Wordless Wednesday

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Friends

I recently have been back in contact with friends from my youth group. It is amazing to go down memory lane with them. So many fun, silly memories. Sometimes it seems life would be better if you could go back to those carefree days but isn't that just like our memory to forget all the bad stuff we went through. That makes me think of the Children of Israel wanting to go back to Egypt. So many times we go through things and maybe they were awesome fun things and maybe they were bad times that we struggled through but we went through them. Where we are now would not fit that place in the past and then we needed to be where we were so we could stand today. So I say all that to say this. I am thankful for my friends from my youth group. I am who I am today because of your encouragement and because of your walking this Christian walk with me. Thank you for going with me and thank you for keeping in touch with me. Lets keep marching on to the new places in God because we still have mountains and valleys to get through! GOD BLESS

NEW JOB

I am so excited! I got my dream job! I recently graduated in December and have been searching for a job in Foster care. I was hired yesterday for a job where I will be an Admissions Specialist, which means I will interview Foster families and place the right foster child with the right foster family. I am so excited to be walking into this job. Even as I type tears well up in my eyes because it feels like I am walking into my destiny. I will need every prayer I can get for this job but I know I will love every moment of it. Just to know everyday I will go to work and be able to connect Foster parents with children who need them is so amazing. I also realize having worked in this field previously that everyone who signs up as foster parents do not have the most honest of intentions. I will need decernment and guidance beyond my own wisdom and knowledge. So please pray for me! God Bless!!

Finding the Blessings in the Small Things

My money has been tight lately, not a surprise since I am a recent graduate. But God has been giving me (as my seister and I say) handfuls on purpose. I have been asked to make deliveries and pick ups at work which gives me an expense check for .40 a mile I travel. It takes about $30 to fill up my tank and I have used a little under half a tank of gas for these trips and I make about $54 a trip. I have been making one to two trips a week. WHAT A BLESSING!!! Today I even got another parts run that earned me $20 more. So sow your seed and God will bring your blessings in the oddest of ways. God bless

Our Counselor

Our Counselor
TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. - John 14:26

I was driving down the interstate feeling discouraged from an appointment I had just had. A former employee's company was seeking to displace me, and my company, as their source for our services. It had been one of many difficult events during those months. As I was driving, some words popped into my mind, No weapon formed against you shall prosper. I could not tell you where those words came from other than I knew the Holy Spirit was speaking them to me; I knew they were in the Bible. I knew they were in the Old Testament.

When I returned to my office that day, I searched for the key words in my concordance and found the verse. "No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you" (Is. 54:17a).

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would remind us of the things He desires us to know. There are times in our lives when the Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit words designed to encourage us or give us what we need at the moment. That is just one of the roles of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The more you know God's Word, the more often you'll recall verses the Holy Spirit will bring to mind for a given situation. Study God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to remind you of the things He desires you to know.

Struggle Within

Paul talks about this struggle in Romans. We've all heard or read the confusing passage where he talks about doing what he does not want to do but not being able to do what he wants to do. It is the age old battle we all fight within. It seems there is this destiny, or promise lying within us that we feel we are to accomplish yet the things we need to do to actually accomplish that destiny seem lost to us. Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone but me. But I feel I have this promise, calling or destiny (whatever you want to call it) and I so desperately want to achieve this promise! The question is how do I get from where I am in my day to day to where the promise is?? I have heard it said that what you do today will determine your tomorrow. I know it is in the baby steps, the planting seeds, but sometimes that promise, that destiny, seems so far from who and where you are. Sometimes it feels like you made it all up somehow in your mind. Well, I will keep you updated on how this destiny/promise plays out. I have my fingers crossed!! God Bless

Wordless Wednesday

Singles bowling night turned into three ladies bowling alone.
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Blessing of Jacob

