much to be thankful for

Our Father, our Saviour and so much more

For a Father to send His Son to earth

A poor a lonely and a humble birth

No room was for Him in this town

Untill only a stable it was they found

There He was born for all of man kind

For all who would seek Him surely would find

The star shone down brightly in the sky

But more to this story as the days go by

Soon many were healed by His gentle touch

He walked among man and taught us much

Those who had died, He was able to raise

Many who followed were greatly amazed

It was on the cross where He died for all

He took on Himself every sin, every fall

He holds out a gift for us to receive

All that is left is for us to believe

By Nancy Wall

Where to Turn?

I wanted to share some “thinkings” I had through the night. I was up with kati-Lyn pretty much the whole night because her mouth is full of blisters and she was in a lot of pain. It seems with her in the last year it just goes from one thing to another.
As I was trying to soothe her no matter what I did, it all didn‘t help. I got thinking how even though there isn’t anything I can do, I could never just leave her there crying and go to bed. As a mom we have that compassion for our kids! I have watched our kids suffer quite a lot I would say. The most severe being our 2 boys that passed away, through their time of breathing difficulty. David would turn completely blue and then suddenly take that breath again. Aj was never able to eat at all and was too weak to move. In both cases there wasn’t anything we could do to help, but we could never leave there side! Emily had cast on both her legs all the way to her hips for the first few months of her life and I remember those painful times well. Her legs had been bent to a position she wasn’t born with, before the cast were put on. Then there are all the ear infections and teething. I am not saying all this to complain and I will get to my point here. We as parents can not ignore the suffering of our children, no matter how big or how small. When they hurt we hurt. We always want what is best for them.
So then, how does our Heavenly Father feel through our times of hurt. There are pains we will go through in this life because we do live in a world that has been touched by the devil. Often the suffering here is because of what man has done. Like children suffering because of wars, abuse of little ones and rape, the 9/11, was that not the devils work? Shootings in schools and the list goes on. These are all things that get everyones attention. This is when people start asking, if there is a God why does He allow these things to happen? A good God would prevent this. Isn’t it funny how the world wants to push God out of the way. The world wants to live without any morals, and be free to do whatever makes them feel good for the moment. Rather that be hurting others and God along the way or not. The world does not have time for our creator. Our countries want things like abortion and gay marriages to be legal but then when awful things happen people will say “where is God in this?”
God had the best for us. Even in a fallen world we can live for Him and raise families the way He intended. However, he did not make us as puppets who are forced to do exactly as He says! We are free to choose His will or continue along the road of destruction. If we look around us we can clearly see there is much hatred and sin in this world. But if we look to God, He has a much better way for us and He will guard His angels over us. No as long as we live here we will not get away from the suffering , sickness and pains that has come into this world. If we look to Jesus as our Lord and Savior though, He will walk us through it and eventually take us to a special place he is preparing for us right now! Praise be to God for He is good and will help us get through what the devil destroyed. He does not walk away and ignore our pains! And he is able to fix our messes but he only will when we surrender to His will. He offers His help to each individual, every family, every body of believers, every country and yes the whole world but sadly its been rejected far and wide!

Bible Passages:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah Ch 53 verse 6).

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians Ch 2 verse 14).

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned (Roman Ch 5 verse 12).

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. (Romans Ch 8 verses 6 & 7)

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.....believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John Ch 3 verses 18 & 36

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew Ch 10 verse 28)

Following God's Plans

My prayer is that God will use me however, whenever and where ever he wishes. He wants to do great things through all of us. When we look to Him, He shows us what He wants us to do and when this is clear, nothing has to stand in the way, even if satan tries to discourage us.

So often God has clearly given me a vision on something He wanted me to do.... But even though He already showed me, I go asking for opinions on it from other people. Then when those opinions discourage me from what I already knew to do, I decide to forget about it. I no longer want to do that. If God says it, it's true and I need to stick with it. No opinions needed after that, Just my obedience!

Anthony Loves Jesus!

This evening Jamie started talking about things that scared him. I encouraged him to trust in Jesus and that we are safe . Well this led to so many questions and topics about God, I wouldn't know where to begin to tell you all the details! One of the things the boys started talking about was their 2 brothers that went to heaven. They wondered what they were doing in heaven and so on. Anthony said he wanted to go to heaven one day too, but not without us . He said we should all go at the same time.
He then started asking me about how we can go to heaven and not to a bad place. I asked him if he thought he was good enough to go to heaven and at first he said yep! I'm always good. So I asked him if he never fought with his brother, or lost his temper... things like that. He wasn't so convinced anymore that he was good enough! So I explained to him that we all had sin in our hearts, and that was why Jesus died for our sins, to wash us from our sin. We had talked about this before and he had said before that he wanted Jesus to be his saviour, but today it really sunk in and he understood why Jesus was his savior, and he wanted Jesus to be in his heart! He loves Jesus and wants to serve him and tell people all about him he said. This is the most important thing in life and so precious in children!
I pray for our kids that God will direct their paths and that they will all serve our Lord throughout their life!

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

Ephesians 2:8-9

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

~Nancy~