Strong!

Five-year-old "Isaac" from Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer,
by my friend and talented artist, Dawn Copeland

"For the eyes of Yahwah roam throughout the earth 
to show Himself STRONG for those whose hearts are 
completely His..." (2 Chron. 16:9a HCSB)

The Lord said to me, "My grace is all you need. My 
power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to 
boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of 
Christ can work through me." (2 Cor. 12:9 NLT)

             A charm of finches danced happily around our 
bird feeder this morning until a bigger, stronger dove 
frightened them away. 

             Oftentimes, I feel like a frail, little finch, too 
weak to be useful to God. The truth, however, is that God 
works best through feeble vessels who recognize that, 
without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5), but through 
Him who gives us strength, we can do all things 
(Phil. 4:13).

Today, beloved, may you be STRONG in the Lord and the 
power of His might (Eph. 6:10) and go share the love of 
Jesus in a hurting world.

Sneak peak into soon to be released

 Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer:

          "Wilbur, they're here!" she called happily.

         Mr. and Mrs. Willowkins hurried outside to 
greet their children, grandchildren, and granddog, Lucy, 
already piling out of the car. After hugs and kisses and 
more hugs and kisses, Mrs. Willowkins exclaimed, "Wilbur, 
can you believe how tall Jacob has grown? Jacob, you'll 
be taller than Mamaw soon. And Elizabeth, you get prettier 
everyday, just like your mama. Isaac, let me feel those 
muscles.

              Instantly, Isaac made fists and raised both arms 
to show off his superhero muscles. "Strongest five-year-old 
I've ever seen," said Mrs. Willowkins proudly.1

1 MR. GREENLEAF'S UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER. Copyright 2015, Jill Glassco

            

  

           

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His Story

Illustration from Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer
by my friend and talented artist, Dawn Copeland

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News of good things...Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." (Romans 10:15,18)

            My friend, Dawn, is truly gifted by God. Isn't her pencil drawing of Mr. Greenleaf perched on the tiptop of his watering pot spout amazing! His story...

           Do you know that electrified, overjoyed, excited feeling you have when you wake up on your birthday or Christmas Day or the first day of summer vacation? Well, that's precisely how Mr. Greenleaf felt when he woke up later that same summer day and heard he, she, wee, and teeny-Willowkins' voices on the screen porch.

             "Mamaw, it's time for another Bible story," said Elizabeth.

          Mr. Greenleaf's teensy ears perked up as tall as a little, green tree frog's ears can perk. He wiggled down the hollow handle and perched on the watering pot spout so as not to miss a single word.

             Splendid, thought the froggy, another Bible story!1

              Do you know the greatest story ever told in the history of mankind? Well, it's His story, and it begins in the book of Genesis... 

                "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness," God said. (God said "Us" and "Our" because our God is three in One: Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit.) So the man, Adam, was created in God's image and likeness; therefore, at first, he had the glory of God - His presence and perfect, sinless character.

                      Soon after Adam's creation, he and his wife, Eve, disobeyed God. They sinned or missed the mark by doing what God told them not to do. Since that tragic day in the Garden of Eden, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Mankind lost God's glorious, sinless character and access to His presence. The Bible says, "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear you" (Isaiah 59:2), and "the wages (paycheck) for sin is death" (Romans 6:23). 

                      Oh my! "Who will set me free from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). Since in God's law (He made the world, so He makes the rules), death is the penalty for sin, then each one of us must pay the penalty of death ourselves OR SomeOne must pay the penalty for us. Indeed the wages of sin is death, but there's Good News, Romans 6:23 in its entirety says, "but, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!"

                      Even before Adam sinned, God had a perfect plan to save man from his sin. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus) that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

                    God's free gift of eternal life is not deserved, and it cannot be earned. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

                      The story of Jesus on earth is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God's Son came to earth as a baby, born of the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. From age 30 to about 33, Jesus ministered to multitudes of people by teaching, loving, freeing, and healing them. Then, He allowed Roman soldiers to arrest Him, beat Him, and nail Him to a cross, where He hung in agony and pain for six hours. Moments before His death, Jesus said, "It is finished!" - Jesus who never sinned, died in the place of sinners who will choose faith in Him. God accepts His shed blood as payment for our sins when we believe and trust God.

                        Jesus was buried in a tomb; but three days later, He rose back to life, remained on earth forty more days, and appeared to over 500 witnesses. Jesus then ascended into heaven, sat down at the right hand of Father God, where today He intercedes and prays for believers. 

