How did it get to Oct???

Oh my sisters, sorry I have been so negligent on here... mercy me!! May to October?? Well, better late than never? So much has happened since May. I have been working a lot, my oldest daughter turned 21 (not months but YEARS!!!), my youngest turned 19 (also in years), and I'm sure there's more but for now, thats a lot for me. The dynamics have definitely changed in my life. When this (retired) homeschooling mom went back to working, things kind of got dropped, missed, overlooked, etc. It's amazing how UN Superwoman I am... seriously. Do you remember the commercial where the amazing woman on the screen struts to this tune, "I can bring home the bacon. Fry it up in a pan. And never, never let you forget you're a man cause I'm a woman, Enjoli." Um, well I practically forgot my husband was a man but that had nothing to do with the fact that I was a woman! Working retail, I sometimes get home after he's already in bed! Then he gets up and leaves before I'm awake. But we do have cell phones so we enjoy a virtual relationship daily! Haha! So UN Superwoman me has also failed to keep up with housework, reading, quilting, this blog, getting together with friends. Enter God's abundant grace, His grace is truly sufficient. Let me encourage you today that whatever you are facing in this crazy, sometimes break neck speed life, that God is a constant, faithful, sovereign Lord. He never leaves you nor forsakes you and He is a strength when you are weak (trust me I know about me being weak when He is strong!). Let's you and I rest in His grace, be saturated by it, be conduits of it. Take some time today to meditate on the instruments of His grace in your life. You will be amazed at His love for you. Bless you my sisters <3 Let's chat again soon <3

Between Heaven and Earth

One friend bringing new life into the world while another friend fights for her life. Such a tenuous balance. There is joy and agony, laughter and tears, struggle and victory. The one thread that weaves through both situations is hope. We have a blessed hope, my sisters in Christ and I. We place our hope in God's sovereignty, His plan, and His timing. Trusting that nothing is wasted in God's economy, that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. So we celebrate and grieve with peace in our hearts. We continue living on earth but heading for heaven. So we live, between heaven and earth, knowing we are firmly in His grip.

One Thousand Gifts

Gratitude - thankfulness - joy.

I have been challenged to pursue these characteristics by a book I am reading. Currently I am barely at chapter 4 but I am challenged to make a list. Not just any list but a list that will cultivate an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness. A list that contains those things that bring joy and wonder from day to day, that reflect God and His creative genius, that inspire awe.

The lofty goal? To list one thousand gifts, everyday things that are gifts from God no matter how small or great. Day by day, one at a time, writing in a journal those things no matter how long it takes. No pressure, no limits, just opening my eyes to see all those things that bring joy and acknowledging them by putting them to paper as they capture my attention.

Here are a couple of things that are on my "One Thousand Gifts List":

1. the beauty of snow capped mountains

7. the sound of falling rain

9. my husband's heartbeat as I rest my head on his chest

16. a sky full of fluffy clouds

Would you like to join me? I believe that we may end up surpassing a thousand but let's not worry about that. Let's put one foot in front of the other and see where this journey takes us.

A Great Exercise in Praise

When I lay down to sleep and the thoughts in my mind are tumbling around like old shoes in a dryer I need something to bring my mind to rest. Here's one of my favorite things to do:

Think on the attributes and names of God and Christ in alphabetical order! (You know, I don't usually get past M before I fall asleep.) Here are just a few ideas that come to mind.... hopefully I won't fall asleep!
I'd love to hear other attributes that you come up or even other "slow your mind" exercises :)

A- awesome, Alpha, Adonai, Abba, author (of our salvation)
B - beautiful, benevolent, blessed
C- Creator, counselor, cornerstone
D - deliverer
E - everlasting, eternal, Elohim, El Elyon
F - Father, faithful, fortress, forgiving, friend
G - gracious, good, God
H- holy,
I - indescribable, infinite, invisible, immutable
J - just, justifier, judge, jealous, Jehovah
K - King of Kings
L- Lord of Lords, loving, living, longsuffering, Lamb of God, lovely
M - Master, majestic, magnificent, merciful, Messiah
N - near (to those who are His)
O - Omega, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
P - perfect, patient, powerful, Prince of Peace, protector
Q - Qedosh Yisrael (had to look this one up)
R - (El) Roi, Rock of Ages, restorer, righteous
S - Savior, sovereign, self-existent, Shepherd
T - trustworthy
U - undeniable, unchanging
V - victorious
W - wonderful, wise
X - Xcellent ;)
Y - Yahweh
Z - zzzzz zzzzz.......

