The Great Cupcake Caper

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

Romans 2:4

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,

tolerance and patience, not realizing that

God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

Printable Tags.

I found this cute idea that I though might be a fun challenge. If you don't bake go get some cookies, muffins or cupcakes from the bakery.  There's probably someone in your life that could use a bit of encouragement this week. So here's the idea and I've added some printable tags for you to use. Or you can make your own.

So here is the challenge. Who could you do something nice for this week. Small acts of kindness can make a huge difference. It might be someone who you have been estranged from and a act of kindness might be just the thing to pave the way to begin a reconcillation. Remember when Jacob was returning home after many years of living with his wives family. He had left his brother on bad terms. He had stolen his brother blessing from his dying father. He had also tricked him out of his birth right when his brother was too hungry to think strait. They had some bad stuff between them. As he was coming back he sent some of his people on ahead to pave the way with gifts. He didn't want his brother in his anger to kill off his family. So he sent gift after gift until they finally met.

It might also be that neighbor or someone at work or at school. Maybe that person that does not fit it with the crowd. Maybe a stranger or it might be someone you know well and you know they are going through a difficult time. Be creative and think out side of the box on this one. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you.

Prayer:
Lord, help us to be a blessing. May our words or our deeds somehow make a difference for someone this week. My some small kindness open a crack in their defensive armor to allow your love and mercy into their life in some way. Lord lead us to that right person or situation and help us to be bold and courageous to be a blessing with no strings attached. Give us the words to say when they ask why? Let your love and compassion be poured out through us in some act of kindness.

Memories Attached

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, 

but the name of the wicked will rot.

I thought this was another fun idea that I found. While posting photos of special events of the birthday party boy or girl would be fun. We are celebrating a blog birthday party. So you can attach a photo to your ballon by putting leaving a note in the comments to  tell me what blog post from the past year was your favorite, I'd love to know why it is your favorite.

Recently a friend sent me a package of photos from my high school and college years. I had very few from that time period.
So it was nice to see them again after 30 some years and remember that there were a lot of good memories among some difficult and painful memories.

I have had to over the past several years undertake a journey to remember parts of my past that I blocked and avoided thinking about. The path ways to those memories were not well traveled as a result of having blocked and avoided them for so long. So the Lord has had to help me uncover them according to his time table and plans.

I have always read  Proverb 10:7 to be talking about how others will remember you after you have departed this earth. I have been looking at it from a different angle recently. I find myself also considering that the memories of the righteous will be a blessing  - why? Because they will have forgiven and repented and put their memories away clean.
When something triggers them and they come to mind  - the memory is healed, clean. Its just a memory of what happened it no longer holds pain, shame, grief, feelings of failure....
 On the other hand the memories of the wicked will rot and that is exactly what happens to people who harbor bitterness and un-forgiveness in their hearts. It rots and becomes very ugly and chokes the life out of person. Much like weeds in a garden choke out the life of the good plants.

I don't know what stone God may turn over for you today. If he shows you some broken place filled with bitterness, anger, regrets, grief, pain, failure, un-repented sin, or un-forgiveness. Take the time to at least tell him" Lord, I don't know how to change, heal or forgive this, but I am willing to allow you to help change my heart so that I can in the near future forgive and put this memory away clean."
Sometimes we can get to the place of forgiving others but need to remember to forgive our selves.

Now one last thought about putting memories away clean. The enemy likes to bring them up again and again like playing an old video taped movie over again and again. When he tries to do that shake your journal at him and remind him that it is forgiven and under the blood of Jesus. Stand your ground and don't pick those old hurts back up and allow bitterness to begin to grow and take root again.Take the time to pull those weeds from the garden of your heart and make it a place where the Lord is welcome and glorified.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for helping us deal with those dark corners of our memories. Those things we'd like to forget. Forgetting does not solve the problem because they keep surfacing. Help us to clean them up and put them away in such a way that honors you. You forgave us and we must forgive like you do.
Help us to get to that place, Lord we are willing to allow you to work on this area. We give you permission to come in and clean out this closet of old memories and dreams. 

