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the U.S. and from Canada also. Our office hours are from
8:00 am to 5:00 pm Central Time
1-866-JOY-8486
We will be happy to take an order or answer
any questions you may have about our
"God Is For Every Day" stories and songs.
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.For other reprints, permission may be obtained by contacting JoySoul Corporation at 1-866-569-8486 or carol@joysoul.com. Permission to use the photo "Symbols of Christianity" can be obtained at BigStockPhoto.com for a small licensing fee.
.For other reprints, permission may be obtained by contacting JoySoul Corporation at 1-866-569-8486 or carol@joysoul.com. Permission to use the photo "Symbols of Christianity" can be obtained at BigStockPhoto.com for a small licensing fee.
©2009 JoySoul Corporation
All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved
I give it from the bottom of my heart..
what it would be like to be the number -two female tennis player in the world? Now imagine that you are playing tennis at the French Open and your career is taken away from you in an instant with a shoulder injury. In her book, First Service, former tennis star Andrea Jaeger talks about how she chose to give her life to the service of God by helping children with cancer. Although her career was over and she had nothing she could offer but herself, she realized that God had been preparing her for something far beyond the tennis courts. He had been giving her the skills needed to build a place in nature where children with cancer could go to experience peace, hope, laughter and love. She writes that "The grace of God kept us going on our shoe-string budget. It was like the story of the fish and loaves of bread...that kept multiplying by some miracle." So the next time you feel like your world is caving in, stop, take a deep breath, and then ask God to show you the path of first service. You might be surprised when you discover what He has in mind for YOU!
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"I love you from the very, very, very, very bottom of my pea picking, liver loving heart. We used to say that when I was a little girl. And of course it became a game to see how big we could make our love grow by adding as many ‘very’s as possible. In turn. I’m sure that although the game probably got a little long for those family members who would play this word game, they surely appreciated just how far into the bottom of our hearts we could go to find our love.
So when I wrote "The Offering Song," I thought about how when we give to God, and give to others, what a great feeling it is to reach in down deep and give from the very bottom of our heart. As opposed to skimming off the top to give ‘just enough,’ or scraping the bottom of the barrel, reaching deep within yourself to look for and find the very best requires us to put on our thinking caps.
If we really want to learn about how to give, we need only look to God. He sent His only Son to us to teach us how to love completely and unselfishly. And teach us He did. He taught us about loving the unlovable, the people in our society who are outcasts or misfits. And He didn’t just talk about it, he did it by giving of his time and eating with those that the community considered unworthy or by taking water offered from a woman of another race, whose past was most certainly tainted. He also did it by showing us how to provide for our needs and the needs of others without undue worry as to how, because He who created all things will provide. He showed us in that moment when he accepted the offering of 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish and blessed it. Instead of hoarding it for Himself and His disciples He shared it and multiplied it to feed five thousand hungry people. He revealed to us that our gifts too, would be multiplied in the sharing. And most of all, in giving up His Life, he showed us love through forgiveness and self-sacrifice. He could have lived out His earthly life in seclusion into a ripe old age, writing thoughts about how to forgive others as God has forgiven us. But instead He allowed His Life to be ended at such a young age and with so much suffering, so that we would know the complete and true meaning of being forgiven and forgiving others. It’s not easy to comprehend, and it’s even more difficult to do. But Jesus did it from the very, very, very, very, very, very, very bottom of His heart. For us.
If we really want to learn about how to give, we need only look to God. He sent His only Son to us to teach us how to love completely and unselfishly. And teach us He did. He taught us about loving the unlovable, the people in our society who are outcasts or misfits. And He didn’t just talk about it, he did it by giving of his time and eating with those that the community considered unworthy or by taking water offered from a woman of another race, whose past was most certainly tainted. He also did it by showing us how to provide for our needs and the needs of others without undue worry as to how, because He who created all things will provide. He showed us in that moment when he accepted the offering of 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish and blessed it. Instead of hoarding it for Himself and His disciples He shared it and multiplied it to feed five thousand hungry people. He revealed to us that our gifts too, would be multiplied in the sharing. And most of all, in giving up His Life, he showed us love through forgiveness and self-sacrifice. He could have lived out His earthly life in seclusion into a ripe old age, writing thoughts about how to forgive others as God has forgiven us. But instead He allowed His Life to be ended at such a young age and with so much suffering, so that we would know the complete and true meaning of being forgiven and forgiving others. It’s not easy to comprehend, and it’s even more difficult to do. But Jesus did it from the very, very, very, very, very, very, very bottom of His heart. For us.
Can you imagine......
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