The Loving Gathering

Not Always a Rockwell Christmas

2011-12-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Most of us have Christmas expectations. Many of these are erroneously based on previous Christmases even thought time and circumstances have changed. The players have changed, but we have these wistful memories.
However, with each Christmas, we have the opportunity to make new memories or start a new tradition. As long as we view life through the rear view mirror, we will miss the hope and joy of this Christmas.
Christmas is all about giving. If that stretches you, because you are looking at your bank account instead of your heart, start with a smile. Set a ridiculous goal like give 25 while at the grocery store. This means you make eye contact with someone and flash your biggest smile with 25 different people. The potential to change the environment in that store.
Well, what if you went to Wal-Mart this time of the year where you will have their notoriously long lines and you made eye contact and smiled at 25 people just while standing in line remembering how many people don't even have enough money to buy anything to stand in line for. What if you greeted the cashier with a hearty thank you for her part in your Christmas.
Shortly we are going to a nursing home to give gifts and sing, because you spell love T-I-M-E.
Some of these residents have been forgotten. A smile can make them feel remembered.
I may never have another Norman Rockwell Christmas, but I will always have a merry Christmas.

Poured from Vessel to Vessel

2011-12-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as I was moderating a forum, a scripture was given that seemed out of context. So I thought this would be a good time to stop and have a Bible study. I decided to study Jeremiah 48:11 in the context it was written. It was a prophecy spoken over Moab.
In it was an illustration of winemaking processes and uses that as metaphor for
Moab. "Having settled in her lees." So I went to blueletterbible.org and looked at their commentaries (learned much from Chuck Smith's) and Dake's as well. I learned in those days when they made wine, they would pour the juice of the grape into a large container and then they would allow it to sit until it fermented. After fermentation, lees or dregs would begin to settle to the bottom of the vessel. And as these dregs had settled in the bottom of the vessel, then they would pour off the top into another vessel. Allow the settling process to go on again and then pour it off into the next vessel, back and forth from vessel to vessel. Letting the dregs settle down and developing the clarity and purity of the wine.
Here is the important part: if you did not pour the wine off of the dregs, then the dregs turn sour and they begin to smell. Jeremiah said, "This is the problem with Moab. It's been at ease and had never been attacked or pillaged. It was never poured from vessel to vessel. It is settled down on the lees which have turned sour. The stench remains. The wine tastes of the sourness of the lees. Thus Moab is to be destroyed."
The Lord showed me I was like that. I am a "don't rock the boat" kind of person or if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality, but God's ways are so much higher than mine.
Isn't it interesting how that we often grumble at the processes of God in our lives. I am by nature a nester. I like my comfort. I am a chronic planner. Now I may not always work the plan, but my plan is my security blanket instead of FULLY trusting God. Did He tell us to pray give us theis DAY our DAILY bread, but I want it worked out til the end of the year or my five year plan. This is comfortable for me.
But where does that leave God? He would have to fit His ways into MINE. Hello?! That's NOT going to happen. That is self-idolatry.
So that verse was a wake up call for me. Whether it is me being poured from vessel to vesssel or someone I love, it is so we can be without stench of the world, without sourness and then when we pour into others, it will be with clarity and richness.
How many times have I asked God to use me and then I complain when the purification begins. He pours me into another vessel to leave the dregs and lees behind. The vessel I was fermenting in had become a hiding place. It was dark and cool. Just bubbling. There is nothing glamorous about fermenting, but it is safe.
In the past ten years, He has put me in one vessel to learn who I was and before I really got the fullness of it, He said now I am pouring you into another vessel to begin to show others what true beauty is and to make them feel loved. More recently He allowed me to write for others and stirred up my writing gift. Then abruptly He poured me back into one of the first vessels that had been cleaned. Again I am resting, there are less dregs, but there isn't yet that full-bodied bouquet that will come when it is my time once again to be poured out.
It reminds me of that worship song about being broken and poured out.
Hebrews 2:1 says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip."
I work for a ministry. I have HEARD much, but have yet to apply even 50%. Much is in my head as I process, but for God's truth to become rhema, it has to get deep in my heart and flow through the life I live for Him.
This year has been a year where repeatedly God has been pouring me into one vessel and then another. I must have had a lot of lees and dregs.
God sure got my attention. He dealt with me. I had to repent.
When we do the 8Rs we are saying, "Oh, Lord, I'm sorry. Lord." Genuinely we are. We meant the vows when we made them to God. And we are genuinely sorry for our failures and for our drifting away from God. There are many ways God can just bring a disturbance into our lives. And God does allow them for that purpose of purifying us. We've got too much flesh. We're beginning to settle in a life of the flesh.
God says, "Thou stinketh. It's beginning to permeate your whole life. You're beginning to smell of the flesh." Therefore, God pours me into another vessel in order that He might refine me.
The history of Moab teaches that when that doesn't happen, it will be destroyed. God will have no other gods before Him.
Being broken and poured out allows me to be more like Jesus.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2011-11-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

I am really working on extricating myself from all drivenness and performance. Made a conscious decion NOT to work this past weekend and the world remained on its axis. lol
I asked Mike to invite some of his friends to come over and help Ray decorate the house inside and out. Ray never had that as a child and LOVES it. His stamina has been waning and I really wanted him to participate without the pressure.
The deal was I would cook while they decorated.
We had a blast.
I think I am about through with fear of poverty. I always save my most exquisite ribbons for Mary Kay or presents. Instead I opened the door and said use whatever you want. Enjoy. Enjoy they did. I did not direct. I simply let them have at it. (a big step for me. lol)
They ate and had fun. The guys went for seconds, thirds, but there was no greed present today.
I really wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my family, but God showed me today that is exactly what I did. My church family is still family and God-orchestrated.
Mike told me before one family came that they have to find another place by the first. So I paid attention to conversations. There was no hint of impending crisis or lack. They just laughed and oohed and ahhhed. What a ministry session I had today. lol I saw what "casting all your cares on Him" really looks like.
At the close of the day the Christmas parade passed in front of the house. All of the Christmas lights were on to greet them. I cry at every Thomaston Parade. I am 66 so I remember the simple times before the gross commercialization of Christmas. We had decorated fire trucks, tractors and even horse-drawn carriage. A far cry from Macy's. Very low tech, but absolutely chocked full of love and smiles.
The squirrels have been busily collecting my pecans. They saved few for us. Usually when they are that fast and furious,it means we are in for a long cold winter. There is snow in North Georgia already. Maybe, just maybe we will have a white Christmas.

--

Give me a glimpse

2011-11-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

We are created in God's image, but when we look in the mirror that is not what we see. We see a reflection of our failures, abuse, rejection and abandonment. The antithesis of "Lovely, lovely, altogether lovely."
I believe it is because we have been looking ar the wrong mirror.
I remember when I first started selling Mary Kay, I would begin the skin care routine with, "God, please show me what you see when you see me for I see no good thing."
After a couple of weeks, I changed my prayer to,"Lord, could you just give me a glimpse?
Hope this song gives you that glimpse:

Representing Him

2011-08-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a devotional from Os Hillman in my Inbox that said, "We serve a jealous God. He is a God who will not share His glory with anyone. God sets up situations in order to demonstrate His power through them. He has done this since the day He created man. His desire is to reflect His glory through you and me, so that all men may know of His mighty acts and the glorious splendor of His Kingdom. The apostle Paul understood this principle: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor. 2:4-5). If you do not see His glory being reflected through your life, then you need to ask why. He has promised to do so if we will walk in obedience to His commands."

