Feeling the Crunch

Dear Beth,
Thank you so much for this post. I was hit with the crunch on Dec 8th, 2008 when my former employers asked me to meet them for breakfast and I did we order our food and while we were waiting they told me I no longer had a job with the company due to finances (I was overhead). But putting that all aside because I gave all the anger and hurt over the my Lord and Savior and he has been good and taken it all from me. I am a single lady and my only income. I have applied for my unemployment and was approved last week just having to wait on the first check which I have no clue when it will be sent. Possibily next week. I appreciate your prayers very much. As for right now God has made what little money I have go a long ways for the last month. Bills are coming due again and I know HE will provide. But I must say last week while I was at our local career center I was watching all the people that was coming in to apply for unemployment and try to find a job and I was sadden for them. I know I am in that boat with them but I have my Lord to provide and I don't know how many of them did. So many sad faces, so many walking away with nothing. Lots of people looking for work but no work for them. My prayer is for those out there that are hurting spiritually and financially. The one thing I can say I have been blessed to be able to spend more time with my Lord in His Word and in study than I have in awhile and I am loving it.

Belief or Unbelief

What would the cause of Christianity be like if thousands of modern Christians had the same zeal to seek the Savior that the magi had?

Romans 4:3 ..."Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Each morning we awake and go about our day based on one of two beliefs: Either we believe in God and our every action is motivated by this central value, or we do not really believe and our actions reflect so.

You can be a believer yet act as though there is no God. Whenever you fret over life circumstances, you immediately demonstrate unbelief. Whenever you move out of fear or anxiety, you believe a lie about God's nature.

Each day your actions affirm or convict you of your belief system. It reveals who the central focus of your life really is-you or God. It reveals who you place your ultimate trust in-you or God. It is one of the great paradoxes for believers. One day we can believe Him to move mountains. The next day we can question His very existence.

Peter believed God and walked on water.
A sick woman touched the hem of His garment and was healed.
A Canaanite woman believed and freed her daughter from demon-possession.

In what circumstances do you act as an "unbeliever"? Ask God to increase your level of trust so that your actions match up with one who believes every day.

Revealing in Revival

I just have to say this to start I know without a doubt if I don’t right this I want get any sleep for the simple reason that God ain’t letting it go.
How many of you have ever thought about “attitude”. Do we really understand what it means, what it is or what it can do in our life? Well let me start this off by giving you Webster’s definition of “attitude”. There are actually several and I feel the need to include them all because of the content of this blog. Attitude a bodily posture showing mood, action etc, a manner showing one’s feelings or thoughts, ones disposition or opinion etc, (slang) a quarrelsome or haughty temperament or manner. Boy now that is a mouthful. Now I know we all have attitudes about a lot of things in our lives. And this is just as much for me as it is anyone else. But I truly hope this speaks to you as much as God has spoke to me through all of this.

The definition of attitude in the Webster dictionary is a very good description of the world today but let me tell you it has also came to the point that this same description describes so many in our churches today. May I ask, is this a good thing or a bad thing, well in my honest and humble opinion as they say in class sometimes I thought the church and Christians themselves were to be set apart. After all isn’t that what the word sanctified means. If that is the case then why is it today that the world cannot see any difference in themselves and the church? It is all about our ATTITUDE. Let me share with you for a few minutes what I actually got to experience during a sermon I was hearing tonight that was titled “The Christian Attitude”.

While I was attending a revival service the preacher got up in the pulpit and started off by sharing a few good stories and then told us what scripture he would be basing his sermon on. The scripture was Philippians 4: 13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” what a wonderful verse that we all know and have quoted numerous times. Well, this is where it gets good. When I opened my Bible to the scripture I had this scripture already marked, now you may say “yeah because it is so familiar” yes you could be right but not this time. You see not only was it marked but there was notes, the same title of the sermon, some of the same notes and a date 08/19/07. You see the same preacher that was delivering the message at the revival was the same preacher that delivered the original message in August of 2007. The only difference in the two sermons was the places they were being delivered and now for the big one, THE ATTITUDE in which it was received.

Now the first time I heard the sermon I enjoyed it just as much as I did tonight. But when I heard it tonight God revealed to me something that I would never have expected. God reminded me of the surroundings and attitude of the church where the first message was preached. There were those that murmured and said that they did not like feeling like they were being constantly put beat up and felt like it was negative. Then there were those that stood back with their arms crossed thinking “I know he is not talking about me”. Another difference was the empty altar, now that one bites I am sure. Can we say this could be a very good description of a pessimistic attitude? Now I am sorry if I am stepping on toes but I am just telling you what God has shown me tonight.

