Hello again....

Hello, everyone!

I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry we haven't posted for so long. Our lives finally caught up to us! But we'd like to start this back up, and I just finished Numbers today. How about reading Deuteronomy 1-15 this week? Kelsie and I also would like a break from memorizing Psalms, and we both thought Titus would be good. It's only about three chapters long, and it has a lot of important teachings for young men and women. So we'll be commmitting the first four verses (the greeting) to memory this week as well.

1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

3 but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith : Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Our Talents, and more.

"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them."To one he gave five talents, to another , two, and to another , one, each according to his own ability ; and he went on his journey."Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents."In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more."But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money."Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them."The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.'"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things ; enter into the joy of your master.'"Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.'"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things ; enter into the joy of your master.'"And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.'And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.'"But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.'Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.'Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.'"For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance ; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness ; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."--Matthew 25:14-30

In Biblical times, a talent was a large sum of money. Applied to our lives now, this 'talent' could mean money, time, and a number of other things. It's something to be used to honor God and bring others to Him. This 'talent' can be compared to our whole lives, spent for Him since He gave us life (more than once!) It could be something you're good at, a gift you've been given, "each according to his own ability". And the consequences of hiding your talent and giving if back to Him unchanged and un-used are horrible. The one who did this was called a 'worthless slave', and was thrown out from the Master's presence into 'the outer darkness'.

One way that we can use our talents effectively is in blessing others. For a while I've been thinking about how I can help people on a larger scale. I've been following the blog of a girl who raised a bunch of money for orphans in India through Warm Blankets. (the picture is from her blog) She opened several homes this year, and all of them have bunk beds. But five homes are missing the mattresses. Can you imagine sleeping in bunk beds with no mattresses?!

Every night I would lay down on the soft mattress that I have and remember that.... the Indian orphans weren't. Originally, 11 homes needed mattresses. But partly because of this girl's blogging, 6 of those homes have already gotten them.

And that's when I realized something. I could easily pass this opportunity up. I could decide that this wasn't worth my while, or that I would wait for something else to donate to. (Maybe something where I got more of the credit?!) Because (seriously) whether or not I participated, God was going to meet this need. The only decision I needed to make was this: Am I going to be a part of God's work here or not? The truth is, it's not really about me blessing others. It's about letting God bless others through me, and being blessed myself through the process. So do I want to be a part of this, or not? Do you?

If you're interested in the blog I mentioned, here's the link. http://misselainious.com/ You can donate straight from her blog to meet this need(each mattress costs $50). Please check this out! The Harris brothers actually met Misselaini. They blogged about it here: http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2011/07/one-dress-100-days-for-orphans/

It would be great if we could get a blog train going about this! :D You know, you blog about it because I did, because Misselaini did, so then someone else does. :)

Update~

Hello, all!

It's been another week, and even though I'm not exactly caught up with our reading ;P, we're going to move on and read Leviticus 11-27. We'll also be finishing memorizing Psalm 3. I don't know about you, but I think this must be one of my favorite psalms! I especially love verses 5 and 6:

5 I lay down and slept ;

I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.

6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people

Who have set themselves against me round about.

7 Arise, O LORD ; save me, O my God !

For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek ;

You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.

8 Salvation belongs to the LORD ;

Your blessing be upon Your people ! Selah.

I hope that everyone has a great week!

Beatitudes

In my personal devotions I was reading the beatitudes in Matthew 5. I was reading them just as I have 100 times before (that may be a slight exaggeration lol), when I started thinking differently about what they said. Often we see them almost like a bargain: do this, get that. And I have tended to think of these blessings as something we receive on earth. However, this time as I was reading, I realized that most (if not all) of them are blessings for the life to come.

Matthew 5:2-12

And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Some may be for this life. But many of them don’t seem to be. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven… They shall inherit the earth… They shall see God… For great is your reward in heaven…”

I find it comforting to think that we won’t always get our rewards on earth because a heavenly reward will be so much greater than anything we could receive here!

