By The Word Of Our Testimony

100 entries per blog spot

2009-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello , You can find my current by the word of my testimony by clicking this link. I found that I was only allowed 100 blogs per spot so I moved over there. I am already at number 75 but this time I will stay with the same profile page when I begin by the word of my testimony number two.
I am keeping with this change because of the new format.
Writing by the word of our testimony I found myself saying what I thought your testimony should be. Or our testimony should be. In attempt to be more in line with God's word I now write only the word of my testimony .

Am I Fit Enough To Run This Race?

2008-09-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

1 Cor 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

As I shared in past posts this is a race that requires humility. Other things are required as well, but I zeroed in on humility because I struggle to have it. The struggle of course becomes futile the minute I decide that I am humble. So rather than gauge myself or giving myself spiritual assessments all the time I now look to the greatest example of all for race running.

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

That Second Wind

2008-09-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

2 Chro.13:10 But as for us, the LORD [is] our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, [are] the sons of Aaron, and the Levites [wait] upon [their] business:

Isa.40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.

Wait is one of those words with various meanings. The words waiter and waitress are words used to describe a people who wait upon others.

Waiting upon the Lord has have a huge promise attached to it.

Running a Race

2008-09-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The race I run requires humility. The old joke is "I thought I was humble once but then I became proud of being humble." More true than not because once I stop to access myself , rather than just keep on running , I fall once again into pride. Running without a gauge might seem mundane but I think it is the only way I will manage to keep from falling. Gracious as my LORD is to always uphold me in His right hand when I fall, I would rather not fall into pride again. I once thought it prudent to stop and access myself but now I see the folly of it . There really is no other better thing to do than to look unto Jesus.

Running the Race

2008-09-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

1 Corth. 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
This scripture exhorts us to fully embrace what he (Paul) had said in the prior scriptures,
1 Corth.9:19-23. The jest of it being here in verse 19 , For though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
The humbleness of Lord Jesus has inspired Paul to also lower himself for the gospels sake that he might be a partaker with them . (My paraphrase from verse 23)
So then humility is required to run this race, first and foremost, or I would not be in the race at all.

Without A Care

2008-09-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

1 Cr 7:35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

The delight that fills my heart is that our LORD would want us to be able to attend Him without distraction.

The old man use to look at every text with the idea here were more rules . The new man in Christ Jesus that I now am , realizes every word as a loving gift.

"He wants me to be without distraction ! " I joyfully say to my distractions now. Somehow these seemly undeniable distractions can and will be without their ability to distract.

I take it to be in the same context of " cast all your cares upon Me, for I care for you." and " there is therefore a Sabbath rest." Also "Mary has chosen the good part and it will not be taken from her."

We have been given choices and everyday we must choose this day whom we will serve. Also how we will serve. Joyfully and cheerfully as unto the LORD , without distraction.

I'm Under The Blood of The Lamb

2008-08-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Rahab the harlot received the same benefits that I believe are available today , for those who live under the blood of the Lamb. She put aside what her community would want her to do and did what she believed to be right. Her whole household was affected by her faith, or those who would abide with her in her house. She might have asked some relative to come and be safe in her house and they refused. Still she had a powerful testimony. She had the promise that if they did come and abide with her they would also be spared from the devastation that was soon to come to Jericho. Can't you hear her now ? As she retells the story (that we can read in Joshua 2) I can imagine their eyes getting wide. "You mean there is an answer to the problem we all know is coming?" Hopefully her dwelling was jam packed with relatives.
I live under the blood of the Lamb!
Life is awesome for me. I am not afraid of losing my salvation. Therefore I have great joy , all the time (except for those times I forget my benefits.) For those brief times when I relapse into thinking maybe I better please God and then really get to studying what that would mean, I lose my joy.
It happens every time. In fact I think I am going to put a poster on my refrigerator.
NO JOY ?
JUST HOW WAS IT THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD TRY TO PLEASE GOD NOW ?
Maybe that would help me remember , there is no joy without the joy of my salvation and I can only mess it up , if I think I am going to earn it by pleasing Him someway.
His Salvation can only be had by believing it exists the Way He says it does.
John 3:16

Being Ready To Break Out of Ruts

2008-08-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Being aware of how many times the children of Israel missed their window of opportunity tells me a lot about human nature.
As those who have read the story of their exodus from Egypt know the children of Israel had a problem with freedom. God , who likes order , is also flexible. He promises to be faithful and answer us when we call, but He does not say exactly how He will answer.
Be it out of the whirlwind or whatever means He chooses I sure want to be listening.
Then not only listening but ready to respond to His voice.
I exhort my friends to be ready to do the radical !
Why ? Because I don't want them to miss seeing our answers to prayers.
He will answer. God always answers those who call on Him. He is always there for those who seek Him to find Him. He will always draw nigh unto those who draw nigh unto Him.
He is a living God, the same yesterday, today and forever.
Being alive today is an awesome opportunity.
Our prayers of restoration are being heard by a very loving God.
The trumpets are beginning to blow. Our time to shout is coming up.
I've found my friends who will shout with me. I exhort them to be aware that we not be caught into a rut.
When He says "SHOUT " let's give it all we got ! The joy of the LORD is our strength !
We are not better than Jesus. He also endured His cross by the joy that was set before Him.
Let's look up , for our redemption draweth nigh !
Praise the LORD.

Walls Are Coming Down and Walls Are Going Up

2008-07-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

With God all things are possible ! When I first understood that His ways are different than ours, I understood His ways are higher, that is better so don't sweat it too much.
When I understood that He was willing to move mountains at my request I became concerned. Really, mountains , like the mountain that Zerubbabel spoke "Grace, grace " to ? Or like walls of Jericho falling down ? Or like mountains Paul realized possible to move by faith but said that it would profit him nothing, if he did not have love.
My hope is that soon I am going to connect with another Christian who is believing that God can do anything.
That He would not invite us to pray that the hearts of the fathers be restored to the children and the hearts of the children be restored to the fathers , if He did not intend to answer that prayer.
My hope is that they too will see that there is major renovation going on in the body of Christ .
Walls that once separated people from the power of God's love are coming down. Walls that would house and protect His beloved are going up , as in the mission Nehemiah served in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Forever, I hope that people will begin to understand the harm they inflict on new believers by not giving them Biblical grounds for boundaries. An all to often mis-understood concept of love and be loved has given way to many people the idea that it means to be walked on and taken advantage of. Not so in the Bible. We are to have protection from our enemies and if you are planning on walking on me, you are my enemy. If you are planning on making fun of me, sorry once again you are not my friend.
Jesus has made the way through this fantastic place we are in time.
I am desperately seeking Him for more light . He has a lot of life to give us that I am sure we never ever took the time to consider could be ours. A life filled with renewal and hope of the love of Christ being shed abroad in our hearts. A life fruitful and joyful always abounding with the work the of the LORD .
Our pastor talks about life abundantly being a life full of ups and downs. He has the right idea because to follow Christ means in this world you will have troubles , but be of good cheer because He has overcome the world.
If we commit our way unto the LORD , He will sustain us. Even as Rahab put her trust in a God that she had only heard He had opened wide the Red Sea for the children of Israel to cross. We need only to put our trust in a God who said He is the same yesterday , today and forever. And that He will never leave us or forsake us.
And though the world around us may fall down as it also did for Rahab, we can be sure our God is faithful to protect and defend us. Another wall will come up. We will be protected as those who make their habitation the LORD.

The Slough of Despond

2008-07-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

1 Corth. 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Like Help in Pilgrim's Progress I have tried again and again to help those out of the Slough of Despond. Perhaps my stance should be that of the master who returns to the servant who has hidden his talent under the tree.
It seems hard when others are ridiculing you but again I am reminded of the story in Pilgrim's Progress . Christain also received much ridicule from his acquaintances in the town of destruction.

Psalms 11:2 For, lo, the wicked bend [their] bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

Isaiah 35:3-4 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.Say to them [that are] of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come [with] vengeance, [even] God [with] a recompence; he will come and save you.

Learning To See Without A Log In My Eye

2008-07-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

I see with my eyes but I also see with the eyes of my heart.
These eyes of my heart are the ones referred to in scripture time and time again.
While living life in this world (but not being of this world) I duel vision.
What my fleshly eyes see and what my spiritual eyes see.
Now I changed my reference to my eyes of my heart to "spiritual eyes" because it is my hope and intent that these eyes would watch The Spirit.
However, to give them the name spiritual eyes may be misleading because I do not always see The Spirit .
The Spirit is always leading me and The Spirit is always visible to me , it is I that may have logs in my eyes . (Ref. to believers in Christ being able to follow the Spirit found in Romans 8 and ref. to believers having logs [beams] in their eyes found in Matt.7:3)
Whenever a log is removed from my eye I feel it ! Oh yes, I feel it ! Just like a small tooth being removed from my mouth at the dentist's office. For days I feel as though the Grand Canyon has moved into my mouth.
Same way with a log in my eyes of my heart. Removal may also be painful and getting accustomed to the loss of the log may take some getting use to .
However, JOY, great JOY is added to my life as I can see more clearly now.

Seeing Myself With Value.
Here is a story that helped me recently.

The parable found in Matt.25:14-30 about the servant who hides his talent under the tree seems pretty easy to understand. Don't be lazy , right ? Yes, but here is more .

The servant's excuse for hiding the talent under the tree could be his excuse for laziness . However, it could also be his reason for why he thought that was all that was expected of him. Have I placed my talent where I think my master would want me to place it ? Have I perceived myself to be of less value than others because my master has given more to others ?
In a world of "don't think more highly of yourself than you are" it seems unlikely that a master who gives a servant just one talent , when he has given other servants more, would expect much at all from the one talent.
Yet I know he does because this is a parable about the kingdom of God.
This servant might not be lazy, he might not know the value his master has placed on his choices pertaining to the kingdom of God.
There are preparations to be made for His arrival as well and He is expecting His saints to be doing them. Yet if a servant who has been given a talent and believes that his choices are of no value or out of fear hides what little he has been given, the sin is not laziness but unbelief .
My word of testimony today is that the sin of unbelief is forgiven and cleansed from all who confess this sin to our Father who is in heaven.
(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.)
Forgiveness is instantaneous but cleansing may take a while. I will not give up until I am certain I have not laid even one talent under the tree. I will believe that the talent He has given me is of value and He does care what I do with it. He not only cares He is expecting me to have something to show for it.

2008-06-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

Luke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

2 Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I see the spirit of Elias turning hearts. I see the power of the spirit giving a desire for obedience to the wisdom of the just. I see a people being made ready and prepared for the Lord.
How blessed am I that I have been given eyes that see and ears that understand.

For when I asked my Father in heaven to circumcise my eyes and heart , He did not ignore me. He heard me and answered that I might have the preparation for this day. He gave me circumcised eyes and circumcised ears and a soft neck as I asked , because I knew that if the people who stoned Stephen could actually think that they were pleasing God , how easy it would be for some simpleton like me to be misled.

I give this word of testimony , blessed be the name of the LORD !

How It Is

2008-06-20T05:43:00.000-07:00

When someone else sins it is never okay to sin too. Just because they sinned does not give us an excuse. In fact I wonder if being able to discern when another person is sinning might have something to do with the log and speck parable found in the Bible. When another is sinning and I become aware of it, my first thought is , do I have this same kind of sin going on in my life ? If I do, I certainly better take my log (sin) to my heavenly Father and tell Him about it. Then I proceed from there.
How blessed am I that I know that I have a heavenly Father that is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me of all unrighteousness.

What "IT" is Really About

2008-06-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

Some days I seem focused on " being about my Father's business." Other days I struggle doing my Father's business. After I struggle awhile , I remember , flowing with being is so much easier than struggling to do.
The problem seems to be a desire to control.
When I am flowing I really can not say when I will reach a certain destination, only that I am flowing in the Spirit and know that my life will eventually line up with God's Word. I look often at His Word, like a captain of a ship might look at a map daily. However, unlike a captain, I try not to put my hand on the wheel or command the sails to be lowered and angled , unless I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit.
There are a series of successes and failures in my life.

I share this word of testimony with you .

Zec 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This [is] the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Come as a Little Child

2008-06-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

The best part about coming to our heavenly father as a little child is : I don't have to be the boss. I don't have to have the answers . And I don't even have to be smart enough to have some possible answers .
At this point though I have to caution myself to not fall into unbelief !
There are answers beyond what I can comprehend and I must bring myself as a child to my father and just be .
Well, I can't very well do if I don't know what the solution to the problem is .
"There are human doings and human beings ", I once heard a wise person say.
Being able to come into the presence of my Father with only the grace given me from His Son the Lord Jesus Christ is the word of my testimony , for this day.

A Great Diet BREAD and WATER

2008-06-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I heard from a young man I love like a son. He is living in China and with a much grateful heart I read his e-mail yesterday. He said , (of a recent ordeal he has been going through) " after three days the LORD spoke to his heart and let him know what he was doing there. "
How awesome !
He lamented because he had spent the days before frustrated and sure that he was suppose to be somewhere else. When the LORD spoke he knew he was where he was suppose to be . Then joy and peace filled his soul .
Would you like to know what I had been praying for him ?
Bread .
That is right .
"Father , please give him bread ."
I picture myself as the man in the parable who has a friend come in the middle of the night.
He goes next door to his neighbor's house and knocks on the door and says he needs bread for his friend . Only this story has been given to us to ask of the Father. It would be much more difficult to do if Jesus had not told us to do something like this. I boldly go and pound on my Father's door and say , "Bread, my friend needs some bread. Open your door . Give me some bread for my friend. "
I never quit until I find out He has answered. I am always confident that He will answer. Knocking and pounding is not difficult when you know that you are asking for something you will surely be given.
Daily bread and water is a diet the LORD will never deny us.
I may have to knock on the door a while , but that's okay.