So I left my computer and went to a routine cardiology followup appointment. When I got there the doctor had changed practices so he had none of my records. Great.
They heard a heart murmur and were alarmed. I reminded them, the doctor and the PA, that I have a birth defect. My arteries are not where they are supposed to be and one on them runs backwards. Remember they have NO records. Even though they have done an angiogram on me, I am sure they have seen a 100 other patients since then. The angiogram wasn't even necessary, but they didn't listen to me then either.
So they insisted that I have an echo RIGHT NOW. I acquiesced.
Now here is my point. Intellectually, I knew there was nothing out of the ordinary with my specific heart. My heart does have anomalies. That is true, but intellectually I didn't think there was anything new wrong.
However, when they changed my rooms, had me put on the gown, get on the table, tears sprang forth. Tormenting thoughts and even funny performance and drivenness thoughts came.
You see over a dozen years ago a caustic cardiac surgeon leaving my mom's ICU unit where she was recovering from open heart surgery, quipped, "You need one of those, but you are not healthy enough. You would never survive. In fact, you will probably never see 60."
Two years later I came to Be In Health and I was healed a number of diseases and syndromes. The month of my 60th birthday, I went back to that Heart enter and was given kudos rather than curses. I am 66 years old now.
1 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Now some people don't like to recognize fear as an evil spirit, but it sure isn't a happy one.
Laying on that table, it came knocking. I am giving God "what for"!
"God, don't you know I have to teach on fear this afternoon. How can I do that when I am going down under? God, this is ridiculous. I know better than that!
Then, oh well, it I have to go to the hospital, my Mary Kay bag is in the car. I am still going to make my goals this month. Guess I will have to sell to the nurses."
Why do we listen to these thoughts?
2 Cor 10:5 says, 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
They did the echo. Guess what? I was right. They were wrong.
Now I was mad. Mainly at myself for going down under that spirit of fear. So I repented and quickly recovered myself.
When I got back to the office, I pulled the devotion up again and re-read:
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor. 2:4-5).
I asked Him to teach the class. I told Him I was toast. You see I wasn't sharing my wisdom anyway, simply precepts learned through God's Word that are taught here. During the teaching I shared my experience with the cardiologist that morning. You see we have to be real, People.
If I fail. well, I am just a girl. If I fall down, I get back up.
The world has had enough preaching. It is time to be transparent. It's okay to fall down, but you have to get back up, brush yourself off and begin again.
Pastor Henry reminds us that three steps forward, two steps back is still progress.

Walking Through Fiery Trials

2011-08-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

While working at Be in Health, my facilitators went through fiery trials and came out without smelling of smoke.
It was hard to watch at times as I pleaded to God for mercy. At other times it was encouraging and I thought, "Is anything too hard for God?"
The book is soon to be releassed and I cannot wait to share it with you.

You Have to Know Who You Are Living For

2011-08-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Over 30 years ago, I ran for State Legislature.
I had been involved in housing rights and had a following of sorts. I had even won a gubernatorial appointment. One of the most dangerous things when you are in that position is to believe your press.
I was frequently on the second front of the local evening paper. When it was all over, I only came in third of five candidates.
I did the Monday morning quarterbacking everyone does and saw that there were areas of the campaign that I was not particularly proud of. There was always that jockeying for position. I saw how far I had been drawn away from the values I had grown up with.
Becoming a Mary Kay Director in no way compares with the pressures of those times, but the temptations to not put first things first or squander time or procrastinate are all still there to trip me up.
I love the accolades. I love being Queen of Sales or Miss Go-Give, but it is all wood, hay and stubble if it becomes more important being who God has called me to be. It is a constant attitude check.
I have a small sign above my computer that says, "Am I Being the Servant Leader I Am Called to Be?" Now there is a reality check. Maybe I need to stop and make call, not a sale. Maybe I need to write a letter rather than an article that I will be paid for.
Today the Lord blessed me with another consultant. Only three more and I will go into DIQ. I have been in this place before, but my heart hasn't. It's softer than it was a year ago. I believe as I continue to empty myself out, He will fill me up with the right people, right things and right direction.
This song is my prayer.

Did You Ever Hit a Wall?

2011-08-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

I had a meltdown yesterday and received this from my Mary Kay Director, Kathy Lee. Most of our frustration comes from lack of patience and lack of persistence.
Hope this encourages you as it did me.
(The video is at the end.)
The Climb
Songwriters: Alexander, J; Mabe, J;

I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

'Cause there's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Somebody's gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It's all about, it's all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa

© HOPELESS ROSE MUSIC; VISTAVILLE MUSIC;

these lyrics are submitted by Mike Maven
these lyrics are last corrected by nick jonas lover101

Full of His Joy

2011-08-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

There are seasons in our lives when so much is going on often coming at us from directions that we wonder why. We do a quick checklist of what we have done, we repent, but the barrage continues.
Now we have a choice. Go up or go down. The choice is ours.
We each have 24 hours a day. We can choose to be happy or depressed. As a young adult, I was hospitalized several times for depression. So I am not dismissing the seriousness of it. However, I gave more power to depression than to joy. I became overwhelmed by life especially during the season that I was a single mother with small children. I became overwhelmed because I tried to do everything in my own strength. The truth is that wasn't possible.

Joy isn't a feeling. It is not the same as happiness. Joy isn't a smile or a belly laugh. However, the most important thing to note is that Joy is not affected by our circumstances. It's anchor is deep within. Joy comes out of rejoicing. It cannot not be fabricated. That is why He says He inhabits the praises of His people. When you rejoice in the Lord, there is a gratitude that springs forth, a knowing that gives us, confidence and hope.

When you have this joy, you will be joyful regardless of circumstances, regardless if things are going well or not.

John 15:9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ⁽¹⁰⁾ "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. ⁽¹¹⁾ "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. ⁽¹²⁾ "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Oftentimes we are so full of the cares of the world that there isn't room for joy. Joy comes out of abiding, not drivenness to get through it. We must rest in Him.

Joy comes from relationship with Him, not a nod in His direction.

I am telling you that when you are full of the love of God is like wearing a costly designer perfume. It permeates the room. It isn't you at all. It is His love percolating within spilling over in joy.We can't help but share it.

When we experience His love, you WILL want to pass that love on to others. It's a free gift.

Have you received the Father's love for yourself. I promise you that no matter how much you have received, there is more. It cannot be contained. That is why the more we receive, the more we pour it on others.

Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;" It is a conditional promise. Keep His commandments THEN you will abide in His love. Then His joy will be in you and your joy will be FULL.

Happiness is a Choice

2011-07-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

I am preparing for a Mary Kay booth in Columbus tomorrow. It is near where my granddaughter lives so I want to increase my business in that direction so that I can see her and her daughter more often. Also, she has a son on the way.

It is imperative that I make Director.

Some checks that we had earned did not come. Other anticipated earnings did not come either. All in all it was about a $1500 drop for the month.

Ray is concerned about the stability of his job, because the new state regulations caused them to increase the student fees by $1200 which will not be covered by their student grants and loans. Since most of the people who take truck driving training are unemployed, enrollment may drop so significantly that he will be no longer needed.

Ray has always been faithful to find another job, but I am his help-meet.

So I am pushing past this self-hatred, fear of failure and self-sabotage and going for it. I praise God that I have this Mary Kay opportunity. Mary Kay pays you well to help other women. Really the only limit you have is the one that you put on yourself.

Each of us are challenged. Some by health. Some by relationships and others in the financial arena. But they do not have to overwhelm you and take you out. God has provided an escape route.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].1 Cor. 10:13

Zephaniah tells us that he inhabits the praises of His people so I am singing and Zephaniah tells us that He sings songs of deliverance over me at night. Wow! Singing is good!

It sure breaks up a pity party, too!

Happiness is a choice!

Deserving the Best

2011-07-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago we were decorating an area of the cafeteria to look like a coffee shop for Pleasant Valley Days. I dug out some pictures, arug and mirror that were left behind. I called the person that they belonged to and asked if we could use them and she said yes. Then boldly I asked her when PVD were over could I use them in my office as she had hers.
She readily agreed. I was delighted at the prospect of redecorating my cube. I love decorating anyhow. Well, it has been three weeks and not one picture has been hung. I had to recognize I was having problems with my "deserve level" again.
We all have a self-imposed ceiling. We rise and fall to the level we feel we deserve. It is a mirror image of how we view ourselves.
If we go too high, oftentimes we will self-sabotage our effort to bring us back to our comfort zone.
“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” Maureen Dowd
Sometimes you have to crash through the ceiling to reset the bar. Yet we may get bumped and bruise, but the point is, we will never be the same.
I never will forget when as a single mom of three, I got my AA degree. A wealthy friend of mine gave me her condo at Amelia Island Plantation for myself for a week. I had never lived like that before and even then I did not explore all there was to offer because I felt like I didn't deserve it. Nevertheless, when I left a neighborhood of millionaires to return to the inner city, I was not the same person. Like a rubber band that had been stretched, I could not return to my original shape.
So today I am re-examining those thoughts that tell me what I deserve. Some of those thoughts have to be incinerated so they cannot return. I need to replace them with better, higher thoughts.

