Living without Fear

How can we live in a society where 6 year olds are being killed? In the wake of the tragedy in Connecticut, now is the time to turn our eyes to Jesus.

Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

We need to remember in these times of Crisis that the Lord is with us and will walk beside us all the way.  We got a phone call last night from our daughters high school that said they wanted to reassure the parents that the bomb threat that they received was not valid and that this morning the police were going to sweep the school and check for bombs.

My husband and I prayed that God would protect our daughter and sent her to school this morning. Our faith and trust needs to be in God. A friend of mine once told me something that rings as true today as it did when she told me. Our Children are not really our children, they are only on loan to us from God and we need to do our best to take care of them until God calls them home.

Lord,

I ask that you be with the community in Connecticut and wrap your loving arms around our nation and give us your peace Father and let us put our hopes and fears in You.

We love you Lord.

Love Your Servant 

Mary

Ungluded

^"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

Lately I have been reading a book called Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst.  It talked about how as women we are emotional and how we should use our emotions to Honor God.

I know for myself I am a emotional person, I am normally pretty calm, but every now and then I just blow up.  The other night I was cooking dinner, we were having steak and potatoes and I was doing the one thing I hate to do.  Cook in a dirty kitchen. Tim and the kids were getting underfoot and I knew I was about to loose it so I told my husband I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman and I went outside to calm down and pray to God about why my kitchen was dirty.

I have to admit in the pass I would have just blown up at Tim and the kids and then felt horrible the rest of the night.  I am very thankful God lead me to this book to remind me that I am not the only woman who struggles with my emotions.  

I know that as a human being that I am going to fail, but I just have to remember that God is bigger than anything and can handle all of needs and emotions :)

The Joy of the Lord

I was driving my kids to school this morning, feeling a little down. I am now on crutches again until my surgery and every now and then I get into my little pity party.

There was a song that came on the radio the joy of the Lord is my strength. I have not heard this song in a long time. The lyrics are The Joy of the Lord is my strength. He will uphold me all of my days. I am surrounded by mercy and love.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. In Psalm 28:7 is says,
 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”

God reminded me that in my pain He is my strength and my shield and I get my joy from Him. Even though I am struggling with pain, my strength comes from the Lord. He is my all in all. He is the Lord of all. All of our hopes and dreams. All of our pain and sorrow. Just know that you can trust in the Lord and He will take care of all your needs.

Blessings

My husband preaches at a nursing home once a month and during his sermon he referenced the song Blessings. As he mentioned it I did not think much of it until later. The songs chorus is, "Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops. What if Your healing comes through tears. What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near. What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise." Yesterday I was at church and I was in severe pain, I have a herniated disk pushing into my nerve sack and there are nights that I don't sleep because I am in so much pain and Tuesday night was one of those nights. There was a shortage in the nursery so I was working with the kids and there was this one little one that I was rocking and all of the sudden the song blessings popped into my mind. I started to sing it to the little one and I thought about the line in the song what if your healing comes through tears. I thought to myself that there are more than one way that God heals. God might not choose to heal my body but He can sure heal the soul. I was reminded and refreshed by this thought this week, that even though I am in pain I know he is carrying me all the way. He is the balm to my soul. In Psalm 23:3, it says, "He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake." He refreshes our should for His name sake. He is the one who guides us in our life and even though we might not know the why or the where we need to trust in Him and realize like the song says that what if the trials that we go through are our mercies in disguise.

Courageous

"Lord make us Courageous" Casting Crowns.

There is a song called Courageous by Casting Crowns that says Lord Make us Courageous. Courage is defined as having characteristics of Bravery. There are people that God puts in our lives that exemplifies courage. For me at the moment it is my 12 year old son.

My son has a Chairi Malformation and suffers with headaches daily. Very debilitating headaches that cause him to shake and be dizzy and miss a lot of school. Through it all he stays positive and always has a smile on his face. There are times in my life that the pain from my artritis gets to be so bad and I will think of David and think that if he can get through what he is facing then I can too.

God calls us to be Courageous in all that we do, wither we are dealing with physical or mental pain. Sometimes we may never understand why we are going through a particular season in our life's, but through it we need to give God the glory and honor. His ways are not our ways.

In Psalms 40:12 -13 it says, "For troubles without number have surrounded me; my sins have overtaken me; I am unable to see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,and my courage leaves me. LORD, be pleased to deliver me; hurry to help me, LORD."

When Courage leaves us we know that God will never leave or abandon us, he is faithful and constant and we can always count on Him.

Grief

Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.

Grief as defined by Merriam Webster is defined as deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement.

People grieve in many different ways and form and there are many types of grief. You can grief over a loss of a parent or a spouse. You can grieve over the child that you have not yet been able to conceive. You can grieve over a job that you lost or over a job that you wanted but was not the right timing.

God knows about our grief. When we grieve God will grieve with us. In Matthew it says blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted. God is our comforter and deliver. It is in Him that we need to put our trust.

