Magnifying God & More ... :) Shangy! >-->Love, Love, Love... G __ Love Me Tender \\ ,,)_ \'-\( / \ | ,\ \|_/\\ by Elvis Presley / _ '.D / / \ | /_\ /_\ snd '- '- Love me tender, Love me sweet, Never let me go. You have made my life complete, And I love you so. Love me tender, Love me true, All my dreams fulfilled. For my darlin I love you, And I always will. Love me tender, Love me long, Take me to your heart. For its there that I belong, And well never part. Love me tender, Love me dear, Tell me you are mine. Ill be yours through all the years, Till the end of time. (When at last my dreams come true Darling this I know Happiness will follow you Everywhere you go). .-""""-. .-""""-. ./ \/ \. | _ _ | \ \. _(9><6)_ ,/ / `\ \==_) (_==/ /' `\ -'= ='- /' `\ /' jgs `\ /' `\ /' `\/' It's All About Love! So, with our 'Love Day' getting closer, we will continue our endeavor to learn more about God and dwell on what God is which the bible says is Love. How do we get more of God in our life? Today we have a teaching that helps answer this for us: >From TruthOrTradition: Magnifying God’s Love For You ,;;;, ,;;;, ;;;;;;;,;;;;;;; .:::. .::::;;;;;;;;;;; :::::::.:::::::;;;;;;;;;' :::::::::::::::;;;;;;;' ':::::::::::::';;;;;' ':::::::::' ';' ':::::' ':' By John A. Lynn [The following article was written by John A. Lynn and taken from The Contender, a bimonthly magazine published by Christian Educational Services.] Hey, here we are again on the edge, so we had best read the theme verses for this column. 1 Peter 5:6-8 (NIV) (6) Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, [so] that he may lift you up in due time. (7) Cast all your anxiety on him, because He cares for you. (8) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. No doubt you alertly noticed the words in all bold, which I will be expounding upon as we go. Certainly our Lord Jesus Christ epitomized obedience to the above verses, and in this month of April when we celebrate his resurrection, I am moved to dwell upon his magnificent accomplishment on my behalf. I hope that my standing in greater awe of it will inspire me to follow in his steps in my own life. If there were ever anyone who had to believe that God cared for him, it was Jesus. From the moment Jesus realized who he was — the “Last Adam” with a chance to do it right, he came to see his mission clearly set before him in the pages of Genesis through Malachi. He also saw his kingly destiny, pending his obedience to walk the path set before him—a steep path strewn with gut-wrenching temptations as it led up to the ultimate challenge — the Cross. He saw that unless he chose to humble himself by obeying the will of his Father and laying down his life via a horrible death, God could not lift him up to newness of life, a life he could then pass on to all who would believe in him and his “one righteous act.” What motivated him to get through Gethsemane and walk out his agonizing decision to submit to torture and death? I think it was because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God, his father, cared for him with infinite, detailed and relentless love. Possibly the following verses contributed to his faith that God was not only able, but also passionately willing, to care for him: Psalm 62:11 and 12a (NIV) (11) One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, (12) and that you, O Lord, are loving. One of the worst things about the lie first told by Satan in Genesis 3 that “you will not surely die,” that is, the lie that there is really no such thing as death (defined in virtually all dictionaries as “the end of life”), is that it gravely (get it?) dilutes the glorious truth of resurrection, as contrasted to the hideous reality of death. That lie, coupled with the lie that God became a man named Jesus, also greatly diminishes the magnitude of God’s love. How so? Because, as I think you will agree, especially if you are a parent, it took far more love for God to watch His only begotten Son suffer than it would have for Him to somehow violate all the laws He had set up and turn one-third of Himself into a baby so that He Himself could go through the torture and death. [For further study read Does the teaching that Jesus is the Son of God, not God himself, demean him?] Of late in my life, I have been asking myself the question, “How big do I really see God’s love for me?” Since Scripture seems to indicate that our love for God (and thus our obedience, and thus His ability to bless us Ephesians 3:20-style as He so desires to do) is directly proportionate to our understanding of His love for us (“We love him because he first loved us”), it may be a relevant question for you also to ask. Perhaps, for each of us, the answer hinges on how big is our God, or, more accurately, how big do we see Him? The bigger God looks to me, the more faith I will have in Him. The more faith I have in Him, the more He can do for me. The more He can do for me, the bigger He will look to me. The bigger...ad infinitum blessum. Here’s another question I’ve been asking myself: “What would I be like if I really, really, really believed that God (as in Creator, Big Daddy, nobody messes with) loves (as in fervently desires to do every good thing for me that He can) me (as in yes, the dirtball I know myself