April 2, 2013

WHOA-- this has been my most remarkable Easter Week that I have ever experienced! My best friends of many years prepared a Seder Meal for my family Monday night. This was amazing and it set the tone and significance for the week like never before. Then, the Easter Service with my entire family was so special. The perfect ending of the week was spent as a family watching the last night of the Bible Series which was just incredible. Truly I did not waste one moment of this special week remembering Jesus!

All of this led me to this scripture: “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven-and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all-life healed and whole.” 1 Peter 1:3-5

It came alive to me after the Easter week. First, Jesus died the most gruesome death for us. From the 40 beatings to His thorn pierced brow-- all of which caused unbearable pain more than anyone could experience without death. But then it was His death, nailed pierced hands and His nailed pierced feet--the ransom-- the ultimate price He paid for all of us! BUT GOD! The most loving, good God had Jesus raised from the grave to defeat death finally! Now we all have the opportunity to have a new life and a new beginning in Him. We now have the hope that one day we, too, will have healing and wholeness when we get to heaven with Him!

My challenge this week is to reconnect with Jesus in a deeper place with Him. Let's not wait until another Holiday to celebrate what Jesus means to us. Let us wipe away our tears, increase our faith to defeat our fears, and share hope to all of the hurting that Jesus is alive and one day He will return. Then, we all will be healed and whole in Him in heaven! Believe this, embrace it within your heart, and share it with all the people you know!

Make it a WHOA week! I love you.

-Laine

March 25, 2013

WHOA what an incredible last few weeks for all of us! I was praying to God telling Him how I was so sorry for not being all that I can be through Him and He gave me such a sweet response. I was beating myself up for not being in His presence and His word enough recently; I was seriously overwhelmed with feelings of such unworthiness. My heart was aching and I just cried asking the Lord to forgive me and needing Him to know I really was trying to be more like Him. God came to my rescue! The scripture below was His sweet response for me and for all of us!

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." -Ephesians 1:3-5

Are there any WHOAwomen out there today that feel unworthy? Or are there any of you that feel like you are not at your best? I can really understand. This scripture just really spoke to my heart. What resonated first was that God sees no fault in us! WHOA! The enemy tries his best to make us feel shame and unworthy but the word says right here that, “He chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” Right there, I said, “Thank YOU God for loving us so much that you don't even see our faults!”

My challenge this week is for all of us to know that God is not sitting there counting all of our faults! Let's not beat ourselves up but let us press on to be the women God created us to be - His daughters whom He loves so much!

Make it a WHOA week! I love you.

-Laine