Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Lesson

I found this picture the other day (I think he was six) and looked at it for hours. Everyday I am in awe of how he always accepts the life he has been given. Sometimes it's mind boggling. I love my baby!!!! I am truly blessed.

8 comments:

Aunt Kate said...

Why Did He Do It?
Monday, November 24, 2008
“He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.”
Philippians 2:7

Holiday travel. It isn’t easy. Then why do we do it? Why cram the trunks and endure the airports? You know the answer. We love to be with the ones we love.

The four-year-old running up the sidewalk into the arms of Grandpa.

The cup of coffee with Mom before the rest of the house awakes.

That moment when, for a moment, everyone is quiet as we hold hands around the table and thank God for family and friends and pumpkin pie.

We love to be with the ones we love.

May I remind you? So does God. He loves to be with the ones he loves. How else do you explain what he did? Between him and us there was a distance—a great span. And he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand it. So he did something about it.

“He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.”

Hope all is well. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. MUCH to be thankful for. Much love to all!!! ~k8

Aunt Kate said...

A Useful Vessel
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
“If you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”
Matthew 16:25 NLT

When you’re full of yourself, God can’t fill you.

But when you empty yourself, God has a useful vessel. Your Bible overflows with examples of those who did.

In his gospel, Matthew mentions his own name only twice. Both times he calls himself a tax collector. In his list of apostles, he assigns himself the eighth spot.

John doesn’t even mention his name in his gospel. The twenty appearances of “John” all refer to the Baptist. John the apostle simply calls himself “the other disciple” or the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”

Luke wrote two of the most important books in the Bible but never once penned his own name.

That's why I love when Pastor's say. . . "let me sit down, and God stand up" Anyway, hope all is well!! Much love and continued prayers to all!! ~aunt k8

Aunt Kate said...

A Plea for Mercy
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
“The Lord is not…willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9 NKJV

What of those who die with no faith? My husband never prayed. My grandpa never worshiped. My mother never opened a Bible, much less her heart. What about the one who never believed?

How do we know he didn’t?

Who among us is privy to a person’s final thoughts? Who among us knows what transpires in those final moments? Are you sure no prayer was offered? Eternity can bend the proudest knees. Could a person stare into the yawning canyon of death without whispering a plea for mercy? And could our God, who is partial to the humble, resist it?

He couldn’t on Calvary. The confession of the thief on the cross was both a first and final one. But Christ heard it. Christ received it. Maybe you never heard your loved one confess Christ, but who’s to say Christ didn’t?

Much to be thankful for!! Much love and continued prayers to all!! Aunt k8

Aunt Kate said...

Descend Into God’s Love
Friday, November 28, 2008
“I have no one in heaven but you; I want nothing on earth besides you.”
Psalm 73:25

My friend Keith took his wife, Sarah, to Cozumel, Mexico to celebrate their anniversary. Sarah loves to snorkel. Give her fins, a mask, and a breathing tube, and watch her go deep. Down she swims, searching for the mysteries below.

Keith’s idea of snorkeling includes fins, a mask, and a breathing tube, but it also includes a bellyboard. The surface satisfies him.

Sarah, however, convinced him to take the plunge. Forty feet offshore, she shouted for him to paddle out. He did. The two plunged into the water where she showed him the twenty-foot-tall submerged cross. “If I’d had another breath,” he confessed, “the sight would have taken it away.”

Jesus waves for you to descend and see the same. Forget surface glances. No more sunburned back. Go deep. Take a breath and descend so deeply into his love that you see nothing else.


Hope you all had a great thanksgiving!! Much love and continued prayers to ALL ~k8

Aunt Kate said...

A Bouquet of Blessings
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
“He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love.”
Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV

Suppose you dwell in a high-rise apartment. On the window sill of your room is a solitary daisy. This morning, you picked the daisy and pinned it on your lapel.

But as soon as you’re out the door, people start picking petals off your daisy. Someone snags your subway seat. Petal picked. You’re blamed for the bad report of a coworker… More petals. By the end of the day, you’re down to one…You’re only one petal-snatching away from a blowup.

What if the scenario was altered slightly? Let’s add one character. The kind man in the apartment next door runs a flower shop. Every night on the way home he stops at your place with a fresh bouquet. Because of him, your apartment has a sweet fragrance, and your step has a happy bounce. Let someone mess with your flower, and you’ve got a basketful to replace it!

God hand-delivers a bouquet to your door every day. Open it! Take them! Then, when rejections come, you won’t be left short-petaled.


Hey all!! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! And feel like it too!! Much love and continued prayers to all!! ~Aunt K8

Aunt Kate said...

God Is Eternal
Thursday, December 04, 2008
“God is…greater than we can understand! No one knows how old he is.”
Job 36:26

Scripture says that the number of God’s years is unsearchable. We may search out the moment the first wave slapped on a shore or the first star burst in the sky, but we’ll never find the first moment when God was God, for there is no moment when God was not God. He has never not been, for he is eternal. God is not bound by time.

But when Jesus came to the earth, all this changed. He heard for the first time a phrase never used in heaven: “Your time is up.” As a child, he had to leave the Temple because his time was up. As a man, he had to leave Nazareth because his time was up. And as a Savior, he had to die because his time was up. For thirty-three years, the stallion of heaven lived on the corral of time


Hey LOVE all the pictures your posted on the 'Book'. Much love and continued prayers to ALL! ~k8

Aunt Kate said...

Magnify Your Maker
Friday, December 05, 2008
“If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified.”
I Peter 4:11 NKJV

God endows us with gifts so we can make him known. Period. God endues the Olympian with speed, the salesman with savvy, the surgeon with skill. Why? For gold medals, closed sales, or healed bodies? Only partially.

The big answer is to make a big to-do out of God. Brandish him. Herald him. “God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well… Then God will be given glory” (I Pet. 4:10-11 NLT).

Love so that “he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” (I Pet. 4:11 MSG). Exhibit God with your uniqueness. When you magnify your Maker with your strengths, when your contribution enriches God’s reputation, your days grow suddenly sweet.

Love that! Hope all is well. We're anxiously awaiting Kaitlin to come home after her first semester at college. Can't wait. Continued prayers to all!! Much love! Aunt k8

Aunt Kate said...

Slow Down and Rest
Monday, December 08, 2008
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter.”
Exodus 20:9-10 NKJV

God knows us so well. He can see the store owner reading this verse and thinking, “Somebody needs to work that day. If I can’t, my son will.” So God says, Nor your son. “Then my daughter will.” Nor your daughter…“I guess I’ll have to send my cow to run the store, or maybe I’ll find some stranger to help me.” No, God says. One day of the week you will say no to work and yes to worship. You will slow and sit down and lie down and rest.

Still we object…“What about my grades?” “I’ve got my sales quota.” We offer up one reason after another, but God silences them all with a poignant reminder: “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” God’s message is plain: “If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do.”

Repeat these words after me: It is not my job to run the world.


Good message for us all to hear!! It's important! Hope all is well, much love, and continued prayers to all!! ~k8