The Red Sea Rules #10

We have come to our last installment of this book. I have really enjoyed it and I think it has really helped me. This book along with a couple of other books - the Bible and The Refiner's Fire(that a sweet friend gave me.) I still struggle but at least now I have Hope. A couple of months ago - I did not feel hope. Life seemed hopeless.


Let's Review:

#1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
#2. Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.
#3. Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
#4. Pray
#5. Stay Calm and confident, and give God time to work.
#6. When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.
# 7. Envision God's enveloping presence.
# 8. Trust God to deliver in His own unique way.
#9. "View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future."
Last but definitely not least:
#10. Don't forget to praise Him.

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying,
I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 2. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him." Exodus 15:1-2

This is the very first song recorded in Scriptures. God had not only brought them out of Egypt but when it looked like their end had come - he miraculous saved them by opening up the Red Sea - and letting them walk through on DRY land! Isn't that awesome? Then when the Egyptians followed behind- trying to get to them to kill them - the waters no longer help up and they were all killed.

What gratitude they must have felt. God had done so much for them up to this point but it seems that they just had not really realized how much he loved them and that he could and would take care of them till this point.

I think sometimes in our own lives we struggle with this too. But if we can learn to Praise God - even for the little things - I think our lives will become much more full of praise.

My Mother-in-law has told me - when it is the hardest to Praise God - it is probably the most important time to Praise Him.


"He lets out His mercies to us for the rent of our praise, and is content that we may have the benefit of them so He may have the glory." John Trapp

"...I'd like to suggest that praise and worship are the sand and cement that hold the bricks in place along life's daily pathway." page 109

"Develop a perspective of praise." page 110

Start today - look around your life and make a list of things you are thankful for. You might be surprised at how many things you can find!
I hope you all have a wonderful day! :o)

The Best Tool for Warfare

It always amazes me how God works. I still can not share with you all what I have been going through lately, but what I can say is that God used it in order to teach me a very important lesson that I can use in other areas of my life. The flesh is weak and is so easily tempted by satan to do things that we should not be doing, but we have a choice to make. We can give in to temptation or we can ask the God of the universe to give us the strength needed to face what ever temptation we come against.

I had to come to the point of asking God for help and then clearly stating - no, I am not going there - or I will not do it. This works in a lot of areas of our lives. And I will be using this tool in an another area of my life.

I shared a while back that I had lost a decent amount of weight, about 45 pounds. Well over the last year and so many trying things to deal with - and especially over the last couple of months of dealing with a very painful thing- along with getting poison ivy and being put on meds.- which put the weight on. I have ended up gaining about 20 pounds back. Too often I go to food for comfort. I have gotten away from the healthy lifestyle which not only helped me lose those 45 pounds but also helped me feel so good and I was so much healthier. Well I have been feeling the effects of not eating healthy, not getting to bed early enough, not enough sleep, not enough  water, not enough exercise and it has not been fun.

Yesterday I talked with my SIL and she shared with me some of her weight loss history. I was so shocked to hear her share her feelings of very self esteem related to her weight issues. She has never let on that it bothers her at all. And in fact, there were times that I had wished I could get inside her head in order to learn the secret to self acceptance. She has alot more weight to lose than I do and she has never let on that it was causing her pain. She has lost about 45 pounds that we know of - has not weighed in 3 weeks. Anyway it was great to hear her excitement and to I think that I caught it again. I feel that hope that I, too can lose this 20 pounds that I want so badly to lose. I am so thankful for my SIL being willing to open up and sharing her experience, strength and hope. It has inspired me. And by God's grace I will be losing this extra weight.

And when I am feeling emotionally weak and needing a pick me up - I will say No I am not going to eat just to make myself feel better - it does not do me any good in the long run. And I will pray and ask for help - for strength to endure the temptations. And through God's help - I will succeed. I will be going back and reading over the series that I wrote after going to the health seminar a couple of years ago. I may repost them- if not I will put a link to them in my post.

No matter what temptation you are facing God provides the strength necessary to overcome. We just need to depend on Him. May God give you the strength to overcome the temptations that you face.

