Count Down

Count down: 3 more days until Patrick is home!! He has been gone 3 weeks. I'm so thankful we can still be a part of the work in Haiti. Truly a blessing. Schools will be opening in a couple weeks. Patrick was able to buy books for the schools, as well as uniforms. Always a big job.

Count down: 4 more days—Tuesday morning I'm to receive my next prosthesis. Amazing how quickly I go to smaller sizes. I am praying this one will be a perfect fit.

Count down: 5 more days before I take off to Indiana for 12 days. Meetings, a conference, fun with sisters and mom and family.

Count down: Today—is the day of salvation. Today is all we are promised. Today we are blessed. Today...we do not know when our Lord returns, be ready and waiting.

God bless you.

Today's Treasure

How was your day—trauma or treasure? My day started with a definite treasure. I was invited to accompany my mother (90 years old) to a mother/daughter event. I'm so thrilled, for you see, living far away I miss out on these things often. I will be in Indiana, and she needed a daughter to go with her, I am honored and blessed.

It was also a treasure to have Billy, Debbie, and their 3 boys here for the night. This morning Agape took them to the airport on their way to Haiti, not to visit, but moving there!! It was wonderful to be a part of their move. They will be living in Mayette. Billy will be working with the farmers. We are thrilled to have them in the village.

I love how God tucks treasures into our lives, and sometimes surprisingly so. Just at the moment when we need them...These treasures are eternal, they can't rust, be stolen. But we can share them and lay up treasures in Heaven. Isn't this exciting?!

I do hope you had treasures today. God is everlastingly good and wonderful!!

God bless you

My Time

Colossians 4:5 "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time."

Schedules, phone calls, appointments, interruptions...can you relate? In all this muddle, how am I supposed to redeem the time?

A few definitions of redeem is to buy, pay back, or exchange. How can we buy back our time? We may not be able to buy it back, but we can exchange it. We can change what we do with our time. In the midst of all the schedules, we can redeem the time. We can assess how we use our time, and begin by eliminating those things that God is not calling us to do.

God will NEVER give you more to do than He gives you time to accomplish it. So if you hear yourself saying, "I need to do ...but just don't have the time," then check your to-do list and see what it is that God has not appointed you to do.

One thing that really helps is to start your day with the Lord. All day long talk to the Lord. Stay focused on the Lord. Just maybe we will see where our overloaded schedules can be arranged.

Have fun...you and the Lord

God bless you

Peacefully Sleep

Psalm 4:8 "I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety."

I looked at Agape this evening and see a fatigue. He has not had a full night's sleep since Thursday night. We are so thankful Zion is on his way back to health. As I thought about how tired we all are, I remembered this verse.

I must admit Saturday night I did not lay down in peace. I was so concerned about Zion. I prayed, then "worried". That is not a good combination. I should have prayed and rested in peace. Oh how easy it is to forget that God doesn't slumber nor sleep. He keeps us in His safety.

Peaceful sleep. Sounds so good. But I also have found that sleepless nights are excellent talk times with the Lord. Talking to the Shepherd is so much better than counting sheep. Another "sleepless" exercise that I have used many times is praying for people through the alphabet. Start with names that start with the letter "A", and work your way through the alphabet, praying for each person. I have never gotten through the alphabet before I fell asleep.

So tonight if you are experiencing sleepless nights, talk to the Shepherd. He listens.

God bless you

Forgive as we Forgive

This morning is a different Sunday morning...Agape is in the ER with his little one. Zion has been sick since yesterday but by this morning he was too sick. Pray for him.

My reading this morning was in Matthew 6. I'm sure you all know this chapter, what we commonly know as the Lord's prayer. It is really the prayer outline Jesus used to teach the disciples how to pray. Why wouldn't they have known how to pray? They were Jews and had frequented the temple. They knew how to take their sacrificial gift to the priest. So why ask Jesus to teach them how to pray? I believe they saw answers to Jesus's prayers. They felt power in His prayers.

And you? How do we pray to get results? Prayer is about God, His glory. My prayers are not for selfish purposes. It is not a bandaid to put on my hurts. It is to place my total trust in God, knowing that He hears my groaning, and desires to give me what is best for me. Not always what I "want", but what will bring me to be more like Him.

Jesus taught the disciples to ask God to forgive their trespasses as they forgive others. That is profound. How do we forgive those who have done us wrong? Hold a grudge? Refuse to speak to them? Turn our backs? If we honestly pray for God to forgive us, then we best be willing to forgive others.

God's unconditional love forgives me. Do I deserve forgiveness? No, but for the grace of God I would be lost. Do those who have hurt me deserve to be forgiven? Probably not, but if God can forgive me, why should I not forgive others.

There is is freedom in forgiveness. When you forgive others (even if they don't ask for it), then you free to work in them and you.

