True Friends Don't Try to Control You!

True friends don't try to control you—they help you be what God wants you to be. Put your faith in God, and ask Him to give you friends who are truly right for you.  --Joyce Meyer


I saw this on Facebook today and I knew I was going to write about it at some point in time.  This has been a hard one for me all my Christian life.  I mean doesn't the Bible tell us to love all people just as Jesus did and does?  Jesus ate with the publicans and sinners.  Aren't we to follow His example in all things?  Glad you asked!  Yes, we are to love all people at all times, but some people must be loved from "afar" or at a distance.  There are people that have their minds set that they are the way they want to be and they refuse to change!  If you will notice, when Jesus ate with those who were sinners, by the time the meal was over, they were sinners no more!  They made 'life' changes before Jesus ever left.  One of the most extreme cases I can think of is Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-10.  Let us look closely at what this passage says.  

¹AND [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it.
²And there was a man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and [he was] rich.
³And he was trying to see Jesus, which One He was, but he could not on account of the crowd, because he was small in stature.
⁴So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass that way.
⁵And when Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.
⁶So he hurried and came down, and he received and welcomed Him joyfully.
⁷And when the people saw it, they all ^[a]muttered among themselves and indignantly complained, He has gone in to be the guest of and lodge with a man who is devoted to sin and preeminently a sinner.
⁸So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord, See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration] to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now] restore four times as much.^(A)
9And Jesus said to him, Today is [^[b]Messianic and spiritual] salvation come to [all the members of] this household, since Zacchaeus too is a [real spiritual] son of Abraham;
¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. 

Notice Zacchaeus was LOOKING for Jesus!  Notice also it says Zacchaeus RECEIVED AND WELCOMED HIM JOYFULLY!   Yes, we are to minister to those who are not born again.  We must also be friendly toward them, but where I see so many become confused is they think their friendship with someone who is not born again and has no interest in becoming that way is going to influence them to become a Christian.  So many times, it ends up the other way around.  The devoted, born again Christian begins to be pulled down, and instead of lifting up the sinner,  they end up being the one in need as well.  Why?  Because the one they saw that needed Christ so badly refused Him!   God has not sent us out to convince others that Jesus is the Truth, the Way and the Life!  That is the Holy Spirit's job!  He has sent us to PROCLAIM or to TELL that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!!   He has sent us to plant seed into good ground.  If the ground isn't good the seed will not root.  If it is, the seed will root and will eventually begin to spring forth and abound!  Let me give you another example.  At our church two weeks ago we had a baptismal service.  We have had several get saved in our church and my pastor was following through with what Jesus said we were to do after salvation and that is being baptized as a public profession of our faith.  A man in our church had some special duties that needed to be taken care of before service started that Sunday.  He started to drive to the church and get them done Saturday night, but God spoke to his heart and told him to wait until the next morning.  Early the next morning the man got up, prepared for church, grabbed his keys and made the trip (he lives in another town) to our church.  When he got there he realized he had grabbed the wrong keys!  He had no key to the church.  Now at our church we have what I call a "prayer bench" that sits under a beautiful oak tree.  He decided to sit down on this bench and wait for the first person who had a key.  As he sat there a young man seemed to walk up out of nowhere and went to the church doors and began to try to open them.  The gentleman that goes to my church saw this and asked him if he could help him.  The young man said, "Yes!  Can you tell me how to get saved?  The Lord has been dealing with my heart and told me if I came to this church someone would help me."  Right there in the parking lot our friend led this young man to Jesus Christ!  That very day this young man was one of the ones that was baptized!  The young man WANTED Jesus and he came looking for Him!!  GLORY TO GOD!!!  Notice my friend did not go to a bar, wild party, or any other place a Christian has no business being to seek this young man or any other person out.  The Bible clearly tells us in Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend [to show rage or worthy purpose].  I have heard this scripture many times in my life, but I have NEVER heard anyone quote the second half.  A "friend" can sharpen you to be better OR "to show rage"!  In other words, a "friend" can make you worse!    It matters who you "hang" with.  Why?  Because other people effect us!  This is why Paul wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 5:11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don't even eat with such people.   See where Paul is now including so called "Christian" friends?  Many will say they believe but will not practice what they are supposed to be believing in!  Some people must be loved at a distance and, unfortunately, that can include so called believers.  You will know when people are sincere and are really who they say they are by the "fruit they bear"  because they will to some extent show change!  They will want to read the Bible with you!  They will want to talk about the goodness of God over anything else!  You won't have to beg them to go to church, they will be calling you to see what time it starts!  Are you lonely for the real thing?  Ask God to bring relationships He has for your life!  Ask God to prune away those who don't appreciate the work God is doing in you and has no interest in the future God has destined for you.  They are literally like dead weight holding you back!  If they truly love you and care, they will want to see God's best accomplished in you and will even help you along the way in obtaining it!  They will encourage you to have it!   Their attitude will not be "it is my way or the highway for you".  Some may even say you "dropped" them and didn't show love as the Bible says.  Don't even respond to that criticism.  It will only lead you into speaking ill of another.  To tell you the truth, who God prunes away and who He brings into your life is only between Him and you anyway!  He will set all things right where it really matters!  I heard a minister say once, "I don't worry about those who criticize me.  God told me if they mattered in my life He would work it out.  If they didn't, He wouldn't!"  In other words, the critics don't matter!   God will show them to be in the wrong, but in the meanwhile you just "keep on keeping on" as my mother always says!  God has great things for us, my dear reader!  There is no reason to "try to make it happen" or worry before we see it!  Blessings are coming our way and they are coming in the form of friends that "sticketh closer than a brother".  These friends are more precious than the most expensive gems!  Praise God, He knows who is best for us, and who isn't!   Love always, but remember sometimes loving from afar is for the best!  When God does bring that true friend, watch how that person will stretch you to grow and you will stretch them.   Your paths are destined to cross.  In the meantime, remember not to settle!  Always wait patiently for God's best because it is truly on the way!!

You Will Never Lose Your Temper And Not Regret It!

"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered." Proverbs 22:24

I had a pastor one time that taught on anger and the effects of it.  One of the things he said was, "I have never known anyone who lost their temper that didn't regret it!"  I really began to think about that.  I thought about the times I had lost my temper and when others had lost theirs.  He was so right.  It led to nothing but making things worse.   Words are spoken that are irretrievable, but the damage is done!  Even when apologies are said those wounds are still there!    Just like the word says, one word can set a whole forest ablaze!  Think back to a time you lost your temper.  The minute the words came out, you wanted to be able to take them back.  Some felt some relief in losing their temper, but reaped  much negativity almost immediately.  It may have caused a deeper rift and division, possibly even a divorce, families being torn all to pieces,  churches being split, friendships ending, and things just being made worse and worse all the way around.  To sum it up, it may have given you some relief at the time, but the damage went much farther than the amount of time your  "venting"  had taken and with more consequences than you ever would have imagined!  Anger is the first step to unforgiveness and unforgiveness is the first step to offense.  Offense is quickly followed by bitterness and bitterness poisons EVERY SINGLE RELATIONSHIP IN YOUR LIFE!   I have seen people who were madly in love, I mean absolutely crazy about each other and got married.   One or both had tempers and roots of bitterness from times past.  You would think,  now that marriage is going to be one to last,  just to find that couple divorced and HATING  each other after a few years and a few children later!  It cannot help but happen and don't read this and think, "Oh, not to us!  She is no psychiatrist and cannot make predictions like that!"  Well, you are right about part of this....I am not a psychiatrist, but the Bible is what predicts this, not me!  "And don't sin by letting anger control you.  Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry.  Leave no such room or foothold for the devil...."  Ephesians 4:26-27.  Why does the word tell us this?  Because anger is the beginning ROOT of offense.  And what comes from roots?  A harvest!!!  That is NOT the harvest I want!!  You are not above the wisdom of God and you are not going to do the opposite of what God says and have His blessing!  God will not go against His word!  This does not only effect relationships,  but your very faith!  Faith works by love!  I apologize this is long, but I ask you stay patient with this definition of the Biblical meaning of love.  It could actually save your marriage, family, church, etc..  1 Corinthians 13:4-8  (Hayford Translation)  "Love suffers long, having patience with imperfect people.  Love is kind, and active in doing good.  Love does not envy; since it is  non-possesive and noncompetitive, it actually wants others to get ahead.  Hence it does not parade itself.  Love has a self-effacing quality ; it is not ostentatious.  Love is not puffed up, treating others arrogantly; it does not behave rudely, but displays good manners and courtesy.  Love does not seek its own, insisting  on its own rights  and demanding precedence; rather it is unselfish.  Love is not provoked; it is not irritable or touchy, rough or hostile, but is graceful under pressure.  Love thinks NO evil; it does not keep an account of wrongs done to it; instead it erases resentments.  Love does not rejoice in iniquity, finding satisfaction in the shortcomings of others and spreading an evil report; rather, it rejoices in the truth, aggresively advertising the good.  Love bears all things, defending and holding other people up.  Love believes the best about others, credits them with good intentions, and is not suspicious.  Love hopes all things, never giving up on people, but affirming their future.  Love endures all things, perservering and remaining loyal to the end."  That is a tall order, my friend, but God NEVER expects or commands us to do anything He does not give us the power to do.  For our own good and the good of others, let us always keep a tight reign on anger and be quick to forgive.  Have a PEACEFUL and blessed day, my precious reader, all day!

