Extending Grace - especially in our conversations

Today I want to talk about the wisdom of extending grace to others. I'll be honest - what I'm going to talk about isn't entirely my own thoughts! I was blessed to be able to attend a talk on this at a conference recently. What was said really impacted me so I want to share it with you, too. :)

The 'U' Poem

Mum was unpacking some boxes today and discovered this poem. She showed it to me and suggested I put it on my blog. So here it is, because Mum thought you guys might like to see it, and because I think it's rather cool, too. :) Enjoy.

ThePoem

Before U were thought of or time had begun,

God even stuck U in the name of His Son.

And each time U pray, you'll see it is true,

You can't spell JesUs and not include U.

You're a pretty big part of His wonderful Name,

For U, He was born, that's why He came.

And His great love for U is the reason He died;

It even takes U to spell crUcified.

Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand,

He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?

The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,

And this word 'resUrrection' is spelled with a U.

When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension,

He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.

"Go into the world and tell them it's true,

That I love them all - Just like I love U."

(anonymous)

It's Friday, but Sunday's Coming!

Before we get down to the purpose of this post, I have a couple important pieces of news to share with you.

First of all, a massive congratulations to Katie H, who is the winner of my flexi clip giveaway! Congratulations! :) Thank you so much to everyone who entered.

Secondly, guess what - I have some exciting news. I've finally gotten round to making a Facebook page for my blog!! Yay! If you have a Facebook account you can 'like' the page and receive blog post updates and other things I put on the Facebook page directly in your news feed. :)
Head here to check it out.

Thirdly and lastly, a massive happy birthday to my sister Abigail who turned 19 yesterday!! I didn't post this yesterday because I wanted this to be an Easter post, hence why the birthday wishes are late. Besides, I post every third day. Remember that. I'm not quite sure why you should remember it but you definitely should.

And now (finally!) we can actually get to the purpose of this post.

Easter.

Do you like card games? I love them! Danella and Sophie and I especially love playing card games together. One of our favourites is a game called Scum. It's not usually played with the particular rule I'm about to describe but a friend taught it to us and now we always use it.

 The rule is basically if you have an Ace, a King, a 4 and a 7 of any suit and you play those four cards all together, that will take everything including the Joker. Joker normally wins over everything in this game apart from when we play our rule. It’s called AK47 (like the gun I think). It’s great because not only is it the highest, you get rid of four cards at the same time!

I was listening to the sermon in Church on Sunday and the pastor got us to think of what Satan and God were going through when Jesus was on earth.

Humans were sinful and Satan was thinking he was winning. He was probably rubbing his hands together... until God sent Jesus. Then Satan tried to trip Jesus up. Jesus couldn't restore humanity to to the Father if he was sinful! Satan failed in this. Then he decided to kill Jesus. He knew that he was the lord of death.

Satan played his Joker by sending Jesus to the cross.

But God had a plan.

If you play by our card game rules, you know that even after someone plays the Joker card, an AK47 can still beat it.

 Satan played his Joker but God still had an AK47 in his hand (the resurrection - Jesus conquering death) – and he played it, surprising everyone and making it impossible for Satan to win the game.

God wins.

Satan played his Joker... but in God's hand was an AK47.

Here's a really cool video that you might have seen before. Whether or not you've seen it before do watch it because it really brings home the magnitude of what Jesus went through and weaves in the hope of Sunday's resurrection!!





Are you getting up to anything interesting over Easter? My family and I are heading up to Nelson (five hours drive) for a friend's wedding. It should be lots of fun. :)

Whatever you're doing, don't forget the story of Easter, will you. Jesus.... the Son of God, came to earth as a tiny baby and lived a perfect life only to get killed by his enemies.

But he did it for  you.
Because of his love.

It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!

My 26 Thankfulnesses (2)

This is one of those annoying "Part 1 of" posts. In this case, it is part 2 of 5.

I titled it My 26 Thankfulnesses. Why? Well, you'll see. How? You'll see that too, hopefully!

Partly because I missed GreaThings, and partly because it's a neat thing to do, I'm going through the alphabet and thanking God for at least one thing beginning with each letter. (You're probably thinking that at X I'm gong to be thanking God for x-rays, but just wait and see!)

If you want to see part one, it's the post directly before this one. :) In that one I did A, B, C, D and E.


F
Friends

Firemen to fight our fires for us
Fledgeling birds, like baby budgies. So cute!
Flowers, in particular fuchsias
Polar Fleece sweatshirts to wear when it is cold (Fleece is the F, not the P for Polar!)
Flying foxes... rushing through the air... a feeling so awesome.



G
First and most important, God!
Giant icecreams... mmmm.
Goldfish. They are such a beautiful colour.

Gobbledygook. Sometimes it's fun to talk nonsense!
Grandparents... what wonderful people.

H
Hugs. Big ones.
Happiness!

Hair, because otherwise everyone would be bald. :)
Harp music, the tinkling of angels.
Hazel. It's such a pretty colour. There's so much depth in it.


I 
Intelligence, that God has given us.
Icecream, I know I said this before, but there's absolutely nothing like biting into it. A great chunk. Delicious. Mmm.

Imagination! I don't know how people live without an imagination!
Infants to cuddle. A special new life.
Ivy. I know lots of people regard it as a pest but I love it.

J
Jesus.... my King... my Lord... my God... my Saviour.
Jelly! It's just so... wobbly.

A Journal to write in.
Johnny and Jacob
Jandals, or flipflops as some people say.
Joy. There's not point being sad all the time when you can be joyful!

K
A kaleidoscope. Have you every looked through one of these before?

Keys to unlock doors. I love turning keys.
Kittens that are really cute! And even ones that aren't really cute.
Kites to fly. There's something so free about a kite, wheeling it's way up there in the sky. It looks like so much fun!


And I'll be back soon... back from camp, back with another Thankfulnesses post!

Picture credits: Icecream photo: www.fanpop.com / Friends photo: revandy.org / Goldfish photo: www.redorbit.com / Happiness photo: www.fastcompany.com / Jelly photo: clipart / Kaleidoscope photo: www.fimfiction.net