Come just as you are.

2008-05-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

The wonderful wonderful truth that I need only come just as I am to receive living water is almost more than I can receive ! That is why , (I suppose) that I don't drink of this living water more often. Being able to receive that He is willing to give me a living water is like, being able to receive that He has taken the punishment for my sins , plus . Didn't He say He came to give us life, and life more abundantly ?
There's a plus there ! More than life. Life abundantly !
There is an abundant life that He wants me to live. I plan to live my life in a way that is ready to receive it !

No Dry Broken Cistern For Me

2008-05-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest parts of being a laborer in the field is knowing when to rest . The fields are ripe unto harvest does not necessarily mean work until you drop . Actually as a harvester my hope is to be watching the Shepherd ever so closely. That way when we go by the still waters and when we lie down in the green pastures , I'll be watching.
It was not a bad thing to have cisterns in the day that this exhortation was given . Even allegorically as the LORD infers . It was just wrong to let them go dry and break .
Perhaps kind of like the 5 foolish virgins who used up their oil and wanted to buy some from the wise virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom .
Balance , balance , balance is so vital to me . I have fallen down so many times . I've learned you better have truth along with the spirit or you are going to find yourself in a ditch. Reason being the blind you are following will end up there to.
That is why I am so blessed to have a church that exhorts us to read the text for ourselves . Seek the LORD for ourselves and hear from the Holy Spirit ourselves.
"Do not just take my word for it", our pastor says and how grateful am I to have found green pastures . Not just green pastures , because we all have that available to us in God's Word . but encouragement from our pastor to really take your time to eat and digest this spiritual food for yourself.

A Broken Cistern or A Fountain of Living Water ?

2008-05-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Water is something that I physically need. I also need a spiritual water that only the Holy Spirit can give me. A cultivated desire for truth along with an openness to receive the Spirit have been my greatest gifts .
Before me the day desires a word of testimony.

May our joy be increased as you and I learn how to not forsake the fountain of living waters and how to not have broken cisterns but cisterns that can indeed hold water.

Jer 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, [and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

May my words of testimony stir up a desire to speak your own words of testimony also.

The Hope of Salvation

2008-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

My life is fast paced.
I wake in the morning and trust the Holy Spirit to lead me to read the part of the Bible that will apply to my life today.
Sometimes I get off balance. I pick the scriptures, I think I know what I need to read. There are no bad parts of the Bible but there are ways to take it out of context to fit what I want it to say. However , I can sense when I am starting to quench the Spirit, or grieve the Spirit or deny the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to quit it just as soon as I start doing that. The Lord is my shepherd, He leads me, I do not lead Him.

What prompts this, " following of my flesh " is this oh so huge desire : to see my flesh stop responding to life situations the way it does.
I want to reform my flesh and push the word of God down it's throat.
Somehow I think I am missing the point of being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

At the same time , I know there is a battle going on. I really don't want to pay attention to it.
That my friends is exactly the problem.

I want to think that I am going to wake up in the morning and read the word the Holy Spirit leads me to . Follow my Shepherd and there are no lions or wolves in this land. There are no cute bunny rabbits to chase either. I think I may have a problem of paying attention.

What is it I need to do ? Besides learn to bring all my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ ?
I Thess. 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Now I am of the day, because I have been exposed to the light of Jesus Christ my Savior the Son of God .
I wonder if I am sober ? Would that indicate paying attention ?
The breastplate of faith and love, I think are gifts that we as Christ's followers are able to have if we are willing to receive.
And for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
It may seem like a small thing but it is exactly what I throw off when I try to fix myself.
Salvation is our gift . It is attainable by receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not by our works but by receiving His sacrifice that He made for us.

Peggy's Testimony

2007-12-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

The "W" in Christmas
Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.
So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas
Love." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W". The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W". Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:
"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"
And, I believe, He still is.
Amazed in His presence....humbled by His love.

Give Us Our Daily Bread

2007-12-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

Real Life Testimony: When I am invited to go to parties I really do not know what to expect or what is expected of me. I try to ask as many questions ahead of time as I dare, (people do weary of my questions.) So I went to a party yesterday and I felt oh so grateful for the gift of faith. Once I could not enjoy going to a party if I didn't feel sure that I would know to bring the right gift or do the right things. After the food and the group sharing time we began to visit with our neighbor standing or sitting close to us. I was able to share with a woman how at one time in my life I had thought doing all the right things would bring me closer to Jesus. When I found out it didn't , I decided to start over. Now I am closer to Him and enjoy life so much more.

A few years back my pastor (Calvary Chapel) was teaching through the book of 2 Kings. When he was describing how the people of Isreal actually thought they were pleasing God by worshiping a golden calf it so resonated in my heart. Over and over I had found myself reverting back to a formula type of relationship with God. I wanted to quit it. I started asking God to help me quit. My human nature wants to just know the rules , follow them and then rest easy. But my spirit wants to know of His love . Letting Him love me no matter what I find myself doing seems to be the key. Just a while ago I received a letter from the IRS saying I owed money. I was unhappy until I told my heavenly Father, I don't like this news and I don't like it that I don't like this news. Telling Him I don't like me but realizing He still loved me regardless removed my unhappiness and filled me once more with joy.

Go Forth

2007-12-08T05:39:00.000-08:00

Real Life Testimony : There are things ( like filling out paper work for insurance ) that I just have a hard time doing. During these years of walking with my Lord, I have discovered some of the reasons why it is hard for me. However, it still has not changed the fact that I really struggle with making phone calls and anything of that nature.
I would try and tell myself on this day you will fill out the insurance form and if you have a problem answering the questions you will call.
Finally I asked for prayer from the Christian community. I just said simply ,"I have trouble filling out paper work, please pray for me." One person suggested that I actually go to the office of the insurance company so I could ask for help filling out the form . Later I realized what a help that little suggestion was. Did you catch it ? I would not have to call and ask a question.
Still I had to go there. Finding the time and the courage all at once.
As I was working Wednesday and thinking of my new plan I kept thinking , it is to bad you have to work Friday. Friday would be a good day to go and do this. What a strange thought to go on in my mind. However, it was there. What a relief to hear that my employer would actually love for me to come Monday and not Friday this week !
Once again, courage and time. Time was here now courage.
I always pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to me where I am in His Holy Word. That is to say, what kind of Bible Story best fits my life today.
Friday morning I was reviewing the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. The enemy was being held at bay by a pillar of fire but who knew just how long that pillar fire was going to last. Just as Moses knew , I also knew, I needed to get out of there. But how ?
Moses asked the same question and I guess it didn't really upset the whole world system or anything.
Ex 14:15 & 16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry [ground] through the midst of the sea.
Well, the people in the insurance office were not polite about helping me.
Nor were they willing to help me by telling me things that would save me time and trouble. But I finally made it to the end of filling out all the questions and I even thought to ask them if there was one other bit of information they might require. "Yes," was the answer, and I said, " I thought you might need it, here I have it in my purse."
To be quite honest with you my journey yesterday was more like the pillar of fire coming and keeping my enemies at bay while I and the Lord confer about crossing the Red Sea. However, I have confidence in my heart that at just the right time it will occur to me what act of faith might be required , such as holding a rod over the Red Sea.
And I will go forth, oh yes, I will go forth !

Ask and You Shall Receive

2007-12-07T05:14:00.000-08:00

Have Your Door Open
Next in my series of real life testimonies : Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;
My daughter and I watch to much TV. Just like my attempts to eat healthy all the time, I am also aware that what I feed my mind has a direct connection to my spiritual health.
Rather than take TV completely out the house my daughter and I have discussed the need for balance. One of the ways to achieve this balance , we decided to see each program we watched, as an ice breaker into a conversation. Meaning that if either of us are prompted by the story to talk, we push the pause button and we begin by saying something like ,"You know that made me think of something I'd like to talk about."
Now I've learned that this is not as well received by her if this is a DVD or VHS we are watching for the first time but in our home we have volumes of re-runs .
I asked God to help my daughter to become less dependent on using the TV for an escape of life.
Last night in an episode of Christy she stopped it and said this particular scene made her feel uncomfortable. I suggested that the absence of a parent can sometimes cause a child to feel abandoned and if they do not know how to process their feelings they may become bitter or hard.
My daughter recalled a time when I had left her with a babysitter who was very uncaring. She remembered when I left, she had cried and the sitter had just looked at her as though she was waiting for it to get over. Then she stuck her in front of the TV. That was all she ever did , was sit her in front of the TV.
Then Isa 61:1 came to my mind and I suggested to her that perhaps this memory had come at this time because Jesus now wanted to bind up her broken heart and heal that feeling of abandonment she had felt so many years ago. We prayed together acknowledging that she was ready to receive healing for this wound inflicted so many years ago.
Ask believing you will receive ! How marvelous Our Lord is to come to meet our every need.

2 Corth 1: 3-4 Blessed [be] God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Real Life Testimony

2007-12-04T04:50:00.000-08:00

Living a testimony has only one requirement, Living. Giving that testimony by word requires so much more. Fortunately all that I need comes from my God .
Because I live, I breathe in and I breathe out. I give and I receive. Should I stop doing one or the other , life would stop.
Recently I found some other bloggers who share their life testimonies . By their willingness to obey God and share their experiences , it has fueled the fire within me to share again. Thank-you Jeff Running To The Promise and Chris Show Them Through Me-Let Me Be A Light So They Can See. Click there names to take a peek.
The Lord is always faithful to supply all our needs. If you need it to do His will , I believe He will supply it, no matter what "it" is.
The allegorical street I have previously blogged about could take on so many meanings. I liked naming it His Purpose because it reminds me , what I am here to do is His Purpose .
To be more specific I want to be able to do His will powered by the Holy Spirit within me. As I recognize my other counterfeit helpers that my flesh has come up with to do His will, I am tempted to try to rid myself of these things myself. However the more I work to put off the old man the harder the old man wants to stay. This putting off must also be powered by the Holy Spirit . When I meditate on God's Holy Word my mind is renewed and the Holy Spirit is unleashed in my life to take over what my flesh would do. That way , it is not I that managed to get that old man off but Christ within me , and Him crucified.
The old street I referred to in my blogs has to do with addiction. I do not have many uplifting conversations about addiction. Most at best are glad for the grace to just better their addictions to something less harmful to themselves or others. There are so many who need that message right there. Receiving grace is the answer ! Talking about grace is being able to know about grace . Being able to receive grace requires knowing about it and this is why so much time is spent talking about it.
To actually start walking in grace one must receive and then give grace.
Now this is not as easy as it sounds.
First you have to have a repentant . Someone who actually wants to receive grace . However hard as it is, I must not give up looking for repentants of grace. Just lately I have learned to pray grace on people. This way their spirits are receiving and their flesh is not there to fight it off, I hope. Anyway it seems to have opened up the give and receive cycle I've needed to go on further in my walk of grace.
This is how I came upon this idea. I Corinthians chapter one begins with Paul's word of testimony. This is how he lived !
I quote him from verses 3 & 4 . Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.

The Street Called His Purpose

2007-11-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

I love this street !
I was trying to remember how I found it .
I was just being thankful , for everything.
Just deciding to obey , even if it meant suffering .
I was just looking up , because my redemption draweth nigh.
What else was I doing at the time ?
Oh, deciding to love truth and hate lies.
Being delighted when asked to dance ! My joy expressed when an invitation of grace is given.
I had stopped to look at this mountain, and spoke , "grace, grace, grace" to it. Then I said, "although this mountain may be removed, nothing will be as wonderful as when I can love those to whom this grace is given."
Then I looked again at the valley I was in and saw there were streams of His Spirit flowing here. Surely all I would need to sustain me as I climbed the high mountain ahead.
In the language of my favorite author Hannah Hurnard and her book Hind's Feet On High Places , I realize this trip up the mountain is not something we take once and then it is done with forever more.
I believe that the renewing of our minds in which she allegorically describes her journey , becomes a life long process that must be engaged in constantly if we are to be ready when Jesus comes.

A New Street

2007-11-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Walking down a new street / Attempting to walk down a new street / Being aware that I may not be on a new street at all but the same old one with a hole in it / Being aware that there are new streets that also have holes in it / Being a Christain who desires to walk in the Spirit but finds this to be incredibly difficult :
I am rejoicing in suffering ! Why ? Because it produces perseverance ! This is good ! It will produce good character ! This will produce hope that does not disappoint because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us !
So then my suffering will help me be even more filled with the Holy Spirit ? I think yes, but do not skip all the stuff in between. One must rejoice in suffering . One must respond to the circumstances as Jesus would, but not alone, with Jesus' helper the Holy Spirit in me helping me .
By sharing the word of my testimony with you I am being able to take off the bushel that once hid the light shining in me.
I know of others who desire to do the same and I so wanted / want to be an encouragement to them. However, my own stumblings down the wrong streets or whatever, my stumblings have made my words of encouragement seem futile. I would give up except for the Lord encourages me from places like Romans 5:1-5 and Deut. 20:1-13.
I found Deut. 20:1-13 especially encouraging today as I spoke it out loud to the Lord and asked Him to show me does this apply to me ? I found it does !
As the priest spoke unto the people , my high priest the Lord Jesus Christ speaks again unto to me through His Holy Word. He also gives light unto His servants who in turn (take off their bushels) and share.
I found such a servant today and by clicking this word of testimony you will hear of a man's journey who knows what it is like to lose support from those who once encouraged him to follow the Spirit .
What a double portion for me ! The thing I desire most to do but find myself hindered at the most critical times is to be an encourager. Now this servant has encouraged me as I hope he does you , as he has found his way on around the hole his supporter fell into and made it on down the street. Please go back and click the link and read what he has to say.
It is quite long but the beauty of Internet is you can treat it as you would a book, read until you tire and then come back and read the rest.

