2.5.14

Psalm 27:8 My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." 

My Thoughts
I love this! So blessed to read it. I was just talking with friends on Monday about how prayer can feel so hard at times. I don't remember hearing my parents pray except with me at bed time, the Now I lay me down to sleep prayer. ..... Maybe a few times over meals. Until the last few years I holy heard every formal prayers of being dismissed from church...or starting a class. Those were all prayers... formal, public prayers. More a talking at God... Maybe request being made... But not a conversation.

In this verse it says "come and talk with me." Notice the words "talk" and "with me."  Over the last four years I have had the privilege of hearing women talk to God...and I am learning. Some days I send up prayers.... And sometimes I talk, just talk to God. Now I must learn to talk with God..... I can't wait to see the changes this makes in my life!

1.22.14

Psalms 18:16&19 16. He (the Lord) reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters. 16. He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.

My Thoughts

Wow... "This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long." This is so what God did for me. Lupus had put me in a bad place, the pain of it the worry of it...I was stuck at home, not hardly leaving the house without Robby...then God put that One Year Bible in my hand through my son, John-Robert and I begin to read... only a couple of months later God placed me next to a sweet, sweet lady at the doctors office that invited me to Bible Study. I will never be the same... God reached down from heaven and rescued me from deep waters...and he deposited me in a place of safety, in the middle of God loving, God fearing people in a Church I would have never chosen to go to on my own. God made sure I was surrounded in love. And now these added words, "because He delights in me!"

What is so wonderful about our great God is how much that He delights in all of us. He is waiting to bless all of us. We just have to move to a place of obedience so that He can. I stumbled into obedience and God was able to bless me. He was just waiting, watching for a chance to do something for me. And He hasn't stopped blessing me since!

He waited until I was ready to know and understand and share His love for me when He healed me of Lupus and Fybromylgia. Four years ago I could not leave my house because Lupus had inflicted me with pain and sickness, then taken my self-esteem so much so that I couldn't leave the house. Three days ago I stood up in front of 180 people and shared what God has done in my life! My eyes fill with happy tears. And you know what? God has lots more growing of me to do!

Will you let God grow you? His word is like yeast, Jesus tells us this in Matthew. Just a little of God's word each day will make a huge difference in our lives!

9.24.13

Psalms 67:5-6 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us.

My Thoughts

We go about grumbling and compiling about our government. We post cleaver pictures and other people's articles on Facebook on what we stand against.... like our post will be heard and change the world. We constantly play the blame game on why our country is falling apart. We blame Obama because we might lose our health care as we know it. We wonder why the weather is crazy and why people are shooting up people every time we turn on the news. All the while still grumbling and complaining.

Our post and our complaints, our speaking out will not solve our problems... The answer is right here in God's word! When we praise God the earth will yield it harvest and God will richly bless us.

Our health care has really been on my heart lately. I do fear we are in danger of loosing health care as we know it. Not because of "Obama Care" but, instead because of our grumbling and complaining. Our total lack of being thankful to God for what He so generously provided for us! All my life I have heard grumbling and compiling about paying doctor bills and how much medicines cost from people with good health care. People including myself, complaining when deductibles went up... or when a prescription was expensive and our co-pay was $25 instead of $5. How many times do we pay our co-pay and look up to Heaven and say, "Thank you God! I am so blessed that I can come to the doctor for just $20, what a wonderful gift you have given me." How many times have we said, "Thank you God that this $300 prescription only cost me $25! You have so greatly provided for me!" We can go through surgery that we now see as "simple surgery" instead of the miracle it is, pay $300 total on a bill that was $5000 and grumble and complain instead of praising God for our health, and for keeping our bank accounts safe.


I think often of "simple surgeries." I imagine that the first time someone's appendix was taken it it was written about in the papers as a miracle! Now you can say, "I have to have my appendix out and no one even flinches. You can sometimes get that, "And why are you telling me this!" look. I remember the story of two of my aunts...one died at the age of 3 from a disease called Purpura... she got symptoms that morning and was dead by that evening. Ten or so years later my grandmother was holding another one of her girls and saw the same brusing on her legs, frantic she ran to the doctor who almost laughed at my grandmother for being so upset. He simply gave my aunt a shot...the several over the next months. She is alive and well today from a disease that killed a sister that she never knew. For my grandmother that was a miracle. Now that disease is probably prevented by some shot we get as a baby and we don't even know we are receiving a miracle. Babies use to die from the mumps and measles, I had the mumps, my children didn't... they had the measles and now my sweet grand-baby, Ripley will probable never have them. That is a miracle. Instead of praising God we forget to even me thankful.