The Steps of a Righteous Man/Woman Are Ordered

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way."  Psalm 37:23


This week my mother started driving again.  Thursday she drove herself to Cardiac Rehab and did well.  About 1 a.m. the following morning she went into atrial fib again.  I spent the day with her, and thank God she converted into normal sinus rhythm by that afternoon.  She was extremely tired and weak (which is part of a-fib) and this particular day she didn't want to keep some appointments or drive.  Now you have to know my mother.  She goes to the beauty shop twice a week and has her hair done.  All of my life (50 years) my mother has NEVER done her own hair. She is convinced it looks hideous and I get really concerned about her when she doesn't keep her hair appointments.  I have even known her to go and get her hair done before she had the surgery and her heart rate was in the 30s (yes, you heard me correctly, 30s!).  Her philosophy is basically "I don't care if I am on death's door, I am going to look good when I go!"  Thank God that is no longer her situation!!  This particular day, which was Friday,  she had a hair appointment and asked me to take her.  I had not planned on going anywhere  until later in the afternoon and I looked pretty rough myself.  I went into her bathroom splashed some water on my bedhead and threw on what makeup I had with me and hoped I would not see anyone I knew once we got there!  I sat and read my "Nook" as I waited for her to finish with her appointment.  I never thought anything about it because I didn't see a soul there I knew.  At the end of my mother's appointment as she wrote her check out to pay an older lady came and sat beside me.  Her hairdresser had just finished her hair and out of the blue, she sat down next to me and began to talk to me.  She began to tell me about how she was widowed and how her son-in-law was wonderful to her since her husband had died in 2010.  He buys her groceries because she hates to grocery shop and trims the trees in her yard and just does all the things her husband had done before he died.  She then got a far away look in her eyes and began to tell me how her husband had died and what guilt she felt because she couldn't stand to be in the room as he passed away.  Tears began to well in her eyes as she described to me how he had been a cardiac patient and how he had, had quadruple bypass surgery and had stayed in intensive care for some time.  Finally, the doctors were just not able to save him.  She was devestated because she was riddled with guilt that she wasn't by his side (he was on life support and unconscience) when he died.  They were married for 51 years.   As she spoke suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Pay close attention!  This is a 'God moment'".  I knew this woman was literally tormented and unjustly so, because she could not stay by her husband's side as they turned off all the machines that kept his body "alive".  I knew it was the enemy that tormented her with this memory.   I had no idea what on earth to say to comfort this precious lady!   I knew God, Himself would have to give me the words and suddenly as I thought this they began to flow!  By the time the lady left she was laughing and the tears were gone.  God had caused our paths to cross and God ministered to a huge burden of grief she had carried for almost two years!  I had no intention of going to the beauty shop that day.  I really had other appointments I was going to have to cancel in order to do this, but God knew what lay ahead!  I literally felt this dear woman's pain!  As I sat beside her, I began to tear up with her!  I thought about Jesus and how the Bible says He is aquianted with our "griefs and sorrows" and He bore them!  I thought about the scripture that says, "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted!"  I think when we go through things that are extremely hurtful or traumatic God has  a double blessing waiting for us.  The Bible does say He will give us beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning!  It also says He will give us a double recompense for all that we have lost!  How incredibly good God is!   I could not get that lady off of my mind.  I prayed for her the rest of the evening off and on, but I also thanked God our paths had crossed.  You could tell she was so sweet and so vulnurable.  The burden of the grief had made her like a child again!  I am sure that is what her son-in-law senses, too and why he cares for her as much as he does.  Thank God I did not call  my daugther to take my mother.  Thank God I didn't allow stress to pressure me into time confinements.  I would have missed being blessed by this encounter with this dear lady if I had.  Even seemingly inconveniences have their purpose as we are abiding in Christ!  Thank God my mother and I had prayed together earlier over some issues concerning things that the enemy wanted to use to bring us into concern and stress.  Our minds were free and our hearts were peaceful so that the voice of the Holy Spirit could easily be heard!  Had my mind not been free of stress and upset and "oh, this puts me in a tight with my schedule" no difference would have been made in this lady's life and I would have missed out on a blessing in mine.  Don't stress and fret, my friend, when you are a little late, or things don't go according to what has been planned.  There are reasons for delays that aggravate you!   God has ordered your steps if you have committed your way to Him.  Sometimes you will understand the delay.  Other times you will have no idea why the delay occurred but, believe me, God has a reason!  Again, your trust in Him will play a very key role in keeping your peace and walking into blessings you never planned on or knew was there!  How wonderful when we walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.  I don't want to miss out on anything God has for me!  When we begin to see the glass "half full" instead of "half empty" we will view things so differently and much joy will be attained instead of much upset!  Remember, your steps are order of the Lord and He will lead you into great and mighty things you know not of!  Have a blessed day, my precious reader, today and everyday!!

Abba Father/Juliana Day

When I first started blogging, it was because Facebook did not give me the room I needed to say everything I had in my heart to say.  My mother had just been through a very serious surgery, and the success of it meant literal life or death for her.  God brought her through it just as faithfully and victoriously as I knew He would and it elated me!  I was literally "spiritually" high as we came home from the hospital ahead of schedule.  In fact, she did everything ahead of schedule.  All I could think about is how I wanted the world to know just how good God had been to my family and me.  I wanted the world to know that He is real and will show Himself real on your behalf, if you will only believe Him, too!  I wanted to shout from the rooftops, "The Bible is true and God loves you!  He wants to help you and He will just like He did for us if you will only believe Him!"  As I laid in bed late one night, unable to sleep and feeling like I was going to burst with gratitude, I went into my living room and grabbed my laptop.  I googled "where do you go to blog?" and this site was at the top of the list.  After I finally figured it all out I couldn't type fast enough!  The words just poured out of my heart, like when a dam breaks and a river gushes forth!  I didn't know at the time that this particular "blog spot" has all kinds of neat little contraptions.  It sends my blog out internationally.  I have readers in Russia, Germany, Greece, Australia, and the United States.  In one month, the blog has been read over 960 times!  Praise God, because that is what it is about....giving glory to God!   It lets me see where the readers are, how many "hits" each blog gets, but of course it doesn't give the name of who reads it.  One day I went to my "stats" and noticed on a couple of the blogs the number of hits had greatly declined.  I was disappointed and then God spoke to my heart,  "I thought this was "our" thing."  I have never heard God put anything like that before.  He reminded me of something I used to do with my children when they were younger.  My children are grown now and they are very close in age.  They are two years and five months apart to be exact.  Of course, if you have children you know how demanding of your time a baby can be.  I began to feel sorry for my son in the fact I did not have the time to spend with him that I had before.  I decided on one day out of every two weeks, we would have a Mama/Cody day.  I would get a sitter for my daughter and on that day he got to choose what we would do.  It may have been pizza and a movie, or cheeseburgers and playing in a "jungle gym".  It was his choice and what was important was that I gave him my wholehearted, special, undivided attention that day.  That day we had "our" time.  It is the same with God and me.  This blog is about Abba Father/Juliana time.  It is not about how many readers are reading and from how many nations they are reading from!  Praise God if this blog blesses you in any way at all, but this blog is about what God wants to say to and through me.  It isn't about, "Will this make me rich and famous someday??".  I can certainly tell you it will not...it is free if that tells you anything!  But, it was never meant to be that.  Focus is such an important aspect of life.  My focus must remain on God and me, not God and everything and everyone else!  This blog has caused me to "tune in" to the voice of God more and tune the world out less.  It has given me a boldness to speak what the truth is about situations, when in life I probably would have backed down.  It has been therapeutic for me.  It has literally given me a release!  I have no critics, for I have no audience.  It is just me in my pajamas in my cozy living room with my malshi  puppy sleeping peacefully beside me and most importantly God within me.  God knew I needed it this way.  To tap into something much greater than myself and to stretch me in the process.  Whether there are a thousand readers or zero is not the goal of this blog.  The goal is to have time with my Father God and pray that someone else can glean from it along the way as well!  I do appreciate the readers, don't get me wrong!  To know that countries that didn't have the freedom to know Christ can now freely read about Him and practice their faith in Him exhilarates me!  I love you all for you are my brothers and sisters in Christ and one day I will get to know and see you face to face.  In the meantime, I will continue to "tune in" to my Father and "tune out" the world for this hour or so.  In so doing, I will be built up in my "most holy faith".  I will love my "Father/Juliana" time.  Oh, what a blessing to know He wants that time with me as much as I do with Him!  You are no different, my friend!  God wants Abba Father time with you!  You are the apple of His eye!  Be aware of His presence, for He never leaves you.  Listen closely, for He has much to tell you!  But, more than anything else remember just how much He loves you!  Blessings to you, my precious friends!

