Mar

5

Top 100 Christian Women’s Blogs

By Carrie | Leave a Comment


Christian Women Blogs
I just received the following email from Internet Cafe Devotions:

Congratulations!

Every year Internet Café Devotions hosts Blessed Aroma, a call out to blog readers to nominate their favorite blogs, in specific categories, written by Christian Women. Those with the most nominations are compiled into a list that gives us the TOP 100 Christian Women’s blogs each year.

Your blog was chosen this year in the category of: “Gathered Together”. We hope this blesses you as much as you have blessed others!

You can view the list here: Top 100 Christian Women’s Blogs

Thanks so much to the wonderful ladies who write here and congrats!

Feb

28

Comment Oops

By Carrie | Comments Off


I am getting alot of spam and I think I just accidently deleted a bunch of legitimate comments.

If you posted a comment recently and it has disappeared, I apologize.

Nov

27

Being Thankful

By Carrie | 1 Comment



Well, today is Thanksgiving and the start of the downhill slide towards the hectic holiday season. The end of the year always feels like it is on fast-forward and before you know it we will be celebrating a New Year and wondering where 2008 went.

But despite the hecticness, today is a day to remember all the things we are thankful for, and as children of God there is much to be grateful about. No matter what our personal circumstances are this season, we serve a mighty God who has saved us from the wrath to come through the sacrifice of his Son. We did nothing to deserve this great act of mercy and yet here we stand in the righteousness of Christ.

And despite my concerns over the future of this country, those of us in the United States have it pretty good. Across the world there are Christians being persecuted for their faith. I am thankful for all the blessings that God has given me and the freedom I enjoy in this great country.

There is much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving to come for those of us in Christ!

I leave you with a few verses.

Psalm 118:1
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Philippians 4:6
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Psalm 100:4
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18
“give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Nov

6

A Sad Day for My Country

By Carrie | 15 Comments


Yesterday was a sad day. I didn’t stay up on Tuesday evening to see the results of the election but I knew when I went to bed that things didn’t look promising. When I awoke in the morning and turned on the radio my fears were confirmed. Barak Obama had won the election.

Over the last few weeks my husband had talked to our six-year daughter about the candidates, who we stood for and why. When I told her on Tuesday that everyone was voting she said she hoped John McCain would win. I told her that may not happen but she told me not to worry, God would let the “good man” win.

Unfortunately that isn’t true. I explained to my daughter than Israel had many bad kings and that sometimes God gives us bad leaders to teach us or to judge us. In way though she is right. Our sovereign God does choose our leaders and we can still rest in his choice even when we suspect the outcome won’t be easy for us.

But this is still a sad time for me because our nation has chosen a leader who does not support Godly values. A man who fully supports partial-birth abortion is a candidate that no Christian should be comfortable with. I can only expect that with a liberal President and a liberal Congress our nation will slide further into ungodly practices and incur God’s judgment. That is not a place I want to be.

I am also scaried as a parent. If our nation lurches more and more toward darkness I will have to fight harder and harder to keep my children in the light. As things like “alternative lifestyles” become more acceptable I have to worry that my kids will see things at our local mall that I don’t care to explain to them at a young age. Sheltering my children from ungodly practices may become impossible.

But despite my sadness and fears, I know that God “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). The darkness around us may grow but it will never overcome the light.

But I do hope this time will be a wake-up call for Christians. I think too many Christians today have become too comfortable with the world and it is time for us to set ourselves apart and be different. As children of God we are a holy nation – let’s start living that way and show the darkness what is light.

Oct

18

Face Time with God

By Carrie | 2 Comments


I was reading 1 Corinthians last night and was struck by the following verses:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” 1 Cor 15:3-5

Remember Peter? As one of Jesus’ disciples, he had listened to Jesus’ teachings and saw him perform many miracles. Peter had walked on water, witnessed the Transfiguration, and claimed he would follow Jesus to death. Yet when Jesus was captured and put on trial, Peter vehemently denied his relationship with him three times just as the Lord had predicted.

“Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 20:60-62

From there the Lord was crucified and Peter was left to his own thoughts. I can’t even imagine what Peter must have felt for those days following the crucifixion. At this point he looks like a complete failure. When the “going got tough”, Peter folded.

But look at what happened according to 1 Corinthians. The Lord appeared to Peter alone before appearing to the rest. We know that all of the disciples had scattered like sheep during Jesus’ capture, but it was Peter who openly denied the Lord and was confronted with his own failure by the rooster’s crow (and Jesus’ gaze). If anyone needed face-time with the Risen Lord, it surely was Peter. And that is what he got.

We don’t know what the Jesus said to Peter when he appeared to him, but we know that Peter went from cowardly denier to bold proclaimer. In the second chapter of Acts it is Peter that addresses the crowd with the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion and converts 3000 to “the way”. Peter’s failure was no obstacle to God.

And so it is for us. We have a Savior who is willing to meet with us personally, even when we have failed him. He can lift us back up and continue to use us despite our failures. How lucky we are to serve such a loving and merciful Lord!

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