JOHN

Psa. 51:1 was the context of our morning Bible study today. It's one of my favorites, so we went ahead and read the rest of it too.

Psalm 51

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-she'-ba

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Psalm 51, KJV


It had been a while since I had read this Psalm, but it spoke just as loudly and clearly to me this morning as before.
When I commit a sin many times, I start to get the idea that maybe this time my sin was too great. I feel so terrible because I know how much it hurts my Lord when I sin that I wonder how He could forgive such a wretched sinner. So many times I asked forgiveness and said that I wouldn't do it again, but here I am, crawling back to His Mercy Seat, hoping with all my strength that He won't look at me and say, "Alright, Mary, this is it. You've told me countless times that you'd never do it again, but here you are. Well, I'm done forgiving you. Your sin is just too much," and banish me to eternal damnation. And you know what? He never does. That's right. Never. He always forgives me without thinking twice. He never even considers leaving me to wallow in despair because my sin was too great. Why? There's two reasons I think of immediately.
The first is, of course, salvation. I believe that Jesus Christ came into this world fully God yet fully man; lived a perfect, sinless life; died on the cross to take away my sins; rose from the dead; and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father therefore I am saved and going to heaven no matter how much I sin. (Read any one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John for more details on the life of Jesus.)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -John 3:16

24 Verily, verily, I say to you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
- John 5:24, KJV

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. -Romans 8:1, KJV

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. - Hebrews 9:12,15, KJV


The second is sin can't be too great. God wouldn't be God if He could be defeated by sin.

18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. - Acts 26:18, KJV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; - Ephesians 1:3,7, KJV

Grace. It is by grace we are saved and by grace we are forgiven.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:8, KJV

Well, I could keep going on and on about this passage for a long while, but my time is limited. But there is one more thing I want to touch on before I wrap all this up.

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. - Psalm 51:16,17, KJV

If I am truly sorry for what I have done, God will forgive me. God wants me on my knees, giving it all to Him, my joy and my sin. He wants my whole self.

Alrighty, there's a cake to be baked, a shower to be taken, and more Bible chapters to be read. So I guess this is all for now.

Oh, y'all are probably wondering why I titled this post John. No, it's not just because I love my lil bro, but also because the English meaning of his name is "God is forgiving". The Hebrew meaning is "God is gracious".

Much love in Christ,

A Day at the Fair

Long, long ago in a land far, far away there lived three children who longed to go the fair. This is their story.
I went to the Clark County Fair last night with John John and Izzy (Mom and Dad came later). I really enjoyed it. We got to see pretty much all of the livestock; some of the horse competition; the end of the dog show; and a good portion of the hog show. We hung around there for quite a while because Meg's cousins were showing their hogs (although I was partial to the goats).

There was a mamma goat with her kid...




...and some really fat pigmey goats.





We also saw a couple of frightening llamas. (Personally, I thought they closer resembled giant poodles.)









Later that evening we went to the mutton bustin' and bull riding shows. Those were definitely my favorite part of the fair. (Yes, I liked them even more than the food.) I took video of almost all of the bull riding. (My mom's lil camera works pretty well!)

The announcer gives the name of the rider each time, and this time I thought I heard Robert Cunningham. I thought, "No, that can't be right. I'm probably just hearing things." Well, he announced it again, and I didn't hear it wrong. One of the riders' names was Robert Cunningham. So he really doesn't pour concrete, ay? Who knew he lead a double life? No wonder he didn't make it to the movie last night. =D
After that we met up with Mom and Dad at the convention center. After a while John John, Izzy, and I all got Henna and icecream. Henna is basically a short term tattoo. The person writes on your skin with paint type stuff. You have to wait half an hour for it to dry, and then it starts to peel off. Once it does that, the tattoo's an orangish color. It darkens up a bit more over the next 24 hours, and vwa-la! you have a Henna. It comes off after a few weeks.
Then it was time for bed, so we all went home.
When we got there, we found Sara partying it up with three of her friends (and another on the way!). Daddy told her they all had to be gone by 11 P.M.
When Robert finally arrived, we realized that he hadn't come alone. He brought three of his friends with him, Mr. Mud Pie Icecream, Mr. Neopolitan Icecream, and Miss. Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake. Now, of course, we were not at all upset that Robert decided to bring them along. The more the merrier, right? We all had a wonderful time with our new friends, but we soon realized that Miss Cheesecake was a bit too cold. After a short conversation, we found out that someone had thrust her into the freezer hours ago. Poor Miss Cheesecake! we all felt terrible, but we still welcomed her with open arms.

Benjamin was especially hospitable.




11 P.M. rolled around all too soon, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodnight. But we weren't sad. Oh no, because our new friends will be staying with us. (Robert simply doesn't have any room for them.)
And that is the story of the three Ream children's day at the fair.
The End.

Happy Birthday...

...to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Joe Joe! Happy birthday to you!



OK, I know he's not gonna see this, but hey, it can't hurt.


Yesterday was his birthday. His sister put together a nifty lil party for him at their house last night. It was fun. (And I got to swing for like half an hour too!) And the dessert! Their was the regular old b-day cake, some cupcakes, I brought brownies, and Joanna made cheesecake! And his mommy made the cutest lil piggies in a blanky. (And they tasted good too.)

And afterward, a bunch of us came back to my house to watch another one of Joshua Harris' sermons on tape. There's two from his book When Boy Meets Girl and three from I Kissed Dating Good-bye (one of my favorite books of all time). They're really good. I really like that he's constantly bringing everything back to the Bible.

So yeah, I had a wonderful day. You?