to be)? I’m sorry to say that I don’t think I know the answer experientially. But verses like 1 John 3:1 inspire me to continue to pursue the quest of knowing it up close and personal: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV). What would I be like? I think I’d choose the road to Ephesians 3:20ville rather than the one to Margaritaville (I heard the song and I just wanted to say that — I’ve never even had a margarita). I think I’d be more fun to be around (even without a margarita). OK, so I’m running it into the ground, this is the end of the paragraph. Recently, I heard it said that God is a “benevolent schemer,” meaning that He is constantly thinking and planning how He can thrill our hearts, blow our minds, knock our socks off, or however you would choose to say “show us His love.” When I heard that phrase —“benevolent schemer”— I thought of Santa Claus. Not because I still believe in the guy, or still send letters to “The North Pole” (When stamps went to 32 cents, I said, “That’s it!”), but because if you, like I, used to go to Wonder Mall and sit on Santa’s lap and rattle off your incredibly greedy list of 197 things you wanted for Christmas, you may have ended up by saying, “and some surprises,” just in case you forgot anything. But I always did get some “surprises,” and I now realize that “Santa” was really my dad. Well, what kind of wonderful surprises do you think your father, God, wants to give you? And that brings up yet another question I’ve been asking myself (I sure hope I can answer some of these questions), given that God, my loving Father, just happens to be the Creator: “Am I excited about the no doubt many scintillating surprises God wants to give me today, and am I expectantly and faith-full-y anticipating them?” I think I’m supposed to live in perpetual wonder. And oh yeah, I remember, I’m supposed to live each day looking for the biggest surprise of all — Jesus Christ, in person, in the air! So then, how can I see God bigger? Yes, Jesus did say that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father, so it is imperative to press into intimate fellowship with the Lord. But for now, let us think about the biblical exhortation to magnify God. Have you ever thought about what that means? Sometimes I think that my God is too small. Huh? Well, in terms of Him being able to do for me, and for others via me, all He longs to do, He is only as big as I “see,” i.e., understand Him, and I’ll trust Him only that much. I want to see God as big as I possibly can, so that I have as much F-A-I-T-H (Fabulous Adventures In Trusting Him) as possible. Picture yourself scrutinizing the finer details of a local insect under a magnifying glass. Suddenly you find yourself back in a 1950s horror movie, before special effects were made really special through computer graphics, etc. In those days, movie “monsters” were actually grotesque-looking union insects hired to have their ugly faces filmed through magnifying lenses. To elicit fierce facial expressions, directors would threaten them by saying that if they did not comply, they’d see to it that the only parts they ever got after that would be in Raid commercials. Anyway...the point I am circuitously making is that when the bugs were magnified, they did not actually get bigger, but they did look bigger. Ditto for God, so how do we magnify Him? If you check out verses that have the word “magnify,” you will find that some of the ways we can make God look bigger are by thanking, praising, remembering, meditating upon and rejoicing in Him. Oh yes, and by obeying Him. Also, based upon Acts 2:11 and 10:46, it looks like speaking in tongues is another means by which you can magnify God. Why? Because it reminds you that God is real, that He loves you so much that He gave you His Son, that He raised Jesus from the dead, that the risen Christ lives in you via holy spirit, that you can do the works that he did and that you are guaranteed non-metered parking in Paradise. Wow, that’s big! The more that you and I live in the light of these magnificent truths, the more our Father’s heart is magnified to other people in our lives, and the better chance they have to get in on the fun. The more real God and Christ are to us, the more effectual we are as “witnesses of those things which we have both seen and heard.” The title of George Mueller’s biography is Delighted In God. That’s how I’d like to be described, how about you? I think that what I should be delighted about is God’s love and His ability to help me do things He asks me to do that are way too big for me to do by myself. Another phrase I love is one Oswald Chambers uses in My Utmost For His Highest — “undaunted radiance.” Shining like that will get a few people’s attention, huh? And that brings us back around to “where we came in” — Jesus Christ — The Man who is the Plan because the First Man ran. He is our sterling example of always doing God’s will rather than his own. He was certainly delighted in God, and his undaunted radiance showed up as selfless service to others. He rose from the dead so that he could “re-present” himself to the world in and through you--and me. Jesus is the Promise, and in him, all the promises of God are “yes!!!” He is our proof that God’s love for us is