Good Morning

I meant to show you this earlier!  I am excited about Thanksgiving and time with family...and of course good food.

I painted this over the weekend...I re-used my Halloween pumpkin and painted the other side Thanksgiving.  That is thrifty!

I went for a run/walk on the trail this morning.  It has been really nice weather.  I was gone 42 minutes...I was a little slower than usual.  My legs felt tired from Body Pump-I felt better after the run though.  I came home to fresh breads from Danielle and Ben (Thanks!).  They keep us well stocked with bread.  This morning they brought blueberry bagels and cinnamon raisin english muffins.  A few minutes later a bagel was in the toaster for Cliff and a cinnamon raisin english muffin for me.  Coffee was a brewin too....I wanted coffee not tea this morning!  I will just drink a little less so I don't get anxiety.

Doesn't look like less coffee:/  I did not finish it though what is happening to me...

I put peanut butter and chocolate chips on my muffin with a side of milk.  My stomach was very happy after this breakfast. 

I am off to the County Tax Office today to get some car stuff worked out.  Hope I can drive my car soon!  An easy, tasty, make-ahead dinner is is store tonight.  If you are ever in a hurry after work you will like it.  Also, here are the sermon notes I promised:

Hebrews 12:18-29

Worship Accordingly

The writer of Hebrews uses the Old Testament to remind us of how God worked in the past.  The Isrealites were terrified when they approached Mount Sinai (and God gave Moses the Commandments-even Moses was, “Trembling with fear.”)  Jesus changed the way we approach God.  We can come to God now because Jesus is a mediator between us and God.  That said, if we had an idea of the enormity of who God is and what He is doing we should worship accordingly.  When I think about how the Israelites approached God, it is humbling.  In the last few verses of Hebrews 12 the writer challenges us to be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.

What is acceptable worship to God?  Here are a few notes (things to think about) that helped me have better understanding of what that looks like:

• Worship
• In the old English it is worthship-attributing worth to something
• Focus on an object of worth.  What is of worth to us?  God is superior to all things we value
• To find worth in something, we must know about it, study it, learn about it (an example I can think of would be food and recipes-I look them up, I take time to read reviews, I plan ahead to make it and I learn about it; God deserves even more attention than that).  It is hard to value something you don’t know much about.

How do you know God and learn more about Him?

• God reveals Himself to us when we are receptive to Him.  How does He reveal Himself?
• Creation-Romans 1: 20
• Covenant-Old Testament covenant reveals His desire to know us and have relationship with us.  It also called people to a standard of how God wanted people to live.
• Jesus-God sent His Son to live on earth.  The New Testament is full of stories of how He lived.  What better way to learn about God than to study how Jesus lived while He was on earth in the flesh.
• Church-Look at the many books in the Bible where Paul and others write to the Churches.  It was important back then to be in fellowship with believers and it is important now.  Books like:  Ephesians, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, Galatians, to name a few. 

How do we respond?

• Humble ourselves before our God, who created the heavens and the earth
• Worship and Serve
• Express our gratitude and adoration, because we love God
• Excitement about God
• Reverence and Awe
• Ask God is our worship acceptable to Him, it is not about us, it is about pleasing Him.
• Ask God to help us with all of this!