A New View Of The Street

2007-10-23T04:58:00.000-07:00

Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.

I shall fly down the street !

Because one does not always fly , even a bird lands from time to time , it is important be aware of my location. Landing on that same street with the hole in it or landing in a new street doesn't seem quite so important today . Learning how to fly and knowing when to do it ! Also , knowing how to be realistic about my situation. Am I walking ? Am I running ? Am I flying ?
So I am walking, how else would I notice the traveler that has been beaten up and lying beside the road ? Certainly not a time for flying and certainly not a time for running. Yet trusting that my strength will be renewed as I pick that poor traveler up and put him on my donkey.
Perhaps I can do that now successfully if I have found my way to the new street. Sure would be bad for the traveler if I fall in a hole now .
If you have been reading my autobiography , you know that I have yet to go down that new street. So I guess I want to teach my beaten up traveler friends to fly. If we all land in the hole it would be a very handy skill to know , and since it just requires the first paragraph of this blog to do it,
Whosoever will , may fly !

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Shame and Pride are Friends

2007-10-19T05:22:00.000-07:00

You should be ashamed ! Have you ever agreed with that ? Have you ever agreed with that, even after you'd accepted that the Father of Jesus Christ has forgiven you ? I think I thought you were suppose to ! Like some unspoken code of etiquette . You know like don't pass gas at the dinner table . When you've sinned , be ashamed , be very ashamed.
No wonder I've had such a problem with Pride ! It is a natural instinct to bring Pride in to cover up Shame . Who would be able to continue to be ashamed and then not use Pride to carry on ?
That transition from receiving forgiveness and believing that we need not be ashamed is a critical time.
With so many around assuming you should be ashamed , it is harder still to shed off that lie and go on with out it.
I now know that I should not be ashamed ! I am forgiven and not bound down with shame ! I have nothing to be ashamed of ! Jesus took away all my sins and shame.

His Help

2007-10-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

The thread lately has been walking down the street. First time readers may want to look at past blogs.
Somehow walking down the same street and falling down the hole doesn't seem so bad this time. For one thing , I did get out quickly. As noted in the autobiography , I did not blame others .
This is a big improvement for me .
The reason I am blogging today is that now that I realize my responsibility for the fall into the hole I can see more clearly what was going on when I went in.
All the time I was heading for that hole in the street and talking with Pride at the same time, I could not notice other forces at work hoping that I would do , just what I did.
Now that I am determined to not talk with Pride anymore I can see oh so clearly.
I am walking down a street. (Oh yes probably the same one.)
I am hearing a crowd cheering for me.
I can hear a crowd booing me.
This crowd has not sided up on one side of the street and some on the other side as in a football game and one knows who is on whose side.
This crowd is intermingled and they all look friendly. Shouting out what they believe is for my good , and why can't I see they are just trying to help me ? Some really are helping and some are really just wanting my choices to affect their lives in what they believe would be in a positive way.
I alone am responsible for my choices. I have some cheering me on to that affect. "You can do it ! I know you can make the right choice !" Others saying, " Don't you always make the wrong choices ? What makes you think you will do this right this time?"
Ah Ha !
I am walking down the street.
There is a hole in this street.
I will not speak with Pride.
I will see the hole in the street and walk around it.
To be cont.

Delivered Out Of My Troubles Again

2007-10-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

I think I would like to keep a broken heart.
You see I know the Lord does draw nigh unto those that are of a broken heart. Being near to Him is what I need to be saved from all of my troubles.
I can't keep from commenting on the awesomeness of seeing such similar circumstances before in my life.
About this very same time of year, two maybe three years ago I shared a story with my blogger friends about the Lord meeting me during the Feast of Tabernacles. I always want to share what the Lord has given me with others so I exhorted them , draw nigh unto Him, He will draw nigh unto you.
My journey at that time had brought me to the realization that it was not due to our worthiness that we entered into His presence. Just our willingness to come just as we are was all that was required.
It is still the same today, but I desire to stay broken.
Somehow pride was able to come in before.
Pride cometh before a fall is no joke.
Really, did you read my other blogs about falling into a hole ? Walking down the street with Pride as your companion , you might as well put a bandanna around your eyes and play Blind Man's Bluff. You will be in that hole in nothing flat I tell you, I know.
I have been trying to have nothing to do with pride lately.
Not because I want to "proudly walk down the street and not fall in the hole."
But because I want to help others walk.
Just how much good can I be in the hole ?
I fell in again folks, or at least became bogged down in something that felt like quick sand. It was my fault for listening to pride when he suggested I stop for a minute and make sure I would look good.
Did I tell you I was going to look good walking down this new street, or able to walk down the old street but avoid the hole ?
Maybe I thought you expected that of me ? Looking good, cool , calm and composed at all times.
Expect broken. I need broken. I want to live broken.
Brokenness is not bad. Brokenness is good.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart: and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18

Do you have time to listen to a very good exhortation on this subject ?
Click these words and enjoy. My heart was so blessed and encouraged and like you already know, I just love to share.

Walking on A New Street

2007-10-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Should I be walking on the same old street but able not to fall in the hole. Or perhaps I am walking on a new street, I need to prepare for a new lifestyle. If you remember from my last blog the habitual falling into the same hole would indicate a life style pattern.
To think that you will break a habit and then have a new life style all in an instant of choice is probably unrealistic. However, I would not say totally impossible. So if you have experienced such a change in your life please have patience with me. I seem to be slow. Yet I am not alone. So for all those who are realising that change comes gradual , and that it is an everyday choice to follow Jesus that brings it about. I want to share some things that I have gleaned out of a book Excuse me.........Your REJECTION Is Showing by Noel & Phyl Gibson. I feel it is important to give acknowledgement to the authors of this book.
As you read the following steps , think of me taking steps as one does while walking ,not steps up.

Step 1: Aim to make Jesus Christ Lord of every thought and action.
II Corth.10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
"Follow me " Matthew 16:24
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Step 2: Let the Holy Spirit re-model your personality and lifestyle.
Galatians 3:5
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, [doeth he it] by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Step 3: Develop a hunger for God's Word.
Romans 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Step 4: Maintain a two way communication with your heavenly Father.
Step 5: Forget the old wheel-chair. Move around by yourself.
Hebrews 13:5, 6
[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Having been released from the crippling effects of rejection, you will no longer have to rely on the constant support, comfort, and care of your friends. Walk on your own spiritual feet and enjoy the constant companionship of Jesus Christ.
a. Stand tall, and stop looking with self-pity at your crooked reflection in life's puddles. Remember, the 'old me' has gone.
b. Relentlessly deal with any lingering look over your shoulder at the regrettable past, and refuse to entertain thoughts of resentment, or self-centeredness, he has forgiven and cleansed.
c. One old saying is continuously up to date- the J-O-Y of Christian living comes from loving 'J' Jesus first 'O' others second, and 'Y' yourself last.

A New Street

2007-10-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Deut 2:3 Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
I have this wonderful short story of my life . I did not come up with this myself , nor am I in chapter five all the time. However, I am learning to follow the Spirit rather than my old sinful nature all the time. Reading Romans 8 has helped me know walking down a new street is entirely possible. Our personal message from Jesus is in His word. He would not fill us with hope if it were not attainable.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
BY PORTIA NELSON
Chapter I
I walk down the street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in
I am lost..........I am helpless
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter II
I walk down the street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter III
I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I see it is there
I still fall in........it is a habit.
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter V
I walk down another street.

He's Still Here

2007-09-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy. I picture myself a worker in the field, ever hoping for a fruitful crop. Sometimes there is fruit and suddenly I find myself in a different mind set. Rather than plow up the ground I am busy with the harvest.
It is fulfilling to see some fruit , but before I go far I am already thinking about the next planting season. Each fruit holds seed for a new harvest .
I came in from the field today.
I stopped by my Father's house to say hello.
I thought I'd mention my mistakes while I was there. Get some advice as how to do better. I was in a hurry to get back out to the field but I knew I couldn't go without really talking to Him. I knew that I didn't have to be doing everything perfectly. That He was pleased I was out there at all.
I guess that is why I thought He'd just want to tell me how to fix what was wrong and go on. I guess He would if I was a paid servant.
But you know He told me I was not a paid servant. That actually He wouldn't mind if we just talked awhile. There is a harvest out there and it is important that it be brought in, but did I remember that He had called me son ?
And that is the very thing He would like those in the field to know. He really would like to visit with them. They are really trying much to hard to impress Him with their sacrifice of praise.
I am still kind of anxious to have Him tell me how to get along better with His other sons and sons to be. Could He help me stop being so emotional about everything ? I am scaring people I am so joyful sometimes. I also make people uncomfortable when they realize I strongly disagree with what they have said or are doing. It takes them awhile to understand I am not condemning them. The majority of the people I am around have been bossed around by condemnation so long , any disagreement with their life style they just assume is going to be condemned. When actually I am wanting to share with them about grace. They get scared off before we get that far a lot of times .
Only He said, "Sit down. Let's have a meal together."
Well, I like to talk when I eat. So I may be sharing a lot this week.
If you have been a prodigal son like me , or an elder brother like me and found yourself coming through to the place He let you go out and work the field again. Be encouraged if you are feeling like you are suppose to stop and visit with Him this week. It is time for a meeting with Him, try to resist running back out to the field before you have a full meal.
Come and dine the master calleth come and dine.

Where I Stand

2007-07-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

I read a delightful book just recently, titled Please Get Off the Seesaw Slowly by Norma Williamson. In her delightful way she gave insight to how she allowed humor to aid her purpose of mother to many children and wife to a pastor. In one story she shared how she felt as though she just wasn't doing anything right, not the way her husband would want her to do it. I quote from her book, "I can't do anything right!" I wailed . "Nothing ever works for me. You're always having to straighten out something for me. And I never know where I stand with you!"
He reached out one arm and hugged me to him.
"Right up against me---that's where," he pronounced.
And that took care of that.

The problem with trying to do things the way my Heavenly Father wants me to , is that I get caught up sometimes in thinking that how I'm doing is going to affect where I stand.
I know He wants me to have meaningful relationships with people, I know He wants me to be anxious for nothing and not worry about how I will pay my bills, I know He wants me to do as many nice things for people as I can possibly fill in my days, I know He wants me to read His word and ........................
Actually He isn't all that concerned with how good a job I am doing.

He would like me to remember where I stand.

Building A Foundation

2007-06-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

The word of my testimony today has to do with the knowing of a testimony to come.
The choices I have made in my adult life have often brought me to places I would rather not be.
Time and time again I would struggle to not make those same types of choices , sometimes thinking surely , I had been successful this time , only to find later on , that nope , sure enough here I am back where I was again.
Repeated behavior can be a blessing if you do not mind looking at your past like reading a good mystery book. Looking for clues as to "why." Oh, my Christian friends are always right when they say, " It is that old nature that drives us to do those things." However, I have found if you want to stop driving down the same road, you have to take time to assess , why do you keep doing it ?

The Bible talks about taking off the old man like a garment and putting on the new man , the new nature that Christ Jesus gives us.
My experience is you have to be very familiar about the one that is coming off as well as being very familiar with the one that is coming on.

Some of the repeated behaviors that I have seen in my life evidently have sprung up from being moved around so much in my childhood.
Now I have learned from other repeated behaviors that I have been able to quit , that forgiveness is the key.

Oh, if you didn't know that , think about the Lord's Prayer and what an emphasis was made on that. However, before you can really forgive, ( I think ) you must be able to believe that you really are forgiven. So if forgiving is a new idea, try thinking about, do you believe you are forgiven?

Try as hard as I could, I could not keep my children from the devastation of changing schools and having no long term friends. Here's where I need to believe that I am forgiven.

Trying as hard as I can, I have tried to forgive gypsy like parents who seemed unable to settle in one place for long.

The situation has looked hopeless to me until I stumbled upon this wonderful verse today.

I will build them up and not tear them down;
I will plant them and not uproot them,
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord.
JEREMIAH 24:6-7

What a promise of a testimony to be. I will trust Him to bring it to pass for me and my household .

How helpful it is to know that our God's intention for us is to restore. That which was taken from us, He will restore. He promises to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. Truly a God who says He will restore what has been taken from you. Truly a God to turn to and say, "I will do things Your way. If You say, forgive, then Lord I will forgive."

Crossing Over

2007-05-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago my friend had a dilemma. As is my life style, I bring my problems and my friends problems to the Lord and ask for His help.
This problem was a need for direction and more. The more would involve a peace about what her husband was wanting her to do, work full time.
Over the weeks we prayed , my exhortation was , to expect that the Lord would answer her somehow , in His word.
When her answer came , she and I rejoiced in how wonderfully her answer had come. Not only did the Holy Spirit lead her to scripture that encouraged her to honor her husbands request but also helped her to know which job , He had for her to apply for. The wrong job the doors closed, and the right job just made itself obvious for the applying.

