The book of James has so many gems. Today I was reading and the words were coming off the page like never before. I've read them numerous times but for some reason they sunk in deeper. So many of us think or have thought that we can just get by with our faith, hopefully just enough that we can get to heaven - right? We know that we are saved by Grace - praise Jesus for that. James 2:20 "...What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ...do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ...Abraham was considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did."

Check it out, his faith was made complete by what he did. Oh how I desire to have this faith. Move me into action. I am stunned when I think about the transformation in my life over the past few years. I know that God has been preparing me/us for what is next in our journey. I love it when God does his work. It's not always fun at the time and we often have to go through some fire, but in the end it will always be better. Allow him to go deep inside of you - he knows what's in there anyway. I know that he has done this work in us to equip us for out next place of ministry. Praise you Lord!

Worship and Praise is one of my closest times with Jesus. He loves our praise to Him.

HEALER HEAL ME

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 "...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place."

I heard this scripture again today. I say "again" because I have heard it many times this past week in various places. When I heard it again today it struck me that the Lord has put this in our hearts for a reason. They are such powerful words that we take way too lightly. Make this personal for yourself - "if Pam would call by my name and humble herself and pray and seek my face and turn from her wicked ways, then will I hear her from heaven and will forgive her sin and heal her land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that Pam made in this place." I love how scripture is so personal to our lives. Think about this; we are called his children, so we are to humble ourselves and pray and TURN. (when I think of humbling myself I think of laying down everything I am, and all that I can see in this life and surrendering it all to Jesus; this is a daily process) Check out the next word - THEN I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin. So what comes first is a repentance, then a humbling, then forgiveness and healing! This is huge---------now picture an entire group of people doing this-------doesn't that look beautiful? Picture a church down on their knees in repentance, humbling themselves before the King and Jesus giving forgiveness. The church today would look a whole lot different than it does. I would much rather listen to the Lord and humble myself than Him have to humble me. I love the words to the song "Healer" by Ten Shekel Shirt.

Healer heal me
Savior save me
Maker change me
Lover love me
'Cause I'm so tired of living for
the kind of love
that only lasts for a while
The pain, the shame
tear me up inside.

So I fall on my knees
to get back on my feet again
And I cry out for you
Would you please speak to me.

Lord I long to stay humble before you and others. Show me areas of my life where I need to learn to be more humble. Keep my eyes and ears attentive to you.

FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

I love when the Lord encourages me through his word. With so many uncertainties in life it is hard not to look at circumstances and get discouraged sometimes. Psalm 84 "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage...they go from strength to strength..." A pilgrimage is like a journey and I will be blessed when I keep my heart set on this journey/pilgrimage that the Lord has me/us on. And the way to do this is to take the strength that the Lord gives, he will keep giving it - strength to strength. In our human mind it appears that July brings even more uncertainties. God is bigger than what we can see.

Strengthen me today stronger than I have been before. Fill me Lord with your peace - that peace that will surpass all my understanding. Show us the way to go and give direction in our hearts so clearly that we know it is from you and walk us forward pursuing the path you have layed out. Thank you Lord that we are walking in your will and that you are calling us to a deeper trust in you. Keep my eyes focused on what is unseen (YOU) not on what is seen.

God is God and there is no other; I love you! Trust - no matter what life may bring.
There is excitement in you. Joy walking in your will. Fill me to overflowing with your joy.

HIS PROMISES

You know those times when you feel like the enemy is attacking you? You get down, really down, and begin to question God? I'd like to say that my moment yesterday was only a brief moment but it lasted a good part of the day and evening. I woke up this morning knowing that the enemy had attacked me with doubts. The morning began with a grandson making noises in the living room. They had come over at 1am to sleep since they have no air and their house was 90 degrees. The morning continued with a closed door for what we thought was a possible ministry, another closed door for something else and a husband who can see God's hand in it all.

We went for a walk and returned to a phone message from someone we met only briefly with a scripture for us to read. It was so encouraging. God is awesome how he raises up people when we need it. Lord, help me hold on to your promises, even when our eyes don't see the next step. God told Joshua on numerous occasions to "be strong and courageous", that he would be with him wherever he goes. Raise up your Spirit within me. Help me/us to walk in your will with confidence. Show us the way to go.

