Ben's doodles

Ben's normal doodles.

"If My Words Abide in You"

Want to begin the New Year with better habits? Memorizing God's word is a great place to start. John 15:7

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,

ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Challies.com is an excellent site for assistance in memorizing scripture.

Memorization Tip
Just a week ago John Piper preached a sermon titled "If My Words Abide in You."

It deals with the necessity of storing up God's Word in our hearts. It would be well worth your time listening to (or reading through). You can find the link here: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1575_if_my_words_abide_in_you/.
Here is part of the message's summary:

"What does this mean to have Jesus' words "abiding in us"?

More than memorizing Scripture, it means that Jesus' words take root in us—they find a home in us—and bear the fruit of faith and holiness.

But what does this have to do with memorizing Scripture?

The broad biblical answer is that the Holy Spirit awakens life and faith and personal transformation through the word of God in our conscious minds.

And anything that brings the word of God into connection with our minds will work to strengthen faith and bring about the fruit of transformed lives—and not just our own, but the lives of others also.

Memorizing Scripture makes this kind of connection

between God's word and our minds more constant, deep, and transforming.

Nothing else can take its place."

CHALLIES.COM.

Clean Temples

“… It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13).

As a living temple of God, a believer’s life is to be characterized by prayer.

These were the words that jumped out at me as a rhema from heaven. How was I making this happen in my life? in my temple? How is my life being characterized by prayer?

If Jesus taught the disciples that their bodies were the temple of the living God where His Spirit desired to dwell, then the same message is for us today. What is keeping us from a prayer led life?

Our bodies, our minds have the potential to house the Spirit of the living God. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16). To the extent that we grasp this concept is the extent that we clean up our temple for Him. How are we cluttering our temple and turning it into a den of thieves? What comes in to our temple, our mind and spirit to rob our attention from God? What is robbing our affection and keeping us from loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Are we allowing activities and distractions in our lives to rob our ability to commune with our heavenly father and are they hindering us from hearing His voice? “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Corinthians 6:16).

Psalm 27:4 says "One thing that I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."

It could be that God is calling us to holiness. Psalm 93:5 To clean up our temple and rid ourselves of distractions that rob us of a close relationship with Him.

John Piper explains this listening to God's voice in his own temple - http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2007/2021_The_Morning_I_Heard_the_Voice_of_God/

"God, bless us and keep us as we clean up our temples for You. Lead us not into temptations of distractions that clutter our lives and rob our attention away from You.
Through Christ our Lord

An email subscription to help you grow in your walk with Christ- dailysuccess@iblp.org

Laura's Saab story -
We are excited for her!!

New Year Greetings!
While my family sleeps away the New Year morning, after a New Year party of fun, I was doing some web searching on New Year celebrations. I found this Jewish web site called http://www.chabad.org/. Though they celebrate their New Year at a different time than ours, I was interested to see what meanings they attach to their start of another year and how it is celebrated. This article is one of many on their site describing basic customs and practices in the months surrounding their new year.

"The Lord bless you and keep you;" Num 6:24
When writing a letter or meeting one another, we bless one another by including the greeting Ketivah vachatimah tovah--which roughly translates as "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."
Insights:

Bless You!By Yanki Tauber

You are ushered into a small room where time has stood still for centuries. An oil lamp flickers on the table; holy tomes cover every inch of the walls. A tzaddik with piercing eyes and a gentle voice pronounces the magic formula.
That's the picture that comes to mind when we think about receiving a blessing. Blessings are other-worldly things, resorted to when some drastic intervention is needed in our lives.
The truth is much simpler and much more profound. Everyone needs blessing, each and every moment of his or her life. And everyone can bestow a blessing.
Chassidic teaching explains that the word berachah (blessing) literally means "drawing down." Everything in life -- health, prosperity, joy, wisdom, peace of mind -- needs to be drawn down from its potential, spiritual state into the actuality of our physical existence. It's all there -- spiritually we are all healthy, wealthy and wise. The "problems" we experience in life are basically a matter of something gone wrong in the wiring. We're not connecting; our spiritual and physical selves are having trouble communicating.
The solution? Bestow a blessing.
Here's how it works. Let's say that your friend Chaim is experiencing financial difficulties. So you put your arm around his shoulder and say: "Chaim! May G-d grant you the money that you need!" By saying these words sincerely, with warmth and love and joy, you've blessed him. You've rotter-rootered that clogged supply line, opening up the flow. Just like that? Just like that.
We've all had the experience of hearing someone else give voice to an idea or describe a course of action, and suddenly realizing that we've been carrying this idea or action around in our own minds for the longest time. But until that person verbalized it, it was trapped inside our heads. Although we "had" it, we couldn't do it or even consciously think it. We didn't have the words for it, so it wasn't real to us yet.
A similar thing happens when you bless someone. The potential has been there all along, but saying it makes it real.
Your friend needs the blessing because he has reached a limit of what he can make real of his spiritual resources on his own. With your caring and compassion, with your love and joy, you bond with him to make an expanded self, thereby broadening the channels and unsnarling the lines of communication between his soul and his body, between his heaven and his earth.
Of course, being a holy person increases your blessing-giving powers. But the only thing you really need is a loving heart. And a nice big smile.
May you all be inscribed in the Book of Life for a year of goodness, health and prosperity.

By Yanki Tauber More articles...
By Yanki Tauber; based on the teachings of the Rebbe
About the artist: Sarah Kranz has been illustrating magazines, webzines and books (including five children's books) since graduating from the Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan, in 1996. Her clients have included The New York Times and Money Marketing Magazine of London
The content on this page is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org, and is produced by Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with the copyright policy.

Happy New Year! 2009

Thank God for fresh, new beginnings.

FYI: The days are getting longer now!

He chose a barn as His entry point.
He chooses our dirty places, our stinking places,

the places that shame us,

as His point of entry into our lives.

My New Year's may still smell of the barn. Which is exactly why it has Hope.

"Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5)

Excerpts from post by Ann Voskamp @Holy Experience at Friday, December 26, 2008

Squishy hearts

A few years back the kids and I were having a little discussion surrounding the parable of the sower and about what it means to let your heart get hard. Matt. 13:18.
We decided we all wanted to have the soft, pliable heart that Jesus was referring to that would produce the most fruit for His kingdom. "As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." Matt 13:23
A soft heart, like soft, fertile soil that is ready and thirsty for the seeds of Truth, is what we wanted. We took some red playdoe, molded it into shapes resembling squishy hearts and put them in plastic sandwich bags as a reminder of what God was asking us to do with our own hearts. Guard them and keep them soft for His purposes.
As we discussed how to keep our hearts soft; through forgiving one another, doing kind things for eachother, having compassion when someone is sick or hurting, etc., our little singer, Allison Joy, came up with a song- "Jesus, give me a squishy heart for Christmas".

December 25th

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jesus came to save us, that is something to merry about!

"In this is Love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins"

1 John 4:10

http://www.vermontchristmastrees.com/images/christmas_tree.jpg

A monday night adventure

[Grace and I made cookies]

image copyright of LauraClawsonPhotography2008