                One day - perhaps soon - Jesus will come back to earth; and according to the book of Revelation, He'll reign as King of kings and Lord of lords for 1,000 years. At the end of His millennium, God will create a new heaven and a new earth where believers will live with Him forever and ever and ever and ever. For believers in Jesus Christ, sin, sickness, sorrow, and death will be destroyed and gone forevermore.  Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!

Beloved, have you received God's free gift of forgiveness and eternal life? "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved...for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:9,13)

And that, my friends, is His story!

Is Jesus in your story?

               

1MR. GREENLEAF'S UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER. Copyright 2015, Jill Glassco

               

             

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Stoke the Fire!

A wintry night at our river cabin, Christmas 2014

"So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
 word of God. " (Romans 10:17)

        It took an hour and a half of feeding on the word
of God this morning before my pitiful mind shifted 
from cares of life to the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
humility, and self-control).

        The Bible, my friend, is to faith in Jesus as fuel is 
to a fire. When the wood supply is cut off, flames dim 
to embers, which over time die and grow cold. So it is 
with faith. Without a steady supply of God's truth, faith 
in God sinks to doubt and discouragement, which over 
time falls into stone-cold unbelief.

Beloved, have you stoked your faith fire today?

From The Schoolhouse, by me:

               I curled in a rocker by the fireplace for a long 
while after the others went to bed. The oak logs 
hissed and crackled in the heat of blue and yellow 
flames. I sat mesmerized by the red glow of hot coals 
beneath the grate and jumped when a sudden pop 
launched glittering sparks up the chimney.

         Before teaching at Shady Grove, I believed 
I could accomplish anything alone. Watching 
neighbors pull together and work as a team to save 
my school, however, helped me realize the need for God 
and community.

               I opened my Bible to Ecclesiastes and in 
the dimming firelight read, "Two are better than one 
because they have a good return for their labor. For 
if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion...
a cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart."   

               On that wintry night, King Solomon's proverb 
penetrated my heart as never before. I added a log 
to the fire before heading to bed and then peeked through 
the lace curtains to discover a snow-globe wonderland...

Illustration from The Schoolhouse
by talented artist, Cami Monet Webb

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Recreated

My Rebecca and our princess,
"All dressed up for girls' night out"
2010ish

"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Cor. 5:17)



              When my blog's background template mysteriously vanished last week, my Rebecca recreated the wonderful family storybooks blogspot. Thank you, Rebecca! What do you think about the new design?

              When Father God snatches a soul from the flames of judgment through faith in His Son, Jesus, He recreates them and gives them new life and new beginnings. Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

Beloved, are you walking in new life or stumbling back into old ways? 

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God [daily] as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:12-13)
               

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Do Not Be Afraid or Discouraged!

My I-asked-God-for-twenty-years son-in-law and my sweet grandson

"Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9 HCSB)



                You may be asking, "Jill, did you really ask God for your son-in-law for twenty years?"
                Yep, sure did! When our Rebecca was two, I began asking the Lord to choose her husband and to please not let her marry anyone else. She and Stephen met the first day of seventh grade; and after years of being best friends, in 2004 they became "best friends forever." Today, even though my baby girl lives five hundred miles away, I don't worry about her, because Stephen and Jesus are right beside her wherever she goes.

Beloved are you afraid or discouraged today? Be strong! Be courageous! The greater-than-best friend you'll ever have is with you everywhere you go. And His name is Jesus!

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Detailed Instructions

"Storytime"
my grandkids and me, 2009

"Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction...Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go." (Joshua 1:7)

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die." (Gen. 2:16-17)

And God said to [David], "It shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle..." (1 Chron. 14:14-15)

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus." (Luke 1:30-31)

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyratira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." (Rev. 1:10-11)

          From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible records God speaking detailed instructions to both male and female individuals; and with their obedience, came monumental blessings; however, with their disobedience, came disastrous calamities.

                   I strongly believe that God continues, even to this day, to give detailed instructions to those who will listen. (In 2011, I believe the Lord said, "Jill, it's time to write a story," and four books later, He said, "Go to schools and libraries and daycare facilities and nursing homes and wherever I send you to read these stories to children and adults, whom I love.")

Beloved, God still gives detailed instructions. Are you listening? More importantly, are you obeying?

