Looking Forward to the Future
II Timothy 2:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
The spirit of fear comes as a result of the loss of control over negative thoughts. Negative thinking is not from God and is in opposition to faith. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Fear is a destroyer of success. Experience is a destroyer of faith. If we give up on faith by letting negatives torment our thinking, then fear takes control. When we fear the future, we become failures instead of the success God intends us to be.
In Genesis 1, the earth was created without form, void of life, and dark, then God moved and the earth came to life. In Genesis 2, God formed man from the dust of the ground, dust being that which is without form and void. Then God breathed, and man became a living soul. In my life, I was without God, empty, devoid of spiritual Light, the darkness reigning, then God moved, and New Life was breathed into me and I became an eternal soul.
God is in the business of taking nothing and making something out of it.
Don’t let the broken-heartedness of 2010 discourage you for 2011. There is always hope where there is God. Oust those negative thoughts from your thinking and don’t let fear destroy your hope for the future. When you feel empty and discouraged, and darkness is overwhelming you, take heart. Remember that God is in the business of making something out of nothing and New Life can spring forth from your life too. So look up, look forward and let your past build your future!
Home and Marriage
Home and Marriage
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Music
Everybody loves music, but young people especially love and need happy music. That is one reason they are so often drawn to music with a beat. It makes them feel good, and if they feel good, then they feel happy. If music does not have a rock beat (and ours doesn’t), then to gain their attention, it must appeal to their emotions and thus, to their heart (and ours does). When their heart is happy, then they are happy too. They will also listen to music that identifies with the mood they are in even if it is a bad mood, and they will do this rather than change the music to change a mood. For years, many Christian young people succumbed to listening to groups like Metallica when hurt or angry because all of the songs started off with hypnotically soothing music, then moved to an angry, blaring crescendo that fed their mood. The words of the songs then coached those kids to handle their anger and stress by cursing God, cursing other people or worse. How Satan uses music to accomplish his purposes in our young people’s lives! Because of this, our songs and the music has been chosen for the purpose of emotional appeal for a variety of moods and spiritual instruction for how to handle life. Teens do need good, Christ-honoring music that will feed their spirits but not take them down a road neither we nor they want them to go, but they are also picky. Not just anything appeals to them. Teens want music that they identify with, that appeals to their moods and music that satisfies even after being played over and over and over again.
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Children
Children love stories and children love to laugh! There is no greater way to reach down, grab a child’s heart and influence them for God and for right than through a story. When I was young, I loved to hear my dad tell stories of his childhood. I would beg to hear them again and again. I learned character, tenacity and practical thinking skills from my dad’s stories. A story will stick in a person’s mind and run through their imagination forever. What a wonderful tool God has given us to influence the minds of children and in such a fun and palatable way. My grandchildren never tire of hearing stories. One will start, “Tell us a story, Noni,“ then the others will start chiming in, “Yeah, tell us a story!” If I don’t respond quickly enough, they will begin to clap their hands rhythmically and chant, “Tell us a story! Tell us a story!” As soon as I agree, even the rowdiest will automatically grow still and quiet, sitting in rapt attention, as I tell and retell story after story. I have told stories of my past, my husband’s past, my daughter’s past until I ran out of true stories and had to start making up stories to satisfy them. They only beg for more, and I love it. There is a story in the Bible of one mother who told so many stories to her young son about his great, great, great…grandfather that her son grew up wanting to be just like him and, in doing so, changed the course of a nation (II Kings 22-23). That boy was Josiah and his great grandfather was King David. Perhaps that is why God Himself tells so many stories in the Bible to us. We must never underestimate the power of a story, the power of influence in what may appear to be the most trivial form, or the power of one story’s influence on the mind of a child.
In the days to come, Hook Publications will be proudly presenting a lot more stories for children. Coming soon, for example, is: The Cornerstone Kids with their mystery solving skills and humorous antics,
Wise Willy the Detective Owl who will delight young readers as he explores the animal kingdom looking for evidence of God’s handiwork in all of God’s creation, and
The Princess of Palmyra which combines adventure with virtue and values as a young princess and boy gypsy set out to rescue her parents from kidnappers.
So stay tuned and connected for these stories and more!
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Culottes – Misses
Hope
How Will They Hear (Sheet Music)