April 17, 2011

Yesterday was a really full day.  Starting here at home with a bit of cleaning and also at Grandpa Glenn's house,  I actually rested for a while, got up and Jerry had come to get thigns out of the hosue, so I went with him over there and then on to Devils Lake to help 4-H'er make sweets on a stick.  I got some more containers and came back to grandpa's house and started in helping Jerry and Jack.  Wayne Haugland was there working on the windows, It is about ready for them to move in.  I was really tired last night when I came home, but thankfully I could sleep.  I like what Joni says because as I was getting ready, God reminded me of the people we had shared that home with and I think that Grandma would be pleased, she had such a heart for missions and never able to have the freedom to share like she would have liked to and now we can share her home with others.  Dan and Vicki are very very grateful for a place to be.....

The Beauty of Grace


But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."

- Ephesians 4:7

Grace is what beauty looks like when it moves. God's grace is what He

looks like when He moves, acting out His will through us.

Those on whom God's grace rests are truly... gracious. They are truly beautiful.
 The cerebral-palsied young man who smiles despite a dreary existence in a nursing
home. The elderly woman who always seems to think of others rather than her aches
and pains. The mother of two toddlers who is happy to baby-sit a neighbor's little
boy. The pastor and his wife who take in a homeless couple for a week while they
 look for lodging. These people shine with a hint of glory.  They shine because
of God's grace.

Grace is God's energy, all bright, beautiful, and full of power. And grace is most
beautiful when God is moving through us to touch the lives of others who hurt.

Grace binds you with far stronger cords

than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you.

Grace is free, but when once you take it,

you are bound forever to the Giver and bound to

catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like.

Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give. *[1]

E. Stanley Jones

Do you desire to be gracious? Christ apportions grace. First, a small measure in
 accordance with your faith, which may be small. But then, like morning sun dawning,
your faith grows and grace fills you with its full and excellent brightness.

God of grace, I long to be beautiful in You, I long to be gracious to others. May
Your beauty shine through me today as I move in Your will.