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Miss Kayla

 
Proud thoughts and actions are very displeasing to God. Pride, in it’s most simple meaning, is the root of most, if not all, sin. The weak, in trying to build themselves up, grow weaker by it; the strong grow helpless through it.
 Shall we then say that there is an “air of pride” in God’s word as He speaks? No! What is pride but to bring glory to ourselves? What is glory, (that forever shall be) but our Maker of whom we give praise? 

 It is Jesus Christ in who’s image we are made, and He who deserves all the glory and all the praise and adoration that we, mortal humans, can scrounge up in our small, sinful minds.
 What is pride? Why is it wrong to bring to ourselves glory? It is wrong because the one and only deserving of praise is God, our Father, for nothing we gain can be done without Him. Shall the clay praise himself for the way in which he has been crafted by the Potter? Shall all creation worship itself? Shall the fox glory itself in its cunning, or the bear, her strength? The birds their song, or the lion, its sleek mane?
 For why do we live at all, but to bring glory to Christ?
 What! Have you great wealth and gain? Power and might? Honor and Freedom? Talent or a self-given feeling of “worth”? Do you look upon yourself, praising, in your mind, your heart before the Lord? These tiny efforts are but filthy rags! We are nothing and He is everything.

 Emmanuel, God with us, Jehovah Jireh, our provider! 
 Praise be to our Lord and savior, Christ Jesus, our Father and friend to whom be the glory both now and forever.

                          
Pax Christi, 
                                                     Kelsey                       

The Ultimate Sacrifice

I believe I was nine or ten years old at the time. I was walking through the kitchen and noticed that Mom, after getting off the phone with Dad, looked upset and worried. She gathered the four oldest, (Josh, Jeremiah, Jonathan and I) into the living room to talk to us.  My first thought was that something bad happened to Dad or maybe a friend of ours. When she explained what happened to the twin towers and the terrorist who flew those planes, I was a little relived. In my young mind, I couldn’t comprehend this terrible attack that had happened in our country.  “Why does it matter to us?”, I thought. Bad things happen all the time…  As I heard more and more about it, I began to realize what a major attack this really was, but it was only within the past few years that I have really begun to realize the full extent of what happened; but I don’t think I can ever know completely, unless I was there.

   September 11 2001 marks a tragic day. Tragic, because of the many, many lives that were lost.  But through all of the destruction,  death, and pain, there were those  who grew stronger through it, and many who’s lives were changed by it. Was your life changed? Did you live differently, think, or act differently after 9/11? Life keeps moving on, as time will stop for no one, but as that time goes by, did we continue on as if nothing happened, or did America pull together, to work as one nation, under God, by whom we live and breath and have our being this day? What do you think? What have you done?

Thank-you to all the firefighters, policemen, and workers who gave their lives for us. Thank-you to those who did not stand by, but acted in a way that would help others. Most of all, thank-you to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice for we who are unworthy of his amazing grace. Never forget what He has done. Do not be afraid to tell of it, and never stop fighting to defend it.

The Deception

The furious wind rushes against me, and everything that dares to block it’s path.

  I sit on the swing and attempt to pull myself higher upward. Gazing into the distance I watch the Arizona smoke settle onto the rugged mesa in the New Mexico plains.

 

I say a prayer for all of those really living this nightmare; the wildfire out of control just over our border; for those left to stand back and watch certain disaster rage in bright roaring flames over their homes; it’s black, unbearable smoke engulfing their surroundings like an evil vapor.

 

My muscles are straining, against the steady wind, as I try to pull myself up into the sky, now an ugly grey. I wince- the smell of smoke plunging itself throughout my senses, the dust flies, the winds rage, and the warmth of the day seems, somehow, out of place… Looking into the darkened sky, I think of how much the grey clouds look simply as if they might pour forth rain… Only this grey darkness is not full of moisture but dry, elusive poison, and the winds, only feeding the fire that I have not yet seen.

 

 

Skidding myself to a stop, my feet set a large billow of sand free for the wind to feed on. Something catches my eye. I think it’s the moon! It is a bright, florescent pink, yet hazy, hiding slyly behind the ever looming wisps of smoke. Or is what I see, the sun? I cannot tell…

  I come around the other side of my swing, to face a different direction. Pushing myself to a start, I begin to pull myself higher and higher, my position providing me with less friction than before; I fly to the sky. I see it is now sooty grey, and the pink circle of light has vanished; just swallowed up and gone. The wind picks up and the noise, a furious rushing and an ever relentless pull, this way and that, seems to be crushing my ears.

 I feel we are surrounded; the darkness slinking, the wind, pulling, the smell of smoke, strong and deceptive. When shall it all end?

Halting my swing, I stand up, and  bear my face towards the wind.

May God bring about His will in all of this, come what may, and I pray we turn our faces back to Him, as he purges us of evil to bring His love to a dry and desperate land.

“If only my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turns from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their land.”         2 Chronicles 7:14