Why Did God Make Mothers

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2... Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2...Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2.. Mom... You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

"HAPPY MOTHERS DAY and MY GOD BLESS YOU"

Too Desperate to be Denied

Scripture Reference: Mark 5:25-34

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." ²⁹Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

³²But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

This scripture is an overlapping narrative about two females whose circumstances are dramatically changed by Jesus. These two are persistent women, one suffered for twelve years with an incurable bleeding disease, and the other Jairus’ daughter is a twelve year-old critically ill girl causing her father to seek out Jesus for a healing. Each woman needed a spiritual change in their lives. They both had been given the expert opinions of physicians declaring that their situations were beyond help.

This scripture is full of anticipation, just as Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ home, to heal his twelve year-old daughter he was interrupted. The importance of Jesus’ ministry, to the ritually unclean woman, is heightened by the fact that he allows it to disrupt him going to Jairus’ house. Laws in the book of Leviticus rendered the bleeding woman unclean (Lev. 12:1-8; 15:19-30), which meant that she lived a life of segregation. She was excommunication from her ethnic heritage, social isolation, and separation from her spiritual birthright. Her physical condition stigmatized every aspect of her life.

The gospel of Mark does not give the name the woman, she is known as the woman that had been afflicted for twelve years. What is so compelling is that she would not be deterred or dissuaded from obtaining the blessing that she sought from Jesus. Through enormous crowds she was pressed to touch the hem of his garment. She held the conviction that if she only touched Jesus’ garment she would be made whole (v. 33). She may have known that others had touched him and been made well (Ch. 3:10: 6:56). At the exact moment that she reaches out in faith, that which she was told impossible becomes possible—she experiences the cessation of her hemorrhage and knows that she is healed.

Pastor Collins’ sermon detailed several people through the book of Mark, whose names was never given. Jesus delivered from a dilemma those that were too desperate to be denied. The sovereignty of God as revealed in the scripture imply that when we make a “by any means necessary” move by executing a radical, courageous, and bold move of faith, we are find miracles in unexpected places. The power of God will not be deterred, so that the kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven.

A Fixed Race

Scripture Reference:

Hebrews 12:1-3

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (NIV)

The 12^th chapter of Hebrews uses first and second person verbs, directed to its readers, influencing them to turn their eyes on Jesus the best model of faith. Hebrews 12:1-3 is and urgent request for believers to emulate Jesus’ faithfulness. Jesus led the way, providing the resources and making it possible for his followers to walk in his footsteps.

Pastor Collins preached that the believer’s life is a race, one with a starting point and a finish line. We are in a battle that will not end until we leave this world. It is absolutely necessary that we preserve the faith, because we are labors for which there is no rest until the work here is finished.

Hebrews twelve motivates the follower, to faithfully run the Christian race. Chapter eleven refer to the great faith heroes who we should emulate, for they were witnessed to by God. Now it is us who are running the race and these faith champions will be attesting to our faith.

The race that is set before us is the course of our individual lives. This path is filled with obstacles, hills, valleys, and difficulties. This race is set by God our Father and Christ our Redeemer. The battlefield is this present evil world.

The course is set before us in the Word of God and by divine providence. This race we must be run, with patience, perseverance, endurance and determination.

Christ waits at the finish line.

Whatever You Do Don’t Fall Apart

Scripture Reference:
1Corinthians 10:12-13

12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.(NIV)

In the referenced scripture the Apostle Paul makes it clear that sins and temptations are common to all of us. However there a way out, and the way out is not the way of surrender, and not the way of retreat, but the way of conquest in the power of the grace of God.

Pastor Collins’ message Sunday, January 10, 2010 explained that temptation has terrible power . . . and effects. That the people of Israel saw God's divine glory, but temptation still seized them. Throughout history, people with great spiritual privilege have fallen to temptation.

God is faithful, He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Fighting temptation often means fleeing it: If it's a problem for you, stay away! Apart from grace, we cannot fight sin.

1Corinthians is a letter Paul had written to the church in Corinth, after receiving unfavorable news about their congregation. They were having divisions and much sin. There was gross immorality and many practical problems in living the Christian life. Marriage problems, difficulties concerning meat offered to idols and matters of conscience, abuses in taking the Lord’s Supper, disorderly conduct in the formal assemblies for worship, confusion about the role of women in the church, and false teachings about the afterlife, which produced a tremendous response from Paul to teach the truth about the resurrection.

If we would only listen to God's word which requires submitting our will to that of Jesus Christ, and transcribe His word to our hearts and minds, the tempests in our lives, will not wash away the sand upon which we stand.

When we stand firmly and obediently upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ, the temptations begin to quiet down. When we find ourselves in trouble, resolve to put Jesus first in our lives. For He is all power, knows everything. He is not a God to be figured out or understood; He is to be believed; God is everywhere (omnipresent). Remember that He is our relief, comfort and consolation.

Ridiculous Crazy Worship

Scripture Reference: 2Samuel 12:13-20

13.) Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

14.) But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt the son born to you will die.”

15.) After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. (16) David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. (17) The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

18.) On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”

19.) David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

20.) Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

The twelfth chapter of 2 Samuel records the consequences of one of the blackest hours in David’s live. He had been guilty of both adultery and murder. He had disobeyed four of God’s laws: thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal and thou shall not cover thy neighbor’s wife. Though David’s repentance was immediate and sincere, there would be necessary repercussion in his life: (1) The sword would never depart from his house. (2) Evil would come upon him out of his own house, his wives would be shamed publicly (2Sam. 16:22) (3) The child would die (2 Sam 12:15-19). This was an important event because it openly shows the presence of sin, even in the life of a man of God, and how that man responded with deep humility and repentance, even when its consequences plagued him throughout his life (see Ps.51).

Bishop G. L. De Geddingseze, who preached the sermon on the 13^th of December, tells us that if the spirit had not been involved David’s worship would have been ridiculous and crazy. His crimes were a breach of trust against God. David was guilty of acts of treachery that spurned his Creator. He returned a slap in the face to a generous God, a God who had given all, provided all. This is why David says, in Psalm 51:4, "Against Thee, Thee only I have sinned." Christians must believe that God with His grace and mercy will not allow us to stay in a state of sin. The following three steps should be taken to reconcile with God through Jesus Christ.

1) Translate our transgression and transform it into triumph-A damaged relationship with God. Isaiah 59:1-2 shows that sin creates division between God and us because of the breach of trust. David took seven days of fasting and praying preparing for life after tragedy. (See Psalms 51)

2) Your issues don’t cancel your identity-After David’s transgressions were committed, he was still the king. It does not matter whether the perpetrator is wealthy or impoverished. If you are a born again believer you are still a child of the kingdom.

3) Realize the substance of your consequences-God will forgive, cleanse, and restore but there are consequences. Even with God's forgiveness, there are effects that remain and must be borne by the sinner—and tragically, by those sinned against.

Christian friends God is willing to expend amazing amounts of resources to save just you. A full recovery is possible.

Candy Cane

The Prince of Peace

<sup>Scripture: Isaiah 9: 1-6

1</sup> Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-

² The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

³ You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.

⁴ For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

⁵ Every warrior's boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.

⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.