When her answers came I became encouraged to seek the Lord for answers for myself. So many times , because it is just the right thing to do, I go ahead. Should I ask the Lord to show me where I am in His word with this situation I know that He would be faithful to answer me.

The LORD Watches The City

2007-05-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

What about the benefits ? Many who live in America take note of the benefits . Others worry constantly about the benefits we seem to be losing . As a pilgrim just passing through I rejoice in the benefits granted me by my LORD and King .
Can they be lost ?
There is a lot to be learned from Psalms 127 . Understanding of this passage of scripture could certainly affect my quality of life .
Psalms 127
1.Unless the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2. In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

3. Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.
4. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
5. Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

How blessed am I to have a LORD and King that grants me such great benefits !

Truth Sets Me Free

2007-04-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

The first part of my journey was filled with remorse. As a believer in the saving grace of our LORD Jesus Christ I was suppose to forgive.
I would look at the marvelous saving grace that was given to me and then I would look at what I was suppose to do. My journey was very sad, for a very long time.
Then I stopped spending so much time looking at me. I just began a walk of faith that said, someday, I would forgive. Slowly , oh so slowly , that forgiveness has and is being worked into my nature. Just like an old garment is discarded, I find myself uncomfortable unless I am willing to discard old habits, old ways of thinking. These are replaced with a new nature, slowly.
I enjoy the new nature of Christ Jesus being poured into me. This pouring seems to be a combination of Spirit and of Truth. It is with this that I can then worship the Father, of course, and do. It is this filling of Spirit and Truth that I realize is setting me free!
Free to worship Him, Free to live a life worth living, Free to share all that I have been given, I am being set Free as I receive His Truth and His Spirit.

The first Christians were put upon to forgive.
Brand new in their faith, as the event had just happened, the son of God rose again after dieing on the cross. They knew He was the One Who had been prophesied to come. They needed someone just exactly like Paul to encourage and exhort them to remain steadfast and let the LORD fight their battles for them. It was a new day and there was a need for new instruction. But who was sent ? Someone they would have to forgive.
Someone who had killed and put into prison people just like themselves who had done nothing wrong but believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Maybe some had a hard time forgiving. Maybe some of their own family had been victims of the persecution that Paul as Saul had so much encouraged.
Killing, putting into prison hard things to forgive.

Today our lives are affected much like the early Christians.
People are killed !
Besides the obvious types of deaths we grieve, think about how many grieve for the unborn whose lives were snuffed out by abortion.
People are imprisoned !
Again I would like to point out the not so obvious as many are imprisoned by controlling parents and spouses. Not free to enjoy their lives as they ought. Many are free outwardly but inwardly hold themselves in emotional prisons.
People unable to forgive themselves or forgive others find the invitation to receive the Spirit of Truth unacceptable. They hear but their ears do not hear. Their minds tell them they are listening but they are not.
Others decide since they can not forgive , all the good news must not apply to them and so they are blinded and can not receive what truth they do have.

Walk in the Light as He is in the Light ! As I walk by faith , in the Truth that my righteousness is not earned (by forgiving or anything else) but a free gift , I am set free to walk in more and more light everyday. And sometimes it becomes evident that I will not be going back to those shadows any more ! Jesus is not in the darkness. He is in the Light !

Something's Missing

2007-04-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

It was huge ! It was not suppose to be there ! I had drug it in and started adding to it years and years ago. I thought it fit my decor. I thought it was suitable for the neighborhood I lived in. No one would think it was to flashy or show offish. Perhaps some would even like it, because they had one like it.
Of course I began to notice it was causing me some problems. It was big,(like I have mentioned) and something I had brought in and added to, (also mentioned) but it did not belong in this temple for the Holy Ghost.
I thought it really wouldn't matter if I kept it, until I was awakened at 3:00 a.m. the other night and became keenly aware that to keep this idol , I would be most wrong.
I use to like believing that if you really got to know me, you would not like me. I thought it only fair to warn you, so you would not be disappointed.
However, I will not be doing that any more, (believing for God's grace to help me not do this, I say.)
My little idol of "you won't like me" loomed up at me the other night and I thought it was hideous ! If it looked that bad to me, I can only imagine how bad it has been looking to you . I am trying to get over the embarrassment of it.
I have lived for a long time now in a world of change. Boundaries and no co-dependency , whose yard is it , and whose really responsible for this action are common threads for thought. They did not exist in my world prior to a desire for healing so my world has been changing ever since I started welcoming these things in.
However, I kept the little "you won't like me" idol , even though I knew that learning to respect your boundaries would probably be an asset for me and friendships.
I kept the "you won't like me" idol when I knew that I would set my heart to give to you not because I expected something in return, but simply because you were there and God loved you, and He was saying ,"give." I guess I always knew there would be more to fixing me than that, so I would hang on to it.
I knew there were and are those unexplainable things I do, that are considered , rude , obnoxious, oh that's a long enough list.
Those unexplainable things could sometimes be defined as hiding styles, (people sometimes hide from love . Did you know that ?) At one time I thought I might learn to not hide , and I still have not given up on that . I wanted to love you now, is what has thrown a wrench in the works , so to speak. I wanted to love you but protect you somehow and let you know I have this idol, "you won't like me" .
Only now I have decided to throw it out ! An enemy might try to sneak it back in , but I am going to try to stay on guard and watch so it will not settle in and get embedded like it had once before.
I am a temple for the Holy Ghost ! Why in the world would I let that thing take up the foyer of my temple ? It was so big, I bet you never even knew there were other rooms to explore, more to know about me than that.
I have decided to throw it out, because I have decided to love you, not because of the things you do, but because you are you. I have decided to throw it out because I can not give love I am not willing to accept. I have decided to throw it out because I want to give you a chance to like, (or love) me not based on what I do , but because I am here. That means those undesirable things I do , won't matter to you and the nice things I do, well, that will just be pleasant while they last.
Are you understanding what I am talking about ? I know several people who , (like me) need to learn to see that what we do and who we are , are two different things.
This does not mean that what we do should not be looked at. It just means that what you do , I may not like. Who you are gives me every reason to love you, if you were created in the image of God.
It does not mean that I will not protect myself from what you do if I feel it is something that I should avoid being around. However, there will be some way to love you still , for you just being you.
With the idol out of the foyer of my temple , I will just have to hope that you can do the same.
Probably you are in the same fix that I am in. You have to absolutely believe this is how God is looking at us and that His love is unconditional.
Well, I want to be like Him . I have it from good authority that my temple being filled with the Holy Spirit will only help this come about. Maybe with my removing this idol it will make way for a whole new area of the Holy Spirit to live in me ! That can only be good. I'll let you know.

A Little Strength

2007-04-17T04:26:00.000-07:00

Rev.3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

I have been very mindful of the little strength that I have been given.
I am sure that it is enough.
When I look out onto the fields that are waiting for me to work in, I know that the only thing that is required of me is what has been given to me.
I find myself learning to take inventory of my assets.
I want to give away what has been given to me.
Mercy, grace, forgiveness, long suffering, patience, kindness, love, joy, peace, trust, faithfulness just to name a part of my inventory.
I also have a great desire to give. In order for one to give there must be a receiver.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who read my blogs.
Then I remember I am giving a word of testimony .

Faith In Jesus

2007-03-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Jesus is the son of God whose blood was shed for our sins . He also took upon Himself great affliction that we might have an abundant life. It is my theory that He wanted us to be free from our afflictions so that we could be free to do the will of Our father here on earth.
When I know that it is the will of my father to forgive others for sins that He forgives them for , I can look to Jesus to help me with it. I can even look to others who are in Christ Jesus to help me with it. I do not have to do this on my own.
There is a balance here that I think can only be found by trying to do it on your own first. Did I say,"On your own?" I mean , you and Jesus. Then, others who are in Jesus, then you and Jesus. Kind of like riding a bike. Balance.
The important thing is don't give up.
If you can not forgive someone today, do not stop trying. It is Jesus and you everyday, He is always there and He will never leave you. He is not waiting until you do everything He could do perfectly , before He will hang out with you. You are the reason He came here on earth.
This is the word of my testimony : that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us to the Father .

Suffer

2007-03-21T04:54:00.000-07:00

As I follow the Way through this world I find blessings.
Living by the blood of the Lamb has benefits.
They become my word of testimony as I live them.
As I live them I will learn to love not my life even unto death.

In this world we will suffer but not alone.
Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.
When Jesus came to earth as fully God and fully man the benefits of that has only half been told. Everyday I realize there was more than I realized the day before.
To think that I will learn to appreciate all of His benefits is un-fathomable. However, what joy I experience as I realize there are more and more to discover.
Jesus made the way for me to suffer with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
His name is Wonderful, Councilor and Prince of Peace. He is Jesus.

All of the attributes that are granted us because of our faith in being sanctified through Jesus Christ our Lord become testimonies as we live them out. Share your testimony on the blog comment or start your own way of giving a word of testimony. Obeying God's Word brings freedom and joy.

He Never Let's Go Of Me

2007-03-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Having God with me 24/7 use to be an uncomfortable thought. Knowing that He knew everything I did was not something I wanted to think about. I wanted to know He was around when I was praying. I wanted Him to be around when I was in trouble. I certainly wanted Him to hear me when I confessed my sins. Perhaps I did want Him to be around when I praised Him, because I desired an audience.
The truth kept staring me in the face. He would never leave me or forsake me.
He didn't take bathroom breaks. He never slept. Never went to other worlds and check on them and leave me with a babysitter. Never got bored with my company and found some diversion. Always there, 24/7.
Now the benefit of that has to be looked at from the angle of knowing just who God is and what His character is.
I can not even think of one person that I would want to be with me 24/7.
There are times that I check out from the knowing that God is with me 24/7. Yet as I come to enjoy the awareness of His being here I am trying to do that less and less.
I belong to Him. If He wants to be with me 24/7 I could enjoy that if I choose. It is my choice after all , to rejoice in the Lord always, or not. In His presence is great joy. It seems kind of futile to decide not to enjoy His being here.
Yet whether I am running to Him or trying to hide from Him, He never let's go of me.

Being Able To Fix My Eyes On Jesus

2007-02-28T04:10:00.000-08:00

When my eyes are fixed on Jesus , I am not looking at myself.
Looking at myself has always caused me problems. Looking to Jesus gives me strength, hope, joy, love, encouragement, and answers to lifes most complex problems.
You can not look forward and backward at the same time. The more I looked at myself the less I liked myself. The more I look at Jesus , I find He has chosen to love me unconditionally.
Looking forward , I run a race. Trusting that the new nature of Christ Jesus is being developed in me. While it is being developed I know that I am given grace for sins I still commit.
Life becomes complex when I look at those sins and try to figure out a way to stop commiting them. Because it is impossible to look backwards and forwards at the same time, unless I am only seeing the new nature of Christ Jesus , my inward search only produces me more problems.
Yet as I look forward I see the developing of His nature within me.

Joy Comes In The Morning

2007-02-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

As I was sorrowing, I knew that I would have a testimony to share , some day. My life is not without sorrow. It is a part of a growing Christians need to sorrow. Without sorrow the fruit of repentance for sins could not be found.
Joy comes as the dawn. Not all at once but gradually.
I can always have the joy of my salvation, because I know Who Jesus is and what He has done for me.
This knowledge keeps all sorrow in a place of bittersweet. The hope of righteousness is as knowing in the midst of night that dawn will come. Jesus' sacrifice for our sins is what gives us righteousness. Our understanding and being able to receive it produces fruit. I praise Him for His willingness to give His Self for me that I might have this gift.
The magnitude of this gift increased for me as I realized His most important words He uttered for all man kind to hear as He hung upon the cross. "Father, forgive them" has taken on new meaning as I too want to respond to situations like Jesus did.
In an effort to really tell you about my trials and testimonies I am inhibited somewhat by staying in my own territory. It would be a violation of ethics I believe to tell you that such and so did this, and so and so did this when I did this.
I can tell you this.
I have sinned. Saints do sin , by the way. I am so grateful for the grace God has given me. Yet I did want to and still do want to quit sinning in many areas.
The ten commandments most certainly are not meant to be suggestions. The commandments Jesus gave us to have no other gods before Him and to love our neighbor as ourselves certainly wasn't just idle talk.
Reading the complete Word reveals to me that the sins I do not commit , in my own strength are considered self-righteousness. This prompts me to consider that I need His divine strength to do anything right, and it be a sweet smell to Him.
I have not honored my mother in a very long time.
According to the standard above , it might be safe to say, I have never honored my mother. I gave up even trying a long time ago. It still is unsure to me that I will be able to honor her by her birthday.
When does one get to declare that morning is here ?
When the sun is shining brightly, or when the dawn is just beginning to appear?
At the first sound of the roosters crow? It might be even at that time one feels it is to dark to maneuver safely around in unfamiliar territory.
However, the word of my testimony is : that joy comes in the morning.

