Wednesday Word -January 13th Edition

6:21 PM by WBFJ
Hello, WBFJ friends! I hope that you are enjoying a cozy January!

As for me, I am one of those folks who really dislikes winter. As soon as the New Year is celebrated, I would like to bypass the rest of January, as well as the entire month of February, and jump straight into mid-March. Then, to make up for the months I’ve missed, I’d like a double-dose of May and September.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could “special order” the seasons of our lives much in that same manner? We all experience times in our lives when our circumstances leave us feeling bitterly cold and winds of discouragement put a chill in our heart. There’s no skipping those seasons. They happen to everyone. Thankfully, we have a loving Father, who wants to wrap His love around us like a warm blanket for our soul. We can drink in His word like a rich cup of hot chocolate and have our hearts warmed from the inside out. I pray that whatever season of life you are experiencing, you are putting your trust in our faithful God and can take comfort in the fact that your springtime will arrive in His time!

Your friend,
Lana

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Wednesday Word -January 6th

4:54 AM by WBFJ
Happy New Year to all you Wednesday Worders…..

My new year started off with the hardest CD Tower shuffle I’ve ever had. I had Kurt Myers spin my CD tower, grab a random CD and then a random song which ended up being “Gangsta” by the Christian Hip Hop artist “Liquid” off of the 2004 CD titled “Hip Hope Hits.” After listening to the song about a drug dealer’s life on the streets, I did a search on the Latin artist “Liquid” and found out his goal is “to be as honest as possible, in every sense. I want to be honest about the drug dealers and crime, that thugs pull out guns three yards away from you, the fights—it’s all horrible stuff. But I also remember growing up that if we ever needed anything, even a loaf of bread, our neighbors took care of us."

Did you catch that last line…..if we ever needed anything; our neighbors took care of us. That line hit me pretty hard. I started thinking back to when I knew everyone in my neighborhood…….unfortunately, I can’t say that now. How about you? I hear people talk about how “times have changed” but I don’t think they have too much, but they’ve sped up about 200%. We never have enough time. My goal this year is to make time for what’s important….God, Family and Friends. I pray that you and your family will take the time to make this a wonderful year and that God Blesses each of you.


Darren


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Wednesday Word -New Years Edition

1:42 PM by WBFJ
Is our appearance on this earth an advent? Better yet, does it become one when the indwelling Christ takes up residence in our lives?

As the end of 2009 approaches, I reflect on what has been a great year…but, then it seems like I’ve been to more funerals and funeral homes in the past year than at any point in my life. This sobering fact may be an indicator of advanced age, a broadening of my social circle or simply a greater awareness of the grief that encounters each of our lives.

Despite this concurrence, I find hope in knowing that the Believer has more life in death than in life itself. We don’t want to think that is true from the human perspective…but then again, ours is just that – the human perspective.

Tomorrow, my youngest becomes a teenager. This was a child who was ushered into the world nearly two months ahead of schedule. He spent his first week in the world on a respirator and waited that long for his mommy to hold him. Now, he epitomizes that joy of life and we praise God daily for this gift.

However, during the weeks he spent in the hospital allowing his body to mature to that of a new born – a part of him passed away…actually it did for all of our children, and each of us as well. As a sign, there comes that time for each newborn where “the raisin” is thrown away. At least that’s what we called it at our house. “The raisin” is that final remnant that serves as a reminder of our source of life for the previous nine months.

It’s like the flowers we place at a gravesite – only a symbolism of what was once living. We believe that life begins at conception, so ideally, Christ’s advent was months before Bethlehem. Being made in His image, gives us hope that our lives are not defined by calendars or years, by the measure of eternity for which we were created.

Happy New Year!

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Wednesday Word -December 16th

6:12 PM by WBFJ
Greetings, WBFJ friends! It’s a blessing to share this Wednesday Word with you! My daughter, Lexa, is only three years old, yet she teaches me “life lessons” almost every day.

Our Christmas preparation this year has been especially fun and meaningful, because Lexa is finally old enough to understand and anticipate all that Christmas is about. She was especially excited to talk to Santa this year. Unfortunately, we arrived at the mall while Santa was at lunch, so we shopped for a little while. By the time he returned, there was a long line of children waiting and we were near the back of the line. Lexa was well-behaved and patient as she waited her turn. Her anticipation of sitting on Santa’s lap overshadowed the inconvenience of standing in line. When her moment arrived, she sat joyfully on Santa’s lap and posed beautifully as the camera snapped their picture.

