No Greater Love

~Posted by Rubia

 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose….

 

….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:28, 35-39

 

A good friend of mine shared these verses with me in an email this past week. What an encouragement from the Lord through her! They have always been wonderful for me to meditate on.

 

The scripture passages surrounding these verses all seem to be very fitting for the present time. Paul talks about our present sufferings vs. the future glory yet to be revealed to us (Rom. 8:18-25), then about how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will when we pray (verses 26-27); about how God works all things out for the good of those who love Him, about His sovereignty, and His all- powerful love for us (verses 28-39). So then, I quote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Persecution? Danger? Our past? Present? Life? Death? Anything?

 

…..”nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

Words cannot express God’s powerful love for us. I challenge myself today, “Do I believe that and trust in that as absolute truth with all my heart? Now I can declare that even in the hardest of my days, I believe!

 

My friends, may God’s word here speak to your hearts and encourage you to praise Him for what He has done, and to worship Him! I believe Christ’s death and resurrection truly changes everything for us! Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ! He is God!

 

Big Changes

When we get comfortable in life, it seems that God brings about big changes to shake things up. He has done that in our family recently . . .

On September 29^th, my Dad was in a group of people that got laid off at his company. Due to financial hardships, they laid off 35+ people in 2 weeks. The news was pretty shocking to us kids. We haven't even lived in Texas for 2 years, and our Dad has never been laid off before. We were really expecting—and hoping—to stay right here in Texas until he retired.

So quite suddenly, we are living on a week-to-week basis. He has been talking with head hunters/recruiters and is already interviewing for several jobs! The very sad part is that more than likely, we will have to move. The chances of us moving out of Texas are pretty high too. Which most of us find pretty heartbreaking. </3

Right now we don't really know where we'll be moving or when. We are constantly reminded to trust in God’s provision for our family’s needs. Please be in prayer for us as we navigate this process and seek God’s direction for our family!

Blue Belt Test

~ Posted by Josiah

 

About a week ago, I took my 6^th gup blue belt test for Tae Kwon Do. This was my goal for 2014. So now, I am halfway to 1^st degree black. J

 

The first part of the test was kicks.

I’m on the right in this photo doing a kick.

 

There are 14 different kinds of kicks that I did. After that, we did blocks and stances. There are 4 stances and 12 blocks.

Doing a block.

 

Next we did forms. I know 5 forms. Their names were: Kebon-1, Chonji, Tan-Gun, Peon-1, and Won-Hyo. Then we went over our vocabulary, starting all the way back from Gold Belt.

 

Next came self-defense. We had to escape from a front-choke, wrist-grab, headlock, back-choke, bear hug, and full nelson. Then came one-steps. These included two basics and three advanced. Finally, we got to the sparring!!!!

 

Sparring “Biggy.” J

We sparred a lot of rounds. I even sparred two at once!

 

I enjoyed the test (well . . . kind of. It was a good one most of the time.) The tests usually end at about 10:45 p.m., but this one ended before 9:00 p.m. That gave my family and me time to go out for ice cream afterward! J

 

I love Tae-Kwon-Do, and am working hard for the next belt!

After the belt test with my blue belt!