Living 4 Jesus 4 Life: April 2012

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Living 4 Jesus 4 Life: #25 April 1, 2012

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In this issue... Easter!

Prayer Requests

Birthdays!

& SPECIAL report submitted by one of our readers!!

Our NEXT issue.... May 5, 2012

Celebrate Mother's Day!

All requests welcome :)

{Prayer Requests}

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6

Remember Harper Grigsby as she prepares for yet another surgery at less than a year old. After seeming to do well for the last few months this has been extremely hard on her parents. Her open heart surgery is scheduled for this Tuesday so bless her and the doctors as they go through this, and pray that God will be the Great Physician using them as his instruments to be glorified. adgrigsby.blogspot.com. Thanks! - Autumn

Please pray for my older sister Andrea, she graduates from college in May and right now she's really sick and can hardly talk. - Mikayla

My adopted grandma is in the hospital with an infection in her intestines. The best/only option is surgery, and she can't have surgery. Right now she has a 60/40 percent chance of making it. Keep her and my adopted grandpa in your prayers. Thanks a million! :) - Sarah Elisabeth

Also pray for my best friend's brother Kevin. He's fifteen years old and has gone to church all his life, but has never become a Christian. We want so bad for him to take this step! - Autumn

Pray for all the people who don't know Christ that they will come to know Him and be saved - Rachel

Please pray for a lady in our church who has breast cancer. Erin has 3 kids: 4, 3, and 18 months. You can read about her at erinfray.blogspot.com. - Artiss

Please continue to pray for Rebekah's cousin Karen, who has breast cancer. She has five children, and her husband is in the military! Thank you!

Pray that God will show Himself to a girl in Elly's gym class and He will change her heart!

Please pray for a Chinese family who is under a lot of pressure. Thanks! -Loice

Don't forget to send us your prayer requests so we can publish them, or keep them a secret!

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14 Happy Birthday Macy!!!

Macy will be celebrating on April 4th, and she likes blue bell and chocolate ice cream. She loves friends!
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12 Happy Birthday Trinity!!!
Trinity will turn twelve on April 8. She enjoys art, collecting dinosaurs, and marine biology. She loves Scottish Terriers and wants to visit the African Congo someday!
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15 Happy Birthday Gillian!!!

Gillian, celebrating her fifteenth birthday on April 9th, enjoys singing, dancing, running, reading, drawing, and animal research. Her favorite quote: "Live your life, so when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil states, 'Oh shoot!... he's awake!'"

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13 Happy Birthday Sarah T.!!!

Sarah's turning thirteen on April 25. Her favorite song is Amazing Grace and she likes peanut butter cup ice cream. She enjoys singing, braiding hair in different styles, sewing, and volleyball. She is the 5th of 8 children!

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13 Happy Birthday Natalie B.!!!
Natalie will be thirteen on May 5th! She has fun riding horseback and shooting. Her favorite ice cream is chocolate chip cookiedough.

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A Savior For Easter
A great many years ago God's only Son died on the cross to take away our sins. And we celebrate Easter because of that. Let me back up, and start from the beginning.
Jesus, God's only Son, came to earth and was born of a virgin. Mary had never been with a man. Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, because there was no room for the Son of God in any of the inn's. He, the Righteous Son of Almighty God, was born in a simple old barn with animal's all around. He was then wrapped in rags and laid into a feeding trough for animals, called a manger. The highest of King's was born in the lowest of places. But thats not even the end of this wonderful story.
Jesus grew up without ever telling a lie, he never argued, He didn't even hit His brother, He NEVER sinned. He was perfect!
He grew into a man, performing many miracles, preaching all the time, and showing love to anyone that came near unto Him. But, sadly, while He was doing all of this, there were men plotting out His death.
One night, He was in the garden praying when soldiers came and took Him away. Pilate, then sentenced Him to death on the cross. Before He was to die on the cross, they stripped Him of His clothes and beat Him.
The way they beat Him was called the "Roman Half Death". Most of the people that experienced this horrible form of torture died before they were even taken to the cross. The Roman soldiers would take a whip that had pieces of glass, clay pots, bones, and rocks tied into it and they would whip their victim. They whipped Jesus 39 times with this horrible whip! Before they took Jesus to the cross He had huge tears in His back, legs, and arms.
After He had gone through this horrible beating they took a crown with HUGE thorns and they pounded it into His head. They then took a beautiful scarlet robe, placed it on His shoulders, and mocked Him. He was then led on a long path up the hill to the place where He was to die. Not only did He have to walk all the way up that hill, but He had to carry His massive, heavy, wooden cross. All along the way there were people spitting on Him, making fun of Him, ridiculing Him. He was so weak from His beating and the loss of blood that He stumbled many, many times. Soon, after watching Him stumble so many times, one of His disciples came and helped Him to carry the cross.
Finally they reached the top of the hill. They laid Jesus on the cross and drove nails into His wrists and into His feet. Then they hung a sign above His head that said "This is Jesus, King of the Jews!"
They heaved the cross into an upright position, and there, Jesus hung. And there on that cross, He died. He died with thieves on each side of Him. Y'all, this was the Son of God! Jesus died the fastest death ever, on that cross. After He died, they laid Him in a tomb. But, that is not the end of this story. It gets much better!
3 days later He rose from the dead! And now, He lives in Heaven where it is perfect. The only way we can get to Heaven is to be perfect. But it is impossible to be perfect because we have all sinned. And with sin, you can't enter Heaven. Jesus' death on the cross was to take away our sins, so that we could then be perfect. Washed in His blood. Our sins forgiven! To get to Heaven you must believe in your heart that God loves you so much, and that Jesus did all of this for you so that when you die, you may go to Heaven to be with Jesus!
Have you ever told God that you know He loves you? Have you ever acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross to take away your sins? If you haven't, I encourage you to do that. We have no idea when we are going to die. It could be at any time! I've done it. And now I know that when I die, I will go to Heaven to be with Jesus for the rest of eternity. But the best part of it all, is that I know that no matter what I do, I can NEVER lose my salvation! Wouldn't you like to get a Savior for Easter? It's better than anything the world can offer. Accept His free gift. :)

~John 3:16- For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
~John 14:2-3- In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
~Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
~Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
~Hebrews 9:22- And most all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
~Hebrews 13:5-...For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
~1 John 1:9- If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is GREAT! God is GOOD!
<3SarahElisabeth
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Hey ya'll!

Some of ya'll know I went to Ecuador on a constuction mission trip a couple weeks ago. I got to meet a lot of Ecuadorians and I tried to get to know them as best I could! It really frustrated me that I did not know Spanish. :(

But spending eleven days with them I got where I used the Spanish that I did know and could joke around a little with them. While I was there I met Jelissa! :))) She is a very sweet thirteen year old who lives on the river. She is studying the Bible right now but has not yet become a Christian, I told her I would be praying for her this year and that I hoped I would see her next year (or sooner!). Her uncle was baptized last year and he was the first person in that part of the jungle to be baptized... now there are about thirteen or fourteen converts and a bunch more people like her, coming to church and studying! The people there are so excited to be hearing about the Gospel since it is all brand new to them. I am so excited for them and I want to go back as soon as I can :) We were down there building a new church for them because the building they are using now is not big enough to hold all the people who want to come! Please be praying for all the Ecuadorians on the Cayapas River! Lots of them want to become Christians but they really will have to leave everything they've ever known, it is a HUGE leap of faith for them. Going down there and seeing all these brand new Christians and how sincere they are in their faith was really encouraging to me and I just wanted to share a little bit of my trip with ya'll.

thanks!

{sarahkae} <3