Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Things In My Refrigerator
Grapes & Cantaloupe
Cranberry Juice
Blueberry Juice
V8
Organic Lemonade
Bottled Water
Organic Milk
FitSmart Shake Powder
Supplements/Vitamins
A box of crackers
2 Mary Kay eye spa treatments
I've also been known to store random things like peanut butter or cereal in the cold box. It's like a big convinient cold cabinet.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
True Colors
"Covered by Your love divine, child of the risen Lord, to hear You say this one's mine....my heart is spoken for....by the power of the cross You've taken what was lost and made it fully Yours." ~ Mercy Me, Spoken For
How wonderful truth is. It's beautiful to know that in a world where families are falling apart on a daily basis and friendships, it seems, are not worth the effort, that we have our Christ. You know....I don't always think like this. Sometimes it feels like I'm in a bloody battle with the flesh, warring against anger and other emotions. Lots of my battles stem from when I was a child and because of the craziness that went on, I now have siblings that, if it weren't for social networking, we wouldn't know if the other was alive or not. I've considered making the blog into a "New vs. Old" journal. But to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to bare ALL of my thoughts to anyone other than the Lord. Isn't that true for all of us? Imagine that for an entire week, 24/7, your thoughts were recorded. All of the lust, hate, pride, slander, wrong motives, gossip, idleness, anger, etc. Imagine now, that this coming Sunday in the biggest church in your community, they were going to play that uncensored recording for the entire city. How many friends or co-workers would want to be around you after that? What would your parents think? Would children be allowed in the room?? For the men, what would the girls think after they saw what went through your mind? Has every thought been pure? Ladies, what would the men think about you? Was every motive pure? The truth is, that our lives are being recorded. We are completely bare and nothing is hidden before the Lord so when you feel yourself in a battle with the flesh, things like anger, for example....remember that. Remember that God sees what no one else sees. Perhaps you had a childhood filled with brokenness and to this day you are seeing the sour fruit of that. Maybe you find yourself so angry sometimes that it hurts and you are tempted turn in whatever direction that will make you feel better temporarily, like hateful music so you can let all of your frustration out. But may I encourage you to use that energy and focus on the Lord. Seek Him. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened.
You see, just like the lyrics said...we ARE "covered by His love divine" and "by the power of the cross, He has taken what was lost, and made it truly His" WOW :) That means, that we can take our sinful thoughts & all of our hurts and all of our tears....straight to Him...and we are covered. For in Christ, there is no condemnation. When we are in the middle of battle and we re-direct our energy toward Him, laying all of our thoughts before Him, confessing our sin and that He is Lord, He begins to heal our hearts, light our paths, wipe our tears and erase our fears. Our weeping turns into joy, our weakness becomes our strength because His grace IS sufficient :) and our strength and faith is renewed. Then...the next time we are tempted to be angry and do battle on our own, we are a little bit stronger and find ourselves at the foot of the cross, which is exactly where we need to be. Love you all...
How wonderful truth is. It's beautiful to know that in a world where families are falling apart on a daily basis and friendships, it seems, are not worth the effort, that we have our Christ. You know....I don't always think like this. Sometimes it feels like I'm in a bloody battle with the flesh, warring against anger and other emotions. Lots of my battles stem from when I was a child and because of the craziness that went on, I now have siblings that, if it weren't for social networking, we wouldn't know if the other was alive or not. I've considered making the blog into a "New vs. Old" journal. But to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to bare ALL of my thoughts to anyone other than the Lord. Isn't that true for all of us? Imagine that for an entire week, 24/7, your thoughts were recorded. All of the lust, hate, pride, slander, wrong motives, gossip, idleness, anger, etc. Imagine now, that this coming Sunday in the biggest church in your community, they were going to play that uncensored recording for the entire city. How many friends or co-workers would want to be around you after that? What would your parents think? Would children be allowed in the room?? For the men, what would the girls think after they saw what went through your mind? Has every thought been pure? Ladies, what would the men think about you? Was every motive pure? The truth is, that our lives are being recorded. We are completely bare and nothing is hidden before the Lord so when you feel yourself in a battle with the flesh, things like anger, for example....remember that. Remember that God sees what no one else sees. Perhaps you had a childhood filled with brokenness and to this day you are seeing the sour fruit of that. Maybe you find yourself so angry sometimes that it hurts and you are tempted turn in whatever direction that will make you feel better temporarily, like hateful music so you can let all of your frustration out. But may I encourage you to use that energy and focus on the Lord. Seek Him. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened.
