"Every Praise"

Good Morning! This week my mother in law reminded me that I needed to be praising God. And I will tell you this that when I pulled up one of my favorite praise songs to God - this one below and listened to it - I actually began to feel better. It was like a turning point. Yes - there were other factors involved. And I plan to come back another day and share a recipe or two with you all that has really helped me. But for now I wanted to share this wonderful praise song because whether you are going through a storm right now or not- it is always a great time to praise God! So join me as I praise God!! 

By the way - a big thank you to each of you for your prayers. May God bless you in a special way! :O) 

Steps to Christ...Recovery Edition...3e

 

"Every sin you harbor makes you less interested in God. Unless you surrender all your junk to Him, you will eventually end up rejecting God completely. In all the Bible there is not a more fearful warning against playing around with evil than King Solomon's words: 'an evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him' (Proverbs 5:22). 

Jesus is ready to set you free from Sin, but He will never force you. If you persistently rebel, if you're determined to do evil, if you don't want to be set free and you won't accept His grace, what more can He do? You will have destroyed yourself by your stubborn rejection of His love. 'Indeed, the 'right time' is now. Today is the day of salvation.' (2 Corinthians 6;2). 'Today when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts' (Hebrews 3:7,8)." pg.40 

Wouldn't You Know It?!

 Wouldn't you know if as I am reading and sharing quotes with you all about choosing faith over anxiety on our way to the promised land that I would come face to face with a test on that very topic.... 

Anyone who has been along this journey with me very long probably remember back in 2021 how I got Covid and such a bad case of it that it was only by the grace of Jesus Christ that I did not end up in the hospital. Well Sunday morning I got a call from my son- He has tested postive for Covid. I had seen for 4 straight days in a row. I had taken care of his son/s for 4 days in a row. I had already started feeling soreness in my neck- I began to pray and hope it was something else. I tested Sunday morning - negative... I tested a couple more times and by Monday evening I was positive for Covid and of course had a very rough night my Monday night. As soon as I saw the positive results I remembered how very close I came to being put into the hospital and I was brought face to face with the choice of faith or anxiety. In fact I am still facing that choice even today as I am still suffering from covid. It still scares me because I know how sick I got last time and how fast the really serious part hit - after days of being sick and thinking that things would get better any day and instead things went down hill fast. So now I have a choice will I pick faith in Jesus or anxiety. To be honest I have cried more than once dealing with the anxiety of the fear of what could happen. And thankfully each time Jesus is there reaching out His hand of love for me to grasp and be pulled back into faith. And I am trying to be quicker to pick the side of faith when those feelings arise. 

The antibiotics that I was given at first caused me to get nauseous and throw up like 5-8 times- that happened 3 different times till I pinpointed for sure the cause. Tuesday was a pretty miserable day. Wednesday morning I woke up feeling a bit better and thought I was on my way to feeling better. That afternoon I got very congested. By this morning I woke up and I felt worse that I had yesterday. And anxiety hit again - pretty hard. I remembered that Sabbath morning back in June of 2021 - I thought I was going to die. It has been a rough day. I can not get my nasal passage to clear up and I have realized I can not smell. 

 Today I made a pot of bean soup and some cornbread. Later as my husband was sleeping in the bedroom with the door shut, I began to clean the kitchen. I finished with cleaning the iron skillet and put it on the stove and turned the burner on. Then a minute or two later I walked across the room to the computer desk that is in the dining room and I turned on the computer. A few minutes later I remembered the iron skillet. I turned around to find the kitchen - and really the house was filled with smoke. It was so bad that the smoke and smell woke my husband up and he came out to investigate. He said it would probably be a good idea for me to go take a nap....trying to keep me from doing anything else dangerous. I had not realized how dangerous it could be to not have your sense of smell. It doesn't seem like a big deal but really it is! 

Anyway as I continue to face this choice of faith or anxiety- my prayer is that God will continue to give me the strength and courage to choose faith over anxiety! Hopefully I can get on here in a few days and tell you how much better I am feeling. Until then I will continue to do all I know to do to help my body fight. I hope each of you are well. May God bless you and hold you close to His heart! 

Choosing Faith Over Anxiety... series

 "God will use for His glory anyone and everyone (young or old, male or female) who surrenders to His will, even in the midst of the bleakest of circumsdances and during the darkest night. Don't despair when you don't see a way out. God is sitting on His throne."

Elizabeth Viera Talbot ~ in her book "The Exodus Journey- choosing trust over anxiety on our way to the promised land"

"Remind Me You're Here"

Today I want to share a song I heard for the first time this week. It was such a blessing. I know there are a lot of hurting people out there and wanted to share this. May this song be a salve to your hurting soul. God loves you! :O) 

Steps to Christ...Recovery Edition...3d

 

"Don't be deceived by the idea that God is too loving and kind to judge those who reject Him. If that was true, there was no need for Jesus to suffer the horror of the cross. Only look at Jesus on the cross t know that God is serious about eliminating sin. Jesus died for us because there was no other way to save us from the consequences of sin. Without the total surrender of his will and the sacrifice of His own life, it would have been impossible for the human race to escape the deadly power of sin. But He couldn't bear to give us up, and so He took on Himself the guilt of our disobedience and suffered in our place. god in shackles. God impaled on a cross. God dying in agony. The unquenchable love of God for a world twisted and broken by sin! We have no escape from sin's power, no hope of a higher life, except through the surrender of our live to Jesus who suffered all that to save us." pg.38

A Fall Garden...Yay!!