Happy Birthday

A Devotional
by Margot Cioccio

2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I've been working on finishing a e-book of the posts from the A-Z challenge. I had hoped to have it ready for today but I only gotten finished up through letter H so far. So it will be coming sometime this month. 

I found these cute candy bar wrappers on Penterest. Since I can't hand them to you in person you can click on the photo to be take to the page where you can print these.

Birthdays are an interesting thing for me. I generally go and spend some special time with the Lord. I believe that the Lord has some special Birthday gift that he wants me to be open to receiving. I suppose tomorrow morning I will spend that kind of time before the Lord on behalf of this blog.

Where are we going with this Blog? I know that there are some of you who have come to really look forward to these posts each day. That kind of boggles my mind. I so often find my self thinking "Who the heck am I to think I have something to say" Yet in reading back over the A-Z posts I find myself surprised by my own thoughts. I am even more surprised that I have been able to be so open about my own struggles. I'm a very private person or have been most of my life. Yet some how God has put it on my heart to share about my struggles and experiences, and how I work through them.

I never really know when I sit down to write - what is going to come out. Today marks one year of blogging.  I don't know how I have done it except to say I've taken it step by step one day at a time.
It seems to be important to the Lord that I do this - so I keep writing. In some ways it is not all that different from the stacks of journals that I've written through the years except that I was terrified that someone might read them. My life is becoming more and more an open book. I have become the journal and he Lord writes upon my life to tell His amazing story.

I love it when I read my bible and how the many stories are not white washed. You read about all the dumb, stupid and selfish things that these bible guys and gals did. You also read about how some of them over came and went on to do great things for God in spite of circumstances the seemed impossible.  I don't want to sell God short to anyone. I want people to realize that we can be real with God and we can learn to be real with one another. If I just concentrate on dealing with that blasted log in my own eye - I don't have time throw stones at you for your struggles and failures.

Coming Soon!

I did notice in editing the A - Z posts that they do get a bit long at times. So I will call it a night and thank you for reading along with me. Wonder what God has for us in the year to come?
Happy 1 Year Birthday - we will continue to celebrate for the whole month. Stay tuned and watch for the release of the new A-Z e-book. 

Prayer
Dear Lord,  Thank you for this amazing year of writing. Thank you for each and every person you bring to these posts. Thank you for those who faithfully follow along on a regular basis. I pray for wisdom to know where we go from here. I thank you for those who are praying for this blog and for me - that is a great gift, and I am blessed beyond measure.  I lift each one before your throne of Grace and ask that you would bless them with an even deeper and fuller relationship with you.

Birthday Cards - What God Would Write In Yours

Click here to order this card

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Its funny the value we give to a paper card with some caring words written on the inside. (The card to the left is one that I designed, I have it for many different birthdays. Click the link below the photo to be taken to my card shop.)

I guess I wanted to share with you today some of the caring words that God has written to you. The vast collection of these verse can be found in your bible but here is Psalm 139.

Here is just one Psalm that expounds on how God knows and cares for us. I'm going to break it up into chunks. The word of the Psalm will be in bold mine will be in italic.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

There is nothing about you that God does not already know. Even when we are like Adam and Eve and try to hide behind fig leaves, God fully knows. He knows your wonderful attributes as well as those places you fall miserably short of His standards. What ever that "thing" is that keeps you from fully turning to God. He already knows but he will wait till you ask Him into that place. You want to talk about intimacy if anyone can truly know you it is God. He can see into the very depths of your heart and mind. Even when I am in the middle of my own mess, I am talking to God about it. There is no point trying to hide it he sees, he knows and only he will really be able to help me turn it around. 

4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. 

