Hypocrite vs. Fighter

John 6:67-68

Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

As my brother said in the youth meeting tonight..."If I looked back at the past things in my life...I wouldn't want to go back! Where else do you have to go but forward with God?"

Wow. What an amazing meeting tonight. I was filled with such joy yet such shame at the way I hold myself back from speaking my heart when God lays something there. That's hypocrisy. A form of it at least. 

How many times have I had the opportunity to share what God has done in my life, or even felt lead to pray for someone and didn't because I was afraid. 

I pray God gives me boldness and takes away that fear. I got to sit for almost an hour after the youth meeting and talk with a dear friend just about God. I don't get to do that much. Her friendship is greatly cherished for that reason. 

I don't want to be a hypocrite...I want to be a fighter. A warrior for Christ. I know this is kind of random and choppy...but tonight's youth meeting gave me so much to chew on. I'm so thankful God sends us people that yield to His spirit and freely shares with us the very thing on God's heart. How incredible. 

I'm left speechless...so that is all for now. 

God's Bank Account

I had a really great weekend with some dear friends that I have been so blessed with. Although there is distance between us, our friendship seems to grow with every visit. 

We had a special brother come in town to speak for our youth meetings this weekend. Bro. Darrel Ward. He has such a unique testimony. 

He always says, "I don't know much about the Lord, but I like sharing what little I do know."

I'm so glad he was able to come share with us. 

Bro. Darrel explained that God has given us a checkbook to an account that never runs out. He has signed every check in His blood.

What this means is...God loves us and every request we make to Him will be taken care of. His promises never run out nor does His grace ever fall short. We may have to wait a while, just like when you have to wait in line at the bank to cash your check, sometimes you have to wait on Him to answer your prayer.

It gave me hope for the loved ones that aren't serving Him right now. I wrote a check out for their salvation, and I can count on my God to come through.

The sickness you may have been fighting with...just write out a check for your healing and believe it will come. God is obligated to us. Even though we are no where near deserving...He still loves us and His promises still stand. 

When I think about things like this...I become speechless. To think of how much God loves me. I pray that same feeling can reach you. If you give it a chance, it will change your life forever. 

He has changed my life forever. 

The more I seek you, the more I find you,

The more I find you, the more I love you,

I want to sit at your feet, drink from the cup in your hands,

Lay back against you and breath, feel your heart beat,

This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand,

I melt in His peace, it's overwhelming.

Little Reminders

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

2 Timothy 1:7

How easily I forget this. I have been freaking out about my future lately and didn't even realize it. 

God is placing a couple different paths in front of me lately...and I was telling everyone that I was fine and wasn't worried about it.

This was partially true.

I felt at peace that I wanted God's perfect will...but yet I've had all these fears and doubts lately.

I was praying tonight and kind of quietly panicking inside to God when all of a sudden He reminded me...."I've got this all on control."

That's when 2 Timothy popped into my head. Also, what Bro. Branham said about fear being disbelief.  So easily I let satan slip those fears and doubts in without even realizing it! 

Well played devil...but guess who just got the victory tonight. 

This girl.

I love God so much for His daily reminders of His love and care for us. 

Luke 12:7

But even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: yea re of more value than many sparrows.

Amen :)

The Glad Game

Have you ever seen Pollyanna?

If not...put it on your must see list of old movies.

Pollyanna is one of those annoyingly positive people that everyone thinks they get tired of but in the end feel better from being around this little ball of joy.

I've noticed in myself, the past couples weeks, a little more negativity coming out of me. I've always tried to keep a good attitude and stay positive, so this whole negative streak has been of great concern to me. 

School has been the main thing that I have remained negative about, and I was recently put to shame for it.

I'm currently in Anesthesia, and have been very unmotivated, negative, and neglectful with this class. I ran into my professor the other day and he made a comment to another professor that "this young lady always has a good attitude no matter what!"

Ouch. 

That was a smack in the face for me. I haven't had a good attitude about this class at all. And yet it gave me some hope that I wasn't a complete failure at life because he also said I always had a smile on my face.

What I'm trying to get to here is...I've decided to be more Pollyanna-like and start playing the "Glad Game."

Want to know how to play? Well, for every situation you encounter that seems bad, unfavorable, sad, negative, or not exactly how YOU want it to be...find at least one thing to be glad about. 

Let's throw out a few examples, shall we? 

Example #1: Your feet are cold and you stub your big toe on a hard piece of oak furniture.

You can be glad that your toe is not broken and that the pain will only last a few minutes and you will not end up with gangrene infection, be glad that you have a nice hard piece of oak furniture and that stubbing your toe was a good reminder to put some socks on!

Example #2: You are walking through the house with a piping hot plate of food when you slip on your little sister's rollerskate and spill the food down the front of you.

