The First Step is the Hardest

There are no extroverts here at the Spell home. We try to push ourselves outside of our bubble and "stretch" ourselves as they say when it's necessary  but it's never easy. I am fine once I get to know you  but entering a new room of people who all know each other and I don't know a soul... not my idea of a good time. I have been involved with a church home since I was 12 years old. Going to church and to small group (aka Sunday School) is a privilege. We love having a church home. It's a great support system. However, just like anything else, sometimes change is uncomfortable. Last year our small group leader needed a break from teaching at the same time as other transitions  were occurring. Our entire group disbanded. We were all reluctantly in search of a new small group. Now, I realize that for some (the "extroverts") this would be a new adventure but not for me. I was comfortable there. I  knew everyone. I loved my little group. Our present church is a huge church. Many, many, many people attend every Sunday and we only know a small portion of them. However, because of circumstance we had resolved that we would visit multiple groups several times and not just land in the first class we visited (the stretching I was referring to). I realized through this process of visiting between many different classes a few times each that the first step was the hardest. After you were there and people spoke to you it was fun. It was just the walking in part that was difficult.  Gaining new perspective is so important. We had been in our former class for a number of years. Visitors would come and go. We would meet them and try to be warm and friendly, but I had forgotten how difficult it was to break into a new group. I would imagine it would even be more challenging going to church for the very first time as an adult. Even though the door is always open at every Bible believing church, walking through the door to the first available seat, now that is the challenge. It takes courage. It did for me when I was just 12 and joined my first church. God has blessed me through the years. Though we have moved from various churches for various reasons we still have a connection with our "church family"  from years ago and currently. Every Sunday we come together to worship the Living God and unite as a body of believers. We lift each other up in prayer and support each other in times of greatness and times of challenge. The courage pays off. Being able to worship and serve along side other believers is a true blessing.

"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). 

Love Myself a Good Road Trip!

In our family, road trips will just always be apart of fond memories. Every new road is an adventure. We never know what we will see. On this trip, my husband spotted this row of old trucks. They were rusty and falling apart but deliberately arranged as if they were works of art. These old trucks had a lot of history. The current owner to a family farm realized that every work truck his  family had ever owned had been parked and left some where on the property. He finally decided he was going to gather all the vehicles to the same location. He parked them all out by the main road and took great pride in placing them in chronological order. What a find! We arrived there late afternoon. I could have stayed for hours shooting photos but I realized I had to move quick. The sun was beginning to set behind the pine trees.  I am fascinated  when the sun moves and the lighting changes every few moments revealing a fresh take on a subject. The world goes away and you just get caught up in each moment eagerly looking to see what awaits you. Fun.

Miss Fanny J. Crosby

Do you ever just break out in song? I do.  I start cleaning and all the songs I ever sang in church just start coming out. One of the great hymns that I often sing is Blessed Assurance. When I took this photo, I turned the pages quickly and found a song that  felt familiar to me. It wasn't until I began editing my photos did I realize the impact this song has had on my life. It's such a happy song to me and one that is ingrained in my heart.

Pg 103       Fanny J. Crosby

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
   Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
   Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
   Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
   
   
   
   • Refrain:
     This is my story, this is my song,
     Praising my Savior all the day long;
     This is my story, this is my song,
     Praising my Savior all the day long.
4. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
   Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
   Angels, descending, bring from above
   Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
5. Perfect submission, all is at rest,
   I in my Savior am happy and blest,
   Watching and waiting, looking above,
   Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
6. Miss Fanny J. Crosby wrote over 8000 hymns. Amazingly enough, she credited her blindness as to the reason she received a higher level of education and therefore set her on the path of poetry and song writing. When I read about specific Christians in history, I am reminded that we are all here with an individualized plan but all with the same opportunity, to bring glory to the Heavenly Father.   Miss Crosby was quoted as having said that if she could request one thing on the day of her birth it would be to be blind. She must have found that her blindness focused and strengthened her. Whatever the exact reason for her quote, what a testament to "...count it all joy."  She rose above the darkness of her circumstance and pointed people to the light in her life through poetry and song. What a personal challenge. Can I say that I rose above the darkness in my life and pointed others to the light of Jesus? This is a question that we will each have to answer. God never promised that there would be life without turmoil. 
7. James 1: 2-6   Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
8. Miss Crosby lived to be 95 years old and died in 1915. The words she composed in her heart live on for future generations.   When singing a hymn in church, we stand before the Almighty God, giving offerings of praise through song. In those moments, it all just becomes real. We could be in the midst of a thousand people but it's really just us looking to God. We apply the words from the song we are singing and begin to analyze our lives and relationship to the Father and pray. It turns out I have sung many of Miss Crosby's songs. Her thoughts and words will always be a part of my life and more than likely my children's as well. 

Click to read more about Fanny Crosby

I have an old church bulletin...

I have an old church bulletin, well actually, I have a few. I saved them from years and years ago. There is just something about them. Names that are familiar. The style of writing is familiar. Even the font is something that takes me back. These were the  days before computers were all the rage and  we sang holding a shared hymnal. I came to know the Lord personally when I was twelve and decided I needed to join a church and so I did.  Reading the bulletin was the very first thing I did every Sunday after I walked through church doors. I grew up in that church and attended every Sunday. Honestly, I passed a l-o-t of notes written on those bulletins sitting on the back pew for quite a few years.   I even remember hiding my face in them when some friend sitting next to me cracked me up in the middle of the sermon and I just knew I was going to get in trouble.   But there is something about having these bulletins now, grown with children of my own, that make me smile. There are words on there: Doxology, Invitation, Deacon On Call, Offering, Puppet Ministry, Acteens, "Just As I Am", etc... that became such apart of who I am. How fortunate was I to have been embraced by this body of believers who taught me how to walk with the Lord and challenged me on so many levels. These bulletins represent pastors, teachers, deacons, and friends of all ages who I will forever be grateful to. Now as I raise my children in a Christian home, I reflect on those experiences and strive to be the person who God would have me become hoping that my children will too one day reflect on their days of worship in the church with fond memories.

Psalm 100

Psalm 100 NIV 

A psalm. For giving thanks.

 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
       come before him with joyful songs.
 ³ Know that the LORD is God.
       It is he who made us, and we are his ^[a] ;
       we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
       and his courts with praise;
       give thanks to him and praise his name.
 ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
       his faithfulness continues through all generations.

 When I walk into a really old church by myself (because my wonderful husband is playing with the kids outside),  I get chills down my spine and often tears just come. I try to just soak up my environment visually before I take the first shot. I begin to notice the architecture of the church and see the age and the wrinkles of time. The realization that generations of people have come before the Lord in this place to worship the Living God is not lost on me. I picture all the heart felt moments of people that  must have knelt before the Lord petitioning Him to answer their prayers.  I think about how many notes  were played on the dusty church piano and how many people nervously stood before a congregation and sang a beautiful song in worship. I imagine  what the church was like when it was brand new and the prayers of dedication that must have took place that the Lord would be honored. The most amazing of all of course, is that God doesn't have to imagine, He remembers. He remembers every tear of sadness, every tear of joy and every tear of every person who made Him Lord of their life. He is good. His love edures. He is faithful... forever... to all generations.
There are many reasons why I shoot photography, but THIS is why I love the Christian Legacy Collection. The church isn't static. The weathering of time does change things. The modern church doesn't look like it did generations ago. In fact, my church doesn't even have pews.  ( I okay with that. ) But our God??? He does not change. He is the same. He made us and we are His people. I am honored and privileged to praise Him and to know Him as my Lord and God.