Saturday, September 10, 2016

END OF A SEASON! Sept 2008 - Sept 11, 2016

WE ALL HAVE completed many seasons in our lives.     Each grade is an end of a season, in growing up, when we receive our academic certificates.   When we complete our final degrees in higher learning we come to the end of our academic achievements.   Our singleness season comes to an end, when we marry.   Children come and some marriages end; loved ones pass away and new seasons begin.  
JUST LIKE all seasons of life, one ends and another begins.     Which came first?  Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter?    Living in California the seasons were not as defined as they are in Oregon.   I loved the climate in California, but in Oregon the definitions are amazing!
WHEN I BEGAN writing Morning Glory, it was a beginning of an exciting season for me!   Growing old was not one of my favorite things to do!   But at 70, my life became fuller and richer in Jesus Christ.   Don’t get me wrong!   I loved the process in becoming who I am today.
I have loved everyone who came into my life from the beginning.   Today I even love the ones I could have done without!   Probably the feelings were mutual!
SOME AVENUES, in the paths I have taken, took me off course.  But Morning Glory gave me purpose thru God, who gave me a desire.   Jim gave me encouragement.  The internet gave me a tool and God’s church gave me a place.   This season started in a person of age, who by the world’s standards, was almost done.   I am not done, but Morning Glory blogging is!
“STUDY TO SHOW thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed but rightly dividing the Word of Truth!”   2 Timothy 2:15 (kjv)     We are to do our best to please God!   Every Christian is to take this passage to heart.    The scriptures tell us that it is God, whom we are to please.    I have carried this verse close to my heart ever since I memorized it in my 4th grade Sunday School Class.    Second to this was; “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and , lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.  Amen”   Matthew 28:19-20 (kjv)  
CHRISTIANS are to share their faith in Jesus!    Ultimately, as we go, we are to share the Gospel, and to make disciples!   As a woman I always hesitated, even though I never was shy in letting others know about my faith.   In Morning Glory I became the teacher and my goal was
to bring Christ’s followers into a closer walk in their everyday life.  I shared by giving milk to those who still needed it, and meat to those who were ready to digest it!
THREE THINGS I want leave you with.   Number one is to study the Word!   Reading it is good, but when you are in it to apply it, things will begin to happen in your life.   Number two is, do not be afraid to tell someone that you believe, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”   What a difference that can make in your own life.   What a difference that can make in another’s life, even though you may never know about it!  
THIRDLY, but by no means last; become obedient to God’s Word and be baptized.   Many want to write baptism off as merely an outward expression of an inward conviction.   But it is far more than that!   We are baptized into the trinity, embodied in Jesus.   Through baptism we receive forgiveness of our past sins, and we can be forgiven for all future sins, when we ask forgiveness!   This, in itself, is important!  But also, upon baptism, we receive the “Gift of the Holy Spirit!”    The Spirit does not just come upon us at will, but comes to dwell within us.   Nowhere else does a believer receive this gift, except thru baptism.   Jesus said to do this; so do it!  It is not our invitation for others to do this, it is God’s invitation!   How can you refuse?
THANK YOU LORD for giving me this special season; “Morning Glory!”   Morning Glory readers; “thank you!”  My life is in a new season, for God is good!   Jane Ann Crenshaw  9/7/16
   

Sunday, September 4, 2016

BANQUETS! Sept 4,2016

IN THE CHURCH I grew up in we held many banquets throughout the year!   We also had potluck’s but our banquets were always grand!  There was a Mother’s and Daughter’s Banquet, the Father’s and Son’s Banquet, the Birthday Banquet and even an annual, Youth Banquet, which was held on Mission’s weekend.  All of these occasions came with a theme, decorations, guest speakers, music and dressing up.  
IN THOSE days we had monthly committees and a chairman that would head up such affairs.   There were plenty of people to help fill in by cooking, setting up, serving and taking down!   With paid reservations and tickets in hand, our meals were served and it was a super night out for all!
THE BIRTHDAY Banquet was well attended!  There would be a table for each month of the year which was decorated by that months committee.  They would provide a special cake for their table and prizes would be given out for the various categories.  This banquet was a potluck, but no one minded because it was always so much fun and special.
THE MOTHER’S and daughters banquet sometimes would be held in the school cafeteria because it was the largest Banquet.  Women love to show up in their very best and to especially show off their daughters.  My Mother often won the prize for the most daughters present!   The Fathers and Son’s was also well attended but always held at the church.
IN MY YOUTH I was involved in many of the Youth Banquets.  It was a well attended affair because we not only had a great youth program, but our youth also had many friends whom they would invite.  Tickets were sold!  I remember once borrowing decorations from Cheney’s Dept store in town.  Our programs were always fun and well encouraged by the whole Church family.  Our speaker would be the visiting missionary.   Our favorite meal served was Swiss steak!  The steak was browned and sauteed in gravy, along with mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and of course dessert.  Our ladies knew how to cook!
EVEN NOW, when I hear there is going to be a banquet my ears perk up and I want to know more.  Jesus liked banquets!  He attended many and just because they knew Jesus was coming it was always well attended!
“LET US REJOICE and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready!”  Revelations 19:7 (rsv)  We, the church are the bride and we are to be clothed in all our finery of righteous deeds.  “And the angel said to me; Write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”  Revelations 19:9 (rsv)  The church is held in high esteem because we are the Bride of the Lamb!
THE SCENE now changes!  It is a frightening and repulsive scene that makes an Alfred Hitchcock movie, like the Birds, seem about as tame as Walt Disney’s Donald Duck.  What a contrast!  At the marriage banquet of the Lamb, the saints dine personally with Jesus.  At the ‘great supper’ the sinners are the feast for the vultures.   “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in mid heaven; “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great!”  Revelations 19:17-18 (rsv)     How perplexing this picture is!
GOD’S TWO BANQUETS; “the marriage supper and the great supper”, show us  
God’s victory over evil, will be final.   The joy of the church, the bride, reigns supreme!   If we refuse the invitation to the marriage supper, we will be attending the great supper!   Our reservation has already been paid for!   What’s it going to be; the marriage supper or the great supper?   What’s it going to be; heaven or hell?    Jane Ann Crenshaw   9/3/16