Ultimate Blog Party

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

I wanted to get in on the Ultimate Blog Party this year. I was excited to see that I could link to it under the category of Christian blogs.

Because that’s what my life is all about. Jesus is my Everything.

One of my main messages is that God is faithful through times of testing and hardship. I have written many posts about how God has sustained us through some very tough times of being homeless, being jobless, wandering and wondering across the country trying to follow His leading, straining to hear His voice. I have filed those posts under the category Journey of Fire. Check some of them out if you need encouragement as you go through a time when it seems that God is leaving you on your own, and you are wondering if He’s really even there. Or if He cares about you.

When life doesn’t go the way we planned or thought it should go, it’s good to read the testimonies of others who survived and found out that He really was there with them the whole time. And He delivered them from the shame, humiliation, disappointment and poverty that they experienced during the testing times.

I have written quite a bit about learning how to hear His voice under the category Hearing God. I am still learning, too, but He has brought me a long way.

I’m big on Faith. I believe God is, too!

I also like to tell about our family experiences and share pictures of my kids – ten of them! That makes us unique in some circles. Not so much in others.

And I love to share our homeschool experiences and my excitement about the privilege of educating my children at home.

I try to remain open to the Holy Spirit’s leading and share what He wants me to share on this blog.

I pray that you will be blessed just by coming by my blog today. May His presence surround and embrace you as you seek His face and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

From Sons to Servants

Mar 31 – From Sons to Servants

“And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.”
(Acts 2:18-19)

You and I are living in the most exciting days this earth has ever seen. All around us God is pouring out His Spirit in preparation for the endtime revival that will bring this whole age to a glorious close.

Some of God’s children are just standing by as spectators, watching Him work. Others, however, have become a vital part of it all. They’ve volunteered for service in this great end-time army. They’ve become what the Bible calls the servants and handmaidens of God.

Who are those servants and handmaidens? They are those who have committed themselves totally to their Lord. They are those who, instead of being content simply to be born-again children of God, have gone even further, stepping into servanthood out of love for the Father.

The servants and handmaidens of God are those who have said, “I want to be involved in what God is doing in this hour. I want to be His bond slave, available to do His bidding 24 hours a day.”

Those who make that powerful decision are experiencing the great out-pouring of God’s Spirit that Peter spoke of in Acts 2. They are the ones whose Spirit-inspired words of prophecy and prayer are releasing the power of God upon the earth. They are the ones whose words are opening the way for the signs and wonders.

Do you want to be among them? You can be. God wants you to be. In fact, He needs you to be!

He needs those who will cut every cord that binds them to this natural world. He needs people He can call on in the middle of the night for intercession. People who will get up and do it no matter how tired they may be.

That’s the quality and depth of dedication servanthood requires. It’s a demanding role but its rewards are rich. Those who are willing to fill that role will be God’s mouthpiece here on the earth in these final days. They will be vehicles of His Spirit and of His mighty power. They will be key players in the Holy Spirit’s greatest earthly production.

Make a decision now to become one of them. Take the step of faith into servanthood today.

Scripture Study: Acts 2:1-21

From Kenneth Copeland’s online devotional Faith to Faith at KCM.org

Dig Into Your Covenant

Mar 30 – Dig Into Your Covenant

“This cup is the new covenant [ratified and established] in My blood.”
(1 Corinthians 11:25)

New Covenant. It’s a familiar phrase to most of us. But do we really know what it means?

If we did, every one of us would be faith giants. Instead of struggling, “trying” to believe the promises of God, we’d be like Abraham. “Strong in faith…fully persuaded that, what God has promised, He is able to perform!” (Rom. 4:20-21).

That’s the kind of confidence that welled up in Abraham when God cut the covenant with him. It was an inferior covenant to ours, made with the blood of animals. Yet it transformed a doubting Abraham into the very father of faith. Why? Because, Abraham understood the significance of it.

He knew that entering into the Covenant of Blood meant you were totally and forever giving yourself away to someone else. Once you did it, nothing would ever be exclusively yours again. All that you were, all that you had or ever would have became the equal property of your covenant partner.

