Smoothing wrinkles from face of Christmas

All season, I kept calling the Living Christmas Tree production the “Singing Christmas Tree,” because that’s what they called it years ago in Sacramento. My kids kept correcting me. Living Christmas Tree. Living Christmas Tree.
I can’t get it right partly because in my mind a living Christmas tree is a potted Christmas tree -- as opposed to one that’s been hacked down.
I avoided the production in Sacramento because the flashing neon Budweiser lights and overly orchestrated modern music seemed tacky and overly sentimental. It wasn’t my thing.
My boys played in the orchestra this year, Richard on violin and Michael on trumpet. They rehearsed frequently and I had many occasions to misname the production and to stand corrected.
Art and I decided to attend the final production, the one with the violin/cello duet. We know the cello player and we know that Ricky Faflak is very good at what he does.
Now, I usually don’t get emotional from Living Christmas Tree type of music. I wasn’t expecting any deep spiritual epiphanies from the Living Christmas Tree. It’s just not the kind of production that would move me. Productions, in general, don't move me.
This time, however, the music was moving. Every so often there was a building crescendo that stirred me.
So I was transported to the miracle of the incarnation time and time again, and helped, rather than hindered, by the music.
But there was a problem. Two women sitting behind me decided that the Living Christmas Tree concert was the perfect place to hold a loud, running conversation. Every time I felt my spirits start to soar at the music, I’d catch another snippet of their conversation. It began to get extremely irritating.
I ignored their skin cream discussion as much as possible, but it returned every time the music began to move me.
I clenched my teeth.
At one point I thought I would turn around and stand up, and say to them, “I hope the concert isn’t interfering too much with your conversation. Would you like me to ask the director, Dave Eckert, to pause every once in a while so you can continue your discussion without all this loud, distracting music?”
But, of course, I didn’t.
Instead, I just seethed over their bad manners.
Here was a concert centered around the most important historical moment on earth: the coming of God in human flesh to redeem fallen mankind. And these women were only concerned about SKIN CREAM?
At that moment, either conscience or the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and whispered: Here is a concert centered around the most important historical moment on earth…and you are only concerned about the conversation of these women?
Ouch.

What are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for a Savior who stoops to lift up sinners, the holy rescuing the polluted. I'm thankful for second chances and second lives.
I'm thankful for the freedom to meet in safety with other believers, for being able to sing out loud each week without arrest. I'm thankful to hear the word preached in a faithful and original way each week, to meet with people who know and love Christ.
I'm grateful for a family whose members, generally, support each other. I'm thankful for a town that treasures its churches and hasn't yet banned the presence of Christ or Christians from its streets.
I'm thankful for the myriad little luxuries we are given: from running, hot water to portable phones; from microwave cooking to free libraries full of books; from antibiotics to recliner chairs.
I'm thankful that my husband can read Dilbert and the bridge column to balance out depressing news on the front page.
I'm thankful that a recent car accident was without injury and that God had mercy on a mother's shaking heart.
What are you thankful for? To share with others those things you are thankful for this year, CLICK HERE.

Empty cameras

This morning as I drove the kids to school, fog swirled around the car. I remember fog. In California, fog was a constant visitor in November. Here, we are lucky to have more than one or two days of fog.

In California, I usually came across fog when I drove up narrow, mountain roads behind a slow logging truck. You can't pass logging trucks because if you try, you are likely to meet a car coming down the mountain when you're halfway past the truck.

One time the fog was so thick, we accidently drove into a shopping center parking lot, thinking we were on a main highway.

Anyway, because fog is so rare here, I knew I had to go home, grab my camera and get some great shots of the trees and the dim, white sunrise, through the fog.

I walked along the Mog and took about 20 photos when I suddenly had a thought: Could I have left the camera's SD card at home? I dimly remembered taking it out of my camera and inserting it into my laptop.

That would mean that all the great fog photos I'd just taken were really not taken. I would be able to remember the neat images in my brain, but I'd have no permanent record. Lately, my brain forgets a lot more quickly than I wish it would.