Rolling The Stone Away, Why I Do This

2007-02-14T05:57:00.000-08:00

Jesus came that we might choose LIFE rather than death.
A simple choice that can be made to look hard. For many to hear that Jesus loves them just as they are, though they long to believe it, the words roll off them as water on a duck's back.
The time it takes to give a testimony may be all that is needed to help break down the resistance they find in their souls.
Jesus came to give us LIFE rather than death.
Trying to live without Jesus brings the stench of death.
Once Jesus can, (because He has been invited to ) breathe on a person the death begins to go away. Life starts flowing through once dead brain cells that suddenly tell eyes, "See what the LORD has done !"
Amazingly the psalmists proclamation, " taste and see, the Lord is good ! " becomes a reality.
I give the word of my testimony in obedience to the LORD's word to my heart.
Sometimes I struggle with thoughts of concern about what people might be thinking about me. My testimonies expose who I am, my life, my children, my concerns.
When I obey I do not have to know if it has helped someone. I did not do it for that purpose. However, it occurred to me today that my obedience may be very important.
What would of happened when Jesus came to visit his friend Lazarus' tomb and when He said, "Roll the stone away," no one would obey ? Fortunately that was not case. There were people ready to obey that day, and praise the LORD, there are those who are willing to obey today.

Getting There From Here Part Three

2007-02-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

LOVE......HOPE......Receiving love is the most wonderful, delightful commodity here on earth. I don't want to keep my source hidden. I want to share it. I want every person alive to know where and how to get to it. I want them to have a road map. I want to help them in every way I can. It is just to good for the few of us who have found it. I want to join in with others who have found it and help them share it too. I want to love them , with this love that I have found. I want the love they have found in Jesus to also be coming through me , to them.
BUMP.........Do you have those signs in your neighborhood that say, bump slow to 25 miles an hour ?
HOPE.......I listened last night to a person who had carefully sought out the references to the fruits of the spirit and identified them as attributes of God. It makes sense to me that the fruit of God would be that same like fruit coming forth in me.
If I plant a seed and say, "Let's see what happens now ," will it come forth ? I am reminded of all those years that I mistakenly thought I was doing what pleased God by trying to earn His love. Perhaps then also , I could not be content to let the fruit come forth but had to help it some way.
However, there has been help . I had to learn how not to help in the wrong way and let the true help come and help in the right way. My hope is in God.

Getting There From Here Part Two

2007-02-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

LOVE.....HOPE.....I wanted to love Him first. I wanted to show Him that I loved Him and then let Him love me. It has taken such a long time to stop that. To figure out why I kept insisting that it be my way. To understand the different ways I would use to hide from His love. The truth began to shine through the fog in my life a little at a time. Slowly , slowly I began to realize I could not love Him unless I let Him love me first. Unconditionally, it would not count if I felt I had earned His love. I had to let Him love me as the prodigal son, pig slop and all. Even though I was bathing pretty regularly by now, I could project myself into being that prodigal, and then let Him love me, here. Not where I was going. Here.

How Do I Get There From Here ?

2007-02-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

LOVE.....The greatest testimony that one could have is that I am loved. If all other needs are not met, but the constant assurance of love is supplied, it seems that nothing else matters, because LOVE supplies all. One could say, then if you know you are loved then surely you believe that your needs shall be supplied. I would agree with them but wonder if they understand that I want to bask simply , in the fact , that I am loved. I do not want to expect great evidences of His LOVE because all the evidence that I need has already been supplied. I will praise Him and thank Him for Salvation. I will be glad and rejoice in knowing salvation comes from the Lord. His free gift can not be out done by anything else. It is the most generous gift there is. Blessed am I for knowing of the salvation given us from our LORD Jesus Christ.

Watching ! Such A Very Good Idea

2007-01-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Those e-mails telling me if I care to track an item I had ordered , I have always ignored. My attitude has been , when it gets here fine, my watching it won't help it arrive any faster.
If this has been your attitude also, read on and learn with me how valuable watching can be.
A small group of students that I meet with had decided to purchase workbooks to go along with our subject we are studying. A mother volunteered to place the order for the workbooks and I received an e-mail from her a few days later saying , our workbooks were in San Antonio .
That is nice I thought.
When she delivered the workbooks to our class she had this story to report.
She had watched the tracking of our order up to a large city in our state. Then the tracking order read : box damaged, shipment destroyed. This after waiting a week for our shipment to arrive, she called the company sending out the shipment and made them aware of our shipments fate.
The company responded as most would desiring good PR and quickly sent out another shipment , this time at a faster delivery specification .
They probably would have done the same , when the cities postal facility notified them of the damaged freight, but just when that would be it is hard to say.
Because the mother had been watching the tracking status of our books the students probably received them a week quicker than they would of other wise.
The word of my testimony is : that the LORD is faithful to reinforce His Word of Truth to our hearts by the situations He allows to happen in our lives. Watching , as in Revelation 4:2 the church in Sardis is commanded to do has been the subject of our morning Bible study time. What a relevant situation in the natural to help us remember to do what we should do in the spiritual.
Praise the LORD !

And there is hope, Jer 31:17

2007-01-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

A Joyful Bible Study.
I hope you are able to read the Bible with your child. Our study time brought us to Rev 3:1-6 recently. The first and second day that I read the passage I did not see much fruit. I was surprised when again I felt this was to be our Bible reading. I am so glad that I did not do my own thing.
vs 2, Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, (a fragment of the verse.)
I had read (via Blue Letter Bible ) by clicking the list of commentaries ( that is the L beside the verse ) David Gusik's find about the place called Sardis . When I related this to my daughter she found the whole passage much more interesting.
Then I invited her to help me discover how this mistake that Sardis had made could help us today. It was very evident that it was Sardis' over confidence that they were secure in what they were doing that was their downfall.
And how could it be that a church could be dead and still alive ?
As she shared with me her understanding of doing things for the sake of doing them and not really doing them from the heart as unto the LORD, I knew, she at last was returning unto her own borders.
There is one thing that she reckgonizes as something that she must do, not as a ritual but engage her mind and heart into . That is when we partake of what is commonly called Communion. When we eat of the bread and drink of the juice to specifically remember what Jesus did for us on the cross.

An Unexpected Blessing

2006-12-30T05:16:00.000-08:00

Putting money back for a rainy day never seems to be something I can do. When the fellow who changed my oil , about 8,000 miles ago , said, "I guess you know you have a rear wheel bearing going out ?" I was just beginning to come out of another rainy day crisis . However Christmas bonuses were good this year ! Now I can get that wheel bearing replaced. Just where and how also posed a problem but after much prayer and council from friends, who should change it was decided and arranged.
Imagine my shock when he said, "I don't think it is your wheel bearing." When he replaced the tire with my spare and I drove around for a while , I heard no roaring like I had before.
A cupped tire was what had been causing the roaring sound and now I do not have to replace my wheel bearing.
Another need will most certainly be met now.
A special prayer request has gone out to all my friends.
My daughter and I have been introduced to a new kind of learning technique. This new style of learning has helped many be able to bring their grades up drastically.
Once again I will be praying and valuing the council of friends.
Praise the Lord, if money is needed for testing, I have it !

BELIEVING : A Two Way Street

2006-12-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

For years I have said,"I believe" to God. Sometimes I have said, "Lord, help thou my unbelief, I want to believe."
Today I was so aware of some very obvious character flaws in myself. Still I did not want to pull back from His loving presence, so I said to Him. "I know with all these character flaws I do not look like You. I know that to the world I probably look like I do not even care , that I do not look like You. But You oh God, know my heart , and know that I do long to be like You in every way. I do not want to pull back from You just because the work You have begun in me , is not completed yet."
The Word of my Testimony today is : He Believes !

A Cat Tale The Return of the Prodigal

2006-12-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

My friend Peggy shared this with me. I think you will enjoy it.
A Cat Tale
The Return of the Prodigal
All three of my children rescue and usually adopt lost and unwanted animals.
My son Chris takes it to the extreme. He goes looking for them. At least this was the case a couple of years ago. A local animal shelter had an abundance of cats and sent out a plea for homes for them. So off Chris went, fell in love with this huge gray male bruiser, paid the adoption fee and brought him home. How the cat became incarcerated only God knows, but now he was free and that’s all that mattered.
Chris named the cat Nero. (I questioned the wisdom in naming him after a demented king, but as it turned out it was quite prophetic.)
Nero quickly set up his kingdom and positioned himself on the couch above the other cats and dogs that shared his territory. They were merely tolerated. The other animals seemed to sense his authority. Nero would frown and they would give him a wide berth. All Nero’s adoration was saved for his rescuer. He literally worshipped Chris. He would allow other people’s attention, but when Chris was present he bestowed him with his loudest purrs and all others were soon forgotten. And so it was…until the move to Georgia.
All was loaded up and relocated: family, furniture, dogs and cats, including Nero.
Not long after moving to Georgia, Nero came up missing. They searched and searched to no avail. They don’t know whether it was the sudden life change and unfamiliar surroundings or a dislike to some of the newer additions to the household that sent him away. Siamese cats and kittens were brought into the home. Maybe he didn’t like foreigners. Maybe he wandered off to find some peace and got lost. Again, only God knows.
Almost two years went by. Then one day last week, Shanda (Chris’s wife), was on the way to the store and saw a cat that looked just like Nero. She called Chris at home and off Chris went. Sure enough, it was Nero, except now his name was "Bubba." Some cons on work release had been feeding him and had given him his new moniker. The "king" had lost his identity and become a Georgia "home boy." That’s what happens when you wander from home. If you stay out there long enough you will fall in with the wrong crowd, forget who you are and to whom you really belong. But Chris hadn’t forgotten.
He knew his cat. There was the missing tooth and the BB still embedded in Nero’s belly. These were scars of a past life, but now only served to prove his uniqueness. Chris said Nero was walking gingerly around the house, checking things out. Will he stay? Time will tell, but for now, "the Prodigal" is home.
Maybe you’ve wandered from home, lost your way and forgotten that there is someone looking for your return. Someone who paid the price for your freedom because He loved you. He has a place for you with Him where you will receive a new name, a kingship complete with crown and robe, a position of authority where you can rule above the issues of this life, and healing from the scars of your past life.
I used to rock my babies to sleep with a hymn that has these words:
"Jesus is tenderly calling you home. He’s standing at the portals, watching and waiting. All you who are weary, come home." Come Home.
Hear, kitty, kitty.
Peggy P/Dec 06

Put Up With ? Does He Love Me When ?

2006-12-02T05:35:00.000-08:00

There are those times when I am keenly aware of the drive or compulsion to do. These desires are not necessarily bad. When I want to escape from life, I work. I can come up with some of the most creative ways to make the work seem necessary. I know the truth. I also know that my flesh may win today and I will find myself compulsively working.
While I was accessing my day, I realized I was expecting that God would put up with me.
This feeling of, that God puts up with me, always seems to make God more distant somehow. Like He is on the other side of a lake and I am trying to shout over to Him , hoping He will hear me.
It occurred to me that this is not what He had said He would do if I give in to my compulsion.
This is where I in my mind had put Him. In fact since the plans of "work" were creeping into my prayer time. I had already put Him there. Before I had even given in, I was ready to punish myself with a distant relationship, rather than the one I could have today.
What woke me up was a knowing that He loves me. Love is not defined as being put up with.
Love is unfailing, all the time.

Grace Grace Grace

2006-11-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

How I enjoy GRACE ! Most days it is there before me, I dance with my Father God in His field of grace. Some days though, my sin is ever before me, and while trying to work at the truth , I forget, GRACE. That is when I start to nose dive into the slew of despond. It happens everytime I try to stop and fix a sin.
"Why would you want to stop and fix a sin?" you might say. Or some of my more savvy friends might say, "Who told you , you could fix a sin ?"
Only my compassionate friends will understand. When I see that my sins are affecting the lives of others , the temptation to fix me is great.
As simple as it seems, it is not easy to forgive when others trespass on me. However, years of ignoring the trespass doesn't suffix either. The results of unforgiveness will always show up in your own life. There by starting a chain reaction of others now needing to forgive you for the trespass you have inflicted on them. The evidence of their unforgiveness towards you is there, because they now are exhibiting the same behavior they were unable to forgive you for.
This pile becomes a huge mess. Trespass upon trespass, upon trespass upon trespass. People thinking all you have to do is quit it !
All the while knowing that all you have to do is forgive the first offending party, and can't. Or won't . Or thought it would just be better to ignore it. Or thought you had forgiven because it seemed you had forgotten it. And there it is , big as day, right there at the bottom of this mess of sin that you and several others have now contributed to.
If this story sounds even vaguely familiar, say with me today, "Grace, grace, grace !"
Yes, this sin of unforgiveness will have to be dealt with. But first I will have to receive grace. My trying to fix this sin without it , has never ever produced fruit. Sin is blotted out by Jesus. Sin has to be exposed so He can get to it. Sin is given GRACE because there is nothing else to do with it.
It is humbling to receive , but there is no other way into the presence of Our Father.
Grace, grace, grace and again I say, grace.

Great Is His faithfulness

2006-11-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

To be faithful in the little things means continuing to do things even if there seems to be no reason for it. When I look at His faithfulness I am encouraged to continue being faithful in the things He has shown me to do.
His faithfulness comes like sunshine on a cloudy day.
When I wait on Him , He comes with His warmth and beauty.
Cleaning houses joyfully as unto Him (my own and others), buying groceries, endless amounts of small tasks , I do faithfully (with His strength) because of His faithfulness to me.

