Kim: Jesus is Lord

As Mike and I handed out red construction paper to our kids in the first through third grade Sunday school class, excited voices piped up from around the room asking about what we were going to do. (How they love to make crafts!) We instructed them about how to cut a heart out of their paper, and they set about with little brows furrowed with determination. A few of them pleaded for another piece of paper. Despite our assurances that their hearts were beautiful (okay, Mike used the word “great”), they persisted, saying that their hearts were not big enough. We gave in as we exchanged amused glances over their heads.

When their heart specifications met their approval, we moved on to the next step. After each of them had a crayon in hand, we asked them what kinds of questions their friends might want to ask them about Jesus. Hands and innocent questions filled the air. “How tall was Jesus? What did He look like?” For each question, they drew a question mark on their hearts. Soon, their hearts were full of question marks, some scattered about, others drawn in a nice and tidy row. Next we taped springs onto the middle of their hearts, made of white strips of paper folded accordion-style. Then a graphic declaring, JESUS IS LORD!, was glued to the end of each spring.

As I knelt beside their desks helping them put the pieces together, I looked down at the handmade hearts in their little hands, filled with such childlike questions. Tears filled my eyes and I swallowed hard at the knowledge that one distant day complicated questions, painful questions would fill their hearts. When that day came they needed to know Who to turn to. I put a smile on my face and made my way to the front of the class and asked them to look at their hearts. Then I told them, “One day your friends are going to ask you questions. When they do I want you to think of these hearts. Even if your heart is filled with questions you don’t have answers to, remember that it's okay because you have Jesus in your heart. Jesus is Lord, and He knows all the answers.”

In the land of grownups, may this encourage your heart today.

“...For God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” ~1John 3:20b

Cora: Monthly Calendar

Hello ladies.

I am surely looking forward to spring and summer but am sad that we only have 2 more meetings left. I so love getting together every other Tuesday and diving into God's Word together.

Here is the schedule for May:

May 13 - Fruit of the Spirit - Gentleness - church office at 6:30 p.m.
May 27 - Fruit of the Spirit - Self Control - church office at 6:30 p.m.

Laurie: Mini Cheesecakes

24 cupcake liners
24 vanilla wafers
2-8oz. cream cheese (softened)
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1 can cherry pie filling

Line cupcake pans with liners and place a wafer in each.
In a bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar till smoothe. Add
in eggs and vanilla, continue to beat till light and
fluffy. Fill liners 2/3 full.
Bake 375° 15 to 20 minutes. Top with pie filling
and chill.

Cora: Monthly Calendar

Hello ladies!

Here is the monthly calendar for April:

April 8 - Goodness - church office at 6:30 p.m.
April 22 - Faithfulness - church office at 6:30 p.m.
April 24 - 26 - Women's Retreat at The Homestead

Registration for the retreat out at The Homestead begins on Sunday, March 30. Make sure to fill out your registration forms and get them handed in as soon as possible. The cost this year is $125.00 and your payment is due by April 20.

Check in begins at 5:00 on Thursday, April 24 and the first session is that evening at 7:00. Please note that we will not be eating dinner Thursday night at The Homestead this year. Please make other arrangements for dinner Thursday night and then come join us for a wonderful weekend of retreating.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me either by e-mail or by phone.

I look forward to seeing all of you there!!

Shannon: The Trade

In light of Dave's Easter message yesterday, I dug out this old post from a few summer's ago.


The only things I can move right now, without wincing, are my fingertips. That's why you're getting a post.

If you watched me walk across the room this morning, you'd think I was trying to recover from injuries I sustained when I failed to jump my motorcycle over twenty brand new Mini Coopers down at Bellowin' Bob's Autos. Or at the very least, a mugging. But no. Mine are "exercise wounds," and lest we all forget--it's a "good" pain.

It's been a week of water aerobics, weight lifting, eliptical riding, walking and biking. No, I'm not training for the Iron Man. I'm trying to get back into my spring clothes.

