Word

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13


There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Project Pillowcase

It is amazing how much a pillowcase blesses my heart!  Each time I see one I envision it as a sweet little dress. 

Two area high schools have students in the Home Ec (Single Living/Whatever it's called these days) classes involved.  These kids have sewn approximately 100 dresses in the last 2 weeks!  They are in need of more pillowcases. 

Can you help? 

Maybe you don't have time to sew, but two minutes in your linen closet and I bet you could find some mismatched pillowcases, flat sheets or maybe you even have some fabric just laying around needing a home. 

Please. donate. whatever. you. can!  We need YOU to get involved!  Maybe this is your talent - use it to serve!

Contact me by leaving a comment on this post or by email sherylmgent@yahoo.com .

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

1 Cor. 12:5-6

Thankful, Sheryl

excitement blooming

Spring brings so much excitement in our home this year.  Mission meetings: preparing for our return to the Philippines, an opportunity of local mission work, multiple salvations during our Easter Sunday services, family togetherness....It is nice to reflect on these past weeks and look forward to this week, although sometimes overwhelming with busyness - we are working for Jesus and THAT is exciting!

It is exciting to have so many opportunities to serve!  I hate that opportunities can often be overlooked because they don't "look" right.

Mark 10:45 
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

It is sometimes easy to get caught up in the going to church, the clothes we wear, the building we worship in, the music we hear....but if we allow ourselves to be trapped in this type of "service" who really are we serving?  
 

I want to be so certain that I am serving the one true and living God that I would rather worship in an empty warehouse, sitting on a dirty floor in jeans and flip-flops with only voices lifting praises, people in the streets and mountains hearing, wanting to find out where the voices are coming from....   Yesterday I had a vision of that exact moment.  People I don't know but instantly connected with as we shared only tiny bits of our testimonies and our hearts.  I can just envision God getting excited too!  Watching as His plan unfolds.

So where DO you serve, who DO you serve?  Are you seeking out that moment?  Are you listening for His voice and reaching for His guiding hand?

Thankful, Sheryl

In Christ Alone

Selfishness

Recently I have been struggling with a mind full of to do lists and overwhelmingly busy weeks.  I have craved "me" time.  So I sit down to my Bible study this morning and guess what it's about - taking time for others, serving, encouraging others, going the extra mile. 

Wow. 

I think "How much more can I give?"

But God breaks my heart in these moments.  There will always be something that needs to be done, laundry to fold, grass to mow, trash to take off, things out of place, walls crying out for paint - ok maybe that one is just me....

But my children won't always want me to wipe their hineys and sugar their hurt pinkies and tell them how thankful I am that they helped their little brother.  My husband won't always need his clothes ironed or for me to find his Bible again.

I am praying today that I can look around and see that God wants me to not only serve others but to serve my family as well.  They are too easily overlooked at times.  Jesus wants me to be joyful in service not only in the world but in my very own home.

Thankful, Sheryl

God's Clock

Everything under the sun comes only in God's time. 

Tragedy.
Compassion.
Remorse.
Life lessons.
Death. 
Life.

All in His time.

Isaiah 55:9

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Thankful, Sheryl

Word

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

letting go of our lives

God wants the best for us.... and since He can see the future and already knows how things will turn out why do we worry?  We are human, we are planners, we are sinners, we are distrusting.  Why can't we just let go of our lives?

1 Corinthians 1:25

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.


As I am in the midst of a tough decision that effects EVERY part of my life, I am reflecting on past decisions.  Looking at how circumstances turned out.  Maybe they weren't perfect from the get go...but everything turned out just fine. 

God doesn't promise perfection to come to our lives, but He gives us these bridges to cross so that we can grow.  So that we learn to trust Him more.  So that we depend only on Him because we are too weak on our own.  Incredibly weak!

2 Corinthians 12:10

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I hope that if you are making hard decisions today that you will have peace. 

Thankful, Sheryl

Radical

I am currently reading "Radical" by David Platt.  I am only starting chapter 2 because it took me a good few weeks to get through chapter 1.  Not because I read that slow, but because the first day I picked it up...it scared me. 

I laid it down for a couple of weeks, then started from the beginning again.  I want to make sure I am actually ready to make a change this significant.  I am the type of reader who likes to let things marinate a while.  I have to be ready to accept chapter 1 before I can move on to chapter 2.  Is that weird?

Being a Christian is wonderful, but it is serious business to truly lay down my life and follow Christ.  AND it's not necessarily easy when you have put God in a box and made Him the God you are comfortable with Him being.  The Christ you grow up and grow older thinking He is until one day you run across this book that is incredibly eye opening!  Are we serving our version of Jesus?  Or the actual Jesus Christ who wants us to give it all up-- LITERALLY!??

I hope you will marinate with me....I will chat about this more in the coming days, weeks, months.  However long it takes me to actually GET IT!

Thankful, Sheryl

FTC Disclaimer: This book was received free of charge from Waterbrook Multnomah through the Blogging for Books program.

Word

Psalm 146

Praise the LORD.  Praise the LORD, my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.  Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.  When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.  He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.  He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.   The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the LORD.