An Informed Mind

Colossians 3:16-17

"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Today I was reminded yet again how important it is to have my mind informed by the Word of God. When someone asks me for advice or input, how quickly I am tempted to answer from my own opinion without taking the time to consider how it lines up with scripture. How easy it is to exalt my own opinion or the opinion of others in these situations.

If my mind is being informed and trained by the word of God, I will answer from God's Word and not my own. First opening the word and searching it for guidance to find those passages that will speak to the heart of the issue, providing a biblical principle to direct their path. Paul tells us in Colossians that we are to let the Word of God richly dwell within us, residing there. As the Word dwells in us we will be enabled to teach and admonish one another with all wisdom - not the world's wisdom but God's wisdom. I want that to be true of me, don't you?

Weddings

" Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.' " Genesis 2:18

Good godly weddings are good for marriages :) They are like little pep talks along the way that keep our feet firmly on the right path.

I happen to love weddings... especially at our church. I'm biased I know but somehow I just seem to be so blessed by those weddings. Here are just a few reasons why {and some really great ideas in case you need them :) } .

Our pastor is so practical, encouraging, and straightforward with his messages. He always exhorts the couple getting married as well as reminding us "already marrieds" what a godly marriage is supposed to be like.

Many of the couples have waited until their wedding day for their first kiss - so sweet and so rare.

A few have had a band of our own young adults play worship music to begin the ceremony- how perfect of a start is that?

The level of joy and rejoicing is always so high - it's a celebration!

And the number one reason I love weddings at our church... Christ is exalted. With Christ at the center of marriage from the ceremony forward, that marriage will succeed by His grace. Now there's a reason to rejoice!

Back in the Saddle Again

Well, if there are any of you out there who may still check out my blog, I am back in the saddle again. I am not sure how often I will post but I am ready again to pick up the "pen".

My youngest daughter and I are going through the book of Hebrews this semester. We are reading and rereading it, taking a bite of it at a time and inductively studying it. You know, it is amazing how much God has packed in to His Word... to think I only scratch the surface! Today we were in Hebrews 6:10-20. One of the questions that we asked of the text is, "How does this passage encourage believers?"

Here are a few of those encouragements:

~God is not unjust to forget your work or your labor of love shown toward His name (v. 10)

~God is unchangeable in purpose (v. 17)

~It is impossible for God to lie (v. 18)

Why is this encouraging?

~We who have taken refuge have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us (v.18)

~That hope is an anchor to our soul, both sure and steadfast (v. 19)

~Jesus is our forerunner, our eternal High Priest (v. 20)

Because God's Word is exactly that, God's Word, it is absolute truth. We can look to these verses and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Christ did come, did die for our sins, did rise again on the third day, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father. Be strongly encouraged to take hold of that hold and hold firm to the end.

God bless you today and you cling to Him and His Word.
~G

Psalm 18 - Who is God?

I walked through Psalm 18 and it was a treasure trove of insight into the character of God. What an awesome thing it is to look into the Word of God, to see truth when we so desperately need it!
Let these truths wash over your soul today... cleansing it of worry, unbelief, stress, depression, fear, whatever else the enemy is throwing at you. This, my friends, is for you... the daughters of the king!

Verse 1 - He is my strength
Verse 2 - He is my rock and fortress, my deliverer and my God, my strength, my shield, horn of my salvation, my stronghold
Verse 3 - He is worthy to be praised
Verse 6 - He hears my cries of distress, He hears my voice
Verse 7-15 - He is powerful, Creator, controller of all things, Master of the universe, Lord of all creation
Verse 16 - He is my deliverer
Verse 17 - He is stronger than my enemies and those things that are too big for me
Verse 18 - He is my support
Verse 20 - He is my rewarder
Verse 25 - He is merciful and blameless
Verse 26 - He is pure to those who are pure, He is shrewd toward those who are devious
Verse 27 - He saves the humble
Verse 28 - He lights my lamp, enlightening the darkness around me
Verse 29 - He enables me to run against a troop, to leap over a wall
Verse 30 - His way is perfect, His word is proven, He is my shield
Verse 31 - He is the Lord, my rock
Verse 32 - He arms me with strength and makes my way perfect
Verse 33 - He sets my feet on high places
Verse 34 - He is my teacher
Verse 35 - He gives me salvation, He holds me up, He is gentle
Verse 36 - He guards my path so my feet do not slip
Verse 39 - He arms me with strength for battle
Verse 46 - He lives, He is my rock, He is the God of my salvation
Verse 47 - He is my avenger
Verse 48 - He is my deliverer
Verse 49 - He is deserving of thanks and praise
Verse 50 - He shows mercy to His anointed