Rejoice

2011-07-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

⁵Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

⁶Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.Phil. 4:4-8

Can we pray praising Him for everything and ask for nothing? Can we rejoice in ALL things?

Each circumstance requires a decision. Fear or faith. If we choose faith, then we can rejoice because we have relinquished it to someone bigger than the circumstance.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Fear and faith do not mix. They are like oil and water. So which will you choose today?

Are You Crabby?

2011-07-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

When you go crabbing, you need a bucket with a perforated lid. When you catch your first crab, put it in bucket and quickly put the lid on lest it escape. However, once you have put two or three in the bucket, the lid is no longer necessary. You see if one crab attempts to escape from the bucket, the other crabs will pull it back down. If they can't have freedom, neither can their fellow crab. Sometimes, the crabs seem almost sinister, waiting until the crab has almost escaped before yanking it back into the bucket.

Talk about misery loves company.

Apparently the crabs are unaware of the boiling pot awaiting them. If they were would they pull each other back into the bucket, instead of helping escape artist? Or do they have that moronic mentality of if I can't have it, neither can you?

Those with that “crab mentality” are dream killers. I have seen it when people are doing their walkout and trying to take their life back after a devastating illness. Sadly, I have seen it in Mary Kay when someone is all excited about making some extra money and paying off their debts or maybe they have captured the big dream. Friends and relatives tell them they are foolish for even trying. They sound like Job's friends with the constant accusations.

When we can step beyond the accusations, the pronouncements of doom, we can walk in plan that God had for our life before the foundations of the world. It is "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think..."
The following video shows a young man who "regardless of his hard life, passionately runs towards what he really wants.

Complete, Not Compete

2011-07-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

I stayed up to the wee hours in the morning dealing with some yucky stuff churning inside of me. It is frustrating when you think something is dealt with and resolved and up it comes again.
In my Mary Kay business I have purposed in my heart to live its motto "enriching women's lives." I am to do that by helping to complete themselves, find those missing pieces or repairing the broken ones. Working your Mary Kay business is an excellent way to confront fears, deal with that unloving spirit that causes low self-esteem and establish healthy relationships.
By and large women's business relationships are very competitive. Where there is competition, there is separation. So I asked the Lord to show me how I could complete and not compete.
Let me quick to say, I am not the completer, the Lord is, but He has used me to teach women how to see their value and to learn to love themselves right where they are. They don't have to stay there, but their journey does need to be one of love and not drivenness.
Now once again I am at a crossroads where I can go into Director in Qualification. To be a director just enables me to reach even more women and share the Father's love, and it allows me to take some financial stress off of Ray. Lord knows he has carried more than his fair share these past 32 years. I was in DIQ this time last year and failed. I have reviewed and repented for my goofiness. Once again I had shifted into drivenness, performance and competition. It did not honor the Father.
I was all set at the beginning of the month to "make it happen." Big pitfall- thinking it was all about me. Now the finish line looms ahead and I have to make some course corrections.
Made a huge one this morning in our worship service. What a powerful service. There was a time of re-dedication (course correction).
Then it became crystal clear.
If I just worship Him, my heart, my motives will be pure.
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the judge; he putteth down one and setteth up another. Ps.75:6-7
Then Pastor Anita asked, "Could you just pray praising Him without asking for a thing?"
If I truly live this song, everything will be taken care of. My heart will be pure. His timing will be perfect. It is really comes down to am I willing to live a surrendered life?

Arise, Shine

2011-07-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

As a teenager I was in Girls' Auxiliary and our verse was Arise, Shine for thy light has come (and the the glory of the Lord is upon you.)Isaiah 60:1 We said the first part, not the second.
The life happened.
Over time I quit both arising and I quit shining even though Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world.
About five years ago, I looked up the word Arise and found it meant:

1) to rise, arise, stand, rise up, stand up

a) (Qal)

1) to arise

2) to arise (hostile sense)

3) to arise, become powerful

4) to arise, come on the scene

5) to stand

a) to maintain oneself

b) to be established, be confirmed

c) to stand, endure

d) to be fixed

e) to be valid

f) to be proven

g) to be fulfilled

h) to persist

i) to be set, be fixed

b) (Piel)

1) to fulfil

2) to confirm, ratify, establish, impose

c) (Polel) to raise up

d) (Hithpael) to raise oneself, rise up

e) (Hiphil)

1) to cause to arise, raise

2) to raise, set up, erect, build

3) to raise up, bring on the scene

4) to raise up, rouse, stir up, investigate

5) to raise up, constitute

6) to cause to stand, set, station, establish

7) to make binding

8) to carry out, give effect to

f) (Hophal) to be raised up

Wow! Why wasn't that taught? It doesn't mean get up and twinkle like a star. It means to get up and GIVE light.

For God so loved the world, He GAVE.

At a Mary Kay meeting recently, the Director played Firework by Katy Perry. Although truly a secular song, I thing it belt out the Great Commission. Even in my work as I go into qualification as a director, I want to ignite women to be all they were created to be.

If you have been sleepwalking through your life or worse yet, given up, I hope this song will ignite to be His Firework.

He Makes All Things Beautiful In His Time

2011-07-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

I had spoken at a retreat sharing my story of how I was able to break loose from abuse. Many women who had also experienced abuse were set free that day. My heart sang.
After the conference we take a bus back home and gather with others who have experience the Cursillo weekend and we celebrate together. There my best friend, Mary, and my husband, Ray, met me. What a powerful time of celebration.
As we walked to the car, then and only then did they tell me that my father had fallen, was in the hospital and the prognosis was not good. Immediately we made the hour long drive.
I was tormented with the whys. Dad and I had made our peace. He had been my first abuser. Abuse opened by a spirit of victimization had been a way of life for 25 years. The man who was supposed to cover me and nurture me could not because he himself had never been covered nor nurtured.
Because I was able to forgive him and be free from my past, I was often asked to speak into other women's lives.
Now Daddy was dying. I wanted more time, more restoration.
He was in a coma when I arrived. I really didn't know what to do. So I began to talk to him. I told him about the women I had ministered to the day before and how God had taken the ugly and made something beautiful how of it. I told him that I loved him.
Then I just began to sing softly to him.
Tears trickled down his cheeks as I sang the following song.

Bring Me Flowers While I Am Alive

2011-07-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

It is disappointing when you have six children and several adult grandchildren and receive not even a birthday card except faithful Michael who saw to it that Sarah had one to give me. (Got FB posts instead. lol) Yet this year I WAS OKAY. I WAS NOT DERAILED. I am a good mother and Nana and if they choose not to acknowledge that on my birthday, well, frankly it means things more important on their plate.
One of the things the Lord had shown me this year is how I imprison people with my expectations. I expect people to do certain things and when they don't it is an open door for me to be bitter or my heart to be broken.
When I gave that up and recognized that Jer 29:11 says God knows the plans He has for them, NOT ME, a prison door opened.
It is like I have been protected in a bubble since Sunday.
The service Sunday closed with the Chuck Girard song, I Will and Ron told how he often sings songs to Jenny, his wife, who has Pick's disease. He has to do everything for her. I mean everything. He always has a good attitude about it. He told how he used to sing this song to her and she would smile. Then he asked them to play it again and imagine Jesus singing it to you. It says I will love you forever, and I will need you forever and I will want you forever til the end of time.
Well, I just melted. It carried me all day.
When I heard I need you forever, I heard I have plans for you forever.
Went to the dental lab Monday without an appointment and he completely rebuilt my partial for only $80. A replacement would have been $1500.
Monday I went to Amazon and ordered an Amazon MP3 download and listened to it over and over.
I have always been tormented because I moved up here and left my family even though I knew it was necessary for me to get well. I always thought about moving closer. Well, Monday I thought, WHY?"
My whole church family sang Happy Birthday to me. My family that I birthed did not. I live where I am celebrated. That nine years of torment is gone.
Tuesday I listened to it over and over until we went to Social Security and when the lady said we would get no check for three month,($3,000 loss of income) I heard the Lord singing in my heart, "I will love you forever, I will need you forever and I will want you forever til the end of time." I had complete peace.
Curstie brought Caitlin home and a cake she had baked for me. I thought that was so sweet.
I was singing that song as I got dressed for work this morning. As I walked across the deck to the car this morning, I thought of the Lawrence Welk show. (weird) I heard the cork pop and heard the Lord tell me (not audibly) to bring bubbles of joy today everywhere I go. I have never been happier.
Today someone asked Ray to look at some work but they had no money. He has probably done a thousand dollars worth for her already. Long story, short. he traded the work for a gas stove (our last light bill which is due Friday is $490) and a lap top. She was going to sell the stove for $200 and the laptop for $75. Home Depot had quoted her $800 so they were both happy.
"I will love you forever, I will need you forever and I will want you forever til the end of time."
These are presents that Ray could not have bought me for my birthday. But God could.
These are things that we had been praying about.
He has two moving jobs and a major window job coming in the next few months. They will net him no less than $1500 of the missing $3,000.
I think this whole mess is going to push me past my fears in Mary Kay and this is going to be my best month ever. The fear has been replaced with the Father's love. Plus I get to spill bubbles of joy all over them. The joy of the Lord is my strength.
Once again this week I taught Unloving and it was with a new level of freedom. Something new has been birthed.
I saw that Isaiah 61:1 says the Spirit of the Lord IS upon me. Not it is going to be on me when I get everything right. It is on me NOW. I need to appropriate it.
Friday a friend called and said she would like to have a Birthday Tea for me at a new Tea Shop that had opened.
Fresh pink long stemmed roses were waiting for me. We wore hats and had the most delightful feast of tea treats from raspberry scones with lemon curd to chicken salad on a mini-croissant.
As I was leaving to go to the tea, my neighbor, Mary, asked me where I was going. I told her about the tea and invited her to come. She declined. Yet in the middle of our celebration, she walked in with a vase of fresh cut flowers.
This extemporaneous show of love was a precious ending to my birthday week. Friends gathered to celebrate my life. I left with gifts, cards and lots of flowers. Flowers I can enjoy now while I live the day set before me.
Take time to day to tell someone you love them even if you think they already know it.

