"I need loving"

This is my mom walking with my 2 yr. old cousin.

Over my spring break days, I was able to spend a lot of time with my youngest cousins.  I don't get to see them very often because they live about sixteen hours away from me, so this was a real treat!  One day as the adults were standing around in the kitchen talking and eating pizza, my aunt's middle child (he is 2 years old) came walking into the room.  He walked up to his mommy and grabbed her around the legs.  As he looked up at her, he said simply, "I need loving."  It was an adorable comment coming from an adorable kid, but it made me think.

As young children we feel that need to be loved by those around us.  We love spending time playing with mom and dad, and when we are hurt or sad we seek them out for comfort.  Being a teenager myself, I see firsthand how at my age we begin to pull away from our parents.  We no longer crave those precious moments spent with them.  Instead, a lot of us like to shut ourselves up in our rooms and work on our electronic devices.  As human beings, we still need to be loved, but as teenagers, we often seek to find that love other places.  Being a teenager is a very emotional stage of life.  Life is governed by feelings, whether they are good or bad.  One of these is the human need for love.  This may seem like a sort of rambling post, but here is the bottom line.  I want to encourage you, no matter how young or old you are, to look for love in the proper place.  What is the right place to look for love?  True love comes from God.  He is the ultimate source of love.  Again and again through the ages God has shown his love to mankind.  The greatest example of this is seen on the cross.  As Jesus died, taking the sins of the world on himself, He was willing to suffer instead of having us pay the penalty for our own sin.  He showed His great and eternal love for us in this way.

When you find yourself feeling like you "need loving,"  look to Jesus. 
   

Easter, Part 3 of 3

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!!!

That is the typical greeting on Easter Sunday in my church.  Easter is a chance for us to celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made willingly on the cross for us and His victory over sin and death when He rose from the dead.  

On Friday as I walked through  a museum type experience at my church of the days leading up to Jesus' crucifixion, the phrase that kept going through  my head was, "I am so unworthy, and still He loved me!"  Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  That means you, me, and everyone else in the whole world is unworthy of God and the sacrifice that He made for us.  John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."  Even though we are sinful human beings, God loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  

The lyrics of the song Glorious Day by Casting Crowns come to mind as an adequate description of what we are celebrating on Easter Sunday.

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He's ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him 

From rising again

As you go through the day this Easter, I hope that you will reflect on what Jesus did for you on the cross.

Easter, Part 2 of 3

Today is Friday of Holy Week, also known as Good Friday.  What exactly is Good Friday?  

Most of you probably already know that after the Last Supper, Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane where He was arrested.  He was on trial with various different people all throughout the day, and then on Friday, He was whipped, scorned, mocked, and hung on a cross to die.  From about noon to three o'clock in the afternoon that day, the world was plunged into darkness.  In the temple, the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The curtain was about four inches thick and sixty feet high, and horses tied to each side could not pull it apart.  What was the significance of this?  (This post that I wrote a few years ago explains some of the significance of the tearing of the curtain.  http://girlz4godsisters.blogspot.com/2012/04/3-interesting-facts-about-easter.html)  

Okay, so that was kind of interesting, but what is the point?  My point is that today is the day that Jesus died to save you (and the whole world) from your sins!  He did this because He loved you, and because of Him, you are set free from the penalty of sin.  (Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.)  Just imagine the anguish of those who knew and loved Jesus when He was here on earth!  They had no idea what would happen just a few days later.  

Part 3 of this series will cover the most exciting part of this story.  :)  

Easter, Part 1 of 3

This week is typically known as Holy Week, or Easter Week.  Most people attend a church service on Sunday morning, and many go to a Good Friday service as well.  Not as many people attend Maundy Thursday services.  You may have heard the term Maundy Thursday before, and like me, you never really knew what it meant.  I always assumed it was just another term for the day before Good Friday.  Well, I did a little research, and here is what I found out.

Maundy is "Derived from the Latin word mandatum, meaning 'commandment,' Maundy refers to the commands Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper:  to love with humility by serving one another and to remember his sacrifice."

The first part, loving with humility, was shown through Jesus washing His disciples feet before the Last Supper.  (John 13)  Churches that hold Maundy Thursday services often have foot washing as part of the service.  The second part, remembering His sacrifice, is done through communion.  Taking part in communion does not save anyone, but it is a reminder of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.

I hope you have a better understanding of what Maundy Thursday is now!

http://christianity.about.com/od/easter/qt/maundythursday.htm  

Noah's Ark

"...and  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  seventh  month  the  ark  came  to  rest  on  the  mountains  of  Ararat."

Genesis 8:4

The account of Noah's Flood from the book of Genesis is one of the world's most well-known stories.  It has been made into several films and TV series and appears in many forms, from children's books to décor.  Over the years people have questioned the authenticity of the biblical account asking, "If the Flood really happened, where is the ark?"  After the Flood, the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat.  Many people have searched the mountains for it, with little success.