You see, just like the lyrics said...we ARE "covered by His love divine" and "by the power of the cross, He has taken what was lost, and made it truly His" WOW :) That means, that we can take our sinful thoughts & all of our hurts and all of our tears....straight to Him...and we are covered. For in Christ, there is no condemnation. When we are in the middle of battle and we re-direct our energy toward Him, laying all of our thoughts before Him, confessing our sin and that He is Lord, He begins to heal our hearts, light our paths, wipe our tears and erase our fears. Our weeping turns into joy, our weakness becomes our strength because His grace IS sufficient :) and our strength and faith is renewed. Then...the next time we are tempted to be angry and do battle on our own, we are a little bit stronger and find ourselves at the foot of the cross, which is exactly where we need to be. Love you all...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
What Do You Fear?
"Put on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God..."
What is it you fear? An acronym that I found interesting for F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. Thoughts of fear can exhaust us and keep us from having a Christ centered life. We can meditate on these fears so much that they eventually become our "truth". Meditating on wrong thoughts quenches our spirits and prevents us from having a life of joy in Christ. When you find yourself experiencing fears or any other wrong thoughts, you are going to need weapons of mass destruction. Where can we find this ammo?? A great place to start is by doing a word search in the back of your Bible or perhaps biblegateway.com. I encourage you to not simply look at the verse itself, but to dig deeper and read it in context. Remember that God's word is meant to be understood in its entirety. Ask the Lord to reveal what it says and you will find that Truth always exposes lies. Sometimes we simply need to meditate on who God is. It's amazing that when we focus on how big God is in comparison to our fears, it immediately destroys our "f.e.a.r." and we are able to glorify the Lord instead of worrying about it a second more.
So what do you fear? Here are a couple of things you may fear and a jump start to your search...
Do you fear Change? (Psalm 46:2-5)
"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into he heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall, God will help her at break of day."
Making Mistakes? (Deut. 32:4)
"He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He."
2 Sam. 22:33
"My God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my Savior, from violent men you save me."
Psalm 37:23-24
"If the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm, though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand."
Do you fear Sickness? (Prov. 18:14)
"A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?"
Being Alone? (Psalm 23)
Do you fear Pain? (John 16:33)
"...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Romans 8:35,37-39
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Rev. 21:3-4
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the older order of things has passed away." (Whew!!!! That verse makes me wanna shout!!! :) How amazing is this!!!
Do you fear an undesirable appearance? (1 Sam. 16:7)
"The Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Psalm 45:11
"The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord."
Matt. 6:27-34
"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. The do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans runs after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
1 Peter 3:1-5 (Even if you're not married)
Do you fear falling short? (Col. 3:1-17)
We could go on and on. Be encouraged and be blessed and search out His word today. It will never disappoint and always lead you in the way everlasting. :)
What is it you fear? An acronym that I found interesting for F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. Thoughts of fear can exhaust us and keep us from having a Christ centered life. We can meditate on these fears so much that they eventually become our "truth". Meditating on wrong thoughts quenches our spirits and prevents us from having a life of joy in Christ. When you find yourself experiencing fears or any other wrong thoughts, you are going to need weapons of mass destruction. Where can we find this ammo?? A great place to start is by doing a word search in the back of your Bible or perhaps biblegateway.com. I encourage you to not simply look at the verse itself, but to dig deeper and read it in context. Remember that God's word is meant to be understood in its entirety. Ask the Lord to reveal what it says and you will find that Truth always exposes lies. Sometimes we simply need to meditate on who God is. It's amazing that when we focus on how big God is in comparison to our fears, it immediately destroys our "f.e.a.r." and we are able to glorify the Lord instead of worrying about it a second more.
So what do you fear? Here are a couple of things you may fear and a jump start to your search...
Do you fear Change? (Psalm 46:2-5)
"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into he heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall, God will help her at break of day."
Making Mistakes? (Deut. 32:4)
"He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He."
2 Sam. 22:33
"My God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my Savior, from violent men you save me."
Psalm 37:23-24
"If the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm, though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand."
Do you fear Sickness? (Prov. 18:14)
"A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?"
Being Alone? (Psalm 23)
Do you fear Pain? (John 16:33)
"...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Romans 8:35,37-39
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Rev. 21:3-4
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the older order of things has passed away." (Whew!!!! That verse makes me wanna shout!!! :) How amazing is this!!!
Do you fear an undesirable appearance? (1 Sam. 16:7)
"The Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Psalm 45:11
"The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord."
