Changed By Love

Changed By Love

Following the Lamb wherever he goes… Revelation 14:4

“Hand”-some Turkeys for Thanksgiving

We unpacked our paints that have been packed up for 3 months so that we could paint hand turkeys.  We didn’t have any brown, so we had to mix colors to make our own brown.  We mixed blue and orange, and that made a nice brown for Kelsey.  Anna used those same colors, but she was not happy with the color she got, as you can tell by the look on her face!

Anna painted Emma’s palm and thumb brown and then each finger a pretty, bright color that she chose.

Here’s Anna still trying to make a brown that she could stand.  She added a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but I don’t think she was ever really satisfied with her brown.

Garrett was fascinated with the paint mixing.

I didn’t get any pictures of printing with their painted hands, because, as you can imagine with a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old, I was hopping to try to keep painted fingers off of things they shouldn’t touch.  Abby’s dress suffered lots of damage.  I finally had to take it off of her.  She kept wiping her hands on it!

After they finished their turkeys, I let them use the rest of the paint to draw whatever they wanted.  They love doing that!

I read them a Thanksgiving story while they painted.  It was called Mary’s First Thanksgiving by Kathy-Jo Wargin, illustrated by Robert Papp.  The subtitle is “An Inspirational Story of Gratefulness”.  It tells about a young immigrant girl from Ireland.  She is sad because the other children at school talk about the big Thanksgiving meals that their families are planning.  Her family will only have their regular food plus maybe an extra loaf of bread with some honey and a few sausages.

Her parents discover that she is feeling that way and they tell her about the difficult years that the Pilgrims endured and how they had to survive on clams, fish and ground nuts, and a few grains of corn during several winters.

After things got better, they still put five grains of corn on their plates at each year’s celebration to remind them of their hardships and five blessings.  To find out what those blessings were and to discover what Mary’s family’s blessings were, you should check out this book.

Fiona poses next to her pictures of a turkey and a mouse.  We used to have a mouse in our garage.

Aren’t these some “Hand”-some turkeys???

Let God Make You Wealthy

Leroy Thompson was talking to Kenneth Copeland on the Copeland’s show, Believers’ Voice of Victory, one day in 2003. He started prophesying in the middle of their conversation. I knew it was something that I would need to meditate on, so I transcribed it.

He is a very wealthy man as is Kenneth Copeland. God has made them wealthy.

Here is the prophecy that came through him when he was talking about letting God make you wealthy.

I declare in the name of Jesus Christ –
Every financial problem you have is destroyed now. This year you will move into arenas of finances that you never thought you could walk in, by the power of the Holy Ghost. I declare that you’re free from every financial captivity that ever held you back. No matter what your last name, etc.

Your days of financial captivity are over. You’ll never be broke again. As you follow these instructions, the Lord’s instructions, you’re moving out to a brand new place. This year is your year. You’re stepping into a flow that you’ve never been there before.

You need not see your way out. Yield to the Spirit of God. The reason you can’t see is He wants to lead you out. He’s leading you out through revelation knowledge. He’s leading you out by faith, not by sight. So yield to the Spirit of God this very hour. So yield to the Spirit of God. For things will happen to you that have never happened before, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee to set you totally and financially free.

Don’t doubt me, let me route you. And don’t worry about it because it’s not about you. It’s about Me, My Word, what I’ve said about you because you’re my child. Your inheritance, your inheritance is in Me. Don’t doubt the Scriptures, don’t doubt what I’ve said, don’t doubt my men and women of God who I’ve sent to you. Yield now. As you yield, the seed will start producing for you like never before. Don’t doubt Me, let Me route you. It’s not about you. It’s about Me. I’m going to lift you up and put you in places that you never thought you could go.

After the prophecy, he gave this teaching about letting God lead you into wealth.

Gen. 8:22
While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

11 Cor. 9:10
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,

To have financial breakthrough:

1. Yield to the Spirit of God – let Him tell you when it’s time to plant a seed.

2. We don’t want to become wealthy on our own because all that consists of is money. We won’t yield what we have to God, because we’ll consider it OUR money.

3. Money is no good without God governing it. The Holy Ghost must escort us into wealth. Keeps balance. We’re not servants to money. Money is to serve you to serve God.

Matt. 6:24

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Gearing Up to Reach for Your Dreams ReTreat! ($9.95)

A coaching session with the fabulous Cindy Rushton at an unbelievable price. You have to act quickly. It is this Monday, Nov. 22. This price will go up after the session.

Cindy is in a new season of her life. Her dreams are getting bigger and bigger – because God is telling her He has more for her to do than she ever dreamed.

I don’t know what kind of dreams you may have. Mine are mostly about my own family right now. But I have some that I could possibly make strides toward if I changed some things that I’m doing now. I’m not really sure what my dreams are!