God is ever Good and faithful

God bless you

Remember Me

As I was "house-cleaning" my computer I came across this writing that I had saved a long time ago. Reading it again, and remembered Sam, my brother-in-law who passed away 2 weeks ago. He was an organ donor. Because of his death, 63 people found life. He was a man of God --God first, his wife and family, and then others. He always had time for others in need. We will remember Sam. He will be missed. Even in his death, he was a blessing to others.

To Remember Me

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to a teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Give my bones, my every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, weaknesses, and prejudices against my fellowman.

Give my sins to the devil.

Give my soul to God.

If by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.

If you do all I have asked, then I will live forever. (Robert N Test Gift of Hope)

Leave Your Gift

Matthew 5:23-24 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled with our brother, and then come and offer your gift."

Leaving our gift at the altar may not make much sense to us, but it certainly did to the crowd that Jesus was talking to. They knew what it meant to bring a lamb for a sin offering to the temple. Today we do not go through the priest to offer our gifts for sins. We can now go directly to our Father through Jesus, our High Priest.

So what is this about, how do we relate to this teaching? For me personally, I believe if I come to worship the Lord and offer my praise to Him, but remember someone has something against me, I need to go to that person and try to make peace. I cannot force the other person to love me or forgive me. But I can do my part so God can work in their heart.

Obedience to God's word brings blessings and victory! Leave your gift and be a blessing to someone who doesn't love you.

The Grass and me

I woke up this morning with some real concerns on my mind. Actually I went to bed with them on my mind. Just not sure how God is going to fix "this one." All I knew is that it needs to be fixed. But how?

Then I opened email, and I found this:

You may be making matters worse by adding imaginary worries about tomorrow to the weight of real concern to live by faith in a holy and wise way today!

If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? (Luke 12:28 NKJV)

If God takes care of the grass in the field, don’t you think he’ll take care of you?

Worry is a tormenting emotion that focuses on things that have not yet happened and may never happen. It robs us of time, energy, and even our health. It causes self-focus; even self-absorption. Jesus makes the opposite point. God cares enough about the grass of the field to clothe it with rich colors and flowers and at the end of the day it is thrown into the fire. How much more does he care for you; the very person he sent his son to die for? (R. Moore)

These thoughts were shared with me by Roy Coy. If God clothes the grass and the flowers, how is it that I think He wouldn't care for me. "Lord forgive my worries! When I'm tempted to worry, set my eyes on the grass to remind me how Great You are."

God bless you

Revelation Song

Revelation 4:8 & 11 "Holy, holy holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come! You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and by your will they exist and were created."

The Revelation Song is one of my all time favorite worship songs. I feel it takes me into Heaven. I try to imagine the holiness and glory of God. My imagination is too feeble to see something so powerful. One of the phrases in the song is "with all creation I'll sing, I'll adore you." I really cannot fathom all creation singing God's praises.

Right now we see creation groaning for its redemption. Even creation knows that its creation was by God, and it has been touted by sin. We see more and more of the "groaning" with all the hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc.

How wonderful when we are all in the presence of our Savior and creation will sing with us. What a praise service, unending praise. We will sing praises we have never heard. We will worship as we never have before...

Because then, we will see clearly and not through a clouded mirror.

God bless you.

God's Blueprint

A continuation of thoughts from yesterday's blog on Nehemiah. The book of Nehemiah is a shows the relationship he had with God to accomplish the passion he felt in his heart. It is a challenge to see how much time he invested into prayer before putting his plan into action. He was a cupbearer to the king, which means he lived in the palace. But the burden for his home city and people was more powerful than all his comforts.

The pastor reminded us yesterday that when Nehemiah returned to build the walls in Jerusalem, he lost his title, his honor, his job, security and comfort. Do these things hold you back from doing what God is calling you to do?

What holds precedence in our hearts? Do we put limits on God as to what He can call us to do? I do know from experience that when God calls us for a work, it means leaving what feels secure to us. Why is that? I believe it is so that we trust Him and not ourselves. But I also know that through obedience, we learn more of who God is and how to walk closer with Him.

Incidentally, in case you missed it, I didn't say anything about it being easy. I really meant it when I said leaving our comfort zone. The blessings are on the "stormy sea." The blessings are when the basket only has 2 small fish and a little bread. The blessings are when you are alone, very alone. You can hear God speaking clearly. My list could go on and on.

God does have a blueprint for your life and mine. He sees the beginning and the end. Let's allow Him do His work in our life. There is nothing in this life that is worth more than God's Blueprint.

God bless you

His Peace

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You."

Today my mind is a jumble. Trying to keep my mind on Him. Then "things" show up in my mind again. I feel like I'm being torn in a dozen in different directions. And yet, there is only One direction. The Lord is that direction. He is that peace. It seems to allude me, peace that is. I keep asking if I made some wrong decisions. The enemy is attacking.

