Sunday Reflections (1) -

Sunday Reflections by Jean Marie

From time spent dwelling upon the Lord we adore.

This has been a thought of mine countless Sundays ... and then sometime last year, I made the button image, and I kept thinking that I would do it, not telling anyone I might ....

and then Lauren beat me to it. ;) Great minds flow with some great thoughts. :)

So I guess we will be doing this together! You can see her Sunday posts here, at: A Corner Pillar.com

This has really been on my heart to do Sunday posts for at least a year now. I can't even tell you how many Sundays I have sat in church thinking .... "I have to write this down.". That's why I have numerous filled notebooks with sermon notes. Pages and pages. God has been so good. You may not know this, but I have attended the same church for 23 years. :) We have been blessed with a wonderful pastor who preaches the gospel and God's Word, and God's Word as Truth alone. Oh, and for the record, he is my best childhood friend's dad. ;)

I have sermon notes from 2002 somewhere on paper. I have sermon notes from 2006 in my latest journal that I just filled up. There are notes from Colorado church and Ohio church and Sovereign Grace church and Missouri church. :) Seminars and guest pastors and the summer when Kimberly and I drove over to St. Andrews Chapel in Sanford when they were still building on the new land. So there are a whole lot of notes, and a whole lot I could write. :)

But before I go into all that, I want to say something that prohibited the blogging on Sunday for the past (almost) 3 years. Unless it was an emergency or something like that, I simply have kept the blog quiet on Sundays. I had several good personal reasons for it.

A. It kept me from getting stressed about feeling that I had an obligation to blog.

B. I spent more time relaxing and less time thinking about what I should share with anyone else.

C. I didn't want Sundays to be "just another post" day, to fall into line with the rest of my writing.

D. I thought I could blog sermon notes another day in the week.

Now, you see that I am starting it up, so obviously ... some things have changed. What changed was, is that I realized that the hours right after what I heard, were the best time to share them! It was difficult for me to look back on my notes, and remember how to read what I wrote! Crazy note taker, here. ;) So I struggled to find how to make a day in the week work for that, and obviously - it didn't happen. It did sometimes pour itself into other posts, which is what it is supposed to do anyways. :) Also - because of the significance of the Sunday post, "C" is now void. :) There won't be any "look what I did today because I'm .... nice" posts.

Here's a look at the idea, and if it stops being this at any time, I will stop. :)

This is what I want Sunday Reflections to be like here on my blog:

A. Sermon notes, Scripture, hymns, songs, praise, glory, worship flowing from my heart.

B. Time spent talking about the Lord I adore.

C. Reminding myself of Who is in Control, as I start out another week. :)

D. Blessing others.

I've been ready to do this for a long time, and I'm glad to finally start. I've prayed over it, thought about it, and am getting down to it. :) I probably will not write every Sunday, because I do keep that one concern - that it will be something stressful or pressing, and I don't want that obligation on the Lord's Day. And some days it might be really short, or really long. :)

Sometimes I want to stand up and write out an entire sermon, and then I realize - God's already done that, and I don't need to ... uhm. ever. And now I have a place to fill up, that is just about Jesus. :) Jesus and all the mercies He has showered on His children. Precious Savior, and King of Kings.

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Here is the first Sunday Reflections post:

Hi. :) It is September 26th, 2011, and this is the glorious sermon I want to share with you. I hope and pray that it blesses you as much as it did me. The tears of grief have been coming easily these past few Sundays, as I go through week after week, and realize that people I love are not coming back to our dusty Earth, that in the rejoicing, remains the sorrow that I miss them. It is hard to look at a calendar and feel like 6 weeks could have been 6 years. It aches.

I have heard sermons on Revelations so many times, but tonight it was like gulping down air, I was desperate for it. If you are grieving and hurting, please take 48 minutes and 33 seconds, and allow God to renew and restore your soul and guide you to rest tonight. I am praying He does.

Josh Harris has long been one of my favorite pastors. He's right up there on my top 5. :)

"Joshua Harris delivered this sermon on January 23, 2011, at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md. His text was Revelation 21:1-8." Find Cov. Life on Vimeo.

My favorite parts of the sermon that made my heart go "YES.", although I loved it all.
30:15 - A. "And God never says to us: "It doesn't matter, because you are going to Heaven.", no He says "I know those tears!!! And I'm going to wipe them away from your eyes! And I care about that pain! And I knew that loneliness, and I knew that anguish! And I'm going to come to you, and I'm going to place My hands upon you, and I'm going to make right all that is wrong. I'm going to make right all that was wrong."
42:53 - 43:48 B. "God doesn't ignore the reality of the heartache of this world. He doesn't glibly tell us to "cheer up" because we are going to Heaven. No, He acknowledges our grief, He acknowledges our sickness and our pain and our tears. He doesn't ask us to pretend that all is right in the world, He calls us to believe and to hope in the promise that one day Jesus is going to set all things right. That's what it means to mourn, but with hope. It's not pretending away the pain, and putting a fake smile on. It's saying "I am mourning because this life is filled with pain and death, and yet, Jesus is going to one day come and wipe away the tears and these things will be the former things!"! That's what it means to be a Christian who grieves, yet with hope!

46:05 - C. God has not promised us a better life, but He has promised us a better Eternity.

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and that was the first post. I know.

It was really long, but I wanted to address it all, because it was important to me to explain. :)

Because of Christ, we stand in the midst of all of life and cry "holy!"!

With love,

~ Jean Marie ~