They're Here........

Well, it's finally come at its worst. Allergy season. According to the news, all of the allergy categories are at a severe, off-the-chart high! Oh great. I've never had allergy problems in all my life, but today I sound like a Nyquil commercial with my itchy, watery eyes, itchy, watery nose, sneezing, and my little cough. It's great fun answering the phone and making overhead pages like this. I sound like a man. My whole face itches inside! I hate it! I've got that annoying headache in the front of my head that makes me lightheaded and fills my ears with pressure so that I can't hear a thing except my own sniffling. I couldn't believe it last night, the end of summer, and I'm all bundled up in Sponge Bob jammy pants, a Notre Dame sweatshirt, black dress socks that go up to my knees, a huge comforter, and the electric blanket kicked up a little above low! Everything that bends in my entire body aches. My fingers, my knuckles, my wrists, my elbows, my shoulders, my hips, my knees, and I've got little kinks in my back and neck. In short, I feel YUCKY! Went to the doctor yesterday, he put me on Amoxicillin. Guess what, same thing my husband's on. Guess why....because he had this first and he gave it to me!!!!!!!!!!! The thing is, he probably weighs a hundred pounds more than I do, and if HE felt puny for the same thing, can you imagine how little 'ol me feels??? My husband is so sweet. First, he gave me chicken pox, now, he gave me his sinus infection. Can't say he doesn't like to share! Please toss up a prayer for me if you read this today. I'm supposed to lead worship for the youth group tonight, but I may not make it to choir. L8!

Show Me the Money!!!

Hey everyone! Nate got to come to church yesterday, but I was really bummed since the whole sermon was about money. We are doing this Upward By Faith campaign at our church and planning on rebuilding and remodeling and stuff so our pastor just thought this would be a good Sunday too talk about "stewardship". Grrrr, oh well. He still enjoyed it. I realized something during the sermon though. I hate money. After struggling with our finances for so long, Justin and I will forever be owing somebody something and it drives me crazy! I realized something else during the sermon though...ulimately, it all belongs to God. God gives EVERYTHING to us so He deserves no less than EVERYTHING in return. I am learning ever so slowly to "hold all things loosely that I may learn to release them back to God" like Chuck Swindoll talked about in his book, "The Mystery of God's Will". Good book! That's the only quote I remember from the whole thing. Highlighted it. Underlined it. Put several little asteriks on either side of it! Good book! :)

Last night Justin and I watched "13 Going On 30". GOOD MOVIE! It is a chick flick though, but I loved it! VERY TRUE! VERY TRUE! It made me want to be young again, well, not really. Not the part about snotty popular girls who are mean to the ugly unpopular girl like I was. More like remembering when all I had to worry about was what to wear that day or a test or homework or something, not BILLS! I also used to love the movie, "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" 'cause I always wanted to be the chick in the movie with the cool executive office job at some major corporation. Now I have that, sort of but not really, and it's not really all it's cracked up to be. When I was little I used to pretend I was a lawyer and had all my clients papers in this briefcase (really it was a backgammon game board) and I would dress up and walk around the house in heels just 'cause I liked the way they sounded on the hard floor. I would also always wear my mom's dangly clip-on earrings 'cause I liked the way they looked, the danglier the better. Now I wear simple earrings and quiet shoes and don't worry incredibly much about dressing up. My, how times change. When I was little, I couldn't wait to get where I am, and now that I'm there, I wish I could go back. You know how you're always told as a child, "I'll tell you when you're older"? Well, now I wish I wasn't so old to know all that stuff only grown-ups know. I'd rather keep it simple and sweet. Like the good 'ol days.

Invisible

“Invisible”

You are what I cannot see
But everything that I know is there
You are not the things I see in this room
But You are here.
It is my faith that holds You in its gaze.
It is my heart that feels Your presence
As my soul stirs with Your moving.
It is that very visible wave of Your Spirit
That enables men to stand in awe
Of the invisible God.
My mind is silenced and all questioning
Of Your existence is laid to rest.
I remember why I love You now
And why I even came to You at all.
I came to You because You called me
And You called me because You love me.
I love You because You gave me Your grace.
It was grace that allowed me to fall
And it was Your receiving forgiveness that
Lifted me up again and again and again.

1 Timothy 1:17

BRING IT ON!

