Prayer Requests...

-Please pray for my dear friend Emily, (Pink "Pray for Emily" ). She was diagnosed with cancer a while ago and the most recent thing I heard was that she was getting a spinal tap for her horrible head aches!!! Please pray for healing, comfort, and peace through this hard time!!!!

-My aunt was just diagnosed with cancer just before Christmas. It was a shock to everyone!! She is having a surgery on Thursday to try to get rid of the damaged tissue. After that we will see if she has to go through chemo. and radiology. She is not saved...yet! Pray for, first of all, salvation and healing, in God's timing, and peace through this difficult time.

+Plus, this side of my family is not saved yet, but many of them are seeking the Lord through this. Sadly it has to happen this way, but God has a plan.

-My friend just had a major complication with her heart. It is all figured out now and she is home but please pray for comfort and peace in her home. She also has diabetes, a lung disease, and other health issues. Please lift her up in prayer, too.

-Please pray for this beautiful family, The McCourtney's. They have 12 children, so far, and are probably going to take in a few more soon, and live in Northern Uganda ministering to the lost souls there. They are a wonderful family striving to please God and do His will! Pray for guidance, blessings, funds, and wisdom...Their blogs are...

http://www.mamainuganda.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.fromglory2glory.blogspot.com/

The McCourtney's...

"Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you shall find;

Knock and the door shall be opened to you."

Matthew 7:7

Thank you, friends!

Puzzles...

Look what we have been working on for weeks!!!

Winter here is the longest season, or so it seems.

We needed some good ideas for the long winter days to come

...so...

we got out our PUZZLES!!!

This puzzle took a good amount of time,

but we worked together as a family

and eventually it was finished!

Just like Christ's body...

When we work together, all keeping our eyes

on the head, Jesus,

God's plan is accomplished!

All for His glory!!!

"Approved by God...

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don't, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with some one else. But you must be willing to go through God's wine press where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God's truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God's wine of strength to some one else. But if you are not diligent and say, "I'm not going to study and struggle to express this truth in my own words; I'll just borrow my words from some one else," then the words will be of no value to you or to others. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else.
Always make it a practice to stir your mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from who, you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn't know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly.

Sharing your Christian life with others is so important!! Your journey can change others journeys... and ultimately, lead them to God!!

God is Everywhere!

Oh! show me where is He,
The high and holy One,
To whom thou bend'st the knee,
And prayest, "Thy will be done!"
I hear thy song of praise,
And lo! no form is near;
Thine eyes I see thee raise,
But where doth God appear?
Oh! teach me who is God, and where His glories shine,
That I may kneel and pray, and call thy Father mine.

"Gaze on that arch above:
The glittering vault admire.
Who taught those orbs to move?
Who lit their ceaseless fire?
Who guides the moon to run
In silence through the skies?
Who bids that dawning sun
In strength and beauty rise?
There view immensity! behold! my God is there:
The sun, the moon, the stars, His majesty declare.

"See where the mountains rise;
Where thundering torrents foam;
Where, veiled in towering skies,
The eagle makes his home:
Where savage nature dwells,
My God is present, too:
Through all her wildest dells
His footsteps I pursue:
He reared those giant cliffs, supplies that dashing stream,
Provides the daily food which stills the wild bird's scream.

"Look on that world of waves,
Where little creatures glide;
Within whose deep, dark caves
The ocean monsters hide:
His power is sovereign there,
To raise, to quell the storm;
The depths his bounty share,
Where scaly creatures swarm:
The Master speaks His voice, when we are yielded and still."
His message brings us comfort in ages old and new, Peace, Be still!

Joseph Hutton

I am just human...

"Stand up; I myself am also a man." Acts 10:26

When Cornelius met Paul, he bowed down to him, but Paul told him to rise up for he knew that he was not a man worth praising. He knew that no man should be praised. Only God alone should be glorified!!!

We cannot praise man!! When we take all the glory for ourselves we benefit nothing; we sin against God. God commands us to give Him the glory!

Rise up and glorify the Lord!

"...whatever we do, do all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

Light Out of Darkness

God moves in mysterious ways

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take!

The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.

William Cowper

Repentance/Conviction

"Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation..." 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction

of sin is best described in the words:

My sins, my sins, my Savior,

How sad on Thee they fall.

Conviction of sins is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person's conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person's relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God- "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight..." (Psalm 51:40). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, "I have sinned." The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes-a reflex action caused by self disgust.
The entrance into the kingdom of god is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man's respectable "goodness." Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person's life (see Galations 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses- repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for "the gift of tears." If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.
Oswald Chambers

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 139:23-24

I was recently convicted of a sin and my heart sank when I let my Savior down AGAIN. So I prayed to God and asked for His forgiveness, but something was still wrong. That night all i could think about was the verse in the Bible that talks about how God won't hear your prayers if you don't make them right, something like that. I felt that the Holy Spirit wanted me to ask for forgiveness to the person that i did wrong to, also. (I didn't understand it at the time, but I was being convicted.) This was very hard for me to do because usually I am really shy... Anyways, I was able to apologize to the person and ask for forgiveness. I didn't care how crazy they thought I was, all i knew was that I had to make my relationship with God right. And after i obeyed, i understood the blessings!!!! A few days later I read this repentance/conviction page from
Oswald Chambers in my daily devotion. Now I understand so much more...
The Holy Spirit is working in my life if I am being convicted... I am so excited I have learned more about my Savior's Word!!!

May you pray and ask the Lord today to see if there is any wicked way in you and ask Him to convict you of anything that is separating your relationship with Jesus....It brings great blessings!!!