A friend of mine sent me an email of his testimony. He had gone through horrible health problems and had been believing for his breakthrough all year. God spoke to him using the story of Jacob. God has been speaking to me using Jacobs story as well. In Gen. 32 Jacob wrestled with an angel until he got his blessing. Some background on the story, Jacob stole the birthright from his brother and fled his country. He was now headed back to face his brother again and he was fearful. He encountered the angel and began to wrestle with him. He was so determined in his wrestling that the angel touched his hip to attempt to break free. Jacob refused to let go. The angel asked what his name was and he told him. The angel changed his name Gen 32:28 "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [e] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." I have not received full revelation on this story yet. I do know that there are things, breakthroughs I am waiting on that I feel like I am wrestling with God over. I, like Jacob, will not let go until I get my blessing. I will be an overcomer and will rise above the struggles set before me. I will ,as Jacob did, walk into the destiny God has set before me regardless of what man's ways or rules has set up against me. God's ways are higher and I will overcome because I will not let go until I do.
Be Blessed

God Shall Provide

My God Shall Provide
TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman

And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:19

Have you ever gone through a time of complete dependence on God for your material needs? Perhaps you lost a job and could not generate income on your own. Perhaps you got sick and could not work. There are circumstances in our lives that can put us in this place.

When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt through the desolate desert, they had no ability to provide for themselves. God met their needs supernaturally each day by providing manna from Heaven. Each day they would awake to one day's portion of what they needed. This was a season in their lives to learn dependence and the faithfulness of God as provider. By and by, they entered the Promised Land. When they did, God's "supernatural provision" was no longer required. "The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan" (Josh. 5:12). In both cases God was the provider of the need.

For most of us, we derive our necessities of life through our work. Like the birds of the fields we are commanded to go out and gather what God has already provided. It is a process of participation in what God has already provided. Sometimes it appears it is all up to us; sometimes it appears it is all up to God. In either case we must realize that the Lord is our provider; the job is only an instrument of His provision. He requires our involvement in either case.

You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

Acknowledge the Lord as the provider of every need you have today. He is a faithful provider.

God's Preparation for Moving Out

I receive this devotional in an email and thought I would share this great Word with everyone! GOD BLESS!! :o)


God's Preparation for Moving Out
TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman

In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys. - Genesis 30:43

Jacob left his homeland after suffering a broken relationship with Esau for stealing the family blessing. He went to work for his uncle Laban where he stayed for 20 years. It came time for him to leave, but he had no physical assets to show for those years under Laban. Laban had taken advantage of his nephew in every way. (In some ways, Jacob was reaping the seed he had sown his entire life as a manipulator and controller.) Nevertheless, God's hand was on Jacob, and He had plans to prosper him. However, Jacob had one problem - he had no resources of his own. For Jacob to launch out on his own, he would need resources. In those days, resources often meant large flocks of animals. God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy for creating wealth by multiplying his sheep. Even though Laban sought to thwart Jacob's efforts, God overcame the evil in Laban to allow Jacob to prosper.

There are many important lessons for us in this story. First, when God decides it is time to move you into a larger place of His calling, He has the ability to provide the resources you need to support the call. God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy never used before to build wealth. It was totally from God's hand. It was creative and new. God called Jacob to move out after he had demonstrated his faithfulness in 20 years of serving Laban. He learned to live under authority and served Laban faithfully, even though he knew he was being taken advantage of.

God will do the same for you and me. However, a word of caution: Be sure the strategy is born from above, and not from self-effort. The difficulty for most of us workplace believers is to learn the difference between the strategies born of God versus the strategy of self-effort.

Blogging

My seister and I have been working on my page to get it up to par. All the while the computers at work have been down and my time at home has been minimal. But while the computers are working and things are somewhat set up here on my new page, I would like to say that God is up to some exciting things in my life. I can not even begin to tell you where I am today compared to where I was just last year. It's amazing. There are things He has done in my life and through my life that truely are farther than my imagination. I am on the brink of my new career, which I have interviewed for and things are really looking very promising, and spiritually I feel like God and I are on a whole new level. I look forward to sharing this walk with my Family and new friends that join me in this new blogging world. GOD BLESS!!!

For my Dear Seister

I switched to be more family friendly! I do blog on myspace but I must admit my seister has made this blogging site seem so much more fun. So this one is for your dear Seister!! :o)