Why It Is

2006-11-20T05:34:00.000-08:00

I learn things from seeing repeated behavior . A very wise person once said, "If you keep responding the same way to your circumstances, you can only expect the same results that you have always had."
That is why I go to God and read Psalms 51 aloud to Him.
I do not want to respond the same way . I need truth in my inward parts to be revealed. If I can see truth in my inward parts and respond with truth to the lies my inward parts once believed, I have a hope for change.
When I believed the lies, I responded accordingly.
When I believe the truth, I respond differently.
The Word of Testimony today: Every word Jesus spoke will not return void.

Wearing The Armor

2006-11-13T05:54:00.000-08:00

My word of testimony today is : I praise God for His armor.
Although David did not wear Saul's armor when he went out to fight Goliath, he did indeed have armor on . He said to Goliath, "I come in the name of the LORD."
Today I come in the name of the LORD.
What exactly does that mean, you might ask ?
To me it means that I come entirely reliant on the LORD as my Savour. I come in His name because I am His. I come in His name because unlike Saul's armor which had not been tested, the name of JESUS stands above all names.
It is because of JESUS that I can even be here.
Jesus is Who says, "I can live here." Jesus says, "I am righteous because of what He has done." Notice that it has nothing to do with how I did before ,or how I am doing now, or how I will do in the future. Jesus is the Truth. Because I stand in His name I am able to know that the giant is lieing. Jesus is the Truth. When you know something is a lie , in our fleshly thoughts and reason , we may not know exactly how to verbalize the truth. It just bears witness to our spirit man , this is a lie. This is where we stand and wait. We wait until we hear from Him to give us THE TRUTH . Then when we have the TRUTH we go and let that giant have it right between the eyes.
When I am dealing with real people, and that giant comes down, I then have an opportunity to tell that person the truth.
For however long I have, in the name of JESUS, been able to knock that giant unconscious, I can tell them what they need to hear and if it bears witness to their spirit man, they too will know that the lies they have been believing are just that, LIES.
Together we can pick up that sword and cut that giants head off. He will not be able to even speak anymore lies after that.
Standing and waiting is the hardest part of this story.
If I go in after that giant, just simply because I know he is a giant and he is lieing to my friend, I really do not do much more that aggravate the giant.
I suppose that is what he thought was going to happen when he saw David come up to him. I suppose he thought David was going to be nothing more than a dog yapping at his heels and all he would have to do is give it a big kick.
Well, those who come in the name of the LORD may not look powerful , or big. Fortunately looks have nothing to do with who will win.
It is the voice of TRUTH that I wait for today.
I stand confident it will come.

The Truth and Facing Giants

2006-10-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

Truth can be like that stone David used to slay Goliath. In the life of a growing Christian there are always giants in the land. Someone or some force is not going to want you to be a growing Christian and those forces can seem like giants . Especially if they seem to be able to mess up the fruitful crop you are trying to grow. The fruits of the spirit (necessary for those who do not want to fake Christianity) have to be tended to just as a garden would. You would not plant a garden right in the middle of a forest filled with rabbits and all kinds of wildlife that would like to eat your plants as they sprout . Neither would you expect to grow the fruits of the spirit in a bar every Saturday night and be to tired to go to church Sunday. Being people with legs of course, we can choose where to put our garden for growing at any given time.
Well, we are talking about giants here. Believe you me giants are not wanting to help your garden. They are out to deceive you into thinking it is okay to leave your garden just where you have been putting it. Especially if the giant has been able to eat your crop up almost daily. There is one thing about mobile gardens, you either got to get some protection or fight the giant.
My idea is that you should ask God what He wants you to do.
There is not a pat answer for every situtation. Not even every situtation that looks like another situtation that He gave you an answer for before.
I think it is good to know confidently that LORD will be on your side as you go into fight the giant. Just how one becomes confident of that fact is , you must realize that you are on His side first. You know , like the choose yea this day, whom you will serve, exhortation. If you know that you have chosen the LORD to be your God, and Him only you will serve, the benefits are tremendous. You now have been picked to be on the winning side.
But still I see so many Christians having their lunch eaten by the giants and I so want to help them get the word of truth in their hand.
It is not for me to say just what that truth is. It is for me to know with them that if God is their God, there is a word of truth for them.
I think it comes in a special way that they won't miss it if they just know to look for the word, that is especially for them.
It is okay to try other peoples words I guess. It might just be the same one for you. ( I am talking about scripture here, the Bible is full of them.) However, when you have that one that the HOLY SPIRIT has drawn out of the pile for you , then you know you have it. Let me at Goliath !
I just had a thought ! Maybe that is why David picked up 5 stones. It wouldn't hurt to have a few scriptures from the LORD in reserve !
It is the word of truth that I have for my paticular giant that is the word of testimony I have today. I may have been having target practice before , but this one is bound to be a hit.
Actually , I have about five ! Maybe I better count before I take off. ( A little humor.)
Truthfully, I am waiting on the LORD ! To many times I have been filled with the word , gone into to take Jericho and found the walls fell down alright, they fell on me.
The LORD draws nigh unto a broken and a contrite heart. I have asked Him to break my heart . I need Him to draw nigh. In His presence is fullness of joy. With a joyful heart and pocket full of stones. Wouldn't this be more like a two-edged sword in my hand? I guess even David realized he needed a sword to finish the job. God bless you all. My prayer is that you find your word of truth this day . Maybe you need to be made aware of just what giant is battling you. Are you deceived into thinking that where you've planted your garden , it is an okay location ?
Cry out to Jesus ! He will hear you when you cry. He will come and help you.

Never the less LORD, I'll do as You say.

2006-10-23T05:06:00.000-07:00

How many times have I done something in obedience to Christ and then been disappointed ? The desire to obey came from Him, the willingness to trust came from Him, and I supposed some miracle would occur because after all, I was obeying to Him.
I am thinking fishing this morning and being a worker in the field, so if I get my allegories mixed up just try to stay with me.
The word of testimony I have for today is from the story of the disciples and their efforts to fish after the crucifixion of their LORD.
My testimony sounds like this : I have been occupying LORD , I have been working in the fields, I have been doing all that I can think of to do, until You come, but LORD, I have no fish. Certainly not the fruits of the spirit I would like to see evident in my life. In fact LORD my perverse nature seems to want to carry me off and do it's own thing . The old nature, the one I have been hoping would die, and Your new nature would take over. It does not seem to be wanting to die, and it seems to be attempting to convince me that it will always live. Always rising up and doing some stupid thing at a time most inappropriate.

Never the less LORD , whatever You bid me to do this day, I will do it, because You are my LORD and King.

A Way To Escape

2006-10-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Just why temptation comes into our lives is not a real issue when you are being tempted. Why this happened is probably a question the enemy would like you to take the time to resolve, rather than make it through the temptation without giving into his desire.
So when I was tempted last night, I remembered all his old tricks , and tried to stay focused on what I did know. I did know that neither heighth, nor depth, nor principalities or powers could separate me from the love of God. This I repeated over and over many times, just in case he did not hear me the first time. Just because I was being tempted to sin, did not mean that I was unloved by God. God's love never fails.
Secondly I focused on what Jesus had done that proved His love for me. As all who know my saviour , know that His giving of Himself for our sins, says it all.
Then when it was most unbearable , I realized , He had given me a way of escape. The temptation itself did not leave, but as I followed the leading of the HOLY SPIRIT , I realized it would be bearable if I went this way, and so I did.
The idea came to me to blow out , like I was trying to blow out a candle, just gently, not a big puff, just a gentle blow, and I could even imagine a candle burning in front of me , to kind of give me the idea to blow the flame out.
As minutes turned into hours , the temptation came and went like labor pains, and during those unbearable minutes , I used this way of escape. I also played a play station game , just to keep my mind off of it. ( I know, LOL )
Today I am searching God's Word and seeking help from others who have encountered addiction before me.
There is grace for us. Even had I given in. There is grace for those of you who still do give in. And I am only talking about I did not give in to the temptation that was being thrust upon me last night. There are many that I just do not even resist, or only to a point, like my ice cream addiction. I give in to it for a while but then struggle to resist until I get back down to my normal clothes size, then I go again.
Should God give us grace ?
I think if , I think I must agree with God that it is okay for Him to give me grace then I must be missing some valuable truth somewhere a long the line.

What I wish would be in my core being is just a thankfulness .....for His grace.

However, let it be known that the word of my testimony today is : that Jesus does provide a way of escape from every temptation, just like Paul said He would.
I Corth. 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].

Life and Life More Abundantly

2006-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Jesus came to give us LIFE ! What an awesome life it is. Never a dull moment ! When you accept all that Jesus has done for you , you become a part of a very large family. Just watching those family members will sure keep you busy. I have to remember to not watch too much. There is a purpose for my being here so I have to be careful that I do not replace watching TV with watching people. There is something better about watching real people though. Their lives do not just go on with no hope . These people have a purpose also and being able to join with them, in the hope they have, can be quite rewarding. Two can do a whole lot more than one. Not just double . I would not know exactly the ratio but I know it is way more than you would expect.
Finding a way to encourage others with hope takes doing just that. Finding The Way, and relying on Him to give you that same hope for the family member. Our hope is in God, the creator of the Heavens and the Earth. My word of testimony : How great is our God!

Knowing He Loves Me

2006-10-02T04:37:00.000-07:00

I knew it would happen. Maybe I wanted it to. That nature that has not yet been perfected in Christ Jesus came out yesterday. I don't know why yet. I only know that I had stopped trying to hide what was not perfected anymore. So it came out, but I was not glad to see that it was still there. A nature that gets frustrated with the handicaps of my flesh. A nature that lashes out and says hurtful words when others do not understand my handicap. A mean way to say, "I can not do that !" So they will stop asking me. Just the old man, still trying to do things the old way.
My word of testimony today is : That I have hope in Christ Jesus to be the person He sees me to be. One who is able to do as Paul exhorts in Philippians 3:20 -21 For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look for the saviour , the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

A Light ! His Light At Last !

2006-09-19T05:22:00.000-07:00

What would Jesus do was once thought of as a slogan for Christians. Then Christians began to find out , just knowing what Jesus would do, and then doing it was not that easy. People began to pull back from , what would Jesus do, because they feared it would be all to evident that , they were not doing as Jesus would.
Now I think it is good to know , what would Jesus do. I think you can find that out when you read His word. The reading is simple. It is a matter of choice. I choose to read the Bible rather than say, watch TV or some other leisure activity. That in it's self is a great step in the right direction , however only the beginning to being able to do , as Jesus would.
Jesus never condemns.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I read it !
To do as Jesus would , you would not condemn. You could not condemn and claim , I do as Jesus does.
Does that mean you would never correct ?
Does it mean that you would never say, this is sin ?
I do not think so. Because if there was no sin where would our need for Jesus be? We need Jesus. He made Himself available to us , and did all that we would need to be as a son of God that we might be able to do it all as well.
Not without Him though. With Him.
Our receiving Him begins the "with Him" and the more we can receive, the more "with Him" we can be.
I rejoice in what may seem a small victory to you. However, for me I see it as "a light , at last." The times I am able to do as Jesus would and know that I did, because He was with me, I believe is a light, a light that brings glory to the Father and the Son.
Someone made a very wrong choice , that I became aware would affect several people I consider important. Just a phone call could of given this person the information she needed to make a right choice , but she chose not to do that.
She did not sin. She merely made a decision based on insufficient information. Still her choice will hurt a lot of people.
I care about people. I want the best possible circumstances for them all. I want every possible blessing to come to them, all the time. My deep caring for people, has provoked an emotion called anger in the past, when people's needs were unnecessarily not met.
However, today, I am rejoicing in a mighty God, Who is able to meet needs in ways that I can not imagine !
I believe in His love so much that I am quite sure this person's mistake can only be for His glory. I feel no anger , but joy !
Thus the word of my testimony today.

He Called Him Punk

2006-09-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

I thought I would like to slide under the seat and be hidden from view. The other day this fellow I was giving a ride to asked me to stop driving a minute. He'd seen someone that we both knew , there in the driveway we were passing, cleaning his car. I obliged, anticipating a quick exchange of "hello , how are you's." This must be what that guy was talking about when he wrote the book , Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.Evidently these two species have a different way of greeting and talking to each other. Still, (even after reading that book) I was unprepared for , "Hey ! Punk !"
This to a guy I go to church with. This to someone I really respect and esteem highly. He's out washing his car on a Saturday afternoon and some smart mouth hollers at him, "Hey,Punk!"
The testimony is this, the guy looked around and came over and talked to us as though he'd been called by his given name.
Later, I realized the whole , there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus thing, again. Jesus is uncondemning of anything we do. Call someone by an inappropriate name, commit adultery, lie, steal, live an idolatrous life style. He is just waiting for us to call out to Him, and He will come. Without condemning us for what we just did. Without giving us a lecture on how we should properly address Him. Without an I.O.U. or a I'll do better tomorrow deal. Without any stipulation at all. Just come to Him, or call out for Him and He is there.
What is going to happen then ? He is going to want know what you called Him for . What did you want ?
Did you want Him to be your Savior ? He is the One Who gave His life so you would not have to be punished for sin.
Did you want Him to help you ? Those other gods you were serving were not helping you out so good , huh ? Well, He will gladly begin to help you as He becomes the focus of your life. He will be your God and you will be His. It is a great deal !

