Chi Rho

Oh, WOW!!! Today an A cappella group called Chi Rho came and sang and worshiped with the church today. They were amazing. Absolutely AMAZING! I just can't describe how much I enjoyed it and how great they are! I wish every one of you could have been there! Actually, we got there a couple of minutes late and almost didn't find a parking space. It was packed! And about the only free space to sit was up in the very front, which was fine by me, I could almost reach out and touch them. I loved being right up there with them! They had CDs we could purchase but of course, we can't right now. Darn! Hopefully later on. I am going to list some links about them. Too bad they don't have more songs on their MySpace page right now. They are also having a big concert, I am not 100% sure right now, but thinking it is Saturday, April 18th, at the Wake Forest University Wait Chapel at 8 PM. There is FREE admission. I would love for any of you, my close friends and family to come and share the experience with me! Laura, Cindy, Brandy, Beckah!!! Stacy, you too! I just know you are quite the distance! Anyone! I will post what I know is for sure later on in bulletins and keep reminding you about it! God bless and have a great rest of your Sunday! God bless this wonderful group for what they do!

http://www.myspace.com/wfuchirho
http://www.chirho.com/

-ladyworpledinker

God's Love

The pastor talked of God's great love for us. He told a story about a 12 year old boy he met once. The boy had gotten into some trouble. The pastor told him he didn't know what to say except that God loves him no matter what he has done. The boy looked at him and said that no, no one loved him. That he didn't know what love was. The pastor said to look into the eyes of someone who doesn't know of love is unlike anything else. I believe it's one of the many reasons to always be kinder than necessary. You can never give too much of the gift of love and you may be giving it to someone who has never before been shown it. He also talked about how we are being jolted out of our little worlds full of all of our money and nice things, because of the way of the economy. Always trying to get to that new car, that new house, to making more and more money. Always trying to find happiness in the things of the world. You may find some but it's only temporary. We're always looking to be happier if we've got this, got that, when what we really need is simple enough. Something we already have to give. Love. There are all these ideas and the technology out there, always trying to make the world better. Is it? No, it's not. It only gets worse and it's because we don't remember what's really important. Faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and to love. To always love. Another great part of church today was the children's sermon. From what I've seen, it looks as though members of the church take turns doing this. An older gentleman did it today. He brought lots of props with him. He took a glass and poured water into it. He talked of how we need water to live and showed how it's so clear and good. We have that water streaming through us when we invite Jesus into our hearts. At some point though, we all falter. And things such as anger, hate, greed, bitterness, envy, etc., we dump those things into our water. He demonstrated this by pouring different things into the glass such as tabasco sauce, chocolate syrup, lemon juice, etc., which clouded and dirtied the water. None of the kids took him up on his offer of a sip, ;o). So what can we do once we've mucked up our water? Ask Jesus to forgive us and cleanse us. He will pour His love into you and you can be clean again. He demonstrated this by taking a pitcher and pouring water into the glass overflowing until the water was again clear (he had a big container underneath to catch the water.) I thought it was an amazing visual demonstration of God's love and what He can do for us even when we mess up.

-ladyworpledinker

There Are No Coincidences, Just God

I have heard many times that there are no coincidences, only God. I have read and listened to other's examples and stories, and for the most part, without my own special experience, I have nonetheless believed it myself. But now I have my own little tale to tell. We're not exactly good to go in the financial sense, as it is with a lot of people right now. So, I owed my sister $20 and needed to give it to her this past Sunday. I happened to have about $17 and some change in my wallet that I have been hanging onto for other purposes and kind of have been hoping it will magically grow somehow. Robert managed to give me a dollar and so that was all I was going to be able to give my sister for the time being. Well, when I dug into my purse for my wallet to retrieve the money, I ended up grabbing a crumpled up, yes, $20 bill! Where did it come from? Seriously, I don't know. It wasn't long ago at all that I cleaned out my purse and put what little money I had in the wallet that goes into my purse, so there shouldn't have been any loose money in there. I hardly ever use my purse either, I don't go many places as of lately. Sure, it can be speculated all day long that I simply forgot about this $20 and that could definitely be the case, but the fact is that it ended up in my hand at the exact time I needed it! That is amazing to me, I don't care what you say! When it happened I was just like, oh hey, cool, because I was in a hurry, so I didn't give it a lot of thought. Later, when I thought back to it, it occurred to me indeed how cool it really was! Thank You, God!!!

