Thank You Note...

Today I was sitting in church and the theme for breaking of bread service was "Being thankful for the love of Christ." And one of the men that shared a thought was my friend Sam Carl. He shared from Romans 5 (Romans, always a good choice) and as he was tying it in to being thankful he used the illustration of writing thank you note after every birthday or Christmas. One if his thoughts was, "how do you write a thank you note to God?" The answer of course is by living your life for him. But that did get me thinking about a thank you note to God and what that would look like. So here is my version of a thank you note to God.



Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gifts you have given me. They are numerous and undeserved. Some times they are taken for granted, but when it comes down to it they are truly appreciated. I would like to take the time and thank you for each of the gifts you have given to me. First and foremost I want to thank you for your son dying on the cross in my place. For that the is no way I can ever repay you. No amount of praise or thanks can ever equal the love of that sacrifice. Thank you for the breath that you continue to lend me day after day. Thank you for the loving parents and family that you have given me. Thank you for my job. Thank you for my car. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for you protection that you show me every day. Thank you for my apartment and the shelter that you have provided for me. Thank you for the love that you have shown me. Thank you for the grace and mercy that you show me. Thank you for my bed and a warm place to sleep. And I know that there is so much more that you have given me or have done for me and I don't think that I can list it all. But thank you for being you. For being a loving, merciful, gracious God. And thank you for having patients with me, for loving me when I forget all you blessings and fail to acknowledge you in every moment of my life and in all the things I do or have.

Thank you,
Your undeserving son,
Jake

None Did I Deserve...

When I think upon the love of Christ I come to realize that none did I deserve. A lowly sinner, not interested in the things of Him. He who would give his son to me. The love that is displayed in that very act reassures me that none did I deserve. This seems a thing not of joy. But to me this is the most joyous thing I know. To not deserve but to receive freely the most precious gift of all, the love of Christ. The love of the all powerful, most high, glorious, worthy of praise, infinite God of the universe. Freely given to me, for nothing I did or could ever do, but for the simple of fact that he loved me. None did I deserve but freely I received.

Life

For the past year I have been near dead in my faith. It has been a depressing, overwhelming and hard year. In the past month I have truly felt the Lord's blessing. It started when my cousin offered me the chance to drive out to Iowa with her and her husband. When I got out here I started feeling that the Lord was calling me out here. As I was spending a great evening playing Halo with my friends out here I was praying that the Lord, if he wanted me out here he would provide me with a place to live. As the night went on my friend Micah told me that I could stay with him rent free for a few months well I got back on my feet. So I had a place to stay but I had nothing to sleep on. As my friend Kyle and I were dumpster diving I found a brand new mattress. Brand new still in the plastic Sealy posturepedic. Best night of sleep I have had, ever. So now I have a place to sleep but can I make a living. A few days after I got here I started hitting the streets looking for jobs. I turned in many applications and just a few days after I turned one in to a company named WS Live, I got an interview. I went into the interview and they gave me a second interview right away. 3 hours later they called me and offered me the job. I start on Monday. So in the week before I started work my loving parents flew me back out to Colorado so I could pack up my stuff and drive back. I returned safely from Colorado Wednesday. Thursday I woke up feeling like I was on deaths door. Throwing up, body aches, chills, and fever I thought for sure that I had the swine flu or H1N1. And just like that I felt Satan's attack on me. This was definitely not a good thing know that other companies were making people take a week off if they had any symptoms of the flu. After much prayer by many wonderful people, I was completely back to normal by the end of the evening. So to sum up everything I moved, got a place to live, a new bed, a job and an over all better quality of life. The Lord has truly blessed me in these past few weeks. So thank you to all of those read my blog and have been praying for me.