Thanking Those Who Have Served

Happy Memorial Day! 

Sabbath Praise and Keeping it Real

God, the best anchor to have. This week - I have needed to be reminded of this. We had a very special prayer request. If the prayer request was answered with a "yes" - it would have meant good news for several different people. But the answer we got was "no." I have to be honest - I am trying to keep it real here. To be really honest - the "No" came as a big surprise and with a lot of disappointment. Today has been a rough day. I have struggled with having faith. I have had to pray that God will give me more faith. It is easy to fall into the pit of depression when it seems that trial, after trial and more trials come your way. But in these times, when depressions seems just at the door, hold on the the many promises that are in the Bible.

"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD." Psalms 40:1-3 


What a wonderful promise!! 


May God bless you all in a very special way! :o)    

This and That Friday

Good Afternoon! Today I have a few random things to blog about so I thought I would just do a This and That post.
It has sure gotten warm around here lately. Most afternoons find our temperatures in the 90's. Yikes... I am SO hoping that we do not have a hot, dry summer like we did last year. I am so very glad that I got up and got the yard mowed before it got to warm. So far it is averaging out that I am having to mow about every 2 weeks. We have gotten a decent amount of rain so the grass is growing and also the briers and such. So where we have problems with them - I am having to periodically get out there and take care of them as well. Not fun.

I had been saving money on my electric bill by not using my dishwasher very often and also by washing clothes certain days a week - Tuesday and Fridays were working out great. Well I am still not using the dishwasher very often - well to actually wash the dishes, I do use it as a drying rack a lot. But the washing clothes on just certain days - that has not been working out as well. I think it all started getting out of whack when I got poison ivy, then we went out of town a few times and I just got off of my schedule. I may try to get back on it next week, we will see.

Today my husband took me to a new place to eat - "Pie Five" a pizza place that works about the same way that Subway does - but with pizza's! It was pretty good. A little pricey- but for a treat ever so often it would be fun.

I saw this sign on the wall in the bathroom and thought it was funny. Yeah - I have a weird sense of humor. 

After we ate we went to check out a Antique Mall. It was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. My husband and I were, very quickly reminded that we have very expensive taste. If we like something - it is usually expensive. It was fun to look and it was something that had been on our list. I do think I like the Antique Mall that is closer to where we live, and that's good. Especially with gas prices being as high as they are. I am know that many people have higher gas than we do - so I should not complain but paying $3.34 is just ridiculous. It makes it hard on everyone.

Well I could go on and on, but I think I will stop for now. I hope everyone has a very good Memorial Day week end. We will be off till Tuesday and it feels good. I am hoping we can get a few things done around here. Wish us luck! :O) 

The Red Sea Rules #9

Let's Review:

#1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
#2. Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.
#3. Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
#4. Pray
#5. Stay Calm and confident, and give God time to work.
#6. When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.
# 7. Envision God's enveloping presence.
# 8. Trust God to deliver in His own unique way.

Now we are at

#9. "View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future."

"Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31. And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses." Exodus 14:30-31

"I know He tries me only to increase my faith." J. Hudson Taylor

As I read through this section several main definitions for faith stood out:

• believing that what the Lord has said to us will be accomplished.
• being fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised.
• believing that things will happen just as He has told us.
• considering Him faithful who has given us promises.

Everyone lives by faith - even those with atheistic philosophy because, "God created this universe so that the faith principle is always at work."
"A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted." Warren Wiersbe
This chapter goes on to say that there are different degrees of faith, "and Jesus richly rewards those who fully trust Him."


"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6

If we need some reminders of the many things that God has done for His people in the past - all we need to do is read the stories that show God's faithfulness.