If that’s how you are, then come to this retreat with me, and let’s find out together if there are some things we’re missing by not asking God what His dreams are for us.

Come to the new Talk-a-Latte and see what the Lord may have in store for you!

Here is the link to the page to register for this coaching session with Cindy Rushton.

I hope to see you there!

Seek and You Will Find

For the last several weeks I have sensed a disconnect from the Lord. I have been trying to praise Him, talk to Him, thank Him, feel His presence, read my Bible – anything! But it has felt like I couldn’t get through to Him. I tried to find good worship music online. Every time I tried, the music player wouldn’t work on my computer. It usually works fine. I tried to just take off on a song, but it didn’t go anywhere. I couldn’t really feel His presence or any kind of help in praising Him like I’m used to getting from the Holy Spirit. I even planned a get-away so that Gary and I could be alone together for our anniversary and pray together. That didn’t work. I described how that turned out in this post.

I keep praying and asking Him to help me with this. He keeps telling me not to worry (be anxious) and to make my requests known with thanksgiving. He tells me that over and over again*, but my connection with Him is so weak that even that is difficult. I do it, but it feels mechanical. It feels like I’m forcing it. I still keep trying. I can’t give up.

One night I couldn’t sleep, so I went in my closet and read my prayer journal  from our Journey of Fire. It was good for rekindling some memories and concepts that I had forgotten. I could feel myself re-connecting a little bit.

Thursday morning as I was waking up, I had two phrases going over and over in my mind. They repeated so many times that I was sure I would remember them when I woke up. But when I was fully awake, I couldn’t remember what they were! I prayed throughout the day that God would help me to remember what they were. That night I read through the verses I have posted on my bathroom mirror. One verse stopped me short. It said, “You will seek Me and find me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

I knew that that was one of the phrases I had heard over and over again that morning. The word “seek” stood out to me. I knew that was the operative word. All that next day I tried to remember what the other phrase was. I couldn’t seem to settle down enough during the day to think or meditate. It would flit through my brain that I needed to find out what the other phrase was and then find out what the Lord was trying to tell me. But I just couldn’t be still during the day.

Then I lay down to go to sleep last night, and, of course, I couldn’t go to sleep right away (that’s been a pattern lately). I again asked the Lord to help me remember what He had been saying to me. After several minutes, I remembered “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart”. All right! Now what else was there? Oh yes, the other phrase was “Your face, Lord, I will seek”. There it was! Now what are You saying to me, Lord. Well, then He started downloading all these snippets of verses and songs. “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” Then the song, “My soul followeth hard after Thee, early in the morning I will rise up and seek Thee.” There’s that word “seek” again! Another song “My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water… I will seek Thee earnestly.” That’s one of my favorite songs by Matthew Ward. I never even thought about the word “seek” being in there.

Ok, I get the message: God wants me to seek Him! I may be dull, but God is full of mercy and patience, and He will do whatever it takes to get a message across to me. So that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m seeking Him. This is a “Seeking Season”. I can’t wait to see what I will find! I know that God is magnificent and almighty and holy. I wonder what facets of Himself He will show me as I seek Him. I will let you know what I find.

Seeking Verses:

Jer. 29:7

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Psalm 27:8
When You said, “Seek My face,”My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

Is. 55:6
**Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

In researching the two songs that He gave me to sing, I found out that they were both from Psalm 63. I never knew that! The one by Matthew Ward I knew was from Psalm 63. That’s what the song is called. But the other song was a worship song we sang in church a long, long time ago. And I never knew it was from Psalm 63.

So I guess I should start there in my seeking. I will meditate on Psalm 63. If anyone wants to join me, please do! I plan to start tonight. I will post any insights or experiences I have with the Lord. And you do the same. I have added a contact form to the sidebar. If you have anything you would like to share with me privately, just go to the heading “What’s on your heart?” at the top right of the page under “Pages”. I would love to hear from you.

Or you can just leave a comment! I’m excited to see what the Lord will reveal to us about Himself as we seek Him.

*An interesting sidenote: Here is yesterday’s Spirit of Prophecy bulletin from Marsha Burns:

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns — 11/19/2010:

Refuse to allow frustration and impatience to rule, as there is no faith or trust in emotional reactions. Rise above the circumstances that have made you angry, and establish peace in your heart. Then, you can find wisdom and direction in solving your dilemma. I will pour out wisdom liberally, if you will set your heart and mind on trusting Me to show you the way, says the Lord.

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

**Another interesting sidenote: Sally Clarkson wrote a blog post the same day, Thursday, that I was getting those words from the Lord, titled “Seeking God”. I didn’t see it until today. She mentioned some of the same verses the Lord gave me and told how she’s in a “Seeking Season”, too. Here’s her blog post.