Just something to make you laugh or remind you of a special child in your life :)
KIDS IN CHURCH

3-year-old Reese:
"Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen."
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A little boy was overheard praying:
"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am."
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After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
and I wanted to stay with you guys."
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One particular four-year-old prayed,
"And forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
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A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"
One bright little girl replied,
"Because people are sleeping."
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A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3.
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
"If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
"Ryan, you be Jesus!"
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A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
"Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.
"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
"Did God throw him back down?"
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A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
"Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
"Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

I hope this makes you smile! It reminds me of the somewhat "distorted" view that many children have of God. And we as teenagers or adults have the responsibility to teach them more about God and how awesome He is.
Love to you,
Rachel

THE LORD'S BASEBALL GAME Freddy and the Lord stood by to observe a baseball game. The Lord's team was playing Satan's team. The Lord's team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate named 'Love.' Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because 'Love never fails.' The next batter was named Faith , who also got a single because Faith works with Love . The next batter up was named Godly Wisdom. Satan wound up and threw the first pitch. Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass: Ball one. Three more pitches and Godly Wisdom walked because he never swings at what Satan throws. The bases were now loaded. The Lord then turned to Freddy and told him He was now going to bring in His starplayer. Up to the plate stepped Grace .. Freddy said, 'He sure doesn't look like much!' Satan's whole team relaxed when they saw Grace . Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first pitch. To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had ever seen! But Satan was not worried; his center fielder let very few get by. He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him on the head and sent him crashing on the ground; the roaring crowds went wild as the ball continued over the fence The Lord's team wn! The Lord then asked Freddy if he knew why Love, Faith and Godly Wisdom could get on base but couldn't win the game. Freddy answered that he didn't know why. The Lord explained, 'If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game, you would think you had done it by yourself. Love , Faith and Wisdom will get you on base but only My Grace can get you Home: 'For by Grace are you saved, it is a gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast..' Ephestians 2:8-9 Psalm 84:11, 'For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.'
Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.' Not ashamed!! I do Love God. He is my source of existence and Savior. He keeps me functioning each and everyday. Without Him, I am nothing, but with him: 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' Phil 4:13

Apologetics and little bro-- a profoundly deep yet amazingly simple statement

Hi all! I just was talking to my little brother Matthew and I was looking at my Apologetics speech questions. I asked him if I could ask him one question and he said sure. So I randomly pointed to the question "Did Jesus attain deity by His sacrificial death or was He God from the beginning?" After explaining to him what deity meant, Matthew quickly answered "From the beginning." I asked him why he said that and he (loudly!) exclaimed, "BECAUSE! You couldn't just become God. And you couldn't rise from the dead unless you were already God before you died!" I thought that was pretty impressive as a completely impromptu statement from a ten-year-old. Well, sweet Matthew just asked me if I would ask him more questions. How could you refuse studying things about God when a child wants to?!? So, I'd better go.
Signing off,
Rachel (a very content big sister :)

Abortion

This year I am going to do an expository speech (basically a speech with visual aids) on the tragedy of abortion. If anyone knows of any good Christian books I could read on the subject, please leave a comment and let me know! Thank you!!

Here is Love

I officially think I have a favorite song. I'm not sure I can come up with just one that I love more than any others... but this one is amazing. It captures God's love soooo perfectly. It's a hymn that's not very widely spread called "Here is Love" the words are

Here is LOVE, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as a flood, when the Prince of Life our RANSOM shed for us His precious blood. Who this love will not remember? Who could cease to sing His praise? He can never be forgotten, throughout heaven's eternal days.

On the Mount of Crucifixion, fountains opened deep and wide, through the floodgates of God's MERCY poured a vast and gracious tide. Grace and Love like mighty rivers poured incessant from above, and Heaven's peace and PERFECT JUSTICE kissed a guilty world in LOVE.

and the tune is pretty beautiful too. If you'd like to listen, here's the link to the words and tune. http://nethymnal.org/htm/h/e/herelove.htm Now if that isn't love, I don't know what is.

1 John 4:10 "IN THIS IS LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins."
Here is love. May the Father fill you with His all-perfect, all-consuming love. HE is love.

