THE PAST....

As many of you know my father has been dealing with the new diagnosis of multiple myeloma. When I first heard the news and came down to help and "assess" the situation I was very overwhelmed with all that I saw and took in those few days that I was here. I really had to learn how to draw my strength from the Lord. It is not easy to walk through something that you have no control over and to sit back and wait (something I am not good at). However, God is the Master of encouraging us to wait...
Isaiah 40:31 says
"But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."
Well, guess what...I was weak, I couldn't run, I was weary, I wanted to faint....But God taught me to lean on Him, to take His hand, to be renewed and restored, and rejuvinated in Him and through Him. I found strength in the waiting. I found peace in the waiting. I learned how to totally give a situation over to my Father God and let Him handle it and me.

Today (Saturday) I am again at my fathers, and I can see such a difference in his spirit and in his body. This time, I see a change...I see THE change. God's healing hands have again reached down from above and touched someone very dear to me, and I am very thankful and blessed to have been able to witness this.

I know that God holds everything in His hands. I know that God is in control. I know that God's ways and thoughts are not ours. I know these things....but when we are tested, when we are challenged, when we have to walk through situations that none of us really want to walk through...we freeze, we panic, we melt....and that is when God comes in, picks us up, gets control of us first of all, and then teaches us HOW to walk through these times. He teaches us how to be patient and how to wait and how to truly draw strength from Him. What better way to learn than to walk through it and see it unfold in front of your eyes. I am definitely one that learns from seeing, not just telling.

So anyway, this time as my mother and I went to the grocery store in the town that I grew up in and where I went to school, I spent a few minutes driving by my old highschool and football field. Now not everyone knows me, but I have not always been the "good Christian" lady that I try to be now. But today, I got to go back into my past a bit and instead of driving around it trying to avoid it, I was able to look at it, looking back at my past and remembering all of the fun, good times that I did have. For so long I have avoided my past for many different reasons, but today I saw it and enjoyed looking at it. Not everything in our past is always bad, but we let the few things that were make us avoid the whole time all together.

It's funny how as an adult we sometimes feel that we cannot be childlike and that we have to be adult all of the time. God called the little children to Him. Sometimes we need to be childlike again, feel those feelings of fun times with the Lord, be able to sit and listen and wait on God to teach us or speak to us instead of rushing through our day and not looking at the surroundings that God places us in...God may put us in our past, looking at old football fields because He wants to teach us how to run. Who knows what God may want to show us in our everyday walk with Him.

I know that many of us may have an "ugly" past...things that we would rather forget about, and sometimes God allows that to happen, but sometimes He leaves the "ugly" past there so that He can use it one day for His glory. Maybe someone needs to look at their past, face it head on, and see what it is God wants to do with it or with you. My past was not as bad as I thought or made it out to be. I had a lot of really good times and I praise God that He has freed me to talk about those times without feeling ashamed or wanting to sweep them under the rug and forget about them. God molded me into the woman of God that I am RIGHT now and without my past I wouldn't be this woman.

Don't get me wrong...I know that our past is forgotten and washed away as far as the east is from the west...I'm not trying to bring things up that will condemn you. The devil is here to condemn us...God is here to convict us. God will bring it up to change us and make us more like Him. The devil's plan is to condemn you of it and make you feel guilty and so far from God that you don't even know who you are in your walk with Christ.

Child of God, Woman and Man of God, you are loved RIGHT now by the Most High King. No matter what you have done in your past, God will love you and does love you.

You cannot change that love. Your past will not change that love. He loved you then, He loved you through it, and He will love you unconditionally forevermore.

So, I have jumped from one thing to another and I am sorry. But I wanted to share this with you. I have seen God's hand and felt His love this weekend as I allowed Him to walk with me. Without Him I am nothing, helpless, and scared. I have to have Him. He IS my strength.

Continue to seek His face and as you seek him you WILL find Him.

Jennifer

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
This scripture was brought to my mind as I talked with my brother tonight. We did not get along growing up and were always fighting. The only thing we were in agreement about was that we dreaded devotions and prayer time. We would roll our eyes at each other and moan in misery. Even though we were not really listening to the scriptures and prayers, a seed was being planted. Our parents lifted us up daily in prayer and gave us over to God. We were not bad kids, but we both had periods of rebellion. My brother was in constant trouble when he was a teenager and when old enough decided to join the Army. This decision probably saved his life. He now lives a Godly life with his beautiful family in Atlanta. I can see God moving in both of our lives. Our parents prayers were answered. They knew that alone they could not save us, but trusting in God and giving us up to him that he would take care of us. We cannot change people no matter how hard we try. All we can do is pray for them and let them see Christ living through us. My parents did that, and we owe them everything. We did not have all the material things growing up, but we did have everything we needed. But what are parents gave us was Jesus. They showed us how to have a personal relationship with him. This was the best gift. An eternal one that our heavenly father gave us.
So no matter what is going on in our lives and with our kids, just know that God is there. He hears our cry. Give them to God. Live a life that our kids will see Jesus and know that no matter what, Jesus is there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. God bless you and keep you.
Amy

Reflection......