You Are Not a Goat, You Are God's Sheep So Stop But(ing)!

John 5:6-7 "When Jesus noticed him lying there helpless, knowing that he had already been there a long time in that condition, He said to him, Do you really want to become well?  The invalid answered, Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; BUT while I am trying to come into it myself, somebody else steps down ahead of me.  Jesus said to him, Get up!  Pick up your bed and walk!  Instantly, the man became well and recovered his strength and picked up his bed and walked..."




Do you ever wonder why people will pray and it often seems as though their prayers are not getting an answer. They seem to be doing all the right things.  They speak the word, pray, attend church, and live a life as close to being sinless as possible, but still nothing seems to be working for them. They are a mess!    Recently, a woman came to me for prayer over a very serious matter she was facing.  As I began to tell her what the word said about her situation she would interrupt me before I could finish telling her what the Lord was speaking to me about it and would say, "Yes, but..."  She then would tell me how bad her problems were, how she has always been "marked" for sorrow her entire life, how she had been abused throughout her life and she had no friends.  Finally, God spoke to me and said, "Let her go.  She doesn't want deliverance, she wants to be petted and she is not going to receive anything you are telling her!"  Now, I am not making light of abuse!  Abuse is real and if it has happened to you,  my friend, I truly feel for you!   Everyone has had bad experiences in life.  Not a single person walking the face of the earth has never had some form of hurt occur to them!  This is part of this fallen world we live in, and there is no escaping it until we get to Heaven!   We don't have to live being affected by those hurts or future hurts the rest of our lives, or even for one day for that matter!  I asked the Lord what was wrong in people like this.  I have run into it again and again over the years.  What He told me surprised  me!  He said, "They have traded My PROMISES OF DELIVERANCE for secular "Freudian" psychology!"  People think they have to keep looking back at their past to get peace for today and uproot whatever is bugging them.  Have you noticed that when people do this, they never uproot one thing?  They just become more miserable.  God said for us to NOT look backward, but to Him who is the author and finisher of our faith.  He also said whom the Son has set free is free indeed!  He also tells us that every root that isn't planted of Him HE WILL UPROOT!  WE don't uproot it, HE does!  Now, He may show you something in your life you need to get rid of, like always looking back at the past, but God is the one who gives us the power to do it and causes us to lead an overcoming life!  Greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world.  He tells us in ALL of our ways HE causes us to TRIUMPH!  He also says the one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back (to the past) is not fit for the kingdom!  Why?  Because, when you are plowing and not looking straight ahead your furrows are crooked.  All of your planting is just chaotic and you end up not harvesting anything! You can't even weed your garden to harvest because everything is confused with chaos!  You can't tell a plant from a weed!  As we look back at our scripture we see the invalid man doing the exact same thing.  He was telling Jesus he wanted in the water BUT every time it stirred, somebody else was always getting ahead of him.  He had NOBODY to put him in the water! In other words, he was friendless.   I have often wondered why he didn't just roll to the edge and when the pool began to stir he didn't just roll right in to it himself!  He was so busy feeling sorry for himself, he couldn't see the obvious.  He marked himself for failure to receive healing!  Then when Jesus, Himself came to deliver him, he started in with the "buts" so to speak!  Do you know in the Hebrew and Greek, the word "but" is a word that cancels out what has been spoken previously?   You can speak the powerful word of God all day long and then when you say "but" you have just cancelled out your promises and tied your angels hands from bringing your prayers to fruition.  The word "but" actually negates!  Think about human courts and human agreements.  How many times have you heard people say "We normally give discounts on this item, BUT our policy has changed and we no longer do", etc..  Think of how you stiffened and inwardly cringed when you heard BUT!  Why?  Because you knew negative news was coming!  Remember, we are not goats, we are sheep!!  The word tells us on the day of judgement the goats will be put on one side and the sheep on the other.  The sheep will make heaven, the goats will be sent to the tormenting fires of hell.  Goats "butt"!  You are a sheep, not a goat!  Stop butting!!  God has promised and given the path that is full of joy and life.  Walk the new path, not the path of the past!  Grow up and stop needing to be petted and treated with kid gloves!  You have a shield of faith, wield it!!  Don't stand there with what the Bible calls "drooping hands".  Jesus has commanded you to get up and walk!  As long as you sit crying in your root beer you will never walk into the promises and the fullness of life that awaits you!   This isn't just important for you, but for your loved ones and those God has destined you to touch for Him!  You can't be of help to others if you are always looking at what all has happened to you.   Nobody wants to be around a negative person.  If you want friends, be a friend and be a positive friend.  Sow what you want to grow in your own life.  Believe me, it will be so much better than staying stuck in yesterday!!  Have a NEW and blessed day, all day!!

"Don't Barrel Through Work Zones"

As I was making some trips to a major city near me, I noticed on the sign above the highway a message that said, "Don't barrel through work zones!".  I had never seen this sign before.  I had seen signs that had road construction ahead say things like "Slow, workers ahead" or "Observe speed zones, fines doubled" and things like that, but never this saying.  That same day in two different places in this major city I saw that same exact phrase  being said.  Other things were flashing on the sign, but I was not able to see the rest.  I saw the "sign" God wanted me to see.  As I began to think about that phrase,  I asked the Lord about it.  I knew there was something more to this than I was getting at the time in my spirit.  The Lord impressed several things on my heart.  We are just like that.  We are always trying to speed up the "process" of growth and maturity, or the  "level" we are currently at in God, whichever phrase you relate to most  in your life.  As children, we want to hurry and be grown and have our own place, with our own jobs, but when we get there we long for the days when we were children again.  We want to hurry and marry and in the rush people don't always wait for God's best for them because it isn't happening in their timing.  Then they end up in either a mess or a loveless but "I don't believe in divorce so I will just stay stuck here" life!  Then people rush to have children  just to say, "I can't wait until these kids are grown.  I miss my independence!"  Then they want to rush them through college, because tuition is so expensive and they want that "buck" back in their pocket, just to go through empty nest when the kids leave!  Then they can't wait to be promoted to the the top and earn the big bucks so they can retire and they can finally "enjoy" themselves, just to miss coworkers and that feeling of fulfillment that they had when they were contributing something  more in life than what they knew.  The list goes on and on.  We want to barrel through life, so we can finally "enjoy" it and never do.  We want God to make our goals succeed and "hurry up, God and get this going for me I only have so long" attitude, when all the while God is saying, "Slow down!  I see the big picture you don't see!"  It is like when we tell our children, "Clean your room, it is a real mess in here!"  It won't be ten minutes later they are standing in front of you saying, "Okay, I cleaned my room can I play video games now?"  You know there is no possible way that room was cleaned in that amount of time from the mess you saw it was in.  Sure enough you go and check and they just rushed or "barreled" through it and you have to make them do it all over again.  In the time it took to go through the lecture about obeying you and not being careless in what you tell them to do, as well as reminding them, if they had just kept the clothes hung up, kept the room organized and everything in its proper place to begin with, it wouldn't have taken so long and they would already be on to other things.  We are not different as children of God.  Until we listen to our Father and do things His way and in His timing we will be met with the same results which is postponement!!  Sure, we can take things into our own hands and "git 'er done" as they say in the deep south, but if you do you are only delaying and hurting yourself!  God has a timing.  He is working on bringing the best so that you don't have to just settle for what is good.  Daniel learned patience in prayer when the angel told him, "Daniel, God heard and ANSWERED when you first  prayed, and sent me IMMEDIATELY, but I have battled principalities for 21 days to get here with the answer."  Now, what would have happened if Daniel decided God wasn't acting fast enough. I mean it had been almost 3 weeks!  What if he decided to take things into his own hands and "make" it work?  Daniel would not have had God's best!  In James 1:4 it says, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."  Patience brings about a PERFECT work!  So perfect, nothing of joy and satisfaction is missing!  Don't rush through God's work zones, my friend!  Today is a gift!  Without even realizing it in prayer and study and obediance to the things of God you are actually setting up a foundation for great things to be laid upon.  Don't waste time having to go back and have "do-overs".  Listen and be patient.  God desires to give you the desires of your heart, but it must be done in His timing so that it can be YOUR best!  Have a blessed day, my friend, all day!