God's Masterpiece

2011-03-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

When a sculpture begins his work, He takes a large stone and rhythmically begins removing the pieces that do not match the vision he has for the piece. When he gets to a roughing stage, he changes the tool and begins to make more precise cuts to give the piece more definition.
Eventually the sculptor has changed the stone from a rough block into the general shape of the finished statue. The tools used now change to enhance the shape into its final form. The sculptor may use broad, sweeping strokes to remove excess blemishes like small chips or dust. He can use a riffler is a smaller variation of the rasp to create details such as folds of clothing or locks of hair.
God may bring us to places where huge hunks ar chipped away. We may now resemble the person we are to be, but we aren't there yet.
During the walkout process, as we yield to the Holy Spirit, yield to those set in authority over us, a spiritual rasp is used and the dings and knicks are erased.
But God doesn't do anything halfway. We may even be satisfied with ourselves at this state, but God sees the end picture. Because we are looking back at what we were, and God is looking forward at His image of us, the pictures do not always match.
The final stage of the carving process is polishing. The sculpture is now a recognizable figure, but it is still not finished. Now comes the the polishing process. He may first use sandpaper, but ultimately will use emery cloth.
These are the irritations in our lives.
Pay attention. He is using stone to polish stone. In other words, he is using other people rubbing up against us. Emery is a stone that is harder and rougher than the sculpture media. Do you have any difficult people in your life?
They may be there to polish you.
This wearing away of all the roughness, however minute, brings out the color of the stone, reveals patterns not yet seen and adds a lustre.
Finally, oxides are often used to give the stone a highly reflective exterior.The final stage of the carving process is polishing. Think about it. The sculpture is now a recognizable figure, but it is still not finished. Now comes the the polishing process. He may first use sandpaper, but ultimately will use emery cloth.
Pay attention. He is using stone to polish stone. Emery is a stone that is harder and rougher than the sculpture media. This wearing away of all the roughness however minute brings out the color of the stone, reveals patterns not yet seen and adds a lustre. Finally, oxides are often used to give the stone a highly reflective exterior. An oxide is The final stage of the carving process is polishing. Think about it. The sculpture is now a recognizable figure, but it is still not finished. Now comes the the polishing process. He may first use sandpaper, but ultimately will use emery cloth.
Pay attention. He is using stone to polish stone. Emery is a stone that is harder and rougher than the sculpture media. This wearing away of all the roughness however minute brings out the color of the stone, reveals patterns not yet seen and adds a lustre. Finally, oxides are often used to give the stone a highly reflective exterior. Because oxide means it has oxygen, I see this as the breath of God. This is when I am really listening, yielding and being changed from glory to glory.
I realize this is just a metaphor of God's powerful process. The stone does not truly yield, but we must. Being changed from glory to glory requires yielding to the process and absolute surrender. It is a process, but I am finding each time I surrender, the next time I am challenged, it is easier to surrender.
His ways are so much higher than mine. Why would I ever choose less than the best when He gives it so freely?
I want to be God's Masterpiece.
I saw the following skit at church one night and while I was writing this, God brought it to my rememberance. Hope you will take time to watch.

Life Is Like A Cup of Coffee - Inspirational Video Movie

2011-03-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

If I Were Brave

2011-03-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Fear is a thief! It will rob you of your life, the life truly intended you to have. There are over 10,000 fears ranging from fear of abandonment to fear of flying.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
When I first married Ray, he frequently drove my car. I would get in MY car on Monday morning and I would hear the radio blaring twangy country music. Not my favorite. So I would change the station to the easy listening genre I enjoyed. I simply chose not to listen to that station.
But it took me another 25 years to do that with the thoughts bombarding my head. If they aren't coming from God, I change the "station."
Philippians 4:8 8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
So when thoughts come bombarding in to rob you of your faith, rob you of your future, change the station and think on these things.

The Love Disclaimer

2011-03-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have been meditating on 1 Corinthians 13 for several months, but I always began with verse 4, because I thought that was where I needed the most improvement.
Then one Sunday I watched as a young father struggled to calm his son. He was clueless. He turned to me and said, "I don't know what else to do."
I whispered, "Just love him."
I thought how the young man repeatedly looks for opportunities to express himself whether to share an exhortation or sing on the praise team all the while leaving his wife with the all of the children. (In our church, the children are in the service. There is no children's church.)
Suddenly what began as a critical thought, boomeranged back. I thought of the past 30 years especially how I did high profile things while neglecting my own family. Only when we operate in divination instead of discernment is this possible. Divination is a counterfeit for the truth, but sadly on the outside it looks real.
When a person is being trained as a cashier, they make them count money for hours on end. The purpose is to teach them the feel and look of money, then instinctively when someone gives them a counterfeit they will immediately know the difference.
Maybe I spent too few hours counting His ways.
Here are those beginning three verses:
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Here is my tongue in cheek, finger pointing back to me transliteration:
1 Though I sing on the Praise Team and help with the children's choir, but have not God's love inside of me and sung silly songs and laughed with my own children, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, attend every church service and even teach clsses and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not tended to my family's needs in love and with joy, I am nothing.
3 And though I cook meals for the new mothers, and bring the best covered dish to the potluck, but I have not prepared an awesome meal for my own family and given them my time, it profits me nothing.
I am on the south end of life's journey now and I don't get a "do-over" with my young family, but I look around the church and I see mamas and daddies who could use encouragement and discernment of what is really important. They are young enough to get a do-over.

The Eye of the Needle

2011-02-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

A friend send me a message. She was perplexed because she felt like she and her husband had been obedient to the Lord yet things were not good in the natural realm particularly in their finances.
As I was driving to Alabama this morning to visit my granddaughter and her daughter, I was praying for them. The Lord reminded me of this prophecy. It has been set to music by the Kendalls who minister in Israel. It is a powerful reminder that we only see in part.
For the past several months I have sensed a powerful paradigm shift coming. Whether in my personal life, my church, I do not know, but something is about to change. This is a healthy reminder to prepare our hearts.

Charlotte Baker in 1981
Worship Symposium
Dallas, TX

...The Eye of the Needle ...
The Gate of Worship

The Ultimate Choice
"I have brought this people together today to make unto you a choice. You can minister unto men...or you can minister unto the King of Glory!"

I stood among the sons of men, strong and tall. My heart was filled with enthusiasm. My life was given to the purposes of God. Upon that day, I said to the Lord, "I will do mighty exploits in the name of my God." The Lord came unto me and He said, "What is it, son of man, that thou would have?" I said, "Lord, if I could only be among those who play sweetly upon an instrument and who sing well in the house of the Lord, then I would do great things for my God."

