Psalm 25:4

Teach me your ways , lead me in your path. (quoted by Kadin)

Kadin says "we want God to lead us and to live the life that God has planned for us. ". He played Mercy Me song called Goodbye Ordinary. He said " this song reminds us to live 1 day at a time and to live extravagantly. Maybe people will come to know Jesus by thinking about choices and get on the good path. "

Well said K-diddy!

Devin - psalms 9:1-6

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you. For you have upheld my right and my cause,
sitting enthroned as the righteous judge. You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished. (Psalm 9:1-6 NIV)

We should talk to each other like this to remind us of who God is in our lives. God has saved us and we have so much to be thankful for.

Gina - Psalm 33:1-3

I will exalt the Lord at all times his praise will continuously be on my lips my soul will boast in the Lord may the afflicted hear and rejoice glorify the Lord with me let us exalt his name together!!

Or something like that. I wrote that verse from memory thinking that quoting scripture from our hearts is powerful. We talked about how much it means to hear someone quote a truth from the word of God - it gives the hearer the feel of what the meaning word is to you. It's awesome to have that word penetrate your heart coming from the depth of someone else's soul.

Let's make every effort to write His word on our hearts as much as we can!!!

Liv - Acts

You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. (Acts 20:34-36 NIV)

Liv pulled it is more blessed to give than to receive " out of this message this morning. It was very timely for our family since we hosted a few extra children last night. Wonderful , adorable kids who just needed a little kindness. I know this may sound boastful so forgive me but I tearfully watched my kids go into action with love and kindness towards them. One of our lines on our family creed is to "give from our time and stuff so that others may experience God's love". And the Wessel kids rose to the challenge. Thank you Jesus for working in our hearts and for an awesome example of giving to follow.

Devin - Philippians 1:9-11

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 NIV)

Dev says that this is Paul's prayer for the people. For us to love like God takes depth of insight. Gods love is so deep that we will never fully get it till we are with him. Discern what is best is something we all should all want to do. Our goal is that we live without offense till the day of Jesus Christ who is where our righteousness comes from.
Being careful to put on his righteousness and not doing a good life on our own.

Gina - Proverbs 17:19,22

Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin;
whoever builds a high gate invites destruction. A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:19, 22 NIV)

It was a good reminder today for this family of 5 that engaging in quarrels with one another can be sin.  That being okay with a good fight with a brother or sister is NOT GOOD.   This verse talks about a "high gate" and in further study we learned that a high gate is like PRIDE.... and we've all been there where we can't admit we are wrong or say I'm sorry but rather we "build the gate" and say no, I'm not fixing this.  That kind of decision invites destruction to our  family and our home.  
We choose PEACE!

Last night Kadin and Devin noticed a girl next to our car dancing to the music and then she did a double take as she realized the boys were watching her and she just stared back with big eyes and no expression and the boys just busted out laughing.... so hard!  It made us all laugh and then Kadin would think about it again and that belly laugh would come back.  I seriously felt a warm sensation over my heart and face as I was laughing with them.   Truly laughter is good medicine for our souls.  It made me realize that I need to allow more time to laugh - I get so busy that I miss out on the cheerful things happening all around me.  Lord forgive me!  I feel more like the crushed spirit these days with dried up bones than a warm cheerful heart.

Our prayer today is for peace among us all and lots of laughter!
Lord LET IT BE!

Livia - Acts 6

Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God." So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (Acts 6:8-15 NIV)

Stephen was stoned by the people. He cried out like Jesus "lord do not hold this against them!". He was a man who was bold about his faith. People misunderstood his proclaims to "destroy the temple" again like Jesus.
And wow, Saul (later , Paul) approved his stoning.

Kadin - Psalm 1

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)

Kadin "Kind of like if you believe in God this is the way your life would be, ya know... Blessed , like a tree planted by streams - a strong tree nourished by Gods water."


Very nice K-diddy!

G - Romans 8:1

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1 NIV)

One of my favorite verses. On a day like today when I'm feeling kind of yucky it's nice to read a promise like this one. My God is everything I need. I will always be in Christ Jesus - cant imagine being IN anything else!

Tim - Luke 7 (Our friend Steven!)

Luke 7

The Faith of the Centurion

¹ When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. ² There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. ³ The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. ⁴ When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, ⁵ because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” ⁶ So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. ⁷ That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁸ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
⁹ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” ¹⁰ Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well!

Our good, family friend, Steven Bosworth suffered a brain aneurysm this week.  We were stunned.  Yesterday Tim was able to pull his "Pastor" card and visit him in ICU at the UofM, he is doing great and he is a true miracle!!!

Our family  had the cool privilege of praying with Steven this morning on speaker phone before we started our day.   Tim shared with him the scripture we read this morning and how much it reminded us of him!  For those of you who know Steven like we do the story describes his humility, serventhood and GREAT FAITH perfectly.   Steven just stands out from the rest.  He has served more than anyone of us every dream of serving and we see God's favor on his body now - a divine touch from above we know.   Tim cried as he read this scripture this morning because he said truly he experienced what the men did in this scripture when he went to the hospital "they returned to the house and FOUND THE SERVANT WELL".

We are praising the Lord this morning for our dear friend's life.  Kadin prayed that God would touch Steven's body so that he can ride his bike again real soon.  We love you Steven!

Livia - Philemon 1:3

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philemon 1:3 NIV)

This is a greeting that many letters written in the Bible start with. This is a great example for us and how we should greet others. Wishing grace and peace upon their lives now and always.

Grace is unmerited favor, which means that there is nothing we can do to earn grace. It's a free gift fro God.

Peace is being friends with your enemies and working hard to keep unity in your relationships.

Devin - Romans 12:10

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10 NIV)

How do we devote ourselves to one another or how do we honor each other?

Liv - give your things away
Tim- withhold prideful thoughts (like winning a game)
Liv - apologize quickly
G - listen to each other when you talk
Tim - even people who hurt you, serve them with a loving true heart

Above yourself is huge. Don't be so stinking selfish! And be okay with it.
Enjoy it. This concept is life changing. And God's word will teach this wisdom to us.

Liv prayed : come into our lives and help us love of each other !!!

Gina - Proverbs 19:11

A person's wisdom yields patience;
it is to one's glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11 NIV)

I had a situation recently where I felt like someone was not getting me , they gave me odd looks and an awkward "ookkay" kind of answer that left me wondering. I prayed about it because I kinda wanted to "go after it" I you know what I mean. Then this morning I found this scripture!   I want to be wise , I want to be Christ-like. God thanks for your wisdom and guidance in my life.

Tim - 2 Peter 1:1-3

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:2-4 NIV)

His power has given us everything we need for a Godly life. We get to live in a divine nature. To live, love, forgive, have wisdom like nothing else !

Can we escape evil desires ? We might have the thoughts but we can defeat those thoughts an desires with Christ in us.

Livia - Judges 16

So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man." (Judges 16:17 NIV)

Livia: It's kind of like...why did he finally trust her after she kept trying to kill him? We don't think right all the time and that's why we need to always counsel with God and the wise leaders in our lives.

God is our strength!

Tim - Philippians 3:1-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12 NIV)

Paul is saying "I'm doing this!" but it's all a loss in comparison to KNOWING Christ. He thought he was good (righteous) but he realized that he's not without the cross, without Christ. Knowing Christ is our hope!!!

Doing good does not get it, being in Christ is what matters.

"The surpassing worth" ( way more valuable than we can imagine or come up with).

Kadin: "Dad, Are there churches that just believe in God but don't worship him?"

Whooa - where did that come from?

Wow.