{{The Christmas Gospel}}

 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

unto YOU.

to you, personally.

 even if you were the only soul on earth.

regardless of your sin, your selfishness and your pride.

to save you from all the disaster, peril and devastation that you were born into.

HE came as a baby so that you could live forever.

GOD loved you enough to send HIS perfect, holy Child to die in your place.

 today marks a big stage of the Lord's rescue mission.

how amazing is that?

JESUS,

WELCOME TO OUR WORLD

 

Satisfied with Him.

Do you ever get cravings? 

Have you ever gotten a sudden desire for something sweet, salty, or sour?

Or maybe it's a longing for a friend, relationship, travel, or a certain TV show (Sherlock, anyone? ;).

I know I do! 

 Websters 1828 Dictionary defines "crave" as:

To call for, as a gratification; to long for; to require or demand, as a passion or appetite

When a hunger like this comes, more often than not, we like to fill it. If chocolate is on my mind, I do everything I can to get a taste. If I'm feeling a wander-lust, planning a trip would be just the cure! I believe that as humans, we naturally want to do just that. (Now of course there are those fleshy, not-so-good desires, that we must abstain from with the Lord's help. But I'm talking about more of the small, practical ones.) Anyways, I was thinking the other day about something.

For the last several years in my personal walk with the Lord, I have prayed that He would satisfy me. I really love these lyrics by Tenth Ave North:

And when the day is closing in like the stars in the night I am falling into the pull of the earth and its affections 
In me, O Lord, can You create a pure heart Because I'm afraid that I just might run back To the things I hate 
Satisfy me, Lord, oh Satisfy me, Lord, oh Yeah I'm begging You, help me see You're all I want, You're what I need Oh satisfy me, Lord

Really and truly, this has been a cry of my heart through the years. I pray that God would make me want Him. That I won't settle for some temporary happiness, in place of His living Word. That I would long to spend time with Him. That I will purpose to connect with Him daily.

1 Corinthians 8:11 ..but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.

And that's what brought me to this thought:

Do I crave the Lord?
Do I desire to spend time and meditate on His word?
Do I do everything in my power, to fill that hole with Him?
It's a challenge, definitely. And since it challenged me, I hope this will challenge some of you as well.
Seek the Lord, and ask Him to draw you in. To cause that longing in your soul for something bigger, greater, and stronger than some Gharidelli.
-Sarah

"The Teachers says, 'My time is at hand.'"

Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’”So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. ²¹ Now as they were eating, He said,“Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?”He said to him, “You have said it.”

Matthew 26:17-25 

Tonight our church is having a Seder meal for the first time. I'm looking forward to the beauty and symbolism of it all. :) 

NCF Girls Retreat Recap!

 The week of the 15th I had the pleasure of driving 2 hours to a Girls' Retreat held at a friend's church. The Lord worked all the details out so that I could attend it this year, after being invited by several friends. Mom, Anna, Leah, Levi and I headed out Sunday morning and stopped at a mall on the way just for fun. :) We arrived at the church in high excitement and I was ready to have an awesome experience.

First things first, I got all checked in, greeted all my peeps, and set up my bag and cup for the week. 

I was a designated member of Team China, and found my table and the rest of my team. :)

Wasn't our table amazing? :)

GO TEAM CHINA!!! :)

Some of the other girls were in teams Ireland, Israel, Thailand, Mexico, and a few others.

One of the many uplifting and encouraging sessions during those 3 long days. :)

Amber sharing her thoughts on Courage.

Our worship team was terrific. Meredith, Bethany, Amber, Josie, Amy, Michelle, and others-- you all were such a huge blessing and added a neat level to my experience.

Praising Jesus! :) 

Some of the favorite songs of the week:

Meredith helped us to understand more about the persecuted church in a very powerful way. Check out this video. And after the session we had the opportunity to write a note of encouragement to Christians in prison in several different countries. :) It was really neat to be able to do that.

Along with all this wonderful stuff, there were so many fun games to be had! Here's just a sneak peek into all the craziness there was. ;)

Give six blind-folded girls makeup, and this is what you get. 

\\WARNING\\  **This is a very disturbing image** ;P 

Told ya. ;)

On Tuesday Josie had done a wonderful job of setting all us girls up with a jewelry making session. :)

And there was........

NINJA!!!! 

I actually did a pretty decent job and came in 2nd of all the girls. :)

One of the climaxes of the week was the notorious shaving cream war! This was the most insane, mayhem of a game, but it was well worth the mess. :) I was armed with two cans of Barbasol and went out there to be turned white. :D 

The ante-bellum picture. ;)

After you were thoroughly slathered up, you got to go jump into the farm pond! 

And then there was the waterslide......

Bethany, Amber, Amy and I went out on the paddle boat......until we realized that it was "kaput". We had to be pushed back to the edge due to having no steering and only one paddle. :P

Monday and Tuesday zoomed by and we all were looking forward to the special evening prepared by the leaders. :)

All those ladies had totally done a make over to the church and transformed it to a banquet hall. :) 

I felt so overwhelmed by all the love and effort put into this night, and will remember it always.