-ladyworpledinker

Discipline and Mistakes

Discipline = Love. The pastor talked about what you learn while in the woodshed. There were so many good references and good laughs that he made when he talked about going to the woodshed, I don't know how to share them though, one of those you'd have to be there things. He did say that one thing he never believed as a child was when his father said to him before his whippings, "This is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you." He didn't believe it until he had to whip his own daughter. I know as a child discipline doesn't seem to be anything but mean, but it's done with a lot of love and caring, and to always follow through with it only deepens the true meaning behind it. You need to be taught wrong from right, and nice, soft words don't always do it, your attention has to be gotten, you need to have something to mark the moment so you'll remember. This coming from me, yeah, I know, I never was spanked as a child, as some may know. I'm so sensitive though, all it really took for me was to know my daddy was disappointed in me and I was heaving in sobs and pain. A lot of people think of guilt as something to hide away and not show and to even try to never feel. Who wants to feel bad when they can just say, eh, well, I'm not perfect. Guilt shows you have a conscience, guilt shows you care, guilt shows you have feelings. We are of the flesh, we are not perfect, we make mistakes every day, no, guilt shouldn't weigh us down completely, but it is important to have guilt, it shows that you're aware of when you've done wrong. And God will forgive you, just ask. A lot of people are so judgmental though, and they make you suffer more if you share your guilt when they should be encouraging you, forgiving you, and helping you get through it. An example of how harsh it can be that he gave was he read a story of a young girl who sent a boy friend some nude or nude-ish pictures of herself with her cell phone. He ended up passing these around to everyone and everyone made her feel so awful with guilt and shame that she ended up taking her own life. She made a mistake. Big enough to have to feel that way? Big enough she shouldn't have been allowed to move on? We all make mistakes. People can say she should have thought about this and that before she did so and so, people can twist and turn it around a million different ways, but the truth is we have all made mistakes that other people could say the same things about, whether or not it could be turned into such a scandalous and huge deal to the ones around us. A lot of the mistakes we make are made on impulse, without thinking first. And then you know as well as I do some big ones are made even when we do think about it first. How dare we ever judge others for their sins and make them feel worse for it. "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." -John 8:7

This hymn was sung before departing, it struck with me deeply.

My Lord, I Did Not Choose You

My Lord, I did not choose You,
For that could never be;
My heart would still refuse You,
Had You not chosen me.
You took the sin that stained me,
You cleansed me, made me new;
Of old You have ordained me,
That I should live in You.

Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my op’ning mind,
The world would have enthralled me,
To heav’nly glories blind.
My heart knows none above You;
For Your rich grace I thirst;
I know that if I love You,
You must have loved me first.

Here is a link with music to it...

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/l/mlidncyo.htm

-ladyworpledinker

Busy

The majority of us are busy. We have jobs, we clean, we cook, we take care of family, of friends. Sometimes we need away time, rest, a refuge. Church can be a refuge. Church can be a place to let go of all your worries and take in the word and feel at rest and peace for a bit. It's true, going to church each Sunday can be your lift, it can help you get through each week, it can be your reminder to keep God with you and remember at all times that God is in control no matter what. But do we only ever take from church? Do we give as well? Do we go out there each and every day and give? Do we do as God wants us to, do we speak of Him, do we keep Him in every part of our lives, do we take the time to witness or to give a helping hand? We are very busy people but doing the things God wants us to do is very important as well as getting through everyday life. Those of you that want to have kids, that wanted kids and have them, you're crazy in the head. You're nuts. Think about it, it's a huge deal, a huge responsibility, it takes time out of your life that you already don't have. But you want it anyway and you wouldn't have it any other way. It's one of the things that gives purpose to your life. Everyone wants purpose in their life.

-ladyworpledinker

His Time, Not Mine

As much as I have avoided doing so, I think it may be in my best interest to let you know this. Robert and me are currently not trying to conceive. We have not been trying since some time in January. Some have asked me how things are going with it, have sent me information, have given me words of encouragement, and I thank you enormously. I have danced around the issue and have not mentioned this though, and I apologize. The fact is with this being said, some of you have questions, questions I don't feel like answering. Like why? Why is not something I want to talk about so openly. It's certainly not what I want to do, not try, of course, but it is the way it is for now. The thing is, I have heard over and over again a lot of what I fear I will hear again from some and all I can really say is, I know! Believe me, I know all too well. While I'm not putting blame or resentment or any kind of negativity towards Robert, so please don't feel that way towards him, I can't make a decision like that without him, he's a part of it too. Everyone has their reasons for choices they have to make and you shouldn't pick them apart and say they are wrong, you aren't them. As you may know and imagine, this is not easy for me. It is so incredibly hard, I wonder how people can function with this ache. Lately, it feels as if every time I turn around a friend, an acquaintance, and people I don't even know are pregnant and a great deal of them already have kids as well, and it feels like a stab in the heart, I won't lie about that. I do feel pain and I have my moments of jealously but I also feel great joy for them as well. It might not be my blessing, but I am happy for others when they get their blessings. As I wrote to a friend in an e-mail recently, and yes, while still not mentioning that we aren't even trying, I think I'm finally accepting what I already know, God will bless me with children in His time, not mine. So I'm kind of trying to just, well, not really forget about it, but not keep it first in my mind so much. I am trying to build a closer relationship with God, I want to give Him my all. It may be that God doesn't intend for me to a mother, as painful as that is to admit, and I want to be okay with whatever God does intend for me, as big and horrible the ache is of wanting what I do. I could be angry and resentful at God and have been many times but I don't want to be, I need God. Like I said, definitely not easy, this is hard stuff. Sometimes I don't feel so sure that I can be okay with just anything God intends for me. So just please say a prayer for me every now and then. Thanks.

-ladyworpledinker

The Greatest Temptation

The greatest temptation is the temptation to let yourself believe that things cannot change and to let yourself slip into despair. If you let yourself believe that things cannot change, that you cannot change, that things cannot get better, that things cannot turn around, then you are letting Satan win. We end up letting ourselves believe that God cannot change things, cannot change even us. God can do all things and we can do all things through God. He can change even us, if we let Him, no matter how much bad we've done or how much we've hurt others or ourselves. God may not do things in our time, in the way we expect them or want them, but we should always have faith that He will come through. Succumbing to just letting yourself believe that nothing is going to change is a great deal easier than to keep on keeping that faith that things will change because it may be a long hard road and it gets tiring sometimes. I would say that a little doubt is more than expected at times, but just don't give in to that temptation.

-ladyworpledinker