Only Let God "Make You Over" And Nobody Else!

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever known someone who their main mission in life was to change you?  I don't mean to give wise advice, but to try to totally remake who God made you to be?  Do you even realize God "wired" you to be the way you are with the personality that you have?  He formed every chromosone, set in place every gene, from the color of you hair, eyes, even the very color of your skin!  From head to toe He made you to be YOU and NOBODY ELSE!  The only person in life you are ever to try to emulate is Jesus Christ!  Not "Lady GaGa" please, ( I am actually begging) spare us all, nor any other so called celebrity!  The word says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  Jeremiah 1:5.  There it is, straight out of the word of God itself!  God made you to be uniquely you, and He approved of the handiwork of you!   He made you with that personality, those unique abilities and, according to the word, put a great call to serve Him with it!  Yesterday, as I got ready for church, the Lord began to speak to me about my pastor.  At first, I didn't know where He was going with what He was telling me, but I listened intently!  I began to think about Pastor Scott and how funny and out of place he would look if he tried to preach and act like Kenneth Copeland (a minister my husband and I greatly enjoy and partner with) or Kenneth Hagin, Joyce Meyer, and the many others we think so highly of!  In fact, I thought, if Pastor Scott started acting and preaching like them I would not only be concerned and in deep intercessory prayer for him, I would not enjoy his messages nearly as much!  Why?  Because God made my pastor to be himself and nobody else.  His messages are intensely anointed of God, he flows in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and if he tried to get in the flesh and be someone else the congregation would miss out on a tremendous blessing.  Now, notice I said trying to be someone else is getting out of the anointing God has placed on you!  Why?  Because you set aside what God intended you to be and went your own way or the way someone else thought you should go or be!  God then reminded me that in the Bible He does not tell us to go and correct one another's PERSONALITIES, but in all humility and privacy go to someone who is in SIN and correct them, lest WE  fall into that same sin or another!  In fact, God references personalities of one another in the Bible and this is what He says about it, "¹BRETHREN, IF any person is overtaken in MISCONDUCT OR SIN of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on YOURSELF, lest you should be tempted also.
²Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and ^[a]troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete ^[b]what is lacking [in your obedience to it].
³For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.
⁴But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test HIS OWN CONDUCT AND HIS OWN WORK.   He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [^[c]in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.
⁵For every person will have to bear (^[d]be equal to understanding and calmly receive) HIS OWN LITTLE LOAD OF OPPRESSIVE FAULTS."  Amplified Bible
In other words you have faults of your own.  Look at yourself and don't compare yourself to others, which could lead to to a self-inflated ego!  It also means, if you want others to have patience where you are less than perfect, then you will have to have patience with them where YOU think THEY are less than perfect!  I could write an entire book on these few, short verses alone but, at this time I won't....:)  Before I met and married my husband I had been engaged to someone else.  When I began dating this particular man, I broke all of my own rules.  I never dated someone who had been divorced (he was), I never dated someone outside of my religious faith (he was), or someone who was outside of my own personal belief system (he was)!  We dated and after a time we became engaged to be married(that is a whole different story within itself).  The entire time I dated this man he tried to "remake" me into someone I was not. He tried to make me into his ex-wife. He wanted my hair to be blonde.  I am a natural brunette.  He wanted my hair to be shoulder length.  My hair looks horrible long!  He wanted me to act a particular way.  He literally stifled the very person I was.  I had no idea I was in the hands of a controller!  I didn't even know what a "controller" was at that point.  Thank God, I woke up in time and did not marry this person.  As soon as we broke the engagement and all contact I felt liberated!!  As though, I had literally been set free!  Why?  Because I was!  I could be "me" again!!   I learned to be alone was better than to be with someone who would never accept me.  Amazingly, I met the man of my dreams just two months after I broke off my engagement and he didn't try to change one thing about me.  He loved everything he saw in me and about me and we married within the year and are still married 28 years later!  How does all this relate to my thoughts about my pastor and my church?   Glad you asked!  I didn't know why at the time God had been speaking these particular things to my heart before our first church service began, but later my husband  put it in context for me.  For years, I had tried to be accepted and loved for who I am by a particular group. It never happened.  I have a laugh that is the type you either hate it or you are drawn to it.  I don't laugh in a ladylike manner.  I don't laugh from my throat, I laugh from my stomach!  Pretty loud, huh?   At church yesterday, the services were absolutely amazing.  My pastor's wife has been a friend of mine for over 15 years.  In all of this time she has always encouraged me to never stifle myself or my laugh.  She would always say, "I know things you don't and I cannot tell you.  But, I watch people around you that haven't laughed or even smiled in years and years!!  When they hear you laugh, for the first time I see them laugh!  God has given that to you!  Stop holding it back!!"  Well, yesterday (as I always do) I got tickled, so to speak, about something at church.  Little did I know my husband was watching the people around me to see how they were reacting to me.  Now, this is not to brag about myself, please my dear readers, don't take this wrong!   A new lady walked up to me and said, "When you laugh, you light up an entire room!" She then gave me a loving hug and huge smile.  She had no idea what she did for me at that moment with that simple sentence or the impact her words had on me!  Another approached me and said, "You know, you are truly sent from Heaven!"  I never remember anybody saying I was sent from Heaven!  I left my church walking on a cloud of joy and happiness.  I was not only LOVED, I was ACCEPTED into the body of Christ in that beautiful church.  As we drove home, my husband took my hand looked at me and said this, "I was watching the people at church as you laughed and laughed.  Not ONE shook their head, turned away from you, or gave each other 'oh my goodness' looks.  They laughed WITH you!"  Today, I praise God I have found people of like faith!  I also thank God for new and true friends.  Today, I understand who I am and why I am the way God has made me to be!!!  How I would have cheated myself if I had tried to be someone else!  But, not only would I have cheated myself but others and been a disappointment to God.  I have learned if I am not liked it isn't me, but God Who fills me through and through that is being persecuted!  Doesn't the word say, "Who are you to judge another's servant?"  I am His and He is mine!   I am not the only one who has been through this.  God did not just speak and prepare me for this lesson for my own growth and benefit.  Today, my precious reader, be who GOD made you to be!  Be conformed to Him!  He will surely lead you to those who will embrace and appreciate His handiwork in you! You are wondrously made and approved of by the most high God!!! You can't get higher approval than that!   Don't cheat yourself and others by emulating someone else.  You will never be satisfied that way and you will never fulfill your mighty destiny!   Have a blessed day all day, my friend as you go about being the real you!

Let Your Mistakes "Make" You, Not Break You!