We have the power, in our words to restore our land. We can unleash the powers of Heaven with praise... or we can bind of those powers with complaints. We can take our idle thought captive and replace them with praise. Not only will that keep our minds free of things we shouldn't think about it will set loose God's angels to heal our land so it will yield a great harvest... praise has the ability to set God into motion and make our hard work count for something... Praise has the ability to set God into motion healing our economy. The Bible tells us that the power is in the tongue... it also tells us that we can choose blessings or curses... this verse tells us exactly how to choose blessings.


So today as we go about our day, will we grumble and complain and unleash curses on ourselves or will we praise God and unleash blessings? It is our choice. What will you choose?

9.6.13

Psalms 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

My Thoughts

There was so much in what I read today that I wanted to write about...but God kept sending me right back to this verse!!   I checked to make sure, David wrote this Psalm.  David, a man that loved God so much the he is written about in the Bible. A man that loved God so much that he spent hours upon hours of writing Psalms to God.  A man that trusted God so much that he was willing to stand up against a giant when he was just a boy.  He asked God to restore his joy for salvation and make him willing to obey God.

When I read this it makes me excited... excited that God's grace covers everything, even my unwillingness to obey God.  I, me, Jeannie Phillips can ask God to help my willingness to obey Him!  And when I do, God will send down His grace and make me able!!!  When I obey God my joy is restored!! 

In the new testament, Mark 9:24, (I had to Google it to know where to find it) a father that wanted Jesus to heal his child was asked, do you believe, by Jesus and he replied, I do believe but Lord help my unbelief. Another example of God's grace making us able to do what we could not do on our own. 

These two examples just say to me that any area where I find faith weak all I have to do is ask God to help me. I can even say to God, "God, help me love you more!"  "God, please help my prayer life."  "God, help me think of you the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night."  God reaches down His hand... it is always there just above our heads, it is saying I am here to help you with anything you need.  What we have to do is reach up with our words and ask!  Oh just now as I typed those words I felt God's peace drop down on me like a sheet on a spring day...Joy! Pure Joy!  Thank you Jesus!! 

9.5.13

Psalms 50:14-15 Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you and you will give me glory.



My Thoughts



I love this verse every time I read it... and if you have followed my Bible verse thoughts at all you have probably seen me write about the verse several times. Being thankful is so simple, but it is so huge!

Every time I read this verse I am reminded of the sacrifices the Israelites made to God. They would have to give the first born animal, an animal without blemish, not even a wart. The first time I noticed this verse I thought of those sacrifices the Israelites made and how they were a sacrifice to the people...not only were they giving up some of their food.... it took probable a year to raise this perfect animal to give to God. They had to pay attention and know where this baby animal came from... if it was the first born of its mother. Then they had to check it out from head to toe and make sure there was not a single thing wrong with this animal... checking every single tiny spot, not missing a thing. I am sure they fed this animal the finest grain... groomed it... kept it in a special place in the barn making sure that it was perfect for the time of sacrifice. So many of the sacrifices were made at special times so they couldn't just sacrifice it the day it was born and perfect...they had to keep and eye on it and keep it perfect.

I imagine that the time they spent with this animal is a time they thought about God and how pleased God would be...and this took time each and every day. Keeping an animal perfect took time... it was a sacrifice of time as well as a sacrifice of food.

Yet all that God ask of us is that we make thankfulness our sacrifice. This means that we truly need to take time in our day for being thankful. We need to take time being aware ... just as aware as the Israelite had to be of the perfection of his animal... aware of how all that we have comes from God.. We need to spend time each morning and each evening and some time in between being thankful. The Israelites could not go out in the field on the day of celebration and just pick out any animal...they had to use an animal that took their time and their awareness. We can't just show up on Sunday at Church and say a flippant, "Thanks God." We need to be aware each day... we need to sacrifice some of our time and be truly thankful!

