It's Give Away Time!

 In honor of my friend Leah  I will be giving away four autographed copies of her Bible Study,  From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy.

This excellent Bible study will help us examine our legacy and guide us in creating a godly legacy that will honor God.

All you have to do to enter for the drawing is to leave a comment.  I will choose the winners in a very scientific way; your names will be drawn out of a hat by my sweet hubby on November 15th.

What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

A Good Connection

My Blackberry was on it's last legs. The screen would freeze, making in difficult to use unless you turned it off and then back on several times a day.  I am not technologically savvy at all but I decided to get a new Android phone that is really cool.  My niece works for our wireless carrier so when she brought me the new phone, she and her brother gave me a thorough tutorial.  Very soon I was familiar enough with the phone to do all sorts of cool things.  However, I failed to learn how to retrieve a call!  After several missed calls I finally got the hang of answering a call.  By now you have probably figured out that I am not always the sharpest crayon in the box.

Today in Bible study during Leah's prayer, one of our ladies' phone rang.  She had forgotten to silence it.  She managed to silence the call and then another ladies' phone rang.  She silenced her call as well and we had a little giggle during our prayer.   As Leah was praying, she thanked the Lord that he never silences our calls.  I am so thankful for that.  He always takes our calls.  He never mutes us.  He never sends us straight to His voice mail.  He never screens our calls even when He sees on His caller ID that it's me.   Our calls to Heaven are never dropped and there is always a good connection.  He is "on call" 24/7.  His network is always available.  He can "hear us now".  Praise Him with me that He always hears our prayers.

 "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all you heart."  Jeremiah 29: 12-13

 "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."  Jeremiah 33:3

Life is Good,

Cindy

Hoarders

Some of you may have watched the television show Hoarders but  I had never seen an episode until last week.  I was flipping through the channels on Labor Day hoping for a Criminal Minds or NCIS marathon but instead I happened upon Hoarders.  And I was mesmerized.  And heartbroken for the hoarders.

 The A & E channel defines it like this : "Compulsive Hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things even if the items are worthless, hazardous or unsanitary."  Some of the hoarders have had some circumstance in their life that triggered their disorder.  I was amazed that some of the homes had gotten to the point that they were uninhabitable.  The hoarders are embarrassed and overwhelmed.  Most of the houses had gotten so bad that the hoarders had no clue where to start and seemed hopeless.  Some of the hoarders did not realize that they had a problem.  Families had been torn apart by the hoarding.  The only way for a compulsive hoarder to change is through therapy.  It was so easy for me to be judgmental and disgusted.  But like I said my heart was broken.

The Holy Spirit began to whisper that we as Christians can be hoarders too.  What?  Did I hear you correctly Lord?  While we may not hoard possessions we can sometimes hoard our emotions.

• We hoard forgiveness when we fail to extend it to someone who might have wronged us. 
• We hoard mercy when we fail to show compassion to others.
• We hoard patience when we are easily annoyed by others.
• We hoard joy when we let our circumstances dictate how we feel.

When we hang on to these things instead of sharing them with others we are basically hoarding Jesus!  Jesus paid too high a price for us to keep Him too ourselves.  I don't want to be a hoarder.  How about you?

Different Denominations (and I'm Not Talking About Money)

Our church just began having a contemporary service in our Fellowship Hall on Sunday mornings in addition to our more traditional Sunday morning worship.   W.I.T.H  or Worship in the Hall wasn't a change in theology, but a different style of worshiping the same God.  It is an amazing worship service and it got me to thinking about different denominations and the different ways that people worship the One True God.

I think it's really neat that we as the body of Christ can choose how we worship and belong to the denomination of our choice.   It would be boring if everyone were alike.  Some prefer chocolate, some vanilla.  And so it is with worship, we have different preferences.

Sunday morning before last I turned on the television to hear a popular Atlanta pastor as usual before leaving for church.  I couldn't find him, so I settled for a different channel and different pastor.  I never did find our his name because I was listening from another room as I got ready to go to church.  But it was a very interesting explanation of denominations.

He surmised that  different denominations possibly existed in the Old Testament.  I know what you're thinking, probably the same thing I was; huh?   After the Egyptian Pharaoh released the Hebrews after 430 years of captivity, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and other laws.  He later gave him detailed instructions on building a sanctuary or Tabernacle for Him so that He could dwell among the people. The Israelites  were divided into 12 tribes and each tribe set up camp around the Tabernacle, the position of each tribe's campsite had been determined by instructions from God to Moses. 

Each of the twelve tribes had different standards or banners that they flew over their tribe.  Even though they were all Jews and they had all been enslaved in Egypt there were differences in each tribe.  Every tribe had a set of values; personal values, traditional values and core values.  Personal values could be shaped by circumstances in their lives, their jobs, etc.  Traditional values were held by each tribe, and came from traditions that had been passed down from the families in the tribe from generation to generation, like what dishes they ate their Passover meal on, whether they watched the Passover football game, etc. (I'm just kidding.  But you get the drift.)  And core values are the values that they all held as God's chosen people.   These core values were absolutely non-negotiable.  "You shall have no other gods before me, You shall not make for yourself an idol, You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, Honor your father and your mother, You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony, and You shall not covet".