Recognizing Truth

Recently I was in a group session at a Christian conference that was focused on "God". "God" took on many names - some Biblical and some from other religions. After writing out all the names on the chalkboard, we began to call out character traits that we attached to "God". The group had varied responses. I was genuinely curious to see how this session would turn out because the speaker was called a Christian. As it progressed the ideas about "God" presented by the speaker were not Biblically accurate although there was a bit of truth in there. My daughters and I sat in that room amazed at what we were hearing.

As I shared in an earlier post, we are studying through I John. John was writing to the church in response to the gnosticism that was infiltrating the church from within. What a timely study for us and how soon we were exposed to false teaching! With our I John study is a DVD to watch after each lesson - we watched that DVD 3 days after we had this experience. Several times we stopped the DVD and had quite animated conversations. How grateful I am that we have been in the Word together and that we recognized the errant things that we heard.

I share this because truth is from the Word of God and if we do not dig in to the Word of God, we will not know truth. We will be easily deceived. Our minds and spirits are quickened by the Holy Spirit as we meditate on the Word daily. It's a lot like training for a marathon: runners must run every day, eat the right diet, and stay on their training circuit in order to be able to successfully complete the marathon. As true believers we must run the race every day, feed on the Word of God, and stay on course (the narrow path) in order to successfully complete the race set before us. Let's put on our running shoes and diligently run after truth!

Assurance of salvation

My girls and I just started an inductive bible study through the book of I John. We've only done one lesson but it is an awesome way to study the bible! Inductive bible study includes reading and re-reading the text to identify key words and phrases, book and chapter themes, what kind of literature it is (letter, prophetic, etc.), who wrote the book, as well as the historical setting. At first it is a lot to do but starting with prayer puts your feet on the right path. It's amazing how much information you can gather without any extra study tools.

What we have learned so far is that the book of I John is about assurance of salvation. In I Jn. 5:13 that purpose of the book is clearly stated, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life."

The author gives us a measuring rod to test if we are truly saved.
Chapter 1: we can't be in fellowship with God and walk in darkness (1:6)
Chapter 2: we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments (2:3)
Chapter 3: we are born again if we do not habitually practice sin (3:9)
Chapter 4: we are His if we confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God (4:2)
Chapter 5: we have a witness living within us, the Holy Spirit (5:10)

Isn't that awesome? God has given us His Word to show Himself to us and to give us the tools we need to stand firm in our faith. The Word of God is truly living and powerful (Heb. 4:12); it is given by inspiration of God for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instructions in righteousness so we may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:16-17). Dig in to the Word, taste and see that the Lord is good!!

NOTE: For further information and a clear understanding of inductive bible study, I would encourage you to read "How to Study Your Bible" by Kay Arthur.

Names of God

Have you ever done a study of the names of God? It's a pretty amazing study. Here are a few of the names of God found in scripture and what they mean. Hopefully this will be as much of a blessing to you as it is to me. What an awesome God!

Abba - Father Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6
Adonai - Lord, Master Num. 14:17; Deut. 3:24; Ps. 30:8
Jehovah Jireh - Jehovah Will See to it Gen. 22:14
Elohim - God Supreme
El Roi - God the Almighty, the God Who Sees Gen 16:13
Jehovah - self existent, eternal Lord Ex. 6:3; Ps. 83:18; Isaiah 12:2, 26:4
Jehovah Nissi - The Lord is my Barrier Ex. 17:15
Jehovah Rapha - God Who Heals Ex. 15:26
Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is my Peace Judges 6:24
Jehovah Shammah - The Lord is There, He is with us Ez. 48:35
Jehovah Tsidkenu - the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23:6
El Elohe Israel - God, the God of Israel Gen. 33:20
Eloi - My God Mark 15:34
Jah - sacred name, the Lord, most vehement Ps. 68:4
El Shaddai - God Almighty Gen. 17:1
I AM Ex. 3:14
Alpha - the First Rev. 1:8,11, 22:6,13
Omega - the Finality