It is amazing to think about how much God loves us!  When you take just a moment to really stop and think about the Christmas story and how God out of His great love for us sent His Son to be born into this world, so that we could have a Savior and be restored to right relationship and blessing – it is just an amazing thought!  God loves me!  I don’t deserve it and I never could!  I can’t earn it, not even on my best day.  God just loves me, because He is God and God is love!  God’s love compels Him to give me the gift of life – everlasting and abundant!  He does not have to give me life and love – He has made the choice to bless me with these amazing gifts!

This Christmas as we give and receive gifts, let’s make sure and take the time to appreciate the greatest gift of all – a relationship with God through our Savior Jesus Christ!

Someone said that simplicity is living according to a set of values that reduce our dependency upon the world and increase our dependency upon God!  I am finding that as I experience more and more of life, this statement is right on the mark!  When I try to live my life according to a set of values that have been set up or influenced by the world, I am constantly making adjustments to try and find just the right fit and I get frustrated at the complication, but when I live my life according to the values that grow out of my depending on and trusting in Christ – life just seems to work an I am blessed with peace and fulfillment!

My problem is staying with the right set of values!  I love God and I want to live for Him.  It is the desire of my life to bring glory to His name and growth to His Kingdom!  I Just sometimes get sidetracked by all of the other stuff.  The influnces of people and what they think or say will sometimes cause me to step right out of God’s values that lead to peace and into man’s values that lead to frustration!  I like to think that I am making life more simple, but what I am really doing is complicating things!

God has a plan – it is the best plan!  When I am in the right state of mind – I choose these good things of God and life is really simple and blessed! 

I love Sundays!  I love getting up in the morning and getting everything ready to help people to get ready for the next week of their lives.  That is kinda how I see Sundays.  We go to church to worship God and thank Him for the week that He just gave us and to ask Him for strength, guidance and direction for the week to come!  Sundays are very busy for me – they start early and end late, but they are very fulfilling.  I begin the day by praying as I get things ready (lights on, doors open, materials in place).  I then get to interact with brothers and sisters from every walk of life.  We sing, pray and worship together and I share a message that God has birthed in my heart.  When God puts something in you, there is am amazing fulfillment that comes when you get it out and share it with others.  The possibilities of seeing people’s lives and love as it changes and grows is something that words cannot explain!

Well, I gotta go – I’ve got lots to do to get ready, but I can already tell – it’s going to be an amazing day!  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in our lives today!  Look forward to it and you might just be surprised at what God will do in your life!