Hello everyone! Well, yesterday was Sunday and that means church. When we were first married and Sunday would come around, my husband Justin would always say to me on Saturday before bed, "Tomorrow is church! Yay!" So yesterday was supposed to be the day that my friend Nate came to our church with his family. I had been looking forward to it all week! I had a dream in the middle of the night though that Nate called me and told me that he wasn't coming to church and we had a little "tiff" about it over the phone. Then I wake up in real life and go to church. I walk into our Sunday School room with my husband and there lies a note over the back of a chair stating: "Wendy & Justin, Nate's mother called me this morning and told me that Nate had a seizure and will not be making it to church this morning. He is okay, but he is exhausted and needs his rest." I thought, "Whoa! That is weird!" and was very sad that Nate wouldn't be in the late worship service with his family. So, then we went to late worship after Sunday School and Nate was there. Well, not physically, but this is what I mean. We had a guest preacher who preached on John Chapter 5. Go ahead, look it up. "Here a great number of disabled people used to lie---the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred...' Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked." When I heard these verses, tears welled up in my eyes because this preacher began to indirectly tell Nate's story without Nate even being there. He said, "This man had come to the end of himself." It warmed my heart to know that Satan had tried to keep Nate from our church yesterday, but he made a way in anyway. Well, after church I knew that I had to tell Nate about the service and I did. We had a birthday/thank you/life celebration dinner for him last night and Nate's mother told me, "I told Nate that Satan is attacking him because he doesn't want Nate to be close to God. " and you know what Nate told her? He said, "Well, you can just tell Satan to BRING IT ON!" Hahahaha! Then later he said, "Mom, I'm serious, I'm not afraid of him, he can just BRING IT ON!" and I found myself wishing that I had the same confidence. Then I realized, I guess I really do...I just haven't used it yet. O me of little faith.

By Your Grace

After everything that's happened with Nate, this song just seemed to fit.

“By Your Grace” –music and lyrics by Wendy Mae

Verse 1:
Lord, You are shaping and molding my life
After Your ultimate plan
Sifting and forming You take precious time
With every grain of sand

Lead-In:
And though I’m not able to see Your design
‘Cause I have a limited view
I trust in You with my heart and my mind
My soul finds faith in Your truth
In Your truth…
Precious truth…
This I know:

CHORUS:
That by Your grace You have saved me
And by Your blood You forgave me
And by Your hand You have raised me
And made me new
Lord, I’m new…
Yes, I’m new…
A brand new creation

Verse 2:
Lord, You are leading and guiding my life
Gently taking my hand
Slowly revealing one glimpse at a time
I’m starting to see who I am

Lead-In:
And though I’m not able to see through Your eyes
‘Cause I have a limited view
I trust in You with my heart and my mind
My soul finds faith in Your truth
In Your truth…
Precious truth…
This I know:

CHORUS To End

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith --- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God --- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Completed 11-7-03

Hell

Let me know what you all think of this. Pete, this should answer some of your questions about hell.

Hell

Hell is one of those subjects that makes people uncomfortable. We hear stories of hell being a place of fire, demons, and endless torment. Throughout history many authors have written about it, Dante's Inferno for example. Western culture is very familiar with the concept. Even Hollywood has made it the subject of many movies. Whatever the context, whatever the belief, hell is definitely taught in the Bible. But even the doctrine of hell is not without its controversy. Some say it is only the grave with no consciousness. Others say it is a place of correction and punishment that is not eternal. Others say it is an endless agonizing punishment in fire. Whichever it is, hell is the total absence of the favor of God.

The words associated with Hell:
Gehenna In the OT, the word for hell is 'ge-hinnom' meaning "Valley of Hinnom." It was a place to the southwest of Jerusalem. This place was once "called 'Topheth' and derived from an Aramaic word meaning 'fireplace.' It was here that some pagan kings practiced human sacrifice by fire ((1). This is probably why in the NT the word came to be associated with destruction by fire. The word 'gehenna' is found in the NT 12 times and every instance is spoken of by Jesus. In the NT, "gehenna" is used of a condition and never of a place.

Hades This word only occurs in the NT, ten times, and corresponds to the OT word "sheol." Jesus uses the word four times: 16:23. The other six occur in Rev. 1:18; (2) In particular, in the account of Lazarus and the Rich man of (Luke 16:19-31), it is the place of the conscious dead who are wicked.
Sheol "The Hebrew word Sheol is probably derived from a root "to make hollow," and was seen as the common receptacle of the dead and in the great many places the word appears in the OT, it is referring to the grave.(3) It is a place and is mentioned in Is Hell Eternal Conscious Torment?
There are some Christian groups and many cults that deny the idea that hell, in the general sense, means eternal, conscious punishment. Some maintain that God's eternal punishment is annihilation, or non-existence. Others say it is temporal and that eventually all will be saved out of hell. Perhaps the most common objection is that a loving God would never punish people in eternal torment. We agree that God is love (1 John 4:8), but He is also just (Neh. 9:32-33; Psalm 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17 ). God punishes the evil doer ((4) and 1 Cor. 15:1-6; The Dead are Conscious After Death
The wicked descend alive into Sheol Cast to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth

