Sunday with Emma

Sunday, December 15:  At Calvary this morning, we celebrated the completion of "Grace Beyond." It was a Sunday of celebration for our church that was truly wonderful to be part of. I'm so thankful Emma and I could be there, listen to the stories of people who have been impacted by the ministries of Calvary, see the film of the church addition being built, and sing praises like I have never heard the equal to. I think it was one of the most worship-filled services I have ever attended in my life. What an awesome God we have! 

We continued our Bible study of the kings and the prophets today by learning about King Amaziah, who ruled Judah for 29 years. Part of the story takes place at PETRA ... and it was so much fun to show Emma pictures of this place I have actually been to. I've stood exactly where those camels are!

 King Amaziah took his huge army of 300,000 soldiers (the 100,000 soldiers he had paid 4 tons of silver to Israel for were ordered to go back to Israel because the man of God told Amaziah that God would not allow them to come!) down to fight the Edomites at their capital city (at that time it was called "Sela"). It's quite a disturbing story on so many levels, and King Amaziah ends up winning the battle over 20,000 of his enemy, got all arrogant about his victory, brought Edomite gods back to Jerusalem with him and began worshiping THEM instead of God, suffered God's wrath, and was murdered by his own people. So we talked about this story and then asked the Lord to help US to walk with Him, follow HIM, and not get led astray.

We also went to the 3:00 performance of "Shepherds and Kings" (or was it called "Kings and Shepherds"??) over at Calvary. The music and acting were so well done. It wasn't totally a story that resonated much with me--but that's because I always enjoy more of a nativity kind of story; but that's okay--they did a super nice job.

 Emma loves theatrical stuff--I'm so glad about this. She really enjoyed the story and the performance. I'm so glad we could be there. This is the first Christmas program I have attended at Calvary in about nine years (personal reasons).

It was a good Lord's Day and I am truly thankful for it!