5You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

So a really cool thing happened this week. I got a note from my friend Terri. I've written about her in other posts. She is the poster child for me of what it means to be an over comer. So she was here at the site the other day putting a note in the Birthday Guest Book and it occurred to her to search the site for a song I had posted a while back called Holdin' On. I had written in that post about the anguish of not knowing what had happened to her brother a truck driver who was found missing. Now this is what is cool, the day recently that she searched the words Holdin On was her brothers birthday. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. I have no idea who will stumble on to any of these posts. In fact much of what keeps me writing and sharing my own struggles is knowing that there are others who need encouraged. It is knowing that the Holy Spirit can lead people to the right post at the right time and through them do some amazing work in their heart. There are days when I struggle under the weight of tremendous oppression and I push through it to write. When I hit the publish button the oppression lifts. Honestly I covet your prayers because what God is doing with this blog is so much bigger than me. How I have managed to post every weekday for a year is beyond me to grasp. I just know he has given me this to do and so I write and I try to share openly. I have no idea how it is or will impact anyone. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. 

7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

God knows your address even if you have decided to resist him and live in the belly of a wale. No matter how far you run - He will run farther and desires to be with you in that place. Sometimes our shame, or failures cause us to run. Sometimes life becomes overwhelming an more than we can process. There are a number of ways to run away. I am famous for building walls and insulating myself from pain. Its a lonely place but if I open the door just a crack God is waiting to come into that place. If I have hidden things away in the dark corners of my heart and even locked them up securely with chains in a trunk. Eventually the chains begin to rattle and shake. Eventually, I'm going to have to deal with those things and I can only do that with His help. 

I am so thankful that as I have gone through many of those dark places over the past few years that even there his hand guides me and he holds me fast as I finally allow myself to feel the pain and process by repenting and forgiving and putting those memories away clean. There is no where that I can flee from His presence. 

11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.  In the darkest, ugliest places where I cower and wrap myself in the cloak of shame and guilt. Even there he will find me. 

13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well.15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,16your eyes saw my unformed body. Quite often I feel a little bit out of step with the world around me. I've got more creativity than I know what to do with most days. I don't know why God decided to wire me this way. He knit me together in my mother's womb. He picked out my family in advance. He knew me and saw me when my own body was yet unformed. That is hard for me to even wrap my brain around. He knows the exact people that I need around me or who need me around them at this particular time. He knows when I am feeling alone, and odd and different. He loves me just as much on my good days as he does on my bad days. He desires to know you right where you are today in this moment, with all your problems and pains. You don't have to put on your game face for God - just be you and let him worry about how to transform you into his image. 

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Can you even imagine the multitude of Gods thoughts. Psalm 40 says something similar to this passage Psalm 40:5 "O LORD my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them." 

19If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.

21Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?

22I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. So then we get to this little passage. It seems so out of character with the rest of this beautiful Psalm of praise and trust. So cut the "Oh I just love everyone" bit. Admit it already, there are some people that you could do with out. I have a few myself. How many times does it say I have to forgive them? Uggh seventy times seven. Thats a lot of forgiving. I'm not saying that we should remain in abusive situations but I don't see what God sees. That one thief on the cross did not make the decision to follow Jesus til he was hanging there besides him on the cross. Here's what I love about this passage, the writer does not have to pretend to not have these thoughts. He is able to be honest before God about how he feels about his enemies. We don't have to be all holy and religious in our conversations with God. There have been times when I have been mad at God and flat out told him why I was mad. Does he love me any less - no. Our God is big enough to handle our anger, frustration, and miss understanding and still love us. 

23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Boy there are days when I get myself it quiet an anxious place. I can worry about money, I can worry about the future, I can worry about my kids, my marriage, my friendships, my job.... Oh come on - quit playing games with everyone because you are like me and have your set of things that push your buttons. Just like me you need to be reminded that God already has it all figured out and you and me spending our energy on worry is doing no one any good. That worry is an offensive way in me and in you. But you might as well be honest with the Lord about it. Take it to him now and ask him to help you. Its not like he will suddenly zap you and worry will never enter your mind again. Its a journey and I have to crucify my thoughts and cause them to be obedient to Christ. I have to decide when those worry thoughts start up that I will put them down. I have to decide to make Jesus my focus and not those things that worry me. I have days that I do well and others that I fail miserably. It is on those days that I am greateful for friends who remind me that its really not as bad as I am making it. People who remind me to find my smile. (Thanks Tonia).

