Baby Girl

CONGRATULATIONS to Brent and Savannah Human on the birth of their new baby girl, Addie Chevelle. She was born yesterday at around 1:45 weighing in at 4lbs 11oz and 17.5" long.

I went over to see Brent, Savannah, Eli, and Addie Chevelle yesterday at Methodist Hospital in Oak ridge. Addie is absolutely adorable...and tiny! Eli is a bit jealous and was trying to keep everyone's attention for himself.

We are proud of you, Brent and Savannah, and pray the Lord will bless you and your family abundantly!

Ruth Barber

Last night I went to White House, TN—along with Mother, Dad, Kim, and Bill—to express our condolences to the family of Ruth Barber. Mrs. Barber was Jennifer’s maternal grandmother.

They will be having the funeral this morning, so please continue to remember this family in your prayers.

A Note From Marcia

Dear Chip and everyone at New Beginnings,

Thank you so very much for all your prayers. We have been very blessed with many prayers and God has given me a lot of comfort during this time. It is hard to let go but I know my dad is in a better place, and to know he is not suffering anymore gives me a lot of peace. God has been here with me, sometimes carrying me until I can walk alongside him again.

God has blessed me with such wonderful friends/family within The Church and I am so grateful for this gift. You are all the best.

I thank you so much for the planter/flowers. It is truly lovely and will remind me of your love and compassion for a long time to come.

Thank you all again for your prayers. We appreciate them so very much, and will see you soon.

Love, Marcia

HOW DO YOU PRAY?

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:5-6).

Jesus instructed His disciples not to be like the hypocrites when they pray, for they pray out of the wrong motive. The insincerity of their prayers is seen in the fact that they prayed to be seen of men. They were missing the most essential dynamic of prayer—it is a conversation with God, not a show.

In Matthew 15 the Pharisees complained to Jesus because His disciples were not following the ceremonial washing of hands before the meal. Jesus responded by saying to them, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). They had developed a religion with lots of external activity but no sincere love for God in the heart.

Hypocrisy is something we must all guard against. To do this, we must maintain a real and vital relationship with our Heavenly Father. When we begin to draw back from the Lord in our hearts, the temptation is usually to keep up appearances. The temptation is to continue to go through the outward form of religion hoping no one will notice the change that’s occurred in our hearts. This is hypocrisy.

In order to have the favor of God when we pray, we must approach Him with a sincere heart, and that means that we love Him as our Father. And because we love Him, we willingly and sincerely keep His commandments.

Yes, we will still have our struggles and difficulties in this life! There is a great deal of difference between a person trying to do the right thing and have some difficulties and a person who has resolutely chosen to do the wrong thing and tries to justify it. Failure doesn’t make you a hypocrite. Pretense and insincerity do!

Death Notice

I learned yesterday that Ruth Barber passed away. She was the grandmother to my sister-in-law, Jennifer. The family will receive friends at the Austin & Bell Funeral Home in White House, TN tonight (9/17) from 4-8 pm and tomorrow night (9/18) from 5-8 pm. The funeral will be on Wednesday at 10 am.

Please join me in prayer for this family.

Arrangements for Charles Tenney

To all our friends and family who we love I need to let you know that my dad, Charles Tenney, passed away Friday night (9-14-2007). We are having the visitation on Monday, 9-17, at Cuneo-Columbian Funeral Home on Grand Avenue in Franklin Park from 3 to 9 pm with a short service at 7:00. In lieu of flowers we ask for donations to Elmhurst Home Healthcare and Hospice, 855 N. Church Court, Elmhurst, IL 60126. They helped Laurie take care of dad since January and they were the most wonderful group of people and became almost like family after so much time.

We will be going to Fergus Falls, Minnesota for the burial with a short graveside service on Saturday morning at 11:00. Prayers for our continued safe journeys until we get back home in Tennessee.

To those of you who got the previous email from me asking for prayer, we want to let you know how much we appreciate them. We know those prayers got us here safely Wednesday morning and helped us get through the time we spent at the hospital with dad this week.

For those of you who can join us, and those of you who can't, we love and appreciate all of you. If anyone needs to call us while we're here in Illinois, our cell phone # is 931-265-1470.

Marcia & Dan Juday and Family