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.