We who are Believers have our own set of personal and traditional values.  Some of us are quiet in our worship, and some of us clap our hands.  Some of us like the old hymns and some of us like the new praise songs.  We are Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Lutherans to name a few.  But our core values are the same.  We are followers of Christ.  We believe that Jesus died once for all, taking on our sins and on the third day rose from the dead, giving us eternal life and preparing  us a place with Him in Heaven.

 
  

Putting on My Armor

Hello again.  It has been forever since I've seen you!  I've missed you.  I had no intentions of being away so long, but God had other plans.  This has been a hectic year.  In March and April I battled the flu for a month and in May our daughter got married.  In my last post I told you that God had me in a place of quiet rest to recover from all the excitement.   I really didn't expect my rest to be an extended one, but in July I came down with what the Doctor thought was bronchitis but turned into pneumonia.  The symptoms lasted over a month and then I was diagnosed with asthma.  That explains why it was so hard to get over the flu and pneumonia.


I have to be honest with you, while I was going through the flu I began to feel so defeated.  I don't think I had ever felt that bad and it got to the point where I wondered if I would ever feel better again.  And even though I knew that it wasn't the truth, I even felt like God had forsaken me.   Those were lies straight from the enemy himself. When I got sick with pneumonia I briefly entertained those lies again.
Both times when I was sick, I was unable to sit up and just generally felt lousy, not even like reading.  So I let my Bible reading and my Bible study lapse.  Big mistake.  One that I will never make again. 

Today in my Bible study on Covenant,  I read Ephesians 6.  I have read this passage many times, but today God showed me something new.   Kay Arthur says: "  The word "struggle" in Ephesians 6:12 is the Greek word pale.  It is a wrestling term - meaning to throw to the ground and hold there.  Could this be why so many who profess Jesus find themselves pinned to the ground by the Enemy?"  That is exactly how I felt!  I realized that during my illnesses, I had not put on the FULL armor of God.  I had select pieces on, but not the full armor.  My feelings were due to something that I had not done.  God had not forsaken me, I hadn't done my part.   Listen to me my sweet sisters, we cannot function at all unless we are FULLY armored!  We cannot stand firm against the enemy's schemes without God's complete suit of armor.  We cannot resist his lies unless we are fully armored.   It is impossible to stand against his evil ways without His complete armor. 

Ephesians 6:10-17 (New International Version)

The Armor of God

 ¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.









       

Rest

Hello friends!  I have missed you all.  But for the last several weeks God has had me in a place of quiet rest.  A place of rest in Him.  After the flurry of activity leading up to my daughter's wedding I was ready for ttanquility, both physically and mentally!  The Lord had me to refrain from any blogging or blog hopping in this season.  I was just supposed to be still in Him. 

I've been able to read 6 books so far this summer, something I haven't done in a while.  I am one of those readers that gets completely and totally lost in my book and can't put it down.

I also began a new Bible study that I am enjoying greatly, From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy by my very good friend Leah Adams.  Perhaps you've heard of her.  Leah is in the process of final edits and it will come out in the fall.

Anyway, I've missed you.  So tell me, what has God been up to in your life?
 

We Are Blessed

After many months of prayer, planning and preparation, the time finally came for our daughter's much anticipated wedding.  The week leading up to the wedding had proved to be typical weather-wise for May.  It rained off and on nearly every day with afternoon thunderstorms.  Saturday morning it looked like more of the same.  The day dawned overcast with dark clouds.  I had prayed for no rain because although the wedding would take place under a covered pavilion, it was quite a hike to get there and even being shuttled on golf carts the guests were bound to get wet.  I prayed for God's favor, but we knew that it was in His hands come rain or shine!  By mid-morning the sun was out and it was a beautiful day.  And we experienced the unmerited favor of the Lord.

Caitlin was one of the calmest brides I have ever seen. She woke up that morning beaming, with the biggest smile on her face.   We had a couple of minor emergencies; one of the groomsman's tux pants didn't fit and he had to make the two hour drive back to Men's Wearhouse to exchange them. They wouldn't meet him halfway.  The zipper on one of the bridesmaid's dress malfunctioned. Through all of this Caitlin was cool as a cucumber.  She commented that it didn't really matter what happened because at the end of the day I will be Mrs. Jody Jenkins.  I think a nuclear blast could have occurred and it wouldn't have fazed her.  Here she is getting ready with her bridesmaids.

The weather was still beautiful when it came time for the ceremony.  My heart was so full of emotion.  My little girl, now a grown woman beginning a family of her own.  Walking down the aisle on the arm of her daddy. 

The ceremony was so sweet.  They were married by the Youth Minister at our church.  He and his wife were such an important part of Caitlin's spiritual life and she couldn't imagine anyone else marrying them.  Instead of lighting a unity candle, they chose to enter into a Salt Covenant.  It indicates a binding contract, uniting their grains of salt for eternity.  Then they took communion as their first act of worship together as a married couple.

One of the most touching things in the ceremony were the unashamed tears of one of Jody's brothers and of Caitlin's brother.  I hadn't seen my 19 year old son cry for a very long time.  But his tears flowed freely.  He said, "I'm just so happy".  Here's Jody and his brother Toby.

We are so blessed to have gained another son.  He loves my daughter with all of his heart and we love him.  We also love his family and had such a good time with them as our families were joined together. 

  Here are a few photos from the reception:

  

I didn't have the presence of mind to take any pictures, so thank you to all of you that sent me pictures.  And thank you for indulging me and letting me share our special day with you.



Life Is Good,

Cindy