Awesome Lord's Day

Today has been an Awesome Lord's Day and it is not yet over. I, along with so many people, have suffered from allergies/sinus all week- so it felt good to be in the House of the LORD even though we all had fragile voices, and low energy levels. Something powerful about the family of God being together.

I was so thankful the LORD brought in three children today for our SS class. They are little ones so we talked about the letter "A". Today it stood for ALL (for all have sinned - Romans 3:23) and for ANTS (Proverbs 6:6). We colored a big letter "A" Then glued raisins around the outline of the letter that represented ANTS. We acted like ants as we carried things on our back all around the table. When our load fell off, we could not be lazy, but be like ants, pick up our load and continue on. We also made an ant hill from a triangle that we covered with crushed graham cracker and had paper ants to glue around the hill- along with the words of Proverbs 6:6. The craft was fun - especially the crushing of the graham cracker that was inside a baggy. I used empty medicine bottles as our crushers. It worked nicely. It is hard for me to teach such little ones, but I also appreciate the S-T-R-E-T-C-H of three littles ones and not twenty. :)

This afternoon was our Nursing Home Ministry. That is always such a joy. Last week was the first time we canceled it in over two years. But too many of our team was sick, including me.
Today I talked about PRAYER. We played a recording of the song: The Lord's Prayer and I signed it to the people. Then I read the Lord's Prayer to them from Matthew 6 and Luke 11. This gave them three opportunities to HEAR and refresh in their minds the words that most of them knew. WE then recited the prayer together as a group. Then I had several prayers written by children. I read each one and we discussed how cute it sounds when you know a child has prayed it, but how we as adults often tell God how to do things, or make suggestions, or ask for things that are not to our best interest. The residents responded well as the simple prayers helped to connect their childness with their adultness. [I teach the Bible lesson to the assisted living unit and then I teach to the demenia unit]. We recited the Lord's prayer again and this time they were saying it with more meaning and it was a thrill to sense they have connected with the Word of God today.

So far it has been a powerful Lord's Day. The sermon this morning was powerful on Psalm 85. What a JOY to interpret the Word of God as my Husband preaches. God is so full of mercy, grace, love, compassion, righteousness and Truth! And the day is not over!

The House is Falling in!

My dog went BALISTIC when a HUGE noise rattled the house today. I was calmly sitting at my computer, my Pastor husband was at the Church office, and our daughter was out of the house. I remember thinking: IT sure sounded like the big tree in the back yard has fallen on the house, and yet I could not understand why I was not feeling or seeing any damage. As I calmly walked to the door, trying to ignore my dog who was unceasingly barking, . . . . I remembered!

The Space Shuttle was to land today, and we are quite used to the LOUD sound it makes when it breaks through the atmosphere. That is the signal for us to turn on the TV so we can watch the actual landing. I was glad I remembered what it was- always makes me feel assured when my aging brain clicks in to such vital information. My husband and I were trying to phone each other at the same time, until we finally reached each other and said " Turn on the TV". He told me how it had shaken every window, every board of the Church as he sat quietly in his office studying. It had a way of WAKING YOU UP wherever you were!

I could not help but think about the Rapture of our Lord. We KNOW Jesus is going to return, like I knew the space shuttle was to land today, and yet I was not thinking about it at the moment it occured. It happened whether I was expecting it or not. The space shuttle although not landing near us, had a way of getting our attention, got us to leave what we were doing and look to the skies.

Our Lord WILL return, and HE very well could return tonight, tomorrow or the next day. We KNOW He is going to come, but still we will all be caught off guard. But whether we are ready, or prepared - it will happen anyway - at HIS timing. HE will come and take us home if we are HIS children by faith, OR leave us sadly here, while our Loved ones who have trusted in Jesus are GONE.

I trust you are ready to go. I am!

My ESCAPING cat!

We have a relatively new cat that has joined our household. Oh such fun our dog and cat have playing together. They are a delight to watch together. We enjoy both of them as part of our family. BUT lately the cat has started to ESCAPE when someone comes in or goes out. I mean there is no catching this cat, it ZIPS out faster than your body can move.

