Sisters in Christ.

This past week I have been thinking about friends. Especially our girlfriends. I truly believe that our sisters in Christ will help us in our daily walk. We will experience sorrow, pain, joy, and laughter,but with Christian friends and God on our sides there will be no reason in the world to worry about today, tomorrow, or the feature. Keep your friends close.

-Linzee

Sister's (of the Kingdom)

Our friendships build a fortress;

a haven for our souls...

we share our trials and triumphs,

our hopes, our dreams, our goals.

We are "sisters" for the Kingdom

blessed with God’s eternal light...

determined to walk straighter,

loving Him, with all our might.

We serve Him with conviction,

striving hard to be our best...

as we rise to every challenge,

we welcome every test.

We are women of tomorrow

we are "sisters" of today...

we stand in faith together

knowing "God will make a way".

-unknown

DORCAS

The featured lady that I want to talk about is the lovely and caring Dorcas. Dorcas lived in the city of Joppa around the Mediterranean coast. "Being a seacoast city, Joppa saw numerous husbands and fathers depart into dangers of perilous waters. Many men never returned from the sea, and they left behind bereaved and destitute widows and orphans." (woman's study Bible) It is very likely that Dorcas came into contact with these certain women and children. In Acts 9:36 it says that "This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did." And because of these good works, many people were very well acquainted with Dorcas, and knew what an honorable woman she was. But around the time that the disciples and Peter were in the region, Dorcas died. Dorcas' "grieving friends prepared her body for burial, then sent two men to the nearby city of Lydda to fetch the apostle Peter." When Peter came to the house that Dorcas' body was being prepared, her loved ones cried to Peter and showed him the tunics and garments that Dorcas made them while she was still living. Peter then ordered everyone to leave the room and then raised Dorcas from the dead. "Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows he presented her alive"(Acts 9:41). So what can we learn from Ms. Dorcas? Well, I think that one very important lesson we can learn from her is the importance of doing good works. Having faith in the Lord God is very important. But doing good works for the Lord is another way of showing God our love and devotion for him. In James 1:22 it says "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only." I recently helped out with Florence Blvd. Church of Christ's vacation bible school. And one of the many classic song we sung was "This little light of mine." And a small part of that song says, "This little, light of mine I'm going to let it shine, let it shine all the time, let it shine." As Christians, we should not only let our light shine through our faith, attitudes, prayer, and thanksgiving, but also by our actions and good works towards others. In. James 1: 27 it says "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." Ms. Dorcas obviously did just that. Her charitable, selfless deeds not only helped those who were in need, but more importantly glorified God to the highest. In Proverbs 31:20 describes a virtuous woman as "stretching out her hand to the poor and reachers out her hand to the needy." All in all we can shine our Christian "lights" out to the world by our charitable deeds and good works. Let your light shine.



http://youtu.be/CVeB7ACVgO0



-Linzee-

THE WIDOW WITH TWO MITES!!

We can take an incredible lesson from the woman who gave two mites. In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus and His disciples "sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury." As Jesus was watching He noticed the rich putting much into the treasury. But then, this poor widow woman went to give her treasury contribution and put in only two mites. When Jesus saw this woman and the contribution that she made, "He called the disciples to Himself and saying to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."" When growing up I always heard the story of this poor widow when discussing how one's attitude should be when giving back to the church. Certainly, we should have a very selfless attitude when contributing back to the church. God has given us so much,(James 1:17) it is very important that we show thanks and gratitude when the collection plate is passed around on Sunday morning. But what other lessons can we learn from this special woman?!? Well, I think that we can apply this to our spiritual life in general. I discussed earlier in a post about never looking back to our old life of sin when we become Christians. Well, not only should we not look back, but we should give the Christian life all that we have within us. All of our time and effort should be spent glorifying God and His Son. We should be giving God and Jesus everything that we have. Whether it be our time, money, family,or our friends, we should give our ALL in doing what God wants us to do. After all, He did such an amazing thing for all of us. Also, consider the amount of faith this great woman had to have had to put in her whole livelihood and know that God was going to provide everything that she was going to need. That takes tremendous faith. This woman's love of God was great. Let's show God that He is great and loved by giving Him our ALL.

This story is also found in Luke 21:1-4

-Linzee