"Z" is for ZEALOUS

I have made it for 26 weeks Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  Some weeks have been more fun than others.  I have enjoyed the creativity of the other bloggers who have been a part of the challenge.  Many of them are home school moms, and they have given me a new appreciation to their call and what creativity they have in providing learning experiences for their children.  I also have several new recipes to try and thanks to "Living The Dream" made a yummy banana cake for Life Group last Sunday.  And thanks to Dawn, I know a lot more about some animals I had never heard of.

So when thinking about the letter "Z", I thought of the word ZEALOUS.  

Dictionary.com describes ZEALOUS as:
full of, characterized by, or due to zeal; ardently active, devoted, ordiligent.

Synonyms: enthusiastic, eager, fervid, fervent, intense, passionate,warm

I wish I could say that ZEALOUS was a word that describes me, but my personality is much more laid back.  It takes quite a bit to get me excited.  I am pretty sure those that know me would not use ZEALOUS to describe me.  But if I could be known as being ZEALOUS about anything, I would love for it to be for the Lord. Yet, I know that I can aspire for that but I am not there, because there are too many other things that I let distract me or get in the way of spending time with the Lord.  If I were ZEALOUS, it would come more naturally and not be so much effort.  

Our preacher is preaching a series of sermons from Psalm 119 and there are many verses about being ZEALOUS for God's Word.

2:  How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart.

10: With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.

16-: I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.

47-48: I shall [r]delight in Your commandments, Which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments,Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes.

58: I sought Your favor with all my heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word.

82: My eyes fail with longing for Your word

97: O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day

167: My soul keeps Your testimonies, And I love them exceedingly.

174: I long for Your salvation, O Lord, And Your law is my delight.

My prayer is that I will become more ZEALOUS for the reading of God's Word and receive His blessing.

"Y" is for YAHWEH

This is week 25 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude. Only one more week to go to complete the challenge :-)  This week's letter is "Y" and I chose YAHWEH.

I was going to write my own thoughts, but found this article by John Piper and nothing I would say would be better than this!

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15)

"God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like "Yahweh," and is built on the word for "I am."

So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.

There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:

1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”

2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.

3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.

4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.

5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God's decision to keep it in being.

6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies, is, compared to God, as nothing.

7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.

8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.

9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don't originate from the counsel of his own will.

10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe."

"X" Is For The Shape Of Andrew's Cross

This is week 24 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  The letter this week is "X".  If I am honest, I have been dreading this week as I just don't know a lot of words beginning with "x".  I looked up a list of words and there are a lot more than I knew, but it didn't help as I didn't know what most of the words meant. I chose a couple and looked them up and they just weren't very exciting :-(  And then I remembered that one of Jesus' disciples was crucified on an "X" shaped cross, so I thought about investigating that.

Tradition says that Andrew (the brother of Peter) was martyred by being crucified on cross in the shape of an "X".  Some sources said the reason for that is he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified on the same type of cross Christ had been (which was a "T" shaped cross).

Here is the quote from Wikipedia "A saltire is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross.^{[by whom?]} The word comes from the Middle French sautoir ("stirrup"), possibly owing to the shape of the triangular areas in the design.^[1]

It appears in numerous flags, including those of Scotland and Jamaica, and other coats of arms and seals. A variant, also appearing on many past and present flags and symbols, is the Cross of Burgundy flag.

A warning sign in the shape of a saltire is also used to indicate the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing."

I did not know there was such thing as a St. Andrew's cross and it is used in many country's flags. 

This is Scotland's, others can be viewed here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltire

Another interesting point is In Greek, the first letter for Christ (Chi) also happens to be 'X'-shaped, as in the Chi Rho Cross.  Again from Wikipedia "The Chi Rho (/ˈkaɪ ˈroʊ/) is one of the earliest forms of christogram, and is used by some Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters chi and rho (ΧΡ) of the Greek word "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ" = KRistos = Christ in such a way to produce the monogram.^[1] Although not technically a Christian cross, the Chi-Rho invokes the authority of Jesus, as well as symbolising his status as the Christ.^{[citation needed]}

The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chrēston, meaning "good."^[2] Some coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246–222 BC) were marked with a Chi-Rho.^[3]

The Chi-Rho symbol was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I as part of a military standard (vexillum), Constantine's standard was known as the Labarum. Early symbols similar to the Chi Rho were the Staurogram () and the IX monogram "

This is week 23 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  The letter this week is "W" and I have chosen the word "Wages".

