Good news

Jer. 29:11. I know the plans I have for
you,"declares the Lord,"  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope & a future....
He knows. He has a plan. Its in His book. PS. 139:16  Prosper in the  future.  Not harm but hope.

138:3 says When I pray, you answer me, and encourage me by giving me strength I need. ..8 says The Lord will work out his plans for my life...Then over in 139: 3. You chart the path ahead of me, and tell me where to stop and rest. Also in verse 14 "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!" Wow!(He knows how complex I am) 16....scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Everyday is scheduled in ur book.

My eyes are seeing the truth of this.
In the dark his light shines. Lord, Thank you for the light.
No more mully-grubbin'.

Thank you for the fire in my heart.

Deuteronomy 28:13, "The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom."

Suffering, Building endurance.

The old saying “when it rains it pours” seems to be true sometimes when it comes to the trials we face in life. There are occasions when we seem to be in one trial and get hit with another. That feeling or reality, as the case may be, is not far from what James actually tells us. He lovingly says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (Jas. 1:2).
we have to understand that joy and happiness are two different things. James is not saying be happy in or about your trials. There are some circumstances where it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to be happy.
God gives us emotions for a reason. Of course, we must control our emotions and not let them get the best of us.

heartache is just that: heartache. We can’t always be happy about our circumstances. What James is getting at is joy. Christian joy is the certain knowledge that God is in control and nothing has happened to us that He did not allow for a good purpose in our life; that He loves us more than we could ever imagine; and that we can trust Him to do what is best and right no matter what. We get peace in knowing these things. That’s joy. That helps. But how can we really count our tough times joy? James says we can do that because we know “that the testing of our faith produces endurance.” Part of the reason God allows trials to come into our lives is to test our faith. The second half of that is to produce endurance in us. He tests our faith not so that He will know whether or not we are trusting Him (He knows already), but so that we will know how much or how little we are trusting Him. He tests us for our benefit. In the trial, we really learn where our focus is; we really learn where our hope is; we really learn where our peace, joy, and satisfaction is. If we find our trust is in Him and not ourselves or something else, we get real happiness from that. If we find our trust is in something other than Him, we turn our hearts to Him and find peace in so doing. The test helps us see.
Then, the benefit of being tested is what it ultimately produces in us: endurance. This word in the Greek is also compound and means to bear up under the load. God tests us with trials along the way to produce in us a greater and greater ability to bear up under the load of suffering. That’s important because suffering is simply a part of this life. At the same time, the Bible says that believers must enter the kingdom through much tribulation (Acts 14:22) and that suffering is part of what it means to be a Christian; we participate in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 1:5). But the good news is those sufferings will give way to great reward when we see Christ face to face (2 Cor. 4:17).
We need endurance to make it all the way to the end of life without laying down and dying from depression and without walking away from the Lord Jesus Himself.

Paul says we work for a medal (crown) that’s imperishable (1 Cor. 9:25).We’re told in Hebrews to run the race with endurance. How? By looking unto Jesus, our great reward (Heb. 12:1-2). That’s why James says “Let endurance have its perfect work in you that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (v. 4).

----I really enjoyed this devotion and thought I would share it. I did not write it. I copied & pasted it here. It is on my Bible Study Tools website. Great website.  The devotion was written by Paul Dean. I'm in the midst of praying and fasting. I am studying God's Word. Looking for verses and answers for my trials. God Bless you all.

Random devotional

I'm studying and reading and praying for a message for my "women's meeting". I'm waiting for breakthroughs in areas of my life. I'm looking for guidance to teach my Jr. High youth group. I'm being a wife, mother, friend, housekeeper, and business owner (barber)...What else?
But through it all, I am learning. And while I'm pouring my heart into my study this morning, one of my devotionals touched me and i wanted to share.

Remember Paul and Silas who shouted praise songs through the halls of a dark prison? Your situation depends mostly upon your personal attitude. Perspective is everything. So what has you staring blindly, trapped and immobile? What are you afraid will happen if things change? Pray that God will give you a new perspective to see your problem through his eyes.

Once again, I see "through His eyes". Praying for "eyes to see". And praising - no matter what the situation at hand looks like...dark grungy prison or financial strain or what ever.  And "perspective": do you see the mountain you're staring at as "a mountain or a mole hill"? Do you perceive things getting better? Or worse?


I have so many topics and ideas to blog about. I hope I can keep up. I hope they will touch someone else's life the way they are intended. Not for my glory but for God. He gives me the ideas. I am just the vessel. I give Him the credit and glory.

So keep checking in. I have several more blogs to come. No set days, times, etc. Just random. If I get more organized or by some miracle have more time, I will try to make it certain days or time. 

Tata for now. 
By His Grace. 

Post # 2

Ok. So, as I wind down and get ready to end this day, I'm feeling wonderful. Today was a good day.

Church was great. Pastor out of town. Fill-in was great. Worship was great. Some songs I wasn't familiar with, but all in all worship was great! God showed up.  I have to post some of the scriptures used in the sermon. There were some that really hit me.
The main message was about faith. Having faith to fight the good fight. To overcome trials & tribulations. Perseverance to go THROUGH the trials & tribulations. Magnify God not your problems.
In Mark 11:23. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.  Jesus says "if anyone says to this mountain..."   The mountain is the problem. So, speak to the mountain. Say to your problem "Go, throw yourself in the sea." See the problem as God sees it, not through human eyes. Have faith that God has done His part.  Ask that your eyes be opened.
In Colossians 2
⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 10

⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
All this is saying to me to be rooted in Christ Jesus, built up by faith in Him and captivate my thoughts so they don't make my problems bigger than Him. I am a human. My trials tend to take forefront of my thought life.

 Lastly 1 Peter 5:6-10
 ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
 ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
 ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
So if we will:

• humble ourselves
• cast our anxiety on Him
• be self controlled
• resist the devil

Then, He will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
And we know there are others going through the same kind of sufferings. And after we have gone through our suffering, we may be able to help someone else out who has to go through a situation like ours.

Well, ok so I got a little lengthy this evening. But this is what was on my mind today. There's so much more. But, it'll have to wait. This is why I chose to do a blog. So, maybe I can help someone else going through something. This allows me to get so much more out than fb status updates or "notes". Then, if you want to keep up, or not it's your prerogative.