You can be glad that you have food to eat in the first place, be glad that you have a way to heat the food up to the proper degree that your palate is craving at that time, and be glad that your little sister has toys to play with.

Ok so those were poor examples...but you get the idea! 

Anyway...I'm glad that the Lord showed me that I was being negative and needed to turn it around. I'm also glad that I have a savior in my life that loves me, forgives me, keeps His promises to me, and is constantly molding me into His perfect image. 

Stress

This doesn't happen to me very often, but today was one of those days that I felt very down about myself. 

(I know this is starting out depressing but it gets better, I promise :))

I felt a lack of self confidence and frustration with everything around me. 

Confession is good for the soul right?

Everyone had left the house and I was laying in my floor talking to God, sharing my heart with Him.

I don't like letting satan have the upper edge on me, so finally I stopped, asked the Lord to forgive me if I was being selfish and ungrateful.

Then I asked Him to take all that was on my mind into His hands, and take care of it for me. 

I asked Him to send me something today that would make me happy and take care of all I was feeling.

I went downstairs when my family got home, and a few hours later totally forgot what I had said and went on to the youth meeting. 

Brother Burley Williams spoke for us. When we all sat down he said he came with no certain subject in mind, but heard someone say the word stress. "So we are going to talk about stress." He said.

I though, "ok this will be interesting."

Little did I know that absolutely every example he gave of dealing with stress and letting the spirit of stress and oppression run your mind, would be exactly what I had just gone through a few hours before alone in my room. 

God....never ceases to amaze me. 

In a world where we will deal with stress every single day of our lives...I have a God that I can give my stress to. I have a God that will help me put my stress in the right place so I don't blow off the handle at someone without even knowing it. 

What you think of yourself will determine how stress works in you. I was sitting in my room feeling totally worthless and with every thought I had, the spirit of stress was right there to urge me on. 

As soon as the youth meeting was over, those thoughts tried to come back to me. All I had to say was satan my God has a plan for me and I am His child, so get back! And the oppression was gone.

It is so easy to become stressed. As soon as you walk in the door of your home after a long day of work and you feel stressed; if you don't handle it properly it will travel to the other people around you. I pray that God will help me to channel my stress and give it to Him from now on. 

What a great subject to think about. Sobering.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33

Thankful

I haven't felt super inspired to blog about anything lately. I guess the inspiration comes and goes. 

But I thought I would share a few things that I'm thankful for. 

1. I'm so thankful for the ministry God has placed me under and the visiting ministers He has been sending to our church this month. I have never had so many services hit the nail right on the head before.

2. I'm thankful for the freedom to serve my God, have a place to serve Him in, and have the Word of the hour literally at my fingertips.

3. I'm thankful for the gospel and the truth it holds. Without my Jesus living in me, I would be empty, lost, and searching everyday for that one thing that would make me complete.
I was yet a sinner and He saved me. He died for the sins of the world and I am blessed and honored to know and serve Him.

4. I'm thankful for what God is doing in my family right now. Lumps and bumps come along the way but He uses them to get our attention, make us stronger, and most importantly bring us closer to Him. 

When everything unsteady is shaken from us, He is the one thing completely unshakeable.

5. I'm thankful for the people in my life. Church family, immediate family, friends.

6. I'm thankful for the woman God is making me into. Even though I fall and make mistakes everyday...God loves me. 

I'm thankful that I can do nothing to earn that love, but that He gives it freely to me. 

7. Finally, I'm thankful for a God that provides, heals, comforts, corrects, and LIVES. 

I'm sure you noticed that everything I'm thankful for has to do with God. Well friend...that's because without God...

I'm nothing.

Colossians 3:17

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord

Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

Operation Caning of Tomatoes

Greetings!

As a continuation of my summer garden project...I decided to can the tomatoes I've got in so far. Just today I brought in almost a whole bucket!

My dad was telling me how Grandma Rosie would can crates and crates of tomatoes...I canned three jars. haha! 

I will be canning as they come in though, so by the end of the season I should have quite a bit...still, not crates and crates ;)

Anyway...mom and I got our little aprons on and went to work!

All of my maters (pile on the left wasn't quite ready yet) 

Me and the rents (compliments to Sister Dawn Carter for making me that cute little apron:)

Waiting for the water to boil... 

Roma and Pear tomatoes 

Hannah getting fancy with the pictures 

Boiling jars, lids, and water for the maters 

I love waiting. Really. 

Blanching them... 

Pealing... 

... 

Filling the first jar! 

Adding salt..

 Putting the lid on

 Time for the cherry tomatoes!

Like I said...I only got two jars of the Romas and one jar of the cherries. I would have two jars of the cherries but we had a little...technical difficulty. :)

Until next time friends!