Miriam Webster defines Wage as:  a payment usually of money for labor or services usually according to contract and on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis —often used in plural.  Other words for wage is recompense or reward.

Most of us have done some kind of job in our past where we expected to be compensated. We would not have accepted the job if the wages were not fair for the work that we did.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We are all sinners.  No matter how hard we try there is not one person who can live life without doing anything wrong or having a wrong thought.  Once Adam and Eve accepted the offer of Satan and didn't believe in what God had said would happen, sin entered the world and from that day on it was impossible for anyone to live a sinless life.  But because we have a God who loves us more than we can imagine He provided a way for us to live a sinless life.

2 Corinthians 5:18-"We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Have you ever said to yourself there is no way that God could forgive me for___________?  Satan wants us to believe that we are unforgiveable, but he is a liar.  God gave His son as a sacrifice for ALL, so that we can be forgiven.  Not just forgiven but He forgets our sin "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

What an amazing gift, from an amazing God!!  Forgiveness of sins so that we might become righteousness of God.  Too good to be true?  Yes indeed!  But it even gets better!!  While the wages of sin is death the FREE gift of God is eternal life!  You can't get a much better reward than that!!
Thank You, Father God!

View From Heaven

This is week 22 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  The letter is "V" and I chose the word "VIEW". (click on one of those links to see what other "v" words people chose)

We took a week break from Blogging Through The Alphabet and this post would have been perfect for last week, but I went ahead and decided to post it today.

On Easter weekend a friend named Beverly, posted on her Facebook page "I woke up singing Worthy is the Lamb by Darlene Zschech this morning. It has this line about Jesus: "the Darling of Heaven crucified." As I've spent the last few reflecting on Holy Week, I've been trying to imagine the scenes in Heaven as the angels watched it all unfold. Don't you know they were in "ready, set, go" position, waiting for Father God to blink His eye just right at them. The heavenly view must have been the hardest of all! What a horribly dark day. What a gift from the Love of all Loves! May our lives reflect our deep deep gratitude! "

I was telling my husband later that day, that I had thought of God many times on the day Christ died, but I had not thought about the angels and what they were doing that day.  He sad that when he was in seminary that his friend Gerry delivered a sermon about that same subject and equated it  to a General and his army.  His army would be by his side during the war just waiting for the general to send them into war and would be eager for him to give them their order, so they could beat the enemy.  In this case the angels were waiting for God to give the order for them to go save Jesus.  

In Matthew 26, Peter cuts off the ear of a soldier who was trying to arrest Jesus and Jesus tells him to put away his sword because if He wanted to, He could ask God and He would send 12 legions of angels (72,000) to save Him.  They were just waiting for the "call", but because of His love for me and for you, Jesus chose to go through the horrible crucifixion.  I had never thought about all the angels having to watch that terrible day and hearing God's cry into heaven "Father, why have you forsaken me?"  But then Sunday came and imagine the party in heaven when Christ rose from the dead!! The only party that will ever equal it is when God sends Him to bring us all home and we join the angels in Heaven worshiping at His feet!

....As Paul Harvey used to say "and the rest of the story"....as I was looking up the Matthew 26:53 about the legions of angels it led me to a link about the song "He Could Have Called 10,000 Angels" and I found the story about the writing of the song fascinating.

" Rarely has a hymn-writer been led to Christ by his own song, but such was the case with Ray Overholt.

       In 1958, at the height of his show-business career, Ray Overholt wrote his now-famous song, Ten Thousand Angels.

       Here is his story as he related it—

       One day I thought to myself: I’ve written secular songs, I’d like to write a song about Christ.

       I opened the Bible. I knew a little about it from my mom. I began to read how Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane told Peter to put away his sword. Jesus told Peter that he could ask his Father and he would send twelve legions of angels. I didn’t know at the time that would have been more than 72,000 angels. (cf: Matthew 26:53)

       I thought a good title for a song would be He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels. The more I read about Jesus, the more I admired him for what he had done.

