'o-tay?'

I spent four days with my little niece who has pneumonia. She is two years old and has a great imagination. I totally enjoyed her imagination as I didn't have to come up with something new for her. She always had something new to pretend. One afternoon she made me ice cream. She was saying big words like strawberry and vanilla. Her 'o-tay' was so addictive that I had to mimic her! While doing a potty break, we where playing with spiders. We were walking mommy spider, baby spider, and daddy spider down the wall, across the floor, up the waste basket, and over to her. We played in the kitchen and colored. She is a talker!

On the last day, I was a bit tired because of getting up early and a 45 minute drive to her house. So having her fall asleep in my arms for her morning nap was very delightful. Another delight was to hear her say 'I like you.' What a beautiful child. It helps too that I can see me in her.

It was also nice to have God show me how to 'parent' and then allow me the workshop to see it work.. We have muddle up parenthood that I had become quite frustrated with the whole thing. I felt with some of the baby-sitting I did as a teen and later with teaching that I just wasn't a leader and plus way to strict for this generation thing.... but these four days have shown me that with God, I can be a good parent...

seeds for the sower ...

I think this is the verse I am searching for in my seed sowing with a co-worker....

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

I have been listening to this co-worker of mine make statements some in favor of God and some statements in disbelief of the Word. When I hear these half truths, my heart stirs up and I feel moved that I should stand up for God. I am not one who likes a discussion. I just don't do that well at all. Most times a discussion feels like a fight and I don't want that here.

I have known for a great while now that you cannot tell someone what to do and found a book that showed how asking the right question honors another and makes them do all the work! I have used this on myself with good results but have not much practice with others. So I have talked with God about my co-worker and have practice asking questions with God. Now to wait for her to bring it up again.

I listen to BNN (you can listen too anywhere in the world also in 8 languages). As she sat down to chat, good ol Adrian Rogers was talking about sinners. She just started talking about the church class she went to on Wednesday and the spiritual journey they where discussing. So I began with my first question ... 'You believe in God but you feel that the stories of the Bible are embellished?' She would talk and then I would ask more questions where I saw the half-truths. She allowed me to think and ask questions. I know that isn't normal!

I do believe she is seeking but the answer to one of my questions was that she is not willing to give over the controls to God to be her Lord, Master, and Saviour. She feels that God is gracious enough that He will take her confession before her death.... Yikes! Works keeps coming up and I keep telling her it is a gift....

I greatest hope that my questions nag at her heart so that she is uncomfortable with her place with God and that she will do something about it. I know the Message can be a stench to the unbeliever and a fragrance to the believer (II Cor 2:14-17). I don't want to turn her off to God. I don't want to come off that I know it all ....

I need your prayers for the 'seed' to increase and bloom....

Rest on Thee

1. We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender;
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender.
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

2. Yea, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

3. We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing;
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

4. We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender:
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise
When reigning in the Kingdom of Thy splendor;
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.

http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/881

The hymn sung the night before Jim Elliot and the other 4 missionaries went to visit the Incas and were killed.

This is my first encounter with this hymn and I want to keep in close to my heart. Now to hear it sung or to find the music notes …

me a Tree of Life???

I remember back to my Geometry class where you build upon the equation till you get the answer. I think that is true with God's Word. Truth built upon truth.

I found a butterfly = Proverbs 11:30 & Galatians 5:22-23! (God repeating Himself OT to NT / mirrored images like butterfly wings). My first thought was an excited wow and it like proving a Geometry problem...

1. The Fruit of the Righteous is a Tree of Life,
and he who wins souls is wise. ~ Proverbs 11:30

2. ... the Fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ... ~Gal 5:22-23
-----------------
So the Fruit of the Righteous is the living out of the Fruit of the Spirit.

So if we are living a pure and clean life in the fruit of the Spirit,
then our pure living is 'Life Fruit' for the unbelievers
and can bring them to the Saviour....

I love this! As I go to work and see the broken lives of certain people, I wonder at how I can reach them. I bring this to God asking for strength with my feeble words. Yet, maybe this living the Fruit of the Spirit is the best outreach where my words fail.

I love how God works because when I seek, He always finds me and delights me with Treasure...

When You said, "Seek My Face,"
my heart said to You,
"Your Face, Lord, I seek."
~ Psalms 27:8

lost ....

When I woke up yesterday I wondered what I would feel being it was September 11th. With feet on the floor to begin a new day, I wasn't feeling much but as the day wore on and I let my mind travel back through the memories. What really made me weepy was the relationship lost. I remember clearly that day was a day you wanted to make sure all the loves in your life was accounted for and you went down the list checking off their ok. One particular relationship I had to wait a while because he was reachable. He did check in but his habit of checking out littered our relationship until today he has checked out for good.

I am not one who goes into a relationship for a reason or a season. I view all my relationships as lifetimes or at least I try. As a believer, I think we really should understand that we touch other's life for a lifetime. We will see the 'brotherhood' in heaven. I doubt very much this comes to mind but it should! That is why I still pray for this 'brother'. I shall see him one day. I don't know what that day will hold. I had wished for arms outstretched and big hugs around but I just might think of the missed riches we both could have had. Or maybe just seeing the power of my feeble prayers working out a strong faith in him will wipe away all wistful tears.

So yeah, yesterday was full of prayers and tears for a personal lost on a day of national lost. Through it all I 'talked back' that I am not alone and that my Foundation is Sure. I am loved and sung over. I am not alone! And it is a lifetime endurance run. Don't forget to keep the eyes on the Eternal....

humble messenger....