"And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” John 6:12 ESV

Today as I was reading the news I came across an article of a man who had been a top Nixon Watergate figure who had just died.  His name was Charles Colson, and he was referred to at one time as "the evil genius of the Nixon administration".   What caught my eye about this was the fact that Mr. Colson became an Evangelical Born Again Christian after his conviction.  Many thought he did this to have his prison sentenced reduced, but Mr. Colson did not let naysayers stop him.  He spent the next thirty-five years of his life winning inmates to Christ and setting up charities to help them and their families once they got out.  He earned millions of dollars in the selling of books about his life,  as well as movies that were made about him.  He was awarded a million dollars for  "the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion."  All of the proceeds from the earnings he gave to a ministry program set up to help inmates who have turned to Jesus Christ and need a fresh and successful start.  He kept none of this money for himself.  What caught my eye about Mr. Colson the most was this quote he gave, "I shudder to think of what I'd been if I had not gone to prison," Colson said in 1993. "Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it's not prosperity or pleasure that's important, but the maturing of the soul."  He also referred to his prison term as "a great blessing".   The Boston Globe is even quoted from 1973 in this article as saying,  "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everyone."  Mr. Colson could just as easily have been bitter, sold his autobiography for millions,  and lived off the royalties for years to come.  He could have focused on his intellect, never regretted a thing he did, and lived with some satisfaction that he had reached not only a place of power for a short time, but made history!  Instead, he repented of the evil he had done (we know repent means to change our course) and learned what he calls the most valuable lesson there is to learn, "the maturing of the soul".  I don't think I have EVER heard this said in all of my life!  Many were skeptical of his "life change" but,  Mr. Colson never stopped proclaiming Jesus Christ and he actually died in the midst of giving a talk on how important Jesus is for the permanent change of those who are considered permanently incorrigible.  He died giving the good news of the Gospel thirty years later!  By the way, his prison sentence was only seven months in the early 1970s.  We have a choice.  We all make mistakes.  None of us are, or ever will be perfect. Just like the Apostle Paul, even though he had made mistakes in his life, he did not let the weights of his sins of the past keep him from preaching the good news.  He did not allow that to become baggage that kept him from moving forward for God.  We have the same choice.   We can either let a mistake or mistakes be a stepping stone or a breaking point.  The choice is most definitely there and ours to make.  We can live "fragmented" lives or let Jesus take it and "let nothing be lost."  Mr. Colson did the latter and look at the thousands and thousands of people that not only were saved, but brought others to Christ in their own lifetimes!  He didn't hide from what he had done.  He didn't run from it, either.  Instead, he gleaned great lessons from those mistakes, forgot what didn't matter about the past (the words of his critics), looked to God, and God promoted him in the midst of all his trouble!  God is no respecter of persons!  God will do the same for us!  Mr. Colson was not out to promote Mr. Colson.  Ironically, I had never even heard of him until today.  Mr. Colson was out to promote Jesus,  and that is a work that will carry on forever!  Not only will it carry on here, but even now Mr. Colson is in Heaven reaping a great reward for the things he did for God so selflessly!!  It is never over, my friend.  No matter what you may have done,  you are of great use and value to God!!  It isn't God's decision on whether you waste your life or use even the worst of mistakes for Him and His glory.  It is up to you!  Choose wisely as Mr. Colson did!  Others need hope to go on.  You have the power through Jesus Christ to give them that, if you let not the fragments of your life be wasted!  Have a great day, all day, my friend!

Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice, Weep With Those Who Weep

"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep."  Romans 12:15 ESV

I have a dear friend who lives in another town so I don't get to talk to her as much as I used to.  I knew she and her husband had, had some changes in their lives recently and they were having a time of adjusting.  Today, the Holy Spirit laid my friend on my heart.  I began to feel a tremendous compassion to the point of weeping come upon me.  It was so strong I said something to my husband about it and asked him to help me pray for this dear couple.  As I prayed the Lord spoke something to my heart and told me to call her and encourage her.  I did call and as I began to tell her what the Lord had spoken she began to weep.  As she wept, I wept with her.  The news God had for her was good, but she is in the midst of a battle!  Our conversation ended up with some laughter, but it was mainly a time of letting her know God understood the woundedness of her heart and the compassion He felt for her!  My pastor taught me a valuable lesson recently.  I was having a hard time understanding  people who cried more than they seemed to be in joy.  He gave me a scripture that says," Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart is like taking someone's coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound." Proverbs 25:20.  Never make light of another person's load.  We truly have no idea what other people are facing!  Yes, we should be in joy most of the time, but there are times in life when we have to deal with situations that we have to adjust our thinking to.  It would not only be insensitive, but cruel to walk into a funeral home and tell a person to rejoice their loved one was gone and they should just laugh because they know where they are!  Now, a year down the road, this would be wisdom, but at the time when it has just occurred it is practically inhumane!  There is a time or season for everything, including a time to weep.  Be sensitive to others and sensitive to God.  He does sit in the heavenlies and laughs at what satan thinks he is going to do to us, BUT He also bottles our tears!  If you know someone who is in a battle, my friend, remember "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning." Psalm 30:5.  God is bringing them out and up and the fight we fight is the "good fight of faith".  But, in the meantime, be sensitive to the times of others that they may be in the "heat" of that battle and help them carry that burden through prayer, compassion and love!  Don't tire so quickly of them and expect them to just "snap out of it".  Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ (which is love) just as the word instructs us!  Remember, we reap what we sow!  I want to reap compassion, love, and mercy, therefore I must sow it.  It wasn't long after my mother's open heart surgery that I saw two ladies in the market that I had worked with at one time.  One lady, very nicely and compassionately asked me how my mother was doing.  I told her there had been rough times, but she was growing stronger and it was just part of the healing process.  Healing just takes time sometimes.  The other woman who I had worked with and, ironically, attends my mother's church from time to time (obviously she isn't listening to the minister for my mother goes to an excellent church that teaches the complete word of God!), said to the woman who had asked me the question (she never looked my way), "We talked my dad into the same surgery and he just got worse and worse every single day until he died!  We should have just let him alone and let him go ahead and die and not prolong it!"  She said this with no feeling, flippantly, and as though I was not even standing there hearing it all.  How insensitive!  This was a time to show compassion and mercy, not to speak of bad experiences that had nothing to do with my situation whatsoever!  Words are powerful containers of power!  Be kind and let your words bring healing and be kind in times when others are in the midst of "adjusting".  Never let your attitude and words break, but let them bring forth healing!  They will as we listen to the One Who has loved most!  Have a blessed day, my friend, all day!

Don't Just Carry the Title, Act the Part!

²⁴And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong.
²⁵He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it],  2 Timothy 2:24-25 Ampilified Bible