The Lord came to me and He gave unto me the desire of my heart. He let me play and He let me sing. I saw the day when the hearts of men were moved by that thing the Lord had given unto me. After hearts of men were moved, I stood back and I said to myself, "Now I will be content for I have been able to move the hearts of men."

But in my secret hour I bowed my head before my God and said, "Lord, You have given me what I asked for but my heart is heavy. I have a longing for something more."

He came again unto me in the night season. He asked me again, "Son of man, ask Me again the thing that thou would have of Me." I said, "Lord I see men bowed by burdens low. I see hearts that are broken. I see sadness and discouragement. Oh give me the power of the spoken word that I might speak the word and their hearts be delivered." The Lord came unto me and said, "Son of man, I have given thee the things which thou hast desired."

With great joy, I marched before the people of God. In my youth and in my enthusiasm, I spoke the Word and men were delivered. I spoke the Word and their hearts were made whole. I knew what it was to bind up the broken hearted and to pour in the oil of joy replacing their mourning.

While men were yet praising Him, glorifying His name, I went back to my secret chamber, I bowed my head in sorrow. I said, "Oh my God, my God, I am not satisfied."

He came again unto me and He said, "Son of man, what is it that thou desireth of Me?" And I said, "Oh my God, give me power in my hands that as You did, I might lay my hands upon the sick and see the healing flow." He said unto me, "It is done as thou has commanded."

God healed the sick. I went to the nations of the earth and I saw the sick raised from their beds. I saw pain and suffering go away. I was rejoicing as I went to my secret place. I bowed my head before my God. I said, "Now my God, I will be satisfied for you have given me that which I have desired." No sooner had the words come out of my mouth when the heart within me began to ache and cry. I said, "God, I don't understand. Again my heart is sad. Lord, will You, just one more time, give me the thing I ask of Thee?" he said, "It is done."

"God, I desire to go against principalities and powers, the powers of the wickedness of this world and spiritual darkness in high places. He said, "Surely I give it unto thee. Now go." So I went and the Lord allowed me to go into dens of iniquity, the holes and dives where men hide from the light because of the sin and evil that is upon them. There was a day when I saw demons cry out at the very presence of the power of God that rested on me.

Then I went back to my secret place broken. I said, "God, I have asked You for all that I desired and still my heart is not yet satisfied. Nor do I feel that I have touched the thing that You have called me to. In my youth I have expended myself with all the things that my heart had desired."

Then one more time a gracious and loving God visited me in the night season. He said, "Now - what is it that thou dost desire?" In brokenness of heart, I bowed before Him and I said, "God, only that thing which You desire to give unto me."

He came unto me and said, "Come with Me and I will take you on a journey." He took me past my friends. He took me past those with whom I had come into the house of the Lord. He took me into a desolate place. He caused me to go into a place alone in the wilderness. I said, "Oh my God, what are you doing to me? You have cut me off from those I love." He said, "I take thee to the place where all men must come if their heart's cry is to be fulfilled." At a certain hour, I bowed before a gate that is called...

The Eye of the Needle, The gate of Worship!

There before the eye of the Needle I heard the voice of the Lord say, "Bow low." So I bowed lower. He said "Yet lower. Thou does not go low enough." So I went as low as I could possibly go.

But I had upon my back my books of learning. I had with me my instruments of music. I had with me my gifts and abilities. He said unto me, "Thou has too much, thou can not go through this gate."

I said, "But God, You have given me these books. You have given me these abilities." He said, "Drop them. or thou dost not go."

So I dropped them. I went through a very small gate that is called "the eye of the needle." As I went through this gate, I heard the voice of the Lord say, "Now rise to the other side." As I rose, a very strange thing happened to me. You see, the gate which was so small on one side that I must lay aside everything, was now so wide I could not fill it. As I stood in the presence of the Lord I said, "God, what is this thing that You have done unto me, for my soul is now satisfied?"

He said, "Thou has come through the gate of worship. Now come up to the circle of the earth & I will show thee a great mystery. I will reveal unto thee the thing that I doing among the sons of men."

The Spirit of the Lord caught me away. He took me to the circle of the earth, higher than where the eagle flies, beyond where the clouds can rumble, beyond where the sun shines or the moon finds her path. There at the throne of my God, He said, "Look down upon My people."

I saw strange things. I saw my companions gathered around a very small gate that is, "the eye of the needle, the gate of worship." I saw them wringing their hands and crying. They were saying one to another, "But God has given us these instruments of war. This sword is my sword and I will work with it against the enemy to bring him down. I cannot go through this gate, for, if I go through this gate, I must put down my sword. God has called me to be a warrior and therefore, I will not do it."

And I heard another one say, ""Me? Lay down my instruments of music? Lay down all God has given me, just to go through that silly little gate, to be nothing but a bare man who comes out the other side stripped of everything? I cannot do this thing."

I saw them as they stood aside in their pride, afraid to bow themselves before a very small gate.

Then I saw again, as the Lord brought me closer to the gate. I saw a man bow low, laying down everything that he had. As he came through the very wide gate on the other side, his instruments of music were there. His sword was there. His books were there. The power was there.

The Word of the Lord came to me, "Go now and tell this people before you, I have given unto this people extreme talents and much ability. But I say unto you today, if you do not come through the very small gate, which is the gate of worship, and bow low and lay before me thine instruments, thy talents, abilities, vision and power, thou shall always be among those who will only be able to minister to the hearts of men, and bless the hearts of men.

But there is a gate open to the Church in this hour, a very small gate. And through this gate, only men and women who are worshippers will go. These people will lay their talents before their God. These people will say, "God, we will be Your worshippers." Through that wide gate they will come and they will arise on the other side, not to minister unto men, but to minister unto their God.

I have brought you together this day, to make unto you a choice. You can minister unto men and I will cause you to sway the hearts of men with your talent. Or, you can go through a very small gate, that is "the eye of the needle, the gate of worship," and while making new worshippers, you will minister unto the King of Kings and Lord of lords!"

__________________

How Do I Love Me?

2011-01-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

If God gave you a To Do list with only two items on it, could you finish it?
Before you speak too quickly, let me show you the list.
Matthew 22:37-40 (King James Version)
37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
I am going to approach this backwards, because most of you have received enough sermons about loving God above all else. All that resulted is guilt that you don't love enough. That's probably true BUT maybe you don't know what love looks like.
What if the people that were set over you to nurture you and love you, either wouldn't or didn't know how or were self-absorbed they chose not to. Even more likely they simply duplicated the love they were given. For most that was a faulty pattern.
So let's look at the real thing.
1 Cor. 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails.
How do I love me? Let me count the ways.
I dare you to make a checklist with following qualities:
1. Longsuffering
2. Kind
3. Does not envy
4. Does not parade itself (Add to that- Does not defend its position)
5. Not puffed up
6. Does not behave rudely
7. Does not seek its own
8. Is not provoked
9. Thinks NO evil
10. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth
11. Bears all things
12. Believes all things
13. Hopes all things
14. Endures all things
15. Never fails.
Now draw three or four columns to the right. If you have children, you may need more.
At the head of the first column, write your name. How can we ever love another if we are hard on ourselves all of the time and never feel that we have done enough. Now put the people in your life that you interact with at a significant level. This would include your spouse, boss, children etc.
Now for the next seven days, keep track of how you love yourself and others.
Each day I will be back to encourage you in this new discovery of love.

