Love Changes Everything

WOW!

How exciting the doors that God has opened for Haiti!

This week, I am going to work on applying my heart (Proverbs 22:17-18) to what is important to God....Love Him and Love others! I will be praying for the team in Haiti!

As Sean expressed in the message...My prayer is to become truly 'others focused'. There is a key in that sentence...prayer...I don't believe we are to go willy nilly trying to solve every problem we see in the folks around us....As we Love God...talk to Him, spend time with Him, get to know Him....making sure He is the Hub of our wheel, we will hear from Him what to do for the others around us. If we become 'other focused', it will be easier to hear.

Remember Pastor Dennis asked us to pray that God will give the team going to Haiti discernment...what to say yes to and what to say NO to....we will receive discernment in how to Love others as we pray for ourselves.

I really want to watch and see how God's love through us changes everything!

The Truth About Honesty

The truth is...I missed church AGAIN!

I came back from California sick as a dog (don't laugh) and am still trying to shake it...HA!

So this will be short and sweet this morning....As I was going over Pastor Dennis' slides for Sunday's message, the verse he used, Ephesians 4:15, struck me-

( I have used the Amplified Version of the verse below)

Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Isn't this really the key that we need to grasp this week...Truth in love--growing to be like Jesus.

Understanding Fairness

I have a confession to make...we did not go to Church on Sunday. I am tagging along with my husband on a business trip in La Jolla, California. We get here and the sun is shining and it is warm but not hot....we look out the window and see the ocean. We walked along the ocean and watched the children, pelicans and sea lions playing in the water...it is gorgeous...what?...that's not fair? How timely!

Some of you will get to put Pastor Dennis' message right to work. When confronted with such unfairness-

• Accept it Gracefully
• Respond Lovingly (even towards God for "allowing" unfairness)
• Wait for God's Help Expectantly (He Wants so much to be a constant help to us)

I know that Pastor Dennis spoke of serious unfairness in the world and I am not making light of that...however sometimes we have the faith to go through the serious unfair times and really mess up in the little ones. It never hurts to practice in the small trials so when the big trials come you have experience.

And blessings to you from warm, sunny, gorgeous, Southern California!

Maintaining Morality

I think Sunday's message helped in 2 ways.

One is to help us all maintain personal morality. His points are such an excellent outline in how to do this.

• Make a commitment to God's standard
• Manage your mind
• Monitor your media intake
• Minimize the opportunity for Temptation
• Magnify the consequences

The second way the message helps, as I see it, is our need to show concern in this world versus judgment on the subject of sex. As Dennis said- Rather than announce the law of the matter we should announce the love of the matter. Again I am reminded that Christianity is not a weapon that we wield at "Sinners" but rather a life forgiven, living a life of love (loving God and loving others) ... that is how we can become more like Jesus.