Then there was the attitude that this same sermon was received tonight. I would have to describe it as the optimistic attitude. These were a people that accepted the Word that God was giving them and took it as a blessing. And at the end of the sermon when the altar call was given it was packed. They left the place of worship with a heart filled desire to have the optimistic attitude. Smiles on their faces and joy in their steps. Looking forward to the next meeting to receive more of what God has for them.

I will say this much I have never had the opportunity to experience anything like it. To be blessed to hear the same sermon twice would not be unusual but for that same sermon to be about “The Christian Attitude” and God bringing the sermon to life by showing me the two different attitudes in the way this same sermon was received. WOW what an awesome GOD we serve.

Yes when it all come down to it "IT IS ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE" what kind of attitude do you want to have.

God and no compares to HIM

On this cold and wet Saturday morning I am sitting here in my big comfortable chair studying the lesson for our Youth Discipleship training class for Sunday evening (3:16 The Number of Hope by Max Lucado) when God just popped me in the head again, (you know one of those I should have had a V-8 kind of pops right between the eyes) well in the case in the heart.

The lesson this week is on No One Like Him, the scripture is based out of Isaiah 40: 18-31. This is where Isaiah was trying to get the Israelites to realize that there was or is no one as powerful or no one that can compare to our God. Then I realized just how true these statements truly are.

Let me back up just a little bit. There is a pattern here that I failed to get until now. First before I started studying I went on line to the Living Proof Blog (Beth Moore’s blog site) and was reading where she was sharing how great our God is and how so many people don’t give him the credit when credit is due him for the big and little things he does in each of our lives. Then I started studying this lesson. Boy can I just say here that God really wanted to share some good stuff with me today.

As I started studying and I saw just why He deserves all the credit for all HE does in each of our lives. There is no one or not one thing that can compare to him in any way form or fashion. He is the GOD of all. I just want to share with you our evidence he give us in HIS scripture.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of HIS hands.

Psalm 74:16 The day is yours, and yours also the night you established the sun and moon.

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.

John 5:26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.

Acts 17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself give all men life and breath and everything else.

I know these are a lot of verses but just to be honest with you there are a lot more verses to show us that He is the God of all and these just touch the surface. If we would just look to the ONE and only in all of our situations instead of always trying to rely on ourselves our lives would be so much better. I am also talking to myself here and I feel that is the reason God has revealed these scriptures to me to help me to remember that all things are done and go through him first. He also helps me to realize He does not need my help to fix the things in my life or in the lives of the people who are around me or who reads this. He is in control of all things.

He does not need our help, if he did why would he have said “I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.” He is our God and He is in control of all things. It is just that simple it is us his children that make things so difficult.

Let us now give Him total control, let Him be the pilot of our lives. Then when we do experience the fulfilling and abundant life He has for us let us give Him and Him alone the glory for it all. After all even the heavens and earth give Him the glory why not us.

Saturday

I just want to say thank you to all who have been praying for our family and my dad. He came home from the hospital yesterday, Friday Feb.29. As I wrote in the previous blog it had been a long week. Well now we are in for the long journey to full recovery.

I know as children we think that our parents will always be around. They will never be sick and will always be there to take care of you. Then we grow into our teenage years and we feel basically the same but we also feel like we know everything and they just don't get it. How could they get it they are our parents they could not possibly understand and know what we are going through. Then we become adults and have children of our own. We are so busy by now with our lives that we don't take the time we need to to be around to spend a lot of time with our parents which by now have become mawmaw and pawpaw instead of mama and daddy.

Well, I know you are thinking by now where is she going with all of this. Well here it is in a nut shell. We need to realize that our parents have been children at one time and thought the same about their parents. They were teenagers and have gone through a lot of the same things we have just in a different time. Then there came the day when their parents became grandparents to us. Basically they do understand and we need to take as much time with them as we possibly can.

None of us young, middle age or old are guaranteed tomorrow. We are to live today as if it could be our last. So if this is so we need to come together more or as much as possible as a family. Not just the regular holidays.

I can truly say in these last six weeks or so between the trips to the hospital and the death of my lovely sister in law and then my dad having by pass surgery we need to quit taking for granted that our time will never end because we know that is not so. So take the time to spend with family or pick up a phone to a love one and just say hi. Send a card or send an email. Just take the time that God has given you and enjoy your family now while the time is yours to enjoy them.