I think that when we are that aware in our thankfulness we are more likely and more able to keep our vows to God...and when we do that we can call on Him when we are in trouble and He will rescue us...and because we are aware enough to be thankful we will give Him the glory.

Each time I read this verse, I am once again reminded how important it is to be thankful to God for everything in my life. I am aware that being thankful should take time... that I should take as I say, "Thank you God."

8.16.13

Psalms 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.



My Thoughts

I love this verse!! Because God rescued me when my spirit was crushed!! I have had anxiety disorder as far back as I can remember. My mom use to tell me the story of when she would send me off the the first grade, there was no K-5 in those days. I walked to school, we all did. And many, many days, just when my mom felt that she could settle down that I was all safe in my class, my little hand would knock on the back door because I had been unable to walk into school.

That anxiety never went away...and eventually turned into panic at times. I had no tools in my toolbox to deal with it. Then at 40 I found out that I had Lupus and eventually Fybromylgia developed to go along with the Lupus. Then a couple of years after that my mom got sick. Between the constant pain and exhaustion and flairs.... and taking care of my mom, who needed to be taken care of but didn't want to be taken care of (not a 24 hour things she always lived on her on.). And add in the anxiety an panic I slowly ended up a prisoner of my house... of myself. I would only leave the house to take care of my mom and go to Hobby Lobby unless Robby was with me. Sweet Robby even bought groceries on Sunday.
Then an amazing thing happened, my son gave me a One Year Bible and I began to read it. I would write something on my FB page so he would know I had read it for the day. Little did I know that that writing would help me understand so much of what I was reading!! And my life began to change in amazing ways. After being "saved" since I was 9, I finally began to know God, to really know Him. Those words in my Bible that at first almost seemed like a foreign luggage began to make sense. Then I met a girl at the doctor that invited me to Bible Study...and I went! Oh I cried, trembled with fear each time I opened my mouth the first few months. Now they probably, sometimes wish they could shut me up....and tone down my excitement just a bit. Those sweet ladies have surrounded me and grown me...and I have even grown them!! God put me in the arms of loving believers because He rescues the people with crushed spirits!!


Now I have to leave for church early so I will have time to hug all the people I need to hug... to make sure that people feel loved, because feeling loved is so important. Now I eat lunch with friends and buy groceries. Now I can be seen praying with strangers in Wal-Mart if I am given half the chance. Now I don't have anxiety... sometimes it tries to creep in and I fight it with the words of God!! Even in situations where almost anybody might have anxiety I find myself having none. Each time I am amazed and I know, without a doubt that that is a God thing!!


See why this verse means so much to me!! It is me... I am one of the people that God rescued who's spirit was crushed. And if you met me now you would be shocked to hear my story!! Especially if you knew it all!! God is amazing and He loves us so much.

6.24.13

Proverbs 17:24 Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.

 

My Thoughts

Proverbs 2:6-8 tells us that God grants wisdom, from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding...and that He gives common sense to the honest. Above it tells us that we can look to all the world for answers... but that is foolish.  We must look to God for the answers. 

 

God knows the end from the beginning(Isaiah 46:10).  God knitted us together in our mother's wombs (Psalms 139:13). God created each of us with our own personality...He knows the answers to each of our individual problems.  God knows what we need.... When we search the earth for what we need we come back empty even after we have done what the world says will make us happy.  When we look to God for the answers, when we listen and do our part then we will have all that we need.  We may not have what the world says we need, but we will have what we truly need!!

 

I have found in the last few years that when I search God for my needs, when I search for answers in God's word I feel complete contentment.  When ever I feel like I am missing something I know that I have been looking in the wrong place, I have been looking to the world for answers.  Sometimes it takes me a few days to figure out that I have not looked to God for the wisdom I need...but I use to not look to God at all. I would try to please God without knowing what God wanted me to do.  I am getting better all the time.  The more that I know God's word, the more that I start out with the wisdom I need to face the world.  It is in those places where the wisdom is in my head and not dropped down into my heart that get me stuck every time.  But at least now I know where to turn..at least now I only wander in the darkness for a little bit at a time when I do wander.  At least now I know to keep studying because God will keep improving me until the day of Jesus' return (Philippians 1:6).  So I don't have to be afraid when  I mess up, I just have to confess my sin and ask forgiveness and know that God will send down His grace to help me grow, because I am His child!! 

