Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

Psalms 139:14 "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

The kids had a Christmas breakfast at Berkshire Hills Baptist Church today themed "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made". Check out the pictures!

 

Rejoice With Them That Do Rejoice

Romans 12:15

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."

     For Laura's 9th birthday, she had horseback riding lessons at a nearby town. She got the full horse care experience from grooming to feeding as well as riding. 

     Micah and Heidi were there as well. They got to brush, feed, and pet the horses.... 

But they did not get to ride them. 

     All too often we try to make everything "even Steven" for our children, giving them an unrealistic idea they will receive equal parts in everything they take part in always.

     Come on, we've all done it as kids! "Mom, Sister got a bigger piece of cake than me! That's not fair!"

     Sometimes I purposely unevenly cut a treat and then hand them out at random to my children, just to see what they will say. So far, no one has ever noticed, or chosen to care if their piece was smaller."

     What cruel mother wouldn't divide things evenly between her children?!

     I don't think Christ gave everyone equal shares all the time. Even the spiritual gifts mentioned are different:

Ephesians 4:7 "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."

Ephesians 4:11 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;"

     Nope! There's nothing even in that list.

     In fact, only one disciple was even given the label, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and this was John.

     It is so important, to learn to rejoice in the victories of others; to be excited when something great happens to someone who is, well, not ourself!

     If we don't help our kids see this when they are young and give them these opportunities, it will follow them all throughout their life, this feeling of "it's not fair."

Child: "His piece is bigger than mine!"

Teenager: "Why can't I have that part in the school play? I'm better at acting than she is!"

Adult: "How come he has people getting saved and baptized week after week at his church and I can barely get a decent sized crowd in the doors of my church?"

Elderly: "I've worked hard all my life and I've never been able to buy half the stuff he has."

     These attitudes do nothing but rob us of our joy.

     Avoiding these attitudes are why my husband and I give the kids opportunities have joy in the victories of others.

     

     Let us help our children to have "rejoice with those that rejoice" attitudes while they are young. 

 

A Special Place!

     Every so often on the deputation trail, I get to be a part of the services of a church that is very special to me and today was one of those days. Berkshire Hills Baptist Church had a great Christmas worship service today with food and fellowship following as all good Baptists love!

     But why this church is special to me is for a number of reasons:

1) It is the church where I met my husband and half a year later married him. I'm so thankful for this! I kinda like that guy ;)

2) I was baptized in this church. I was saved as a teenager but not baptized following salvation. I finally did in 2002 soon after I started regularly attending and this leads me to number 3:

3) My first membership at a church was here!

4) This is where I learned how to serve in church and:

5) where I learned I have a spiritual gift and how to use it!

6) I made a great discovery here: that Christians can have fun! And boy did I!

I especially had fun in children's ministries like putting on skits in VBS or sliding down a soap covered waterslide with the kids. The things I learned in this church that I wished I knew before! 

7) It was here I learned how important personal growth is.

     These were all thoughts I had when looking around at the group gathered for worship today. A lot has changed since I first started attending 12 years ago, but not much. Some people have passed away or moved on, but there are still the handful of individuals who are just as faithful as they were then. There's plenty of new faces too. 

     I still find it amazing how the Lord led me to this church one August day in 2002 when I walked in the door of the church I had passed year after year on the way to my grandparents house. My grandparents attended the Episcopal church just two miles down the road and every year when I visited, I went to church with them there. That August day after I had gone to live with my grandparents, I set out to find a church of my own and the Lord led me to the very building I had gazed upon often as I peered out the car window as a child excited to go see grandma and grandpa. I'm still in awe of how the Lord works. 

Psalm 122:1 "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

A Marvellous Christmas!

Psalms 105:5 "Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;"

How marvellous are the works God had done, indeed! Even when things aren't as perfect as we would like them this Christmas. When family can't be with us because of distance, jobs or death, or when plans we have don't work out, we can take comfort that God knows what He is doing and we don't have to be in control or feel like we need to be in control. My family was to have meetings in Georgia and Tennessee this month. Just before Thanksgiving, all doors in the southern states closed and opened up in the northern states of New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. This past Friday, one of the churches in New York had a ladies Christmas gathering I was privileged to be a part of. The ladies are so sweet and I really enjoyed getting to know them better, and to have this time of fellowship with them. 

