Heatwave continues and what is that stuff coming out of the sky?

 After about 3 months without rain we finally got 1/2 inches of rain today!! Praise the Lord!! 

Rewind a few hours..... 

This morning at about 11am my husband and I went to an Antique Mall. As we were walking around one of the venders was there and he began talking about how hot it had been and our need for rain. Towards the end I told him - I know that even if rain in NOT on the forecast that if God decides to give us rain - we will get rain... At about 4:30 this afternoon our power flickers off 3 times. I was a bit worried. Many times if your power flickers several times it is an indication that the power is about to go off. And because it was at least 100 degrees outside I was NOT wanting the power to go out. I decided to go out and do some of the daily cares for my chickens. As I was out there it was a bit over cast and began to get windy. There were a few little jobs out there that I needed to take care of so that if it rained. I got them taken care of - I checked the radar on my phone and saw a system moving through. I had seen it a bit earlier but was worried it would bypass of to the west. As I was checking the radar - I began to feel big drops of rain. I was so excited. I had known that if it rained I had every intention of getting out in the middle of and I sure did. As it began to rain harder - I did go under our small porch. The wind was blowing the rain towards the porch so as I stood there I still got quite a bit of rain on me. It felt so good. I was afraid to go inside. I was afraid that if I did, it might stop raining. After about 15 minutes I went in and opened the shade and the curtains so I could watch it rain. If that wasn't nice enough I got a phone call from my granddaughter who lives a couple of hours away right now. She wanted to let us know that it was fixing to rain there. It was great to hear from her and to get out in the rain. We desperately need rain. 

Today was day number 47 of triple digit temps, which ties the number of triple digits for last year. And it looks like we will blow that record out of the water. As I look at the 2 week forecast it looks like the next 4 days will be in the upper 90's and then 10 more triple digit days. I think we will end up in the top 5 maybe even top 3 most triple digit temps for the year. Oh and up to this point in history our area has only had 7 triple digit temps in September but on that 2 week forecast - those 10 days would all be in September - so we will probably break that record as well. Oh Friday and Sabbath both we made it up to 110 and broke records set for both of those days.... ugh... its been a rough summer.

Although it has been a rough summer I have to say that the rain we got today was so refreshing. On May 23 we got 1/2 inches of rain. And June 5th we got a tiny sprinkling of rain that equaled .07 inches. So 3 months since any measurable amount of rain. I am so thankful to God for blessing us today with a decent amount of rain. Although we got 1/2 inches of rain we are still under a burn ban and in severe drought but that rain was so refreshing to the earth as well as to me and my soul. I think it will help me make through the next couple of weeks of the heatwave we have been going through. 

And I hope that if the gentleman that I was talking with this morning about God being able to send us rain was blessed with rain. I hope he remembers our conversation like I did and that he will give God the glory for the blessing of rain today!! :o) 

Jesus

Steps to Christ...Recovery Edition...3b

 "You can resist His love. You can refuse to be drawn to Him. But why would you want to, when you realize that He's been working to rescue you since long before time began? Knowing that, you'll fall at the foot of the cross, filled with sorry for the suffering your sin has caused Him.

God is speaking to your heart, creating a craving you can't explain for something you don't have. Addictions, sinful pleasures, money: these things can never satisfy your longing. The Spirit of God is pleading with you to come to Jesus- the only One who can truly satisfy your thirst. He's doing everything possible to make you want His good ways instead of the things that will destroy you. Don't keep trying to drink from the broken water-fountains of this world. God says, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life' (Rev. 22:17)." pg 35 

He Must Increase

Steps to Christ ~ Recovery Edition...3a Sorry Enough to Quit

"When you hit rock bottom, you'll discover that you are deeply loved." 

This quote come from page 34: 

 It's true that repentance comes before forgiveness because it's only when your heart is broken over your sin that you'll feel your need of a Savior. But do you have to wait until you feel sorry before you can come to Him? Is repentance a roadblock between you and Jesus? 

The Bible does not teach that! It doesn't say you must be sorry for your sins before you can accept Jesus' invitation, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest' (Matt. 11:28). It's the goodness of Jesus that leads us to repent. Peter made this very clear when he said God sent Jesus to give us both repentance and forgiveness (Act 5:31). Jesus changes how you see your addictions and your sins. He brings you to a heartfelt regret for the damage your mistakes have caused to yourself and others. At the same time He forgives you. Not only does Jesus help you to see the full picture of the damage your sin has caused, He changes your desires, giving you a hatred for sin and a desire to do what's right. Every time you clearly see your sin, every time you want to be pure, you can be sure His Spirit is working on your heart. 

What Else?