Wow, life has been a little strange and stressful lately. Two of my girls came home from school with head lice this week . Yes I know that is gross! I have frantically worked to kill lice and remove nits in their heads and in the house. It amazes me that we will apply poison to our children's head to make it all go away. Although it did kill the bugs, it left behind these tiny little eggs throughout their hair called nits. During many hours of taking this tiny comb and combing through my girls' hair I thought about when Jesus washes away our sins...no matter how big or ugly our sin is. What would it be like to be forgiven but to wear the sin on us like nits (lice eggs) all over our entire body so everyone could see? No matter how much you washed or scrubbed, the sins (nits) would not come off.
Through this huge inconvenience in our lives I kept asking God, "What is it that you are trying to teach me through this? Is it patience, or is it to be STILL?"
How precious is YOUR TIME? I know my time is precious to me and there is never enough hours in the day for me to get done all that I need to. God only wants to spend time with us. He enjoys your presence. I have not spent the time with him lately that I needed to. Although my heart longs for him, it is very hard to stop and be still with Him.
As I covered a Costco size jar of Mayo onto my children's scalp (because I was scared to death the poison wouldn't be enough) and made them sleep with it on their heads with a shower cap on, my youngest broke down and cried out "Why do I have to go through this? Why would God allow this to happen to me?" It broke my heart. They know that God is so good and they have been taught how much He loves them. She cried for an hour and kept asking "WHY???"
Isn't that how most of us feel on a regular basis? We know God is good but when things in our life don't seem to be going our way we look up and shake our fist and ask "WHY???" Is that our view of God? We use Him like a shopping mall visiting him when we have a special occasion, something big in our lives? Then we leave and never return to Him until we need another new outfit? So why do we continue to repeat this cycle over and over again in our lives? Why is it that so many will never know Him or have a relationship with Him but freely call themselves Christians? We are a chosen generation (people). God has a plan for our lives and we continue to take our lives into our own powerless little hands and live how we want to live. In a world that teaches even our children to let it be all about them. We are forgiven walking around covered by the blood of Jesus (mayo) but still carry the nits of our past inside of us not believing we are forgiven.
As I comforted her through this trial in her life and held her while she cried, I explained how God does love us and sometimes life is just hard. I explained to her that sometimes things are allowed in our life to build our FAITH. God doesn't cause bad things to happen...BUT sometimes He may allow things to happen because He needs to burn off the impurities. We are made in God's likeness. Here's a great illustration:

Look up the verse today in Malachi chapter 3:
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver...."
What does this verse mean? What is Refining Silver?
A silversmith will start out by holding a piece of silver in the middle of the fire where the flames are the hottest so the fire will burn away all the impurities.
God holds us sometimes in a very hot spot. Think about this verse again: "HE SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND A PURIFIER OF SILVER....." A silversmith HAS to not only sit there and hold the silver, but he can't take his eyes off of the silver. If the silver is left in the flames too long, it would be destroyed. The silversmith knows when the silver is fully refined only when he can see his IMAGE REFLECTED IN IT!!! Wow God is amazing! He has to burn away all the impurities in our lives until He can see His reflection in us; we are made in His image. God never takes His eyes off of us when we are in the middle of the hottest fire. He stands with us, never leaving until His reflection is seen. No matter how bad things can get, no matter how hot that FIRE is , even when you can't see Him, feel Him, or touch Him, remember He has not taken his EYES off of you or you would be destroyed.
I hope this speaks to someone today that when things in our life seem to be out of control , try and look to God to see if it is for your own good. I don't want to walk around anymore caring my nits (sins) on my body. I am the daughter of the Most High King and so are you. Stand bold in our Faith, BELIEVE you are forgiven.
I am convinced today that my father allowed this week to be out of my control, I needed to BE STILL and spend some time in His presence. I praise Him that He loves me enough to slow me down to spend some time with Him.
I want more than anything for God to see His reflection in me. Lets try together this week to say "burn it off Father, until you see your reflection in me."
Praise Him today and even when things are bad, instead of saying "WHY ME?" ask Him
"WHAT'S NEXT?"