Except the Lord Build the House , He Labors in Vain Who Builds It

2006-09-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Houses being built, relationships being maintained, peoples needs being met, children being taught and trained in the way they should go, work in the field, all of these things can only be done in way that will affect the eternal, if the LORD builds the house.
Though it might seem like it is a trial and error learning process , it is really a reckoning of the truth, that JESUS is LORD.
As one realizes He is LORD , He becomes the ONE who builds the house. He becomes LORD of your relationships, LORD of meeting peoples needs, LORD of teaching and training the children, LORD of your job (the field He has you working in).
HE is LORD. The HOLY SPIRIT introduces Him ..........as LORD.
Drawing night unto Him allows Him to draw nigh unto us. For whatever reason one might be afraid of drawing nigh to HIM ,we as His labors in the fields can help others overcome their fears. But only the HOLY SPIRIT can reveal JESUS as LORD.

Jesus is Lord

2006-09-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

When I see that there are problems with being able to pay my rent, I know , the battle belongs to the Lord ! It is not my battle , it is His. He will win this battle for me and I will not fear. He has in His hand a mighty power that He chooses when to show or not to show. Just as mighty a power to show if my rent is not paid and I am evicted. The battle belongs to the LORD . One thing I will not lose, the only thing that is of importance to me is, being in His presence , learning at His feet. I so enjoy the morning seasons when He speaks His word and I know He is with me. My battles are not of flesh and blood but of principalities.Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. That is why we must put on our armour and stand against the wiles of the enemy. Also, take note that we are to be praying. Eph 6:18-19Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.
I live not for my glory but for HIS. Whatever will bring Him glory is what I expect will happen this day. Lord willing I will clean houses today with His strength and power. Lord willing I will find myself able to go to my landlord and pay the debt I now owe. Through this experience I will learn something more about His ways that I had not known before. I will know Him in a way that I had not before. I will cherish this day as being the day that the LORD has made and I am able to be glad and rejoice in it.

The Helmet of Salvation

2006-09-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

As Christians who live in this world but not of this world , we have not been left without any protection. I know that we stand against the wiles of the devil, but while standing the enemy sure does get to talk a lot. Now I tend to be simple minded . So I have been going a long, with this prayer, "I believe, to do just as Your Word says, and bring all my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Thank-you for what You Jesus have done for me , so that I can do this." Finally this morning those thoughts were coming a mile a minute. If I was a tiny-league baseball player and I was a good hitter , I suddenly felt like they had called in someone from the big leagues to pitch and I was beginning to get wore out.
So being up in the middle of the night praying about this, crying out for the word of truth to come for each one of these lies, when I awoke this morning my first thought was, "the helmet of salvation." Then I remembered, oh yeah, it is the helmet of salvation that we are to wear, it quenches all those fiery darts of the evil one. I think I better concentrate on that today.
Oh wow, I just thought of my analogy of the baseball player. Don't hitters wear a special hard cap while they are up to bat ?
Cool, well I am going over to my Green Pastures blog site to write about scriptures on salvation now. You can find that link here Green Pastures . Thank-you Lord for our helmet of salvation.

That This Is For His Glory

2006-08-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Testimonies inspire and encourage me. My daughter gave the most wonderful testimony I have ever heard. She said that when she was depressed she could hardly drag herself off of the couch. That as she lay there day after day and tried to get herself motivated to get up and do something and found she could not, her despair only greatened. When she decided that since she belonged to God and that she had been created for His Glory then if this was the best she could do, she would just believe that her laying there on the couch would be for His Glory.
As many of you know , this girl is never laying on the couch anymore. She is always up and living for His Glory.
How hard it is for me to remember , that how I am right now, this is where He has me , this is for His Glory.
I was out doing some stuff yesterday and had a couple of times when some health disorders seemed like they disrupted my day. It seemed like maybe I should have kept on doing what I was doing but had chosen to stop . My thoughts struggled with did I chose to do the right thing?
This morning I realized , this is for His Glory. This vessel right here, this is for His Glory ,but only if I let it alone and let what light I have be His Light and not my effort to push on , without Him. This is for His Glory that I am as well as I am, not totally healed , but much more healed than I was last year.
I thought of Samuel, who said, "Here am I Lord, Thy servant heareth." I thought of myself as a small child unable to do much , but willing to do whatever, He said do." Whatever you find yourself able to do today, remember, it is for His Glory !

He Blesses Me

2006-08-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

When I was a child I use to sing ,"give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning, give me oil in my lamp, I pray." That was our only clue in the song, "I pray" ,as to how you got the oil. Truly that was the right words because the oil in our lamps certainly can not be manufactured by man. The attempt to look like you have oil and do things so it will burn (make a light) sure will mess up the true oil that the Holy Spirit wants you to have. When He (the Holy Spirit) gives me boldness to do some thing, I rejoice. Why ? Because I use to "try to be bold" in my own strength. It looked good to people, (I thought.). Some how the Holy Spirit managed to get my attention and helped me realize how it looked to HIM. Today I rejoice because He gives me oil in my lamp and He keeps it burning. It may not be 100% pure oil but it is being processed oh so thoroughly. When I do things now I so want to do them in His strength. In Ps 37:4 The Psalmist declares, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. " It is so. I live to tell you, "it is so."

Better Than A Yard Sale

2006-07-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

Last week quite joyfully I told you how I was blessed to see so many people come to the yard sale. I and the person in need were so grateful to so many who bought our items we had to sell . When it totaled enough to meet the immediate needs we thanked Jesus, Who is all we need. As I saw more monetary needs coming I began asking people to pray with us.
Well, last night an opportunity for employment came to this person in need. In two hours she was able to earn quite a bit of money . It is possible her talents that she's been given will be seen by others . It isn't that this person wants to be fabuously rich. She would like to be able to pay her rent on time and have all her utilities on and paid up current. She would also like to have a car. Praise the LORD with me today , as I see that may be happening quite soon now. Praise the LORD !

No Small Thing , Not At All

2006-07-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

As I continue to see the mighty hand of God move on my behalf , I want to give glory to His name. May I exhort you to remember that the moving of a mountain may be done one shovel full at a time. Thus , each shovel full that the mighty hand of God picked up and moved would be a miracle. Oh, will I tell you of every time He moves in my life? Probably not. I haven't thus far, yet the witness to share is growing so I believe I will tell you I had the most exciting yard sale! There was a financial need. I knew of a water bill that had to be paid or the water would be turned off. I did not know of a phone that would soon be turned off if not paid. As the money started coming in and we saw the water bill money there then I heard of this other need. That was great because in came the customers. I didn't even advertise in the paper. I just sent in a free announcement over a local radio station. People down the street may have advertised because here they came lots of people. Plus another special favor was granted us, we had a break in the hot weather we had been experiencing. For two months I had been collecting things for a yard sale as this is one of the ways my friends chose to bless me. They are aware that I like to have an avenue to give. By re-selling their items I have give money. In turn I was blessed abundantly at the yard sale because I had opportunity to meet so many people. Some who I would of loved to talk to more and get to know them if there had been time. So I gave out a newsletter that included this blog site. When they come to read this today I hope they will rejoice with me that the yard sale was a wonderful miracle. Not only was there enough money generated to take care of this financial need but there were three boxes left over to give away for free. Just like the feeding of the five thousand , more than enough. Plus the joy in the hope that I have today that Lord might increase my circle of friends. What a joy it would be finding more Christian believers who agree that we can have a "word of testimony" given to us from God's Holy Word.

Miracles Happen

2006-07-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

When my daughter called and said her refrigerator had quit working , I thought here we go , another storm in our already stormy lives. Although we live in separate homes we are not separate in these tragic events that have come upon her. Our prayers were answered , thank-you dear friends who prayed. Some of the people who seemed to have their minds set on seeing my poor daughter miserable have stopped doing some of the mean things they were doing. How be it though, her finances are dire. No car and well, it is pretty dire. So the refrigerator is broke and she figures it will cost about $120.00 to fix it, because she had a guy out two years ago to fix it and that is what it cost then. After taking care of some basic instructions about trying to preserve the food in the freezer , I entreated her to pray first before she spent any money . I know she can hear from the Holy Spirit , just wanted to remind her , to stop and pray. And I said , I would pray too. So as soon as I could I entered in to His presence and waited for the Holy Spirit to tell me how to pray.
I was kind of surprised when the story of the little boy who gave Jesus his five loaves of bread and two fishes came to my mind but I am not one to be embarrassed to pray however the Spirit is leading me.
So I began,"I know Lord you can do all things. I know that if you want , we can even live without bread and still exist, because man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.However, Jesus you must of felt that the people whom you feed from the five loaves and two fishes , needed food and it did not bother you to ask Your Father to bless them with food. I ask You now to bless my daughter with a refrigerator because most of the food she has to live on for the next two weeks is frozen and in that freezer. Would you please make her refrigerator work, I asked. Would you please touch it and make it work ?" A thought came to my mind and I called my daughter up.
My grand-daughter answered the phone and she said that my daughter had gone to take the meat over to her brothers freezer.
I said, "When she comes back ask her to check the fuse box , or maybe jiggle the plug or something. Maybe there is just a short and she won't need to get it fixed."" I am praying that God will make the refrigerator work." I ended my call. And went back to praying. I continued until my daughter called and said she'd checked the fuse box, and not a thing. But her brother thought he had a friend with a refrigerator to sell so maybe it will work out okay. So today the brother and the friend went about bringing the used refrigerator over to her house and when they pulled her old refrigerator out , and jiggled the plug.............it started working.
Now isn't that awesome. She forgot to tell me that the refrigerator was too heavy for her to pull out from the wall so she could try jiggling the plug and well that is okay because here is the rest of the story.
Unknown to her or me my grand-daughters friend and her mother have been without a refrigerator for three months. They have been using an ice chest to keep things like lunch meat cold and doing the best they could without one. They don't have any money either . But they hadn't let us know they needed a refrigerator either. Somehow now I think this other refrigerator might need to go to them.
I am going to pray about it . One never can be sure until you give the LORD time to speak . I was just wondering if this might be the beginning of a five thousand people miracle ?
Earlier today I was thinking about the time Peter talked to the three thousand people and they were filled with the Holy Spirit . That was nothing less than a miracle and Peter certainly did not do anything different but let the Spirit use his mouth.
Lord You can have my feet, You can have my hands, You can have my mouth, You can have my time as I sit and write what You want me to write. Lord it is all yours, Miracles Happen, one, two , three lives or five thousand lives , they are all important to You , feed them please Jesus.
Let them know You love them and that You never leave them.

Being Free

2006-07-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free ,ye shall be free indeed . Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives even unto death. My word of testimony today is that the Son has set me free . Jesus has made a WAY for me to escape all temptation . Jesus has given me strength to stand and proclaim that it is written man shall not live by bread alone , but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus gives me strength to say, get thee behind me satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the LORD thy God and Him only shalt thou serve . Jesus gives me strength to say, it is written thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God. Jesus did that for me, when He lowered Himself to become as a man and go through every temptation , every problem I could ever face and do it without sin . So He could hand me a robe of righteousness , that I did not earn but was willing to receive . It is the TRUTH . He has never wanted me to earn that robe but He has always wanted me to be willing to receive it . Jesus gives me LIFE . Just as Righteousness , Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost are our's as we enter the kingdom of God ,our entrance into the presence of the Father in heaven comes threefold . The WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE . The word of testimony I give you today is that I am free to walk in the WAY , (and receive His righteousness [ the blood of the Lamb ] was given to me) . I can boldly declare the TRUTH ( Jesus came to give us Peace [ my word of testimony ] not as the world gives ) . I can live LIFE and life more abundantly because I seek not to save my life but give it away . I have great Joy in the Holy Ghost as He shows me how to do that . Every step I take brings me closer to not loving my life even unto death . I John 3:7-8 Little children let no one deceive you: the one who practices righteousness is righteous , just as He is righteous , the one who practices sin is of the devil , for the devil has sinned from the beginning . The Son of God appeared for this purpose , that He might destroy the works of the devil . I am covered by the blood of the LAMB .

Grace and Power

2006-07-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

God's grace is always sufficient for me.
His strength is perfected in my weakness.
2 Cr 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Christ's power .
Christ's grace . Grace for my weaknesses .
Christ's strength (power) made perfect in my weakness .
Much grace has been shown towards myself and my family this last month . It is the weaknesses that I find myself wanting to tell you about .
I am finding myself doing things I had only dreamed of doing . Yet beyond a doubt the weakness are still here . I can not do these same things tomorrow but for the grace of God. Only by grace and His grace alone can I even attempt to continue on as He is showing me to do . I thought when the power came the weaknesses also went away . I was wrong . Somehow He allows those weaknesses to still exist but give me power to go on and do His will . So the weak me is still here , doing awesome wonderful things in His strength . It is exciting , yet a little disconcerting .
I have this awesome awareness that any given moment , I have the weakness of Uzzaiah that reached out to steady the cart . Only God can give me the strength I need to not reach out and help Him . I have to trust that the things that are moving along are not by chance but by God's divine order . That He has predestined all that is happening . He knew who would do what , when and why . That my choice to serve the LORD God and Him only is all He ever wanted .
That His strength is sufficient for me.