You know what's kind of sad though? People always talk about hate being such a strong word. And it is. But when you think about it, according to this verse, so is the word "love." Yet so often we throw it around like it means nothing. But love does not mean nothing if it is Christ-like love. Christ had true love, and the kind of love that He had was self-sacrificing love. May we have that same kind of love. I pray that His love is evident in my life and in yours!

Soap Lake!

So a few weeks ago I went to Soap Lake with the Kovachs for a weekend. I had a blast with my dear friend Haley. Here are some pics Jam and me :) Jamie and Jackson... soooooo sweet :)
Jackson looks so happy!
The beautiful Kovach sisters

Haley and me in the bedroom! Another pic with Haley
Haley and me in the water
A very bad picture of myself haha

My attempt at taking a picture of Haley while kayaking!
Brother (and sister) ly love :) Haley and Curtis
Baby Jack! Isn't he adorable?!

If ever I loved Thee...

I was recently touched by the story behind the song "My Jesus, I love Thee." Here is the story according to nethymnal.org : "A young, tal­ent­ed and ten­der-heart­ed ac­tress was pass­ing along the street of a large ci­ty. See­ing a pale, sick girl ly­ing up­on a couch just with­in the half-open door of a beau­ti­ful dwell­ing, she en­tered, with the thought that by her vi­va­ci­ty and plea­sant con­ver­sa­tion she might cheer the young in­va­lid. The sick girl was a de­vot­ed Christ­ian, and her words, her pa­tience, her sub­mis­sion and hea­ven-lit coun­te­nance, so dem­on­strat­ed the spir­it of her re­li­gion that the ac­tress was led to give some ear­nest thought to the claims of Christ­i­an­i­ty, and was tho­rough­ly con­vert­ed, and be­came a true fol­low­er of Christ. She told her fa­ther, the lead­er of the the­a­ter troupe, of her con­ver­sion, and of her de­sire to aban­don the stage, stat­ing that she could not live a con­sis­tent Christ­ian life and fol­low the life of an ac­tress. Her fa­ther was as­ton­ished be­yond mea­sure, and told his daugh­ter that their liv­ing would be lost to them and their bu­si­ness ru­ined, if she per­sist­ed in her re­so­lu­tion. Lov­ing her fa­ther dear­ly, she was shak­en some­what in her pur­pose, and par­tial­ly con­sent­ed to fill the pub­lished en­gage­ment to be met in a few days. She was the star of the troupe, and a gen­er­al fa­vo­rite. Ev­ery prep­a­ra­tion was made for the play in which she was to ap­pear. The ev­en­ing came and the fa­ther re­joiced that he had won back his daugh­ter, and that their liv­ing was not to be lost. The hour ar­rived; a large au­di­ence had as­sem­bled. The cur­tain rose, and the young ac­tress stepped for­ward firm­ly amid the ap­plause of the mul­ti­tude. But an un­wont­ed light beamed from her beau­ti­ful face. Amid the breath­less si­lence of the au­di­ence, she re­peat­ed:
‘My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou;If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.’
This was all. Through Christ she had con­quered and, leav­ing the au­di­ence in tears, she re­tired from the stage, ne­ver to ap­pear up­on it again. Through her in­flu­ence her fa­ther was con­vert­ed, and through their unit­ed evan­gel­is­tic la­bors ma­ny were led to God.”
Now this story made me think. This one girl impacted thousands of people simply because she shared her faith so boldly.
What if every Christian would face intimidating situations by unashamedly proclaiming "For Thee all the follies of sin I resign... If EVER I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now!"
This is what I hope for in my life. I pray that God would give me courage to share my faith more boldly and with more people. I pray that I would love Him more each day. And I pray that for HIM and HIM ALONE I would resign not some, but all of the follies of sin.
My Jesus, I love Thee!

My prayer...

Welcome to my blog! Since this is my first post, I think I should start off with what I desire this blog to be. I pray that this blog will be a place that is glorifying to God. I pray that it will honor Him and Him alone, because my life is first for Him and only for Him. My prayer is that anyone who reads any random thing I happen to post will be encouraged to live for the LORD. He is my King, Ruler of everything!
May His name be praised.