On the Sabbath

One fine Sabbath morning, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues (I guess he was invited as a guest pastor). In the back row sat a woman who was crippled and had been for 18 years. When he saw her, he called "the lovely lady in the green dress" up. When she was before him, e said, "Woman, you are free from your infirmity." She straighted up, walked around, and praised God!

Imagine how you would feel if you had witnessed this scene. I'd be sitting in the pew with my mouth open and be in utter awe! It would be something I'd never forget. But the synagogue ruler was just too stuck in the letter of the law - he was actually mad! He said, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

Jesus narrowed his brows. "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

He was saying that the Sabbath was the perfect day for that! All his opponents were embarrassed, but the people were delighted!

Mighty To Save

Our worship team played "Mighty To Save" yesterday morning as special music. It's new and we weren't solid playing it in practice, and I was REALLY hoping we could do it good. When it was time to play it, I started out by being very tense and just focusing on my part. As the song went on I started thinking more about the words and praising God - what I was SUPPOSED to be doing the whole time! It is a really good song, and the lyrics are great for me every time I hear it.

Everyone needs compassion

A love that's never failing

Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness

The kindness of a Savior

The hope of nations

(Chorus:)

Savior

He can move the mountains

My God is mighty to save

He is mighty to save

Forever

Author of Salvation

He rose & conquered the grave

Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me

All my fears & failures

Fill my life again

I give my life to follow

Everything I believe in

Now I surrender

Savior

He can move the mountains

My God is mighty to save

He is mighty to save

Forever

Author of Salvation

He rose & conquered the grave

Jesus conquered the grave

(Bridge:)

Shine Your light and

Let the whole world see

We're singing

For the glory Of the risen King

We performed it well, praised God and had a good time! And guess what? When I was talking to our visitors, I had somebody tell me for the first time, "You have a great worship team!" I'm still smiling about that:)

Yell some more!!!!

Elijah, the prophet wanted dead or alive in all Israel, one day marched right up to the king with a proposition. "How long will you ride the fence, serving God and Baal? What we need to do is find out who is really God. Call all the prophets of Baal and have them build an altar to him, while I build an altar to God, and we put sacrifices on them. We ask our Gods for fire, and whichever answers is God." The prophets of Baal looked at each other and nodded. "Agreed!"

So the next morning, the prophets of Baal and Elijah went out and built altars for the duel of the Gods. They drew quite a crowd, and Elijah let Baal's guys go first. They cried to Baal to send fire. Nothing happened.

They shouted louder.

Still no response.

At noon Elijah started giggling. "Shout louder!" He told them, with a mouth full of popcorn. "Surely he is god! Maybe he's sleeping, or deep in thought, or he's in the bathroom!" They shouted louder, and still nothing happened. When evening came Elijah said, "All right that's enough! My turn!" He dug a trench around the altar and filled it with water while the crowd whispered to each other. "What's he doing?" When everything was ready, Elijah called to the LORD. Immediately, fire came from heaven and even burned up the water! The people were shocked and yelled, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

Elijah called to them to seize the prophets of Baal, and they did so, and put them all to death.

If you know what happened

"If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen of learned about, he will be held responsible."

Today I was reading in Leviticus where it talks about all the sacrifices and stuff. This verse made me look twice. I thought about some possible scenarios for this. There was a scene in TALE OF TWO CITIES that I watched with my friend where there was a nice guy charged for... some complicated crime. The girl witness was friends with this guy, and had seen him do something bad, but she didn't want to say so. I also thought about the opposite - like if something was your fault, but you let somebody else get in trouble for it. And my final thought was the referees in Superbowl XLIII - seeing something, then flat-out lying about it.

All of these things make you guily of sin! Sounds like if you know something important but keep silent about it, it's the same thing as lying.

While I'm Waiting

There's a lot of things going on right now that I am uncertain about. Mostly in the future. There are a lot of questions - what if I can't do this? What if I can't get a good enough grade on that? What if I mess everything up?

But yesterday Mom got the FIREPROOF soundtrack that she won in the mail. Of course I snatched it up instantly. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you remember the great montage playing the song "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller.

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience

While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait

I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it’s not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait

I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting on You, Lord

John the Baptist - very depressed

When Jesus came to the earth and began his ministry, everyone thought he was gathering followers to one day defeat the Romans with swords and spears and that he would be king of Israel in place of Herod. The disciples were excited for this, and were confused and didn't understand Jesus's hints that that wasn't what he had come to do. Jesus wasn't fitting their agenda? Impossible.

We all know John the Baptist as the noisy guy by the river dressed in camel skin and excited about Jesus's coming. But apparently he had his own idea for what Jesus would do as well as the others. When Herod imprisoned him, he sat waiting for something amazing to happen - waiting to hear that Rome was defeated, or waiting to hear that everyone had the Holy Spirit and were speaking God's word, or that the kingdom of God had come to earth, or something grand like that. C'mon Jesus, let's get moving! Prison can get you into a state of depression I imagine, and when none of these things were happening, he sent messengers to Jesus. They asked, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" John the Baptist asked that! And Jesus didn't frown at the words - he said, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

He was basically saying, " Blessed is the man who sticks with me and trusts me - even if what I'm doing doesn't fit his plan."

Then listen to what Jesus says to the crowd about John:

"What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:

'I will send my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way before you.'

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

In Jesus's mind, John wasn't a bum because he was confused. Even the greatest man born of woman has his doubts, but Jesus bears with them.

You can't put God in a box! His plan may not always align with yours - but that's ok! Just trust that He has his own great plan. Jesus sure did!

Yesterday - publications and plots

Yesterday I asked God to give me a plot for a short story contest. He did. The most amazing one in a long time. I called my writer girlfriend right away, and together we outlined it all out to near perfection. I am still very excited, and still praying that I can write this thing just how God wants it. It feels great that God told me to write something He wants written out of all the writers out there, and I just know that there is something special about this story.

But it's not all peaches and cream. I examined the contest further, and the prize not the best - they give you a bunch of school books from their store and publish your story in their e-newsletter. Doesn't bug me usually, but it's the publishing part that makes me iffy about entering. Usually contests want previously UNpublished stories for their contests, and I'm not sure I want to waste this story's publication on a homeschool newsletter when a scholarship is not involved.

I could use some prayer on this one - I want God's story to end up in the best place, whether it's a homeschool magazine or Newsweek.