Testimony Time

I am so very thankful for my relationship with my Heavenly Father and the BENEFITS that come with it. 
One of those benefits is His written Word, the Bible.  It is my guide for daily living.  It gives me encouragement, uplifts me, and gives me inspiration as the Holy Spirit enlightens my understanding of what I am reading.   The answer to every question you have is in the Bible.  You will find a precedent there for everything you seek guidance for.  The stories in the Old Testament are powerful, and if you haven't already, I challenge you to start at the very beginning in Genesis and take a little time each day to read the Bible straight through, from beginning to end.  I read an hour a day, and it took me three months to read the whole Bible.  You could read 15 minutes a day and read it in a year.  I've done it twice, and it increased my faith immeasurably.  These are real people with real problems, just like you and me.  Their examples show us what happens if you trust God and have a relationship with Him, and what happens if you don't.  Whatever answers you need, you will find them here.  I was raised in church and Sunday School, and as an adult attend church regularly, study my Sunday School lesson, read devotional books and other books by Christian authors, have done several discipleship and soul winning trainings as well as a 9 month Bible School, am active in our ladies' auxilary, and counsel a women's group.  But none of these things has had the impact on me that reading the Bible from cover to cover has.  I encourage you to do this if you haven't already.  If you have, I'd love to hear you comments about it, and we could have a discussion about it.  I'd love that!

Another benefit is that the Holy Spirit has come to us to be our helper, our guide, our friend, our counselor, our advocate, and so much more to help us live a Christian life while in this world we live in and not be overcome by the evil that is in it.  He enables us, by His Power, to be a witness of God's Goodness and testify of His Grace in our lives.  He gives us Wisdom to help us make decisions when we don't know what to do.  He warns us with promptings and urgings when there is something we should know or do.  As long as we are staying close to God in daily prayer and Bible reading, we will rightly discern what the Holy Spirit is telling us, but if we let ourselves grow cold, we will only feel His leading as a gentle breeze passing by that we barely notice and do not give heed to.  That's why it is so important to read and meditate, pray, and spend time with God every day.

That leads to the best benefit, to me, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father God.  Jesus gave his life for us, and the Blood He shed paid the price for our sins, so that all who accept this gift and receive Him as their Lord and Savior become children of God and receive eternal life.  Jesus taught the disciples how to pray.  He told them to pray to the Father.  Jesus made the way for us to have a relationship with the Father.  Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.  Yes, they are the same in spirit, but still very different.  The sacrifice Jesus made for us, and the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives are for one purpose:  to lead us into a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father.   One day we will live with Him forever in Heaven, but He still wants us to experience a relationship with Him while we are on this earth.  A relationship with Jesus Christ is life-changing and wonderful; knowing and following the Holy Spirit is thrilling and peaceful at the same time, but in the relationship with the Father, we find the rest that we so desperately need.  He is the essence.  He is.....He just is.....indescribable but ........there are no words - you just have to EXPERIENCE Him - FEEL Him.......  and then, you can trust Him, completely, and have a hope you cannot explain and joy that will not let go as He speaks to your heart and touches you in the deepest part, and you know that you are His and that He will take care of you and everyone you care about.  It's what we need to make it until He comes again.  I pray God gives us all a greater hunger for his Word and His fellowship, and I hope you will ask Him for that right now.  I am praying that you do.  God Bless You!!

If by chance, you are reading this and you have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, but would like to now, all you need to do is be sincere and confess that you are a sinner and cannot pay the price for your sins.  Acknowledge that you believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son, who came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and died and gave His Blood as the ultimate sacrifice to pay for your sins so that you could receive eternal life and have a relationship with God.  Ask Jesus to be Lord of your life.  Ask the Father to fill you with His Holy Spirit and give you a hunger for His Word and to help you understand it and live by it.  If you are sincere, that's all it takes to be saved.  Then you need to find a good Bible-teaching church and attend regularly and be involved, as well as read your Bible daily and meditate on what you've read, pray, and follow the Holy Spirit's leadings in your life.  You will know just what to do if you keep reading the instruction manual (The Bible) every day.  I'd love to hear from you and pray for you.  Big hug to you!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus song syncronized to Christmas lights

Something to think about --------------

As is.....
one grain of sand to all the sand on a beach;
one drop of rain to all the rain in a thunderstorm;
one snowflake to all the flakes falling in a blizzard;
one breath to all the breaths you will ever take;
one heartbeat to all the beats of your heart;

So is.....
your prayer to all the prayers God hears.