Prayer:
So there you have it I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you. That he will make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. That he will give you his wonderful peace.

Your Birthday Party Favor
Here's your party favor for the day. Its a kind of fun idea that would be nice for an evening party. Glowing/Neon Balloons. Put a Glow stick in a balloon before you blow it up. Pretty simple. 

Source: Uploaded by user via Margot on Pinterest

Celebrate Freedom

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, 

the people he chose for his inheritance.” Psalm 33:12

So here the thing, I think He has chosen every person, every tribe and every nation. Take a look at
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

While we in America celebrate our independence and freedom as a nation with barbecues, fire works and family gatherings, which I too will enjoy today. I can't help but think of my American Indian friend Lenore. She is from the Lacota tribe and one of very few Indian believers. She shared how hard it is for Indians to accept Christianity. In their mind it is the white mans religion, and the white man took their land and they have suffered many atrocities over the years. She does not tell her Indian friends and family that she is a Christian. She tells them she is a Lacota woman who follows Jesus. Click here's to link to that Sunday that she shared her story. History is written by the victor and I found out that day that there is a lot of the story that I don't know.

So I guess I wanted to think more about is celebrating the freedom from the darkness that we enjoy as believers in Jesus. His Kingdom is very different from the kingdoms and nations of this world. While some say we in America are a Christian nation I prefer to think we are a nation like many others with people who follow Jesus.  I think of that amazing multitude that no one could count from Revelation 7:9. We look for churches filled with people just like us. So we go looking for places with people who come from our social standing, or that are filled with people of our color. I'm all for people of differing ethnic roots to celebrate Jesus with in their own culture. I just think we are looking for our common ground in the wrong places. When we stand in heaven among people from every nation, tribe, people and language what will you and I have in common with them?

Its something to ponder for a half a second before you are off to eat watermelon and burgers. Here's what I believe we have in common. We have each in our brokenness turned to Jesus. We have believed He is the way, the truth and the life. We have decided to follow him, and do things his ways. What we have in common is Jesus. He teaches us to live sacrificially, to lay down our lives for others. He teaches us to bear one another's burdens. He teaches us to stand up and work for justice for the needy, the poor, the prisoner, the widow, the orphan. To reach out to the marginalized of our societies. He calls us to repent of our own sins, and to forgive those who have sinned against us. His way causes us to have to die to our selfish carnal ways. So what we have in common is that we all come to him broken. We can pretend we have it all together and put on our Sunday best or we can come to the stark realization that every last one of us is broken in some way or another. Our best is filthy rags compared to his holiness. Its time we put aside our differences and our stones.  We all have good days and bad days when the things that trip us up get the better of us. We need to take off our masks and realize what we have in common is that we are broken and we need Jesus and learn to walk together as people of His Kingdom.


Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for your great diversity. Thank you that heaven will be populated with people of all kinds. Thank you that we can celebrate the freedom you have given us. Help us to remember to help others on the journey out of darkness and into your marvelous light.

So since we are celebrating our birthday as a blog this month, I wanted to add some little party favors in the form of fun little ideas. I have no great big supporters to appeal to for tremendous give away and prizes. I though I would just pull together some fun little things that you might enjoy. 

I found these cute lifesaver wraps that require some patriotic scrap book papers or printable papers. Click on the photo to be taken to the step by step directions for this project. You could do this using any scrapbook papers and they might even make good kindness gifts to give away to people through your day.  It is His kindness that leads us to repentance.

Join The Celebration

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

So this is A Devotional Mosaics 1 year Birthday. We will officially be one year old on Friday July 6th.