Good Plans

"As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind ?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents ; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." --John 9: 1-3

In this amazing New Testament story, a man's sight is given to him by Jesus after he's lived his whole life thus far blind. At this time, the Pharisees told people that if they committed certain sins, then God would give them certain illnesses as punishments. So Jesus' disciples wanted to know why this man was born blind; could it have been in punishment of something his parents did before he was born? Jesus' answer reveals a wonderful truth about God in our lives:

Everything is for the glory of God. It's not about you.

That man was not blind through a certain fault that he had; after all, everyone sins! He was blind "so that the works of God might be displayed in him." And God used this circumstance in the man's life to lead him to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. It was also for the man's own good that he was blind.

I'm absolutely certain that the blind man was not happy about being blind. He didn't think, "Hurray! God made me blind for a wonderful reason that I just don't know yet. I must be so special." I'm sure that he did not want to be blind. Yet God used that circumstance for great good, and that man's healing and faith are still witnesses to people today.

God's plans for out lives are good, even when we can't see why. And they are meant to give glory to God while helping His chosen people to grow closer to Him. I was struck with another example of this while reading the story of Joseph.

Do you remember what happened to Joseph? It all started when Jacob, Joseph's father, was tricked into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. He got to marry Rachel too eventually, but then the two sisters were stuck in an impossible situation. Leah knew that Jacob loved Rachel more than her. And Rachel was barren, while Leah easily gave birth to numerous sons to carry on Jacob's seed. So of course it was very natural for their children to hate each other. Rachel finally gave birth (to Joseph), and Jacob made him his favorite child, simply because he was Rachel's. Now Leah's sons had two reasons to hate Joseph: He was Rachel's son, and their father loved him more than them.

This sets the stage for Joseph's life story. Through interesting circumstances, Leah's sons are alone with Joseph out in the middle of nowhere. And they're more than normally angry with him. They almost decide to kill him, but then determine that selling him into slavery is a better idea.

So they do.

He was sold by his own brothers into slavery. Can you imagine your siblings doing that to you? This turns out pretty well, however, considering the circumstances. A good man (Potiphar) buys Joseph and treats him well, and pretty soon he's in charge of Potiphar's whole household, because he is blessed by God in everything he does. But then, through no fault of his own, he's thrown into prison.

The same thing happens in the prison that happened in Potiphar's house: Joseph is promoted over and over again until he's in a good position in the prison. He continues to honor God and do good things through this whole ordeal, and eventually he is second in command to Pharoh. Because of his obedience to God, he is able to save many people from starving to death when a great famine comes over the land. And after all that, this is what Joseph has to say about what God has done with his life:

"Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come closer to me." And they came closer. And he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. "Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. "For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God ; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt." --Genesis 45:4-8

I don't know about you, but Joseph's words here always blow me out of the water! Joseph truly got it; he understood why his life had unfolded a certain way. Eventually, Joseph's father is reunited with him. Jacob is overjoyed to see his son again, and Joseph introduces his father to Pharoh:

"Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh ; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How many years have you lived ?" So Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty ; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning." "--Genesis 47:7-9

"Few and unpleasant have been the days of my life"?! What a contrast! Whose life seems harder to you, Joseph's or Jacob's? I would definitely say Joseph's. And yet who is complaining? Jacob. Joseph is busy glorifying God.

Challenges and trials shape us into the people that God wants us to be. Joseph had learned through his troubles that God worked everything in his life for good. (Romans 8:28) He was able to look at the brothers who sold him into slavery in a foreign land and say, "Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life." Most of us will never be sold into slavery, but imagine what would happen if we were able to look at seemingly huge disappointments and thank God for them instead of complaining about them? Jacob chose to sit in misery and slowly waste away once he reached difficulties. He said ,"...few and unpleasant have been the years of my life...". How have you chosen to react in your life?

In every life there are trials and seasons of tribulation. Even if they're not direct, we all experience watching others go through them. But the plans that God has for our lives are good. (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28) We can grow through the trials God allows, remembering that God works for our good, or we can waste away complaining like Jacob. What will you choose? Are you going to be a Joseph or a Jacob?