"This was done, and recorded, in order to encourage God's people in all ages to trust Him in the greatest straits." Matthew Henry

"God intends to develop us spiritually. How? Like any good teacher, He bestows truth, then devises tests to review and reinforce that truth, to transfer and translate into lasting, life-changing experiences."(page 101)

"Jesus taught the disciples on the mountainside, then loaded them into a boat and sent them into a terrific storm designed to help them apply truth to life.......This, then, is the principle: our faith grows when we choose to apply God's promises to today's problems and use the experiences to mature us for tomorrow's challenges. In a sense, we are storing up faith for times ahead." (page 102)

"Faith, then, is simply finding and claiming the promises of God in every situation, and, based on those promises, making logical assumptions, being fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised." (page 104)

And The Good News Is....

Jesus Christ loved us so very much that he came to earth being born of a virgin and lived a perfect life, so that when He died on the cross - He would be dying for our sins. And after resting on the Sabbath day - he rose from the dead - Victorious! And now we have Hope! The hope of Salvation.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Amen! Praise the Lord!! Our sins can be washed away by the blood of the Lamb. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and surrender our lives to Him, He will cover us when His robe of righteousness. 

This is not the end of the journey - it is just the beginning...


Photo - courtesy of allposters

Victorious

It does not take long, while listening to the media, to realize that it seems that the majority seems to be going after the world. Many times the loudest voices come from those who have no desire for God in their lives. But remember that just because the voices might be loud does not always mean they are right.

Just imagine the scene with me: Jesus bound, a crown of thorns has been thrust down upon His head- blood is running down His face and down His back from the beatings He has received. Pilate asks the people who they want released(it was a custom at Passover for a prisoner to be released) "Barabbas," they yelled. Pilate asks "What do you want done with Jesus?" "Crucify Him." The crowd is stirred by the prince of darkness and his demons, loudly they proclaim what they want. In this crowd, there are those who remember all of the wonderful things that Jesus has done- all those he healed, the thousands he fed with just a few loaves and fish, how He had raised people from the dead.

The loud voices may have won the temporal victory, but on Sunday morning(after Jesus rested on the Sabbath day) when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead - He was victorious!!He broke the hold that sin had on our world. No longer was the world doomed to the fate of the prince of darkness. Sin had been overcome by the blood of the lamb - Jesus Christ.

And the Good News is.....

Opposites

The more that I study and get to know the character of Jesus Christ, the more I realize that the prince of darkness is really working hard to promote everything that is opposite of the character of God.

While Jesus Christ was here on earth, He represented the character of God. He came to serve others. He did not puff Himself up. He did not do things in order to bring glory to himself. All He did- He did to bring glory to God.

What seems to be the acceptable line of thought now? Look out for #1. If you have to step on others in order to get where you want to go..so be it.

Jesus Christ lived a life that was totally surrendered to His heavenly Father. He lived His life here on earth to be an example for us. But how do most people live their lives? They want to be in the driver's seat - in total control. Making decisions based on what makes them happy. Here again we see in the life of Jesus that he did not make His choices based on his happiness. No - His choices were made on His Father's will for His life. The night before He was to be crucified for the sins of the world(He was sinless.) He prayed that the cup of wrath be taken from Him - but he ended his prayer not my will but yours Father. He made His choices based on what His Father's will was - not his own selfish motives.

There are so many example that I could use here, but I will leave it at these. I think it is important for us to remember that the prince of darkness is working hard to distract us from the knowledge of Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us.

We all have a choice - who do we want to serve?

Be sure and come back tomorrow - I have a whole series of things that I will be writing on. Things that God has laid on my heart. See you tomorrow! May God bless you in a very special way! :O)

Just wanted to let you know...

that I will be taking a bit of a blogging break. I should be back by Sunday - if not by Monday. I hope you all have a wonderful week end! :o)

The Red Sea Rules #8

Let's Review:

#1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
#2. Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.
#3. Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
#4. Pray
#5. Stay Calm and confident, and give God time to work.
#6. When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.
# 7. Envision God's enveloping presence.

Now # 8
"Trust God to deliver in His own unique way."


"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left." Exodus 14:21-22

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. " Psalms 34:19

"He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee."
Job 5:19

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:" 2 Peter 2:9

"And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Psalms 50:15

I think too often we put God into a box - not realizing that he is so amazing and so powerful! His ways are not our ways. He can find solutions for our problems that we could never find. This is why "Let Go and Let God" is so important. We need to step out of the way and let God work in the way that He wants to work.

