Happy Birthday Solomon!

               I'm a little late, since his actual birthday was on Sunday the 21st, but hey better late than never right?  He's not only 5 years old now, but has already lost 2 teeth and can write his name.  Where has the time gone?  He's my big teddy bear, tough- yet sensitive, goofy- yet serious, social butterfly.  The first time you meet him he's already giving you hugs and high fives.  Here's a photo of him slam dunking on his fisher price hoop. The next picture perfectly portrays his goofy side. 

All That We Need

Colossians 2:9,10 - "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

           In Christ is access to every believer for their completeness.  I don’t care how messed up your background was, how deep your scars are, how evil the people were that raised you.  You can be complete (1:28)! And you can be encouraged (2:2) because in Him, in bodily form now, is a fullness accessible to you.  Christ possesses in His being and in human form as the God-man, the  entirety of the infinite being of all of God’s attributes. The perfections of God’s nature in their entirety and fullness are found in Christ.  

          He is infinite in His knowledge, in His wisdom, in His love, in His mercy, in His graciousness.  He possesses infinitely every single  attribute that the Father possesses.  How can  there not be what we need??? Sustaining power? He’s infinitely powerful!  Mercy??  To sustain someone that does not deserve to be sustained? He’s infinitely merciful!  Infinitely faithful, loving and just!  The attributes are not only infinite, they are immutable. They cannot be changed!  He can’t love an object of His love less.  If you can sin and He love you less, then you can change Him.  Can you change Him?  No!  He can be less happy with you, less pleased with you, but He loves you the same (Psalm 89:1).  The essence of the glory of the being of Christ and of God the Father is their sufficiency.  There’s Someone who helps you, there’s Someone who sustains you, there’s Someone who gives you wisdom, , there’s Someone who gives you power, and He’s all powerful and He’s all wise. There’s Someone who restores- there’s a Person and He’s all sufficient-

 and this is His glory. 

A Tooth for a Tooth

Solomon has yet to turn 5, but he already came running to me this morning shouting, "Mommy, my tooth came out!That's amazing! (just like his papa used to say)".  It's funny to think about how you can actually be excited about losing a tooth.  Can you imagine if as adults we were still like that?  We bite into a frozen candy bar and our front tooth comes out with it, and we shout with joy, "My tooth came out!".  Hmmm, I don't think that would be a joyous occasion.  We would be calling the emergency dentist line right away.  Not to mention, that is actually a true story, but I'm not gonna say who that really happened to ;)  So learn from their mistake, if you like your candy bars to be cold and you put it into the freezer, please let it sit for a few minutes before you bite in, just sayin'.  
On the more serious note, it is a precious thing to watch your child go through all the stages of life.  It's also amazing to think about how all-wise God is in His creation.  He fashioned our bodies so complex and with such care.  He even gave us two sets of teeth! 

Opportunity to share of God's mercy

For those of you who don't have Facebook, here is the link to watch the video of Troy's speech

Troy was given a huge opportunity to speak at an 8th grade graduation at a public school in Vallejo.  Even though he's never done anything even close to this, he knew he couldn't pass it up.  If the Lord is with him then he's ready to go!  The first picture I posted is him right before he went to speak at the graduation.  The second picture is Giovanni realizing he's not going with daddy, and Solomon is just in his own world :)  The amazing thing about this whole thing, is that even though he's speaking at a public school, he was free to mention his faith and God's mercy on him.  He even quoted a few scriptures at the end. Now in this day and age,  that is unheard of!  I'm so thankful that Troy was finally able to share with others God's great mercy on him and how he was delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to Christ's kingdom of light. I especially like the part when he said he has no excuses to justify his life of purging in sin.  No one, no situation, no surrounding to blame but himself.  Just like Troy, if it weren't for God's mercy on us, we would be dead in our sins and on the path to hell.  Praise God who lavishes His love and mercy on us, not only undeserving, but ILL DESERVING people!  I also want to point out that even though this was way out of Troy's comfort zone to do this,  he did not back down.  He put Christ's glory in the forefront of his heart and asked the Lord to help him accomplish His work.  So when you are presented with an opportunity to serve Christ that may be out of your comfort zone, but you feel the Spirit's tug at your heart, don't back down.  You will lose out on major blessings of trusting in the Lord to help you and give you the strength to do it!

Reconciled in Christ

 As I was listening to my father's sermon online,  the Lord put it on my heart to begin posting pieces of them kind of like a devotional.  I pray God continues to use my dad to bring souls to Christ and proclaim His name. 

Colossians 1:21,22 - “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.”

                 What He did in removing the offense of reconciliation is SO entire, SO complete, SO final that He can present us before God without any blame, without any reproach; It's ALL been removed! All the offenses, all the sins that would breach us are gone! He can present us faultless in Christ, not faultless in ourselves. 

                 How, How do we not cherish Him? How do we not serve Him? How do we not love Him? How? And how, how – when we are offended – we say, “you know they offended me man, let me tell you what they did, and I'm hurt”, how do we not say to them, “What did you do and did I do anything to cause you to do that? Was there anything that I might have done to precipitate this? Take what's out of your eye first – the log, and then you get the speck out of your brother's. How do you just lay in to someone without fist saying, “ did I do anything to create this thing? Was there anything on my side?” You say, “I don't want to do that, why should I have to do that?”

               He did it ALL friends! He took away your offense! How can we NOT approach people that way and say, did I do anything to make this breach? Was there anything on my side that caused this, even a little bit? Now you already know in your mind what's on their side and it's huge to you. That's not the issue. The issue is this: If Christ approached you this way, how can you not approach people that way? How do we do this?? We forget what He did for us. 

              Oh what a Savior! Oh Lord You came our way, You went to us, the angry rebel that spit in your face and didn't even know it. We say “what do You want? Hey get out of my life!” Children of wrath.. and You reconciled us. We should be in the dust. Who are we? Who do we think we are? Please forgive us, forgive every one of us. Amen.

When in doubt, PRAY

Our human nature in all of its falleness,  tells us that we always have to be physically doing something in order to help - either ourselves or someone else.  Yes, it is good to physically help someone if the opportunity presents itself- bring them a meal, help them with household chores; but sometimes the only thing - and the BEST thing - you can do is PRAY.  Maybe someone is going through a trial and they may not need any one material thing to help them, but just to let them know you are praying for them is enough.  Don't just say the words "I'm praying for you"  and leave it at that.  No, go to the throne of grace and pray for them.  Or you may know of someone who lives far away and you long to be able to be near to them to comfort them.  Send them a note and let them know you are praying for them, and really pray for them. Don't just say you are praying for them, do it.  I am writing this to me first, I know I need to grow in this area greatly. 

 Charles Spurgeon says, "When you cannot use your sword, you may take to the weapon of all prayer.  Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts; and when we think it most blunt, it cuts the best."