Watching and waiting

Our Daily Bread
Have you seen the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes commercials?  They show up at someone's house unexpectedly and change their lives!  They carry balloons and a big check.  What an unexpected event!

I have to admit that I might think more about winning the sweepstakes than the coming of Jesus.  ;-(  While the changes of winning are very small, I often think that the chances of Jesus coming back in my lifetime even smaller.  I am working on that.  I am working on living like each day is my last.  That each day may be the blessed day he returns for his people.  We don't know exactly what will happen, but we do know that things will change!  Praise God!

Lord, please help look to your coming each and every day!

Simply Saturday
Amazing Grace
It has been an interesting week of personal discovery and growth.  I love weeks like this and I hate weeks like this.  Talk about mixed emotions!  I learned some things about myself during my long weekend in NYC.  Lots of walking and solitary time.  Lots of people and excitement.  There were periods that I desperately wished that I had someone to share these experiences with.  There were periods that I thanked God for being alone so I could truly enjoy this freedom!  Talk about mixed emotions!  ha!

The emotion and thought that I keep having over and over was God's Grace.  The amazing grace we sing about.  The grace that we often take for granted, much like we take for granted the coming of Christ (see above).  We know the reality, but don't LIVE his grace.  What does that mean?  I don't really understand it completely.  My understanding so far is extending the grace that God shows us to others.  Wow!  Read that again.  Extending the grace that God shows us to others.  Isn't that amazing?

Let's think about this concept and pray about it this week.

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Revivals greatest enemy is Pride, and the only bride Revival will walk down the isle with is Humility. Humility will deny herself the right of self gratification rather than turn away from God to fulfill her own pleasures, and she will not allow herself to receive the praise that should go to another (especially the Lord). Finally, she will rush to renounce herself, rather than sitting quietly when her Lord is robed of His glory. Oh, Father, we are so unlike her, but may we meet her so that we may walk down the isle to Revival and true Christlikeness? from  Jonathan Edwards on Humility in Religious Affections