"God marks across some of our days, "Will explain later." Vance Havner

John 13:7 says: "Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

It was confirmed to me today that God wanted me to post this Red Sea Rule. How..you ask? Well on Facebook this morning a relative of mine posted two great quotes that go along the same line as what this Rule says. So I wanted to share them as well:

‎"No matter what you're worried about, one thing is for sure: You can't possibly know the extraordinary manner by which God is going to work it out. So pray to Him and express your trust in His magnificent ways. There may be much you don't understand about how He's going to help you, but you can be sure He will." Dr. Charles Stanley

‎"There are no formulas with God. The way in which God heals our wound is a deeply personal process." John Eldredge

So it all comes down to TRUST - we need to TRUST God to deliver us in His own unique way.

You Never Know....part two..

If you have not checked out the post that I did earlier this morning - please be sure and scroll down and check it out. 

Ok - So I was fixing to wash this stuff up and so I took the pillow out of the pillow case and I was so surprised to find such a cute pillow. I had thought that they probably used a muslin fabric as the pillow itself. But they used the same fabric that was used in the corners of the quilt. How adorable is that? Even a cuter treasure than I even imagined it to be! Oh and I have no idea why this photo has come through the wrong directions. I really wish I knew what causes this. It happened yesterday and I just did not use the photo. I tried changing my original photo to see if it would come up right - it did not so I gave up. If any of you have any ideas of what causes it or what I can do to fix it, please let me know. 

You never Know What You Will Find...

In a small town nearby, there is a thrift store that is run by a church. It is only open two days a week and yesterday just happen to be one of the days they are open. Well since I needed to go to the post office in said town, I decided to stop by the thrift store to see if I could find some treasures. Well honestly I was looking for some jeans for my son. Anyway did not find any there. But I did find some treasures! First of all this cute crib sized quilt. This photo does not do it justice at all. The colors are vivid and bright. It is very thin - like a summer quilt - with no filling in it - just the top and the backing.

Ok - in this second photo - you will see the back of the above quilt. Isn't that fabric cute? And I could not pass up this small quilt with a small pillow and pillow case that matches the quilt. It is doll sized. I think my Granddaughter will love it! 

And the best part of finding these two treasures is that I only had to pay $1.00 each piece. So I left there only spending $2.17. That is a bargain - especially when I got home and really looked at each piece I found that there was a lot of hand quilting done -I am thinking all hand quilting on the top quilt for sure not sure about the small quilt. I know that the actual quilting was done by hand. 

I think it is because I am a quilter that I really value these types of things. There is a lot of work that is put into quilts and also into crafts. There is care and a part of the person is put in as well. So it is just a real joy to find things like this and especially for such a good deal! 

And oh my goodness! This next photo - I stopped by another thrift store - still looking for jeans, when I spotted this: 

It is a round table cloth! I did not buy it because - well - I don't have a round table. But after getting home and looking at this photo and seeing that it was only $2.50 - I am going to go by there again today and if it is  still there - I am buying it. I can figure out some way to use it - if not I can bless someone with it. I love bright colors like this. And since I have an appointment in the same town and will drive right past this store anyway - it will not be out of my way one bit. 

It amazes me some of the things I find at the thrift stores. Things I would not be able to find any other way. Real treasures - and I am sure that many of them have stories that are just as much treasures behind them - wish there was a way to hear those stories. 

Trains ~ Clark Gardens part 2

While we were at Clark Gardens, we almost missed a very special feature that this garden has~ Clark Station/Garden Train Area. From where I was standing, close to the tall flowers that I showed yesterday and asked if anyone knew what they were, I saw a lot of these wooden features. I thought that it was a bridge for us to walk across, so I went to check it out. I am SO glad I did or we might have missed this gem. It was lots and lots of train tracks - with great little scene's here and there. There was a building nearby so we went to check it out. And as we walked in - all of a sudden a couple of the trains started to move. And one went out one side of the building and one train went out the other side. I ran out one of the doors - getting my phone ready to take photos at the same time. 