I heard a minister say one time, "I don't have the LUXURY of losing my temper or being angry.  I must always watch my temper because it can have profound effects God will hold me responsible for!"  He then cited this verse, "Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1."  Now nobody is perfect!  Everyone is capable of making a mistake, including leaders!  But, when leaders know that a flock looks to them as the closest thing to Jesus we may ever see on the earth, that is a weighty responsibility and they will be judged according to the word.  Jesus was everything to everyone.  He was the good shepherd, He was called teacher, He flowed in the ministry of helps (He went about doing good, healing ALL who were oppressed).  He flowed in all five ministry gifts, but more importantly He flowed in love and compassion!  The only time we see Jesus be "stern" if you can even call it that, was when He drove the money changers out of the temple and when the Pharisees tried to trick Him.  With His sheep, He was always gentle and showed great compassion and mercy.  We who are laymen (servants of the Lord) are just as responsible to  NOT take offense, as well as not give a person an open door to be tempted to TAKE an offense.  Today, I was talking to a pastor's wife (who is also a nurse) I have known for several years.  She is different and I have known for some time I just am not her "cup of tea" so to speak.  She sells a product that I buy from her.  I was having some physical issues with the product that others were not having.  She made some suggestions that were good suggestions, but not knowing some preexisting medical conditions about me, she advised me wrong.  When I told her why certain things she said (which I had already tried and gotten terrible results on my own!) would not work, her response to me was, "Well, since you know it all already I don't need to tell you anything!"  I was shocked by this response to say the least.  I explained myself and she did calm down a bit, but she never offered an apology.  Don't think the devil wasn't right behind her whispering in my ear, doing everything he could to get me into the SIN of offense!  She should know better.  I mean, she is a pastor's wife for goodness sake!  You didn't do one thing to deserve that type of a response!!  On and on he went until I caught it!  NOPE!  NOT THIS TIME, devil!  I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE UP TO AND I AM NOT GOING THERE!!!!  I immediately began to give her the benefit of the doubt  that I try to give others.  Maybe she was tired.  Maybe she had had a patient she knew and loved receive bad test results today and was upset.  Maybe she was worried about her son who is deployed in the military and it put an edge to her voice she didn't mean to have.  Why is it we give everyone else that "benefit" but not ministers??  They are human, too!  Their job is not easy.  No, she should not have reacted the way she did, but I almost did the same thing as she!  Now, that does not make what she did right, but I would have been foolish to let that lodge in my heart and become a bitterness.  Do you know what one of the first signs of maturity in being a Christian is?  Being able to control your tongue!  Sometimes we have to FORCE our tongues to say, "I apologize.  Please, forgive me!"  That is GREAT control when you tell your tongue it is going to do something you don't really want to do. Remember, you are looked to.  Not all that come to you have attained the self control or the temperament of a mature Christian.  Be careful not to offend and to preserve the bond of peace.  We are required to do it AND we should want to if we are true shepherds and leaders!!  Laymen, we are responsible as well!  Never be a stumbling block to another!  Always lift up, even in correction.  Let that correction be covered in love and the bond of peace will be preserved!  We should never turn people "off" to the gospel OR church, and we represent both of those very things!  I pray this dear lady be blessed.  She has much on her plate.  I pray we, as Christians, are sensitive to others, just as Jesus was and is.  The most important thing in life is not that people say you are right, but that God says, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!  Enter in!"  If we want to grow our churches and enter in to all that God has for us, we must be obedient to every word and loving to every soul!  Have a blessed day, my friend, all day!

Gracie

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."  James 4:8 ESV

I have a chihuahua named Gracie.  She is precious to me!!  In fact, I believe she is the best dog I have ever had.  Now, I have had dogs that were smarter, cuter, knew how to please me with their ways, but Gracie is different.  Gracie at this stage, and I am hoping it is a stage but if it isn't it won't matter because I love her so,  has become skittish of almost everything.   She comes to me to pick her up because my lap is her favorite place to be (she actually just crawled into it as I wrote that), but if Gracie is on the floor and approaches me from where I am sitting when I reach down she backs away from me where I can't reach her.  I continue on with what I am doing, and again, she comes to me but as I reach down to pick her up she backs away.  By this time I am getting frustrated.  She wants to sit in my lap, but won't allow me to pick her up until I literally get up and pick her up because she can back no further.  Then all is well and we enjoy each other immensely.  She does the same thing with her food and water, the very sustainers of her life!  She creeps to the water bowl and her food bowl, croons her neck as if there was a snake in them and then snatchs a bit of food or stretches her tongue out as far as she can to get the smallest lap of water.  I watch this in total confusion and disbelief.  She was not always this way.  We, nor the vet, can find an explanation for it!  Needless to say, Gracie has developed some "quirks" to put it nicely.  With all of her quirkiness, I love her more than any dog I have ever had.  She has been the best, as far as I am concerned.  Why?  Because of  her intense love for me!  She always wants to be right with me.  Where I go, she follows.  When I sit down, she comes to me with eyes that say, "Please, Mommie, can I sit in your lap?"  She will sit in a quiet way until I reach down to get her, and then the weird chase is on,  but the love is always there!  That unconditional, you have my very heart, kind of love!  We are very much like that with God sometimes.  For whatever reason, we may shy away for a time, though we love Him with all of our hearts.  We may run, but He chases after us!  We have our quirks, but He loves us unconditionally anyway!  Just because Gracie isn't perfect doesn't mean I will put her out of my home, or reject her, not want her to come to sit with me, or tell her to go away as she follows every step I take.  God is not going to keep you from heaven because your behavior wasn't always perfect (we get in by making Jesus Lord of our lives and letting the blood of Jesus be applied to cleanse us from all sin).   He isn't going to reject us, or not want us to come to Him to just sit at His feet and say, "Abba Father, can I just come sit in your lap and have time with you?"  Why?  Because of HIS unfailing, unconditional love for each and every single one of us!  Just as our devotion for the day says "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."  James 4:8a ESV.  I love this!  It is a promise of, no matter what, God WANTS a relationship with us!  That is grace!  Not getting what we deserve!  When we come to Him, He doesn't have a list of all our wrongs!  He is just glad we love Him and want to be with Him above all else!  Before I found Gracie, I knew that would be her name.  Usually it takes me forever to pick one out!  Now, I know why I named her that.  She is full of grace towards me, as I am full of grace towards her.  What a beautiful parallel it is with God and us!  Run to God today, my friend!  He is waiting for you!  He is waiting to give you whatever you need.  Do you need a friend, unconditional love, finances provided, a healing?  He has it for you!  Maybe today, you just need to have a restored relationship with Him and grace to be extended to you...it is there!!  Bask in His presence, earnestly seek Him!  He will never disappoint you!  Have a blessed day, all day!  Thank you for reading my blog.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it!  :)

Are you LISTENING or ASSUMING?

"Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."  James 1:19 NIV


Listening is almost a lost art!  People hear your words, but fail to pick up on what you are actually saying!  Many times, they are busy thinking of what they want to say next from a snippet of something you have said and they begin to put together their own thoughts instead of listening to you all the way through.   Many times they ASSUME instead of truly LISTEN!   We do the same thing with God.  He begins to speak, and instead of truly listening, we begin to imagine what He truly means.  This is when we set out to do "our" thing we think God told us to do and are met with disappointment because the end result is nothing like what we "imagined"!  Listening is so important.  I am sure you have heard the phrase, "The reason God gave you two ears and one mouth is because He wants you to listen more than speak!"  Oh, how true!!  "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to LISTEN, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."  So much attracts to us that is  unnecessary, because we do the opposite of this verse.  It actually brings unnecessary and undeserved anger according to the word, not to mention disappointment, misunderstanding, division, and the list goes on when we don't listen thoroughly!  Again, being still and SILENT before the Lord is equally as important as confessing!  Realize, I didn't say it was MORE important, I said it was equally as important!  Confessing and praying God's word is essential!  But, listening is just as essential.  I had a pastor's wife one time that said anything that was out of balance in our lives was the devil's workshop.  Through the years I have seen just how right she was!  God speaks to us through His word, through teaching CDs, through our pastors and leaders, through other believers, and through the Holy Spirit Himself!!  Make it a goal to listen thoroughly!  To speak less and actually 'hear' more!  Have you ever noticed people who are extremely quiet?  My husband is this way.  He is a very quiet man.  He says very little, BUT when he does speak it is like E.F. Hutton, people stop and listen!  Why?  Because great wisdom flows from my husband!  They know when he speaks, great truth and wisdom is going to flow out!  Why is that?  Well, for one reason my husband is a very wise man!  But, the reason he is such a wise man, is because he has spent most of his time LISTENING and LEARNING!!  That is why he is so quiet.  He is taking it all in!  If this blog is not for anyone else, I know it is for me!  Thank God for His word becoming revelation on what seems so little to us.  Those "little" things bring GREAT rewards!  Have a blessed and rewarding  day, my friend, all day!!