 During this hot, dry summer I am reminded of the fact that sometimes I take things for granted. Most of my marigold plants are on their last leg. Many of my plants were so big and full of beautiful blooms but now - mostly I see dead, shriveled up remnants of flowers. Did I appreciate them enough while I had them? I know that I used to not be so fond of marigolds, That is until I started growing them in my garden. Another factor that caused me to love them is that when many other flowers give way to the brutal conditions - the marigold continue on. It takes a lot longer for them to succumb to the circumstances. And as I ponder this quote I wonder what else there is that I have not quite appreciated enough that God has provided. It is something worth thinking about. 

Hope you have an awesome day!! :

Don't Forget Who He Is

"For today I Can Handle This"

 Just checking in. Sorry it has been so long. Things have been busy, but part of the reason I have not posted much is due to the fact that my mom taught me if you don't have any thing nice to say don't say anything at all. 

Truthfully I have been struggling a bit. This summer has been brutal. Today makes the 19th consecutive days of triple digit temps - and more times than not that temp has been around 105 or above....ugh... Today also marks the 34th triple digit day of the year. But that is not really a fair way to look at it because many of the days that it may not have reached triple digit temps actually the humidity and the dew point made it feel like 100 plus temps - several of them as much as 120 degrees... ugh. 

If that isn't bad enough then we are in a pretty severe drought. I have been keeping track of rain fall since about May- thinking I will continue to do so. Anyway the last "rain" event we got a whopping 0.07 of rain.... I means seriously if I had of tried hard enough I probably could have counted the number of actual drops we have gotten. Oh and that 0.07 of rain happened way back on June 5th, nothing since then. We have cracks all over our yard that are getting bigger and bigger... 

Our low temperatures are in the low 80's many days. DFW broke a record of the highest low this past week - of 86 degrees. Many people aren't even getting highs that are 86 degrees and that is our LOW temperature. 

And the worse part is that on the 2 week weather forecasts it looks like 103 might be the lowest temp we can expect. Just this evening they are showing 98 0r 99 for Tuesday but they said that about last Tuesday and I believe it was 105 as the actual temp for the day. So I won't believe that "low" of a temp until I see it. 

Ok - so a whole lot of negativity here - no wonder I have not been posting much. But I had a few extra minute this evening and thought I would give you all an up date. I am doing my best to just focus on one day at a time. And to tell myself "For today I can handle this" trying not to allow the long term forecast to get me down. But I have to be honest - I do check that long term forecast hoping to see the temps at least trend downward. I mean 100- 103 temps are a lot easier to handle then the 105 and above temps. Plus you always have to factor in the humidity and the dew points- they have been high this year and it has felt miserable. Last year we had 47 days of triple digit days- at the rate we are going it is very possible that we will surpass that number. I will certainly let you know if we do or not. I would be thrilled if we did not.

I not only pray for our temperatures to decrease, I continue to pray for rain. We are in desperate need of rain. The only positive for no rain - is that I don't need to mow. I will need to take a weed eater out and weed eat the small area around our septic sprayers. Other than that our grass is actually crunchy... It's been 2-3 weeks since I have mowed. 

Please join me in praying for rain for Texas- especially the parts like mine that have not gotten any rain for 2 months or so.

I hope you all are doing well. I hope your weather in more mild than our weather has been.  I will drop back by when I get a chance. :O) 

Steps to Christ~ Recovery Edition...series 2b

"Before Adam sinned, he loved to talk with God. Think what it was like to talk to the One who is the source of all wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3)! But when he rebelled, Adam disconnected from God. He became afrai and wanted to hide. It's like that for all of us until God changes our hearts. We get disconnected from God and caught up in our dysfunction and addictions, and we can't enjoy talking to Him. As sinners, we could never be happy being with god or with those who love Him. If God let us into heaven we'd hate it. We would never understand the unselfish motives of the angels. Becase of our evil thoughts and interests, we'd feel like misfits. We'd be like a wrong note, out-of-tune with the melody of heaven. Heaven would actually be torture to us. We would want to run away and hide from God- the One who is the source of joy to everyone else. That's why God leave it up to us to choose whether we want to be with Him in heaven or not. He won't force us to be with Him because, as sinners, His holiness and glory would consume us like fire. In our sin, we'd welcome death in order to hide from Jesus, the One who died to save us."

From "Steps to Christ~ Recovery Edition" by Cheri Peters with Sophia Berecz 

quote found in chapter 2 
  

 

Father and Son

Steps to Christ~ Recovery Edition...series 2a

 "In the beginning, Adam and Eve were strong and perfect in mind and body. They adored God and only wanted to please Him. But after they believed Satan's lies and disobeyed God, their minds were twisted. Instead of loving God, they cared only about themselves. That one act of disobedience crippled them and they became powerless over their behavior. Their lives became unmanageable. Satan easily took advantage of them and trapped them like slaves in a life of dysfunction and misery.

Every person since has been born enslaved. Satan intended to fill the earth with grief and pain and then point to all this evil and say it was God fault since He had created us. All humanity would have remained his victims forever if God had not stepped in to rescue us."

~ From "Steps to Christ- Recovery Edition" by Cheri Peters with Sophia Berecz 

*quote found in chapter 2