 I snapped a few photos. I wish I had have been able to get more photos than I did. But you can get the idea of how cool this place is by these photos.

There were tunnels - tried to get a photo of a train coming out of it but did not, I got distracted and never got back to that. There were lots of bridges. There were several - I say 3 different tracks on each side of the building. And each train that came out, came out on a different track.

 It was a lot of fun. Well worth stopping by Clark Gardens if you are ever in the area.
If you will click HERE you can go to their website. They have a photo tour and an 8 minute video so that you can check out the park from where ever you are. I hope you enjoy!

Our Visit to Clark Gardens part 1

On Friday, I shared how it was National Public Garden's Day and how many Public Garden's around the country were offering free admission. Well my husband and I took advantage of this awesome offer. It would have cost us about $7.00 per person go to to the park that we chose to go to. We went to Clark Gardens. Those of you who may live in Texas - this park is located between Weatherford and Mineral Wells on 180.

 We were worried that the Garden would be packed since it was a free admission day. But when we drove up, we were happily surprised that there were only about 4 - 5 cars in the parking lot. The weather was over cast and there was a threat of rain, but we were thrilled that we went because we had a great time.

This fountain area was beautiful! I love the sound of water splashing. 

 Please excuse some of my photos - because there was a pretty good chance of rain, we did not take our camera - so I used my phone to take photos. And that with the fact that it was over cast- made the photo's not always show the true beauty of this place. Trust me- it was beautiful!! But I am going to let the photo's speak for themselves:

I would love to have one of these in my back yard. The couple under the umbrella are just so sweet. I wonder how much it cost?

This was so pretty - I wanted to take an up close photo to share with you all. 

If anyone knows what kind of flowers these are -please let me know. I love the way this looks and would love to do this somewhere in my yard. But we forgot to look at the name of them.

This is just a tiny taste of what Clark Gardens has to offer. There were so many lovely places that you could take a picnic lunch and enjoy it in the beautiful gardens. Rose Gardens, Herb Gardens, a Chapel - with a lovely garden, and so much more.

By the way, there was an awesome Train Station that had about 6 different trains - and I will be posting about it tomorrow. I figured this post was already photo heavy. Anyway I hope you have enjoyed a visit to Clark Gardens. :o)

Sabbath Praise

I hope you all have a great day! :O)

Today is National Public Gardens Day

Today is National Public Gardens Day -That means you get free admission. If I can figure out the way Blogger now has for us to add links - I will be adding a link that you will be able to click to go - find a participating Garden in your area and to be able to get your free coupon.
My husband and I will be going to a local one. I am praying that it does not rain us out. We had canceled a camping week end because the news kept talking like a huge chance of rain - well it is not raining now. So we are going to try it out. Hey- it's free - if we only get through part of it - that is better than none. We have not been to this garden before so it will be a fun experience. I hope you all have a wonderful day. :o)

In Every Time of Trial and Need...

Today I just wanted to share a great quote that I read last night in the book I am reading. 

 "The surrender must be complete. Every weak, doubting, struggling soul who yields fully to the Lord is placed in direct touch with agencies that enable him to overcome. Heaven is near to him, and he has the support and help of angels of mercy in every time of trial and need." AA 299

The Red Sea Rules #7

Let's Review:

#1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
#2. Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.
#3. Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
#4. Pray
#5. Stay Calm and confident, and give God time to work.
#6. When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.

This brings us to #7:
"Envision God's enveloping presence."


"And the Angel of God, the one who went before the camp of Israel, moved. And he went to the rear of them. And the pillar of the cloud went from in front of their face and it stood behind them. 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloudy and dark night, but it lit up the night, so that the one did not come near the other all night." Exodus 14:19-20

God had been with the Children of Israel as they spent so many years in captivity in Egypt. His presence just was not so obvious. And as the Children of Israel traveled towards the Promise Land - God knew that they needed to be aware of His presence. So he used a cloud by day to guide them and by night a light in order to protect them. This was not only done for them, but for us. For we can go back and read this story(along with all the rest) and realize how much God cares and that even though his presence may not be as obvious as it was for the Children of Israel - that it is it still there.

