Grace

Tidbit:

Part 1 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that EVERY intent of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY. (Gen. 6:5)

Part 2 - But Noah found FAVOR in the eyes of the Lord. (Gen. 6:8)

Part 3 - Noah was a RIGHTEOUS man, BLAMELESS in his time; Noah WALKED with God. (Gen. 6:9)

Notice the progression - first, the whole earth is completely and utterly evil. Then Noah finds favor with God. Then Noah is recorded to be a righteous man.

If the order went like this: Evil world, Righteous Noah, Noah finds favor with God - that would make sense to us because we'd say, well, of course Noah found favor, he was righteous.

But that's not the order. The order is (once again): Evil world. Finding favor. Being righteous.

The word favor means grace. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God chose to graciously continue life on earth through Noah. God's choice and then Noah is righteous. Even though the sacrifice of Jesus would not occur for another 5,000 years, God applied that future sacrifice to Noah's account, showed him grace and made him righteous.

This is the story of all believers. This is the order of all of our salvations.

ONLY EVIL

GOD GRACIOUS

US RIGHTEOUS

Get it? Got it? Good...gotta run...

A Handful of Pictures...

Hi, friends! Just thought I'd throw up some new pictures from the past few weeks. The girls have been in Florida for the last week and they come home today - oh...my...goodness, were they missed! So...enjoy!

This was from Easter Day - three sets of twins...all related in one way or another...

And of course, their favorite pastime...napping...

...and more napping...

This was during Carolyn's shower we had here at the house - the twins were dressed the same as grandma! I told everyone that they called me and were like, "What are you wearing, Grandma?" It's almost like camouflage - can you see the baby I'm holding?

This is my daughter, Alex's, handiwork...

More sleeping...

And I just love this picture...so precious and pink!

Why is May so busy?

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven-- A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up..." Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

The chapter continues on listing out the various events of life, implying that at the appointed time, certain things occur or are accomplished. Apparently, the month of May is not the appointed time for me to blog! Between wrapping up Bible study, the continued plowing through of material for next year's study and the finishing up of the church building project, please forgive me if my blog rests for a bit.

Don't worry, I'll be back - I just need to get this off my plate for the time being, so that I can effectively use my time to do what I believe God has called me to do with excellence for His glory!

That being said, I doubt I'll be completely dormant - you will find some verses here, as well as pictures of my granddaughters...these things don't take the effort that blogging does.

I love you all - stay in the Word and continue to set your mind on the things above...

Fun at Grandma's House

Yesterday I got to play with the girls here at the house. Norah has a great tee shirt on - apparently Ashley had a shirt that mentioned her affection for Grandpa but had a minor explosion that sent the outfit to the laundry before Grandpa could see it...such is life!

Here is Ashley playing on the play mat. Sorry my phone focussed on the bar, but you can still see her precious face. The girls are amazing on the play mat. They will lay and play for...well, once they played for 90 minutes without fussing one bit! 90 minutes! It was incredible! Mary told me that she thinks because they don't feel like they are alone, they don't fuss during playtime...I think she's on to something...

And finally, Grandma Lori asked that I take this one at church. I think it was to show how cute the grandfathers are, parading around their prize possessions, but I want to show who hogs the most time with the girls...yep, caught red-handed! Look at that expression of sheer delight on Dave's babies' face. And Randy has a mini-thinker in his arms - I'd love to tell you who they are holding but I can't see which had her bracelet on which wrist...yes, I am still struggling to tell them apart....oh, well!