My Sunday school class is currently studying Angels. It is amazing to me how many times God sent Angels to tell mortals what they need to do or what God wants them to do. Most of us think of Angels as kind and ‘angelic’. This was not always the case. When God was mad at David for taking a census of the Israelites, he sent an Angel that carried a big sword.
Several people said that it would be great if we had a sign from God in the form of an Angel. Would we even recognize that this was an Angel? In the Old Testament, the people were always looking for a sign. Was the parting of the Red sea and the burning bush not enough? When God stopped showing his strength, the people strayed and became sinful all over again. Is that where we are today?
The discussion this week centered around what would they look like and do we have them in our everyday life. As I looked at the people in my class, I explained how most of them had been true Angels to me. When my son was sick, they brought food. When my mother had surgery they all showed up to pray with her before she was rolled into the surgery area.
When we are on the highway and we suddenly take a wrong turn, did an Angel divert us from possible danger? I believe we all have a Guardian Angel. If I did not have one, with the wildness of my youth, I would probably not be here today.
Thank you God for all the Angels I see and have in my life. Especially, I want to thank you for the Angels that constantly watch over me, even though I can not see them, I just believe that they are there. Believe the toughest word in Christianity.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Forgiveness
Jesus says that we should forgive those that trespass against us. It reminds me of the Amish. A lone gun man went into an Amish school and killed and wounded many of the children. The Amish people did not look for an eye for an eye against this gun man, instead they prayed for him and forgave him. They sought out his family and gave them their support. As a parent, could I forgive the gun man who would shoot and kill my child?
A man shoots and kills his 2 children and himself, while his wife and the mother of their children is in the shower. When she got out of the shower, she found her husband and children shot to death. How can Satan fill someone with so much evil that he kills his own children and leaves the wife alone to mourn? How can she forgive him?
A 7 year old little girl is walking home from school and never makes it home. The entire city shows up to search for her. For 2 days the neighborhood is locked down as the search goes on. The child is found in a garbage dump in another state. The neighborhood is still living in fear. Who could have done this? We look at our neighbors differently. Is he the one? Or maybe her? Can we forgive this person who has brought fear into our homes that was foreign to us before?
A military man walks into a building where his fellow military brothers are preparing to be deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and starts shooting. He gets off 100 rounds and leaves countless dead and wounded. As he was shooting he was praising God. His family is apologetic and many hold the military itself responsible and look for answers. Can we as a country offer condolences to his family and forgiveness to all?
A former employee walks into his old place of employment and starts shooting every one that is still working. He leaves the carnage and walks away unseen. Several hours later he is found sitting outside his mothers house. He stated “they just put me out to rot”. Since losing his job his wife filed for divorce, his house was foreclosed on, he is thousands of dollars in debt, can not pay child support, and must file bankruptcy. Did Satan enter his heart and turn him into evil? If he just ‘snapped’ as we say in our current society is it Satan at work?
If Jesus says to forgive our neighbor for their trespasses does he also mean to ignore them? Can we, as a community, forgive someone but still call them to account, and still be true to Jesus? As a country we need to pray that Satan does not take hold. We need to pray for the strength to forgive. We need to pray for peace.
Every day, we need to pray for courage, to change the things we can.
Every day, we need to pray for patience to accept the things we cannot.
Every day, we need to pray for wisdom to tell the difference.
A man shoots and kills his 2 children and himself, while his wife and the mother of their children is in the shower. When she got out of the shower, she found her husband and children shot to death. How can Satan fill someone with so much evil that he kills his own children and leaves the wife alone to mourn? How can she forgive him?
A 7 year old little girl is walking home from school and never makes it home. The entire city shows up to search for her. For 2 days the neighborhood is locked down as the search goes on. The child is found in a garbage dump in another state. The neighborhood is still living in fear. Who could have done this? We look at our neighbors differently. Is he the one? Or maybe her? Can we forgive this person who has brought fear into our homes that was foreign to us before?
A military man walks into a building where his fellow military brothers are preparing to be deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and starts shooting. He gets off 100 rounds and leaves countless dead and wounded. As he was shooting he was praising God. His family is apologetic and many hold the military itself responsible and look for answers. Can we as a country offer condolences to his family and forgiveness to all?
A former employee walks into his old place of employment and starts shooting every one that is still working. He leaves the carnage and walks away unseen. Several hours later he is found sitting outside his mothers house. He stated “they just put me out to rot”. Since losing his job his wife filed for divorce, his house was foreclosed on, he is thousands of dollars in debt, can not pay child support, and must file bankruptcy. Did Satan enter his heart and turn him into evil? If he just ‘snapped’ as we say in our current society is it Satan at work?
If Jesus says to forgive our neighbor for their trespasses does he also mean to ignore them? Can we, as a community, forgive someone but still call them to account, and still be true to Jesus? As a country we need to pray that Satan does not take hold. We need to pray for the strength to forgive. We need to pray for peace.
Every day, we need to pray for courage, to change the things we can.