Are you struggling with believing that God is with you? If so, there are many promises in the Bible:

"As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." Psalms 125:2


"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." Psalms 5:12

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalms 46:1b


"The Lord is at hand." Philippians 4:4b

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10


"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5
These were just a few of the many promises in the Bible that reassure us of God's presence.

Prayer is another great way to develop a closer relationship with God. We can not always just go by our emotions and our feelings. We need to have Faith in God. In those times that we least feel God's presence is the time that we need it the most - and even if we can not feel it - we can KNOW that He is with us.

So remember "You are not facing your difficulty alone, for the Lord is closer than a friend or brother. Envision His enveloping presence right now." (page 78)

Trust His Will

A friend posted this on Facebook - and I "shared" it too. And I thought I would share  it here as well. This has been a lesson that I have had to learn and continue to learn. God knows the end from the beginning and He knows what is best for us. And for those really hard, difficult times - when Satan is really attacking and causes so much havoc in our lives - well God uses those times too. He knows where we need improvement- where we need polished a little more and He works it all out where those trials become growing times. Now I have to admit at this point that I have gone through trials that instead of feeling like I have improved - it feels quite the opposite. But even in those times - I try to remember to continually return to God and allow Him to work in my life. Right now is one of those times that I am speaking of. And I have all the faith, and when I don't - I am asking God to give me that faith I need to believe that God will use this trial to His glory. Sometimes we "simply have to trust His will."  May God bless each of you in a very special way today. And may you see His hand at work in your life. :O)

Sabbath Praise

Some Favorites, and Bad Surprises

Hello!! I realize that I have already done a post about on of my favorite yard tools. But I since I have been using it so much lately I wanted to share again how much I love it. It is my Black and Decker GrassHog. I love it! It has made the job of weed-eating something that I enjoy. It it so easy to start and use. 

Yesterday when I got home from work - I found that one of my chickens had died. I was so surprised. None had been acting sick or anything so we have no idea what happened to her. I really do not like to lose my chickens. Now we are down to 15.

We also found that a pretty big branch had broken off of our dead oak tree and fallen to the ground. Have no idea how it happened. I am so disappointed that we lost this tree. It is my favorite one and had most of my bird feeders on it. We got a couple of other limbs cut down from it yesterday and will be working towards cutting it down - don't want a limb to fall on any of us or our cats. 

This last photo is the stuff that I have been using to kill the poison ivy that is back in the corner of the yard. The same corner that we just got cleaned up and where I got my horrible case of poison ivy from. They have some smaller spray bottles that are cheaper. The reason this is so high is because you use like 4 or 6 oz. per gallon of water. So it lasts a long time. I just finished up the bottle of it that I bought about a year or so ago. And believe me - I have had to use it a lot. We had ALOT of poison ivy. 

Well that's it for today. I hope you all have a great week end! :o) 

Prayer~Not Only Because It Is The National Day of Prayer But Because It's Important

Since today is the National Day of Prayer - here in the USA anyway. I thought I would do a little study on prayer. And I wanted to share a few things that really stood out to me.

First of all, I think it is a good idea to look at the life of Jesus Christ and see how important prayer was to Him. Throughout the Gospels you will find many times that Jesus went off by Himself to pray. And the very night that He was going to be betrayed He spent a lot of time in prayer.

Prayer is the special way that we have to communicate with our Heavenly Father. What is so awesome is we can pray anytime. In fact 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray without ceasing," We can have an ongoing conversation with God. We can talk to Him about anything and anywhere that we are.

This year the official verse of the National Day of Prayer is: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance." Psalms 33:12

Another awesome verse that has been used probably more than once as the official verse is:

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

What a powerful verse.

James 5:16 tells us to pray for one another. And in Matthew 5:44 we are told not only to love our enemies but we are to pray for them as well.

