Emily and Anna had Rotavirus, which is the meanest, ugliest stomach virus we've ever met and we now have Emily's first (and hopefully last for anything like this!) hospital bracelet as a momento. Both are doing very well now and we are praising God for a very speedy recovery for both!
And both are back to some pretty crazy antics, such as this:
On a more serious note, we are currently in the midst of an emotional crisis in our extended family. I use the term crisis simply because this word is defined by Webster's as " an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person's life or an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending." My great uncle, Matthew Colvin, one of the most beautiful examples of a Christian lay minister, recently had a stroke and is quickly physically deteriorating. But, our comfort in these times of change and emotional crisis is that his spiritual man is ready to soar! He will soon be entering the presence of his Savior Jesus Christ and will hear "Well done, my good and faithful servant." He has always been a man of ministry, whether it be his every Sunday visits to the nursing home to bless people in teaching and music, or in his behind-the-scenes servanthood of changing trash bags and handing out candy to every kiddo in his church!! The Lord will be proud to have him home, but we grieve the loss of those like Uncle Matt when they leave us behind!
Many of my thoughts lately have still been about my life and my actions and whether they glorify God or myself. No glory comes when I attempt to glorify myself, for when I am lifted up for everyone to look at all they will see is my shortcomings and failures. But when God is glorified in my actions, He is lifted up and people should see His love and grace. Grace.....this has been my goal word lately. I want to give grace freely (but I fail FAR too often) because I receive grace freely from my Savior on a daily basis. As I have stated here before, I just want to manage every day to hurt people less and do stupid, sinful things less often than they day before. When I look at myself, I see a sinner that has been given far more grace than I could ever earn with my own works and I praise God for that!
I know this is a huge post with a lot of reading, but I am making up for lost time! ;)
Here is a copy of a devotion I enjoyed reading today from The Purpose Driven Life web devotional, which reminds us that it is not about being "Good Christians" but about being saved by grace and knowing nothing in us is good until we are covered by Jesus' blood and forgiven and made righteous through Him!! This take the pressure off of comparing ourselves to others and looking at our "goodness" compared to others' "badness!"
Thanks for listening, and speaking of comparing ourselves to others....here's a funny shot of my girls' feet! The smaller (but not by much) foot is Anna's...she is quickly catching up to her sister's size and height, despite their 2.5 yrs difference in age! Enjoy!
With love,
Amy
March 1, 2007
It's not about being a good Christian by John Fischer
Here's one of the greatest things about being a Christian: You can accept yourself for who you are.
Here's one of the most tragic things about being a Christian: You can be one for a long time without knowing this.
I was. I was what you might call a model Christian. I filled the bill. Any church or Christian school would have seen me as a poster child Christian. There was only one problem: I thought I was, too - when all the while I knew I wasn't. I knew it was all pretty much a game.
All this was back when I thought a Christian was all about being a good person - someone who would rank high in relative goodness when compared to others more spiritually challenged.
This was before I realized that Christ died to save sinners, and to qualify for the free gift of salvation you have to realize you are desperately in need of being saved. You are drowning. You are dying. As a sinner, you are among the worst.
Once you make "being good" the criteria for being a Christian, out of necessity you become the judge of others because you have to judge others in order to remain good in your own eyes. So if you have not come to this, (i.e. you are still pretty good in your own eyes), and you preach the Gospel (many do, from this perspective), it becomes a Gospel for other people - not for you. And something doesn't ring true.
You also remain aloof to just about everybody because you can't really know anyone for fear they might come to know you and find out your secret, that you really are a scoundrel like everybody else. It's a lonely life. Believe me. It's much better to be a sinner whom Jesus Christ loves and for whom he died so you can spread the Good News about him to other sinners like you. Then you have nothing to hide, and only Christ - and a lot of friends - to gain by telling the truth.
I think this is one of the things that made Billy Graham such a good evangelist. When he preached about the Gospel, he never excluded himself from needing it. He knew the Gospel wouldn't preach if it were not, first and foremost, for him.
Which brings us back to being a Christian and accepting yourself as who you are. That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we all have unveiled faces. We have nothing to hide because we are reflecting the face of Christ whom we worship in continual gratitude for our salvation.
Thank goodness. I never liked being a good Christian anyway.
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
(and yes, they were CLEAN when she found them!)