This morning brings a bit of a sadness in my heart. I want nothing more than to be there for a daughter in pain. I am so proud of her for holding on so tightly to Jesus who loves her so much. She and her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years are no longer together. The pain in her heart is real and I wish that I could take it away for her. I can love her through it - pray with her and for her but time and Jesus can heal her wounds.

It feels strange not to have Musta (our dog) greet me this morning. She was usually sitting by the the kitchen looking at me while I made my coffee or breakfast. Wagging her tail and waiting for her morning neck scratch. I am glad that she is out of pain.

God has been doing some serious clearing out in our life. The house seems different now. I sense that he is preparing us for the next step. He doesn't show us too far ahead though. Just gives us reminders that he has our life completely in his hands. I don't want Jesus to say to me what he said to his disciples when they were in the boat and the storm came. "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Although I know that he could say this to me on any given day. I would love it if I would always have faith to a point where I don't fear. Yet when I do get afraid it is then that I need to crawl back to his loving arms and he is there to embrace me in his love and protection. He will hold me close and remind me that it's going to be allright. That he created the universe and he can and will take good care of me and our family. Don't be afraid, have faith.....sometimes I feel like the father in the story in Mark 9:24 "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief." We know that God has everything in our life in his hands. I want every day to lay at his feet, to remember and not forget what he has done for us. I love his love for me. I love Jesus and desire to grow even more in love with him.

Jesus, fill me.

YOU NEVER LET GO!

As I blog daughter Angela has the song playing "You Never Let Go". When the hard times in life come our God will never let go, "joy and pain, sun and rain, your the same oh you never let go."

Tim and daughter Nicole took our dog Musta to have her put to sleep. There is pain in our hearts and we are so saddened by the loss of a faithful friend. She was in so much pain - it was time. Tim spent most of the night outside with the dog on a sleeping bag. Her diahrea was so bad and she hurt so much he didn't have the heart to leave her, plus this needed to be outside. Musta spent 9 1/2 years with our family. She was such a sweet dog, following me everywhere I went, playing soccer with the girls, being a horse for Angela when she was younger, camping and just waiting at the door with a wagging tail when we would get home.

Today we deal with that along with another family loss. All today I can see God's hand in everything. His hand is in the losses that we are facing. I love so much that our family draws strength from Jesus. I love that they seek his face in the hard times.

We worship you Lord, in the midst of pain you are still the God of the universe. You are still the God who has our life in his hands. May His love and peace surround us!

WHERE TO BEGIN....

So it's been a while since I wrote. My hubby and I were away together last week, no internet, no TV. It was nice except for the fact that he was "resting" due to having walking pneumonia. He couldn't do much since doing much made him out of breath. So we watched a few movies, prayed, read scripture and played a lot of Phase 10 (a game).

This morning I was reading in Luke 15. Parables I have read over and over in my life. What came to life fuller for me today was the rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents. The parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son. One says "there will be rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents" another "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God" and finally "he was dead and is alive, he was lost and now is found." I thought about what it must look like when I, a sinner, repents! Wow, isn't that amazing. Then I thought about what it must look like when someone who has not known Christ in their life comes to repentance and follows him. The rejoicing in heaven is such a beautiful picture. Just picture the heavens rejoicing over you - yes YOU and ME are valued so much by Jesus that the entire heavens rejoice over us when we repent. The parables depict someone who has fallen away and then comes back. So remember that no matter what sin is in your life there is nothing that Jesus doesn't forgive. When you turn and come back to him the whole heavens rejoice over YOU. That should make you smile.

We watched a movie this week called "Faith like Potatoes". It was such a beautiful picture of Jesus working in the lives of every day people. I won't tell you more just watch it, you'll love it!

We continue to walk into an unknown place. A few doors possible, but still no clear answers. A beautiful song says "hungry I come to you for I know you satisfy....so I wait for you, so I wait for you; I'm falling on my knees, offering all of me, Jesus, your all this heart is living for."