I'd already had my belly full of exercise by yesterday afternoon, but Dave came home and said, "I brought you a surprise. Come outside and see." I followed him out to his truck and saw a new (to us) 14 speed, automatic shift bicycle--with shocks. It's really a beautiful bike, and I was so taken by his gesture that the words "Hey! Let's go for a ride!" popped out of my mouth before I saw the calamity coming.

He was all over that. "Yeah! Let's see how far down the trail we can get." Several months ago, a paved, 9 or so mile trail opened along our property. At any time of the day or night, you can watch a sea of roller bladers, bicyclists, walkers, and horse riders meander past our pasture.

Last week, an old shirtless guy with a Santa beard came riding up on his bike and told us there'd been reports of bear and bobcat sightings along the trail. I've never yet known a shirtless, Santa-bearded biker to lie, so when I went inside to grab my cell phone, I also grabbed my mace. Geared up, I headed back out and found that Dave had hooked up the air compressor and was filling the tire on my old bike. It was once beautiful, but the law of entropy has had its way with it. Parts of the shiny burgundy paint are covered with rust; the seat is somewhat moldy and ripped in one spot (the rip screams "Zac," but that won't hold up in court), and the kick stand wobbles.

I felt terrible that Dave was going to ride that old bike while I had this beautiful new bike, and I told him so. His answer? "I don't mind--I just like knowing you have a good, dependable bike."

He's like that. He'll take the dilapidated bike so I can ride the nice, new one. He was happy to take my old, simple cell phone so I could have the nice, new, picture-taking phone. He was perfectly content to take my old lap top so I could have a nice, new, faster model. He's very good to me.

So we had our ride. We went all the way to Lake Cassidy and then some. And sometime during the ride, maybe 50 minutes into it, I began to think about Dave's sacrifices and how often he puts me in mind of my other Groom--the One who was willing to take the punishment of the cross so I could have a new nature, a new name, and a brand new hope for the future.

I don't deserve to be this loved; I know that. But I'm glad ... and grateful.

The Trade

Mine was Your only sin
Yours is my only righteousness
Mine was Your only shame
Yours is my only confidence
You took all of me; I want all of You

Mine was the pain You bore
Yours is the healing I received
Mine was the nails and thorns
Yours is my life abundantly
You took all of me; I want all of You

I'm waiting here to feel Your touch
The weight of sin it seems so much
The freedom that You offer me is You

Mine was the the victory
Yours is the blood that purchased me
Mine is a blessed way
Yours is my love eternally
You took all of me; I want all of You
~ Brett Williams

Cora: Monthly Calendar

Hello ladies.

Another month has flown by and now it is March. Spring is upon us.

Here is the calendar for March:

March 11 - Fruit of the Spirit study - Longsuffering - church office at 6:30 p.m.
March 25 - Fruite of the Spirit study - Kindness - church office at 6:30 p.m.

Hope to see you all there.

Also remember, the retreat at the Homestead is April 24-26. More details will be coming soon!

Shannon: A Chance to Serve

I caught a little segment about Kathy Holmgren (wife of Seahawks' coach, Mike) early this morning. I've known from previous newsclips that she's very active in overseas missions and has missed many of her husband's games over the years because of trips she's taken to offer humanitarian aid. But this morning, they highlighted one of her local ministries.

Kathy, who has three health-care related master's degrees, works three days a week as a community health nurse (mostly for the homeless) at the Pike Market Medical Clinic. This morning, they showed her sitting cross-legged on the clinic floor, bathing and tending to the feet of a homeless man.

"I never feel more like a Christian than when I'm doing this," she said.

There was a beauty and a poignancy to the sight of Kathy bending over that man's feet that I'm not sure I can put to words. I doubt she knows the effect it had on those of us who watched.

Today, few of us will have an opportunity to bathe someone's feet. But all of us will have an opportunity to serve.

What might you do for Jesus today?

Cora: Women's Prayer

Hello ladies.

Sylvia Stevenson has felt the Lord's calling to open her home for those of us who would like to get together and pray.

James 5:16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to "pray continually."