6.15.13

Psalm 133:1 How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!

 

My Thoughts

How do we do this?  It is really simple to seem so hard we encompass the fruit of the Spirit.  We be what love is... The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 4-7: Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It dos not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, its always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 

Simple does not mean easy...but being what love is is possible.  God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of us..so those fruits are there if we will just tap into them through our relationship with God.   The more we communicate with God, the more we study God's word the more we are able to hear the Holy Spirit talking to us telling us what is right.  It is so important that we understand that the Holy Spirit is God inside of us guiding us!!  The way we know that voice from our own is knowing what God's word says!  If we hear a voice inside of us telling us to be jealous..that is our own voice... because here we learn that the fruit of the Spirit is not jealous.  When we know that we know the difference.

 

What about our feelings? What if we feel jealous??  Then we act in love and our feelings will follow.    

 

 

6.3.13

Psalms 119:162 I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure.

My Thoughts

This verse really got me to thinking today.  About how God gives us freedom...and Satin loves to make us a prisoner. God's word is full of promises... and when we do what it says there are so many treasures we can add to our lives.  But we have to know what it says to do what it says. 

 

Satin on the other had loves to trap us with distractions.  If he can get us distracted from doing what God would have us do then he has at least succeeded in keeping us from growing roots in God.  As scary as dangerous people are...so many of us will never, ever become dangerous (thank God!).  But we don't have to become dangerous to loose out on God's promises, we just have to become distracted enough that we forget that God's word is a treasure. 

 

In my childhood I saw how destructive alcohol addiction can be. How it can draw a person in with the lure of relaxation...or a good time only to send people down a dark, lonely, destructive path.  I have also witnessed what drug addiction can do to a person...it can take a perfectly normal person from a "normal" (what ever that is) family and turn them into somebody that you would not even recognize if you saw them walking down the street.  Aging them way past their years, making them paranoid and self-destructive. I have stories of what gambling addiction can do to people.  All because people get lured in by something that feels "good" at the onset.

 

But so many of us are not effected by that kind of destruction either.  I avoid those things like the plague...I have seen what they do to destroy lives.  So Satin comes at me from other, simpler forms  of addiction.  Just to get me distracted.  Because if I am distracted I become ineffective.  If I am distracted I am not growing. If I am distracted I am not praying.  If I am distracted I am not praising. If I am distracted I am not thankful.  If I am distracted I am not noticing the thoughts Satin is putting in my head... so before I know it I have not fought those thoughts with God's word and they are running wild and destroying my peace, my sense of being loved. Slowly I start loosing my ability to get focused on God's promises.  When I get distracted I am not feeding my roots, I am destroying my roots. 

 

I have been distracted the past week... it really started about three weeks ago with a Lupus flair... I lost my focus a little bit.... I was too tired to do very much of anything except in little spurts of time.  When that happens I find myself with lots of time on my hands where I am doing nothing because I need rest so bad.  Lupus can be painful at times and it can also zap  you of every drop of energy over the simplest task.  So there I was doing a lot of sitting, tried of resting yet needing rest so bad.  And I did something I knew that I shouldn't, because I do have a bit of an addictive personality.  I played a game of Candy Crush.  A distraction from my physical pain it seemed. Harmless? Apparently not.  It has also distracted me from those moments of sending up short prayers, from being thankful and saying so out loud to God.  It has even got me so occupied in the morning, my Bible reading time, that I used up that time this past weekend and ran out of time to do my Bible reading.  And guess where I found myself this weekend? I find myself deep in anxiety... anxiety that brings me to tears. I wondered where that anxiety was coming from and this morning God gave me the answer... it is coming from my distraction!!  Thank goodness I had spent time growing my roots deep enough that I could still hear the Holy Spirit talking. Saying don't get so distracted you don't feel... because you never stop really stop feeling.  That feeling of not feeling is actually feeling empty.  Don't get empty remember where your treasure comes from.  Proverbs 16:17 reminded me this morning that wisdom is more precious that silver or gold...and David reminded me in Psalms that God's word is a reason to rejoice.  Candy Crush told me that finishing a level would be a reason to rejoice..then just put a newer harder level in my path.  Making me feel empty. 