I love this verse. I will have peace if my mind is cemented on Him. Precious peace. You know when my peace is gone? When I have my eyes on the situation and not on the God of the situation. Yes, that and praying. Praying fervently for every detail. Praying without ceasing.

Today's teaching was so good. We are starting the book of Nehemiah. The point that spoke loudly to me was the amount of time that Nehemiah spent in fasting and prayer before he took steps to go to Jerusalem to repair the city walls. That was his ambition. His heart. Yet he spent many days in prayer to know that he knows that God was leading him in this work.

Lord, help me to spend time with you in every turn of the road. My heart desires for You to use my ambitions for Your Glory.

God bless you.

What separates you?

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Separation! Oh so difficult, rending our hearts in half when we lose loved ones. This past week I had several messages from friends who have lost family members. But that need not be the final separation. We have a God who loves us more than we can imagine.

Imagine that nothing can separate us from God's love! We cannot hide from it nor run from it. God sees us where we are. I cannot imagine that nothingness. Do I believe it? Absolutely! But, nothing! We have so many conditions for our love, do we not?

The highest mountain top or the lowest valley will not separate us from God's love. He is that awesome! At the funeral service, there was a video clip of Sam and Edith's life together. Sam, being a collector of eagles, they had a clip of an eagle flying high above the earth around a mountain peak. It was beautiful and gave a sense of freedom. And God's love does give us freedom.

My question is: What is it that separates you from God's love? You may think you have done too many things to deserve his love. This is a lie. We do not deserve it, but God through His grace loves us so much. He takes pleasure in loving us. Enjoy the freedom as an eagle. Live in the love of God.

Yes, there are still problems, but God will take us through each part of suffering He chooses for our life. Do we know what is ahead? No. But we do know that God has promised never to leave us.

God loves you more than you can ever imagine.

God bless you

We Have Hope

James 4:14 "whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."

This week has been a reminder that truly our life is as vapor. It is here today and gone "tomorrow." So often we hear remarks like, "I will live for God later, I'm not ready yet." We do not have tomorrow. We do not have but the moment we live in.

If we are God's child, then we have hope of eternal life in the presence of Jesus. We are not hopeless people. In Christ we live and in Christ we die. God preserves His saints.

We miss those who have left us behind. Our hearts ache, but we know they are in glory and would not desire to return to earth. Let us finish our journey as God called us. Let's walk worthily until God chooses to call us Home. Our hearts should yearn for Heaven. We are foreigners on this earth.

They that wait upon the Lord...shall be renewed. Praise the Lord.

God bless you.

I'm Home

Thank you for all your prayers and notes of encouragement. Although a sad time, it was also a time of rejoicing that one of God's children went to be with his Father. God granted peace in the midst of sorrow.

One of the highlights was the final song at the celebration of life service—"I Can Only Imagine." Powerful message. Sam's son, gave the service message. Also very powerful. Challenging each of us not waste our life here, but to know where our final destination is. Knowing that we love God more than anything else.

I am tired, and will try to write again tomorrow. Praising God for a good flight and His protection for all those who traveled for the funeral.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

God bless you

HIs Peace

John 14:27 ""Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

The disciples were troubled with the news Jesus was telling them concerning Him leaving them. But He assured them that His peace will always be with them. They need not be afraid. It isn't the same peace as the world knows. This peace is a deep settled confidence that God can be trusted in all our life.

And that is where the comfort comes this week, since the passing of my brother in law. Even though, the experience is a shock. But deep within lies a peace. A peace that Sam is now in the presence of the Lord. A peace knowing that God will not leave us comfortless. He is here with us. He will walk with us through this valley of death.

It is physical death, but life eternal. We will miss Sam immensely. The ache in our hearts will need healing, time. But the peace is there. A deep settled peace. A sort of quiet peace. A peace the world cannot understand.

I may not be posting for the next several days. I will return if God wills. But will be traveling to Indiana for the funeral.

God bless you. Please pray for Edith and the children. Pray God's comforting wings to hold them up.

A Sad Day

The only verse that continually bombards my mind is "...The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord." Job 1:21b

Our day started with the news that my brother-in-law (my youngest sister's husband) passed away very suddenly. He was at work. Our hearts are aching and breaking. But again we know God has his purpose in who He calls home. God is good even in these time.

Job in all his suffering, he lost all 10 children in one sweep. And yet he could praise the Lord.

Please pray for my sister, their children and grandchildren.

God bless you.

My God is Sufficient

2 Corinthians 3:5 "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God."

For days now, I have wondered how all our our bills will be paid. Then I see the list of things "needed" and I wonder. Now I'm sure we are not the only ones in this situation. Someone may say, "The way God has brought you through everything, you wonder?" I bow my head in shame. I need not wonder the "how." God has always supplied our needs.