God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 5 of 5)

2011-01-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17
You can take someone who eats perfectly and they have no control over their weight whether too fat or too skinny.
That is because we are a triune being- spirit, soul and body.
We need rightousnesss, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If the person is on a rigid diet but full of bitternes or unforgivenesss, it will be for naught.
Righteousnes is integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting.
One of the definitions of peace in the Strong's is: the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.
Examine that. Assured of your salvation. Fears nothing. Content in whatever state you are in.
Joy in the Holy Ghost: Dependent on your relationship from Him. This isn't a joy that comes out of an event, it is a joy that comes out of relationship with Him. You cannot not experience that joy if you are a legalist and are in constant black and white thinking.
If any one of these characteristics-righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost- is missing it will affect you on a physiological level. But we ignore the spiritual and do more exercise, change our diets, and get into more bitterness and frustration which further slows down our metabolism and amps up our cortisol levels so we can't take our peace.
I have learned that in order to establish righteousness in my life, I have to give up my right to be right. I do not have to defend myself. I am to walk in humility before the Lord and He will be my defender.
[Because of] his strength will I wait upon thee: for God [is] my defense. Psalm 59:9
Because of years of abuse, I lived in a state of hyper-vigilance. Always checking my surroundings even if I was in a store to see that I was safe. Recently I recognized that I was not trusting God to keep me safe. If I used wisdom in where I was going and how I was getting there, he had my back. I could relax.
Living in a continued state of hyper-vigilance keeps your body amped up and your cortisol drips continually. This destroys your immune system. You are prone to disease and have little energy.
Enter Addiction to make you feel good.
Isn't that insidious?
When we put our trust in Him, we can relax, He's got our back. We no longer have to be in charge of everything. We can take our peace. Then our body comes into peace and we are strengthen.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17

God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 4 of 5)

2011-01-14T04:00:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 4:20-27 (King James Version)

20My son, (my daughter) attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
Ponder here means to prepare the way while path means course of action. So prepare the way of the course of action for your feet.
We are always in such a hurry to get on with our life that we fail to prepare. The best way to prepare your heart for any journey is with worship and digging in His Word. The Bible is not a quick read.
Isaiah 28:9-10 (New King James Version)

9 “ Whom will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”
The preparation takes maturity. We cannot be running ahead of God. For years that was the way I did things. I would hear a part of a Word, and run with it. It is "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little."
Rebellion wants the Full Meal Deal and we want it our way.
You will see this in all addictions. The addict thinks they are the exception or this one time won't matter.
In the previous post, I quoted Kathy Helou who said, "Anything that is an enemy to your body is an enemy to God's plan for your life."
I heard that a year ago. Now I am applying it to my life. Why did I take so long?
Again FEAR. Fear of failure, fear of change, fear of not being in control. Fear is a sin because it leaves no room for faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says, " 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."
Prepare the way by excising every vestige of fear out of your life AS HE REVEALS IT. You don't need to go on a witch hunt. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you areas of your life where fear reigns. Then be faithful to deal with it. Repent for entertaining it.
If you agree that your body is the temple of the Lord, it is time to evict these illegal squatters. Cast them out.
And if you blow it again, just repent and receive your forgiveness.
Prepare the way by filling the temple with Praise, Worship, Word and His Love. This is how you establish your ways.
27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
This is your responsibility. You have to choose not to stretch the parameters of what God is calling you to do. For instance, if God calls you to a 21 day Daniel Fast, don't say but I am going to have meat on Sundays. You see that is how an addict thinks. Always looking for an exception and up-sell. If He calls you to a season of eating low gylcemic foods for a season to
bring your body into align after years of a anything goes eating regimen, don't add until He says add.
Isaiah 1:18-20 says, "18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
God is not trying to deprive you of any good thing. His heart for you is an abundant life.
Let us prepare the way.

God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 3 of 5)

2011-01-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 4:20-27 (King James Version)

20My son, (my daughter) attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

4Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
That is just as we have to guard our heart, we must look at one of the gates to our heart, our mouth. Perverse means fraudulent and deceitful.
Proverbs 19:1 says, "Better [is] the poor that walketh in his integrity, than [he that is] perverse in his lips, and is a fool."
In the free online dictionary by Farlex it says, "A false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury.
Fraud is commonly understood as dishonesty calculated for advantage. A person who is dishonest may be called a fraud."
God's Word is absolute. There are no white lies. Are you living a life of integrity or one of a fraud?
Matt 5:37 says. "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
Does your word mean anything or are you saying what you think people want to hear?
Let's bring it a little closer. Do you tell yourself the truth? Sometimes we live in a state of denial with an addiction. We say, "I can quit any time I want>'
Is that really the truth?
Show me. In reality it is that froward mouth.
Why do we boast, exaggerate, tell half truths, accuse? Very simply, it is fear. Fear of man-fear of rejection, fear of not fitting in,, fear of not meeting someone's expectations-. Shouldn't we speak each word as if Father God were listening? He is you know.
I have found that when I speak words that are not pleasing to Him, I have a need to put something sweet in my mouth. It is as if I think/believe that the bitterness of my words will be sweetened by sugar.
25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
I sometimes get into trouble spiritually because I am looking at others instead of my Father. Whether I am comparing myself to someone else to see if I measure up or critiquing someone else's behavior, it is all sin.
I was in abusive situations over 25 years of my life. I learned to be hyper-vigilant, always checking to see if I was safe. What resulted was that I became in charge of my safety. There was no need to trust God, I was in charge. Having to be in charge all of the time comes from fear. If I don't do, who will? If I don't do it, things will fall apart? If I don't do it, fill in the blank. When I was in that mode, I had become a god to myself.
It was very humbling to recognize that, even more humbling to recognize that even with all of the Word I knew in my head, there was a lack of trust in God to love me, take care of me and protect me.
During part of that that season, I lived in the Dallas, TX area. I was asked to do some interviews at a Christian concert. I don't remember all of the people I interviewed, but I remember the one with Michael W. Smith. When he walked into the room, he brought God with him. He was a vessel of His glory. During the interview, he said quite pointedly that we have a responsibility to take care of our bodies as temples of God. It was said in love and it pierced my heart, but I quickly dismissed it. I did not let my eyes look right on.
I chose not to take to take responsibility for my sin.
Nearly fifteen years later I would hear Mary Kay National Sales Director Kathy Helou say, "Anything that is an enemy to your body, is an enemy to God's plan for your life."
I have an addiction to carbs. I cannot quit without God's help.
I lift my eyes up to the source of my help.

God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 2 of 5)

2011-01-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 1 of 4)

2011-01-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 4:20-27 (King James Version)

20My son, (my daughter) attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

We are body, soul and spirit. It does no good for me to eat properly if my spirit is deprived and my soul is on a binge.
We have to hear God's voice for ourselves. Verse 20 says attend which says pay attention and incline means to bow. Today I have purposed to pay attention to what He is saying and to come in humility. I am not going through all of these verses today for I assure you they have not all come as rhema to my spirit yet. Yet I am listening.
It is sacred to hear the voice of the Lord. I am not talking about a booming voice, I am talking about that quiet knowing. A peaceful knowing that you know.
Sin will always keep us from hearing the voice of the Lord. In my case, overeating among other things is a besetting sin. I am conquering clutter as I see that it makes me anxious. Anxiety does not allow you to have faith in God for fear and faith are like oil and water.
"Let them (God's words) not depart from thine eyes."
What am I looking at?? How smart is it to watch the Food Network while bringing correction into your eating? Well, that is pretty obvious. But I believe the Lord is asking me during this 28 days to be very careful of what I am focusing on. That includes television, magazines, books, shopping and I am sure more.
Keep them (God's Word) in the midst of thine heart.
Sometimes my heart is so crowded that I don't pay attention to it. (See verse 20) Just as a rotten apple spoils the barrel, the Word of God in the midst of my heart will influence everything else in my heart. Those things that cannot handle the Light of His Word will be exposed and I will have to choose to get rid of them because His Light disperses the darkness.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:2

22For they (God's words) are life unto those that find them, That means we have to to look for them. God does not have a drive-thru where i your haste, you drive up and order the word for the day. No, you have to find His instruction, His direction daily. What if you were going on a long trip and you got on the highway without a map or directions, and there are no road signs. You may ultimately get there, but wouldn't it be simpler to have directions?
What if a pilot did not constantly make course corrections? The winds, turbulence, often take the aircraft off course, one degree here, another there. If there are no course corrections, he will not reach his destinations.
So it is with our lives. Yet we want to do our own things and try to figure things out. Who are we listening to? The voice of God or the voice of reason? Are we willing to make corrections or is always being right more important?
"and health to all their flesh." Do you have disease in your body? God's Word has the prescription for healing. That health is our physical body but also our mind.
1) health, healing, cure
a) healing, cure
b) health, profit, sound (of mind)
c) healing
Want to be in your right mind? Then hear the voice of the Lord through His Word. Again this is a daily choice. Remember God doesn't shout at you. His word is one of peace.

