Hurting People Everywhere

Jesus came to save those who are lost and hurting. Jesus said, it's not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. The world is full of sick and hurting people and God Loves and wants each and every one of them just as they are.

While putting on my make-up, I was talking to my daughter through the bathroom door the other day. She comes to visit Wednesdays between her classes and work. The highlight of my weeks! :) Anyway, out of nowhere I remember the girl at the grocery store checkout stand the day before. She was a sweet looking girl all accept she was wearing giant spacers in her earlobes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, what happens is, if you take out the round spacers, you will have big loops for ear lobs.

When I came up to the checkout stand and noticed the girl, I felt a sadness come over me. She was thin and had dark hair put stylishly up in a bun.  She was very sweet and pretty accept for those ears! I couldn't for the life of me figure out why she would disfigure herself like that, which I now realize is actually none of my business...

"I can't believe they hire people with those big loops in their ears", I told my daughter. "It looks horrible"! There is a girl at the ice cream parlor I like to visit who wears those and it's so gross I bout loose my appetite! "They shouldn't let people who wear those things in their ears work in food establishments" I said.

The next day I began to hear over and over wretched things I had done before my Lord saved me from my personal pain and days of intoxication. At first I thought it was the old enemy, satan, trying to steal my joy, so I tried to ignore it. As the list of my past offenses against God got uglier and uglier, and the pain coming back as if I were facing those offenses for the first time,  I remembered the conversation I had with my daughter about those girls and their ears, and I also remembered I had asked God not to let me forget where I came from. My bad haha...just kidding. Be careful what you ask for cause you just might get it!

"We all wear our pain differently. Some of us hide it on the inside and some of us on the outside." Said the still small voice of God.  I have been a faithful follower and student of Jesus Christ for 5 years and I am shocked at how I still struggle with pride and selfishness and judging others. It made me sad that I had disappointed God with my attitude towards these girls, especially considering where I came from. And it made me sad that I am still so far away from being like my beloved Jesus.

 I have been humbled. I have been changed...

Living Without Fear

Proverbs 1:33

"but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

I was going to talk about why I am eating an ice cream cone at 5 'o clock in the morning, but The Lord said "Obama Care." I don't know that much about Obama Care, but man that Nestle's Vanilla Caramel Drumstick sure was mmm mmm good!

I do my best to stay out of politics because The Good Lord says, "whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is praiseworthy, think on such things." Politicians make me angry so I don't think about them. However, as a chronic sick, middle class, middle aged woman,  I can't get away from this one.

This is what I do know about "Obama Care" as it pertains to me personally. My husband says our insurance will go from $500 a month to $1000. Our annual deductible will go from $2500 to $5000. Right now we have a 70/30 split which means our insurance pays 70% of the medical bills and we pay 30%, That will change to 50/50 and this all begins the first of next month!

My husband says "no" to that kind of insurance pricing and there, I have suddenly been sucked into the devils schemes! Fear is Satan's biggest weapon against us and the evidence is clear that the end times is closer than most of us realize.

My hope has been that this Bill will get repealed but clearly it doesn't seem to be going in that direction. Every time, which is all the time if the TV is on, the subject of Obama Care is brought up, my blood starts to boil and I begin to think about things like "what if the doctors figure out whats wrong with me and we wont be able to afford the treatment... What if we can't afford the testing that could lead to a diagnosis and that leads to death...or worse, what if I can't afford my medications and I just have to live in a sick and miserable body the rest of my life?"

Then that "still small voice" inside me, aka The Holy Spirit, says, "what about Me?" Oh yeah, I belong to God!! What great news!!! I don't live by the worlds standards because I am a member of The Kingdom of God!! Hallelujiah!! You see, The Lord doesn't leave it up to the President to take care of His own, God Himself takes care of His own people, because He is GOOD like that!!

What does God say about these kinds of situations? To find out all you have to do is look up the word "fear" in the concordance of your Bibles if you have one. If you don't you can go to
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/ and plug in the word fear. There is power in God's Word, and if you don't know, you can find God's Word in the Bible. The Truth you will find there can extinquish the firey darts of fear that devil WILL throw at you, and you can find peace instead. Praise The Lord!!

When you start feeling scared TURN OFF THE TV and read and reread the verses that tell you how God IS and WILL CONTINUE TO TAKE CARE OF ALL YOUR NEEDS. Now that is GREAT NEWS!!!

Deuteronomy 31:8

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Oh and the reason for the ice cream cone this morning, it was pure unadulterated selfishness, cause if I had left it in the fridge, the kids would eat it! I am a work in progress after all...

What Happens When I Let God Be God

My busy girl doing homework for college in Corvallis
in between work in Salem and internship
at an international adoption agency in Portland!

In a previous post, " A Laid Down Lover For God," I talked about loving the person God puts in front of you and let God be God, verses trying to be the Holy Spirit to them. I used an example of a situation that came up with my daughter last Spring. "When I want to tell my 20 year old college attending, hard working daughter, 'please don't plan another mission trip to Haiti in the middle of your already too busy schedule.' Instead I praise her for her heart and desire to serve God and the needy and trust God will provide for all her needs."

Well God did provide for all her needs! She went to Haiti, she worked hard, and an unsuspecting life was changed for God because she was there! This was the life of one of the team members. It wasn't about the orphans or the financially needy this time. It was about a young lady who was struggling mentally, she was "poor in spirit".

What we usually think of when we hear the word "poor" is those who are orphaned or homeless, or starving. There is another type of "poor" and it's at epidemic porportions here in America as well as poverty stricken places, like Africa and Haiti. That is what this young lady was suffering from, being poor in her spirit.

