Gleanings of Wheat

I'm not a super big fan of Valentines Day - I don't remember making a huge deal about it when I was married, but now that I'm not it's even less interesting...the exception being the vast amounts of chocolate that will be on sale tomorrow. That interests me greatly. But today I'm thinking about the greatest love I'll ever know - God's love toward His children. It is wonderful, and overwhelming, and completely undeserved, but it is there. How He Loves - David Crowder Band: He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me. And oh, how He loves us oh Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaw...

So, I tried for two days to find a nice, concise way of explaining just how wonderful God has been to me and my kids lately but I just can't do it. Every time I sit down and start typing the post ends up really long. Like really long. My attempt today shall be bullet point format! Providing a home for our lovable basset hound where she'll have room to run and play and grow Getting us out of a not great situation where we were previously living Providing a wonderful apartment (2 bedrooms, 1.5 bath, private deck, TONS of kitchen space Providing us with a ton of furniture and stuff for the kitchen we needed that I couldn't afford to buy after paying the deposit and first month's rent Showing me just how much I wasn't trusting Him in this situation Loving me anyway Loving my church members and thus causing them to care for my kids and I in super overwhelming ways Providing a new tire and windshield wipers for the van The kids are doing wonderfully at their new s...

As I mentioned before , the Stuff Christians Like blog helped raise $30,000 in 18 hours back in November. That blew the end of the year deadline out of the water by a mile. Then Jon doubled what he was trying to raise. And guess what? God delivered. An additional $30,000 was raised before the deadline was even close. $60,000. Two schools. Hundreds of kids will get an education. Amazing.

Do you ever wish you could do big things for God? Do you ever feel like what you can contribute (monetarily or otherwise) isn't that great, and so you don't get involved? Me too. Yesterday I joined in and watched brothers and sisters in Christ raise $30,000 in 18 hours in order to build a school . There were some bigger gifts (and praise God for them!) but I want to show you the total of the gifts that were $30 or less. The total raised as of 1:10pm Central time today was $33,385.00 - that's insane. Amazing. Awesome. Inspiringly insane. Of that about $5350 was from gifts of $30 or less . Roughly 1/6th of what was raised came from people giving $30 or less. That's huge, guys. HUGE. God can do big things with a lot of people who are willing to do what they can - even if it is only $5. God does big things through people like me and you every day.

I know it may be a bit cliche to be posting a thankful post on the day after Thanksgiving, but I've got a lot to be thankful for - and I've been thinking about thankfulness a lot lately so bare with me while I ramble. Obviously, I'm thankful that God has called me according to His will and purpose, has chosen to bless me with my family - yes, even the members that typically drive me bonkers - but beyond the other obvious things like my car, home, food, clothes, and friends, I am thankful for my job. Especially today, my job. You see, as of January 1st I will no longer have a job. The small bookstore I work for has been a huge blessing to me. It has allowed me to spend a lot of time reading books, seeing what new trends are hitting the body of Christ; I have been free to share my faith with little risk of looking like a wacko because most of the people that come into the store are professing Christians. Even more than that I have had the distinct honor of serving people. I...