Today I am the mother of nine children. I have my sister's kids in addition to mine. I know, you think I'm crazy, but to be honest, it's not that hard. The kids play so well together that it is more like I added four babysitters. No squabbles, no fights, no requests for my participation - I should be able to accomplish loads today! (I am blogging after all, aren't I?!) I plan on rounding them up in a little bit and going outside to rake leaves. Hey, why waste this many helpers? Last night we had pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns for dinner and I delegated almost every task. All I did was mix up the batter. Kids were peeling and grating potatoes, cracking and scrambling eggs, flipping pancakes, and setting the table. When I told Josh everything they had done to help, he decided we needed to have more. So don't be surprised if we suddenly send out an annoucement saying we are heading for 10 kids!

 

I am contemplating thankfulness today (ok, so I'm a week late, but it's never too late to change, right?!). It started by trying to brainstorm ways to add grace to our home. Robert Wolgemuth recommends more gratefulness. I was trying to come up with more specific ways to be thankful, when I came across all these verses on thankfulness. I think God edited the Bible yesterday, because I'm sure that these weren't there yesterday! Here they are:

 

 20They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed." 21When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the LORD and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, "Give thanks to the LORD, for His lovingkindness is everlasting." 22When they began singing and praising, the LORD set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed.

 

23"He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
         And to him who orders his way aright
      I shall show the salvation of God."

 

2 Corinthians 4:15
For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

 

Ephesians 5:4
and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

 

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:18
in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

Hebrews 13:15
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

 

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

 

Deuteronomy 8:10
When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

 

Psalm 107:22
Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing.

 

Ungratefulness is a sin; conversely, thankful praise to God for His deeds is the very purpose of our existence. So, if I am focusing on being thankful to Him and letting others know of His excellencies, I will not be focused on the hurts I am receiving and I will see more things from a grateful heart instead of an attitude of expectation. I know, a rather "duh" statement, but I guess I had never thought about it in quite that way. I've heard it said I should be focusing on Christ, but that doesn't always translate into real life. Focusing on being thankful and looking for ways to praise Him to my children and others gives me a tangible action to go home with. And so, giving thanks for you all, I go to my expanded brood.

 (and me! )

Kerrie  (just cause I said it wasn't as much work as you think, doesn't mean it's EASY!)

 

Well, I've been meaning to write for a while now, but it's hard to keep up with a computer and a journal. I keep thinking I'll do this instead of a journal, but somehow things just seem to flow better on paper for me. I did want to put down a few things from last week's worship meeting though. Doug does such a good job. Despite the fact we are small and tend to want to be desparate for talent, Doug keeps us on track and accountable to living the worship we are trying to lead others into. This last week we watched a DVD from a seminar put on by Matt Redman (or at least I think he put it on - he was there, nevertheless). I can't remember the speaker's name (Louie Giglio?), but he was speaking about the greatness of God. He was saying that true worship is proportional to our perception of the greatness of God. The speaker is a big outer space fan; not as in Star Trek, but as in planets, galaxies, and nebula. He showed slides of the sun, 93 million miles away. It takes 109 Earths to fill the diameter of the sun - that's BIG. But... the sun is only an average star in our Milky Way galaxy. And the Milky Way is comprised of billions of stars. In fact the Milky Way is roughly 180,000 light years across. Ok, so that sounds big, but think about a light year for a minute. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. So if light can travel 93million miles from the Sun to the Earth in 8 minutes, then in a year it can travel... [this is where my sister interjected "A LONG WAY"]...5.8 trillion miles. My calculator won't multiply 5 trillion by 180,000, but I have a feeling that's a big number too! As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if it were reduced to 130 km (80 mi) in diameter, the Solar System would be a mere 2 mm (0.08 inches) in width. Ok, so that's the Milky Way, but guess what, there is more. We're just beginning at the Milky Way! Howabout the Perfect Spiral Galaxy, 30 million light years away. And the scientists all quit work to pat themselves on the back when they were able to set up a telescope that photographed it! Excuse me, God created it!! And to create all this, means God is bigger than all this! That's ... BIG!! Giglio showed a few other slides as well of mind-boggling things. And then he hit us with the big one - the REALLY incredible one ... he put up a slide of our Saviour, nailed to a cross. The place went silent (as did our worship team!). Giglio just let it sink in. Then he said it was like God had painted this enormous canvas and then he picked one speck (our solar system), and one dot in that speck (Earth), and sent His Son to die for it. Insignificant us. He calls it the "otherness" of God - as in "the Lord is God; there is no other" 1 Kings 8:60. And when we ponder the "otherness" of God, it should make us shout for joy and then fall on our faces before this Holy and Awesome God. Makes me want to sing a lot more songs like How Great Thou Art and a lot less like God is My Buddy. For me, too, it really made all my "problems" insignificant. This is the God who keeps all those stars perfectly in place and I'm worried that He's dropped the ball on my life. No, He's still there, perfectly in control. Praise be to Him.

 

Quotes from Matt Redman's book (which I do not yet own, but hope to soon!)

"There's a whole lot of shouting for joy to be found in some of our worship gatherings, but how much face-to-the-ground devotion do we see?"

"Without true glimpses of God, we will invariably try to shrink Him down to our size rather than allow even the tiniest peek of His infinite glory to stretch our mind and soul upward as we try to fathom His. ... But when our eyes are opened to drink in His matchless beauty, we are intrinsically drawn facedown to the ground - that place of worship where we are both secure and somewhat afraid, in love and in awe, bowed low yet somehow lifted high."

"Sometimes in the Church, we find ourselves tak[ing] the extraordinary revelation of God and somehow make Him sound completely ordinary! We fail to communicate the sense of God's otherness."

 

HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD

The splendor of the King, Clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice, All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light, And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at his voice, And trembles at his voice

CHORUS(1):
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see 
How great, How great is our God

VERSE(2):
Age to age he stands, And time is in His Hands
Beginning and the End, Beginning and the End
The Godhead, Three in one: Father, Spirit, Son
The Lion and the Lamb, The Lion and the Lamb

CHORUS(2)
Name above all names. Worthy of all praise,
and My heart will sing how great
Is our God

 

For His Glory alone,

Kerrie  

(feeling very small!)