The Black Sheep

I have a degree in Elementary Education.  Those of you who have read my profile, know this already.  The Lord reminded me of some things we had to learn in our basic courses.  One of the things we learned was "Pavlov's Theory".  His theory, in a nutshell is, you can train a behavior, be it positive or negative, by the way you act or an attitude you carry toward someone or something if it is an ongoing response.  It is called "Classical Conditioning".  Now, I say all of this to prove a point.  Your children and others around you will react to the way you view and treat them.  Let me give you an example.  I went to a funeral visitation where an elderly mother had died.  All of her children, grandchildren, brothers, and sisters, etc. were there to greet visitors who had come to pay their condolences.  All of the family was up and greeting the people as they came, laughing at old funny stories about the deceased and just having a wonderful time of visiting (she had been a Godly woman so this was not considered in bad taste), except for one of the sons.  He sat off and away from all.  The look in his eyes was of grave disappointment (in himself I am sure), sadness, and hopelessness.  As I stood and talked to one of the granddaughters she noticed me looking in his direction.  She said, "You remember my Uncle "John".  He was always the black sheep of the family!  Poor Ma- maw was always worried about him!  He has never done much but get into trouble!"  Her words caught me.  She was a granddaughter.  How did she know he was considered by the siblings to be the "black sheep of the family"?  She had heard it from them.  He was treated as one.  It doesn't take even the youngest of children to pick up on things.  In the family of God there are NO  "black sheep".  BUT, if you treat someone as though they are beneath you, someone who "just doesn't quite get it" like you do (being the spiritual giant everyone should know that you are, ahem), someone who never will meet the potential people in your "class" has met, that person in turn will act and react as you view them!  It is called in education "self-fulfilling prophecy".  People will literally live out what they feel other people think of them, especially if it is someone they love and admire.  We were taught by our professors to always be sure, even if a child had not scored well on aptitude or intelligence tests, to treat them as though they were geniuses and leaders!  They would literally rise to the place of our expectations!  I taught school for twenty years, and I can tell you for a fact this is true.  How many people are so called "black sheep" because of condescending people.  The way we treat and view others is not only to their benefit but to ours as well.  The word says, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."  Romans 14:4 NIV.  When a person is born again, from that day forward God sees them as perfect!  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  2 Corinthians 5:17.  None of us has reached perfection in our souls.  Just as Joyce Meyer says, we are all on our way!  Be an encourager!  Ask God to show you who you have looked at as a "black sheep" and change your attitude and strengthen your love walk!  See people in their potential as God does!  Pray for the "fruit" that is not benefiting them to be removed, and leave the rest to God.  You just keep on loving, walking in humility, showing kindness, and even if a "windfall of blessings" doesn't shower you immediately, you will feel better and more at peace  with yourself and others!  YOUR environment will change and great will be your peace and multiplied will be your joy!  If you have seen yourself as a "black sheep", STOP IT!   See yourself through God's eyes, not imperfect human eyes.  Trust Him to fulfill your destiny!  You can't get there thinking you can't do it or don't deserve it.  You will only get there as you position your attitude in the place where God CAN and WILL do it!  Ask God to give you eyes that see as He does and ears to hear what He is calling you to do!  Look forward in faith for you have much to look forward to!  Have a blessed day, my friend, all day!!

Phone Calls From My Brother and Calls From God

We should be such a reflection of God and His WAYS, people are literally drawn to the light of Him within us.  As an example, I am going to use my brother.  My brother is a very busy man that runs his own business and I don't always get to see him and talk to him as much as I would like.  And, I hope this is the reason, he is so busy he doesn't get to call me often either.  When he does call me it is usually on the commute into work for him.  During his commute, I am fast asleep in the bed!  I hear the phone go off and think, alright anybody that knows me very well doesn't call be before 9 a.m.!  I sleepily grab my phone, blink my eyes two to three times in order to be able to focus.  If it is my brother I am definitely taking the call.  When he calls at that time it is always with great news!  It is always something exciting, something that usually is going to involve me in something wonderful in some way!!  My brother called me this week, yes and woke me, but with something wonderful!  I was excited and my day was brighter due to what he had to say!  As the day wore on and I thought about this "way" of his, I was reminded how God does this very same thing to me, too.  Many times, exactly at 3 o'clock in the morning, God awakens me with a call to pray over a situation, or to tell me something that is exciting and usually involves me!  I love when God awakens me in the wee hours of morning this way!   Calls to prayer used to frighten me a bit.  I would think, "Something must be wrong!  What if it continues to go wrong even after I pray?"  Then the Lord reminded me if there was no hope in a situation, He certainly would not have wasted His time and mine to wake me up to pray about it!  If He had not been willing to answer the prayer He never would have awakened me to begin with!  What great news!  Prayer really DOES CHANGE THINGS!!  The Bible even puts a guarantee on this.  The very word of God says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  James 5:16  Be sensitive, my friend, in those wee hours when you seem to awaken for no reason.  Ask God if it was He who awakened you and if there is something He wants to tell you or have you pray about.  Those prayers are mighty!!  They bring SURE and POSITIVE results.  He may be awakening with definite instruction!  One summer my parents went to see some friends of their's in another state.  In their church they had an inventor.  My parents RV broke down and they had to have it towed to a shop that wanted an exorbitant amount of money to fix it.  My parents just did not have that kind of money.  Their friend told them to have it towed to his house.  He had friend that was a mechanical genius and could surely help them.  This "mechanical genius" came over and, sure enough, he was able to fix it at little cost to my parents.  As my dad talked with him he found out the man was an inventor.  He told my dad of the times God would awaken (or call) him out of a deep sleep, just to show him a new invention.  He would get up right then and sketch out what God was showing him.  He would then get a patent on it and make millions of dollars off of these inventions.  One of those inventions is being used all over the world today in various makes of cars!  If I named the auto companies you would not only know the company, but the invention as well!  Calls or awakenings from God should never be feared or ignored.  They carry a great reward, my friend!  Listen and act quickly when God awakens you!  What a blessing to know He thinks about you day and night, and trust you to listen, pray and obey when He does!  Remember, those prayers are powerful and blessing is coming to you and others through them!  Have a blessed day, my friend, all day!

Take Comfort in Knowing the devil is a Liar!

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."  John 8:44 NIV

Some of you will think I messed up in my title by not capitalizing "devil".  Proper nouns are always capitalized and the devil is NEVER proper!  I never capitalize his name.  But, unfortunately, many people capitalize not only his name but him and what he does!  They think and think about him and all he TRIES to do, until they have imagined him as a giant instead of the wimp he really is.  The Bible even tells us on that day we will look and say, "That is what I was so afraid of on the earth??  That small, wimpy looking thing is what always frightened me so??"   The Bible tells us that Jesus literally made him a "laughingstock" as He paraded the authority and power satan robbed from Adam through the streets of Heaven after He had been crucified!  A laughingstock!  Think about that one, my friend!  These aren't MY words they are GOD'S word!!  Sometimes, especially when something comes to try to shake me I have to think about a book I read by John Osteen (Joel Osteen's father) one time.  He said one night one of the children had gone out for the evening and they had not returned at the hour he had expected them.  He stood at a window that  allowed him to look down the driveway.  He looked diligently for headlights that never came.  The devil began to play all sorts of images in his mind.  He could see his son's car mangled, his son bleeding, his son unable to reach anyone for help, and even dying.  Remember, John has two sons and he did not reference which one, therefore don't assume it was Joel.  As he invisioned all of this God spoke to him and said, "John, the devil is a liar and the exact OPPOSITE of what he tells you is the TRUTH!"  John began to rejoice, knowing his son was fine.  He got into bed, fell immediately into a sleep and slept like a baby.  When he got up the next day, there was his son, totally unharmed!  I recall this story often!  What great rejoicing it brings to me when I realize everything the enemy tries to get me to believe or imagine is the OPPOSITE of the truth!!  Why, that is cause to run for joy and leap like a calf as they say!!  No wonder the psalmist, David said, "Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!" Psalm 34:3.  Magnify God and what He is continually doing! Magnify the blessings in your life, the times you have seen God be faithful to you over and over again.  Magnify His covenant of Blessing that is upon you because you are a born again child of God!!  Doing this will change your perspective of any situation that is challenging you today!   Give glory to God, for He is your rear guard and has you covered in the powerful blood of Jesus!!  You will have a good day today, my friend!  God guarantees it!

Missed Opportunities!