Little bro was talking about guilty he has been feeling since he didn't give his left over doggy bag at the request of a homeless man when he was up in Chicago. We live in a different time. We are more protective and yet as believers we are called to give. It is a war within every time we see a 'begger'. One of the first questions that come to mind is this real and are they out to take...

So every time little bro and his wife are out and see someone asking on the street corner, they try to give. It happened again on a street corner on their way home. They felt bad that they only had $3 dollars to give and came back to give more to find her gone. He told us the story and was upset about it.

We don't live in a big city and it is a rarity to see someone with a sign on the street corner asking for money, food, or a job. Times have changed. We were at 18% job loss now 16%. More and more we are seeing a empty hand put forth asking .... I think it is time for an envelope in the bag or car with money to come to the aid... to be prepared to give to Jesus....

Anyways, it is interesting when a message comes to you with a messenger who is humbled... not from a messenger who is out for keeping glory to himself...

Dad's Heart ...

Message received. A value in Dad's heart isn't pumping like it should. Mom said the name. Will have to write it down so I can do some research but my parents have been online (dial-up & cell off) researching themselves so I can't write down the name until tomorrow. All I know is there is surgery and both are meeting with a specialist on Wednesday.

I am not sure what to think or feel. I had a very interesting discussion last night with God. It was good. It was both ways and not just me.

Psalms 27:14
Wait on the Lord;
be of good courage,
& He shall strengthen your heart;
wait, I say, on the Lord!

Psalms 28:7
The Lord is my Strength & my Shield;
my heart trusted in Him & I am helped;
therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
& with my song I will praise Him.

Psalms 31:15 & 24
My times are in Your Hands ...
Be of good courage,
& He shall strengthen your heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalms 33:15
He fashions their hearts individually ...

Psalms 57:7 & 8
My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing & give praise.

Awake, my Glory!
Awake, lute & harp!
I will awaken the morning.

Psalms 61: 1&2
Hear my cry, O God;
attend to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I will cry to You
when my heart is overwhelmed;
lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.

Psalms 62:8
Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah.

Psalms 73:26
My flesh & my heart fail;
but God is the strength of my heart & my portion forever.

I love the words of King David. What encouragement! God's Word is MIGHTY!

watchman ...

As I journey my middles path of life, I am feeling more and more weight and attention needs to be spent on whether or not I am being good salt or good light. The urgency to go and to tell of Jesus Christ is getting to a fever pitch. It isn't about actually leaving country and home to do so but to be the light and the salt here right where I am because it is getting darker and darker. The lower lights have burned out.

A good title for my life job is WATCHMAN. I have always been intrigued by this word especially when I would read it in the Psalms. But I found a great piece on this job description in Ezekiel 33:1-9. This job comes with weighty responsibility. If you don't warn those you are in charge over then the destruction that comes will be on your head but if you warn and the countrymen do not heed that warning then it is on their head!

My life touches other lives at work. I see the dangers in their lives. I must speak up and sound the warning. My life job is to spot the lie and tell of God's Truth. If they don't heed, it isn't me they are slapping in the face but God's face..... Still the warning must go out.

I Corinthians 16:13
'WATCH, stand fast in the Faith, be brave, be strong ..."

sleek & strong ...

I love reading about me. You know the stuff where you get an inside look to who you are and what you can be. What better place to learn about yourself than the Bible. Here I don't have to go through what worked for someone else. Rather the Creator of me is the One telling me about myself. So what was I reading?

I was reading about sheep and the Master Shepherd in Ezekiel 34. The Master Shepherd has a slow burn against shepherds who look out only for themselves and do not seek to care and heal the flock! This is scary for today's preachers. Too many of them want church to feel good but as my Dad pointed out 'why make them feel comfortable in church if they are going to burn in HELL?' I do have to take this to heart as NT states that I can go into the Holy of Holy Place. My High Priest is Jesus Christ. So I must remember my responsibility. I am a sheep keeper too. Am I muddying the waters? Heavy responsibility.

What really caught my eye was how the Master Shepherd takes care of His Flock ... "I will search for the lost & bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured & strengthen the weak, but the sleek & the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice." Sleek and strong? Whoa! But you know sheep are not known for their strength nor their sleekness. In fact I would go so far as to say a sheep that is sleek and strong is in impostor.

I do love the sheep passages maybe it is mostly because I love to read about my Shepherd and His Great Love that he has for me. I do what to see Him smile in delight over me. I love His Strength. Often I bring Him my weakness hoping in His Strength.

butterfly = Psalms 23 + Ezekiel 34 + John 16

What is gentleness?

Mr. Aggression strolled into my day and I was taken aback. I thought I completed my tasks to a tee but Mr. Aggression who does not know me made a very bad first impression of himself and was ugly in an email. Now it was my move. Knowing I should just cover it and go on, my tongue wagged instead to the resident Talker. She told our boss and told his boss. ARgh! Why couldn't I keep quiet?

Feeling small, I got out the Fruit of the Spirit for polishing and as I polished them for better absorption in my system. As I drew in the Scriptures for each Fruit, I had to look up gentleness as I don't believe I knew the difference between it and kindness. I now have Gentleness polished and figured out now the task is to display it in my life.

“Gentleness is chivalrous & quiet in nature, having a gracious (covering) & honorable manner to soothe, calm, & tame agitation.”