Offerings

2 Samuel 24:24:
"But the king (David) replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I WILL NOT SACRIFICE TO THE LORD MY GOD BURNT OFFERINGS THAT COST ME NOTHING."

Wow. I think is speaks for itself, huh?

Matthew 18

Matthew 18:1-5:

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

²He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

When I think of these verses I am so very humbled. I know these verses well, yet I'm sure that I don't completely grasp all that Jesus was saying here.

Going a bit deeper with Henry M. Morris:

Like Little Children- "One does not receive salvation by bargaining or arguing, although the prior clearing of obstacles to faith is helpful and often necessary. ...we are saved through faith-unconditional faith-like the unquestioning trust of a little child."

Unquestioning... I love that. But it also comes with the security of the one they are trusting. If a person has given a child no reason to not trust them and they know them, then a child will trust blindly. So, by knowing God and what He's done and sacrificed (through His Son), we should believe without hesitation.
The world tells us otherwise though doesn't it? It tells us to be independent, do-it-yourselfers, and take pride in your work. Those things are all conflicting with what Jesus teaches. So how do we fight against the world yet be in it? How are we "ordinary radicals" in our faith?

Scantily clad

I still don't understand why this makes sense. Can you help me to understand this better?

New Nintendo Wii game:



This is what most Samurai warriors wear. Fully clothed because the swords that they use can cut a human in half with one swipe.
Thoughts?

Made my day...

My brother Adam and his son Shawn (what a ham)

Shawn and sister Jenny

Seriously.... look at Shawn's face. Isn't that hilarious???

The Right Direction

2 Corinthians 2-4 is really something I needed to read tonight. I needed to remember that "my" ministry will never be "MY" ministry. Even though I know that, to really hear it from God is something a bit different.
Listen to how The Message puts it (2 Corinthians 3:1-4):

"Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it."

No matter what part of ministry I serve in, I'm authorized BY GOD to do it (as long as it's part of His moral/providential will). And just before these verses it says in 2 Cor. 2:16-17:

"This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No— but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can."

I love this. I am completely useless without God and His perfection... His Son dying on the cross is the only thing that makes the cut. By me accepting Him, I not only find favor in God's eyes, but I'm allowed to be in His presence and worship Him for His glory! What an honor!!!
The ministries that I'm part of are only a very small portion to the Kingdom of God, but it's what He's commissioned me (us) to do. To serve and to tell others about Him. He could have written it in the sky, or made Himself known in other ways, but He has CHOSEN us to tell others. What a responsibility indeed.
So, in this, when hard times come... what am I to do? 2 Cor. 4 says:

^1-2"Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.

^3-4If our Message is obscure to anyone, it's not because we're holding back in any way. No, it's because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won't have to bother believing a Truth they can't see. They're stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we'll ever get.

^5-6Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!

^13-15We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

^16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever."

I think that I'm going to be studying this for awhile. :) Who am I? God's. That's all that matters in the end.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%202-4;&version=65;