As I gazed on a particularly picturesque scene of trees and lawn and fog and weird autumn light, the thought of an empty camera brought to mind the thought of soulless people, or rather, spiritless people.

People without the spirit of God in their lives observe all the blessings and bounty God reaches out to them. They see everything He lovingly sets before them, but they can't process it all. His goodness fades away before they can understand it and savor it.

At the Women in the Word retreat this month, the speaker mentioned how important it was to remember what God does for us. It's important for us and it's important for our children.

What good is it to have an SD card in my pocket if I don't use it in the camera? We may have the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, complete with gift after gift He infuses us with, but if we never tap into His power and life, we are likely to forget his benefits. We are almost like empty cameras.

I'm grateful for that little lesson at Women in the Word. It's important to remember that it's important to remember.

Turns out my SD card was in my camera and my photos came out just fine. Not sure about my other memory, but my camera memory is doing fine.

The light burden

Reading through 2 Chronicles, I came across this passage: I will grant them (Judah) some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak (King of Egypt).

Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

This was in the time of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. An earlier passage says that Rehoboam forsook the Lord and all the people with him. A leader kind of sets the tone for the country, so it isn't surprising that Israel began to drift. After all, Rehoboam's father, Solomon, had worshiped the gods of his many wives and already set the course of Israel on a downward path.

So here's Shishak, the mighty king of Egypt, coming against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. Looks pretty bleak.

Then God sends a prophet, Shemaiah. He has one message: You left God, now God's leaving you -- in the hands of Shishak.

Suddenly the people get it. They must have looked up, seen that all the walled cities of Israel between Egypt and Jerusalem had fallen, probably seen the smoke of burning villages and the dust of all those horses' hooves and understood that forsaking the Lord wasn't really the best lifestyle choice.

Second Chronicles says they humbled themselves. It is immediate. Right after the prophet's message, and it rarely seems to happen that way, but this time it did.

So God sends Shemaiah with a new message: They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance.

Some deliverance, but not complete deliverance. Shishak ends up taking all the gold stuff from the temple. The temple wasn't that old. Rehoboam's father had made it, so there was a shining moment of glory and then a steady deterioration.

Though God was pleased with Judah's and Rehoboam's ability to become humble, they still needed to learn something. They had to learn the difference between serving God and serving anything else. I guess it takes servitude to learn that lesson.

Shishak took all the gold, and Rehoboam replaced it with brass. He made replicas. It still looked pretty good. Not gold, but hey, who's gonna know? It still shines.

I feel like Rehoboam whenever I fake it. When my prayer life goes on the skids or I've fallen behind in my Bible reading or I've let my service to God become service to self. It's brass, not gold. Pretty soon it's aluminum, not brass. Before long it's something cheap and plastic and made in China.

That they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

My service. God's service. His service is light. His service is full of joy. Remember the joy of Solomon's first sacrifice in the temple? The singers and players? The priests decked out in their clean, neat, linen? You read about the new temple and the joy of serving God there.

Then you think of the Molech and Baal crowds and the absolutely disgusting practices of the countries around them. What degradation! To serve God in joy? Or to serve surrounding countries in all their horror? What a choice!

To know the difference He sometimes seems to let us fall into the service of other countries, other gods, if we're headed that direction. His burden is light. His burden is joy, life, creation, celebration. Why would we ever want anything else?
Donna M.

Prayer for surrender

Merla Freeman
Looking back at some notes I took on one of Pastor Joe’s sermons from Jan. last year, I came across these three points:


1. Connect with God-He is what matters most.

2. Connect with others-because it matters to our purpose.

3. Serve the world around us-because it matters to God.


Pastor took these points from Acts 2:42-47. This just happens to be one of my favorite places in scripture. It describes the early church, the church in its infancy. It speaks of what the “church” was intended to be. It is our role model for our church today. It excites me and encourages me to want to recommit to these three things. I pray that each person at NLF would really, really commit. Commit each of personally and intimately to Christ. To allow Him to lead us wherever it is that He may. To be humbled and submissive to Him. I know I have no control over others but I also know that God has control of our lives if we will let him. I know that He has a plan and a design and that His blueprint is a masterpiece.