No matter how big you think the need is,
to our Father God, it is so tiny.

He said we only need enough faith as is the
size of one mustard seed.  That is so tiny!

We expect so much of ourselves, but God
requires so little.  Jesus already gave all for us.

I hope this Christmas season you will be able
to see how little your needs are to your
Heavenly Father, and that your tiny seed of faith
is more than enough for the miracle that you seek.

Need directions? Don't ask me unless you want to get lost!

Why am I so directionally challenged???  It is so easy for me to get lost.  I hate getting lost.  I spent at least an hour today not knowing exactly where I was.....yes, I was using the gps map on my iphone.  Yes, I was watching that little green dot moving along the green line that was my trip map.  No one ever told me that the green dot keeps moving if you lose your cell signal.  But all that means is, it moves whatever direction you are going.  You can no longer see the map - just the green dot moving on the line.  Next thing I know, the map is back.  That's when I noticed that the signal was back - which, by the way, I had not figured out before this.  That's also when I noticed that my little green dot was moving in the oppposite direction of my green line where I was supposed to be.  I was sooooo disappointed to realize that I was going the wrong way, and that, of course, I had no idea where I had taken a wrong turn (or not taken the right one).  To top it all off, I had been behind a white truck for miles.  At this very moment, they decided to turn right.  I figured they would think I was following them, if I chose to turn the same place (so I could turn around), so I kept going a little ways longer. 

As I turned around and re-set the trip planner from my current location, I couldn't help but think about some things I wished I had done differently this morning before I left home.  I made this same trip a few months ago with no problem, so I didn't really even think about getting the directions again.  Big mistake!!  Two other people from my town were also coming here.  Why didn't we caravan?  Cell phones are nice, but they cannot be depended on when there is no signal.  The only think that would have made me feel totally at ease would have been to know the directions by heart.  That would have given me full confidence that I knew exactly where to go and what to do.

I thought about my Christian walk then, and how important it is to have God's Word in my heart - to know some scripture from memory.  We don't always have time to look up a verse or call someone when something happens quickly.  What great assurance it is to remember what God promised when facing hard times.  It only takes a few seconds to go from worry to peace when you can recall what God's Word says about your situation.  It is the best thing you can have to help you know where to go and what to do. 

---- I added something to my blog today.  I made it at Wordle.net.  It's made to take ideas, comments, or feelings from a group and put the answers given most in larger print, and then smaller prints for other words, according to the number of times that answer was given.  You can also use it to enter your blog address, and it will make a wordle out of the words you used on your blog.  The words that occured more often are in the largest print. 

I got a big blessing out of this.  Check it out!  It's fun.  I hope you have a great week.  God bless!

Small Miracles

(but miracles, nonetheless)


Earlier today, I was standing at the kitchen sink and looking out the window, when something that was small went flying through the air.  Expectantly, my heart jumped, and I was excited.  Was it a hummingbird?  I felt such a thrill to think it might be.  Have you ever felt that way? 

I began to think about hummingbirds and how hard and rare it is to see one.  But then God reminded of something.  If you want to see hummingbirds, you have to create the right conditions - the sweet nectar they eat; the right kind of feeder; and the right kind of flowers.  If you have all those things, you will see hummingbirds quite often.  I don't have all those things, so on the very rare occasion that I do see a hummingbird in my yard, it feels like a small miracle to me and gives me such a blessing.