A Testimony and A Prayer Request

2006-06-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

My daughter made a terrible mistake . She was not watching what she was doing and several people have suffered because of it . It is not unlike a car accident . I remember reading years ago about a former Miss America's testimony . Her sister was driving the car she was in . Being young and inexperienced she made a terrible mistake . While passing a friend's house and being on a hill just high enough that the view of another car was obstructed , the two cars collided as she had swerved to the wrong side of the road . It was horrible . One woman died and several were injured . This young woman's testimony consisted of the love and nurturing care that her family gave her as she recovered from the accident . Then miraculous healing of her injured leg that had stopped growing temporarily actually lengthened later in her life . Giving God all the glory she went on to become a Miss America .
It is a testimony about how bad things do happen but God can show Himself in the healing process and even sometimes a miraculous touch to those who seemly have been permanently injured .
The Miss America's book told a little about how her sister had suffered emotionally because of the accident . A fellow who was known to be learning challenged had come into a store one time and said to her sister, "You killed .................." It so upset the sister even though she knew this fellow didn't have the capability to realize pointing out her mistake was not going to help her now. Miss America's family was special . They especially relied on the grace of God . When their children made mistakes they were able to show that grace to them .
Please pray for my daughter . She has made a terrible mistake . She did not do it on purpose . Some people are treating her as if she did . Please pray that she will be sustained with God's grace . It does not mean that she will not suffer consequences for her mistakes . However all who have been injured would do well to look to God for help , rather than keep reminding her she made a mistake .

Thankful To Be Thankful

2006-05-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

As children we are taught so many things that our heavenly Father re-teaches us. Being thankful is I suppose a matter of choice. Yet it is also the most freeing thing I have found to do. I constantly have the salvation granted me through the LORD Jesus Christ to be thankful for. Yet only when I am "just" thankful do I really have it's benefits. For when I try to earn it or give it a little glory of my own, I destroy it's message and become a stumbling block. When I accept there is nothing I can do to make this gift better by anything I do , I live life as Jesus meant for me to do. For Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life and no one comes to the Father but through Him. His gift of salvation cost Him everything yet He wants me to pay nothing for it. The more I give into accepting that, the more free I am to give all I have. Not because I have to but because it is all His. He is not wanting me to be some kind of sacrifice in return for His gift He gives to us. Nor does He want us to prove to Him that we love Him by what we give. We do not ask Him to prove Himself to us and He does not ask us to prove ourselves to Him. We are as , He is . Thankful.
Matt 11:25-30 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. Father:for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whosoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me:for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I'VE GOT A MANSION JUST OVER THE HILL TOPS

2006-05-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

My wonder years were during a time of radical change for the Christian life style. Just shortly after the Azuza Street Revival many Christians became hungry for more. The family that raised me really wanted to be Christians. Their hunger was evident in their choice of churches they attended. Being a Christian was serious business to them and the words of change still ring in my ears.
"Don't be satisfied with this pie in the sky, attitude," he said. "God has a lot He wants to do for you now. He does not intend for you to wait for every blessing when you get to heaven."
His words brought a lot of hope to people. My mom was born right at the end of the era we know as the great Depression. As you also know , even though the U.S.A. came out of it economically, many folks did not come out of it mentally. They still needed to not use their good stuff until their other stuff had really gotten worn out. Grandma's kept presents back for the days they really would need them.
It was like this mental battle had to be won in the church. You can have blessings now ! You don't have to wait, was like a teaching people had to recondition their thinking to accept.
As good as it was to encourage people to become new wine skins so that they could become filled with new wine, many lost what had held their fathers through that great depression.
"Restore unto me the JOY OF THY SALVATION," the psalmist sings.
Jesus seeing Himself as Salvation for every seed of Adam, endured the cross ,for the joy set before Him.
Just like salvation, the joy that goes with it is a free gift. An emotion will be produced by what you think about. Knowing that the Lord is willing to fill me with His Holy Spirit every morning is more than wonderful ! Knowing that I have Jesus' saving grace that assures me a place in heaven for all eternity is joy unspeakable !

Being Here

2006-05-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

Where Here is ,is not as important as Being Here. Instead of always wanting to be somewhere else but being content to be here. Here is where He, my Lord has led me . Here is where He is. Here is where He feeds me. Here is where I know He cares for me. Here is where I can trust Him to take care of tomorrows cares. Here is where I find Him. He is not over there. Here is where I occupy . Here is where I wait on Him. Here is where He is. I Praise the LORD for leading me Here !

Being Able To Ask For All Things

2006-05-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

A friend shared evidence again, our God is a good God , full of grace and mercy. Her son who attends college had a huge math assignment that kept him up until 6:00 in the morning . Then his regular day filled with classes, a visit from his family and an evening out to eat dinner with them. At 10:00 p.m. my friend realized her son had four big projects to prepare for and little time for rest if all were to get done. She asked him if he would like her to pray, and he said yes. Every little thing she asked for was granted for her son. All of the work he needed to do was accomplished by 5:30 a.m. He was able to pass his math test at 8:30 a.m. with 100 %. He was able to get a transparency paper needed for an assignment in time to finish his power point presentation. A phone call at noon confirmed all was going well so far, he had a speech to give at 2:00 but had terrible pain in his mouth. A bad tooth had really given him problems and he was in pain every time he opened his mouth. Mom promised to pray again. Later the report was during the speech his mouth did not hurt at all but did begin to hurt again after he returned to the dorm room. This mom's testimony so encouraged me to not look at what could have been or should of been but to approach God when your child needs help and ask the Father for help. He sure answered her prayers. Praise be to God.

Watching Her Grow

2006-05-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

Our Lord gave my daughter a most amazing gift. I still marvel at how He did it. I clean houses and there is one house that my 16 yr old helps me with . This was agreed upon with the client. One thing I have always felt was important was that I do not ask to change clients days and times too often. So when one client wanted a shift of a week , it meant asking three others, (small apartments) to shift a week. So I said, no. I will just skip your turn instead. Do you know , apartment one called and said, could I please skip a week. So I still had 2 apartments. Then apartment two called and said, it really would be impossible for me to come this time. So the client with the bigger house got her wish and I took my daughter and decided to call the last apartment and tell her I and my daughter would be coming this time. As it turned out this was an answer to prayer for this elderly lady. She was so glad for my daughter to be there and would she want to give her dog a bath while I cleaned ? So now she wants me to bring my daughter every time and my daughter will benefit a little extra spending money for bathing her dog. In 26 years of cleaning I have never seen 3 clients want their days changed so that it benefited all three. I should not marvel but do give a testimony to the good blessing that has come to my daughter and this elderly lady . Praise be to Our Lord.

Being Transformed By the Renewing of Our Minds

2006-04-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

The hope for transformation for me has been much like one would hope for healing. When I first read Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard the hope was fanned into a flame as I read the scriptures with new insight. She based her allegory on many Biblical principles and my hope to love was birthed. Although her struggles in real life were different from mine ,my emotional afflictions seemed to be as crippling and certainly damaging to my service to Christ. When I was able to respond with joy to an event that use to bring me anger , I knew I wanted to glorify my LORD with a word of testimony. For the years of searching, the joys of finding, His streams of living water and grace. My emotions are finally revealing a healing that only His Holy Spirit could have given me, by the renewing of my mind in His Word.

Having A Foot To Stand On

2006-04-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

There is no greater joy than knowing God's Word applies to your life. Those special times when a scripture comes to your mind and you just KNOW this is for you. I have a friend who has only one leg, and yes one foot. He has been doing the best he can with this one legged condition . When I ask him if he wants to attend church, he always says, "I don't want to miss out on an opportunity to worship the LORD." He stands on that one foot and praises God as long as the worship service allows . Lately his one foot has started hurting. I have been telling him he should probably stop standing on it so much. He called me last night to tell me about a scripture he wanted help to find. We found it in Ps 26:12 My foot standeth in an even place : in the congregations will I bless the LORD.His being glad that he has a foot to stand on to praise the LORD is a testimony I wanted to pass on you.

That God Is A Good God

2006-04-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Our God is a good God. He may give things, He may take away things, He may give and take away things again.
He is still a good God. God's goodness is in no way connected to my present day circumstances that are affected by things. His goodness, His mercy, endures forever. Everything about Him endures forever. Not one part of Him changes. There is no shadow in His turning.
He is a good God. He grants me mercy when I approach His seat. He grants me help in time of need. I do not tell Him what kind of help to give me. I let Him tell me what He will do. I trust and obey. I live knowing He is ever there with the help I need to obey His word.
Our God is a good God. When I think about His plan for my salvation and all was required was for me to receive it. I know and bow in awe .
Our God is a good God. When others seek to find Him in their story, I know that they will find Him. He is there for those who draw nigh unto Him.He is the Bread of Life. He gives living water to those who thirst.
Our God is a good God. I have peace for my children for I know they will return unto their borders.
Our God is a good God.

The Bread of Life

2006-04-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Jesus said, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone ,but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." How well He knew that we needed to be reminded of that. How wonderful it is that He offered Himself to be the Bread of Life. When we come to Him with a heart that is willing for Him to teach us, He just breaks that bread for us so we can eat. A truth that went to seed in me years ago was, you can not be to simple minded for God. For some reason plain common sense things just seemed to elude me. People would say,"did you think about doing this............When something happened?" "No," I'd say sadly, realizing if they would have been there, common sense would have given them a boost in the right direction. However, since the direction I am headed for is the Kingdom of God ,where all you need is to know how to receive His righteousness, His peace, His joy in the Holy Ghost , it is going to be okay if I do not have common sense. Actually I seem to have a better handle on what sense is needed, because I was listening to the Holy Spirit when I read the story of Mary and Martha and Jesus. When He told Mary, there is really only one thing necessary and it will not be taken from her, I went after it. How glad am I that I did . His words to me gives me strength as food would to my body. His words to me give me peace and His words to me give me great joy, abundant joy, so much joy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a Bible Study with a short Praise,Worship and Prayer time at the end that I have started attending. Of course, I want to share the nuggets of truth that I am getting from the Bible Study. I wish the prayer time could be longer because something extra special seems to happen when saints gather together to pray. If you would like to know the details about where and when this Bible Study is going on just e-mail me. I am not in charge of it, just an assistant.
You can click the my profile for the link I'll publish my Bible Study comments on.

He Gives and He Takes Away, He Gives Again

2006-03-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

It was one of those days that I kept telling myself, this is His day, whatever happens He has under control. My printer had broken and my daughter needed her pictures printed for photography class. Taking the disk to the store and having it done was an option. Going to the library and using their computer and printer seemed more practical to me, time wise and money wise. So there I was always amazed at how friendly the librarian is towards me. She was so helpful and so with my mission accomplished I started on my way out of the library. There were an awful lot of people there that day. They were having a special meeting , a workshop for those who were interested in genealogy. I forever curious thought I would stop by the table and talk with the lady and gentleman standing there. I asked what the class was about and she asked if I was interested in genealogy ? I told her I was more interested in saving my own story to pass on to my children. "Where are you from?" she asked. I told her I was not from here but another state. She continued to tell me about the class and up coming events. We ended our conversation and I walked off.
As I was walking to my car I reflected on our conversation, and the face of the woman when I told her where I was from. Once again, I detected that cold wall go up, you are not one of us look, which meant, she would be polite but that was it. All my life I have not been from here. Where ever I was , it was not from here and all my life being treated coldly because of that has hurt me.(By some people, I guess I want everyone to like me. The librarian certainly has never cared where I am from.) For some reason I just looked up at the sky as I was walking to the car, and I thought, "LORD, when I get to heaven, will anyone say, "you are not from here ?" Even as I thought it, I knew the truth about that and a warmth filled me as I realized, the answer most surely would be "NO."
When I get to heaven once and for all , every time I meet someone they will not snub me because of where I am from. They certainly won't. Suddenly because I knew I had that coming it was almost as good as having it now. I don't know if you can understand, but it is as good as having it now. My promise the Holy Spirit made so real to me, when I get to heaven I will be accepted no questions asked has warmed me so much I wanted to share it with you. It is a testimony for you too if you can receive it.

Speak His Word Often

2006-02-23T04:17:00.000-08:00

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. What do you suppose these people said to one another ? Something that caused the LORD to give attention ! As you might guess I believe it was a testimony. We are told again of the importance of the word of our testimony in Revelation .
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
A few more places that I wish you would take note of are :Revelation 1:9 I John who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patamos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
Giving your testimony here is more than just a quick , I want to say thank-you God for what you have done for me .
In fact we may learn together what "the word of our testimony" really means.
I just wanted to start some where and it seemed right that a public acknowledgement would be the place to begin. However, I thought twice about putting my whole name out here because the word of my testimony is something special. If you cheapen it by giving glory to me for giving glory to God I do not know how to handle that right now. So I hope those of you who find this site will read with interest and then reflect on your own connection with God and ask, " do I have a word of testimony to give ?" You may also want to leave your name in a way that only you and God know who you are and I think that is quite alright. It is the word of our testimony, it is our fear of God, it is the esteeming of His name that I want to do. Not bring attention to myself and say, "Oh look what God has done for me." I want you to leave my site thinking about Him. I want you to be reflecting on Who He is , really. Although it is wonderful the many good things He does for me and my family .
Malachi 3:6 For I, the LORD do not change: therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. James 1:17 For every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.

The Joy

2006-02-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

Joy comes from the inspired word of God.
Once revealed to the prophets . Then lived through Jesus.
He is the bread of life for me. As I eat of His word ,I draw nigh unto Him, as one would draw closer to one speaking so they could more clearly hear what was being said. He opens my ears , He opens my heart , to receive what the Holy Spirit would reveal to me how His words feed me today. This joy gives me strength to obey His word. Only He could give this joy !