And the government shall rest upon His shoulders

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This verse is of course inspired by the recent election. In the bible we are told that God is in control. With Bush's victory many christians now have a sign of that as shown by the exit polls. About 70% of christians that attend church every week also voted for Bush. What if Bush didn't win? We are still told in Romans 8:28 that "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

They called him laughter

Genesis 21:3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him--whom Sarah bore to him--Isaac.

A little research on the name of Isaac reveals that his name means laughter or he laughs. How appropriate for this son of promise. Sarah explains it well in Genesis 21:6 "And Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." Sarah isn't the only one that laughed, and this isn't the first time. In Genesis 17:17 Abraham laughed when God first told him that Sarah would bear a child. He couldn't believe it, he was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. Then later in Genesis 18:12 Sarah laughed when she first heard the news from Jesus who came bearing the news. Here is Jesus' response.

Genesis 18:13-14 And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."

How do I laugh at Jesus when He promises me something? How do you?

Jesus Loves You

Serving Jesus

Matthew 12:7 But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Jesus calls us to have mercy and not condemn the guiltless. When people are serving Jesus He is not looking for them to perform a ritual just for the sake of a sacrifice. You can be sure though that mercy is often a sacrifice. Any call to action can be a sacrifice. It can take time, or money, or a sacrifice of giving up comfort to help someone that needs mercy. What is the ultimate mercy that we can show someone? The mercy of doing whatever we can to share the message of salvation with them. Not everyone wants to hear that Jesus Loves them and is knocking on the door of their heart, waiting for them to invite Him in. It can be a sacrifice of our reputation to spread this message of mercy.

Jesus Loves You