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"Count Your Blessings"

4/25/2018

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 "I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. -- Ezekiel 34:26"



Blessings is one of the great themes of the Bible. The word in its various forms occurs well over 400 times.  Blessing is related to the root "to kneel"  -- promoting a humble position, a open attitude to the workings of God -- so critical for blessings to manifest.


It s in God's nature to bless. Divine blessing conveys abundance of life's material and spiritual riches, to make holy, To make happy or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.  As humans we are called to bless others (especially our children) to express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon.



It is a challenge of our faith then when we do not feel God is blessing our paths, and we face obstacle after obstacle.

There two important spiritual lessons God wants to teach us: 1. Blessings come in disguise;  2. we need to count our blessings, even in times of trials.



Songwriter Laura Story, wrote her song, "Blessings," while sitting in her car, on the back of a receipt, after she found out her newlywed husband had a brain tumor.  It's been a rough time since that diagnosis, but Laura says"

" I feel like we’ve kind of gotten to a place of having to make a choice. Are we going to judge God based on our circumstances that we don’t understand, or are we going to choose to judge our circumstances based on what we know to be true about God? Not that I choose the right thing every day, but I’m learning that every morning when I wake up to choose to trust God."


Because of this, one of the most neglected spiritual practices is counting our blessings.  We are called to bless each other, especially our children.  Do we hug them, or touch them lightly (depending on their age!) and say a brief blessing -- "May God Bless you and make you like  Sarah, or Abraham etc..." We can take a page from the Sabbath service, where children are blessed weekly.  In blessing, we become more trained to see how God is using us, even in very difficult circumstances.  So one of the greatest spiritual practices we can do is to count our blessings, start by naming 1-2 blessings, and working up.  Practice blessing counting as a family, or with a prayer partner.  What would it be like for us as a church to go on a "Blessing Challenge?" What a difference it could make in our lives!


God wants to bless us.  God wants to use us to bless others.  As John Calvin remarked:  " All the blessings we enjoy ...should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors."


LISTEN: Laura Story, "Blessings"  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGniRk_GcLs




PR

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The Triumph of Love

4/11/2018

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​"What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
" Ps. 8:4 

 
 
The Easter Season is a glorious time.  We celebrate the triumph of life over death. We see around us the manifestation of new life in all of creation, and within ourselves. We celebrate how the Risen Jesus appeared, for a period of time, to his disciples. Before his ascension into heaven, he continued to minister to them.  He patiently explained the scriptures. He ate with them. He walked with them. He gave them  peace, and sent them to forgive and retain sin, and to baptize in his name.
 
It was an overwhelming time for those first disciples.  They were still reeling from the horror of Jesus' death.  They were still feeling the sting of their complicity in Jesus' suffering. After all, as a group they didn't speak up when Jesus was being judged. They vanished. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied him. So in the midst of joy, the disciples had to come to terms with their spiritual deficits.   
 
Easter teaches us that nothing we do can stop God from loving us.  Jesus conquered death, but not because we earned it.   The lesson to permeate our souls is that God 's love is constant. Our failures, faults or sins will not stop God from being God.  It is God's nature to love unconditionally.  It is God's nature to save. It is God's nature to use our faults. It is God's nature to be forgiving.  We may reject God --  but we will never stop God from acting as God's nature dictates.  
 
The Easter Season invites us in to this miraculous celebration. We are just little specks in the ever-flowing stream of life, yet God is able to love each of us as if we were the only one.  How can we comprehend the power and ability of such love?  We can't.  So we just gratefully, humbly received it - warts and all - let it transform us and mold us into its agents of Holy Love on earth.
 

 
 Casting Crowns,
"Who Am I?"
   
 
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=mBcqria2wmg&feature=related



Lord Jesus. 
I need You. 
Thank You for the ultimate sacrifice you made for me-- out of your amazing love. 
I open the door of my life, and receive You. 
Take control of my life. 
 Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Amen
 


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"Go to Galilee"

4/11/2018

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"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you" Mark 16:7


Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed!

So it begins -- where it began before. Jesus goes back to Galilee. Not the temple. Not Nazareth or Bethlehem. Galilee  brings into the present all the disciples had experienced with Jesus: the calling to follow him and take up the ministry he had begun.

It was in Galilee that Jesus began his preaching and teaching and healing. It was in Galilee that he had called his disciples. It was in Galilee that Mary, Mary and Salome had themselves become disciples and from where they had followed all the way to the cross and now to the tomb. It was in Galilee that Jesus was baptized by John, and began preaching the Good News to the poor. In Galilee water was made wine, a withered hand restored, a blind man's sight returned, demons driven out and the lame leaped. It was in Galilee he called Israel to a law of love surpassing love of the law.

We are called to Galilee. Where ever someone is in need of healing, help, forgiveness; to hear Good News of God's love and mercy -- there is Galilee. The resurrection does not allow for complacency.  Easter gives us marching orders to go to Galilee -- and bring resurrection to the living. Amen!

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 An "oldie but goodie":  Keith Green singing, The Easter Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StQfGXwKQ0


 "God, thank you that you sent Jesus ahead of us to Galilee to prepare the way. Make us an Easter people, may Alleluia be our song and caring for others be our prayer."

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    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

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