The gift of God to man is beyond computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more, or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven.
-How God’s Love is Manifested, Part 1
by Ellen G. White
Category: Bible
Prayer for AHE Families
Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for your unending love.
We thank you for this season in which others are more open to hearing your message. Please help us share that message this busy season with others that we meet.
Be with our homeschooling families as we work to teach and train our kids in what is right.
Give us strength.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen.
Motivation Monday
Fathers and mothers, however pressing your business, do not fail to gather your family around God’s altar. Ask for the guardianship of holy angels in your home. Remember that your dear ones are exposed to temptations. Daily annoyances beset the path of young and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray. Only by receiving constant help from God can we gain the victory over self.
Ministry of Healing, 393
Hannah’s Sunshine
From the earliest dawn of intellect she had taught her son to love and reverence God and to regard himself as the Lord’s. By every familiar object surrounding him she had sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother’s solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made, with her own hands, a robe of service for him; and as she went up with her husband to worship at Shiloh, she gave the child this reminder of her love. Every fiber of the little garment had been woven with a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values–that he might honor God and bless his fellow men. – Patriarchs and Prophets
Hannah’s Sunshine:
1. She taught her son to love and reverence God.
2. She taught him that he belonged to God.
3. Everything in her home was to lead Samuel to thoughts of God, our Creator.
4. She prayed for him night and day that he would be pure, noble, and true.
5. She made him a coat of service as a reminder of her love.
Motivation Monday
Let praise and thanksgiving be expressed in song. When tempted, instead of giving utterance to our feelings, let us by faith lift up a song of thanksgiving to God.
We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love,—
For Jesus who died and is now gone above.We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of light,
Who has shown us our Saviour, and scattered our night.All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
Who has borne all our sins, and has cleansed every stain.All glory and praise to the God of all grace,
Who has bought us, and sought us, and guided our ways.Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.Chorus: Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Hallelujah! amen; Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Revive us again.
Song is a weapon that we can always use against discouragement. As we thus open the heart to the sunlight of the Saviour’s presence, we shall have health and His blessing.
Ministry of Healing, 254
Rahab’s Sunshine
I once saw a Judge Judy show and she said, “the truth has a certain ring to it”. That has stuck with me over the years. I have even taught my preschoolers about what I call the “truth bell” as a result of this comment by this famous judge.
How hard it can be to believe and act on the truth that we know and hear. Not so with Rahab.
Joshua 6:25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho
Joshua had sent spies to Jericho. ‘They were, however, preserved by Rahab, a woman of Jericho, at the peril of her own life. In return for her kindness they gave her a promise of protection when the city should be taken.’ Patriarchs and Prophets pg.483
My thoughts on Rahab’s Sunshine:
1. She believed God. Rahab had heard enough about the God of Israel to know that He is God. When the spies came she knew that whatever they said would happen just as they said it would.
2. She helped those in His service. She was willing to risk her own life for these men…greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for a friend.
3. Her decided actions saved her mother, father and all her family. Her decision to believe and help the spies resulted in her family being safe.
4. She was kind. Love is kind.
Lord, help me to believe Your servants and act decidedly and quickly for the cause of what is true and right.
Further Thoughts….I do not know if Rahab was a mom. I do know that I read that “when mother is away the older sister is to be the mother to the younger ones”. Now, I do not know if Rahab was an older sister either. But, I listed her on Momma’s Sunshine because her character/faith/actions are worthy characteristics of any mother! I hope someone is encouraged by this post!
The Importance of Telling/Reading Bible Stories
In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and fear of God. Often in his father’s tent, under the Syrian stars, he had been told the story of the night vision at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and the descending and ascending angels, and of Him who from the throne above revealed Himself to Jacob. He had been told the story of the conflict beside the Jabbok, when, renouncing cherished sins, Jacob stood conqueror, and received the title of a prince with God.
A shepherd boy, tending his father’s flocks, Joseph’s pure and simple life had favored the development of both physical and mental power. By communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths span handed down as a sacred trust from father to son, he had gained strength of mind and firmness of principle.
In the crisis of his life, when making that terrible journey from his childhood home in Canaan to the bondage which awaited him in Egypt, looking for the last time on the hills that hid the tents of his kindred Joseph remembered his father’s God. He remembered the lessons of his childhood, and his soul thrilled with the resolve to prove himself true–ever to act as became a subject of the King of heaven.
Education pg. 52
Tonya regularly writes and shares about sunshine in the home on her blog, Momma’s Sunshine.
The Adventist Home Educator 