       I was playing in a nightclub in Battle Creek, Michigan, when the Lord impressed me to write the song. I wrote the first verse and put it in my guitar case. I then told the club that I was quitting.

       I finished the song and sent it to a publishing house, which reluctantly agreed to publish it.

       Sometime later I found myself singing at a small church. I sang He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels.

       Following my singing, a preacher spoke a message that gripped my heart. I knew I needed Christ. So I knelt there and accepted, as my Savior, the One whom I had been singing and writing about.

       Ray Overholt became a traveling singer and preacher.

—Lindsay Terry

       Ten Thousand Angels

      

(1) They bound the hands of Jesus in the garden where He prayed;

They led Him thro' the streets in shame.

They spat upon the Savior so pure and free from sin;

They said, "Crucify Him; He's to blame."

      

CHORUS:

He could have called ten thousand angels

To destroy the world and set Him free.

He could have called ten thousand angels,

But He died alone for you and me.

      

(2) Upon His precious head they placed a crown of thorns;

They laughed and said, "Behold the king."

They struck Him and they cursed Him and mocked His holy name.

All alone He suffered ev'rything.

      

(3) To the howling mob He yielded; He did not for mercy cry.

The Cross of shame He took alone. And when He cried, "It's finished," He gave himself to die;

Salvation's wondrous plan was done.

"U" is for UTILITARIAN

This is week 21 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  The letter is "U" and I chose the word "utilitarian".

• Utilitarian-designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.

When I blogged the letter "M", I wrote about marriage and how opposite my husband and I are but that our marriage works because of our unity in Christ.  Well another way that Steve and I are opposites is that I really enjoy getting unexpected gifts.  Steve on the other hand doesn't like gifts at all unless I just happen to come upon one that is utilitarian.  He won't let you splurge on him with things that he might just enjoy, the gift has to be useful.  I have spent 26 years trying to figure out the "whys" of that.  It must be something from his childhood.  Perhaps he was really looking forward to a present and was disappointed?  Of course he can't remember anything like that, so I am just left to guess.

I have told him it just takes the "fun" out of giving when I can't surprise him.  And giving socks and underwear is not very exciting.  Every now and then I score by knowing something will be useful and he hasn't actually told me what to get.  A few times that has backfired, like the time I bought a clock that was suppose to recharge his phone and act as an alarm, only to find out his phone was one generation too old for the clock.  Since I ordered it from Ebay I couldn't return it.  

Steve is really hard on slippers, so it is a guarantee that every Christmas he gets a new pair of slippers.  When we first moved to Colorado it was easier because he didn't have much winter wear, so I had several items (hats, gloves, scarf, flannel, etc.) that I could give him :-)

Now unfortunately, I am not much into utilitarian gifts.  So when I got a crockpot and can opener for Christmas I had to be gracious and honestly tried to be thankful as they were things I needed, but I am confessing here, I was less than thrilled.  However, I really have enjoyed the remote control candles :-)

Anyway, this is probably the most boring of all my Through The Alphabet Posts, but it is all I could come up with for the letter "U".

The great thing about Steve is he is very easy to please.  I just have to make sure the item is UTILITARIAN :-)

"T" is for TOMB

This is week 20 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  Only 6 more weeks to link up with these posts!  When I first joined I thought it would be fun to try to get back to blogging, by blogging through the alphabet.  I really didn't realize I was joining a homeschool group and that most of their posts would be about homeschooling, but I have found their posts to be full of creativity! They all definitely love their children and are doing their best to provide them with the best education possible!  So applause to all of you!!!

That being said, I have no children, so no school experiences or knowledge to share.  This week our letter is "T" and with Easter being this month, I couldn't think of a better word than TOMB, more exact the empty tomb.

According to Wikipedia there are more than 4,200 religions in the world. But for the purpose of this blog posts let's just  say there are 5 major religions: Christianity, Judiasm, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.  What makes Christianity stand out from those is that we claim to have a God who raised from the dead? All other leaders of any other religious movements are still in their graves.  For Christianity the tomb of our leader is empty. There is no current day shrine built there for people to go and worship because there were no bones on which to build a shrine.

