No, No, No!

Seems like God tells me no often. So many times I've prayed that my mentally ill, alcoholic mom would get better. No. I've prayed for an older mentor woman to come along side me in place of my mom. No. I know he tells me yes often too, but it's easier to remember the no's. This week my children were exposed to a nasty bug. "Lord, please, please, spare my children catching this bug." NO!

I'm exhausted and have done multiple loads of laundry. The kids are grumpy and whiny. I'm sad, burned out and beaten down. And I'm scared to death I'll catch what they have. (You all know I'm a germaphobe).

Truthfully this one has knocked me down. Why, Lord, why? Was it too much to ask to spare me this, on top of my already chaotic life. I'm tired, grumpy and whiny, not unlike the kids.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 says "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I'm not quite delighting in hardships and difficulties, but I'll gladly take the Lord's strength in this. Because right now, I'm weak.

**
Post Script: I wrote this last week, and we are doing better today. :-)

Verses I'm Claiming:
Rom. 8:28 -- “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Jeremiah 29:11 -- “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and NOT FOR EVIL, to give you hope in your final outcome.”

1Peter 1:6-7 -- "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. "

Isaiah 40:20 -- He {God} gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Be A Simon of Cyrene

Being a Christian doesn't mean we don't still have troubles. Even in following Jesus we will have our share of problems, sometimes because we follow Jesus. The quote goes "we all have our crosses to bear." Jesus even said to follow him we must "take up our cross and follow him." But that doesn't mean we have to bear our cross alone.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all share the story of when Jesus was carrying His own cross to be crucified. When Jesus was no longer able to carry His cross, Simon of Cyrene carried it for Him. Now truthfully, Simon wasn't really a volunteer in this effort. He was forced to do it. But none-the-less, he came up beside Jesus and carried Jesus' cross.

When we look around the Christian community, we may see a lot of folks struggling to carry their own crosses. It is our job (whether we want to or not) to come up beside them and help them carry their cross.

Be a Simon of Cyrene. Help someone carry their cross today.

Matthew 10:37-39 -- "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

Matthew 16:24 -- Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Luke 23:26 -- As they led him {Jesus} away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

This post was inspired by the testimony of a woman in my church.

Thankful Thursday

Five things I'm thankful for this week:

1. My husband. He goes into work later on Tues & Thurs so I can go to the gym without waking up the kids and/or dragging them along.

2. New Piano Teacher. My daughter's former teacher has moved, so we started with the new teacher on this week. My daughter LOVED her and we are excited to be under the tutelage of a locally renowned teacher.

3. Lazy Days of Summer vacation. We're 1 month into it and having fun.

4. Writing Opportunities. I've inquired about 3 writing opportunities this past week. I haven't heard back on any of them, but I took the step to inquiry. I'll let you know how it goes when I hear something.

5. Air conditioning. Our unit was out for about 36 hrs this week. When you don't have it, you suddenly appreciate it all the more.

Well, that's my 5 simple things I'm thankful for this week. I'm always thankful for God's love & sovereignty. What are you thankful for this week? Leave a comment or link up at Truth4theJourney by clicking the button.

Get Back Up

"It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." Rocky Balboa '06

Sometimes I feel like Rocky. Life has hit me a few times. I'm bloody, my eye is swollen ("Cut me, Mick!"), I've been beaten up and sometimes I may think I don't have the strength to get back up.

I get down on myself and I think "Loser!" But Rocky said something I really like. Being a winner isn't how hard you hit, it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. When life gets me down, I keep moving forward. I may be down, but I'm never down for the count.

In the orginial Rocky movie (1976) Rocky was explaining his relationship with his girlfriend, Adrian. He said, "she fills gaps." His friend Paulie asked "what's gaps?" Rocky explained "I dunno, she's got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps."

I've got gaps, but Jesus died on the cross for me. His cross bridged the gaps in my life, to make way for me to go to heaven. Jesus filled my gaps.