The food (and especially desserts!) was all good and we had a grand feast!

After group singing, special music, and a testimony, Sue Jones of the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany brought a devotional on the Christmas story and had the ladies take turns reading passages. How awesome it is to be able to read God's Word together! 

Some Christmas games and a gift exchange concluded the evening's activities.

....And some fun photo opportunities :)

"I Will Give Thanks Unto Thee For Ever"

Giving thanks is something we are commanded to do in Scripture quite often, yet it seems to be something we forget to do the most. Giving thanks is almost reserved for the fourth Thursday of the month, but even then is often glanced over as individuals and families browse sale ads in planning Black Friday shopping strategies. Let's do a tally on how many times a form of "thank" is used in the Bible:

Thank: 26

Thanks: 71

Thanked: 3

Thanking: 1 

Thankful: 3

Thankfulness: 1

Thanksgiving: 27

Thanksgivings: 2

Thankworthy: 1 

Wow, giving thanks seems very important to God! Amongst all the tallies, "thanks" is used the most in the Bible, which is in the present tense, meaning we ought to always be doing this. 

But the verse that really stands out to me is Romans 1:21 "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." From what I can see, a lack of not 1) glorifying God, and 2) being thankful was a leading cause of all the sins mentioned in that first book in Romans. Verse 21 comes right out and says their foolish hearts were darkened: not giving thanks is foolish.  

Let's think about what happens when we focus on the things we don't have. We may feel, angry, bitter, jealous of others. We forget all the many blessings we have right in front of us! 

I once read a book of an elderly woman who was at the end of her life feeling something was left undone. She committed the end of her life to a prayer quilt, allowing other women to help her if only they would sew each stitch with a prayer of thanksgiving; not a prayer of confession, or prayer of regret. Only prayers of thanks would grant them eligibility to help with the quilt. When the old woman's neighbors committed to her terms to help with the quilt, they suddenly saw things as though looking at them through God's eyes and everything they had taken for granted seemed more precious. I will never forget the impact that had on me when I discovered it to be true. I found when walking, with each step I was taking, I took it with a prayer of thanksgiving just as the ladies did with each stitch they had sewn into the quilt. And you know what? I discovered things I had to be thankful for that I had never thought to thank God for, ever. It was simple things, like the van started or the birds were singing. When I come before the Lord with prayers of thanks, then I will not take any of His blessings for granted. Psalms 100:4-5 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Let us commit to focus on what we have to give thanks for, rather than what we wish we had.

Grace Bible Independent Baptist Church Shinglehouse, PA

Grace Bible Independent Baptist Church Shinglehouse, PA from Senja Mann on Vimeo.

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Missions: A Family Affair

Grace Bible Independent Baptist Church had their 30th annual Missions Conference this past week, October 22-26. Pastor and Robyn Isaacson, former missionaries to Romania, were such a blessing to us and made us feel right at home and welcomed! The theme was Missions: A Family Affair and had three families join them: the Rhoades' to Guyana, the Polivka's to Belarus and us. Ed Hembree was the keynote speaker, also a former missionary to Romania, whom presented some good missions challenges.

     

     Our first night of the conference, Pastor and Mrs Isaacson and the missionaries got to go to Sprague's Restaraunt. The children were fascinated by all the bear decorations.

Each night, the missionaries took turns being in the kids class. The lesson was on redemption, so the children had a chance to redeem soda cans. Micah even got to share a short devotional from John 3:16.

Saturday, we went on a shopping trip to Erie with Pastor, Mrs Isaacson, the missionaries and two other couples.This is the view from a rest stop by the lake.

Sunday before we left, we were given this basket of assorted goodies from blankets for the kids to school supplies and items for everyday use!

Thank you, Grace Bible Independent Baptist Church, for a great conference!

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you," Philippians 1:3