I could blog about the reasons I believe in the resurrection, but I would not be able to do it , as well as explained here http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/historical-evidence-for-the-resurrection, so I will let you read that yourself, if you like.  But I will tell you the two most compelling reasons I believe in the resurrection of Jesus:

• Jesus appeared to women first.  In a culture where men dominated and women were not considered as equals but subservient, they would not have created a story where women were the first to see Jesus alive and much less be told by Him to "to and tell the others."
• The most impressive evidence for me is that out of His 12 apostles, TEN of them were martyred for continuing to teach about Jesus and His resurrection.  Who would die for a lie?  But Jesus did not just appear to His chosen few, he appeared to over 500 others! And the Bible isn't the only place where that is recorded, but there are other historical writers of that time that testified to that.

I know I said two reasons but here is a third.  The fact that the Jewish leaders that worked so hard to have Jesus killed cried out that his body was stolen, is also compelling.  Why would they admit that there was no body in the tomb, if indeed there wasn't one?  They would have wanted to keep it quiet. They had no other explanation than the body was stolen, and yet they had no proof of how anyone got past the guards and unsealed a tomb in order for that to happen.

Steve and I recently went to see the movie "Risen".  While it isn't based literally on the Biblical account of Jesus' death and resurrection, it was a great historical depiction of "what if".  We do know there was one who soldier who was convinced at the cross of Jesus and cried out "Surely this was the Son of God"(Mark 15:39).  This movie poses the possibility that perhaps another came to Truth after exploring the resurrection theory?  Of course we don't know, but the movie did a good job of explaining the times and the history of the story.

The bottom line?  What does it matter?  What difference does it make whether Jesus did or didn't raise from the dead?  Simply put, if he didn't...then our entire belief is for naught, we have based it all on a myth or a lie.  It might cause us to live a nicer life but in the end it makes no difference?  And that is why it matters!  If Jesus indeed rose from the dead and the tomb is indeed empty, then He was who He claimed to be, the Son of God and the words he spoke were true.  Mainly that I too will resurrect from the dead one day and will live with Him forever!

The tomb is empty and I hold on to the hope " I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14:3) That fact allows me to celebrate Easter, declare the tomb is empty and say "Lord, come quickly!"

"S" is for SAINT

This is week 19 of the Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  This week our letter is "S" and I chose the word "SAINT".

First here is the definition of SAINT according to the Miriam Webster dictionary:
     -one officially recognized especially through canonization as preeminent for holiness
     -one of the spirits of the departed in heaven
     -one of God's chosen and usually Christian people

I want to begin by saying that according to 1 Corinthians 1:2 if we call on the name of the Lord we are all saints. There are actually 68 references to the word saint in the Bible.  67 times it is the plural saints and only once is it singular saint.  We don't have to wait and have that title conferred on us by a human entity, if we are in Jesus, God has made us holy and acceptable-a saint.

That being said I have found encouragement in reading stories of some of the Catholic saints (those are individuals who have been set apart or canonized for meeting certain qualifications; one is performing a miracle).  While I don't agree with the teachings of the Catholic church on sainthood, I do find encouragement in their faithful service to their Lord.  That being said, I just wanted to post some favorite quotes by some of the saints.

"Simply believing in the existence of God is not exactly what I would call a commitment. After all, even the devil believes that God exists. Believing has to change the way we live."-Mother Angelica

"The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing: because the Lord is great, but He is well-pleased only with the humble;He always opposes the proud."-Mary Faustina Kowalska

"A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps."-Saint Augustine

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."-Saint Augustine

"Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."-St Francis of Assisi

"Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied."-Saint Jerome

"While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart."-St Francis of Assisi

"Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily"-St Frances de Sales

"And it is the Lord, it is Jesus, Who is my judge.  Therefore I will try always to think leniently of others, that He may judge me leniently, or rather not at all, since He says: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged."-Therese of Lisieux

I could keep going, but will spare you.  If you would like to read more you can find them here:
http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1070412

I also have a book I enjoy entitled "Saint of the Day" by Leonard Foley.

Saints challenge me to become a better person, but no one influences me more than my Lord, Jesus Christ.  He is the best example of all and the fact that He gave His life so that I could also call myself a saint truly boggles my mind.  I cling to the promise of 2cCorinthians 3:18 "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."