 

I have been reminded this morning that I never walk away from God's word feeling empty.  If I need rest  I can find it in God's word.  We think we need distractions...but distractions do not ever bring about peace.  I have learned from the last week that distraction can lead to empty anxiety in the span of only one week. 

 

I am not picking on anybody that plays games...I am just sharing what I have discovered about me over the last week.  I hope to forever forward see distraction as Satins way in.  And I will tell him...I am taking the advice of a dear friend... any "distraction" that takes up more time that my Bible Study needs to be avoided. 

5.14.13

Psalm 111:10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.  All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise Him forever!

 

My Thoughts

I love this!  God rewards us with wisdom if we obey his commandments!  If we do what is right, we will become wise! Isn't this wonderful! 

 

My grandmother did not finish High School.  I am not quite sure what grade she finished.  But she loved God with all her heart.  She knew the Bible...she knew all the stories of the Bible.  And she did her very best to do what God would have her do.  I loved sitting and talking with my grandmother, my MawMaw and the stories she told were amazing.  The wisdom that came out of her mouth would make your jaw drop.  Her wisdom didn't come from an education, it came from God.  God gave her such wisdom because she loved God and did what He asked her to do! 

 

An education is a wonderful thing!!  But wisdom is greater than an education.  Wisdom makes an education it's most useful. 

 

David was just a boy when He slayed Goliath... with an army of men standing behind him...all with an education in how to fight a battle...but David who had never fought in battle has wisdom that came straight from God.  David had God on his side.  With that wisdom he took off the kings armor and put down his sword, took his slingshot and killed a giant.  David knew that he could do all things with God on his side, David was wise enough not to fight with things he had not used before. David was just a boy but wiser than the whole army of Israel, young and old. Why? Because David obeyed God's commandments and God blessed him with wisdom. 

 

 

5.7.13

Psalm 105:37 The Lord brought his people out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled.

 

My Thoughts

God does not tell u we will not face trouble, what God does tell us is that He will be with us and will receive double for our trouble in Zechariah 9:12.  Here the Israelites had been prisoners, God had been with them...and when they left Egypt they walked away loaded with silver and gold. They didn't take the silver and gold it was given to them.  So much silver and gold that they should have stumbled with the weight, but God was with them so they didn't!! 

 

With God on our side we can believe for so much... even in times of trouble we can know that when we come out the other side with God... there will be blessings waiting for us!  Oh, how He loves us so. Oh how He loves us, how he loves us so. 

5.2.13

Psalm 103:2 Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. 

 

My Thoughts

To remember the good things that God does for us we have to be able to recognize them.  To be able to recognize all that comes from God we have to know God.  We have to understand just how much he loves us.  To understand just how much God loves us we have to spend time getting to know Him. 

 

Once we do understand the good things God is doing in our lives, knowing what they are builds our faith.  The more our faith grows the more we believe God's promises and understand that they are for us.  And the more we understand God's promises the more we can call on those promises for our lives. 

 

The more we know God the more time we will spend praising him!

5:1:13

Psalm 102:28 The children of your people will life in security.  Their children's children will thrive in your presence.

 

My Thoughts

If you can not see any reason to love and accept God for yourself then this verse alone should give you reason to love and accept God for your children and grandchildren.  God gives His children, children a life of security and He makes His children's grandchildren thrive. 

 

Oh if you love your children, love God and all will be good for them!!

4.27.13

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what the are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

 

My Thoughts

People had mocked Jesus...they had screamed, "Crucify him!" even though He was found innocent of all charges brought against him.  They had beat him...and finally they had nailed him on a cross.  What did Jesus say to this, "Father, forgive them."