Now we have a pond behind our house where an alligator lives. WE also enjoy watching the alligator who most everyday suns himself on the bank about 50 feet across the pond from our home. He is easily seen and we enjoy watching him slither in and out of the water and tool around the pond. Now alligators like little animals. They like to eat little animals. We have tried to tell our cat that we are protecting him by insisting he stay inside the house where he has everything he needs.....yet still there is something inside this cat that wants to roam where he is not to roam. He wants to be out from under our protection for a few minutes a couple times a day. He never goes away for long and soon comes to the door meowing to come in. But the cat does not really understand what danger he is in. I am SURE the alligator now knows that a cat lives here, along with a little dog.

The other night, about 2:00AM our dog started to bark repeatedly. We both got up and turned on all the lights. We didn't SEE anything, but undoubtedly there was something there for our dog to carry on so. Th next morning there was a story on the news about a lady's dog that woke her up barking and to her surprise an alligator was in their yard. (It is mating season for alligators, so they are roaming). So perhaps our alligator was in our yard too in hopes that the cat would come out to play.

I think how similar itis to people, even Christians. We should be MORE than content with just being in the presence of God, His Word and being with His people- and yet how often we play around on enemy territory not really believing that we will ever be devoured, or caught. WE just want to enjoy both worlds or a season.

But one day we may be minus our cat. We hope he learns to be content and stayinside the house, where all of his needs are met, and he is well loved. But if he insists on sneaking out, he may pay the price and it would be our loss.

Oh I pray that I will stay miles away from the enemy's territory. I do not want to see how close I can get without getting caught. I want to stay cuddled up to my Savior, my Lord who is all that need. He meets my every need and HE adores me.

Humans do the Funniest things

Sometimes we humans do the funniest things!

We have been dog sitting for some friends for two weeks. Now I must tell you that is about the LAST thing we WANTED to do. But we knew that we could do it, so we offered our help in this year and they were pleased. Well, to our shock, we all enjoyed the dog. She was MUCH better than we had anticipated and it forced us to take those walks that we know we SHOULD take daily. So now that the owners are home and the dog is safely back where she belongs ....we find ourselves wondering if we should get a dog of our own.

SO....we believe we have one on the way...to be delivered tonight or tomorrow! Today my daughter and I went to two pet stores and "window shopped" for what we will possibly need. It was fun to window shop although the prices for simple necessary dog items are VERY expensive. As soon as the news gets over, hubby, daughter and I will go to Walmart to see what they have and check their prices. WHAT FUN as we prepare for the arrival of a dog.

Now we know there will be times when we will regret this decision -we will not be as free to travel without making plans for our dog. But we trust the benefits of having a pet will outweigh the nuances. Time will tell.

So who would like to make an analagy of this experience to something spiritual so I can use it for a Children's lesson?

We have to ASK!

I just got back from our Nursing Home ministry. What a JOY this ministry is. We have two teams. One goes to the assisted living section. The other team ministers in the Dementia unit. What a joy each are and yet so very different. I am the "StoryTeller" in both groups.

Since the Bible lesson today was from John 2, I brought in my wedding album. In the assisted Living section they really enjoyed looking at my pictures and talking about my wedding...then I went into the lesson how Jesus, his mother and some of the disciples were among the guests at a wedding in Cana. This is the first miracle Jesus did, and it is always a hard one to teach. As a good Baptist (smile) I would have preferred Jesus to change the water to milk, or punch or juice, but instead he didnt change the menu, he reproduced more of what they had run out of - wine. The Master of Ceremonies even described it as being the best wine ever.

Today as I was teaching, the Lord highlighted a different part of the account for me to see. Jesus didn't do anything, make any changes ,until someone had asked him to - which was his mom. But after his mom told Jesus about the problem, Jesus then intervened and saved the bride and bridegroom from embarrassment and shame.

So with us, when we get outselves into situations that would be embarrassing or shameful, situations where we cannot see the way out- IF WE GO TO GOD- He will intervene on our behalf- but he only uses what we offer him. He didnt bring in jars of wine, he used the empty jars that were already there. He used what was around him, what was already there, then he put the final touches on it- HIS touch that made all the difference!

I imagine myself being the servant and Jesus telling me to dip into the jar of water and give a cup to the master of ceremonies. I would be scared to death! I would possibly decline his request. I would for sure obey with fear and trembling afraid that the master of ceremonies would be upset when I handed him a cup of water. But Mary had told the servants to obey every word he said, and they obeyed....and they had the privilege of giving the Master of Ceremonies the biggest blessing and surprise he had that day!

