Happy 2011!

Praise God for a new year!! Praise God for His Almighty Hand upon us in 2010. We thank Him for carrying us through many struggles and for providing us with many blessings! Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow! Hope your New Year focus is on Jesus Christ, the Author of our faith!!

These Days

Seems like I need constant strength from my Savior these days! Sometimes I think it's my age; sometimes I think it's the world and its continual downward spiral with regard to morality, sinfulness, etc. I find myself constantly stopping in my day to gain strength to fight the fight. I know that this closeness is exactly what Jesus wants. I know that He longs for us to gaze upon Him as we meander through our day. He also longs for us to find comfort in Him alone. What a blessing to know my Savior. And how this should encourage me to love others to Him in every way! I wouldn't want even ONE to miss eternal life. Thank you Father for Your Constant Companionship!

Be Thou My Vision!

Why does it take the hard times in life to place our "vision" on our Heavenly Father?? As often as I try to "meditate" on the things of God...I get sidelined so easily with the things of this world. My biggest sin is worry. Satan absolutely hounds me with thoughts of worry on one thing or another. And the Spirit reminds me "BE THOU MY VISION"!! "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" and the things of earth will grow "strangely dim". Where is your vision today? Praise God from Whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!

He's ALIVE!!!

HE’S ALIVE!!

He’s Alive! He’s Alive!
What does that mean to you?
Are they meaningless words?
Or do they make you feel brand new?

Are you playing the world’s game?
Pretending you don’t even know His Name?
Is your head hung in sorrow?
Or have you given Jesus every tomorrow?

On the cross at Calvary
He bled and died for you and me;
Can you hear Him call your name?
Or are you turning away with shame?

If Jesus lives within your heart
From this world you must be apart;
No more guilt, not a trace
Only joy and happiness will brighten your face.

If He’s alive and real
In your life I pray;
That Jesus will be on your lips
Each and every day!

Don’t put Him in a box
That causes Him great pain;
Shout out to a lost world
They have everything to gain!

He is ALIVE, He is ALIVE!
Of this I’m proud to say!
Without my Jesus
I could not make it through a day!

Danita Pergerson
1999

Still in the Business of Answering Prayers!!

Do you ever wonder "Is God listening to me?" "well then, why is He not answering my prayer?" If we are truthful, we all feel that way many times in our lives. I heard Joyce Meyer say today "God gives us the gift of "not knowing"!! Wow! that struck a cord with me. "Not knowing" is a gift from God!! I don' have to know because He has it in control anyway! I don't have to know because I can't do a thing about it either way!! And since I have this gift from God, I can relax and "be still" in Him knowing that HE DOES KNOW! And yes, He is still in the business of answering prayers! He has answered many in my life this very week and I praise Him and give Him the glory!!

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but God's purpose will prevail!" Proverb 19:21

Blessed or Lucky??

I often hear believers and non believers saying that they were "lucky" to get through this or that. I normally quickly say, "no, you were blessed!" God doesn't have anything to do with luck! All good things come from God and God alone. I was delighted today to hear a co-worker who just went through surgery for colon cancer exclaim "God really blessed me with a clean pathology report after surgery.!" And I said, "Amen...He did bless you!" So what about you? Are you "lucky" or BLESSED!!??

"My soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectations is from Him!" Psalm 62:5

Satan at his best!

Do you ever have those times when you know that "Satan is at his best?" You know this because you feel as if he is standing at your door every minute of every day waiting to pound you with another fist in the face! You kind of wish that he would move on to someone else's door maybe??? So when this happens, and it does to every believer, what do we do? Do we allow him to have his "field day" and fall right into his schemes to shut us down? We can't! We know WHO has won the victory and we know WHO abides in us to pull us out of this rotten place that Satan has lured us into. Praise God for His faithfulness to "pull us up by our boot straps" and set us in the RIGHT WAY again! Be mindful today of Satan's schemes to alter your witness for Christ. He's sitting by waiting for you to follow His lead! Stay strong in the Word and ready with the armor God provides!!

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8

Pumpkins and Such

I never knew that I would get so excited about a pumpkin until I saw Lily Kate "discovering" pumpkins for the first time! Last Saturday Meg and I took Lily and my great niece, Rayna to a pumpkin farm to pick out their very own pumpkin. We went on a hayride pulled by a tractor to get to the pumpkin patch. The hayride was very exciting within itself, but nothing could top the excitement of seeing Lily and Rayna when they saw the field of pumpkins! Lily immediately began exclaiming "ball", "ball"!! By the way, everything round is a ball!! And Lily loves to play with a ball! What a fun and exciting day watching the smiles on these girl's faces.

I couldn't help but find time on the train ride to praise God for pumpkins! And train rides, and hayrides, and HEALTHY children. What a true joy and cause for daily praise if you have a healthy child...today. It's so easy to lose sight of this magnificent blessing in this crazy world we live in. Children are a precious gift and they belong to God. How dare we ever take them for granted. Each new morning brings a new opportunity to teach that child how much Jesus loves them and how they have been called by Him to grow in His ways.

Don't waste that opportunity today!! NOTHING is more important than the time and love given to a child! "Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" Matthew 19:14

Here I Am Again!

So....what's it been ....over one year since I posted here??? Wow, time does fly doesn't it? I could give you a list of reason why I haven't popped in here, but let's just suffice it to say..."LIFE!" I guess I do a little better at journaling because I usually have lots to say to God...He must get really tired of listening! :) When I look back at this past year I can sum it up for you pretty easily..."stay on your face before God because you need HIM all the time"! We went from having a beautiful baby girl grandbaby named Lily to almost losing our baby girl, Meghan after delivery. If that doesn't bring you to your face, you probably won't get there. And then the year just got more interesting. So what can I say to you today that you might remember? That's easy...God is faithful!!! Never lose sight of that. No matter how good things are today..they will NOT stay that way and you WILL need Him some day. When you learn to just go ahead and grab Him the first minute you open your eyes in the morning...You've learned a great deal!

Today's blog was inspired by Blake Ware....his writing in his blog touched my heart. Made me want to write again! We'll see how long it last. Last but not least...isn't it wonderful that every time I go before my Father and say "here I am again"...He's right there waiting! Thank you Father!

"Out of the Mouths of Babes"

My great niece, "Rayna" was taken to the hospital this past Monday after having a severe virus over the weekend. Her mother described her fears when seeing Rayna in her crib seeming listless and pale. After seeing the local pediatric doctor, Rayna was taken to the children's hospital and admitted. My niece was telling me this morning that the location on Rayna's hand where the IV's were being supplied had become swollen. She said that as they were removing the needle for the IV, Rayna was telling the nurse continually, "I help"...."I help"! She wanted that needle out of there!! And she was glad to "help" them along. We are continuing to pray for Rayna's full recovery, but I couldn't help but think about her precious cry, "I help!" How many times have I stopped in the middle of a crisis in my life and said to God, "I help!" "Let me fix this!" "Let me stop this!" "Let me HELP you God!!" Can you believe what I just suggested! "Let me HELP the ONE and only Creator of all human kind and our universe! My, my, how thankful I am that God has a sense of humor :) And somewhere in my crying out to Him I remember...He does not need my help...He simply needs my surrender. Surrender to let Him be the Almighty God who works all things together for the good of those who love Him! I'm reminded today of so many areas in my life that I am clinging to, knowing that I must surrender. Surrender will bring the abundant life that He so wants to give us....if only we stop crying "I help!" What do you need to surrender today?