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