Lord, help me to wait on you, help me to remember and not forget how you have loved and cared for us these past months. Help me not to forget the power that you have displayed in my life. Keep me free and open to you, keep the enemy far from me and our family. Keep your hedge of protection around each and every one of us trusting you for our next steps. All in your plans not ours. I love you Lord.

Annoyance

So this morning I came across quite the proverb to start my day.

"A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult." Prov. 12:16

Does this convict anyone else? I hope that I will always remember this when I find myself annoyed by someone. Seems that I/we can become annoyed way too easily. The way someone is doing something, things that others say...and the list can go on. Prudent means to be wise, sensible and careful about ones conduct. It's time to pray this, pray it more and live it out. It means I need to pay close attention to being patient. Seems that if I don't get annoyed easily that along with wanting to be prudent I will find patients.

Now what about the other part of this - the part about overlooking an insult. I can't even begin to count the number of people that I have been insulted by or that have insulted people that I love. When I am truly prudent, I will overlook the insult. Yikes - that is sooooo hard to do.

Lord, keep working on me. I never want to stop growing!

Crazy Week

So I realized that this is the longest that I have gone from blogging. Wow - it's been a crazy busy week getting ready for a garage sale. Daughter Nicole also brought over a bunch of things. Ok, so we were to start at 8am this morning. If you've ever had a garage sale or gone to them you know that the first day in the morning is always the busiest. Well let me tell you, by noon we had seen 4 people. Talk about lame....I can tell you that this will be my last garage sale. (It's my second one) Afternoon rained and by the time I realized it all the stuff in the driveway was wet. This just made me laugh at the day. A few more people arrived during the rain bringing my total up enough to say "ok, enough for a little cash". Nicole on the other hand made $3 today. :)

There has to be a connection between the garage sale and God - right? I can't think of one right now. Guess I'm just tired at the end of the day and can't believe that I have to start this again at 8am in the morning. (snicker, snicker)

I did read today though something from a book that I thought so profound. "Well, I guess we always have our own plan in case God's plan doesn't work out." I won't tell the whole story around it, but isn't that so true? We like to, in our own way, try to sway God to do what we think would be best. We keep a backup plan - as if God's plan seriously isn't good enough or will fall through. Seriously, has God ever left us high and dry? Sure there are times we wonder where he is - maybe we are in such intense trials that we can hardly find him.

Guess what? That's when you have to get face down before him and seek his face. He has never left us and is always there if we call on him. ALWAYS! So where do we go from here? I don't know but I can have the peace knowing that he has it ALL WORKED OUT!

I love my family. Every one of them.
Fill me Jesus every day with a new and fresh flow of your love.

God is always working on me

As I end this day I was thinking about what I learned today. A few things came to mind. First a word rang true again for me to continue to pay attention to. PRIDE - It comes in sooo many different ways. Sometimes someone can share an insight and it can convict me of something that I need to deal with. Funny how God works. Isn't pride a hard one to swallow - what I mean is, isn't it a hard one to admit that we might even possibly have an issue with? Maybe it's pride about your children, or pride toward other christians, or pride over posessions...etc. When you really look hard at the root of attitudes, pride seems to find it's way in. Yuk...I really dislike it and with the Lord's help will continue to face it head on.

Most importantly, I want the Lord to change my attitudes from the inside. I want him to clean out from inside what can cause pride to come out. He has revealed so much already and I feel like he has taken so much out, but there is still more work to be done.

So what should I seek? Humility. Listen to the following clip.

GRACE

So today I spent a good part of the day cleaning the house - I mean deep stuff, going through closets, under bathroom sinks, kitchen mugs that I don't like anymore. I'm getting ready for a garage sale and want to really purge the house of "stuff" I don't need. It feels good!

Emily isn't feeling well so she was actually home today. A rarity, she has to be sick to be home. Silly girl...get the hint chicky. We love you too....so we watched a movie tonight about a guy who gave up his life to help many others. It left me with mixed feelings but reminds me of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me and you. He wants the very best for us and was willing to die on a cross for mine and your sins. I so completely do not deserve it, but he washes us every day with his grace. As Paul says "my grace is sufficient for you." That is so beautiful to me - his grace, it's like Jesus telling us "I know you are a sinner and that you sin against me, but I love you so much that I am going to suffer in your place and give you the gift of eternal life, I know that you don't deserve this, but take it, it's my free gift of love to you."