A Very Long Week

It has been a very long week. To be honest with you it has been a very long last 6 weeks for our family. First off my daddy was in the hospital for a heart attack and had to have a heart cath and stints. Well that all went well. Then my sister in law Stacy went into the hospital and while there was healed by our Lord and taken home to be with him, but I will say this we all do miss her very much but do know that we will see her again. During all this time I was told that I needed to be looking for another job after 2 1/2 years of working for this company (this was the new owners that told me this). What has topped this all off is that on Wednesday my daddy blacked out while he was driving to the doctors for his six week followup and has a small accident while crossing 759 bridge. He was taken to Riverview Hospital where we find out late that evening he has had another heart attack. On Thursday he had to have another heart cath and we found out he was going to have to have by pass surgery. Saturday was the big and long day. With all your prayers and a God that is still in the healing business everything went well. He is now in ICU anding doing well. He will proably be put in a room on Monday. The doctors said he will be in the hospital maybe a week to 10 days and then will be sent home for about 6 to 8 weeks of healing and rest. Like I said at the beginning of this Blog it has been a very long six weeks. To all of my friends that have known about this and been praying for our family thank you very much. To those that are just now finding out about my daddy and mom please pray for strenght and healing in these next few days and weeks.

What an Amazing GOD

Hello everyone. I will admit I have not been a very good girl when it comes to writing blogs on my site. But I thought today I would fill in the spaces of the last few weeks about what God has been doing in my life and the life of my lovely family. If I had to go back in time for a little while to tell you about our Christmas holiday I would have to start back with the trip of a life time. That trip would have been with our youth to Breakaway which was in Pigeon Forge, TN. I have been on a few trips with our youth but this trip is the one that I will say was more of a blessing than any of us would have believed.

We had a total of 34 people (this is youth and 8 adults) when we arrived on Thursday I had the feeling that this trip was going to be a lot of fun but proably would be the typical youth trip. Yes, I was no different than a lot of others, I went not really expecting a lot to take place. I knew God was with us and would show up but I had no idea exactly how. We had our worship service and the music and Antwan was great. But then the kids had their group time and the adults went into theirs. But let me go back for just a minute the scripture and theme of the whole conference was AWAKEN.

Revelation 3: 1b - 2 "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remain and is adout to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

Thursday nights adult time hit home Eddie talked about the phases that todays church is going through and how we need to awaken to what is going on around us in the world. Thursday night we were blessed by having one of our young ladies become a child of God and accept him as her Lord and Savior.

But the time that topped off it all was Friday. The time of worship was awesome you could so feel the presents of the HOLY SPIRIT in that place. Antwan's message was about Little Boy Blue this was based on the scriptures from Ezekiel 33 1 - 9. We are all watchman for Christ. He challenged each of us as to where we are as watchman for Christ, are we asleep like Little Boy Blue or are we doing the will of God.

When we went into our churches group time God showed off. First of all Kevin, our minister of youth and children spoke, then my son Mat did something that I was not expecting. He stood up in front of this group of young people and the adults and gave his testimony.

You see the reason this was so special to me is because of the things and the direction I had been seeing and living watching my son go in the wrong direction but the only thing I could do was to pray for God's protection around him.

I knew Mat was saved and knew the Lord and he also knew the things that he was doing was not in God's will for him. But as he spoke and told these young people that he was no different from them at one time. Yes, he had been on many youth retreats in the past and proably felt just like them. It was an opportunity for them to go away to the mountains with their friends and yeah set through worship and then go home. But the next thing he said was on one trip God truly saved him, but he had gotten so far from God that he no longer heard his voice. Then he told the kids of the time he had spent three days in jail and is now on three years of probation for hanging out with the wrong group of friends and ignoring God's voice calling him. He then called the kids and adults into the middle of the room and to get on their knees in prayer. He also challenged the youth to be the youth to go back and make a difference in our church because Mat had since in the past how one youth group can change a whole church. When the group got down to pray the Holy Spirit became so active in that group it was amazing. There was not a try eye in the room. It was like every burden that the young people and adults came to Breakaway with was gone.

Now we have came back and the young people are making an awesome difference in our church. They are standing up for God in so many ways it is amazing.

I will continue to write in my future blogs of the amazing work God is doing through this retreat and through our youth. I asked that each of you that may read this blog will keep them in your prayers. We all need the prayers of others to help build us up and ward off the arrows that Satan has targeted for each of us.