Each team's leader prayed for their group and presented each girl with a pretty scarf. :)

There was a really great time of worship and prayer and then some icecream cake concocted by the awesome Tina! :) 

The rest of the night (til 2 o clock) was a blur of dancing, music, laughing, smiles, and altogether a very happy time! 

This retreat was a HUGE blessing and I really enjoyed how all the young women and ladies led us girls to our Lord and the AMAZING love He has for us. :) It definitely was a refresher and rejuvenated my spirit. I think it's terribly impossible to throw a bunch of fun-loving godly young women together and expect them to not have an awesome time. ;) 

It was so good to meet all those sweet girls and I look forward to all the friendships that will blossom from this week. (and it was also fun to finally put faces to all these names I'd heard around. :D

 

Thank you Jesus, for the blessing of this retreat and how you've used it to draw all of us closer to your heart. 

And to this ^ crazy-wonderful-awesome-group of girls:

I miss you all a lot and hope to see you again next year! :)

"I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer....For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." -Isaiah 56:7

{{{{All photos Copyright Krissy Hinton 2012}}}}} 

Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas. I pray that all of you are having as blessed of a day as I've had so far. ;) And I hope that this year you really and deeply understand the awesome Gift that was given to you by your Papa. :)  Please take some time out of your day to think on these words....

"O, Holy Night"

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

 Luke 2: 10-14

 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
       ¹⁴ “ Glory to God in the highest,
      And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Matthew 1: 23

 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”which is translated,  

“God with us.” 

Isaiah 9:6

"For unto us a Child is born,
      Unto us a Son is given;
      And the government will be upon His shoulder.
      And His name will be called
      Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
      Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

We both wish you a *very* blessed Christmas!!!

 ~Sarah and Rachel

Where In the World Have We Been?

Hello Guys! Sorry our posts have been few and far between. I cannot believe it's already December 3rd! Anyhow, I thought I'd show you a cool thing I did recently. I really love this verse, Romans 8:38-39, so I decided to take an artsy twist on it. ;) It was real fun to try to figure out different fonts that corresponded to the words, and all the colors and stuff. :) 

How'd you like 'em? :)  

Oh, and for all of you who have been wondering why in the world there haven't been any "normal life" posts. I though I'd let you know what's been going on over here real quick:

Both Rachel and I have become busy starting into this holiday season, with baking for Coastal. 

Last week we started selling candy (think peppermint bark, norweigian crunch, etc) along with some pies, holiday-ish cookies, and the like. It's been fun to have some more variety in our baking days. ;) 

Also, school's been keeping me busy. I'm in the midst of Latin II, Biology, Algebra 2, etc. Fun stuff, eh? :D And we've also been kept busy making/preparing Christmas presents! (Yes. It really is time to start thinking about those things, isn't it?;)

We went out as a family and picked a nice, big tree yesterday, and today was spent decking the halls with boughs of holly. (and other greenery, decor, wreaths, candles...:) **sigh** Don't you absolutely love this season?! 

Till Next Time!

~Sarah

Some Thanksgivingish Thoughts ;)

 

Thanksgiving: 

The word brings to mind thoughts of harvest time, pilgrims, family, friends, a chilly autumn day, turkey, pies, and other cozy things related to the well-known holiday. 

Too often though, I think we keep it in that "holiday-ish" box. 

 We all know that the last Thursday of November is a time purposely set aside for looking back on all the blessings the year has had in it, and being grateful for them. 

We may be able to get in a good groove of being thankful for a few days surrounding Thanksgiving...

but I'm afraid that at least I am guilty of dropping back into my self-absorbed, silly and rather ungrateful self. I'm so glad that the Bible is full of scriptures reminding us to Praise the Lord and thank Him for His goodness! Otherwise, I think I'd become too wrapped up in the concerns and details in life to ever recognize and be grateful for the *many* blessings I truly have.

My challenge to myself, as well as all of you, is to remember to thank the Lord daily for His awesomeness, power, love, salvation, and mercy He gives to all of us constantly. Because, you see, the thing is: We don't deserve *any* of it! If it weren't for the grace and salvation of God, we, as the selfish sinners we are, should be in the lowest, most terrible and dark place ever. That's what we deserve, without Christ.

But that's not where the story ends.

Oh no. 

Because...

"He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds we are healed."

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Do you see that? The Perfect Lamb of God died, so that we may have life! "By His wounds we are healed"!

So, right there I have two great examples of why I should never stop giving thanks to the Lord! He has been soooo amazingly, exceedingly, good to me, and I am so blessed!

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD!
      Call upon His name;
      Make known His deeds among the peoples!

 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
      Talk of all His wondrous works!

 Glory in His holy name;
      Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!

 Seek the LORD and His strength;
      Seek His face evermore!"

" Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
         For His mercy endures forever:"

      “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
      Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
      Be to our God forever and ever.
      Amen.” 

 

I hope you all have had a blessed Thanksgiving Day full of family time, laughter, love, fun, and hopefully some turkey thrown in there. ;)

~Sarah