Blessings,
Robbie

Psalms 27:7-14
This psalm is one of my favorite psalms. I often open this page up in my bible and with my face on the ground, I pray this psalm to God. I ask Him to hear my voice. I am confident in the Lord and the knowing that one day I will see the Father face to face and all of the things of this world will be erased...all sickness, all meanness, all hurt, all pain, all filth, all anger, all pride, all disrespect, all division, all things that are not of Him will be gone and we will stand with the Father in all of His glory. The very last verse of this chapter has brought me through some very hard times in my life. "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." If it is mentioned twice in 1 verse then it needs attention paid to it. "WAIT FOR THE LORD".
"Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Savior.
Though my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will receive me.
Teach me your way, Lord;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.
I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."
As we steadily seek God's face and not what He can DO for us, we have to be strong and wait for Him to move. Remember....His timing is different from ours...Wait for Him.

Jennifer

Read the Psalms today. Open the word of God and read it over your life and over your situation. Read through until you find one that ministers to you.

Psalms 26:2 says to "test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;"
Be ready and open to hear God speak to you.

In Christ
Jennifer

I'm stealing this story from someone dear to me but it really was a good illustration and wanted to share (hope you don't mind Cheryl).
She told her son (under the age of 2 I think) that they were going to the park. So her son got excited as she gathered up all of the stuff to go. Of course, her son no more knew what the "park" was....he just thought they were going outside to play. So as they walked outside, her son was fine UNTIL she went to put him in the car. He then started pitching a fit. He didn't understand why they were going bye bye instead of playing outside. He didn't know that mommy had something so much more for him than just playing outside.
God showed her that we are like that. He has big plans for our lives and we get ready to go "outside" and play but God wants to take us down the road to this big "park" so we can run and swing and play. When He goes to take us, we squirm a little, arching our backs, getting uncomfortable, asking, "why don't we just stay here and play Lord?". We have no idea what God has planned for us and yet we decide we don't like it before we even get there.
What if God has a huge field up ahead that He wants you to be in where you can play and learn and grow and minister to the hurting? And yet we choose to stay in our own backyard and play in the dirt and ride our bikes in circles. Will we get to experience the true glory of God?
The bible says to "Go into all of the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).
We have to stop pitching grown up fits when God tells us He has something for us to do today. We have to stop arching our backs when He puts us in our carseats. We have to stop kicking and screaming when He shuts the door and gets in the driver seat to take us where He wants us to go.
God has a plan for your life. God has a destiny for you. God wants to take you somewhere so big with Him. We just have to stop what we are doing, take a deep breathe, admit that it may not look like what we expected or it doesn't look like where He said He was taking us, and just BELIEVE that God will take us somewhere so much better than where we may be at right now.
Submit to the calling. Submit to the voice of God speaking to you even right now.
And open your eyes to see the most beautiful "park" in the world.
God Bless You Today,

Jennifer

As I study the word tonight God takes me to Philippians. There are so many scriptures in this book that speak to me, but God keeps taking me back to Philippians 1:9-11.
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God."
Paul is speaking to the church in Philippi and all the followers of Jesus.
Lord, I pray that our love abounds more and more, that you consume us like a burning fire for you and for that closeness with you. Father, those that have never experienced that closeness with the Father, I pray that you come to them where they are at and visit with them. Hold them, let them feel you, and as they seek you more I pray that they find you there waiting on them.
We ask for the knowledge of the word to come alive to us. Are we studying God's word and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it? It is alive. It is here to minister to us and give us insight on our destiny, our future.
To know Christ is our ultimate goal. To know the Father, to truly KNOW Him, to get so inlove with His word that we study it and actually Know Him. How can we know our friends if we don't spend time with them, if we don't talk to them, read about their life?
We must fall inlove with God and let that love bring us into that closeness with the Father so that the knowledge of Him abounds in us and so that we can in turn "discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ" (1:10).
I desire to know God more than ever before in my walk, and I have been saved for 13 years now. The season that God has me in right now is so different from any other season.
God will bestow more on us as we learn more about Him and as we take what He gives us and cherish it, holding it dear to our heart. As we draw closer to Him, we learn His ways and His actions, we feel with His heart and see with His eyes. Our loving becomes more like His. Am I there yet? No, not in all things, but I desire to be.
Surrender to the Father every ounce of your being. Give yourself wholly to Him and study His word daily. Meditate on it, even when it doesn't make sense. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through it. God's love will abound more and more in knowledge.
You will feel Him in your life, you will see Him in your life, others will start to see Him in your life.
Surrender to the Father.

Jennifer