March 2010 Update
It is more than time to get back to this blogging! Where to start??? We have had a rather long and cold winter for Tennessee. Hopefully, Spring is about here. I have seen some robins and lots of cardinals and other birds and I saw a few daffodils along the road the other day. The rowers are practicing and getting in shape up and down the Clinch River we live so close too. I'll see if I can get a new picture soon.
Since I last wrote, my dear friend and neighbor, Jean Hamlett moved to live with one of her daughters (Susan) in Winfield, IL just outside of Chicago. We miss her very much but keep in touch via phone and will visit her went we travel to Minneapolis in June. We have a second car because of her generosity.
Having a 2nd car enables me to keep busy with the jail ministry--in the jail weekly and follow-up with some of the women. One dear friend I have been mentoring for some time lives in Corbin, KY. I try to visit her once a month. She is doing well and is doing an on-line course for medical coding which will keep her busy until next December. Hopefully, she will be able to find a better job when she completes it. She got A's in all of her classes this last quarter. She has been visiting her dad and stepmom in Florida for a little break. Her dad is giving her a car he has taken great care to get in tip-top shape and they will be driving it back next week.
Jody continues to work at Jewelry TV in Knoxville. We wish she had a job closer to Clinton but she is grateful to have been able to keep this job though it is tedious and boring at times and is a 20-mile drive each way.
Our next special event is attending the TRUE WOMAN CONFERENCE sponsored by Revive Our Hearts (Nancy L. DeMoss), Moody and Family Life March 25-27 in Chattanooga which is about 100 miles away. We know it will be a great blessing and challenge. Sallie mentioned above hopes to be able to go with us.
Then in April we have a very special event for the women of our church, Antioch Baptist, with Sharon Jaynes. I have not heard her before but have found much helpful teaching on her web site and she has written a number of books. I'll see if I can insert a devotional article here:
Battered and Bruised
Today’s Truth
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV) “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Friend To Friend
The speaker came out onto the stage. He pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill.
“Who would like this one-hundred dollar bill?” he asked.
Hands shot up all around the room.
Then he crumpled the paper, threw it on the floor and ground the dirt into it with his foot. Holding up the dirty, crumpled and tattered money, he then asked, “Now, who wants this one-hundred dollar bill?”
The same hands went into the air.
“And that is why God still wants you,” he continued. “You may be battered and bruised. You may be tattered and torn. You may be crumpled and creased but that does not change your value to God any more than what I have done changes the value of this one-hundred dollar bill. You are still precious and valuable to the God who chose you, redeemed you, and loves you as His own.”
“He knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). God understands that we are fatally flawed creatures, yet deems us immeasurably valuable no matter how crumpled and soiled we are.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). In Paul’s day, it was customary to store treasure in clay jars. The common container disguised its contents and didn’t draw attention to the treasure within. You and I might not look like much on the outside. We may appear as common as jars of clay, but inside are hidden incredible treasures. Inside these old cracked pots reside the most incredible treasure of all – Jesus Christ. And that makes us valuable.
In Louisa May Alcott’s book, Little Women, she includes a conversation from Mrs. March to her three girls, Meg, Jo, and Amy. “I only care what you think of yourself. If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all you really are. Time erodes all such beauty. But what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind – your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are things I so cherish in you.”
Our culture places an ungodly amount of significance on a woman’s appearance. Outward trappings of appearance are simply … trappings but God sees us as simple jars of clay containing valuable treasure and that makes us beautiful to Him.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, even though I am battered and bruised, I know that I am still valuable to You. Thank You for loving me so much that You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for my sins. Thank You for making a way for me to have eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice. Thank You for seeing me as Your priceless treasure.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Don’t you love the teacher’s illustration of the crumpled dollar bill? Today, consider using that illustration with a friend or a child who feels knocked down by life.