Matt. 6:27-34
"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. The do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans runs after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
1 Peter 3:1-5 (Even if you're not married)
Do you fear falling short? (Col. 3:1-17)
We could go on and on. Be encouraged and be blessed and search out His word today. It will never disappoint and always lead you in the way everlasting. :)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Things I Washed Last Year
Thought I'd post something a little lighter for everyone to enjoy. To my five and fives of people following ;) Somehow, when I load my washer, things end up in there that you could hardly imagine. I would love to say that it is my daughter's fault but she can't even reach the lid let alone put things in there. Yet that is. So here is a small list of some things that I washed last year.
A complete spiral notebook. That was fun.
A full box of dryer sheets.
A ladle.
A blow dryer tool.
One flip flop.
A plastic plate. Don't ask.
Money.
Perhaps I should start my own cleaning business.
A complete spiral notebook. That was fun.
A full box of dryer sheets.
A ladle.
A blow dryer tool.
One flip flop.
A plastic plate. Don't ask.
Money.
Perhaps I should start my own cleaning business.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
From Pain to Purpose
"The farmer does not sift his wheat because he dislikes it, but just the opposite; he sifts it because it is precious. And thou, child of God, thy trials and changes and constant catastrophes and afllictions, are no proofs of want of affection on the part of the Most High, but the very contrary."~Charles Spurgeon
Sometimes it is tempting to look around & wonder why Christ seems to be moving everywhere but where we want Him to. However, it is in the midst of our trials that we are under the very glory cloud of the Lord. Let us not grow weary & complain if we are found to be in a dry land. Perhaps your "desert" is a season of failures, fears or maybe you've sinned or been sinned against. Maybe you are in a season where you are losing everything financially or physically and it feels like you have nothing. Fix your eyes upon the Author and Finisher of our faith, the very Creator of the universe. I pray that you are encouraged in that our Father doesn't just bless with earthly things but His ultimate desire for you is to conform you to the likeness of His beautiful Son. We are surrounded and often motivated by worldly blessings and that is why it's so easy to think that spiritual blessings(changes of the heart mind) are second place. I have been guilty of thinking that very thing. Sometimes we get so caught up in what's going on around us that we forget to look up until a crisis (our desert) hits. God has you where you are for a purpose and we are called to perservere under trials. He is a King, THE KING and His reward, when we are faithful to His calling, is " immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine"(Ephesians 3:20). Our flesh craves earthly successes and pretends not notice the starving soul. Yes, it is good to strive to succeed and yes God blesses that, we are actualy commanded to work. And sometimes He does bless us with possessions but that is not always the case and we do not have to look far beyond our own cities to see that truth. If it is not true ALWAYS and for EVERYONE then what is true? What can we know for sure? When we see people today, starving, being martyred, people who are being beaten and spat upon and worse for standing upon for their faith or for simply breathing, could we honestly tell them that God wants to give them a bigger house and the finest of "things"? Of course not. What then? What does God desire to do in us, ultimately? This is what the Lord wants....for us to "Be holy because, I the LORD your God, am holy." He calls us to have a broken and contrite heart and to walk in love toward others. Does that mean walking around like a pauper in rags and mourning all day and never succeeding? No. Nor does it mean walking around like you are better than anyone, because that is most certainly not the case. Does it mean that when we are rewarded some temporal reward that we are to reject it in some Pharisaical false humility? No. We are to praise Him, rejoice and be glad when these things happen and we are to give all glory to Him who gives. What it does mean is that we are to strive to be more like Him. Perhaps you are in the desert because He desires to show you something. When was the last time you asked the Lord to search your heart? You see, our hearts so often stray from seeking His Truth & provision. What a more perfect time than to ask Him to do that right now? The result of seeking Him in this way is a complete surrender, a renewed understanding that He is our ultimate source and that we need Him above ALL things. It is in times like these that Christ continues His perfect work in us. Then we can truly say that we are blessed when we are in a season like Job, for it is all to often that when we are in the palace, we forget how much we need Him and grow cold or worse, luke warm. I encourage you to use this time of trial not to complain but rather to seek Him and ask Him what it is He wants to show you. Be willing to listen and obey. Remember that He knows the plans that He has for you and they are good :)
Whatever situation you are facing right now, even if it is successes, you are in it for a reason. That reason is not to give you wordly things that will burn away in His presence, although sometimes you will be rewarded in that way. Remember that ultimately, He desires to sanctify us through His word. His desire is that we put off our old nature and put on the new, proclaiming, with love & humility, His goodness and love for ALL. Let it be our daily prayer, not for more and more earthly treasures, but for more and more of Him. Let us be sensitive to where we fall short and come to Him with a humble heart and a desire for Him to change us, no matter the cost. Perhaps then, after all of that, He may use us to teach, guide and encourage others who are going through their own dry land. (Ephesians 3:14-21)
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