 

Yet we refuse to forgive people for saying something we don't like, or forgetting something they said they would do but forgot about in their own busy day.  We go about not forgiving the post petty things.  I know, I know...there are some big things that seem hard to forgive...but nothing is as big as what Jesus forgave.  On day when we stand before Jesus and we go through our list of what we did will He say, "Did you forgive?"  I think He will... the Bible says that to be forgiven we must forgive. it says this in many places..but the one I really noticed lately is what it says in The Lords Prayer, "Forgive me as I forgive those that trespass against me."  Notice in this prayer we are asking for forgiveness in the amount we have forgiven. 

 

Who do I need to forgive today?  Who do you need to forgive today? 

4.16.13

Psalm 85:1-2 Lord, you poured out blessings on your land! Your restored the fortunes of Israel.  You forgave the guilt of your people-- yes, you covered all their sins.

 

My Thoughts

I love this "you covered all their sins."  It doesn't say their tiniest sins, it doesn't say their biggest sins, it says ALL  their sins!!  When we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins and ask Him to come into our lives and then we confess our sins, we become one of "God's people" and all of our sins get covered!!  ALL of them!!  This just make my heart overflow with love for God who holds nothing against me, not one little thing, because He loves me so much.  He loves us all this much we just have to accept His, Son and love Him back!!  The thing is, when we take time to know God we can't help but love Him back!! 

2.18.13

Psalm 37:5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

 

My Thoughts

Commit everything, EVERYTHING. I have trouble with everything.  I so often go about my day and give a lot to God... but I have to learn to give him my everything.  Each task I take on in a day I need to give to God.  How many things do I start and not finish because I didn't give that task it to God.  How many things in my life would I do better if I would give it to God as I get started. I have got to learn to trust God with every task I take on... every word I speak... every craft that I do.... every meal that I cook.... every penny I spend... every penny that I save.... with my sleep at night and my waking up in the morning.  What would I choose to do different if I prayed before every choice I made?  What if I said, "Dear God I am going to was a load of clothes be with me. I am going to clean the kitchen be with me. I commit this job to you."

 

I have to learn not to go blindly into each and every task I take on.  I know that when I pray first I learn more and do better!!  So much of what I do seems to be on automatic.  I need to quit doing about, going about and give each thing to God. 

Psalm 33:18-19 But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.  He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine.

 

My Thoughts

This verse makes me think of my MawMaw... she love God!!  I never remember her lacking for anything.  She was a widow for at 26 years and lived on Social Security...she was 96 when she died.  She paid her house off early...I remember running into her that day.  She was celebrating and she gave me $20..she said I just paid a little extra here and a little extra there... I thought I had a few more years to go...but today I only had to pay a little over $100 and my house is paid for!!  On a Social Security check she paid her house off early.  She was always helping other... she took many kids into her home in times of need. I heard many a story of how she "treated me just like I was her own."  She took care of her children when they needed her...she always had enough to feed others and to feed herself.... I would often hear her talking to God out loud. I never once heard her complain because money was tight... I know why too, because  God took care of my grandmother because she was in awe of Him, because she loved him!

 

Over the last three years I see God talking care of Robby and I in that same way. Every time He calls for us to step outside our comfort zone and give extra our savings seems to grow by that amount.  We are never in "need" for anything.  Before I would have thought that "we" were doing good. Now I know that God is watching over us. He watches over us in so many ways... the closer we get to God the better our life gets...we talk all the time about how God is taking care of us.

 

I look back on our lives at the harder times and think how much easier they would have been if we had just trusted God like we do now.  I feel so very thankful that God made sure that I would get to know Him...to really know Him... He loves me so much that He put my One Year Bible in my hand through my son so that I didn't have a choice but to read it at least once.  I am excited to think that if I live to be 98 years old I will have been blessed to have read through my Bible 50 times. If it changed my life so much in three years..what will it do in 50 years?!?!?!

2.10.13

Psalms 32:1-2  Oh, what joy for those who disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt. 