I see a pattern in my life. God seldom shows me the answers of prayers way ahead of time. He answers at the time of need. I can rest in His suffiency. But we all know, our enemy, Satan would have us worry and look on the problem. As long as we have our eyes on the problem, our eyes are not on the Lord.

This verse is a reminder that we are as infants. We cannot fend for ourselves. Without God, we are useless creatures. But God is our sufficiency in the good of life or bad. In the hard times or good. He is sufficient. He is good and faithful. He will take care of us.

But you may ask, "what about those times when I lose my home and my job?" He is still caring for us. He is molding us to be more like Him through these times.

Let's take Him at His word and know that He is our all sufficiency today. He is Good and He is faithful.

God bless you

Your Presence Lord

After a busy day, the house is quiet. Grandchildren sound asleep. Listening to a worship song in Creole "Your Presence Lord" is everything to me. Comforting. His presence. He will never leave me or forsake me.

So many promises in the Bible of His everlasting presence with us. He loves us. We are a blessed people. I just read or heard something the other day that made me stop in my tracks. "Every time we read God's Word we should be so amazed and overwhelmed at His infallible Word." We should never be able to read it nonchalantly. We should always be at awe at the God we serve.

Praise Him today. Praise His Name. Glorify Him. He is worthy to be praised. There is nothing, may I repeat nothing, that even comes close to deserving our praise more than our Lord!! We are a blessed people.

If you lay awake in bed, and sleep eludes you, praise Him. In the night watches, His voice is near. He is awake with you. Our granddaughter is amazed that God doesn't need to sleep. I think she rather likes the idea.

God bless you

Post from Blue Bible

Following is the daily quote from the Blue Bible:

"For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are
preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
(Psalms 37:28)

Eternal is the abundant life of God's people! Praise God forever! We
shall be preserved and we shall delight in glorifying God unto
everlasting! Hallelujah! Fear no rejection for you are His and all
things are bound together for your good. Trust in the incredible love
of the Lord and proceed in that same love to preach this gospel of
preservation to the ripened fields of the lost."

There is nothing to add to this! It is a blessing.

God bless you

The Bookends

My life is like a bookshelf. There are books, bookends and dust. The books are each chapter in my life. The beginning has been written, but each book connects to the one before. The dust must be removed or the books will be covered with the evil surroundings. Even the very first book on the shelf is a connection to another book, one on someone else's shelf.

For you see we are never an entity alone. We are connected to a part of history...if we like it or not. The bookends on the shelf remind me of the Beginning and End. The Alpha and Omega—the Beginning and the End. Jesus. He hold our life together. He keeps us from falling apart. If we remove the bookends most likely the books will fall over or even maybe fall of the shelf.

The arms of Jesus are like two bookends, holding us together throughout our life.

So today if you feel like you are falling apart, cry out to the Alpha and Omega. He will hold you. Those books on the shelf that are very hurtful to look at, give those to the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He will redeem your life story. He loves you.

God bless you

What Have I Lost?

I am studying a book by Warren Wiersbe "Be Amazed." The story of Jonah is quite a book in that it shows the true condition of a man when he disobeys the Lord. I mean Jonah not only disobeyed but he also got angry when the people repented of their sins. God asked Jonah to go preach to a city of enemies. He didn't want to go as Ninevah was an enemy to the nation of Israel. So if they repent, what will his own people think of Jonah.

Not so far removed from us. What do I mean? What has God asked us to do, but because we aren't sure what our friends would think, or more than that, what would the church think if we sold out for God, and really obeyed Him? Most of the time, it means getting out of our comfort box, making a step of faith, walking through the door of obedience, and not looking back.

A good example of this is my husband. The day after he was saved, he went to his best friend and shared the Gospel. His friend rejected this. So Patrick told him they could never be friends again, as now he is serving God. Patrick had never been "trained" or taught this. He was not raised reading the Bible or going to Sunday School. God at the moment of his conversion "taught" him what he needed for the moment.

Down through the years, Patrick has often been misunderstood and has suffered for his obedience to the Word. Even the Word says we will be hated because of Jesus.

In conclusion, Wiersbe writes, Jonah lost 4 things in his disobedience—He lost the voice of God, Spiritual energy, power of prayer and his testimony.

What have you lost?

God bless you

For I Know

What do you know for sure today? Do we know what Jonah knew?

Jonah 4:2b "for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, One who relents from doing harm."

Sometimes obedience comes hard, but the bottom line is that we serve a gracious God. But for the grace of God, we'd all be eternally lost. We have a gift. Let's share it. Someone is waiting to hear from you and me. Although the people of Ninevah didn't know the Lord. they were ready to repent when they heard the Word of God.

Lord, open my eyes that I may see those you send my way.

Our God is awesome!

God bless you