Tag Archives: JESUS

Diaries of the Heart

WHO DO YOU EXALT

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Have you had friends let you down??? Have you had people in authority let you down??? Have church leaders let you down???

I can say that as a family we have experienced all 3 of the above, and when it does happen it leaves us feeling like the floor has opened up under us and we are hanging by a thread.

Now is the problem with the ones who we feel have let us down, or is our problem with us.

I think the problem is with us.

My husband’s favourite saying is:

“We can only rely on God, man will let us down, but God never will”.

And one of my daughters sayings:

“it is our expectations that lead to our disappointment”.

So you see the problem isn’t the people who let us down, but the problem is our expecting to be able to rely on them or our expectations of them.

We expect people we admire to be people to admire, but we forget that just like us they are human and they sin.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Did you read that?? It said ALL, not some, but ALL have sinned and we ALL come short of the glory of God.

We have had Church leaders, who we admired and expected great things from, fall from grace. It hasn’t just destroyed them, but taken a bit of the congregation with them, but again we have forgotten that they are human and Romans 3:23 stands for them as well.

We have put them in a place that no one other than God deserves to be put. We sometimes forget that God is God and not man.

There have been posts put up lately about issues happening in the Christian world and the falling from grace by certain people and I feel the anger and frustration of fellow Christians regarding these matters.

I get it, I really understand the issues and the frustrations but once again I come to Romans 3:23 and stand next to those who have fallen and state again that I am just like them. I and them and all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So let’s take our eyes off those who have fallen and stop putting these people in places they shouldn’t be put and keep our eyes on the one who should only be put in that place.

JESUS

Mankind will always let us down but JESUS never will, he is the only one to be exalted to a higher place.

Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

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You may find this post linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

SOMETHING TO CONTEMPLATE #2

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I am following the read the bible in a year plan with Donna over at Soul Survival and the following was one of my readings during the week.

John 8:2-12 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say? This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them,“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  Then those who heard it,being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her,  “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

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Now I know that I have read this passage before, I don’t know how many times but it wasn’t until this morning that I actually READ IT.

This woman was caught in sin and the normal punishment was stoning. That sounds quite severe but it was how it happened back then.

They brought her to Jesus for judgement and he came back with the statement about those who are without sin casting the first stone.

Everyone went away and the woman was left with Jesus, no one was capable of throwing that stone because no one is without sin.

The only one capable of throwing that stone was Jesus. The only one who knew no sin and had the right to judge her and condemn her to stoning was Jesus.

But Jesus said to her “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Makes me wonder what right I have to judge and condemn others around me.

Definitely something to contemplate…

 

 

You will find this post linked up at some of these wonderful blogs.

 

Diaries of the Heart

WHAT CROWD DO YOU RUN WITH

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When I went to primary school I always felt that I was middle to bottom of the range.  I definitely wasn’t popular, and being a chubby child I was always the brunt of the jokes or teasing.

I seemed to spend my time following the in-crowd around trying to look like I was in, trying to be pleasing to them so that maybe they would notice me.

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It didn’t change once I went to high school, it only became harder to be me amongst a crowd of teenagers who only thought of themselves and their status at the school.

I wasn’t good at sport, I wasn’t good at academics, the only subjects I was good at were Business Studies, and that’s the vocation I eventually headed into.

Even when I went to TAFE (Adult Further Education) I still didn’t fit in, it seems I have spent most of my life trying to find a crack into the in-crowd.

Now that I am married – and I have a great marriage – and I fit with my husband extremely well, I still have groups that I just don’t fit in.

We have a school connected to our church but I don’t fit in with the schooling mums because we don’t send our children to school.  I don’t fit in with the young mums (even though I have young children) because I am a grandmother as well – I’m a bit too old for them.

But does it really matter if we fit in with the in-crowds of this world. Sometimes it seems to matter too much, but really there is only one crowd we should want to be in.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

John 17:14-16 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not after sympathy and I don’t spend my days wallowing because I don’t fit in, I am just so pleased that I now know that I don’t actually NEED to fit it.

It has taken me years to realise that being “IN” doesn’t matter.  The only one I should care about is Jesus and I want to run with His crowd.

This post is linked here…

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Homeschooling Diary

CHRISTMAS CARD MAKING

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Now I am not a glue, feathers and glitter type of mum, just ask my oldest daughter, but I really enjoy making Christmas cards.

No 2 daughter and son have been helping me and they are really creative with glitter and glue.  I have to take lots of deep breaths when the glitter comes out and not let it get to me 🙂 .

imageHere they are with some of the cards we have already made and making some new ones as well.

This year I bought all our card already cut from our local newspaper office.  I got 80 cards for $14.00, this is much cheaper than buying them from the cheap junk stores in packs of 10 and the card is much nicer.  The packaged ones are normally shiny and hard to work with. The ones I got are just plain matte cards that anything (including glitter) sticks to.

I am hopeless at drawing Christmas trees so I tried a few and then got smart and just drew 3 triangles at different sizes and used these.

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I bought some corrugated card this year in lovely shiny Christmas colours and I have heaps of scrap paper and supplies left over from last year.  I did purchase some more printed ribbon with Christmas designs on them for $2 a roll and we use quite a bit of this.

Instead of gluing on the pieces of card we used mounting tape which gives it all a slight 3D effect.  One warning, once you put this tape on you cannot remove it, it is there for life.

Now I’m not that big on Christmas trees but they do look great on the cards, but I wanted something that said that Jesus was the reason for Christmas, so we made stables as well.

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No 2 daughter did a great job of drawing Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus, even I didn’t get that creative.

I normally write a greeting on each individual card but when you send out about 60 it gets quite tiring, so this year I am printing out one to put inside.  I am trying to work smart this year, below is what I decided on.

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I then also signed it digitally from all our family.  So now all I have to put in is the names of the people I am sending the card to, and address the envelopes.

Making cards is very easy and fun to do and it is something we can do as a homeschooling art session.

Do you make your own cards at Christmas time?? Can you give us some other creative ideas??

Blessings…