HE WILL CARRY ME: BLESSING ME ALL THE WAY!

MEDITATION MONDAY

Everyday is full of new and wonderful teaching from our LORD. Yesterday, like so many Sundays, the Bible class, sermons, and songs all told the story of our amazing GOD choosing to BLESS! Even the marquee out front has a timely saying, THE BEST INVESTMENTS YIELD ETERNAL DIVIDENDS!

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Steve preached 2 different sermons for first and second services. At first service He wanted all of our new christians, "babes in Christ", to know how much GOD had BLESSED them. At the second service he focused on all the new physical babies we have in our congregation and how GOD BLESSES us through our children and wants to BLESS our children. Seven were called up to the front with their families and the elders.
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FIRST SERVICE:

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Here are the first 10 out of 31 BLESSINGS that Steve listed that we have in CHRIST:

1. You were dead, now you're alive in JESUS! Ephesians 1-2


2. You were sealed with the HOLY SPIRIT! Ephesians 1:13


3. You have been made part of GOD's family! Ephesians 1


4. You are seated with GOD in the Heavenly Places! Ephesians 2


5. Your citizenship is in Heaven! Ephesians 2


6. GOD is able to do more through you than you can possibly imagine through the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT! Ephesians 3:20-21


7. You're gifted by GOD to mature and grow! Ephesians 4


8. You're personally outfitted for victory over satan! Ephesians 6:10-20


9. You have the POWER of prayer! Ephesians 6


10. You're held together by CHRIST JESUS! Colossians 1:17

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I believe that we all left sooooooo thankful for our BLESSINGS IN CHRIST!

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SECOND SERVICE:

Steve shared with us that in the Hebrew culture they believe in the importance of THE BLESSING of one to another:

1. Meaningful Touch


2. Spoken Message of Love and Affection
   
3. Attributing of High Value


4. Picturing a Glorious Future

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Steve emphasized that we were called to inherit a BLESSING but we were also called to BLESS.
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He pointed us to:

• Ephesians 1:3 - "BLESSED be the GOD and Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST who has BLESSED us with every spiritual BLESSING in the heavenly places in CHRIST..."
  
• I Peter 3:8-9 - "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a BLESSING instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a BLESSING."
  

We looked at the GOD BLESSING in Luke 2:28-32 and THE BABY BLESSING in Matthew 19:13-15 and Luke 18:15-17 as well as the NEWBORN ADMONITION in I Peter 2:1-3.

GOD TRULY REACHED DOWN AND

BLESSED US THROUGH THIS LESSON!

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Steve gave the quote from a mother,

Elizabeth Stone,

that we can all relate to,

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever

to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

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TREASURED IN MY HEART CLASS:

It was Linda Krinks time to teach. Here is Katherine Cooper introducing her and then the pictures that follow are of our class as we listen to Linda and look at pictures that she passed around.

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I am so deeply touched when a sister says that she is having a hard time doing something but that the Spirit is leading her to do it anyway - so was the case with Linda yesterday. In fact, she confessed that in talking with her husband, one of our elders, Greg about it, he encouraged her to LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT. Praise GOD that she did! Thank you, Linda! We were all so BLESSED! I was thinking of all the young women in the group who share a similar story and, if Linda wasn't already, she has now become their role model, mentor, older sister...an older woman teaching the younger women.

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Okay, I know you're interested in what Linda had to share. Here's the Patti version, and I pray that I do it justice!

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One of Linda's earliest childhood memories is of the day that her Dad moved out - leaving the family for good. She can remember it well. Raised in a non-christian home with a step-dad, she found she couldn't really get answers to what happened with her birth father. (It wasn't until the age of 28 that she found out that she had a half sister, child of her dad's, who was 10 years younger than her.) She struggled with anger and insecurity for years. They became strongholds.

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She grew up and married her high school sweetheart. She went to nursing school. He went to dental school. They began having kids. Along the way, they became christians. Yet, she found Romans 7:18-19 to be so true, "For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish." She said that it's too bad that she didn't find this scripture until recently, Psalm 68:4-5:

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"Sing to GOD, sing praises to His name;

Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts,

Whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him.

5 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,

Is GOD in His holy habitation. "

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Linda found it hard to be a stay at home mom. Yet, she wanted to do the right thing. For a season, she worked outside the home. She lived with guilt, guilt, guilt!

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She asked the class how many were first generation christians. Over one half the class raised their hands. She congratulated them, saying, "You are cycle breakers, but you can't change everything in one generation." It means that you are living your life in a "new and better direction". Through her life she has tried to absorb Psalms 139:13-16,

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"For Thou didst form my inward parts;

Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Thy works,

And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from Thee,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Thy book they were all written,

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them. "

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Since she brought her "wounded self" into motherhood, her oldest child got the brunt of many feelings. She read these scriptures over and over.

• Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. "
• James 4:7-8 "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

As Linda, grew and transformed, she knew there were some goals that she wanted for her children:

1. Talk! Open communication! Keep connected!Linda and daughter had a journal that they passed back and forth to each other.
2. Peace! Peacemaker! Linda works to be pro-active and preventative, to straighten things out before they even happen.
3. Forgiveness! Love! Linda wants her children to understand these two things.
4. Know! Hebrews 4:15-16 "For we do not have a HIGH PRIEST who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need."

THANK YOU, LINDA. Thank you for following the leading of the HOLY SPIRIT. He has BLESSED YOU all through your rough journey. You, in turn, have BLESSED your children, grandchildren, and us. We're looking forward to hearing more from you next week. We love you!

Click other links about Linda on this blog:

• http://momstransformed.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-great-is-our-god-let-all-earth.html
• http://momstransformed.blogspot.com/2008/08/who-am-i-i-am-yours.html
• http://momstransformed.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-great-is-our-god-kept.html
• http://momstransformed.blogspot.com/2008/08/transitionstransformations.html