A year ago writing everyday seemed like such a monumental task.  It has become a very natural part of my life at this point. I still have days when it is hard to write but I have seen the Lord carry me through those days time and time again. Quite often what I've managed to share on those days has been what people later tell me really touched them.

So this month my posts will all have a celebration kind of theme to it. I might even come up with some downloadable party favors.


2 Samuel 6


²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

This is a great story. Michal is the wife David was given as a reward to him for bringing down the the giant Goliath. She is the kings daughter and she is very disturbed by how David is celebrating the arc being brought back to Israel.  Sometimes we need to celebrate and dance like no ones watching. 


Ha - how cool. I just did a google search on Nehemiah and the celebrating the little victories along the way. Guess who's post was in the top four of the search....mine. Here a link to that post Don't Forget To Celebrate from September 21st of last year. 

Nehemiah was really good about celebrating the little victories along the way. They finished re-building a gate and they had a celebration. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and have holidays to commemorate historic events. Those things help us to be able to see how far we have come over a span of time. We may not have made it to our final destination but we did this part of the task and so we should celebrate. 

So I am celebrating all this month and I invite you to join me. I've set up a 1 Year Birthday Guest Book tab at the top of the page where you can go to be part of this celebration by leaving your comments or a donation. 

For the past year I have set aside time just about every day to spend at least an hour if not as much as three hours studying, researching, and writing these posts. That is a pretty big victory for me who has for years struggled to do anything daily. Almost all the posts have my own photos, or pictures of my cards or art work, that is also a great accomplishment. I've been asked to do a weekly post for Healing Stream Media on Fridays. I've had one article accepted by Tom Krauter of Training Resources that will be part of a subscription blog for Worship Leaders. I even get paid for that one. My articles are getting published almost monthly in The Grapevine a newsletter put out by my church. Even though my pastor says I need to learn the rules for commas. I participated and completed the April A-Z blogging challenge in April. All in all its been quite a year of writing and there are a number of things to celebrate. 

So I hope you join me this month for some virtual cake and punch. I created this virtual cake at a site called http://cakesy.com/ if you want you can create a cake and post it in the comments for this page. I would love to see your creation.  There is another on line cake decorating site http://www.theoworlds.com/birthday/ you can create a much more detailed cake there and post a link to it in the comments. I couldn't get the writing part to work but the decorating part was kind of fun.


Just a fun little way you can join in the celebration. Its ok if you just enjoy the pretty pink cake here on this page. 

Thanks for being part of the first year of 

A Devotional Mosaic! 

~ Margot

Prayer: Lord, help us to celebrate those smaller victories along the way. We may not have won the war or completed the larger task but we are thankful for what you have helped us to accomplish. Help us to be aware of your presence and your leading as you guide and direct us by your Holy Spirit.

A Wonderful Surprise

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; 
I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master's happiness.

Matthew 25:21

During the announcements in our service today, I was asked to come down from my perch high aloft in the sound booth. I was recognized for my service on the church board for the last three years. I served one year as a board member and I and four others were replacing a board that had been asked to step down. The congregation felt it was time for new leadership and five of us were chosen. The second year I was the chairman, and the third the vice chairman. It has certainly been one heck of a wild ride from a church we thought we might be able to save, to a church we almost had to close to one that has been given a new lease on life.

So the current chairman presented me with this beautiful journal engraved with the words of Matthew 25:21.  Those are the words I want to hear from Jesus when I stand before the Lord some day. How special to have them engraved on this journal. There are also some wonderful notes written in the first few pages from my pastor and the other board members.

Some times God gives us things to do that are difficult, and inconvenient and it does not seem like we are making any progress. Then suddenly things shift and change. We have passed through the dark night of the storm and find our selves on the other side of a great struggle.

