O Holy Night

it is almost here.
the most wonderful time of the year.
not just because of the presents and the food and the family time - fun though they are.
but because, on this most holy of nights, God comes to us as one of us.
Amazing love.

Here are the team's thoughts on the challenge.
We would ask for prayers for Kim S and her family and her area. Due to bad weather and power cuts, there are two families staying with them at the moment and the ice storms have not abated.

We pray that all of you have a blessed Christmas!

Lythan
Hazel






Kim

Esther

Ruth

Kimberly

God is Good

What, what would have become of me had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living! Psalm 27:3 AMP

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Psalm 145:8-9 AMP

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10 AMP

The foundation of my belief in God is that He is Good and that He loves me. When I discovered John 10:10 in the Bible, I realized that it isn’t God who causes all the bad things in the world, but that He wants to give us a good, abundant life. Gloria Copeland in her book Blessed beyond Measure says “God is absolutely just and righteous. Remember that. God is always right! If things are not working, if things are not good – it’s not His fault. He’s not being hard hearted. He’s not failing to listen or being unfaithful to you. God has never withheld good from people who would obey Him. He has always desired to abundantly bless His people. That is why He gives us His Word – so we can receive it, do it, and be blessed.” That is not to say that bad things will never happen to us if we believe God’s word, but it is important to realize that it is not God who has inflicted these troubles upon us. He will always do what is best for us and will help us through troubled times and gives us just as He promised - a good, abundant life.

Thank you for joining us this week as we celebrate the extraordinary goodness of our God. Kimberly White

Kimberly

Kim

Hazel
Lythan
Ruth
Esther

Comfort in Suffering

Welcome back to the SALT blog! We're blessed that you are able to join us and pray that this week's challenge - Comfort in Suffering - will be an encouragement to you.

Recently, I (Kim) came across a heading in my Bible that made me read further, “Comfort in Suffering.” Suffering? Doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? No one likes to suffer and yet everyone has suffered to some degree in their lives, affected by sickness, death, divorce, disappointment…the list goes on. What good thing can be gained by suffering?

Salvation....Christ willingly offered Himself up to the most horrific suffering ever experienced; the brutal torture and ultimate death on the cross to pay for the sins of His people. What He experienced was the epitome of suffering. Had it not been for Christ’s willingness to suffer in our place, we would be forever bound to sin and misery and face an eternal end far worse than any suffering here on earth.

The comfort of others...God can use our sufferings to be a blessing and comfort to someone else. Can someone who has never lost a loved one truly understand the grief associated with such a loss? Not entirely. But someone who has had the same experience can be of great comfort to a grieving individual since they can identify with such despair.

Our final deliverance...Scripture tells us that we may be "burdened beyond measure, above strength, and despaired even of life." Our hope and comfort can not be found here on this earth but is found in the One who is able to deliver us from physical, and more importantly, spiritual death. As Paul states in II Corinthians 2, "Our hope for you (the church) is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation."

Suffering in this life is unavoidable but through Christ we have great reason to rejoice, in good times and bad. We can rest in knowing that God has a sovereign purpose both in our troubles and in the comfort that He gives us in them.

We invite you to join with us in celebrating the comfort found in Christ by creating a card, scrapbook page, or other project based on this week's theme. Leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd love to see your creation!!

Kim

Lythan
Hazel
Ruth
Esther

Hope

We'd like to thank you for visiting our blog and for those who have shown us such beautiful creations. We look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you have come up with - please leave us a comment and a link so that we can visit.

Our theme this time is

Hope

We are living in uncertain times, so it's understandable if folk feel that there is no hope. As Christians, we have hope because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. This hope isn't an airy-fairy 'maybe' for the future, but it is a certainty that we can claim now.

In our church we have recently been privileged to hear a series of sermons on hope, which is what prompted me to choose this topic now. On Sunday we sang the song which is on my LO, which I feel sums up our Christian hope:

Our confidence is in the Lord
The source of our salvation
Rest is found in Him alone
The Author of creation
We will not fear the evil day
Because we have a refuge
In every circumstance we say
Our hope is built on Jesus

The verse from Hebrews 6:19 says it much better than I could: 'We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.'

We pray that you may have the joy of experiencing this hope for yourself.
We would love you to show us your interpretations of this theme.

Hazel

Ruth

Esther

Kimberly
Kim
Lythan

Give Thanks (with a grateful heart)

A self explanitory topic this week of

GIVE THANKS

(with a grateful heart)

Isn't there an abundance of things that we can be grateful to God for?! For starters - sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sin, so that whoever believes in him will not perish eternally in hell, but live with Him forever and ever and ever in heaven- praise God!

Ok so it might not be easy to thank God in the hard times, but lets not forget all the blessings he has given to us and be thankful for them! Amen?!

We are sorry to see two of our design team members leave us due to other commitments, thanks to Gillian and Casey for their dedication and beautiful work which they have contributed to SALT since it started.

The Lord bless you Sisters!

Esther

Kim Hazel

Kimberly

Ruth

Lythan

Rest

Good evening or good morning to you depending on where you are in the world! Thanks to all those lovely people who left us a comment for the last challenge!

This week the topic I have chosen is rest. Now I am not just talking about the physical act of rest (although that is something I do enjoy LOL!). Jesus talks about rest in Matthew 11:28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Now in those days, young men were given the chance to take on the yoke of a Rabbi. This meant that if they proved themselves worthy, they could study from this Rabbi and almost mirror his life. They had to do this 'til they were 30yrs old. At this time, they could start their own ministry. This was a really huge, all consuming task which was a heavy burden to carry.

What Jesus is saying is that we can take on his yoke and will not burden us. He promises to give us rest from all our seeking and striving to be acceptable. That's the bit I think is cool. So often I find myself striving so hard and have not even asked God to walk with me through it.

When I consciously walk through things with God, it is then that experience the REST he is talking about. It is a rest or peace in my heart, even amidst chaos.

My prayer is that you too may experience this rest.

Please join with us this week in creating something to share. Don't forget to leave us a comment so we can share it with you. Blessings, Casey

Casey Hazel

Lythan
Kimberly
Ruth

Kim

Esther

Pray Continually

Prayer is the life line of a Christian, the powerhouse of the church, essential to growing in faith and relationship with the Lord.

As a busy mum it is easy to get through the day and have not bended my knee in prayer to the Lord. Throwing up prayers whilst washing up or walking to school sometimes has to be my lifeline and one aspect of praying continually.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18

However I think this verse implies more, that we are not to give up praying. It's not a one off act, it should be part of every day of the rest of our lives.

Please make a project that might help you to pray or be a response to meditating on this theme.

Ruth

The little spade is remind me that it's hard work but worth it!

Kim
Hazel


Esther

Lythan

Casey

Kimberly

He knows us inside and out

Last time it was my turn (Lythan) I chose the Psalms as the challenge theme. I'm having a variation on that this time as I would like you to look in depth at a particular Psalm - Psalm 139. It is quite long so why not have a look at it here. That way you can also see a variety of translations.

this is one of the Psalms that I love best. It is quite challenging in parts but there is plenty to reflect on as well. Sometimes it is so comforting, sometimes a bit scary to think that God knows us so well. What does the idea that

He knows us inside and out

mean to you?

I am really looking forward to seeing what you produce. Here are the team's ideas

Lythan


Hazel

Kimberly

Kim

Casey

Ruth