This made me start thinking about God and miracles.  Some people say miracles don't happen anymore.  I know they do because I have experienced some, and no one can convince me that they are not real.  However, miracles need the right conditions to be seen, just like hummingbirds do.  The most important thing you need is faith in God's ability and love for you.  Whatever you ask for must agree with His Word and His Will for your life.  You cannot have the faith you need if you do not know Him well enough to trust Him completely.  You cannot know Him unless you spend much time with Him in the Word and prayer. 

Think of someone in your life that you love very much.  How often do you think about them during the day?  How often do you spend time with them or talk to them?  Do you think about your Heavenly Father during the day?  Do you take the time to talk to Him and spend time with Him?  As far back as I can remember, I talk to Him every day.  I cannot imagine not doing it.  He is such a vital part of my life.  I don't want to go a day without talking to Him.  Still, I ask myself if I have enough faith to believe Him for a miracle.  Do you? 

Times are hard right now for a lot of people.  The Bible tells us that they will get even harder.  I know I need to spend even more time with Him and in reading His Word, which is our lifeline to survive in the trials and temptations of our lives.  I hope you will join me.  I pray God blesses you this week and draws you into His Presence and gives you so much joy that you overflow on others. 

Just a reminder...............

Nothing we are going through can come anywhere close to what Jesus experienced in his life while on this earth.  The only difference is that He didn't have to  -  we do, though. 

Whatever you are going through, just remember.  Jesus knows.  Jesus cares.  Jesus loves you.  He proved it by giving His life for you.  He gave His life so you could have the same wonderful Father that He does.  His Father is your father, if you accept Jesus' free gift of salvation.  Call Daddy and tell Him what's wrong.  He will answer you and help you.

Jeremiah 33:3 (in my own words) says "Call me, and I'll answer you, and show you great and mighty things you don't know."  His line is never busy, and He won't put you on hold.  He'll take care of it.

      OVERFLOW           


















I prayed all week for the Lord to give me a topic for my next post.  He dropped it into my heart Friday night with one word:  overflow.  After thanking Him for it, I have pondered it and prayed about it since.  Why did he pick "overflow" instead of "overflowing"?  Typically, when we think of this concept, we think of it as "overflowing", right? 


I did some research with the Strong Concordance and the Webster 1828 Dictionary (which is supposed to be the dictionary with the nearest definition to what the word meant in the Bible). And, of course, I knew that "overflow" is a noun, and "overflowing" is a verb or adjective (depending on how it is used in the sentence). "Overflowing" means spilling over.  We all know that, without even looking it up, and we know that God wants Christians to be overflowing onto others, leading them to Christ and eternal life by accepting his free gift of salvation through the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us by the shedding of his innocent blood. God wants us to live our lives so that others will want what we have, giving us the opportunity to share the source of any blessing in our life.


So, what is the Lord trying to tell us by using the topic "Overflow"?  The meaning of "overflow" is superabundance.  We cannot be overflowing until we have overflow, which is, superabundance.  Joy cannot be overflowing out of us onto others unless we have a superabundance of joy first.  The same can be said about any good thing:  peace, scripture, encouragement.....you get the idea. We have to be more than just full.  We must be MORE than full, to the point that we cannot contain it anymore!!  The superabundance is what starts overflowing onto others and ministering to them.


How do we have that superabundance in our life?  We get it by continually drinking and feasting from God's Word - then meditating on it, studying it, and applying it to our lives.  If we only read it, we will forget it.  We must do all these other things, too, to get it inside us.  If it is not inside us, it will not fill us up.  If we do not get filled up, we cannot overflow. 


We also need time in prayer.  Prayer is two-way communication with God.  It is not just us telling him our needs.  We also need to be still and listen.  He wants to speak to our hearts.  And we need to praise Him.  We have so much to thank Him for because He is so good to us. 


I encourage you to give Him time every day, if you are not already doing so, and put enough of His Word, prayer, and praise into your spirit so that you cannot contain it all, and then watch it spill over onto others and fill your heart and life with so much joy.  Please feel free to share a comment of something good the Lord has done for you.  I would love to hear if you like my blog, and I pray you have a great week in the Lord!