Summertime Fulton kids

Kaeden's back to school

Where do we find our identity?

Here's a thought:We develop our identities from our interaction with the rest of the world. What our families, friends and others say to us and about us helps form our opinion of who we are. Add to that all of the self-talk we have inside and we have most of the data we use to form our self concept. Here's the catch: If you form your identity based on the feedback of a fallen world, you will end up with a fallen identity.It is when we decide to choose to draw our self concept from what God says about us that we enter into our true identity.

Powerful words to ponder from Kevin Greiner's blog

Religion versus relationship

From Kevin's Blog….words of wisdom!

"Jimmy" is a model Christian. He's about as perfect as they come. His behavior is moral and kind. He attends church every week, leads a mid-week Bible study and teaches a Sunday school class. In addition, he has regular, daily devotions and is frequently reading Christian books.

Everyone speaks well of Jimmy. Everyone, that is, but God.

Jimmy's problem is not that he is doing anything wrong. In fact, he is doing things very well. The problem is a question of motive. You see, there are two ways we can approach God. The most common way is through religion. In religion, we attempt by our behavior to seek God's favor or blessing in our lives. The religious person, whether Hindu or Christian or Muslim, does what their religion requires out of a place of emptiness. They need God's blessing, so they do whatever their particular faith says is necessary to experience God's favor.

The Christian faith is the only faith that offers an alternative to religion - relationship. In relationship, we already know that we are fully accepted and loved by God. As a result, our behavior is no longer an attempt to earn His favor, but the response of a heart that knows it is truly loved.

Sadly, most Christians have never had a deep experience of the love of the Father, let alone an on-going sense of His favor. As a result, whether we realize it or not, we become like Jimmy and start living out of religion instead of relationship. That is because when we are empty inside, we will make getting our emptiness filled the motive for what we do, whether we realize it or not. Our outward behavior may be wonderful, but it is a form of manipulation, not adoration.

It is only when we are filled with the love of the Father that we are able to live unselfishly, because it is only then that we have no need we are desperate to meet. We are free to love others and serve God with no ulterior motive. Our life is now a response to being loved, not a desperate attempt to get love.

That is the true Christian - the one who lives their life as an outflow of a love relationship with God. Other followers of Jesus may indeed be born again, but they have not entered into the abundant life that God offers each one of us.

So how do we enter into this abundant life? It is not necessarily easy or quick. For me, it took several years of unlearning my performance-based Christianity and learning to make seeking God my top priority. When He became more important than all of my other Christian activities, then things began to change. Still, I needed a lot of emotional healing to be able to receive the love that God had for me.

The result is that much of the time I walk in an awareness that I am incredibly loved by the Father. That awareness changes the entire way I think about life, myself and other people. What matters most is simply loving God back and worshipping Him. Ambition, pride, selfishness are all crucified by the power of love.

Get the facts about Healthcare Reform

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/30/e-mail-analysis-health-bill-needs-check-/

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/settingtherecord

Happy Birthday Marla

July overnight at Nana's and Poo's

My prayer for you

May today be all you need it to be. May the peace of God and the freshness of the Holy Spirit rest in your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight, and conquer all your fears. May God manifest himself today in ways you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer, and your prayers be answered. I pray that faith enters a new height for you; I pray that your territory is enlarged. I pray for peace, healing, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, true and undying love for God. God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

A dear friend sent this to me today…I thought that I would share it with those I love!

Healing For The Rejection We All Experience

by Kevin H. Grenier "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3) My father died on my sixth birthday. Leukemia. I soon found that I had lost my mom as well. Her need to work and her own emotional pain crowded nurturing and time together out of my life. Then, two moves in the next three years made me the new kid in town that got picked on by everyone else. By seventh grade, things had changed. I was well-liked and accepted. But I had no friends -- no one to whom I revealed my true self. Why? I had experienced enough rejection by then that I was unwilling to risk being rejected again. There are three different types of rejection we can struggle with. The simplest is performance rejection. This occurs when we experience criticism for our actions that is not given in love. While such rejection stings, it is not devastating. A poor job evaluation is an example of performance rejection. The second type of rejection is very painful. Personhood rejection occurs when people reject who we are. Our identity is called deficient, not our conduct. I remember a teacher in fifth grade calling me names when I did not attend his class. My inability to please him (performance rejection) resulted in a rejection of who I was (personhood rejection). A small incident? Yes. But I remember it 37 years later. Rejection, like abuse, is not measured by what happens, but by the impact it has. The lack of affirmation is another part of personhood rejection. Just like flowers need water, we need affirmation. When affirmation is withheld, our sense of being acceptable withers and dies. Even though no one may say anything negative, the lack of anything positive is just as powerful a rejection. We rejected ones may become people pleasers, keeping everyone else happy regardless of the personal cost. Or we may seek rejection. We don't want it, but performance rejection is less painful than the personhood rejection we fear. In both cases, we end up living in emotional isolation. From there, it is a short distance to third type of rejection - self-rejection. In this place, we despise and punish ourselves for who we are. By rejecting ourselves, we are finally able to join everyone else who has rejected us. It has cost us happiness, but we don't think we deserve it anyway. Once rejected by others, it is easy for us to believe that God also rejects us. In fact, the more rejection we experience, the more difficult it is to have a relationship with God. We have already learned to perform for others and hide our true self away. When we do that with God, we find our relationship with Him as empty as relationships are with everyone else. Receiving healing from rejection brings us back to life emotionally. Intimacy is possible again and we feel more alive than ever. A significant part of this healing is found in allowing God access to our true selves. It is scary to do, but possible when we see that He is the ultimate recipient of rejection Read this short meditation slowly and prayerfully. Allow God to meet you in those sentences that emotionally parallel your own rejection. As you do, it will create the internal space needed for the Lord to comfort and heal. As the hammer descended onto the nails, the pain experienced by Jesus was intensely physical. Those blows and all the other abuse He experienced also carried with them the sting of rejection (Mark 9:12). Mankind had rejected its Maker. It was on the cross that Jesus experienced the culmination of a life of rejection. Herod tried to kill Him before He could do anything to deserve it (Matthew 2:16). He was thrown out of the synagogue and the people of his hometown tried to kill him (Luke 4:28-29). His family thought He was crazy and attempted to stop Him from doing His ministry (Mark 3:21). One of His closest followers betrayed Him for his own selfish purposes (Matthew 27:3). Another follower refused to admit he knew Him (Luke 22:57). Jesus experienced performance rejection when He did not do what everyone thought He should do. He experienced personhood rejection because He was not who everyone thought He should be. Yet, through it all, Jesus experienced the affirmation of the Father (Matthew 3:17). That is, until He hung on the cross. There in the midst of His deepest, loneliest and most agonizing hours, even the Father rejected Him (Mark 15:34). That rejection by the Father allowed God on the cross, who is as equally God as the Father (Colossians 1:19), to enter into the fullest and most painful expression of all human rejection the rejection of one's self. There is no road of rejection that we can walk where we will not find the footprints of the Savior. And in each step He has taken, we will see His blood, bringing forgiveness and healing to all who will receive it. This Week Ask the Lord each day to help you identify areas of rejection in your life. As things come to mind, forgive those who rejected you and forgive yourself for believing the rejection. Ask the Lord to heal the hurt and replace the rejection with His love. Prayer "Father, thank you that You experienced rejection, too. Thank you that I have a friend who sticks closer than a brother, even in times when I feel like no one is on my side. Lord, I want to have as close a relationship with You as possible. Please heal my rejection so that I can enter into that deeper place with You. Amen." Kevin Grenier is the author of Rejection . Learn more at gatheringhispeople.org.