My prayer for New Life Fellowship


Father God, I pray today that we would summit to You. Take complete control of our lives. Don’t allow us to get in the way or to mess things up. Don’t let us be too busy having “church” that we miss You in our presence. Use us Lord, we are your servants. Rid us of pride and judgment, give us eyes to see people from Your perspective, give us ears to hear the needs of those around us and give us the courage to step out in faith and follow You. In Acts 2:43 it says, “everyone was filled with awe” Father hear my prayer, fill NLF with awe. In the most precious name of Jesus, our Advocate. Amen

See you at the Park

A large crowd of Aberdeen kids met at Melgaard Park tonight to share and worship, play and eat and lift up Jesus in the community. New Life's youth band helped in the worship time. Kids testified afterward of what things happened at their various See-you-at-the-Pole activities that morning. Looked like a great witness to the Aberdeen area.

The POWER of LEMON

The POWER of LEMON

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus tells the story of a wise builder and a foolish builder. He tells in that story that rains and windstorms came and beat upon both houses being built.
We all recognize the story and we all remember how each time we have heard it, there seems to always be an emphasis on the houses; how one stands because the builder was wise and built on a solid foundation and how the other collapsed because its builder was foolish and built on shifting, unstable sand. But another important part of that story is the rain.

The rains come. In Jesus’ story they came on both the wise and the foolish alike. It is a reality that we sometimes forget, but rain -- or one might say, trouble and hardship, pain and suffering -- all come upon every life at some time or another. Job said (14:1) “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. Jesus said (John 16:33) “…in this life you will have trouble.”

That isn’t very comforting news today because everybody knows trouble is no fun. Pain and hardship are nothing to be messed with -- they often leave people ruined and only a shell of what they used to be.

In His great wisdom, God added to the creation a bright yellow fruit we know as the lemon. The lemon for many years now has been associated with things unpleasant. It has happened because the juice of the lemon, in its natural and unaltered state, is very sour and bitter. Bitter is the kind of taste that dealing with trouble and hardship leaves in our lives.

We don’t like hardship and trouble.

We go to tremendous lengths and burn up enormous volumes of energy to avoid trouble or to get out of trouble we find ourselves in.

Thirty-eight years ago this coming November, at the age of 14, I ran away from home: not because my life was in danger; not because I was neglected or abused; not even because I was a rebellious or troubled child. I ran away from home simply because I was facing troubles at school and I didn’t know how to deal with them.
“No big deal,” you say? Let me share the magnitude of my actions: I hitchhiked over 851 miles away from home and family, in just three days, simply because I was facing challenges that I was unable to figure out. That is an example of human nature when confronted by hardship at times. We don’t like turmoil in our lives.

We buy into the lie that a good life is only a life free from trouble.

Radio Bible Teacher, Chuck Swindoll, has been quoted as saying, “Life is only 10% what actually happens to me and 90% how I choose to respond or react to it.” That is true, and since it is it means we must learn to adjust our attitude about problems and trials.
If Jesus said trials would come then we must also remember that Jesus, in the very same breath (John 16:33) said we can “Fear not, for I have overcome the world.” Your life, my life, every life will know trouble and trial and hardship along the way- that’s a fact. But how we respond to that trouble is up to us.

Paul made a very important point in 2 Corinthians 2:14,15 when he said, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

The lemon as a fruit is bitter to the taste, but there are some powerful and wonderful qualities on the inside. The only catch is, in order for us to benefit from the lemon’s qualities the lemon has to endure some trouble and hardship. Here is the big picture: the more you mar and tear at the flesh of the lemon, the more you release its refreshing aroma into the atmosphere to be enjoyed by all -- a fragrance known to exemplify freshness and purity.
Hear in your spirit Paul’s words echoing down the corridor of history: “But thanks be to God, who always (even in what appears to be or feels like hardship and turmoil) leads us in triumphal procession (this life in him, no matter the strain, is a victory march) in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” Even in our worst moments, we are to God the aroma of Christ to this world.