So many times we have issues, and we just see the impossibility of it all. We are overwhelmed by our situation and cannot see the way out. . . .we may ask people to pray, we may say that we need to pray but so often we do not ACTUALLY PRAY. Oh how our lives would be different if we would just trust and obey! Jesus LOVES to restore what is gone from our lives, our marriages, our families, our finances, our health, etc. Jesus cares about us, BUT WE MUST TELL HIM and ASK HIM FOR HELP.

Jesus is worthy of our trust.

He will answer us, but we must tell him the situation and ask for his help. Then His touch will be life changing!

My shadow passed me!

I had the strangest thing happen last night. IN fact it happened many times, over and over and over again. And each time it seemed to startle me, and my mind was racing to remember my science classes as to WHY it was doing this. Do I have your curiosity?

My husband and I were heading home after a nice motorcycle ride. We were on I75 and to my surprise I saw our shadow to my left passing me. Yes there we were, our two torsos on the motorcycle going faster than we were. It passed by once, then again and again. Each time catching my attention and it was the strangest sensation to be passed by my own shadow!

As is true when riding on the back of a motorcycle there is a lot of THINK time, so my mind went back to when our children were small and we would take a flashlight into the children's rooms, lay on their beds with them and we would make shadows on the walls. We would get to laughing as we tried to create animals and various creations with our hands. We felt this helped the children not to be afraid of the dark, plus just good creative family fun.

I remember playing shadow tag, where we tried to step on each others shadow for points, thus it was active as you not only had to keep yourself from others but your long shadow from contact with others.

I remember Peter Pan always made such a big deal of his shadow. I watched that movie over and over mismerized by the shadow, as well as dreaming I could fly to avoid growing old.

Shadows are fun because they are not real, and yet they reflect something that is real. Shadows require an object and sunlight to create a shadow that you can make move the way you move. Although sometimes your shadow is much taller than you are, much wider or more slender than the real object. It is not an accurate representation, but it is a result of something real.

I am so glad that the Bible says we walk through the valley of the SHADOW of death (Ps 23:4). As a Pastor's wife, I have seen several people take their last breath. It is a beautiful experience to be in the same room with a Believer in Jesus who one second is in a bed before me, and another second is in the presence of the Lord. It is such a holy experience. One second there is life in the hand I am holding, and the next second it is obvious, that the body is still and lifeless. Believers just walk through the shadow of death, the sting of death is gone, for we walk right into GLORY!

All of the above, in greater detail, went through my mind as I was riding on the back of our motorcycle. I was praising my Lord that a simple, but startling, Shadow of myself passing me on the road caused me to thank Him for my past, present and my future with Him.

Healthy Choices

Life is not easy, I bet you never knew that! (smile)

I find Life to be full of choices and I am always seeking God to help me make wise choices for myself. I have made many bad choices in the past that have hurt my loved ones. I do not want to walk that way anymore!

Just a few minutes ago I found myself having to make one of those choices! I heard an invisible voice say: 'Who will know?' ; 'Who will care?'; 'It is the only way you can get the benefits.'; 'It is only a website!'

Let me explain. I am always looking for good graphics online and I am about to teach a sign language class, so I have been spending more time online looking for deaf related graphics. I learned of a website today that has many good graphics, even deaf ecards, and the opportunity to interact with deaf people around the world....so of course I went to the website. It is a dating website. I am happily married and desire to stay that way.

Well I began to fill out the required form so I could obtain the benefits....then I came to the place where I had to make a choice: Do I want to meet a man, a woman, or a couple?

Well I do not want to meet anyone for the purpose they are talking about. For about two seconds I pondered what to do: "What would it hurt to just fill out the form?" But I am not looking for a partner, so it would be dishonest to who I am.

Since it was required to make a selection, I closed the site and praised God that HE gave me the strength to do what was RIGHT.

Would it have hurt anything to have filled out the form and just gotten my graphics? I will never know. But I must tell you there is much peace in my heart for having made this decision.

We all must protect ourselves, our minds, our hearts, our bodies, and our marriage at all times.

This was only a very small thing, and it took all of about ten minutes in whole- but I feel like a Giant! I know that today I voted a YES for my marriage! I know that I made a wise choice. Thank you Jesus.