I keep hearing this “God is Love”, especially when it comes to um, how to put this, either sin of any kind, non-christians to christians, etc. And by Etc., I mean anyone who doesn’t understand the fullness of God.

Here is the link to the full size one READ IT! [if you click on picture it should pop up full size]

Tim Challies has a bunch of these Visual Theology Posters/Prints, I recommend looking at all of them. Store front here

so back to God is Love. Yes, God is Love, BUT He is and has other attributes or characteristics. God is all of his attributes, all of the time, from the beginning to the end of time. He cannot separate Himself from any of those attributes, therefore WE should NOT separate any of those attributes from Him.

When we place so much emphasis on the character[s] of God that we like or that are comfy, mushy, soft and fluffy and not include the hard to understand and comprehend character aspects, we make our God small. and comfy. and genie in a bottle-like, easy to digest and we mock Him.

We throw out ‘God is Love’ when we want someone to love us or not judge us. We want the love of God but not the wrath or justice of God or even the holiness of God and especially not omnipresence, that would mean He can know us, our hearts, our thoughts, our mind.

He does know us, our hearts, minds and souls, that is why we are called to Love Him with all our hearts, minds and souls and strength.

To seek after Him and glorify ALL of Him to the nations.

Without wrath, there would be no love, without love there would be no justice, without justice there would be no need for mercy and so on and so on. please look at the picture and pray and ask the Lord how you can come to know all His attributes and proclaim all of them to the world. Or even just your family and neighbors

Please don’t miss out on all God has done for you and will do for you through His Holy Spirit, my beloved.

Working on dreads again.

Those are fake extensions with green, love them! they are on a ponytail and can take them out]

This is the most amazing thing a bible study nerd has ever seen. Haven’t been able to post it because I sent to a guy in seminary and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

took a ride on this little beauty…miss the good weather CANNOT wait for summer!

Doedee went to go live with her boy, it’s so nice to not have a kitty litter box

my monkey Lydia and Sammy love each other and wrestle, wrestle, wrestle then collapse and nap, only to get up and do it all again

I have every single one of these. I keep getting sick, go on antibiotics, feel good for about 4-5 days then BAM, feel like crap again.

~~~~

As I read this from this list, I see most of the ‘tweeters’ are young. Young and dumb.

Devastatingly dumb.  Ignorant and selfish and sin-filled.

Little do they know how their hearts and minds will change when they finally have children [and I must say, most of them probably shouldn't]

How they will come to the end of themselves to love that little bundle of blessing bestowed on them.

How everything they thought, said and did in their youth will change, will disappear, will be challenged.

How life becomes so much more.

How they will never ever remember a day without their child and will never want to remember a child-less day.

Lord, how I pray each and every one of the ‘tweeters’ have children and love them unconditionally, eternally and wisely.

My birthday was last week, my son’s  is  Friday, he is 19. How I love and cherish that boy. How I miss our times together, our crazy and silly conversations throughout the day/week.

I’m proud of him and want nothing but a good/happy future for him. But more than that, I want him to come back to his Lord.

We were all out to dinner tonight with big brother and gf and son and James and hubby and I talking about all the crazy stuff the boys did when they were little.

I really do not want to remember the days before Jesse!

I’ve had the dreaded bronchitis for 2 weeks now. Boy moved out, office is looking like a real office, business is good. Liking my hours and my clients very much. Jonesing to get on the motorcycle, I smell spring in the air, maybe its just the freshly cut grass my hubby just did…

Been wavering in and out of the scriptures, choosing to listen to my bible CD’s in the car. I really need to get back into a bible study. Been skipping church when the guys were out-of-town. I guess we all go thru times of losing faith in fellow-man and man-made rules, but I never lose faith in my creator. I know He is there, watching me, holding the hood of sweatshirt, so I don’t fly away.

I quit doing a few secretarial things at church, my heart just wasn’t in it and I am hoping someone younger, more tech savvy and energized to do it will take over.

I still really wish we didn’t have to go thru trials in life, but it makes us stronger, or weaker, depending on His strength all the more.

I thought that having the kid move out would make things settle down a bit and in a way they have. I’m not so stressed out about him all the time, but God has decided to throw a couple little curve balls at me, possibly to divert my attention elsewhere.

Hubby went to doctor, but thankfully he was ok. I’m glad he finally went and I guess it just takes a little scare to get your act together.

I had to find a new doc and she has been hounding me to get off my estrogen because of breast cancer risks. Quite frankly it scares the crap outta me, I don’t want to have no energy, have sweats and have my bones get weak.

I’m not quite sure how to figure this one, but she was in the process of a breast check at my physical the other day and found a lump.

Part of me wants to believe she is just trying to scare me to get off the HRT and part of me knows it’s a real threat and possibility.

So off I go to have a diagnostic mammogram on my birthday of all days. Yeah for me.

I not worried about it, yet. And I have talked to hubby about what I want to happen at any and all outcomes.

We never really know what we sign up for when we say our “I-do’s” do we?

We never truly understand the sickness and in health…. or in wealth or poorness.

That man has had to put up with so much stuff from me. Don’t know how he does it and still tells me he loves me.

At baptisms  in our church, we baptize infants, and we as a congregation stand and pledge to help the parents to ‘raise’ the child in the church, in the ways of the Lord.

We do a terrible job at keeping that promise.

Oh, when they are cute and little and running around snotty nosed and ruddy cheeked we help care for them.

We help hold them, feed them, school them and feed them the gospel message. We may pray for them, ask them how they are doing in school and even get to mentor them.

Then something weird happens when they turn into a teenager. Mostly I think it’s the adults fault, we don’t know how to talk to them, they aren’t very receptive and they sometimes smell.

Then the late teens hit and they become sullen, distant, maybe get into stuff we as adults don’t know how to help with [from homework...to drugs] they have their own weird language and their own phones. Their own opinions sprout up and they are not the good little kids we used to know.

Many of us adults forget how it was when we were teens. I know I have come to remember few selective things about my youth. I seem to remember I was a pretty obedient kid, But ask my mom and you’d think she raised a different kid. Go figure.

We, as a church, have had several of our youth fall away as they grow up. I don’t really think other churches are too different from us, so I’m not just pointing fingers at us.

A couple fell into drugs, quite a few fall into promiscuity/adultery/fornication, and 3 into homosexuality. Where have the grown-ups been during all this?

Well, in our case, I really have no idea.

A hand full of close friends ask about our son at church and promise to pray for him and us. Many ask at random how he is doing. One lady send him a card a year ago and one of my friends wrote him a note telling him how she failed him at her promise to help raise him up.

No one else has called him or us, not one man has jumped in to be a mentor [the pastor has tried to help, but that's another post for another time]

What the boy needs is people who can stand up for the truth and talk to him. Are they going to get a warm reception from the  kid? Well, he won’t be rude to them, and he may not agree with them, but DAMN IT, no one has even tried.

I am NOT saying it’s the churches responsibility to raise the children

I am NOT saying our church is any different from any other

I am saying we suck at taking care of our own. No wonder the world looks at us like we are hypocrites. We are.