limitless. Because he cares for us, let us each therefore take his hand and walk with him the path set before us. Yes, it will require that we humble ourselves, that is, choose to do his will rather than our own, but we have his Word that our doing so will allow him to lift us up. Like Paul, let us “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us.” There are many wonderful surprises ahead on this path. The Word of the Lord to us is, “Let’s go get ‘em — together.” See you in Church…on the edge. >This great Teaching is from: http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=441 Magnifying God's Love =========================================================================== >-->Steps To Happiness ..::''''::.. .:::. .;'' ``;. .... ::::: :: :: :: :: ,;' .;: () ..: `:::' :: :: :: :: ::. ..:,:;.,:;. . :: .::::. `:' :: .:' :: :: `:. :: '''::, :: :: :: `:: :: ;: .:: : :: : : :: ,:'; ::; :: :: :: :: :: ::,::''. . :: `:. .:' :: `:,,,,;;' ,;; ,;;, ;;, ,;;, ,;;, `:,,,,:' :;: `;..``::::''..;' ``::,,,,::'' Everybody Knows: You can't be all things to all people. You can't do all things at once. You can't do all things equally well. You can't do all things better than everyone else. Your humanity is showing just like everyone else's. So: You have to find out who you are, and be that. You have to decide what comes first, and do that. You have to discover your strengths, and use them. You have to learn not to compete with others, Because no one else is in the contest of *being you*. Then: You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness. You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions. You will have learned to live with your limitations. You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due. And you'll be a most vital mortal. Dare To Believe: That you are a wonderful, unique person. That you are a once-in-all-history event. That it's more than a right, it's your duty, to be who you are. That life is not a problem to solve, but a gift to cherish. And we'll be able to stay one up on what used to get us. May God Bless you and keep you safe, Father Pat ============================================================== >-->A good marriage must be created ) ( ( ) ( ) ( ) ) ( ) ( /^\ /^\ /^\ /^\ /^\ /^\ jgs (_K_) (_I_) (_S_) (_S_) (_E_) (_S_) In the art of marriage, the little things are big things.... It's never being too old to hold hands. It's remembering to say "I love you" at least once each day. It's never going to sleep angry. It's having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together, facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is, not only, marrying the right partner, It is being the right partner. ==================================================================== >-->From Our Friend Tony :) __ _ / | | \ \/_/ \_\| / __ \/_/__\ .--='/~\ ____,__/__,_____,______)/ /{~}}} -,-----,--\--,-----,---,\'-' {{~}} jgs __/\_ '--=.\}/ /_/ |\\ \/ >About relationship problems. Part 2 2 Thess 2:9-11…….9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Anger….is sinful, but not all anger.. let me explain…. If we get really really angry at someone, lets say you have parked you car ( as I did) in the Church yard, and after service, you find your car got broken into and the mobile phone you left perched in its cradle on the dash board has been stolen($ 600 worth) and the auto door-lock system has been broken( $300 dollars worth) you get angry right? Well I did anyway….. and it wasn’t that I was just angry at the perpetrator ( I was! Just as well I didn’t ‘think’ out loud!) I was also angry at myself! If the thief hadn’t been able to see the phone in the car, they may have not broken into it! So…..By leaving that phone on full display, I myself had basically contributed to the crime by ‘tempting’ the person to steal from me! This is how Satan works! And he gets us angry enough to do or say things we KNOW as Christians, that we shouldn’t do or say!...Be angry by all means! But not at the person! Be angry at the sin! And don’t allow yourself to become a part of it! If we can do this, then we can comfortably remain in our Holy walk with God, but, BUT! If we succumb to anger and malice, Satan has us in his pocket! Just because we are Christians, don’t think we have more rights than others walking the streets, we probably have less! Or it seems that way! Because we allow God, through His teachings, to put them on us, to maintain a pure and righteous walk with Him ALWAYS!... get angry at the sin! Not at the person…. We need to feel sympathy for that person, we need to seek them out and witness to them and chances are that we won’t find then in churches! ( some maybe….) James 1:20 is for us that have been sinned on…but! The wrath of man never brings about the righteousness of God Amen? Lying and anger gives ground to Satan in our lives…. And another thing that helps Satan get a foothold, is HYPOCRISY…. If we are truly Christlike( Christians) then there can be no room for lies and anger, if we allow that to come into our lives, then we are also Hypocrites! Br Tony ---- ...Thanks Tony - Final Part next week :) ======================================================================= >-->"A Little Walk Around Yourself" .--. .