My heart grieves at times over my son, who suffers from a Chari Malformation and has headaches everyday, several times a day. As a mother my heart is in distress and wants to take all his pain away from him. As a follower of our Loving God I know that when I grieve my Lord grieves too, because David is not only my child but is a child of our Lord.

When you are grieving, give it to the Lord and you will find peace in Him.

The Crucifiction

"Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them,because they do not know what they are doing.” and they divided His clothes and cast lots." Luke 23:34

What Love Jesus showed on the cross. People were persecuting Him and beating Him and they nailed Him to a cross and He asked for the Lord to forgive them.

There have been times in my life where I have struggled with forgiveness. When I was 2 months old my parents divorced because my father told my mother if she did not abort me he would divorce her. My entire life I struggled with forgiving Him because of never being there, he signed away custody and I never saw him until I was seventeen and by then I had so much anger in my heart for him, I could not even look at him.

As I grew closer to the Lord, this passage came to me in Luke that His own people Jews, beat Him and hung Him on a cross and He said Father forgive them. What love Jesus showed to the people who were persecuting Him.

It made me think that if Jesus could forgive these people who were beating Him, how could I not forgive my father for abandoning me. When I finally forgave I felt a big weight come off my shoulders.

Lord, I thank You for dying on the cross for Me!!

God's Faithfulness

"Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" Eph 3:20-21

This past week I has surgery on my back, I had a spinal cord stimulator that was put in and the Dr's think that I may have ruptured another disk and they had to remove the stimulator in order to do a MRI. This has been a hard recovery for me. I have been dealing with a great amount of pain, but as I was laying in bed the other day I was listening to my praise music and the song came on Everything by Tim Hughes and some of the lyrics are:

"God in my hoping, there in my dreaming
God in my watching, God in my waiting
God in my laughing, there in my weeping
God in my hurting, God in my healing
Be my everything, be my everything."

God is our everything as I was in pain I was thinking that God is there in my hurting and God is there in my healing. As I was reading through Ephesians, I ran across this verse in chapter 3 that I listed above that talks about He is able to do above and beyond our greatest imagination. He is able to heal and hold us in our greatest time of need. Lord we thank you for this and we love You!

God's Grace

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield. The LORD gives grace and glory; He does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity." Ps 84:11

Last night I could not sleep and I pondered on God's Grace. God's grace is so abounding. I could not think of a time in my life that I have not encountered His grace. Whenever we mess up, His loving arms is always there for us to come back to.

When I looked up the word grace in the dictionary this is the definition that I found:
mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace according to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Grace

I was listening to the radio the other day, as you can tell by my other posts I love music, and this song came on called What love really means and at the end of the song there is a man who is in jail. He calls out to the Lord and says I know I have murdered and Lied and basically cried out for his grace and mercy to save him. The Lord then answered back I will Love you for you, not for what you have done or what you've become.

Two semesters ago when I was in College I got to interview a man for one of my classes who had gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter. While he was in jail he reached out to our Loving savior and was in Awe of his Grace and love to save him after what he had done. This man talked about God like no other that I have heard. The peace and love that this man had was awe inspiring. If God can take the heart of a man who had to live with an accidental killing and change it. Think of all God's grace and mercy can do for us.

God's grace is for all who seek it. God is there, all we need to do is reach out and claim it.

Love

"The LORD will send His faithful love by day; His song will be with me in the night—
a prayer to the God of my life." Ps 42:8

The other night I got a sweet tooth and we were listening to the radio on our way to Dairy Queen and a song came on the radio, and the lyrics really touched my heart. The song was What love really means by JJ Heller.

Part of the lyrics of the song are:

"Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
'Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means"

This song got me thinking about God's love and how abundant and unconditional it is. He is the only one who will love us for us. There are times in our lives where love will seem conditional. We might have a friend who will get mad at us and not speak to us because of something that we have said or done. We might have a spouse who loves us only if we make supper or clean the house.

When I was in high school I had a best friend that I thought hung the moon, I loved this person so much and told him all of my hopes and dreams and my secrets. Then one day out of the blue, he stopped talking to me and would never tell me why. I was devastated, I was so hurt that I never wanted to have a friend again, because I was so afraid of the hurt.

The good news is that God will never hurt us that way, God's love is not conditional and is never ending.

Praise God for His love!!

How He Loves

This morning I was listening to i tunes and the song How He Loves came on by the David Crowder Band. Part of the lyrics of the song are:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

I was pondering on these lyrics, thinking about us being like a tree bending beneath His mercy. Oh what Mercy he shows us. We are all sinners saved by His grace, what Mercy and compassion he showed us by allowing His one and only Son to die for us.

"His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him."Luke 1:50

I marvel at His mercy and grace. God is so wonderful.

Dear Lord,

Help us as we go throughout our day, help us Lord to always seek You first and remember that your mercies are new every day Lord. Lord we love You!

Faith

I think that there are some area's in our life that we like to hold on to and not hand over to God and when we do hand them over, we have the tendency to play tug o war with God and take them back and give them again.