Twenty-Eight Days

2011-01-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

My inbox this morning contained the final part of Addictions from Be in Health today. (www.beinhealth.com) One paragraph said, "A person must choose their freedom or their bondage. God has given us the ability to choose so we must understand how to defeat the strong man behind addiction. A person has to understand that it involves recognition, taking responsibility, repentance, and they are going to have to take a stand no matter how much their body is pitching a fit. It takes 28 days and a change in a person's heart. We can get rid of bad habits by making new good habits. The Bible says choose this day what you shall have, blessings or curses, life or death.
I have an addiction to simple carbs. That includes everything from sugar to a potato. They break down too quickly, spikes my sugar, give me horrendous cravings, which then necessitates the need for a shot of insulin.
I had done exceedingly well on the weekend which is usually my hardest time to correct my eating. Then about 7 pm, Mike walked in with Cheese Nips. I wanted just a few. The few turned to many and then I was off to the races. The cravings kicked in and I ate from an orange to a piece of fruit cake leftover from Christmas to a single piece of Dove chocolate. Finally, I came to my senses.
To those who don't understand addictions and cravings, this was FOUR HOURS after the first Cheese Nip. If the simple carbs had been alcohol or drugs, I would have been flat on the floor. That is the insidiousness of an addiction to simple carbs, shopping, toxic relationships, or other legal choices. Things seem so normal on the outside. Well, if you have an addiction to simple carbs, you are going to get fat. (I am already fat.) But the illusion that you don't have a problem, keeps the addiction intact.
That same article says, "The need to be loved is built within us from creation. The ability to give and receive love is part of our creation. But because of the breakdown in our families, we have not loved God, ourselves or each other. We try to nurture ourselves and it is being driven by the need to be loved."
I have recognized this. It has taken a while. So as I began to recover myself, I repented and I received my forgiveness. That is key, because one of the things that holds addictions in place is that we do not forgive ourselves. Next I brought to remembrance the things I had done right. I lost seven pounds last week. I had eaten correctly until 7 pm and most of the week before. I had walked the dog for exercise. I had deliberately walked more that week in other ways.
You see the enemy comes to remind you that you are a loser and you will never get it right so why bother. That is such a lie!
Lamentations 3:22-23 says: It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Today I begin again, once again. This is not in vanity. (I am over 100 lbs overweight for those who don't know me.) I have to make these changes to preserve my life and live the abundant life He wants me to have.
Today I begin another twenty-eight days. Want to join me with whatever you are struggling with?
If you have blown it, would you choose today to repent, forgive yourself and begin again with me. God is not mad at you. He loves you right where you are.
You don't have to be super woman. When you are weak, He is strong.
Lean on Him and if you are in that miry pit, ask Him to raise you up.

God Uses Broken Things to Accomplish His Greatest Work

2011-01-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Those were the words I read first thing this morning in a devotional written by Os Hillman. (http://msg4svc.net/cadtc/305680/54/1596/25400/0/S/0/0/tpxb.html)
My first thought was, "Well, then He can use me."
He tells the story of David and how when he was being harassed by Saul no one had any use for him. This when God had told him he would be king.
What has God deposited in your heart and you see no fruit, no forward movement? More than once I have tried to advance God's clock. The result was failure.
In fact, I have failed so many times that I began to fear failure. I hesitated to try things again or anew, because I might fail again. In his devotional, Os said, "God often uses failure to make us useful."
Wow! I must be very useful and all this while the enemy was telling me I was a failure. He is a liar. Why did I listen?
Then Os said, " When Jesus called the disciples, He did not go out and find the most qualified and successful people. He found the most willing, and He found them in the workplace. He found a fisherman, a tax collector, and a farmer."
That was a real "aha" moment for me in regards to my building my Mary Kay business. "He did not go out and find the most qualified and successful people. He found the most willing, and He found them in the workplace."
As I move forward to become a director, I need to look for the most willing and those already employed. I need to quit trying to resurrect the dead and look for the willing.
Willing is defined on the internet as "disposed or inclined toward;
volition: the act of making a choice;
uncoerced: not brought about by coercion or force;
Aha!
Well, the other ways I have tried have failed and I can use those failures to make myself more useful to this new team.
Hmmm now there is a thought. I need to chew on that awhile.

Principle or Preference?

2011-01-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

Principle or preference: which of these two words best describes how you make moral decisions? This was the question posed on Charles Stanley's teaching, The Key to Wise Decisions. Sunday. (http://www.intouch.org/resources/this-weeks-sermon-outline)
It really hit at the heart of my journey with food.
19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 cor. 6:19-20
So principle or preference?
Am I going to eat what my body needs for fuel or am going with my preferences? Do my preferences line up with the Word says?
Food is not evil. Not even cookies. Overindulgence is the sin. Gluttony is sin.
Paul says in his letter to the Philippians: 19For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Paul was talking about actual death. For me it has to be death to preferences. Then "in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body."
Can you imagine being in a deep, meaningful relationship with someone but you cannot even see their face because of things piled between you two?
Now I ask myself why are all of these things piled between me and my Heavenly Father when I say I want a deep, meaningful relationship with Him? Who do I really love?
Addictions do not love back. They simply take your life away.
Principle or Preference?
Life or Death?

Time for Me to Take Responsibility for My Life

2011-01-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

The last two evenings have been difficult ones where I gave into the sugar in the house. Today we take my mom back to South Carolina and all Missippi Mud cake, sour cream cake, etc. will go. Is it my mom's fault that I ate those things?
Absolutely not.
Although I don't think it is kind to bake those kind of things when someone is making an effort to overcome their sugar addictions, ultimately it is my responsiblity to say. "No, thank you."
N
"No, thank you," when she brings a box of Godiva chocolates to my bed where I am reading a book.
You see part of the work of overcoming an addiction is to take responsibility for yourself and your choices. Not once did anyone force feed me.
I could also whine that unlike alcohol and drugs, food is legal and is everywhere. No one is going to arrest you for disorderly conduct when your sugar has gone through the roof because you overdosed on Mississippi Mud Cake. I can keep my home environment cleaner when Mom leaves, but I still have two guys living with me who don't have the temptations I do and can and will bring unhealthy things into my space.
So it goes back to taking personal responsibility for my life.
Addictions lie. They do not love you. It is rebellion gone mad.
If the following is your song, then it is time to take responsibility for the things that can and like me quit blaming people and circumstances.
So excited for His promise that His mercies are new morning.
No longer choosing rebellion. I am taking back my life.

New Year, New Beginnings

2011-01-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

During the last two months of 2010, I received a bad report from a doctor, a dear friend was killed in a car wreck and another friend had a stroke. God got my attention.
I have known for some time (understatement) that my weight was impacting my quality of life, but I had chosen to ignore it.
I had chosen to admit that eating the way I do is a sin.
Since I made the decision to do something about it, I have had such peace. It is all about choices and attitudes.
I am addicted to simple carbs which of course, includes sugar. I have begun cutting back significantly and take responsibility for I do eat instead of mindless eating. Hasn't always ben easy, but I find it getting easier.
Pastor Henry said the other day that the key to longevity is knowing God's Word and doing it.
Knowing AND doing.
I have a lot of head knowledge, but I have failed to "just do it!"
Now is the time!

Only One Life

2010-12-31T10:29:00.000-08:00

We only have one life. I have wasted many years doing my own thing with a "no one's going to tell me what to do" attitude. I am where I am today because of the decisions I made yesterday, many yesterday.
I stand at the threshold of absolute surrender. I am so ready. My way hasn't worked. My thoughts of me, my plans, are not as high as my Father's thoughts and plans. This isn't a trial run. This is a commitment to be the me He saw me to be before the foundations of the earth.
I am so excited about day and the days ahead of me. This will be the trip of a lifetime.

No Thing Can Separate Me from the Father's Love

2010-12-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

No Thing Can Separate Me from the Father's Love, but I can choose not to receive it. It's there for the taking, but I can choose rebellion instead. I can choose fear instead of faith. Only my choices bring separation; not my circumstances, but my response to those circumstances.
It is all about being willing to lose control. In this journey I have to surrender my appetite to a Father that knows best instead of an enemy that wants death and destruction.
With the holiday, visiting and then company, I have chosen to begin the "training phase" of this journey on January 4th when my house and life return to a familiar routine. Until then I am practicing. What does that mean? Well, tomorrow night there is a dinner at church and I will eat moderately, not the more defined parameters of the training phase. But already my body is pitching fits. Today I went to lunch with friends. A large platter of chips and dips was placed on the table. I had ordered salmon and steamed veggies. The chips still warm from the kitchn were calling my name. I resisted.
Made it all the way to the finish line when Nick said, "Anyone want my cherries?"
"I do," I heard myself say.
While two maraschino cherries will not add pounds, when you have a sugar addiction, it is best to stay away altogether in the detox stage.
So today was a practice run. Didn't breakthrough, but I didn't beat myself up either.
I can do this. Baby steps. I cannot do this on my own but nothing is impossible with God and He isn't going anywhere. It is time to run to Him for help rather than from Him because I've blown it. It is time for absolute surrender.