There were times when I wanted to give up - but I knew that if I gave up others would too. Help me hold on Lord. Lord I know you are able but what is your will in this situation and in this place? Help me understand what you are doing? Jesus would speak to me stay the course to stand until the end. I did not know if that was until the doors of the church were closed and we turned over the key to the denomination or if it meant stand to the end of my board term. He would tell me when things looked most hopeless and we were with in a few months of having to close the door, he would say prepare your fields." I think He looks at our hearts, much like he looked at Abraham. Will we follow through or will we give up. There were so many times that the cry of my heart before Him was Lord, don't let your light go out here, there are people who need you. We tried to do what needed to be done, and the things we could do but mostly I just held on because I had not reached the end.

I saw this quote on Penterest recently and I saved it to embed in a post.

Source: facebook.com via Margot on Pinterest

I don't know how exactly I got through these three years. I stayed close to the Lord, I prayed, I griped and moaned at some points. I was tired and burned out at some points and I had to step back from a lot of extra activities for a time.  I can say that the experience has profoundly changed me. I have served on other board but it was in churches that were healthy. Never have I been so tired and tested and pushed to places beyond where I thought my limits lay. I suppose it is like the difference between serving in the military during a time of peace or in a time of war or national crisis. He will not give you more than you can bear, but you can probably bear a whole lot more than you think you can.
Will you take that next step of faith or will you give up because things are hard.

Great stories are written about people who don't give up in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. I think of the young girl who saw a series of vision and in one was told to drink and wash in the water of Lourdes. The account in Widkapeda say "The next day she went further, and during her trance, chewed and ate grass she plucked from the ground. She then rubbed mud over her face and swallowed some mud, to the disgust of the many onlookers and the embarrassment of those who believed in her visions. She explained that the vision had told her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there, as an act of penance. To everyone's surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed" For 150 some years people have been going to that place and report having been healed by those waters. Bernadeta Sobirós continued on even though many thought she was crazy.

Florence Nightingale is another example. In 1820 she is born to a well off family in Florence Italy. At age 16 she believed God told her that he had a task for her to do. She resisted her families pressure to marry and found ways to work to care for poor and needy people. At one point she wanted to go and work in the local hospital. In those days nurses were not thought of as much more than maids. She persisted and went on to work in the army hospitals. She eventually started her own school of nursing. She served and advised others in nursing procedures in several wars including our civil war. She became known as the lady with the lamp. Because she was checking on her patients day and night. She did not give up but pressed on to take new ground again and again. Just because women had never done such things was not reason enough for her to go home and crochet doilies. God had given her a task and she held to that belief to the end of her life at age 90 and remarkably changed our world for the better.

Sometimes the things God' calls us to do seem impossible and crazy. We want to talk our selves out of it all. What will people think, we wonder? This Bernadette was a simple girl, her father was a miller in the town. Florence was from a well off family. Your station in life has little to do with responding with faith to do the next step and the next of God's calling on your life.

I have to say my faith has stretched and grown over the past three years. I am glad that there are new board members who God has assembled for the next leg of the journey. I am glad to have been able to serve God in this capacity during this critical point in this churches history. I'm glad the I made it to this finish line. I don't know what God has next, if the past is any indication it is about cutting a path for others to follow through some uncharted territory. I think of the Steven Curtis Chapman song The Great Adventure that says... "Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze. Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace. Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown. This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure:"

What about you? What has God spoken to your heart to do? Some of you know and some of you don't have a clue. Some of you are at the beginning of a great adventure, and some are nearing a finish line. Don't give up, keep taking one step and then another - you will get to the end if you don't give up and quit.

I love the last page of the Last Battle by C.S Lewis. "And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover an the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before"

So this is much like coming to the end of one of my big art projects. I can look way back to the starting point of this journey when I wondered how will I ever get from here to there. It looked impossible but with God all things are possible.

Thank you to my wonderful church family for such a profoundly meaningful gift. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to serve. I am changed for the better. 


Prayer:
Dear Lord you have things for each of us to accomplish with the life you have given us. Help us to take that next step of faith to follow you into the wild blue yonder of your amazing grace. Take us Lord into your Great Adventure, where the impossible becomes possible as we take one step of faith and then another walking with you today and tomorrow and the days after that.