A's and B's

When I became a Christian, at the age of 30, I thought that I should immediately be flawless, It didn’t take long to see that I wasn’t.  So when I would have what some people call; bad luck, right away I would think that God was mad at me and I was getting what I deserved.  I even got to the point where I felt that bumping my head, burning dinner, or getting a flat tire was punishment for not being able to do everything that I felt I should be doing as a Christian.
     
I can clearly remember praying,  “God,                                                                                                                                                                                   why can’t I do this Christian stuff?”  I wanted to be perfect, NOW!  I  struggled with these feelings until God used my nine year old daughter, Elizabeth, to help me through this.
     
I was having another one of those days where everything was going wrong.  Because of this, I was angry with myself for not being good enough.  I felt I must have brought all the bad things on myself.  This thought had been going through my mind all day.  What a shock I got when later that night , on her way to bed, Elizabeth tripped and fell, and what she said to me were the exact words I had used in a prayer to God that morning.  Liz said, “Why is everything going wrong?  Why am I always getting hurt?”  She went on to say, “I must be a bad girl and deserve to be hurt.”  

All my thoughts about me being bad went out of my head and all I could think of was comforting and encouraging her, “No, you’re not a bad girl.  You need to be more careful and watch what you are doing.  You also need to get some sleep, it’s late and you are tired.”  I could see that she wasn’t convinced, she was still feeling frustrated.  Liz said, “Mom, I just can not do anything right.”  She added, “I’m just stupid.”  I knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t know how to convince her of that.  Then something that had happened in her class at school, came to mind.  
     
Elizabeth had been having some trouble learning her times tables.  But she practiced hard, and soon after, her teacher said that she was getting A’s and B’s on all her papers.  I reminded her of what her teacher had said, and added, “If you were stupid you wouldn’t be getting such good grades now.”  I told her that when things are new to us, they may seem hard.  We might make a lot of mistakes, but if we practice and don’t give up we will get our A’s and B’s.
     
At that moment, it was like a light bulb went on in my head.  I could tell that God was using Liz to talk to me.  He was answering my questions , comforting and encouraging me, as He was giving me the answers to comfort and encourage my daughter.  God really does speak to us in many different ways.  That night I learned not to be hard on myself, perfection comes through Jesus.  I also learned that it takes time, practice and percervence with God’s help to do something new, well.  And that does include living a Christian life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Bring Me Gently Home

I was a baby in the word
The things I read, the things I heard
They brought You closer to my heart
I finally have a brand new start
Not everything I understand
I need Your Help, please take my hand
Show me the things I need to know
To help me learn to help me grow
And when I stumble, and if I fall
I’ll cry to You please hear my call
And when confusion turns me around
I know You’ll never let me down
I hunger for the truth you hold
The mysteries that you unfolde
You died for me, I live for You
Lead me guide my whole life through

Easter

I’ve always loved spending time coloring eggs during Easter with my family.  When I was ten years old, I went on a camping trip with Erin, a friend from Girl scouts, and her family.  We went to the Colorado River.  We were only going to stay a few days, but Erin’s parents decided that they wanted to stay until the day before Easter.  I was so homesick those last couple of days, I told myself that at least I would be home for Easter.
     
Well, we pulled up to my house just as my parents were leaving for Church on the Saturday night, before Easter Sunday.  I can still remember my Mom leaning down and saying, “We waited as long as we could, but we had to color the eggs without you.”  I was crushed; I cried and cried.  To me coloring those eggs was a special time our family spent together, and I missed out.
     
A few years ago I found some interesting information on Easter eggs.  This information said that, only within the last century were chocolate and candy eggs exchanged as Easter gifts.  Spring time exchanging of real eggs, is an ancient custom predating Easter by many centuries.  Back then, most cultures believed that the egg signified birth, and resurrection (ex. The Greeks would place eggs on top of graves).  One Roman proverb read, “All life comes from an egg.”
     
I’m not ten years old anymore, and I have a bunch of kids of my own.  My family and I still get together and color eggs, and it’s a fun time for all of us.  But more than anything is the joy we feel knowing, that because Jesus died and was resurrected, we have re-birth, and joy in knowing because He lives, we have hope. 

Communion

1 Corinthians 11: 23-27, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’  For as often as you eat this bread or drink the cup, you proclaim the Lords death until He comes.  Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
     
Facts about the Communion meal:  At the time they were observing the Passover meal, they were also participating in an act of submission.  Obedience is primary in our relationship with our heavenly Father.  Obedience always brings about promise.
     
Communion is an act of commemoration.  Until now the observation of the “Passover Supper”, was done in remembrance of what God did to deliver Israel from the captivity of Egypt.
     
The feast was now to be a covenant and remembrance.  The covenant was that of fellowship.  The items signifying the “Peace Offering” were not consumed by fire and were therefore for the consumption of the priest and the people.  Jesus was saying that their receiving of these portions were more than symbolic of their participation in His death.  Furthermore, they were now to remember His death as deliverance from eternal captivity to eternal life.
     
Jesus picked up the cup, filled with wine, set aside for the anticipated Messiah.  He was proclaiming to them that He was the fulfillment of everything they had been waiting for.  This was an act of proclamation.  Partaking of the settings of the Lords table is a proclamation on our part that we believe in Calvary, Jesus and everything  fulfilled through both.
     
An act of Anticipation.  We do not come to this table because it is the popular thing to do.  We come because we show the anticipation of his return.
     
A word needs to be said about the warning against eating and drinking unworthily.  Many who have misunderstood this have abstained from partaking.  The unworthiness has nothing to do with the person, but the manner in which the portion is taken.  The warning referred to the Corinthians greedy and intemperate manner as described in 1 Corinthians 11: 20- 22, “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another drunk.  What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?  Or do you despise the Church of God, and shame those who have nothing?  What shall I say to you?  In this I will not praise you.
     
Conclusion; communion a precious practice reserved for those who accept the life made available to them through the blood of Jesus.  It is an act which includes submission to the Lords command, commemoration of the atoning act of Jesus, a proclamation of faith; and a statement of the anticipation of the return of Christ to finalize His redeeming work.

A Child Learns What He Lives

When I was young, I had a poster on my wall, in my room.  Laying on my bunk bed, I looked at that poster many, many times.  At the top, the poster read, “A Child Learns What He Lives.”  Around the edges were cute little pastel colored kids, and in the middle, a list of things that children learn from parents actions.  For some reason, even after the poster is gone, the message has always stayed with me.
     
As I went from a child to a teen, I went from having small problems to having very large problems, for myself and my parents.  I feel very fortunate to have had parents that taught by example.  There are some parents that go by the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  Then they wonder why their teens have all the bad habits that they have.  Even though I was far from perfect as a teen, I saw my parents living a moral life, and that life, gave me the roots that I needed to get back on track after those teen years were over.
     
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”  Proverbs 22:6.  The poster that hung on my wall, when I was a child, said the same thing in different words.  I have to thank God, for imprinting that message on my heart when I was young, and for giving me parents that not only taught morals, but lived what they were teaching.