Why go to church

This is an email that I received that I thought I would share hope you all enjoy.

Why go to Church?
If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this! If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it. If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope! Why Go To Church?A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this.. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment! < /I> All right, now that you're done reading, send it on! I think everyone should read this! "When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could you get that for me?"

Just a quick thought

I am sitting here thinking how many different posts I have started and stopped thinking I am to write about some profound thought or thing in my life and I seem to end up never posting anything to my blog. Then I realized writing on my blog doesn't have to be all profound or theological. All it needs to be is something that I feel passionate about at the time I am writing.

So I stop to think about what am I most passionate about at this very moment. Ah, what could that possibly be. Well, as I sit here racking this brain of mine (yes for my closest friends I do have one of those LOL) I realize one of the things that really is on my heart at this moment is something that God spoke to me about last night while I was sitting in my Romans class at seminary. (Thanks Brother Roy). We were going over Romans chapter 6 and preparing for our finals next week when we started to discuss the scriptures Romans 6: 1-2.

Romans 6:
(v1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (v2) Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? NKJV

One of the examples that was used for this scripture was that of a dead body. You can touch it, caress it, and move it's hand but there is no responds. I had never really thought of this scripture in this way. Then there was a short story of a young pastor that was truly on fire for God and in this same church was an old deacon that was set in his ways, basically his way or no way. For years the old deacon would discourage, oppose and criticize the young pastor. One day a member of the church asked the young pastor how he managed to put up with this deacon and he simply replied, "I died to him five years ago." The young pastor had grasped the concept of the believer's death with Christ.

So as the scripture says "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" I truly don't think (in my humble opinion) that we have grasped the concept ourselves. If we have or had how could we continue on the way we are with worrying about the problems that our children are in or the direction they are going. Continue finding ourselves stressed out and letting our health be effected by the things that our family members put us through. Get mad and upset when someone doesn't see things the same way we do in our work place or even in church. Even as simple as being on the road and getting cutoff and getting mad and passing that anger off to the next person we meet.

I know to some people these are things that we take with us daily but even the little things worry, anger and so many other are all sins that if we are truly in Christ we have died to. We should be like the corpes and the young pastor and really die to these things. Let them go we say that we believe and trust in God then die to these sins and let him take over for us. I am not just writing this for those reading this I am writing this with myself included. And I am not saying that we (I) am/are prefect but we should strieve to be. Yes we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But I praise him daily for the grace that he has given us all.

So what I plan to do that next time I find myself in these situations I am going to remind myself as the younger pastor said "I have died to this" and give it to Christ.

Lord, Thank you so much for the gift of grace you have given each of us that are your children. Lord I pray for strength to continue walking daily in your light and to remember daily that we who have accepted you as our Lord and Savior died to these sins with your son Jesus Christ. In your blessed Sons name I pray AMEN

Blessed weekend

This post to my blog has no profound insight that the Lord has laid on my heart to share or scriptures to quote, it is just me reflecting on the past week and weekend that God has blessed me with. Of course today is the beginning of a new work week with all new adventures and plans that God has for me and each of us. But I felt like taking a few moments to just share a few things about the past week. It is always a blessing and a joy to be able to spend time with your church family. We have been practicing and preparing for our performance of HEE HAW. The stage went up on the weekend of 10/20 and from that point on it was on. With our regular lives and practice each night the show went on. It was great. Friday night was dress rehearsel and Saturday was the first show. We had lots of people and lots of laughs. But of the two shows in my opinion Sunday night took the cake. Packed house, lots of laughs, mistakes made that made it even funnier. Dennis and Wanda are a blessing and a joy to have as apart of our Bellevue family, Dennis (Grandpa) and Bro Jerry (Gober) was a real treat you could say they were side splitters. I laughed so hard and thank you for that. Tena (Maw) and Howard (Paw) two people that could not have fit the parts any better. Tena do you have all your rollers. LOL. Duke (Junior) and Melanie (Misty) what a couple, I could not have asked for better friends and a true blessing from God. Kevin (Roy) and Christie both did a great job, Kevin, I am so glad God blessed you with Christie and Christie with the ability to keep you straight. I am so glad God sent your family into my life. Now for Troy (Buck, Elroy) where oh where does a person beginning. I will get you even when you duck. Oh by the way it is after the pigs. LOL. We even got to see Brother Rick (minister of music) do a little gig himself, keep on dancing brother. To everyone that was in the cast you are all a joy and a blessing to be around. From the time the stage went up to the moment it went down last night I count each and every minute with we spent together a blessing from God. A person can help but love everyone of these brothers and sisters. I know God had to be rolling around on the floor of heaven last night at each of everyone of us.