For me the one area that I struggle with is our Finances. God tells us in His word,

"You provided bread from heaven for their hunger; You brought them water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in and possess the land You had sworn to give them". Neh 9:15

When Tim and I were first married we lived in the upper part of a Woman's house and we struggled financially. We got to a point one month that we were eating beans and sometimes canned little sausages for supper. It was 5 days before Tim got paid and we were last to 1 can of beans. We had a check for the church for $20, and $2 cash. Tim said we needed to be faithful, I was scared and did not know what to do. We ended up giving the check to the church and had our bean supper that night. The next morning we woke up and there were 2 full bags of groceries at our front door. No one but God knew out financial situation and He provided for all of our needs.

God taught me that day to always put my trust in Him.

New Year

What a year this has been, we started off the year seeing a Neurologist for our son and ended up the year with me being sick. I have marveled this year on God's Abundant provision. He is our Great physician and healer.

For those who are hurting and in pain this new years eve there is hope for you in Matthew 9:35 it says:

"Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness."

We are safely tucked in God's arms and He will continue to be there with us into the new year.

Christmas

I love the Christmas season, I love the songs that are played on the radio, the lights on the tree and most of all Celebrating the Birth of our Lord and Savior.

I was listening to a song the other day, "Sweet little Jesus boy they made you be born in a Manger."

I think people forget about what Christ gave up for us. Most of us were born in a hospital or at home and he was born in a lowly manger. The man who came to save us started out in the cold surrounded by animals in a dirty stable. What a sacrifice He made for us.

What love He showed us.

During this season let us remember His sacrifices and His love. That He came and Died on the cross for our sins. He came for us. He us our Emmanuel.

Praise

"Sing to Him; sing praise to Him; tell about all His wonderful works! 1 Chr 16:9.

I was watching the movie Facing the Giants the other night, and the coach tells the team that we are going to praise Him when we win and we will praise Him when we loose.

What a awesome attitude to have! I know that in my own life when things are going good it is so easy to praise God, but when things are difficult it is hard to sing out our praises.

If we could sing out to God in those times, God will listen and always be there for us.

We praise You Lord for the good times and Lord we praise you for the bad, please help us on our journey.

The Lord is our Healer

"When the crowds found out, they followed Him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and cured those who needed healing." Luke 9:11

The Lord is the true healer in our life. This past Friday we celebrated the birth of our 11 year old son. About an hour before the party started I was walking out side with our neighbor and fell off our porch onto the concrete pavement. My husbands first reaction was to to pray for healing, he then helped me up inside and assessed the bruised knee and foot.

I woke up on Saturday morning and was in pain, but the pain was not as bad as Friday, so the Lord really looked after and provided for me. I have severe Rheumatoid Arthritis in my spine and my back was not in any added pain.

I am so thankful that we have such a loving, caring, providing Father who always takes care of His children.

Provision

"Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant". Jonah 4:6

God will always provide for His children. In the book of Jonah even though Jonah disobeyed God. God still provided for Him.

In our life I think that there are times that God asks us to go the extra distance and fear gets in the way. Fear of the unknown, fear of is God going to provide for us.

When we went to seminary, we left Houston with no job,and no apartment to move to, but God wanted us there and so we took a step of faith. God provided us a wonderful apartment and 2 jobs for Tim. Even though it was a struggle God was always faithful.

8/1/2010

Matt 5:4 "Those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted."

God is the great comforter. My grandmother raised me and she went to be with the Lord today. Even though I am sad that she is no longer here, I rejoice that she is with our Lord and Savior and is no longer sick and has no more pain.

It is a great comfort that she is now in the arms of our Lord. In Matthew, Jesus says Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. It is a great comfort to know that God know what we go through, He knows our pain.

Dear Lord,

I thank you for my grandmothers life and how it was a testament to You Father.

07/31/2010

“Lord hear your people sing. Blessing Honor Glory Power to Creation’s King.” Is the lyrics of a song by Paul Baloche. When I feel down or in pain listening to music about our heavenly Father can always lift me up. There is something about a praise song that can lift your spirit.

In 1 Chr. 15:29, it says “And as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and rejoicing.”

If the King can dance and rejoice before God why can’t we. Some day when we are in heaven with our Father what a glorious time it will be to dance and sing and praise Him.


Dear Lord,
Help us to praise You daily. Help us to sing and to dance in Your presence. We love you Lord with everything inside of us.

Worship 07/27/2010

Music is very important through my prayer and worship time. Sometimes a song will come onto the radio and it can control your emotions. There are songs that are sentimental, like the song you played when you danced with your spouse at your wedding. The song that was playing when you found out a dear one has departed. The best songs of all are the songs that praise our mighty God.

My husband and I have sang in many churches lifting up our voices to the one who deserves our praise. One of our favorite hymns is Amazing Grace. “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”
We are all wretches before coming to the saving power of our Lord and Savior. God takes our sin that was bought through the blood of His Son. How powerful is His love that saves us.

Dear Lord,
We thank you so much for all that You have done in our life and we ask that you hold us in Your hands and help us to always remember that we belong to You. Amen