I should know better than to write this now because I am peeved about something, but I am going to write it now anyway.  I'll be bolder to speak the truth while I am in this mood!!  Today, an opportunity came to someone (I will allow to remain nameless so they are not embarrassed) came knocking.  Out of the blue, an opportunity of true generosity, employeement with great benefits and a future for furtherance and, almost immediately, this person said no.  Keep me in my little place, doing my little things, with the few people I have contact with.  Keep me in familiarity, instead of taking a step of courage and grabbing a deal NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would pass up!!  How many of us have said, "God, I don't understand.  I am a tither and a giver.  I follow all the rules!  I do the best I possibly can, but yet I stay stuck here while everyone is getting blessed and ahead!"  I have said these very things, too.  I have thought these same thoughts.  One day I decided to REALLY pray about it and see what God would say to me about it.  This day He answered me.  It wasn't God that wasn't bringing opportunity or blessing to me.  I had had many ideas and "witty inventions" that would have increased the income of my family drastically!!  But instead of moving forward, I talked myself out of it and let other's opinions supercede what God, Himself was telling me to do!!  God had not been a respecter of persons and given to all and passed me by.  I said no when I should have said, "Thank you for showing me that Father now, please,  show me how!"  How do I know I missed those opportunities?  Because, I saw later where other people had done the very thing God showed me to do and they were making a killing!!  I could have kicked myself at those points!  We confess this confession, "God give me witty ideas and inventions.", yet when He does our mind tells us all the reasons that can't work.  What if Abram had done that when God told him to leave his father's house and he would take him to a land He would show him and make him the father of many nations??  He set out, having NO idea where he was going, only that God would show him one step at a time!  This caused Abraham to be a man after God's own heart.  He blindly trusted Him and didn't "lean to his own understanding!"  That is where we mess up so badly....we lean to our OWN reasoning;  oh, and it sounds right and good!!  Because of it, we fail to reach full potential in our lives and then we want to ask God why He didn't do for us what He did for others? HE DID!  WE DIDN'T ACCEPT IT!  We have nobody but ourselves to blame!  I stayed in this town because great-grandmother did, grandmother did, and mother did.  If they all did it, it must have been right!  Well, maybe God told them to, but if He told me to move to a land He would show me and I didn't, I missed it!  How important is obedience!  One yes answer, or one no answer can change the course of an entire life!  Don't make excuses for yourself because it takes you out of your comfort zone.  I have heard people tell me one week God told them one thing, only to have them tell me the next He didn't really, they were just frustrated.  This is dangerous, my friend!!  Get honest with yourself, but more importantly, get honest with God!!  Be quick to obey and stop blaming God for all your troubles when you fail to obey His voice!  Sometimes solitude is a very good place to be.  It makes us turn to God and GET REAL!  There is a quote that is so true...it goes like this, "We are our own worst enemy!"  Don't let that be the reflection of your life.

Bubba Watson

I know absolutely nothing about golf.  Actually, if you want to know the truth, it is the most boring sport EVER in my opinion.  I cannot tell you even one person who has ever won the "Masters" (whatever that is) UNTIL today!  Today I know a man by the name of Bubba Watson, who had no fame whatsoever a week ago, is now on CNN making grown men and news reporters from a network cry!  A CNN reporter crying?  That within itself is a miracle!   I learned a little about this man.  He and his wife just adopted a son, his father died of cancer a year and a half ago (which is why he plays with a pink golf club to raise cancer awareness), he wore all white because he volunteers with children who have special needs, he is friends with Tim Tebow, and is also a born again Christian, and never dreamed or expected to win the masters.  It amazes me that Mr. Watson never took one thought of himself.  He was representing everyone BUT himself.  He said the single hardest thing to do was to stay focused on the game and not on what was going on with others around him and their needs.  How different from people who want to be God's "stars" instead of God's children and servants!  They promote themselves saying all the while, "If my ( not God's but THEIR) ministry is well known I can reach more people!" and all sorts of rubbish like that.  "And I, if I (meaning Jesus, not myself)  be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.  John 12:32 KJV.  Bubba Watson was not lifting himself up.  Bubba Watson wasn't even "expecting".  He was just showing the love of God.  Oh, how I love when and "underdog" takes center stage and then says, "Next week this will be over, and I will be changing diapers!"  He still refused to draw attention to himself but was thinking of who would need help, compassion and assistance in the weeks to follow!  I think it all goes back to humility.  It is the humble that get exalted and promoted, but what is so wonderful about that is they don't take the promotion for themselves.  They don't seem to care one bit about being famous or well thought of, or rich. Humble people don't NEED recognition.   They just go to the next level and say, "Wow, look at how many more people God can use me to help because I am at a new level!"  We don't get exalted to feel better about ourselves, to be seen of men, or to get riches.  We get promoted to new levels to touch more lives for GOD!!  What a great example of the ongoing ministry of JESUS CHRIST, Mr. Watson is showing.  Let us strive to allow him to be an example, and emulate CHRIST and all HE stands for, and when promotion does come, let it be with the attitude of  "WOW, look at how many more people God can use me to reach for His glory and NEVER my own!!"

Disappointment is REappointment!

This weekend I went camping with my husband.  I enjoyed it.!  We didn't make reservations anywhere, we just packed up and went. We went to one park just for the park (whatever you call those people that check you in) to hear them say, "If you don't have a reservation somewhere you are in trouble.  Every park is full in this area."  I tried to not let the disappointment show on my face.  I put on a smile and said thank you and immediately called my dad, who is a  walking KOA directory.  He told us of several places off the beaten path and much farther than we cared to drive, but I refused to turn around!!  We had come to camp and camp is what we would do.   I had practically been begging my husband for three years to let us "just pick up and go".  Finally, (thank God I was sitting down) one day he looked over at me and said, "Hey, wanna take the trailer and go somewhere for a long weekend?"  Oh, how this wonderful man, my love, my prince knows how to take my breath away!  Naturally my answer was, "You know it!!!!"  Now, this...no room at any inn.  Sounding familiar isn't it?  My wheels began to turn.  I looked at my husband and saw his wheels turning, also!  Then, out of the blue, it hit me.  I ought to just pray about this!  God knows this has been a desire of mine for a long time and He WANTS me to have the desires of my heart. He said Himself nothing was too small or too big for Him so that is just what I did.  I said, "Father, You know exactly the place that has openings.   I am not going to do the very thing I tell others not to do and let what I feel, hear, or see discourage me.  Please, show us where to go."  I mean God does have insider information you know!  As we drove, heading in the direction of one of the parks my dad had told us about, I began to focus and look for God's answer to my prayer.  My eyes were peeled on both sides of the road I had driven down a thousand times.  I was EXPECTING!  I knew God heard me!  I know how much He loves me!  I knew He knew this day was coming and had prepared the way before I got there!  I reminded myself of all of this and wouldn't let myself think of the alternative.  I kid you not, SUDDENLY,  I see a sign that I had never seen before on this road I had driven a thousand times before that said "Log Cabin RV".  "LOOK!!!!", I exclaimed to my husband as he passed it. There it was.  The answer to my prayer.  We turned on a dime, headed back less than half a mile and I saw empty spots!  Oh, how good they looked.  We went in, after hours, and it just so happened the lady had stayed late this day.  Hmmm...wonder how that happened??  My husband asked her if she had anything and she did have 4 spots available.  We grabbed one! I decided to ask her at the last minute how long she had been there....her answer was three years!  WOW!   Now, this was not a "park".  It wasn't what I had pictured.  It was better in some ways and not exactly what I wanted in others.  I began to feel a little disappointment trying to creep up and I began to "self" talk.  "Now, listen girly!  No you won't see bunnies and deer here, BUT you are with your husband, he has planned things away from the park and you are closer to those activities.  You are away from all distractions and the sun shines just as bright here as where you originally planned to go.  You can even drive back and go in to see bunnies and deer from here it is so close."  So true.  I could have had an "Israelite" mentality, or a thankful one!  I didn't even equate the whole experience with how Mary must have felt until I sat down to write this.  She was having our SAVIOUR for goodness sake!  What a woman!  No wonder God chose her to raise our Lord and King!  She could have complained about all the complications that faced them, but she knew she was going to have the Messiah, and that was all that mattered!  This seems more like a Christmas post, but without that birth we would not have had His death and resurrection!  No matter how hopeless things look, don't turn around and go backward!!  Go to God with big and small things.  Change your attitude, for you really don't know why your way didn't work out.  The "new" thing may be the BEST thing without you realizing it.  That is why we trust God.  It isn't trust if we already know it all!  I had to trust my husband, because I didn't know exactly where we were going   I only knew what the end result was going to be.  I simply jumped in the truck, with great excitement and anticipation, and enjoyed the wild flowers along the way.  It didn't matter where we ended up,  as long as we ended up there together.  I didn't wonder if my husband was going to make good on his word!   I trusted him to do exactly what he told me he would do.  It is the same with God.  He is good for His word and He will "make a place" for you, do the impossible, and make it superb in the process!  Have a blessed Easter, my friend!