In 1959, a site roughly eighteen miles from Mt. Ararat was discovered by Turkish army Captain Llahn Durupinar while he was examining aerial photographs of the Ararat Mountain Range.   It had rock formations shaped somewhat like a boat that were 515 feet long.  Durupinar was familiar with the Biblical account of Noah's ark, and hoped to find it there.  In 1960, he led a group of Americans to the site, expecting to find artifacts unquestionably related to some sort of boat or vessel.  They did some excavation, and finding nothing definite, declared it purely a natural formation. 

In 1977, Ron Wyatt obtained official permission for himself and a small team to conduct more scientific research in the area.  The first step was to measure the hull-shaped formation and compare it to the Biblical measurements.  One end of the formation was pointed like a bow, and the other blunt like a stern.  It was 515 feet long from the supposed bow to the supposed stern.  This works out to be 300 cubits.  The average width of the formation was 50 cubits.  These are the measurements that are mentioned in the Bible.  They also found what appeared to be the ribs of the supposed hull curving up the inside of the formation.

Wyatt and his team also found many large stones with holes in the top of them surrounding the area.  They presumed these to be anchors which would have been suspended from the keel of the ark to prevent capsizing when it was hit with a large wave.  They excavated many other artifacts while they were there and made their discoveries public.  Since then, most of the archaeological world and many Creation scientists have denounced the site as purely a natural formation until a more thorough excavation can be performed. 

Whether or not the ark is found, we Christians can still depend on the accuracy of the Biblical account of the Flood.  Even if the ark is discovered, there will always be skeptics that will try to discount it.  Though archaeology may be used as a means of convincing unbelievers of Biblical accuracy, only God can truly change their hearts.  Our Christian faith does not hinge upon archaeological discovery, or lack thereof.

Written by Nathan Stenzel, April 3, 2014

Trust and Obey

This is a bit of a spur-of-the-moment-inspiration post.  As I was brushing my teeth tonight getting ready for bed, I started thinking of the song Trust and Obey that my mom sometimes sings.  Here are the words that I remembered.

Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey

It is such a simple song, but at that moment it carried a profound message for me right now in my life.  I have written before about some of the things that God has been teaching me through the tendonitis that I have.  I have been learning to trust god in every situation and that He always knows what is best for me.  Today as I was driving through Massachusetts on the tail end of a road trip with my family, we listened to Eric Ludy preach a sermon about people with humble hearts.  What I took away from the sermon was more a message of some of the hard things that God is and will be requiring of me if I truly want to be in full surrender to Him.  I realized that I have a fear that God will require something of me that will be really painful or hard for me to give up.  Because of my fear, I am not able to have as dynamic a relationship with Him as I would like to.

You are probably thinking, well, that is nice and all, but is there a point to this blog post?

Yes, the whole point is to trust and obey!  As I was brushing my teeth, it suddenly dawned on me that it was incredibly simple.  What God is requiring of me at the moment is trust and obedience!  I need to trust Him with every area of my life, and I need to surrender to Jesus in full obedience to Him.  I trust that God will work in me through my trust and obedience.

Is there any area of your life that you have not surrendered to Jesus?  What is it and how can you change that?  Are you following God with full-hearted obedience, or are you afraid of what He might ask you to give up?

I challenge to examine your hearts for areas where you are not trusting and obeying God.

Galatians 2:20

I was peeking ahead to the next section in my AWANA book the other day, and saw that I was going to have to memorize Galatians 2:20.  I read through the verse, and then I stopped.  I read it again.  This time I thought about the words that I was reading.  I wanted to share with you some of the thoughts that I had when I read through the verse the second time.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live"
When Christ died on the cross, He died to save the world from its sins.  As He was dying, He took the world's sin upon himself, and they died with him.  The I stands for my old sinful self.  That old sinful self no longer lives because it died with Christ when He died on the cross.

"but Christ lives in me."
Once I asked Christ to be the Lord of my life, He came to live inside of me.  If you have asked Jesus to be the Lord and savior of your life, then He is living inside of you too.

"The life I live in the body"
This, I think, is referring to what people see on the outside.  This means that what we say and do can either glorify God, or we can turn people away from Him by the way we act.

"I live by faith in the Son of God"
God is all powerful and in control!  As scary as it is, we have to realize that we have no control over our circumstances.  Each day we need to be willing to say to God, "I am living by faith in you today, grant me the strength to do that."  When we start feeling like we have our lives in control, God will usually change it up just to remind us that He is still in control.  Speaking from personal experience, when I try to take matters into my own hands, God shows me that he is still in control and that I need to trust Him and live by faith each day.

"who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Did you ever sing that song in Sunday school when you were little, "Jesus Loves Me"?  I think I sometimes need to be reminded of that song everyday.  Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to die a painful death on a cross so that I would be spared the penalty of sin.  Does that not say "I love you"?

I don't always get this much out of the verses that I read, but this one really popped out at me.  If you don't already spend time in God's Word each day, I would encourage you to do so.  You don't have to read through the Bible or anything, just pick a random verse and spend a few minutes meditating on it.  Remind yourself of it all throughout the day and ask God what He wants you to learn from it.  This is a great start in getting plugged into God's word.  (This article explains a little bit more about meditating on scripture.  http://take-it-from-kayla.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-m-word.html)