I look forward to seeing the pictures and video that were made this weekend. As soon as I get a copy of the group picture I will post them for all to see. Thank you God for the blessed weekend and the wonderful people you have put into my life. I could not have asked for any better. Now to get started with this new week you have blessed me with and the new adventures that still await.

When Life Give You Rapids

Have you ever felt like sometimes that your life is like a raging river with rapids and strong under tow that every time you turn around you are just being swept under. You are going so fast down river that you can get things under control. You keep hitting one unseen rock after another. It seems like every time there is a rock you are just pulled down more and more under the water. It is like if you were to be pulled down just one more time your would drown and that would be it. You know we say that we know that God is there with us but to we really believe it deep down in our hearts that he is there. We say we read our bible and we attend bible study, we know that he says he is there because he tells us in his word that he is there and he is watching over us. Just like in Matthew 6: 25-31 he tells us that he knows our every need and he will meet those needs. So if we truly believe he is there then why do we do not try to call out to him more for help.

Well let me tell you I know for a fact he is there and is just waiting for each and everyone of us to just call out to him for help. I am not just saying this because I read and study my bible and I know what he promises me he will do, I know for the very simple reason that I have actually experienced what it is like to be in a river with mighty rapids, being pulled under, not being able to turn around to face down river like the guide has told you to do at the being of the trip. Where you feel that my moment is going to be your last. You come up for air and you see your best friend in the same situation and you can’t do anything to help yourself or him. Yes I have truly experience the real thing and believe me it is not something I wish to ever experience again. But I will say on that day God showed up and show off in one of the most awesome ways I have ever experienced.

On Saturday September 15th we took some of the youth White water rafting down to Ocoee River in Tennessee. It was going to be a lot of fun all the way up to Tennessee we had joked about being dumped out of the boat which you figure that sure you maybe but there is a jacket you wear and everything has to be safe because people do it all the time. Well, when we got there we all divided up into groups of six, but you see we had fourteen on the trip so that left Troy and I in a boat with three other ladies from Atlanta and the guide which was always a young lady. It was all a lot of fun to begin with until we came upon the rapid that is known by Double Suck, this is where it all goes crazy. We had already been making comments about praying and joking around about being thrown out and then it happened. All of the passengers were dumped out the guide was the only one left in the boat. Troy, myself and one other ladies was thrown down river by the current about fifty feet. They tell you the assume a white water possession and I tried very hard. The only thing I was unable to do was get turned around to face down the river. I could see Troy up river from me and he shouted for me to get turned around I told him I had tried and could not. The current was so hard and swift that I had come to the conclusion that God if this is my time okay. Just take care of my boys. I never had a panic about the possibility I knew every time that I would hit a rock with my back I was going under. I knew many more times and it could be over. Then finally I was able to get turned a little and there was a boat. I yelled for help and the next thing I knew they were there and pulled me into the boat. The lady that was in our boat had been pulled from the river just before me and Troy was pulled back into the boat we fell out of. Finally once everything had settles down we were all back in the orginial boat that we had started in going back down river. Let me tell you one thing is for sure if some of these people that were on that river did not know the power of God they did by the end of the trip.

We would stop to rest every so often to let the other boats catch up and make sure everyone was safe. Our guide saw where a couple of other rafts had pulled to the side and decided to stop also. Then there on a concrete culvert God showed off. I looked up and told Troy to look and there he was. A small cross with sun rays was drawn on the side of the culvert with six of the most beautiful words a person could ever see. I WAS HERE, I AM HERE. I knew then at that very moment that God was with us when we were going down river and was holding on tight every time we went under. He would be there on the rest of the trip and make sure we were safe.

The other two boats with the Bellevue crew did not stop in that place while we were pulled over. We found out later on that where we pulled over was not one of the regular resting spots is the reason they did not stop. You see now why I said God was showing off. The name of the section of the river that we went down was Hell’s Half Mile and praise God he took us through every inch of it.

So believe me when I say these things. When you feel like you are going down your own Hell’s Half Mile in your life just take a moment to call out to him and realize that God is everything he tells us he is, he will do everything he says he will do and He is there in the difficult time and I AM HERE to see you through the rest.