 

My Thoughts

Look here!!  When we confess our sins, our disobedience to god and he forgives us, we are cleared of guilt. We don't have to walk around feeling guilty.  God wants us at our best. We can't be our best if we are drowning in guilt for our past mistakes.  God forgives us... He clears us!!  God makes us right again just for the asking!! Once God has forgiven us there is not guilt... Satin tries to make us feel guilty...he loves to remind us of our past mistakes, our past sins.... if he can get us "wallering" in guilt then he is able to immobilize us, stop us in our tracks... make us think we are not good enough.  But that is a lie... a totally lie...when God forgives us we are made right and we have been cleared of guilt... we no longer have to feel guilty!! 

 

One day when I was "wallering" in guilt, not long after my mother died God dropped these words in my spirit, "When you waste time worrying about the person you didn't know how to be, you can't become the person I intend for you to be."  Guilt stops us in our tracks... for some of us it makes us completely unable to move.  God does not want that for us... God wants us able... able to grow and learn and change into the person God wants us to be.

1.10.13

Psalm 9:10 Save me so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem's gates, so I can rejoice that you have rescued me.

 

My Thoughts

Yesterday I passed a man in Walmart with a loaf of bread in his hand. As he passed me he lifted his hands in the air and said, "Praise Him!" I lifted my hands in the air too that moment. Then the man said, "You know don't you! He promised us bread!"  This man was praising Jesus publicly.  The man that passed this dear man just before me, I had seen it from a distance and didn't know what was going on, picked up his pace to rush pass the man praising God.  I bet if there had been a crowd standing there praising Jesus, that man would have rushed toward the crowd to see what was going on! 

 

Today as I look on yesterday, which brought me great joy, I think of how I should praise God each time I put an item into my buggy. Why? Because God had provided for me enough that I can put those things in my buggy.  Each and everything that I place in my buggy, anytime that I shop, is a gift straight from God Himself.  I need to be publicly proud and thankful that God has given me so much. 

 

As Christians we must quit being politically correct and we must become God correct!  We must do what God calls us to do.  David was considered a godly man and he couldn't wait to praise God publicly.  Neither could this man I ran across yesterday!  I need to take my cue from them!!  God has blessed me with so much, the least I could do is acknowledge God in all that He give me! No matter where I am!!   

 

 

1.9.13

I started January 1 handwriting the New Testament... boy do you hear God's word differently when you can't miss a word!!  I think this may be as life changing as picking up my One Year Bible was!!   What I am doing is handwriting the New Testament and Proverbs each day that is in my daily Bible reading. I really want to encourage you to hand-write the words of Jesus! 

Psalms 9:10 Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.

My Thoughts

I really set about this morning thinking about searching for someone.  I thought of my sweet dog, Shaggy.  I am his world... he loves Robby and John-Robert and Madison...but he LOVES me, he loves me the most...the very most.  When I leave the house and come home he is looking out the window searching to see if that is me out there.  He is waiting for me at the door when I walk in.  When he goes outside and comes back in he goes straight to the places I usually am, searching for me.  I am told he is very pitiful when I am gone from home.  When Robby is home and the phone rings Shaggy listens to see if it is me, he pays close attention, searching for Robby to say to him, "Mama is on her way home."  Then he goes straight to the window and watches.  To Shaggy I am the one who loves him and protects him.  In everything he does Shaggy looks for me and makes sure that I am there and that I am ok with what he is doing. 

 

As I write the words of the last paragraph ... "Shaggy looks for me and makes sure that I am there and that I am ok with what he is doing." I already know that I fail God ... there is so much in my day where I don't stop and say, "God, are you ok with this?" Just yesterday  I was completely, totally lazy.  I know by the way I felt by the end of the day that that was not ok with God.  Because God does not want me feeling like I felt around 6 pm.  If I had been seeking God about my plans for the day...they would have been different.  I seek God each morning by reading His word.  I pray little prayers here and there through out my days.  But I don't seek God in all that I do, I don't look to God for every plan that I make about my day.  I so often just go about "living" life.  I want to live life like God wants me to.  I try real hard to not act in ways He would not want me to act.  But do I search for Him and ask Him if what I am choosing is ok? Not nearly enough!!! 

 

I already know as I type these words that I need to do a lot more seeking through out my day!  A lot more.  If I do that God will not abandon me.  How many times have I not felt God's presence ... only the times when I have not ask Him to be present in my choices!! 

 

These words are going on my frig... I don't need to forget them for one second!!