Sylvia will be opening her house Thursday evenings beginning February 7 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. We will be praying for the needs of our families, our friends, our church and our country. If you can't make it every Thursday, don't let that stop you from coming when you can.

For directions, call Jeff or Sylvia (their number is in the church directory) or e-mail Sylvia.

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).

Cora: Monthly Calendar

Hello ladies!

Can you believe January is almost over and February is just around the corner? Pastor Dave was just talking last night about how fast time goes by and reminded us that every day should count for the Lord.

Here is the calendar for February:

February 12 - Fruit of the Spirit Study - Joy - church office at 6:30
February 26 - Fruit of the Spirit Study - Peace - church office at 6:30

Also, remember the retreat at The Homestead is coming up in April!

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? MY HOPE IS IN YOU." - Psalm 39: 4-7

Shannon: From Kari's Blog

I read this on Kari's blog a few days ago and asked for permission to reprint it here at Joyful Life. I could so relate to Kari's thoughts--and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's (minus the cod liver oil :). I'm sure many of you will too.

Gift From the Sea-part one

I've been reading LOTS of books this year, mostly "self-help" type books. You know the ones, how to be a better whatever (fill in the blank with mother, wife, teacher, housekeeper, cook, Christian, etc.) I've also read several psychology books trying to learn more about narcissism and the impact it had on me as a child and how to overcome the past so I can live "a normal life" as an adult. But, the book that impacted me the most this year was Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. If I recall correctly, I was given this book as a teenager or young adult but I just didn't "get it" back then. I think one must have experienced a bit of life as a woman, mother, wife to receive its fullness. Reading it at 43 brought fresh insight into the author's wisdom. Mrs. Lindbergh is the wife of Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator. Together they went through the tragedy of child abduction (their child was kidnapped, held for ransom, and eventually found dead back in the 1930s.) The book, originally written in the 50s, but so relevant for today, is her journal, of sorts, of time spent on the beach reconnecting with herself and with God, and finding that inner-balance that we as women so desperately seek. She uses the term "shedding" to describe how she must get to a simpler life.

From page 25 she writes, "I mean to lead a simple life, to choose a simple shell I can carry easily-like a hermit crab. But I do not. I find that my frame of life does not foster simplicity. My husband and five children must make their way in the world. The life I have chosen ... involves a house in the suburbs ... food and shelter; meals, planning, marketing, bills, and making the ends meet in a thousand ways. It involves not only the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker but countless other experts to keep my modern house with its modern "simplifications" running properly. It involves health; doctors, dentists, appointments, medicine, cod-liver oil, vitamins, trips to the drugstore. It involves education; spiritual, intellectual, physical; schools ... car-pools, extra trips for basketball or orchestra practice; tutoring; camps, camp equipment and transportation. It involves clothes, shopping, laundry, cleaning, mending, letting skirts down and sewing buttons on, or finding someone else to do it. It involves friends, my husband's, my children's, my own, and endless arrangements to get together; letters, invitations, telephone calls and transportation hither and yon."

This is SO my life and yet like Ms. Morrow I LONG for simplicity.

She goes on: "This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity ... It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul."

"One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding; how little one can get along with, not how much."

She speaks of shedding our vanity by living out of a small suitcase of clothing rather than a closet full. Shedding pride by letting go of our "Martha-like anxiety about many things." Shedding hypocrisy in relationships. Taking off the mask.

So what do I plan to shed this year--besides the few holiday pounds? I plan to shed the books about becoming a better anything. While it might help in the short term, I'm always left feeling unworthy or not good enough or worse, that I need "to do MORE." I'm letting go of the self-help and "how-to's." I feel a prompting to search for the answers in His Book. To sift what I have learned through the filter of God's word ALONE. If it's important for me to learn, the Holy Spirit will guide me in all truth. So, if I get the urge to "figure it all out," get a hankerin' for "what's new" in the library, or hear about the latest, greatest book on how to get closer to God, I plan to grab my Bible and a cup of tea instead.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. ...if you are lead by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Galatians 5:1,18).