Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

New Seeds Music CD

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I’m slowly emerging from the first-trimester fog and hope to be back to blogging soon.  In the meantime, I want to tell everyone about a new cd from Seeds Music–“The Power of Encouragement.”

power

I was fortunate enough to get this cd a while ago, and my kids LOVE it.  Their favorite songs are “Take Heart” and “Go.”  My favorite is “A Servant to All,” which talks about anyone who wants to be first being last.  One day after we’d been listening to this cd, Christopher decided to give up his turn to choose what video to watch and quoted the verse!  I have to admit, this has only happened once, but it made my day!  This cd is upbeat and the Bible verses are terrific ones for both me and the kids to commit to memory.  I highly recommend it!  We also have the Faith and Praise cds, and they are excellent as well.  Click here to see a previous post I wrote about these great cds.

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Sowing Seeds of God’s Word

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Galatians 6:7-9: Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

One of my most important jobs as a mom is to plant seeds of God’s truth in my children’s hearts. Two great tools I have been using recently are Steve Green’s Hide Em in Your Heart CD and my new CD’s from Seeds Music. I love the Steve Green CD, but the Seeds music CD’s are FABULOUS. (Thank you, Julie, for introducing me to them!) They have adults and children singing, but it is so well done that I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself listening to them even without kids in the backseat. Honestly, the Ephesians 2:8 song brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. I have the Praise and Faith albums, and I plan to order the others soon.

It is such a blessing for me to watch my kids as they listen to God’s Word set to music. I pray that God will take these seeds we are planting and grow them into living, active faith in Christ. I’ll admit it, I’m becoming a bit of a fanatic. It is hard to get excited about singing about bus drivers and climbing spiders with my kids when we could be singing, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). There’s just nothing better than the Word of God.

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Checking my pantry

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Part of our BSF lesson for the past week was Matthew 13:51-52. Jesus is telling his disciples that one who has received instruction about the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house who brings out both his old and new treasures to share with others. We have past experiences and knowledge about Christ, and we should also have new things to share with others about what Christ is doing in our lives this week. Our teaching leader compared this to our pantry, and she said that if we are faithful to put things in our pantry, God will be faithful to bring them out when they are needed by ourselves or others. She also made the comment that nothing gets into our pantry unless we put it there.

As the sole grocery shopper in our household, this is true for me both literally and spiritually. It reminded me of the other night, when I went to the pantry for taco seasoning and found that I had neglected to buy it. (This is not a rare occurrence that I am missing one ingredient that I need!) So that night, our taco soup was a little bland. And in the same way, if I am not faithful to be studying God’s Word and meditating on His truth and promises, my spiritual pantry is lacking some ingredients. So when I hit a tough spot or a friend needs encouragement or counsel, I am not prepared. My advice, encouragement or response to the situation will be empty and superficial, not flavored with the awesome truth of the Gospel.

As the mother of a 2-year-old (as of today!) and an almost-4-year-old, I have an additional responsibility to keep my pantry well-stocked. As much as my kids love fruit snacks, they would not be healthy if that was we ever pulled out of the pantry. I need to stock my pantry with a variety of nutritious foods that give their growing bodies what they need. Likewise, I need to prepare spiritually to respond to their questions, worries and disobedience with the truth of the God’s Word. As they grow, we will face more complex issues and situations, and I need to be prepared. I have a feeling it will get a lot more complicated than quoting I Corinthians 13 when he is provoking his brother! I’m so thankful for biblical preaching at our church and for BSF, which encourage me to saturate myself with God’s Word. When the trials come, I don’t want to be standing in front of my pantry without the taco seasoning.

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