Let's Introduce Ourselves to the Beatitudes! Winners!

Hi Friends~ 

Great news!  We did have a person leave a Scripture from a mother in the Bible over Mother's Day.  She has an extra card coming to her.  Congratulations Charlotte Ann. And, I am so glad you had such a special day! Here is her comment:

Beautiful! I'm sorry your son wasn't able to be with you this weekend. I understand. Having lived on the mission field, I've experienced many holidays (including Mother's Day) separated from my children. And, even though we are now pastoring here in the States, it's still difficult to see them on the holidays. But, I'm extremely thankful that we're on the same continent and I can talk to them daily. {And, I was blessed today, as my two sons surprised me by traveling up to spend the afternoon with me! What a joy to see them!} You asked for a quote from a mother. Oh, there are so many wonderful examples of mothers in the Bible, but today I thought of Hagar. After she became pregnant, Sarah mistreated her, so she fled. But the angel of the Lord found her near a spring in the desert, and told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her. At that point, she gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me, for she said, 'I have now seen the God who sees me."  _______________________________ Let's Introduce Ourselves to the Beatitudes! I found a wonderful series about the Beatitudes in the Discipleship Journal from November/December 2003!  I will be sharing excerpts about each of the Beatitudes in the next few posts.  Don't worry...I will still be announcing winners of the He IS Able Card Set Give-Away each week.  Today's portion is from Sue Kline, Editor of Discipleship Journal. Miss Kline writes the introduction telling us that besides when Jesus called  the Disciples to follow Him, He led them to a mountainside where they were hungry to learn from Him.  "Ah, now the teaching would begin!  But I doubt they imagined that the first words from His mouth--and all the words that came after--would turn everything they knew upside down. It wouldn't surprise me if their first response was despair.  For the heartwarming "blessed are" statements are easily drowned out by words such as poor, mournful, hungry, persecuted.  This is the lot of a disciple!  Can I un-enlist? Essential to comprehending the blessing of the Beatitudes is understanding the teacher who speaks them to us.  For this is no ordinary teacher.  This teacher is also the Savior.  As a teacher, He tells us what we should be --and it is frightfully distant from what we sense we are in our hearts.  Hence the despair.  But as Savior--the only Savior--He transforms us into what He says we should be.  Hence the blessing. "Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher," Jesus tells us in Luke 6:40.  The teacher we follow is poor in spirit, pure in heart, meek, merciful, a peacemaker.  He is the embodiment of the Beatitudes.  And, so are His disciples.  We may not always feel meek or pure in heart; we may fail at times to demonstrate mercy and peaceableness.  That does not cancel the reality.  We have, by God's grace and mercy, become like our teacher. We are, by the power and persistence of the Holy Spirit, becoming like our teacher. This issue's special section is filled with stories from disciples like you and me--the people of the Beatitudes.  They live with poverty and spirit, they mourn, they are persecuted, they hunger, they embrace purity of heart, and they make peace.  They have discovered that while being a disciple may not always be easy, it is blessed.  May you, too, embrace and enjoy the blessings of Beatitude living."  ______________________ OK-- The Winner of this week's He IS Able Card Set Give-Away is... Tammy!    Congratulations, Tammy!  Please email me your mailing address if it is here in the United States.  You have won 3 wonderful, hand-made, donated cards and envelopes.  I will mail the cards out to you.  How did you win?  Not by what you wrote...which was very sweet and kind of you...thank you.  Your comment was randomly drawn...and then we drew a number 1-5 to decide how many cards you would receive!  You have until Tuesday at midnight to email me with your address or the cards go back into the stash of cards we have. The rest of you also have until Midnight Tuesday to leave your thoughts, prayer requests, anything in the comment section to be eligible to win the give-away next week!  Maybe you want to share your favorite Beatitude or your Testimony...perhaps your favorite woman of the Bible!  It would be very exciting to read about any of the things on your mind!  God bless! He IS Able! Traci Starkweather tracistarkweather@gmail.com p.s.  I do not know why the post went into a skinny little column in parts.  If any of you have a blog, or dont, and know what I have done to cause this, PLEASE let me know, so I can fix it!  Please, my email is just above. Thank you so very much!