Those cast into the fire suffer consciously Matt. 13:50.
Cast into a tormenting fire Hell is a place of eternal fire and punishment
Unquenchable Fire Matt. 3:12 "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Fiery Hell Matt. 5:22, "whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." See also, Matt. 5:29,30.
Fiery Hell Matt. 18:8-9, "And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. 9"And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell."
Eternal Fire Matt. 25:41, "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
Eternal Punishment Matt. 25:46, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." The word 'eternal' in both places is "aionios" which means 1)without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be; 2)without beginning; 3)without end, never to cease, everlasting. The word 'punishment' is the word kolasis and it means "to punish, with the implication of resulting severe suffering - 'to punish, punishment.'"(5)
Eternal Fire Lake of Fire Rev. 20:15, "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
Luke 16:19-31, Lazarus and the Rich Man
In Luke 16:19-31 is the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Basically, Lazarus is a poor man who suffers during life. The rich man is, of course, rich. They both die. The rich man goes to Hades. Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom, another term for paradise. In Hades, the rich man lifts up his eyes and sees Lazarus far off. He cries out to Abraham and asks for mercy because he is in agony in flame. Abraham says no. Then the rich man asks if someone from the dead were to rise and go tell his brothers not to come to this terrible place. Abraham teaches him that that will not be done either. Some say that this is a parable. However, if it is, it is unique because no other parable actually names a person. It isn't a story. It is history. It really happened. But many who believe in no consciousness after death will say it is still a parable. The question then is, if it is? What is it teaching? If hell fire is false and if self-awareness after death is also false, then Jesus is using false doctrines to teach a truth. Parables illustrate truth. If it is a parable what does the consciousness after death symbolize? Also, what does the agony in flame symbolize? Are they not real? Of course they are.

Conclusion
Hell is a real place. It is not mere unconsciousness. It is not temporal. It is eternal torment. Perhaps that is why Jesus spoke more of hell than heaven and spent so much time warning people not to go there. After all, if people just stopped existing, why warn them? If it was temporal, they'd get out in a while. But if it were eternal and conscious, then the warning is strong. Jesus said, "And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30"And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell," (Matt. 5:29-30).
_________________
1. Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper's Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985. 2. Unger, Merrill F., Unger's Bible Dictionary, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966, p. 437. 3. Vine, W. E., Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell) 1981. 4. Ecclesiastes is a book that is addressed as things appear "under the sun" (5. Louw, Johannes P. and Nida, Eugene A., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, (New York: United Bible Societies) 1988, 1989.

Another Poem

Please, let me know what you all think!

“Perfect Love”

There’s only one place I can go
Where I am accepted;
Only one place I can go
Where I am free.
There is one place where I am perfect;
One place where I am whole and clean.

I find myself drowning in my tears
Huddling on the ground, shaking from fear
Fear that I’ve fallen too far this time
I feel I have nowhere to go

That’s when You reach down and lift my head;
You wipe my tears away and say,
“Don’t you see? I died for you. You are worth My Life.”
And when I finally take the time
To look at where I really am,
I see that I’ve fallen in Your Love again
And Its arms are full of grace.
It’s amazing grace that covers me
And perfect love that has taken away all my fear
And set me totally free.


Wendy Mae Jones
1 John 4:18
8/25/03 1:20pm

Amazed

I wish I could explain in words what has been going on since my last post. All I can say is God has been moving in some awesome ways. Nate will be going home within the next few weeks. I mean his home, like his house. Like, he's better. Like, he's healed 100%! Well, almost. On July 28th, 2004, Nate became a Christian. He prayed with his mom to receive Christ and now his life has changed. God has healed him from the inside out! I am amazed. I'm not surprised, but I am amazed at what our Lord can do! Nate can walk, talk, eat, and breathe on his own now! He has moved to another facility and it requires some physical therapy and rehabilitation, but once he is independent he can go home. So, thank you all for all of your prayers. OUR GOD IS SO GOOD! Not only did I ask God to save Nate, I believed that He could, and not only did I believe that He could, I KNEW HE WOULD! I never doubted and never feared! HALLELUJAH!