Sunday, April 24, 2011

He is Risen!!!

"Up from the grave He arose/with a mighty power o'er His foes/He arose the Victor from the dark domain/and He lives forever with His saints to reign/He arose, He arose, HALLELUJAH, CHRIST AROSE!!"





This is one of the hymns I grew up singing around the time we celebrate our Savior's resurrection. It still rings in my head, as does the last line of one of the Puritan Prayers I read this morning..."...pardon my inquity, for it is great."




As we solemnly remember His sacrifice for our sins, might we be forever grateful and rejoice, today, on Resurrection Day for such love. Thank you, sweet Jesus for your everlasting sacrifice!

Friday, April 22, 2011

What Good Friday Is All About




"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'


"They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.


"As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.


"And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, 'THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.'


"At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Your who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from that cross.'


"In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 'He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'


"The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words. Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.


"About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice say, 'ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?', that is 'MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'


"And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, 'This man is calling for Elijah.' Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. But the rest of them said, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.'


"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.


"And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.


"Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and they said,


'TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD!'""


--Matthew 27:27-44 NASB

Friday, April 15, 2011

My Reading List

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today - Show Us Your Life - What is Your Reading List???.

I read about a book a week of good Christian fiction. I love anything (and have read everything) written by Karen Kingsbury. I am reading (off and on, it's a long story) Made To Crave. Since I've read all KK's books, I've started at the beginning of the alphabet in my church's library fiction section. I have liked books by James Scott Bell (have only read this one so far, not so much into the suspense/mystery for bedtime reading!), Lynne Austin (you can find a list of Lynne's books here, I haven't read them all yet, but I did LOVE this series!)

I read a lot as a kid/teenager and then got away from the habit in college (had lots of other reading to do!!!) and as a young adult. I used to just watch TV right before I went to bed, but I found that I was having a hard time going to sleep. I changed the shows I watched so that I watch only "wholesome" shows with happy endings. I have even been known to avoid watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie if I think it will be sad!

Non-fiction books that I love are anything by Beth Moore, Sandi Patty's books and [some] political biographies/autobiographies of people that I agree with (perhaps narrow-minded, but again with the point of reading being relaxing!). HAPPY READING!!!

**disclaimer**any link to purchase any of these products is just me trying to point you to what I've read. I am not affiliated with any of the stores/sites and do not benefit from you buying anything, though I doubt you'd be sorry if you did. :)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Update on Carol

Thanks to Mindy for reminding me to give an update on Carol. She had a setback last week and had to be hospitalized. As many might know, the anti-rejection drugs suppress (or kill) your immune system. She got a serious sinus infection and had surgery to provide relief and is back home now. I would ask you continue to pray that her recovery from the transplant will go well, that her body will be strong enough to fight infections and that most importantly, it won't reject the liver. Thank you!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Aunt Sarah in action



It's a sign of the times, I guess, that it is very difficult to find gender-neutral baby clothes!!!


I remember growing up in church and all the baby showers were green/orange/yellow. Now, it's just a few things that way. Even stores are divided between baby boy and girl.


Aunt Sarah was compelled yesterday to buy niece/nephew #2 a few things. I love these onesies...zippers are the best, I hear -- that snapping up suits in the middle of the night doesn't sound fun! :) My niece A wore these in the pink/purple versions and I think they're just too cute with the animals on the feet. AND I LOVE Kohl's where nearly everything is on sale all the time! :)


Saturday, April 9, 2011

Great news!

I found out last night I'm going to be an aunt again in November. My niece A will have a cousin with her last name - my youngest brother's wife M is pregnant! woo-hoo! :)

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Update on Carol

Carol still needs lots of prayer. I got word yesterday that she was back in the hospital with an infection. As some may know, anti-rejection drugs that you have to take after transplant surgery make you more susceptable to anything in the air...including sinus infections, I guess! They were to do a procedure today to help relieve her sinus pain, etc. and then hopefully send her home tomorrow. Thank you for praying!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Why I Love my Church

Hi. I'm linking to Kelly's "Show Us Your Life" theme today - my church.

Since moving to Dallas 9.5 years ago, I've been going to First Baptist Dallas. It was the 2nd church I visited here when I arrived in Dallas in July 2001, and I've never looked back. At the time, my two priorities were an active Singles' department and an orchestra in which I could play my oboe. Though now I'm not a part of either ministry, they both blessed me at that particular place in my life. In the past, I've also been a member of our amazing choir, but am taking a break right now due to low energy levels & Fibro.

Being a member of a large "mega-church" is never what I thought I'd do. Yet, due to my involvement in Sunday School (i.e., Bible Study class) and the music ministry, my church has never felt too big. I must admit that at first when I was no longer on the platform either in the choir loft or in the orchestra, it took me a while to get used to be a member of the congregation. But friendly fellow congregation members made me feel welcome and I settled into my new role, for this season of my life.

For several years now, by far my favorite ministry to be a part of is the Preschool Ministry. At first I worked in the 1.5 year old room, but after a little while they were getting too heavy for me, so I went to the baby baby room, the newborns. Depending on when the parents feel comfortable leaving them for a couple hours, the babies are anywhere from a few weeks to a few months when they first come to our room. It's amazing to see them grow and develop and it fills a major void in my life, a baby to love.

Enough about my involvement in my church - I need to share also the other ministries we have. There are too many to mention, but some of my favorites are the Downtown Pregnancy Center, the Dallas Life Foundation (for homeless), our missions' forcus, our Celebrate Recovery classes, the Womens' ministry, evangelism training, and our music ministry from 3 year olds on up. It's so amazing to see the "young people" lead us in worship on Sunday evenings.

But I've left out the most important part of a church - the preaching and sharing of the Word of God. Our Pastor, Robert Jeffress, unashamedly proclaims the Truth each week. He's been at our church for several years now. He's not only an eloquent speaker, but he has the ability to help us apply the inerrant Word of God to our personal lives. And if there is no application of Biblical truth in your life, then the best preaching in the world has failed.

While my church has been around for 150 years, God is still working at First Dallas! We are in the midst of a huge building program that will transform our facilities, but more important, have an even more extensive ministry to those in our community.

If you are in the Dallas area and are looking for a church, I hope you will consider mine. Please visit our website for newcomers, http://www.explorefirst.org/ or our main website, http://www.firstdallas.org/. Thanks for reading this!