GODLY MOTHERS ARE WONDERFUL

GODLY MOTHERS ARE WONDERFUL

--BY KEITH BELLAMY

I have had my mother on my mind a lot lately. Especially since so many have had to say good bye to their mothers. Mother's Day always brings out those special memories of my mother. She was a very godly woman!

Several years ago, when we were in Seattle with Diane's sister, I knew Mothers’ Day, would be hard on them, for their mother had left us, too. It had only been a short time since their mother passed away. The church where Diane's sister and her family attended was very sensitive to all who had lost their mothers. I thought it was great that these two wonderful, loving sisters could be together. And I could only tell them that it takes time after losing one's mother to adjust to the loss. However, I must admit after sixteen years, the memories are still there, and as the song says, they are "Precious Memories!"

I remember my mother reading Bible stories to my brother and me. I also remember when she put Christ on in baptism (Galatians 3:27). I also, remember how much like Jesus my Mother really was. She was great!

If you had a godly Mother, you know what I'm talking about. My wife is a very godly mother and so was her sister. Our daughters have tried to copy their mother’s example. And we give God the praise and glory for that!

So, God bless all of you who are mothers--for godly mothers are Wonderful!

Love That Won’t Let Go

Love That Won’t Let Go

-- David A. Sargent

Bryan Chapell recalls that on August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia's name.

Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia's mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.

Nothing could separate that child from her mother's love – neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death.

Like that child caught in the middle of the disaster, so we have been trapped by our own sin, spiraling down to an inevitable doom. But our God loved us so much that He left heaven, came down to our level, and covered us with the sacrifice of His own body so that we might be saved from the Fall. *

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Jesus “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

Jesus gave His life for us so that we can live together with Him (1 Thessalonians 5:10).

“O Love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.”

-- George Matheson

Our response to His sacrificial love should be to accept His offer of salvation and live out our lives in grateful, loving service to Him.

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Then, as we continue to walk in the light of His Word, the atoning blood that Jesus shed for us will continue to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Won’t YOU embrace the sacrificial, saving love of God through your trusting obedience?

Encouragement Again

Encouragement Again

By Keith Bellamy

Let's be encouragers! We need it desperately, don't we? Encouragement, that is!

Diane has a plant that my mother had for years. It was my grandmother’s. It is more than fifty years old. It keeps coming back even when it is neglected. Sometimes it looks like it's not going to make it. But we know Who keeps it alive!

Is there a lesson for us here? Could it be that we need to realize that life is in the "SON!" He reigns, and His Son continues to shine!

2 Peter 3:9 tells me God never gives up on us. While there is still life we all have a chance to be with the Lord.

We may at times feel like throwing in the towel. It may be that we are like my grandmother's plant. We may be worn out and beaten and we may wonder if the suffering will ever let up.

We need to be encouraged!

As the song says, “Where Could I Go, But To The Lord?”

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