During the covenant ceremony in Abraham’s day, the partners exchanged coats, each one giving their authority to the other. They exchanged weapons as a way of saying, “Your enemies are now my enemies. I’ll fight your fights as if they were my own.” They walked through the blood of slain animals, pronouncing their loyalty to one another, even to the death.

When God made covenant with him, Abraham knew there was no longer any room for doubt. God had proven how intensely He desired to be God to him. He’d given him every thing He had and bound Himself to Abraham in a relationship that could not be dissolved. Abraham comprehended the gravity of a covenant agreement. It convinced him once and for all that God’s promises could be trusted. It became an anchor to his soul.

Do you want to be a faith giant like Father Abraham? Then dig into the covenant you have with God. Study it in the Word. Let the Holy Spirit show you what really happened when Jesus became the sacrifice that ratified your covenant with God. Let Him show you what it meant when He gave you His Name (John 16:23), His authority (Matt. 28:18-20), His armor and weapons (Eph. 6:10-17).

Once you realize what Jesus actually meant when He said, “This is the New Covenant established in My blood,” your life will never be the same again.

Scripture Study: Hebrews 10:1-23

From Online Devotional – Kenneth Copeland Ministries – Faith to Faith

Consider the Lilies

Easter lily

photo by monetmama

Why did God make flowers?

For us to use!

I’ve been buying flowers for us. Reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer helped me realize the importance of adding little touches of beauty to our home and table. I notice that I feel better when I see a spot of color on our table. It gives me a sense of well-being and a lift to my spirit. My children enjoy them, too. They notice them when I first bring them home, and they help me take care of them. Flowers add joy to the atmosphere of our home.

I’ve been buying flowers for friends and family. I have felt led by the Lord to buy flowers recently for my mom, for my sister and for my friend. They had all gone through trying times, and I just knew that I was supposed to send them flowers. They each called me to thank me and were in tears because of the joy that the flowers and the sentiment brought them. They felt loved and cared for. I knew that God sent those flowers to them. He just used me to get them to them.

Flowers are extra special because of the message they bring to us.

26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
(Luke 12:26-28, New King James Version)

We are worth more than these flowers of the field. You and I are created in the very image of God. We are His children. The flowers are adorned and cared for by their Maker. How much more so are we?

All of the pictures of flowers I chose for this post, they’re all LILIES. All different types of lilies: Easter Lilies, Lily of the Valley, Water Lilies, Day Lilies and – TA-DAH!!! our own Wander Lilies from Kansas City:

And Easter Lilies that Kelsey wanted to buy while we lived in Belleville:

With all of this variety and concern and attention to detail that God pours into flowers that will only last a few weeks or a season and which have no soul or spirit, can we begin to imagine how He feels about us – the crown of His Creation – the ones He gave His life for?!!!

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:32 (New International Version, ©2011)

I hope you are now inspired to spread joy and cheer to someone you love through flowers!

Pregnancy Help Centers Offer Help and Hope

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REFLECTION by Rev. John Ensor, Heartbeat International
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“You have twins. That will be another $350.” She did
not speak English. But she finally understood that
they were telling her to go get more money and return
for her abortion.

She had already given them her rent money. But they
were not about to give her a two-for-one deal. They
told her to get dressed and return with more cash.

A couple, who was praying outside, comforted her.
They brought her to their local pregnancy help center.

The staff quickly saw that her personal circumstances
were so desperate, and immediate, that they would need
direct and ongoing help from local Christians and
churches. They started making calls.

Then they did the ultrasound. It showed there was only
one baby, not two. This abandoned, immigrant, powerless
mother was being exploited. She would do whatever she
was told. Who would know? Who would care?

God calls us to “Rescue the weak and the needy; and
deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:4).

When you provide an alternative to abortion you are
not only rescuing innocent babies, you are delivering
mothers from the wicked: those who profit in the
shedding of innocent blood. Pray for those who rescue
and deliver daily at your local pregnancy help center.

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PRAYER
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Father, hear our prayer! Snatch desperate mothers from
the fire. Bring them out of our abortion businesses
and into our pregnancy help centers. Deliver them from
evil. Use us to help them chose life and see your hand
of provision.