Every day, we need to pray for patience to accept the things we cannot.
Every day, we need to pray for wisdom to tell the difference.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Imagine the power of even 5 words of the Bible; 'and God spoke to Jeremiah.'
I think we all have days that we wonder what could possibly go wrong next. Where do we look for the peace that we so desperately seek? A friend sent me the following story that reminds me that I have Jesus in my life and that he is always with me. The author is unknown.
“I am reminded of a story told by a pastor from Romania. When the Russians took over his country, he and his congregations secretly gave Bibles to the Russian soldiers. They ran out of Bibles and this pastor began to give out just one page per soldier. The pastor thought, "What am I doing? What good is one page of the Bible?"
One day he decided to ask one of the Russian soldiers he had given one page to, "Ivan, I gave you a page of the Bible. Have you learned anything?" The soldier replied, "Well, pastor, the page you gave me had on the top of the pages the word 'Jeremiah.' I never heard of this Jeremiah. The page talked about places I have never been to and people I have never heard of. I did not understand any of this. But one sentence I did understand. In one place was written, 'and God spoke to Jeremiah.' I thought about all the places and people I did not know anything about. I thought that these people could not have been very important. If they were, I would have read about them in our history books in school back in Russia. This Jeremiah I have never read about in our history books. He must have been an unimportant person like myself. I thought, if God would speak to such an unimportant person such as this Jeremiah, would he speak to an unimportant person like me? And from that day on, He has been speaking to me and He fills my heart with unspeakable joy!"
This is what five words in any translation of the original languages of the Bible can do when the Holy Spirit draws a person. From then on, although this soldier did not have a Bible, he had a relationship with the Living Word.”
The Bible... it's the bestselling book in the world. It shares the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ and answers life's most difficult questions. I work with HeadingtoHeaven.com. I love it. We are a family of Christians that make working a joy everyday. Check out our Bible Games. They are loads of fun.
“I am reminded of a story told by a pastor from Romania. When the Russians took over his country, he and his congregations secretly gave Bibles to the Russian soldiers. They ran out of Bibles and this pastor began to give out just one page per soldier. The pastor thought, "What am I doing? What good is one page of the Bible?"
One day he decided to ask one of the Russian soldiers he had given one page to, "Ivan, I gave you a page of the Bible. Have you learned anything?" The soldier replied, "Well, pastor, the page you gave me had on the top of the pages the word 'Jeremiah.' I never heard of this Jeremiah. The page talked about places I have never been to and people I have never heard of. I did not understand any of this. But one sentence I did understand. In one place was written, 'and God spoke to Jeremiah.' I thought about all the places and people I did not know anything about. I thought that these people could not have been very important. If they were, I would have read about them in our history books in school back in Russia. This Jeremiah I have never read about in our history books. He must have been an unimportant person like myself. I thought, if God would speak to such an unimportant person such as this Jeremiah, would he speak to an unimportant person like me? And from that day on, He has been speaking to me and He fills my heart with unspeakable joy!"
This is what five words in any translation of the original languages of the Bible can do when the Holy Spirit draws a person. From then on, although this soldier did not have a Bible, he had a relationship with the Living Word.”
The Bible... it's the bestselling book in the world. It shares the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ and answers life's most difficult questions. I work with HeadingtoHeaven.com. I love it. We are a family of Christians that make working a joy everyday. Check out our Bible Games. They are loads of fun.
Buy Kerusso Christian faith gear
Buy Kerusso Christian faith gear. Through the last 20 years, Kerusso has distributed more than 7 million garments “bearing messages that challenge and encourage people to seek to know the God of the universe through His Son, Jesus”
Vic Kennett, Kerusso's founder, said “From the beginning, my mission has been to simply do my best to obey Jesus when He said 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” The company started up as a home business that Vic operated in his spare time, and has grown into the premier producer of message-wear. Kerusso means 'to preach' in Greek.
Kerusso has always been a giving company, strongly committed to tithing. They have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, and thousands of T-shirts, to churches, boys' and girls' ranches, women's shelters, disaster groups and other charities nationwide. Kerusso is a wholly American owned-and-operated company with their production facility in Eureka, Arkansas.
According to Impressions magazine, a graphic T-shirt will be read as many as 3000 times in its existence. Kennett says “Even if every one of our shirt were seen and read by only 100 people each, then we've helped to preach the gospel nearly a billion times. My heart is to thank the retailers who have been with us for giving us a platform to preach from.”
Read the entire Kerusso story - "Man of the Cloth" - as featured in Inspirational Gift Trends.
Vic Kennett, Kerusso's founder, said “From the beginning, my mission has been to simply do my best to obey Jesus when He said 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” The company started up as a home business that Vic operated in his spare time, and has grown into the premier producer of message-wear. Kerusso means 'to preach' in Greek.
