Merry Christmas from Us to You!

Photo Card

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Funny ways to get gas!

This made me laugh so hard, I had to share!

Enjoy!!!

A little paper humor- to lighten the mood

I love to journal and writing has always helped me gather my thoughts, process and clear my mind! It has been one of my favorite uses of paper in life. But once I started blogging, my journaling has gone down due to less time and less paper in my life.
In general the whole world could use less paper; junk mail, repeat information notices, bills, packaging, containers and the list goes on and on. But this little video does make you think about the place of paper in our lives after all.

Confidence vs Courage

This week my pastor talked about renewing confidence in God and in moving forward. During his talk, he pointed out the differences between courage and confidence and it struck me.

I have often interchanged confidence with courage in my mind and hadn't really thought about the differences before.
Courage is guts; mental toughness to face people, problems and challenges
Confidence is feeling all will work out well; rooted in trust and growing out of experience

Courage often comes first before confidence. Confidence rises out of experience.
So one starts with courage and trust in God and through experience and enduring through tough challenges, you develop character and grow confidence.

What encouragement and hope.

Romans 5:3-4 MSG

 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.

Do you ever say "Watch Me"?

Watch Me! from 10ofthose.com on Vimeo.
I have to say that most of the time I am saying don't watch me, watch Jesus. But perhaps I need to re-evaluate this!

Holy week Saturday; encouragement while we wait

Saturday- the day or waiting and wondering if all that Jesus had said was true- we can understand the agony that His followers felt as we wait for that blessed day when He will return forever! Take comfort and hope...

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

~Titus 2:11-14, ESV

More Holy week thoughts

"Some people can’t believe God would create a world in which people would suffer so much. Isn’t it more remarkable that God would create a world in which no one would suffer more than he?

God’s Son bore no guilt of his own; he bore ours. In his love for us, God self-imposed the sentence of death on our behalf. One thing we must never say about God—that he doesn’t understand what it means to be abandoned utterly, suffer terribly, and die miserably.

That God did this willingly, with ancient premeditation, is all the more remarkable.

 Jesus said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:15, 18)

 ~ Randy Alcorn

Holy Week Thoughts 2013

This is such a great week to focus on Jesus and what He has done for each one of us. Someone pointed out to me the passage in Luke 9 about Jesus setting His face to Jerusalem to go lay down His life for all of us.

Luke 9:51-13

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 

What struck me was that Jesus set His face (determination and purpose) to go to His death to pay the penalty for mankind's rebellion with willing heart and steadfast purpose. No one forced Him to do it but He chose of His free will knowing full well what it would cost. 
And that while He set His face, others were against Him because they didn't like the way He was going about it. His way (God's way) wasn't how they pictured it or thought it should be. The Samaritans rejected Him because He was going to Jerusalem, the religious leaders rejected His claims and truth, the Jewish people didn't understand the true purpose of Messiah so they went a long with the crowd and the Gentiles were mainly clueless about there being a God and Messiah come for us all.

This made me wonder if I would have opened my heart and mind to Jesus if I had encountered Him during His time on earth? It is easy to sit back and see the full intent of Jesus from reading the scripture but I am no smarter than the people of that time and they mainly missed the point. Would I have gotten on board with Jesus and followed Him? Would you?  

I will keep pondering as I prepare my heart to celebrate Easter and Jesus!

THE BIBLE - Official Trailer

If you have the history Channel, you might like to check out this cool mini-series on the bible!

Valentine's Day- The real meaning?

Today is the day that our culture celebrates romantic love but I think this is a small view of what Valentine's Day could really be! Check out this blog that I thought this was thought provoking post on the subject!

http://theresurgence.com/2013/02/14/the-creepy-mysterious-interesting-history-of-valentines-day

And remember:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God's creation is awe inspiring

I have been enjoying some beautiful winter warm days in Texas that has made me spend some extra time praising God for His creation.

Then today someone sent me this video and I wanted to share it with you. It really made me take a deep breath of awe for God's creativity and amazing vastness! WOW!!!!