In 1 Samuel 12:23 Samuel says"....far be it for me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you..." It looks to me to be a pretty serious thing not to be praying for others. What I have found in my life is that when I am going through really hard times, is that if I will change the focus from me and start praying for other people - I end up feeling better and better dealing with what ever I am going through.

And because:
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8

It is important to remember this verse:
 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

 Matthew 26:41  

And because there will come times in our lives that we pray and don't see any changes taking place we are reminded in Luke not to lose heart: 

"Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart," Luke 18:1 

I was truly blessed by my study on prayer. There are many more verses and if you get a chance you may want to do your own study and see what gems you can find. Oh and one more thing in John it says that Jesus Christ prayer for us! Isn't that awesome?! 

   

The Red Sea Rules #6

So far we have:

#1. Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
#2. Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief.
#3. Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.
#4. Pray
#5. Stay Calm and confident, and give God time to work.

So for today:
#6. When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.

"And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the sons of Israel, that they go forward." Exodus 14:15

"I have found that if we go as far as we can. God often opens up the rest of the way."
_Isobel Kuhn

At this point the children of Israel are trapped with mountains on either side and the Red Sea in front of them. They are afraid. And Jehovah tells Moses to tell them to go forward. The Red Sea did not totally divide so that they could see that they would have a safe crossing of the Red Sea. In fact, "The nineteenth-century expositor C.H. Mackintosh believed the Red Sea did not divide throughout all at once, but opened progressively as Israel moved forward, so that they needed to trust God for each fresh step. Mackintosh wrote," God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. This keeps the heart in abiding dependence upon God."

And it is pointed out that the phrase day by day is used quite a bit in the Bible. God provides what is needed for that day. So the "One Day at a Time" thought is really one that has been around since the beginning of time.

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." Thomas Carlyle

Too often, I think we get bogged down in trying to solve ALL of our problems at one time. When we try to do that it can be so overwhelming.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it." Matthew 6:34

When the children of Israel were brought into the situation of the Red Sea - they learned an important lesson - that they needed to trust God - step by step and moment by moment. "In the process they discovered the lesson later expressed by this beloved hymn, which is true now for you and me:"

"Never a trial that He is not there,
Never a burden that He doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
Moment by moment, I’m under His care."

And by reading the Bible stories like this one -we, too, can learn these same lessons. God will take care of us. We need to trust him day by day.

*****Again this has been such a blessing for me to review. I think it is timeless advice to help us and to encourage us. I hope it was encouraging to you too.

Which Side Will You Choose?

As you all know I am reading through the Conflict of the Ages Series. Around February 26th or so I began reading "The Desire of Ages" book. About a week or so ago - while we were out camping - I finished reading it. Then I began reading "The Acts of the Apostles." 

I really enjoyed reading "The Desire of Ages" it is a great book about the life of Jesus. While we were camping I read the part about Calvary. Reading about this has helped me so very much because no matter what I have to suffer with it is nothing compared to what Jesus went through for us. 

This really has been one of the best books I have read. It has been tough to read of all the suffering that our Savior went through but it so speaks to the love that Jesus had/has for us. He went through so much suffering yet he remained calm. 

"Every feature expressed gentleness and resignation and the tenderest pity for His cruel foes. In His manner there was no cowardly weakness, but the strength and dignity of long-suffering." DA 735 

One of my favorite parts of this part of the book is when it said that Jesus was hung on the cross in the middle of two criminals. At first they both gave Jesus a lot of grief but one of them allowed the Holy Spirit to work on his heart and he realized that Jesus was the Son of God. He asked Jesus to remember him. 

"While the leading Jews deny Him, and even the disciples doubt His divinity, the poor thief, upon the brink of eternity, calls Jesus Lord. Many were ready to call Him Lord when He wrought miracles, and after he had risen from the grave; but none acknowledged Him as He hung dying upon the cross save the penitent thief who was saved at the eleventh hour." DA 750-751 

As I thought of this, I realized that this scene represents when Jesus comes. There again will be two sides: on one side will be those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and on the other side will be those who have not.

 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" Matthew 25:31-34 

 We have a decision to make - which side to do we want to be on?