The poor in spirit are those who are sad, hopeless, starving for love and acceptance...they need Jesus! I've been there and it's awful! My daughter was just who this young lady traveling with her to Haiti to help others needed to talk to. As my Shayla listened to her story, the Holy Spirit began to minister to her and prompted Shayla to pray for her. It was exactly what this girl needed and her life was changed that day! An act of God it was! He's really great that way!! This new friend who was feeling hopeless and sad went away feeling loved and valuable as well as on fire for God! And when they returned home She asked Shayla to baptize her! I'm so proud of my beautiful daughter and I give God all the glory!

KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS!

If I had interfered with God's plan by worrying about my daughter's too busy life and discouraged her from going to Haiti, her friend's life would not have been touched and she might have been lost forever. I'm so glad I've learned to let God be God and just love the one He puts in front of me! And I know it makes His job a little easier too haha...

IN ALL THINGS REMEMBER, GOD KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, TRUST HIM!

What Does It Take To Be A Credible Witness?

God's beautiful creations constantly make me smile! :)
That is what I call a tender mercy.
There is always beauty among the ugly
which makes the beauty more beautiful!
Everything in God is indescribable beauty!!!

Have you ever heard the statement, "that's just not fair"? I wonder where we get the idea that life is supposed to be fair? All we have to do is look at the life Jesus lived while He was on the earth. There is nothing fair about God, our Creator, who never committed a single sin, taking the punishment we deserve so we could live and not die.

 I think sometimes as Christians we like to paint a picture that life with Christ is a life free from problems. And then some of us think there is something wrong with us if we don't have the life  that Jesus died for us to have. The fact is, stated right in the Word of God, "a righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers Him from them all." There's the good news! He will deliver us! We have divine help to get us through our problems! 

Lord continues to shower me with His tender mercies. I just LOVE those!  He puts a smile on my face every day. My Church attendance has been spuratic at best. I miss way more meetings than I attend. A few of the members know that I have been struggling with a physical illness and I know they are praying for me.

 At New Hope Community Church, we have a prayer chain that is managed by my beautiful spiritual Momma, Nona Petersen. A lot of prayer requests come up on the chain so one day I felt like throwing in a Praise Report of supernatural increase for the glory of the Lord. Our very expensive furnace oil has lasted twice as long as it naturally should! I thought that was worth giving God glory for!!! Thank You Jesus You are such a wonderful provider!!!

So my question to God one day was, Lord if people see that I am sick in body and not getting well year after year, how can I be a credible witness for You?

And God replied,


"Your Love for Jesus  overshadows you and that is what all can see."

So if you ever feel like your testimony wont count on account some things in your life aren't neatly arranged in a picture perfect way, then remember, not even Jesus lived a picture perfect life, in fact it was far from the way we would want our lives to be. It's your love for God that needs to be seen by all, so please don't hold it back, testify of ALL that The Lord has done for you!!! He will bless you for it, I promise!!

Dance through the pain

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also ~Matthew 6:21

I spend most of my days alone with God. Since I have been sick in my body for the past 4  years, I don't get out much. During this time He has become my very best friend in the whole world! If you were a fly on my wall you would conclude that I am crazy! Talking all day long to my King. Laughing, singing, talking, crying, you name it, that's what we do together. We even dance together when I am feeling strong enough. Did you know the Lord dances? "He's the Lord of the dance, He's the dancing Lord!" Yes, He even wants to dance with you!! The more I get to know Him the more delighted and amazed I am at who He is, how precious He really is. He really is delightful! I had no idea before now just how awesome our God is!

Did You Know God Has Feelings Too?

So many prayers for our needs, so many prayers for our wants, so many prayers for this and for that.  Please bless our finances God, please bless our children, please give us an easy day at work, please keep us safe Lord.

Did you know that Jesus prays for us? Who prays for Him? Just because He is in Heaven seated next to  our Heavenly Father doesn't mean that He doesn't still need our prayers.

 We couldn't possibly comprehend the amount of rejection and pain and sorrow our Lord goes through every single day. I find it so hard to understand why He created us knowing full well how much He would suffer because of us. But He created us anyway and says His children are worth everything! What an awesome God!

Gift of Salvation

Praise the Lord oh my soul, praise the Lord! He gave it all away when He could have chose to stay. No longer sitting on the throne as a King should be all for the Love of you and me. All of heaven had to say goodbye, for that brief moment, to the Apple of their eye.

I can't imagine such a Love as this, that the Creator would become the created for those He created. He who was and is truly greatest became the least while He dwelt among us. How profound! In His great Love and compassion for His children He became one of us, to be tested and tried just as we are but even more so I think because He is God and could've called heavens army to come rescue Him at any given moment. But He didn't. He stayed the coarse, suffering great persecution and humiliation, betrayal, and inconceivable abuse at the hands of Roman soldiers.

It was His plan from the very beginning before we were ever created,  to reach out His own Hand from heaven and save us from our depravity. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, not by works lest anyone should boast." If we would just humble ourselves and admit our need for His help and repent, turn away from doing what is wrong in the sight of the Lord and seek His beautiful Face instead. The gift is already there, your passport to heaven, bought and paid for, all you have to do is reach out and receive it, say yes to Jesus, tell Him you want His great gift of Salvation and  ask Him to be Lord of your life if you haven't already.  God paid a price way to high for us to pick and choose who we think is worthy of this great gift. Salvation is for everyone who believes!

Thank You my dear sweet Jesus for saving a wretch like me!!! I love you forever and can't wait to be married to You for ALL eternity long!!!