So as I clean house, even the house inside of me, I will walk freely every day in this amazingly free gift of love that I know in Jesus. He is all I need! Dear Jesus, help me each day to walk with you leading, not me. Thank you for your love for me. It's not about me, it's all about You.

I love my husband!

Just a quick blog before I head off to bed.
God can and will take away what you need to rid of in your life. Today he freed me from everything in my life. Yes, I do mean everything. Give everything to him to control, my husband, my children, my home, my stuff in my home, my car - it's all his anyway - I just need to surrender them all to him. Be responsible, yes, control and hold onto them, NO! He can take everything and if all I have left is Him, that's all I will need. I only want to hold onto him and him alone. Take everything from here and leave me with Jesus.

I feel calmer. I am so incredibly in love with my Timothy. When you give it all to Jesus and ask him to fill you with his love you will find that you will love your husband and family even more.

FRIENDLY FLOWER

I was refreshed this morning after a solid night sleep. I'm one of those people that "needs" her sleep at night. So Tim and I went for a long walk and as we were nearing home I saw it - spread out all over the field. Thousands upon thousands of them - such a friendly flower - THE DAISY! As I usually do every year at this time, I quickly inlist the help of whoever happens to be with me to pick as many as we can hold, bring them home quickly to get in water. (they droop fast) I put a couple of huge boquets on a couple of different tables.

In the movie I mentioned yesterday there is a scene when Joe brings Katheleen a bouquet of daisies and she says "I love daisies - they're so friendly. Don't you think that daisies are the friendliest flower?"

So I was wondering what the bible said about the word friendly. I didn't find too much but I did find a lot about happy. Pretty close, right?

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

James 5:13

In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. 2 Cor. 7:14

Don't you just love the thought of being delighted and happy in your spirit by being refreshed by others? Then we sing songs of praise and can't help but pass that on to others. It seems like people do more complaining about others than they do refreshing them, building them up. So today - be friendly - refresh someones day in the Lord!

You too will be refreshed.

Fight, fight to the death...

So one of our favorite chick flicks is "You've Got Mail". It's about 9 years old, but one of our all time family favorites. Us girls know most of the movie by memory and my girls can recite line for line some great parts. Well, a scene in the movie became pretty real lately. I got mad the other day when I felt Satan bringing me down. I just got up and punched the air, fight, fight...

from the movie:
Joe: "I know you worry about being brave, Don't, this is your chance - FIGHT, fight to the death, fight to the death."
Kathleen: "fight (air punching fists) fight, fight"

Whenever we are in the midst of a battle, a challenge in life and/or we sense Satan attacking us. It's time to fight, fight to the death. Go ahead and air punch! I did - it feels good. There are times when we have to fight of the enemy. Ephesians tells us "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

I, like anybody else can get in a pit. When I put on the full armor - then fight, fight to the death - the enemy will always lose because I have Jesus fighting in me. He will always win!

Watch the movie - it's cute! Read your bible, draw near to God and he will draw near to you!
It rocks.

God Moves in Mysterious Ways

Read the following refrain to the song "God Moves in Mysterious Ways" by Jeremy Riddle

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.

I wish that I could put the song up for you to listen to but it's not online to post. Anyhow a young man told me about this song and said that he loves to listen to it - especially at certain times in his life. He downloaded the entire CD for me. The song is absolutely beautiful. This young man is such an awesome young man of God. I don't know that I've met a young man this age so passionate about Jesus. He must surely be an example to many other guys out there.

He and I chat a lot while I am at PT. He is doing his clinicals there and it turns out that he is in a weekly bible study group with Emily. Small world - but God moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes we get talking so much about God in the gym that I lose count on my exercises. Probably good for me because I end up doing more reps. It's been a real learning experience to talk with him. He will make an awesome Godly husband and father. Men of integrity are getting harder to find.......pass it on Brian!