What a Year

This is the first of many posts...My heart has had a rough year and yet my God continues to amaze me at His provision. So here is a synopsis of this last year I will go into detail later on and share with you (my readers) a more detailed post but I just needed to get out the overall basics.

1. My beautiful daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy in March
2. I lost my job in June
3. We found out that we were pregnant in July and 2 weeks later we found out that we weren't
4. We lost the house that we were going to buy in August
5. Oh yeah did I mention that I'm still unemployed as of today now going on 7 months

Yep it's been a hard year and I would guess that my personal statement for this year would be Broken trying to find joy.

5 Things God Want's for Me to Be

1. A child of the God
To be a child of God means that I walk in obedience and in accordance to his Word.

2. A Husband
To love my wife and to live with her with understanding. To be that example to my daughter of what a husband should look like. To pray for my wife.

3. A Father
To raise my daughter and to teach her what it means to be a Christian. How to love Christ. To pray for my daughter and Lord willing our other children that we don't have yet.

4. A good worker
Just that at my place of employment, I need to work unto the Lord

5. A servant in the church.

Reflections on 2008

This past year has been truly amazing. It started out with a wonderful trip to Lake Tahoe to spend New Years with close friends of ours, from there got crazy, I don't think that we even stopped to breathe until after Easter. Other dear friends moved across country to be closer to family, and I changed jobs. As a nation we elected a new president not the outcome that I desired but the one that I am stuck with none the less. I began attending an all day bible study where once every few months I have to take a day off of work just to go, worth it of course, God has taught me so much about who He made me to be, the man that He desires me to be, the Husband and Father that He desires me to be, and the Servant in the church that He desires me to be.

Coming up we are going to look at the 5 things that God wants me to be.

The Everlasting Mercy of God

"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 136:1)

God’s mercy is a monumental theme in Scripture. The English word appears some 341 times in the Bible. The four Hebrew and three Greek words appear a total of 454 times and are also translated by "kindness," "lovingkindness," "goodness," "favor," "compassion," and "pity." Of the 66 books of the Bible, only 16 do not use one of the words for mercy. Even though "mercy" is an important concept, it is somewhat difficult to prescribe a definition for it, especially since "grace" is occasionally coupled with it.

In the first reference where "mercy" is used, Lot has just been expelled from Sodom by the angels of judgment. In spite of the command by the angels that Lot and his daughters "escape to the mountain," Lot begs; "Oh, not so, my LORD: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life, . . . this city is near . . . Oh, let me escape thither" (Genesis 19:17-20). And later, the New Testament saints are told to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). In these and other such passages, the two terms appear to address similar subjects.

However similar they may appear to be, these words are not synonyms. "Grace" is most often associated with the sovereign dispensation of totally undeserved favor, and it is specifically connected to salvation. "Mercy" is more often connected to the withholding of judgment: "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment" (James 2:13).

Set aside some time today to read and meditate on this Psalm. You will find the day less wearisome if you do. HMM III

Taken from Days of Praise, a daily email from ICR