Today’s devotion was taken from Sharon’s book, I’m Not Good Enough and Other Lies Women Tell Themselves. If you feel battered and bruised by life, if you have been believing lies that you are worthless, then join Sharon in learning to see yourself as God sees you – a valuable treasure – as a chosen, dearly loved child of the King.
http://www.sharonjaynes.com/images/mainpic-home.jpg
Since I last wrote, my dear friend and neighbor, Jean Hamlett moved to live with one of her daughters (Susan) in Winfield, IL just outside of Chicago. We miss her very much but keep in touch via phone and will visit her went we travel to Minneapolis in June. We have a second car because of her generosity.
Having a 2nd car enables me to keep busy with the jail ministry--in the jail weekly and follow-up with some of the women. One dear friend I have been mentoring for some time lives in Corbin, KY. I try to visit her once a month. She is doing well and is doing an on-line course for medical coding which will keep her busy until next December. Hopefully, she will be able to find a better job when she completes it. She got A's in all of her classes this last quarter. She has been visiting her dad and stepmom in Florida for a little break. Her dad is giving her a car he has taken great care to get in tip-top shape and they will be driving it back next week.
Jody continues to work at Jewelry TV in Knoxville. We wish she had a job closer to Clinton but she is grateful to have been able to keep this job though it is tedious and boring at times and is a 20-mile drive each way.
Our next special event is attending the TRUE WOMAN CONFERENCE sponsored by Revive Our Hearts (Nancy L. DeMoss), Moody and Family Life March 25-27 in Chattanooga which is about 100 miles away. We know it will be a great blessing and challenge. Sallie mentioned above hopes to be able to go with us.
Then in April we have a very special event for the women of our church, Antioch Baptist, with Sharon Jaynes. I have not heard her before but have found much helpful teaching on her web site and she has written a number of books. I'll see if I can insert a devotional article here:
Battered and Bruised
Today’s Truth
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV) “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Friend To Friend
The speaker came out onto the stage. He pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill.
“Who would like this one-hundred dollar bill?” he asked.
Hands shot up all around the room.
Then he crumpled the paper, threw it on the floor and ground the dirt into it with his foot. Holding up the dirty, crumpled and tattered money, he then asked, “Now, who wants this one-hundred dollar bill?”
The same hands went into the air.
“And that is why God still wants you,” he continued. “You may be battered and bruised. You may be tattered and torn. You may be crumpled and creased but that does not change your value to God any more than what I have done changes the value of this one-hundred dollar bill. You are still precious and valuable to the God who chose you, redeemed you, and loves you as His own.”
“He knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). God understands that we are fatally flawed creatures, yet deems us immeasurably valuable no matter how crumpled and soiled we are.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). In Paul’s day, it was customary to store treasure in clay jars. The common container disguised its contents and didn’t draw attention to the treasure within. You and I might not look like much on the outside. We may appear as common as jars of clay, but inside are hidden incredible treasures. Inside these old cracked pots reside the most incredible treasure of all – Jesus Christ. And that makes us valuable.
In Louisa May Alcott’s book, Little Women, she includes a conversation from Mrs. March to her three girls, Meg, Jo, and Amy. “I only care what you think of yourself. If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all you really are. Time erodes all such beauty. But what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind – your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are things I so cherish in you.”
Our culture places an ungodly amount of significance on a woman’s appearance. Outward trappings of appearance are simply … trappings but God sees us as simple jars of clay containing valuable treasure and that makes us beautiful to Him.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, even though I am battered and bruised, I know that I am still valuable to You. Thank You for loving me so much that You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for my sins. Thank You for making a way for me to have eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice. Thank You for seeing me as Your priceless treasure.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Don’t you love the teacher’s illustration of the crumpled dollar bill? Today, consider using that illustration with a friend or a child who feels knocked down by life.
Today’s devotion was taken from Sharon’s book, I’m Not Good Enough and Other Lies Women Tell Themselves. If you feel battered and bruised by life, if you have been believing lies that you are worthless, then join Sharon in learning to see yourself as God sees you – a valuable treasure – as a chosen, dearly loved child of the King.
http://www.sharonjaynes.com/images/mainpic-home.jpg
Labels: Spring 2010
posted by Donna @ 9:23 AM
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