"Take hold of My instructions; don't let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life." (Prov. 4:13)

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Passing the Servanthood Baton

"Selfie" of my Rebecca and me,
Legoland, Chicago, 2014

After the death of Moses the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses. "Moses My servant is dead. Now you...." (Joshua 1:1-2a HCSB)

           

            Recently, I've been meditating on and memorizing Joshua 1:1-9. (Don't be impressed. I read the Bible daily; but to my shame, I rarely make the effort to memorize passages of Scripture.) In these verses, God tells Joshua three times to be strong and courageous; but today, I realized I've been missing perhaps the most important message in the passage. Moses the Lord's servant was dead, and Joshua, who had served Moses, became the next servant of the Lord - the baton of servanthood passed on so that God's work continued.

            I've had the privilege of teaching the Bible for years and years and more years than maybe you've been alive. Ha! When my children were little, I taught it to kids. When they were teens I taught teenagers. And these days, I teach to whoever will listen; while in another state, praise the Lord, my Rebecca and her hubby, Stephen, teach the Bible to literally hundreds of children each week. 

            Jesus said to go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19). In other words, serve the Lord and continually pass batons of servanthood on to others - multiplying disciples of Christ.

Two questions for us this morning, beloved:

1.  What are our God-assigned places of service?

2.  Who are we passing service batons to?

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I Believe in Jesus

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." (Romans 1:20 NLT)

I believe in God our Father

I believe in Christ the Son

I believe in the Holy Spirit

Our God is three in One




I believe in the resurrection



That we will rise again

For I believe in the name of Jesus!1

Do you?
There is no excuse.

1 THIS I BELIEVE (THE CREED), by Hillsong.

2 Photos by my Rebecca and me.

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Look Up!

My little nephew and my superman on Saturday's
walk through the woods.

"Happy are the people whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of [Weeping], they make it a source of spring water; even the autumn rain will cover it with blessings. They go from strength to strength; each appears before God in Zion." (Psalm 84:5-7)



          My wise father once said, "The journey through life is just a series of problem solving."

          Beloved, are you trudging through a typhoon of trouble? 

Look up...

Saturday's brilliant blue sky

to Jesus - the One who takes streams of tears and makes a mighty river of abundant life.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield.

The Lord gives grace and glory;

He does not withold the good

from those who live with integrity.

Happy is the person who trusts in You,

Lord of Hosts!"

(Psalm 84:11-12)

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Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World

"Jacob and Mr. Greenleaf"
from Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer
by my friend and talented artist, Dawn Copeland

This is what the Lord says..."I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself." (Jer. 31:3 NLT)

For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son [Jesus], so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NLT)

Jesus said, "Let the children come to Me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children." (Matt. 19:14 NLT)

              This morning at 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, I believe the Lord said, "Jill, pray for the  hearers, as well as the readers, of Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer."

              Why would God give an instruction such as this? It's because Jesus loves the little children of the world and their mamas and daddys and grandpaws and grandmaws and aunts and uncles and older brothers and older sisters and teachers and whosoever will read a biblical storybook to little ones.

Oh, Father, thank You for loving people enough to send Jesus to rescue us from our own sins. Thank You, Jesus, for dying in our place that we may have forgiveness of our sins and everlasting life with You. Please get this storybook into the hands of many families and use it as a tool to draw readers and hearers very close to You. Please teach them to love You, obey Your voice, and hold fast to You all the days of their lives on earth till the day we will join You in heaven forever. To God be the glory! In Jesus' sweet name I pray. Amen and amen.

Sneak peek into storybook-in-the-making, Mr. Greenleaf's Unforgettable Summer:

               “Mamaw, it’s time for another Bible story,” said Elizabeth.

            Mr. Greenleaf’s teensy ears perked up as tall as a little, green tree frog’s ears can perk. He wiggled down the handle and perched on the watering pot spout so as not to miss a single word.

            Splendid, thought the froggy, another Bible story!

            “Have I ever told you about the forty year camping trip?” said Mrs. Willowkins.

            “I wanna go camping,” said Isaac.

            “Not for forty years!” said Elizabeth.

            “Papaw, did someone really camp out for forty years,” said Jacob, “or is Mamaw just pulling our leg?”

            “It’s true. A camping trip through the desert that should have taken only eleven days turned into a forty-year journey in the wilderness for Moses and the children of Israel,” said Mr. Willowkins.

            “How come?” said Elizabeth

          “Well, God’s children, the Israelites, had lived in Egypt for a long time - Exodus 12:40 says 430 years,” said Mrs. Willowkins. “And even though the Lord loved His people greatly, they had become slaves to the Egyptians.”

“When something bad happens, it doesn’t means that God doesn’t love us,” added Mr. Willowkins. “And when we sin, or do something wrong, God still loves us, just like your parents still love you even when you make mistakes.”1

1 MR. GREENLEAF'S UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER. Copyright Jill Glassco 2015

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