We need not fear hardship. We best not shrink back from turmoil…how can we accept blessing from his hand and not tests at the same time? Attitude adjusted should result in, “But thanks be to God…”

With love and respect,
Pastor Joe

Kids! We need your works, too!

Have you colored a picture of a Bible story? Have you written a rhyme about heaven? Did you paint a picture of church that your parents could scan and send in? Here at the New Life Writer's Blog, we can display those creative things you do so that others can see them and praise God through what you do.
Just send your short stories, poems, photos and drawings to donna.marmorstein@gmail.com

Morning Prayer

Most High God, You are the Everlasting God, You will not fade and you won’t grow weary. You are my Deliverer. You are my Substance. You are Truth. You are my Creator. You are beautiful. You are worthy of all my praise. Great God be glorified. You are all knowing and yet your mercy rains down from on high. There is none like you. I will rejoice in my salvation today. I will find joy in it.

It’s a new day, a new beginning. God you have once again revealed yourself to me. When I stray you wait, and all the while you gently pursue me. I am full of love for you this morning. I want to spent each and every day delighting in your goodness. I want to know everything about you. I want to truly enjoy you.
Life is meaningless without you. You hold the key to success. So many times you have rescued me from myself. You are my Rock, my Fortress and my Stronghold. When life spins and I try to hold on, I can’t. Then, when I cry out to you, life is put back in perspective. It keeps spinning, but you insure my safety. I know I can trust you. All I need is you. You created me and you know exactly what I need.
Today Father, I pray that I would have opportunity to witness for you, to speak of your goodness, to praise your name. Give me courage. Remind me that your Spirit lives inside of me and that the words are yours, may they honor you.

Paul the apostle explained it this way, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God's power.” As the opportunities unfold, may I speak from a position of love, and may the love that the Holy Spirit has given me be obvious to all who hear me. Prepare me, Lord.
In the precious powerful name of Jesus, hear my prayer. Amen

Merla Freeman

Quote of the Week

I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.
- A. W. Tozer
1897 - 1963

In the shadow of Your wings
I rest and find protection
Your glory is there

Songs of praise fill the air
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
The whole earth is full of Your glory

Seraphs flying above the throne
Feathers loose and falling down
Covering me like I've never known

Stay here my child
Rest with Me
In the shadow of my wings.

- Robin Moslander

Creation and Destruction

Our God is creative. The first thing He did was to create. He gave us colors, sounds, textures, flavors and creative minds, and He expects us to enjoy His creation.

He gave us the desire to create also. Put a blank paper in front of a child and it won't be blank for long.

The enemy destroys both what God makes and what we try to make. He comes only to kill, steal and destroy. And though there's a time to build up, and a time to break down, according to Ecclesiastes, we need to be careful not to take too much pleasure in breaking down.

A time to build up, to create, to delight in God through re-arranging in imaginative and insightful ways the materials He's given us.

This blog is a way to do some of that. Please share those creative works, creative ideas and impulses and creative ventures with us here on this page.

Wanted: Creative Works

The New Life Writers blog needs creative works from the New Life community. Do you shoot photos expressing the wonder of God's creation? Do you write poetry celebrating the works of God or exploring life in Christ? Do you create digital graphics that sing to the Lord? Can you compose a photo slideshow, a devotional, a short creative work? The New Life Writers blog can use your gifts. Please send submissions to donna.marmorstein@gmail.com

New Life Slide Show

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New Life Writers Blog

Welcome to the New Life Writers blog, a place to explore, in words, photos and graphics, the many facets of the God of all Creation, Jesus Christ.