Love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him, for the Lord is your life! Deut. 30:20


Saturday, March 7, 2009

Wrapped in His Love


On Saturday I attended the women's conference at our church titled "Wrapped in His love". Wow. Dee Brestin, a well-known author and speaker was our speaker. You have got to get the CD's of this! She is a very humorous speaker and yet she can bring tears the next moment. I fell in love with Jesus all over again!

Dee Brestin said she was talking with Janelle Paden about why some children leave the faith when they go off to college. Janelle's answer was "Their hearts have not been captured by God." We need to pray that God captures our children's hearts. That they will be enthralled with Him! And this was really her topic too - that it is God's desire to capture our hearts. He loves us, as a Bridegroom loves his bride. And He desires us to love Him!

I loved Dee's many movie clips that she provided. The first one was from the movie "Miss Potter" where Beatrix Potter's suitor teaches her to dance. Dee went on to say that God is the Lord of the dance. The Bible is not a book of advice and rules. No! It is a book of love. He desires to love us and to have us love Him back. "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you" Is. 62:5 He wants to teach us to dance. Put your hand in His and let Him lead.

Another clip I especially appreciated was from "Fiddler on the Roof".



At our church Valentine Banquet one year, Allen and I did this very scene. I'm afraid we were laughed at. At any rate, God isn't interested in people who follow rules. What He wants is people who love Him. The Pharisees and scribes kept the rules but they didn't love Him like they should. They defined sin as those who broke the rules. But He asks "Do you love me?" Do we answer "For 25 years I've gone to church, sung in the choir, served on committees..." We can't earn His love! Do we love Him or do we just want His blessings? Serving Him comes out of our love for Him, our intimacy with Him.

In Biblical times, young women were given alabaster jars with perfume that would be used as a dowry, to be given to her intended. In fact, they would be worth about a years' wage. Mary gave her most precious thing to Jesus. She abandoned herself to her Bridegroom. He is our Bridegroom. Are we willing to abandon all to Jesus? To let Him love us? We ended the conference pouring out our "alabaster jars" of oil as a picture of our love to Him.


Here is a picture of Dee with me. What a privilege to meet her. She also has a precious adopted daughter from Seoul, Korea so we had something in common.

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Sunday afternoon while Jill and Adam had a double-date with the Buhlers to go see "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", we watched the girls. We had a good rain on Saturday night so the construction site next door was a great place for Hannah to play in the mud! She had a blast!


We had to wash off at the outdoor faucet before going inside! We threw the clothes in the washing machine and threw the girls in the tub.


As you can see, we are "fun" grandparents. At least we try to be. Hannah calls me her "spoiling Nana". I didn't really know my grandparents at all having grown up an ocean away and only coming to America once every 5 years. Infact, when we were coming to America when I was seven, my mom was telling me that we would be seeing my grandparents. I asked her "What is a grandparent?" I remember the shock of her telling me that she had parents. I had no idea! I am so grateful that in this day and age we are able to have blogs, e-mails, skype and fast wheels to keep in touch with our granddaughter, Emeri in Arkansas!

4 comments:

Utecht Family said...

What is Sophie doing in that picture? It looks like she's got her face in the rocks, no doubt eating them!

Amanda said...

Wow, playing in the mud...now that's fun grandparents! I see you figured out the Youtube stuff...way to go!

Anonymous said...

I ryou and Allen doing the "Fiddler" bit at the banquet... That was the same year that the Beverlins spoke, I believe. Powerful testimony. I believe it was also the year that you made our nametags and typed "Christ" instead of "Chris". The man is *still* on an ego trip...
:)
Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

no idea where the rest of the word "remember" went on that previous comment.
duh.
;)