Hello my friends~ I hope that you all are doing well. I just have a few minutes and thought I would come on to say Hello and a bit of an update. 

Thankfully since the last time I posted we have had a bit cooler weather- Thankfully we have not had any triple digit weather since the last time I wrote but boy those last 2 days were certainly record breaking heat. We are going into a second summer at this point with temps in the mid to upper 90's. But I won't complain because it is a lot better than the triple digit temps. 

We actually got almost 1/2 inch of rain last week and then the week before we got another 1/2 inch. Thankful for that rain but we certainly need a lot more. 

I am actually trying for a fall garden. I have worked hard to keep a few things alive throughout that hot, hot summer - and happy about that. And then I planted more things. And then yesterday I worked for a couple of hours in the garden cleaning it up and planting -direct sowing- seeds in the garden. I planted: 

• carrots 
• beets
• rutabagas
• collard greens
• radishes 
• arugula 

A week or so I planted lettuce seeds out and have seedlings coming up. Yay! I almost forgot to get them planted. I planted a favorite - Parris Island Lettuce and then a new one - Landis Winter Lettuce - maybe ? It was a free seed pack with a Baker Creek order. It will be fun to try this lettuce and see if it is a keeper or not. 

I tried growing rutabagas last year and nothing came up. :( I sure hope that I have better luck this year. If not I may have to do the trick I did with my beets last spring - sow indoors and then transplant a couple of weeks later. I direct sowed my beets this time - fingers crossed that they will grow. I tell you what - Beets from the garden are so good!! I better close for now - for some reason I am not able to scroll to make sure I am typing what I intend to type. So at this point I am typing blind. So if there are errors, please forgive me. 

Hope you are doing good. May God bless and keep you close to His heart! :O) 

Richie Halverson + A Closer Walk

Happy Sabbath! Sermon starts at about 39 minute mark. 

Steps to Christ...Recovery Edition 3c

 "If you see your sinfulness, don't wait to make yourself better. You may think you aren't good enough yet to come to Jesus. But do you expect to become better through your own efforts? 'Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away his spots Neither can yuo start doing good, for you have always done evil' (Jeremiah 13:23). The only way you can change is by God's help. Don't wait to feel more deeply convicted. Don't wait for a better time or to feel more qualified. You can't do it alone. Come to Jesus now, just the way you are." pg.38

Richie Halverson + Making All Things New part 2

Richie Halverson + Making All Things New part 1

Here is the beginning of an awesome sermon series that was also at Oklahoma Campmeeting. The sermon starts at about the 29 minute mark - if you would like to jump to sermon. And the sermon got cut off and so there is a part 2 and I think that it should automatically go to part 2 - but I will post the part 2 after this post - just in case it does not do it. So look for a second post today. Happy Sabbath. May you be blessed! :O) 

Could This Be The Last One??

So since I was on the computer to pay some bills I thought I would jump on here for a few minutes and do a bit of a catch up. Today we are experiencing our #53 of triple weather days for this year and wouldn't you know it, it's super hot out today. 109 out right now at 4:35 pm. I have seen weather reports that say tomorrow will be 100 and some that say 99. So we will just have to wait and see. The positive news to share is that it may look more like a normal warm fall weather next week with highs in the upper 80's and 90's. That looks so much nicer to me than these triple digit days. It has been oppressive. Yesterday was very hot as well at about 107. I did see where one of the new channels posted on Facebook that in the past we have actually had a triple digit day as late as October 3rd! Can you believe it?! Don't think they said what year. But I just looked it up and it was October 3rd, 1951 and the temperature was 106!! So we may finally be almost done with this scorcher of a summer. So thankful. My garden and I have been in survival mode and we are both ready to thrive!! 

Speaking of gardens, I actually started plants for a fall garden. And a week or so I had to take the plants outside and place them on a picnic table- they were getting too big to have in my sunroom. Anyway something ate the leaves off of some of my plants. Other plants are SO VERY ready to be planted in the ground and I am trying to hard to be patient. Hoping to get them planted in a couple of days. I had to plant the sugar snap peas several days ago - they were looking like they were already struggling - I may lose some plants - but either way I would have lost them. I plan on planting some more in the ground in a few days as well. And hope and pray they do well. I love sugar snap peas!!!! 

Well I still have a whole lot to do around here so I will get off for now. I do hope you all are doing well. I hope your weather is getting more and more fall like as well. Take care and God bless! :O) 

Richie Halverson + When the Storm Keeps Raging part 2

Here is part 2 just in case it did not automatically take you to it. :O) 

Richie Halverson + When the Storm Keeps Raging Pt. 1

Here is another great sermon series. I am so happy I was told about Oklahoma Campmeeting meetings being available on Youtube. I have gotten such a blessing from them and I hope you do as well. This sermon got cut off and so there is a second part to it and it should go right to the second part - but just in case it does not I will put another post and link the second part. By the way the sermon starts at about 22 minutes.  Happy Sabbath! :O)