in the midst...

in the midst of everything that happens in our lives, we can so easily lose sight of what is truly important. what has eternal value.

the mercies of the Lord are new EVERY morning. ( Lamentations 3)

the love of God is unfailing. (throughout the Word!)

God delights in His children and rejoices over us with songs. ( Zephaniah 3)

When we encounter trials, we will not be overtaken by them. ( Isaiah 43 )

We can approach the throne of God with confidence through the blood of Jesus Christ. ( Hebrews )

these are just a few of the precious promises that are TRUE.

Big Changes !

The past few months have brought about some pretty big changes in our home and in our family life. Months of prayer went into the changes we have made. I think i should start at the "beginning" if there is one :)

We have 4 children. This is no surprise. Our oldest is twelve, and is getting ready to move-up in the church youth system. This caused us to start to really examine youth groups, as we know them. Some pretty interesting things started popping up for us. 

For my husband, it started last summer at some point. He was convicted about not having a time of family worship. A time set aside daily, where we as a family could gather around God's Word and learn. He began doing this with our children in the summer, and I joined in later. He was inspired by the Drapper family in England. Theirs is a pretty neat story. 

It all started for me on October 31st. I listened to Family Life Today, which i rarely do! I was driving to my kids' school to drop something off, when the program came on. You can find it HERE. It is titled "Why Our Kids are Leaving the Faith". This got my attention. The numbers they shared were staggering to me. This prompted me to do more research, and it became clear that the percentage of kids leaving the church during the college years were astonishing... up to 80%! And they are saying now that these kids have "checked-out" as early as the junior high years in the church youth group. 

I believe it was around February that we watched a documentary called  Divided: The Movie. Find the link HERE...you simply have to sign up for a newsletter (which i have not received one yet) to watch it for free. Watching this gave us much to think about. Much. We talked about it and prayed about it. We searched the Scriptures. Finally, we came to a similar conclusion: we could find no basis in the Bible for dividing out the ages as much as we do in the church. Yes, this is how it has been done since early in the 20th century, but why?  With the stakes so high (our own children hitting these ages), we knew we had to do something. 

Growing in both my husband and i was a sense of wanting our children with us in worship service. We desired to worship with ALL the generations together, and not be so separated out. A verse that God has spoken to us clearly is this:

Thus says the Lord:

“Stand in the ways and see,

And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,

And walk in it;

Then you will find rest for your souls.

Jeremiah 6:16a

 Also, we began sensing that a smaller church might be a better fit for us as a family. This was not about style, etc. This was about a desire that God placed in our hearts to worship corporately with all ages and stages of life, via the singing of praises to our great God and the preaching of His most excellent, sufficient Word. 

In March, we began acting on what God had placed in our hearts...We began looking for a new local church to join ourselves to. We deeply desired to belong to a family-integrated church....and God blessed us. We believe that God has called us to join in His work at Grace Community Bible Church. It is a family-integrated church. This church stands firm, preaching the Word expositionally. Our children are enjoying it, and are jazzed to go each Sunday morning and Thursday evening. 

We are thankful for the years that God gave us at our former church. When we first walked through the doors there, we were needing to rest. It was a beautiful place to heal, connect, grow, and serve. We are grateful. 

We are also very excited for this next part of our journey. Grace Community is a newer church, just 3 years old. It is an exciting time to be a part of the story God is weaving together there. 

For His Great Name and Glory,

Jeanette

Fridays with Frances

I am always challenged and encouraged, uplifted and awakened from apathy, when i read the writings of Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879). She is best known for her beautiful hymn Take My Life And Let it Be. She wrote many poems, hymns, letters, and books. I would like to post her writings on Fridays here at Never Forsaken. What follows today is from a book that is a compilation and abbreviation of some of her writings, called Opened Treasures...Enjoy her thoughts on the beautiful Word of God!

Make It Personal

And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth.       Exodus 34:6 

Every part of God's Word is a revelation, more of less clear, of Himself. When we do not see this, it is only that we miss it, no that it is not there. Do we not know how very possible it is to read the historical parts merely as history, and the prophetical merely as prophecy, and the doctrinal merely as doctrine, and miss the vision of God which everywhere shines through the glass darkly, if only His good Spirit opens our eyes to see it! And even when we do trace out God Himself in His recorded works and ways, how often we miss the personal comfort of remembering our own close and personal interest in what we see of His character and attributes. I questions if there is a single chapter, from the first of Genesis to the twenty-second of Revelation, which will not reflect the light of this beautiful little lamp. Whether your gaze is turned upon a promise which reveals Him as the loving One or a warning which reveals Him as the loving One, or a warning which reveals Him as the Just and Holy One; whether you read a history which shows His grand grasp in ordering the centuries, or a verse which shows His delicate touch upon the turn of  a moment--as you admire say, "This God is our God." When you read, "Great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend," and the splendid variety of His Book gives a glimpse of His power and glory in upholding the things which are seen, from the hosts of million-aged stars to the fleeting flakes of the "treasures of the snow," say, "This God is our God."

Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,

Who shall not fear Thee, and who shall not laud?

Anthems of glory Thy universe raises, 

Holy and Infinite! Father and God!