--. : _ \/ _ : _\/ \ 6 6 / \__\ ' / Remember to \'--'/ \__/_ Walk In Love /\ /\ \ / \/ \ \ / jgs _\ /_ (__\ /__) When you're criticizing others And are finding here and there A fault or two to speak of Or a weakness you can't bear When you're blaming someone's weakness Or accusing some of pelf... It's time that you went out To walk around yourself. There are lots of human failures In the average of us all And lots of grave shortcomings In the short ones and the tall But when we think of evils Men should lay upon the shelves... It's time we all went out To walk around ourselves. We need so often in this life The balancing of scales This seeing how much in us wins And how much in us fails But before you judge another Just lay him on the shelf... It would be a splendid plan To walk around yourself. =============================================================== >-->The Good News __________ |DAILY NEWS| |&&& ======| Normally |=== ======| |=== == %%$| isn't here... |[_] ======| |=== ===!##| ejm97 |__________| As a young man, he was broke and hungry. A diner owner knew the young man was in trouble just from his look, so he pretended to pick up a $20 bill off the floor and handed it to the hungry youth, saying, "Son, you must have dropped this." Now a successful businessman and no longer desperately poor or hungry, he recalls, "That fella just knew I was in trouble and helped me in a way that didn't embarrass me." Has that act of kindness had a lasting affect on this anonymous businessman? For the last 22 years he has wandered the streets in a Santa Claus costume at Christmas and hands out $100 bills to needy looking strangers. Last year he gave away $25,000 this way. When Taylor Sevin was nine years young, she lost her daddy to cancer. She wanted to do something to help fight cancer so other children wouldn't have to feel as sad as she felt. Through a letter writing campaign and school events, she raised over $5,000 for cancer research and donated it to the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University. Since then, the Lombardi Cancer Center has been renamed to the Taylor Sevin Laboratory. When U.S. air space was closed after 9/11, 53 flights from all over the world were diverted to a small town in Newfoundland. Under a 40- year old Red Cross plan formulated in case of a nuclear attack, over 10,000 passengers were shuttled to meeting halls, churches, high schools, and other places for shelter. They were provided with food, cots, blankets, phone usage, email, taken on site-seeing excursions, and given everything they needed. Families were kept together, the elderly were given refuge in private homes, and all were kept track of so none would turn up missing. Impressed with such generosity, a U.S. doctor, one of the people stranded in Newfoundland, has set up scholarship funding for the small town's high school students. When Marshall Levit was 14 years young, he noticed a large parcel of land next to his synagogue was going unused. His imagination pictured a garden there that would feed the poor and homeless. This 14-year-old took his religion's dictum to feed the hungry very seriously, and despite the skepticism of the adults in his synagogue, he went to work at turning his vision into reality. He persuaded the synagogue to donate the land, he organized volunteers, and he solicited donations of seed, garden tools, money, and expertise. Marshall's garden became a reality. For eight years now, the garden that Marshall started has fed the needy and stocked local food banks with fresh fruit and vegetables. Marshall's garden grows more than edibles though, it has grown a community of volunteers that take pride and comfort in knowing they are doing their part to better the world. In a word, Marshall's garden grows... love. If you watch the news programs, you'd think this world was nothing but misery, greed, and hatred. The truth is, there is more good news happening than bad news, you just don't often hear about it. The people in these true stories, young and old, all had one thing in common. They wanted to make a difference in the world, and a difference they did make. It's easy to let the big picture overwhelm you so that you think there's nothing you can do. It's wiser and more noble to see the little things that you can do, and to do them. The bad news is on TV and the radio, the good news is found in regular folks. Folks like you and me. Never think you can't make a difference in the world, because you can if you want to. You can make a difference in big ways or small, such as you choose. It all starts with a small spark of desire to see this old world become a gentler, kinder place. Do you have that desire? If so, do something real. Wishing things were better may give you something to do, you might even feel good about yourself for having good intentions, but wishing alone doesn't really do anyone any good. Taking action does good, for others and for YOU. You don't have to save the world, your contribution doesn't have to be of epic scale. You only have to better a wee, tiny corner or the world to be better, to inspire others, and to start a chain reaction that takes on a life of its own of a magnitude far greater than you may ever know. You are somebody. Believe that. You can make a real difference. Believe that too. The world is waiting for that which