The Raffle Quilt Winner!

On April 1st, we held our drawing for the beautiful, hand-pieced, hand-tied quilt that was made by our daughters (including Mardel!).
The quilt was won by Irv and Melody Jennings from Arnold, Nebraska.
Congratulations Irv and Melody!

Another quilt is in the works and we will be offering raffle tickets at our concerts.
Thank you to all who participated in this fund-raising project for Simple Grace!
We raised $400 through raffle sales, which was a huge blessing.
The quilt raffles are taking the place of Barn candles, which are no longer available to us.

Salty?

Our family visited a salt mine 600 feet below the city of Hutchinson, Kansas.
Illumined behind us in this photo is a 6,000 pound salt rock. The pillar in
the far back is unhewn salt supporting the tunnels we explored.
Amazing!

Beloved,
My passion recently is the message that there is NOTHING more important than Jesus! NOTHING. There is no relationship, no job opportunity, no spouse, no romance, no child, no project, no emergency, no financial crisis, no ministry, no dream or possession that we can permit to take priority or precedence over Jesus!

If we allow any other thing to take first place, (or when we allow it, since it happens to all of us so easily) we compromise that one-on-one relationship with our Savior. We are tempted to look at circumstances with eyes of doubt instead of eyes of faith and trust. We forget why we are here, and what purpose we have been called to in Christ. We get our eyes on the things of earth instead of the eternal.

He has called us to "love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength." (Mark 12:30) That means Jesus first. If we pursue Him, He will be found by us. (Jer 29:13) It is so beautiful to live our lives hidden in Christ, surrendered to Him and giving Him first place. He has promised that if we seek Him and His kingdom first, all necessary things will be added to us. I want NOTHING to get ahead of Jesus!

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee:
because he has trusted in Thee." (Is 26:3)

Passionately serving Christ,
Kathy

Resurrection Joy!

Beloved,

I wish for you this week the time to contemplate the depth of love and the totality of forgiveness that you are clothed with in Jesus Christ, your Savior and Lord!

I wish for you the solemn remembrance of the death of God the Son, His torturous and ghastly death on the cross of Calvary, to present you, righteous and spotless and redeemed, before God the Father, delightfully beloved, a child of the Eternal Father.

I wish for you a time of quiet reflection for realizing your costliness to Him, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Finally, I wish for you the overwhelming joy of new life, resurrection life, in the Risen Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, who died and was raised and of whom "there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace." (Is 9:7)

Precious Sibling, rejoice! Your Light has come!