Kerusso has always been a giving company, strongly committed to tithing. They have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, and thousands of T-shirts, to churches, boys' and girls' ranches, women's shelters, disaster groups and other charities nationwide. Kerusso is a wholly American owned-and-operated company with their production facility in Eureka, Arkansas.
According to Impressions magazine, a graphic T-shirt will be read as many as 3000 times in its existence. Kennett says “Even if every one of our shirt were seen and read by only 100 people each, then we've helped to preach the gospel nearly a billion times. My heart is to thank the retailers who have been with us for giving us a platform to preach from.”
Read the entire Kerusso story - "Man of the Cloth" - as featured in Inspirational Gift Trends.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Welcome to HeadingtoHeaven.com
Welcome message
Welcome to HeadingtoHeaven.com. You may ask, why shop with us? The answer is simple. We offer Value, Quality, Service, and Commitment.
There are many Christian stores and places online to purchase faith based merchandise. We realize that in order to be successful in our industry, we must provide our customers with great prices, superior products and impeccable service.
We constantly search for great deals on volume purchasing, allowing us to pass on the savings to you. This purchasing power gives us the ability to offer high quality merchandise at low prices.
Our Mission:
To make our customers' experiences so positive they choose us as their primary source for faith based merchandise.
We are a privately owned business located in Jacksonville, Florida. We have corporate offices and a fulfillment center for our online business. Our company was founded in 2005, and we made our first online sale in 2006.
While our company is composed of many different types of people and personalities, we are all one large family of believers. We all love what we do, and building solid relationships with each of our customers gives us great satisfaction.
Our philosophy is simple: Treat customers as if they were part of our family, with the care and attention they deserve.
We offer an Endless assortment of faith based Merchandise. These products range from jewelry to digital bible readers to Christian apparel. We have a very low flat rate cost for shipping: $4.99. We don't feel you should be punished with higher shipping fees based on your total order value. No matter how many items you purchase, you will enjoy one low rate for shipping
We take customer satisfaction to the next level. We have an entire team dedicated solely to our customers' complete experience while shopping with us! Happy or unhappy, we want to know. We are here to listen to your suggestions, comments and concerns. The feedback we receive from our customers drives us to enhance the shopping experience we provide.
Protecting your privacy is of the utmost importance to us. We would never give your personal information to a third party. We sometimes email you to alert you of special sales or new arrival, but you are free to opt-out of these messages with one click. We use state-of-the-art encryption technology (SSL) to protect your credit card/personal information. We use some of the most sophisticated commercially available security software, ensuring that any personal information you transmit to us will not be compromised. Every online transaction you make with us will be 100% safe, guaranteed.
Our top priority is to provide the best service possible; this is why we want to have the best hassle free 365 day return policy available. We want you to be totally happy with any purchase you make from our store. If for any reason you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may return the item(s) for a full refund of the purchase price.
We appreciate your business and welcome the opportunity to prove it.
Welcome to HeadingtoHeaven.com. You may ask, why shop with us? The answer is simple. We offer Value, Quality, Service, and Commitment.
There are many Christian stores and places online to purchase faith based merchandise. We realize that in order to be successful in our industry, we must provide our customers with great prices, superior products and impeccable service.
We constantly search for great deals on volume purchasing, allowing us to pass on the savings to you. This purchasing power gives us the ability to offer high quality merchandise at low prices.
Our Mission:
To make our customers' experiences so positive they choose us as their primary source for faith based merchandise.
We are a privately owned business located in Jacksonville, Florida. We have corporate offices and a fulfillment center for our online business. Our company was founded in 2005, and we made our first online sale in 2006.
While our company is composed of many different types of people and personalities, we are all one large family of believers. We all love what we do, and building solid relationships with each of our customers gives us great satisfaction.
Our philosophy is simple: Treat customers as if they were part of our family, with the care and attention they deserve.
We offer an Endless assortment of faith based Merchandise. These products range from jewelry to digital bible readers to Christian apparel. We have a very low flat rate cost for shipping: $4.99. We don't feel you should be punished with higher shipping fees based on your total order value. No matter how many items you purchase, you will enjoy one low rate for shipping
We take customer satisfaction to the next level. We have an entire team dedicated solely to our customers' complete experience while shopping with us! Happy or unhappy, we want to know. We are here to listen to your suggestions, comments and concerns. The feedback we receive from our customers drives us to enhance the shopping experience we provide.
Protecting your privacy is of the utmost importance to us. We would never give your personal information to a third party. We sometimes email you to alert you of special sales or new arrival, but you are free to opt-out of these messages with one click. We use state-of-the-art encryption technology (SSL) to protect your credit card/personal information. We use some of the most sophisticated commercially available security software, ensuring that any personal information you transmit to us will not be compromised. Every online transaction you make with us will be 100% safe, guaranteed.
Our top priority is to provide the best service possible; this is why we want to have the best hassle free 365 day return policy available. We want you to be totally happy with any purchase you make from our store. If for any reason you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may return the item(s) for a full refund of the purchase price.
We appreciate your business and welcome the opportunity to prove it.
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