only you might do, however great or small. Know that. It's all important, just as you are important. Believe that, know that, and remember that - you ARE incredibly important! ====================================================================== >-->Unlocked From The Outside _*_ ....iiooiioo __/_|_\__ [(o)_R_(o)] fe I've had a lot of friends in law enforcement.. And I've even had the opportunity to ride in the front seat with a police officer. But the experience I had recently had a totally different feel to it. I was speaking at a large youth festival, and I had to get across this festival's grounds quickly to my next speaking venue. Two police officers working security said, "Hey, hop in our squad car - we'll take you over there." Well, I jumped into the back seat of the police car and I quickly realized that I had never experienced a little of what it feels like to be on the custody end of things like that. There was this wall between me and the officers in the front seat. And when we arrived at our destination, I tried in vain to open my door. No way. My officer friend had a good laugh at this as he said, "Ron, there's no way you yan get yourself out of there. You see, somebody has to let you out." I've decided I am not excited about being in the prisoner seat any more. "There's no way you can get yourself out of there." That's a feeling many of us have experienced, without ever being physically locked up. It's like there are these hurtful emotional and spiritual cycles that we just can't seem to get ourselves out of. Maybe you know what it is to be trapped in a cycle of destructive behavior, or of damaged relationships, or maybe you've been in a cycle of guilt and shame over repeated mistakes, or a cycle of slavery to a behavior you just can't seem to change, or even a cycle of unfulfillment, where one experience after another fails to give you the peace and the meaning you've always hoped for. There are no bars, no prison walls, but we know the feeling of being locked up in a way of living we can't get out of. Just like a prisoner in a cell - or me in the prisoner seat of a police car - somebody has to let you out. And for 2,000 years, "the" Somebody has been doing that for millions of us spiritual prisoners. In fact, in Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, He announced His reason for coming to earth this way: "The Lord has ... sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners." Jesus understands the powerful force that ultimately keeps us locked up in our destructive cycles. He said, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin." (John 8:34) Sin is simply our hijacking of our life from the God who was supposed to run it. And because we're away from our Creator, we're trapped in this self-run orbit where life just doesn't work right. It took the coming - and the dying - of the Son of God to break the enslaving power of sin. By taking the death penalty for what we've done, Jesus has the power, not only to save us from our own hurtful ways, but to save us from the eternal penitentiary the Bible calls hell. He's come from the outside to let you out, to set you free. But He waits for your invitation to do that - your invitation to Him to come into your life, forgive every sin, and change you from the inside out. That glorious freedom that so many have experienced you can experience, beginning this very day. It begins when you tell Jesus, "I'm Yours." If you've never really opened up your life to Him to do what only He can do - and you want to - I want to send you my bbooklet, "Yours For Life", that I wrote about this new beginning. Just let me know that you want it. Jesus has been setting prisoners free for a long, long time. This could be your day to finally be able to say - "Free at last, free at last - thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!" Today's Daily Wisdom is written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his popular radio broadcast, "A Word With You" which can be found at: http://www.gospelcom.net/rhm/awwy/awwymenu.htm Copyright 2000 Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. PO Box 400, Harrison AR 72602 ======================================================================= >-->Quotes: - . _+ - . @=, .+ . - p "} - . + /_/T>\ + - . /`~~||/ . + ./ //\\ - . - ` \\ \\ . - . ~` ~` _ + elvis by tissue "We do two shows a night for five weeks. A lotta times we'll go upstairs and sing until daylight - gospel songs. We grew up with it...It more or less puts your mind at ease. It does mine. I know practically every religious song that's ever been written." --Elvis Presley >Updated FUN STUFF URLS - Wow Baby :)Shangy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ShangralaFamilyFun.com/urls.html FUN URLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->Bigham's Computer Rescue - PC Sales & Seervice You can trust us to provide you with quality computer sales and repair. We've been servicing the Van Wert area since 1981 and can help you with all your computer needs. Please phone us at 419-238-5806 ************************************************************************ -->This is for all you who love food and DAARE to make it at home Yep. You guessed it - Recipes. 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