So even though sometimes I feel like the picture of Rocky at the top of this post, exhausted and broken down; with Jesus on my side, I'm more like the Rocky picture posted below (after he just ran up the stairs). "Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop. Just a man and his will to survive." (Eye of the Tiger)

With the help of God, I'm not gonna stop either.




Psalm 121:1-2 -- I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth


Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 -- Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!


Luke 8:54 -- But he {Jesus} took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!"

Surrender All - Book Review

Joni Lamb is executive producer and host and co-host of the top two daily talk shows, Celebration and JONI, on the world's second largest-faith based network, Daystar Television. Her book is Surrender All.

Surrender All is a Christian inspirational book sharing how to have peace and purpose in your life. Each chapter shares a different area of your life that needs to be surrendered to God, including marriage, children, career, health, friendship, daily life, loss and even failure.

Through testimonies of her own life, and others, she shares exciting stories of personal surrender that lead to peace. Many of the stories of surrender end with a "happy" ending, but even those stories that end sadly still end with the peace of being where God wants the individual to be.

One gentleman, Bishop Joseph Walker, lost his wife to cancer. He didn't get the outcome he prayed for. But he chose to believe that everything happens with purpose - on purpose - to bring for the the will of God in your life. Bishop Walker said "No matter what happens, you have to know that God is actively moving behind the scenes. God will be glorified, you will be edified, and Satan will be horrified." I love the idea of horrifying the devil, don't you?

Joni shares "No one else can understand the depth of your pain, your frustration, your hurt, your anger. No one knows your story....You can't change what has happened to you, but you can choose how you respond. Seek to be a champion, not a victim. Surrender to God and stand back."

This book is for the Christian hoping to take their relationship with God to the next level. It's filled with inspiration and miracles testimonies of faith that will encourage and inspire believers to surrender their own lives to God.

Joni ends the book just as I hoped she would. She tells the story of ultimate surrender, how Jesus surrendered his life on the cross for us. If Jesus is willing to surrender his life for us, shouldn't we be willing to do the same?

Video Clip in Joni Lamb's own words:

Thankful Thursday - 7/9

5 Things I'm thankful for this week:

1. I'm enjoying the summer with my girls! Between the pool, play dates and season passes to a theme park, we are having a great summer STAY-cation.

2. Free books. Reviewing books is becoming a great way to get free books this summer. I'll be reviewing one tomorrow, and received another in the mail this week.

3. A new roof. Roofers are busily replacing our roof, which had started leaking. They are doing a great job and I'm thankful to have it repaired.

4. A cook-out with friends. My girls' best friends are sisters. So we had the parents over for dinner Sunday night. It was a lovely evening, and I'm so glad to have my girls have such wonderful friends.

5. A Movie Date with my sister. We watched Pilgram's Progress together, and she brought me a funny book about Germaphobes. I could have written it. (Why didn't I? Note to self: Think outside the box.)

What are you thankful for this week?

Image is Everything

Image is everything. That's what magazines tell us. The definition of image used here is "the general or public perception of a company, public figure, etc., especially as achieved by careful calculation ." That means it doesn't really matter what you do, it's just the perception that matters.

Sadly many people live there life just this way. On the outside they appear to be "good." But behind closed doors they are something all together different. Whether it's greed, pride, gossip, addictions to drugs, alcohol, or p0rn0graphy, these things are quietly going on while the outside perception is that all is well.

With this perception, there comes no reason to change for the individual - after all "Image is everything!" Amazingly the root word of imagine is image. Imagine means to think, believe or fancy. So our outward image is really just imagined reality, a mirage. Reality becomes nothing, when image is everything.

However, there is another image that is everything. The Bible tells us that we were created in God's image. God created us to be like him. We were created in His form, appearance and semblance. We are to strive for righteousness to be like God.

It is said that 1% of unchurched people look at the Bible, while 99% look at the Christian. Strive to be more like God. Then your outward image won't be your everything. Your creation in the image of God will be the only thing that matters. You reality will be found in Christ.

Genesis 1:27 -- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Matthew 5:16 -- In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Colossians 2:17 -- These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.