Lexa didn’t allow her joy to be stolen just because she had to stand in line. My prayer for all of us is that we spend more time joyfully anticipating God’s blessings for our lives, than letting ourselves get distracted by life’s inconveniences. Like a child anticipates the joys of Christmas, may our child-like faith anticipate the blessings of God.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!
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Let your little light shine

5:22 AM by WBFJ

Last week, I attended a ‘Candle Tea’ inside the single brother’s house at historic Old Salem. After a short introduction, our homeschool group was ushered into a room that hinted of ‘honey’. One of the ‘instructors’ explained about making those famous bee’s wax candles that are used by Moravian churches during seasonal Love Feasts. . From stringing the cotton wick to plugging the end of the metal candle mold, each and every step had a proper order. Once the hot wax was poured into the mold, it had to ‘set up’ or harden…but not too much. If left too long, it would be very difficult or even impossible to work the newly formed bee’s wax candles from their temporary home.

So it is with followers of Christ. At the point of conversion, we tend to be ‘on fire’ for Christ. Willing and able…even ‘pliable’ toward the Master candle maker. Yet, over time, Christians can become ineffective, even stuck in their candle mold. Unable to shine. Unable to be used for His Glory.

As we approach the celebration of Christmas, let us not become too busy and stressed that we snuff out our eternal light. May we rejoice at the real reason for the season…the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

Useful Trivia: The world's richest 360 people have the same amount of money as the poorest 2.4 billion people. (Dr Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams)
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Thanksgiving Shoes

4:12 AM by WBFJ
This Thanksgiving, somewhere in the midst of cooking and shopping and visiting with family, I forgot to be thankful. It really bugged me at the end of the day as I drifted off into my Turkey-induced coma, when I realized that I hadn’t taken any time at all to sincerely thank God for all of the blessings He had sent my way. To be honest, I really wasn’t feeling particularly thankful. I knew in my head that I had plenty to say thank you for, but the deep sense of appreciation that should have been in my heart wasn’t there.

The next day, as I was organizing the house I asked the kids to round up every pair of shoes they could find so that I could sort through them and get rid of the ones that were too small or too worn-out to wear. After nearly half an hour of looking in closets, toy bins, under beds and among several laundry piles, my kids announced that they had collected all of the shoes, matched up the pairs they could find, and put them on the floor in the living room.

When I walked into the room to inspect their work, I could not believe my eyes. There on the floor was row after row of shoes, somewhere around 35 pairs. Immediately, my mind flashed to the kids I had met in Guatemala whose shoes were clearly way too small and full of holes. Then I remembered hearing about the kids in Africa who walk around on painfully injured or infected feet because they have no shoes at all. At that moment, my heart remembered just how much I really do have to be thankful for. It was like God had put together an object lesson right there for me on my living room floor.

Psalm 92:1-2 reminds us of the importance of thanksgiving, “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.”

The truth is, no matter how bad we may think we have it, we all have plenty to be thankful for. Sometimes, we just need God to point out for us the many ways he has blessed our lives so that our hearts can once again be filled with praise and thanksgiving.
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Extreme Home Makeover: Spiritual Edition

11:16 AM by WBFJ
If you were like me, last week you watched in amazement the events unfold one-by-one from the Extreme Home Makeover. What a blessing! However, it did make me wonder, why isn't the church doing more of this? Here's a thought on how the church could step up and take a lead role in EHM.

Community: The church body coming together (just doing life with people), serving one God with one heart; one voice. Learning to serve God first, by serving one another and the act of becoming nameless, faceless and placeless while giving Him the glory. Imagine what the church could accomplish (in His name), if no one cared who got the credit.

Mission: Making Christ known to the world and focusing on taking the message of Christ to the city; (whatever that may look like), today more than ever, people need to know there is hope. As Christ-followers we should be living a life of Godly character and looking for the opportunity to share the Good News!

Prayer: Spending time talking to God that will result in a deeper relationship with Him. Thus, allowing God to show us opportunities to serve as a part of community and mission. In my opinion, this is the most important of these three because it brings in the spiritual dynamic (to EHM) and allows God to begin the process of working through us.

Imagine how much more of a blessing the church could be if we all laid down our agendas and egos and lived out God's love in action by simply serving. That could lead to eternal dividends. And that, my friend is an extreme "soul" makeover!!
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