The Bewitchment

2010-12-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

Some people lie to themselves and say, "Well. I know I have a problem with food, but at least I am not an alcoholic or drug addict."
Wake up! An addiction is an addiction is an addiction. There is no grading system. I can be totally sugared out by 10 am and walk into church and people think I have it together. However, there is little difference between the drunkenness of a six pack of Reese's peanut butter cups and having that extra beer. Simple carbs convert to a low grade alcohol when you overindulge.
I was already reading the book, Feeding your Appetites, when I received the following message in my inbox: "If you don't know how to deal with the stresses of life that can bring hopelessness and despair, you can develop an addiction by continually attempting to soothe or comfort yourself rather than resolve the source of pain. If you cannot stop a behavior by simply choosing to lay it down, you may have an addiction. It doesn't matter what it is. It might be pornography; it might be drugs; it might be food; it might be gossip or television. It might be an ungodly relationship. Many people are in relationship with someone, not because they are best friends, but because they have a need. Almost anything you can think of can be an addiction. The enemy's kingdom uses many mechanisms and knows how to control you with your needs. Addictions are common to every nation, every race, every culture and every economic status.
The foundational root of all addictions is spiritual bewitchment.
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Addictions are rooted in the need to be loved. You stand complete in the gospel by accepting God's love and receiving the love you need for yourself. Accept who you are in the new birth once and for all. Love God, love yourself, and love others. Be complete in that love and you will never need to find love in any of the wrong places. But because your enemy knows that if he can get you into a place where you do not feel like you are loved by God, or that you do not love or like yourself, and you are not sure about your neighbor, then he can get you to start looking outside for a "fix."
When you don't love yourself or when you don't accept who you are, the first thing that happens in your body chemistry is a dip in your serotonin levels. When you have a serotonin deficiency, you do not feel right physically or spiritually. The enemy knows there is no way you can increase your serotonin level unless you take a drug because you are in chemical imbalance. The pharmacist knows you can take a drug that is a serotonin enhancer to make you feel good. Then you become addicted to the drug which serves to create a chemically altered state of consciousness or false peace. Your enemy caused the problem without your realization or consent. He will begin to engineer thoughts to ensure you will take steps to enter into the various areas of counterfeit fulfillment. If you take your peace with God, yourself and others, the hypothalamus will recognize your fulfillment and signal the brainstem to release and increase serotonin values. This causes your spirit and your body to come into balance again so you feel more complete. Addictions are found in people that are separated from love. When someone is struggling with any type of addiction, that person has been spiritually bewitched away from the simplicity of the gospel, which is love."
These mini-teachings come free from www.beinhealth.com.You subscribe to them. The timing could not be more perfect. It was time to get real.
I had a boyfriend once who said, "You were perfect before your mother spoke to you."
What he meant is our parents program us with the stuff they were programmed with. If they weren't nurtured, they probably didn't know how to love and nurture you properly either. So the cycle continues.
We were born with a desire to be loved. Yet if I earthly father did not or could not love us, it is difficult to believe that Father God can or will. So we look for love in all the wrong places.
Some of the addictions that we are going to look at in the coming year are:
Food
Shopping
Sex
Dependent Relationships
Workaholism
Power
Knowledge Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7
Self including self-pity and self-idolatry
This is an an all-inclusive list. However, in my life's journey, I have discovered that where there is one addiction, there is another. Deal with one and the other(s) will manifest. This is simply because you are not dealing with the root of the problem.
Step one recognize that there is a problem and that you cannot do this by yourself. You are God's creation. Only the Creator has life's manual.
I could blame the abuse, the pain, the betrayals or I can accept responsibility for where I am right now and repent for taking the the less painful route.
His mercies are new every morning. So today I choose to repent and begin anew.

More of Him, Less of Me (literally)

2010-12-28T23:32:00.000-08:00

During 2010 I lost 40 pounds. My goal for 2011 is to double that.
I am not ready to share my weight with the world yet, but seven and a half pounds a month is doable at my present weight.
I have had some serious health challenges the past couple of months and have decided it is time to leave the Isle of Denial and take up residency at Hoped For Cottage.
A couple of months ago I was asked to teach the class on Fear during the For My Life course available at Be in Health (see www.beinhealth.org for more info).
When I moved here over nine years ago, if you told me that I had fear, I would have laughed at you. My whole identity was wrapped up in being a survivor and an overcomer of 25 years of abuse. I would go from one abusive situation to another.
Now I can see clearly that I had a generous portion of the more than 4,000 fears identified my psychologists. They changed from fear of failure to fear of man. Guilt piggy-backed each one of them.
Rather than confront and deal with those fears, I chose to find comfort in food. I am now addicted to carbohydrates. Yes, it is an addiction. Addictions cannot be overcome by sheer will power. A person may be successful for a season, but until I came to a place of repentance for willful disobedience, I was not ready to surrender. Even now I am practicing surrender.
My set date is January 4th.
So I am getting things in place much like one would prepare for a journey. Indeed this will be a life-changing journey.
I will be using the tools that I have learned at Be in Health, a couple of books like Feeding Your Appetites by Stephen Arterburn, some accountability partners and record keeping.
If you have any addiction, you are an excellent liar. Lying to yourself is much easier than admitting the truth. Lying buys time, but speeds up destruction. That is why accountability is important.
My commitment to you, my reader/follower, is to quit lying and to share the good, the bad and the ugly of this journey. A life of excessive indulgence is a life full of wilful disobedience which is sin. Sin separates me from God. The answer then is for there to be More of Him and His way and less of me and my disobedience until you can no longer distinguish my image from His.

MOPE

2010-12-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

I was ministering to someone the other day and the Lord gave me an acronym that totally fit the situation. This young woman was being battered by trying to meet the expectations of others. I think this is extra prevalent during the holidays.
So the acronym was M.O.P.E.
Meeting
Other
People's
Expectations
It is an open door for oppression and depression and you will just mope around the house and through your daily tasks.
Someone who mopes is someone who is given to gloomy or dejected moods. They are always singing the blues which is an open door to self pity. When you are all dressed up in self-pity, nobody wants to be around you. That just compounds the mood.
When you go there, soon your foot is on a slippery slope and recovery is difficult.
The only antidote is to shake yourself loose. Not always easy, but always necessary.
It requires action on your part.
Shake from Free Online Dictionary: Parentheses mine)
1. To cause to move to and fro with jerky movements.(get up and dance)
2. To cause to quiver, tremble, vibrate, or rock. (Rock 'n' roll)
3. To cause to lose stability or waver: (Self-pity as a belief system has to go.)
4. To remove or dislodge by jerky movements: shook the dust from (my feet).
5.
a. To bring to a specified condition by or as if by shaking:
b. Slang To get rid of:
6. To disturb or agitate; unnerve:
7. To brandish or wave, especially in anger: shake one's fist. (Get mad at the devil.)
Okay, still not sure how to do it?
Here is a great example:

Fruitcake Bashing

2010-12-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

Several years ago there was serious fruitcake bashing. Anyone who ate it was considered a freak. This led to fruitcake jokes like:A fruitcake walks into a bar, throws himself on the counter, the fruitcake breaks in to pieces. "What are you, nuts?", said the bartender. "Yes, and jellies and fruits" - the fruitcake replied before the bartender yelled,"Look, get out of here, you reek of rum!" "I'll be back next year, and every year", shouted the fruitcake.
People have said that the only good use for a fruitcake was a doorstop. but I LOVE fruitcake.
Perhaps it is because it conjures up memories of Christmas past. Both my grandmother and mother made fruitcakes. They lined the many loaf pans with heavy brown paper- often grocery bags. It took several days to prep and bake and wrap.
They were a treasured gift among extended family memories. I even remember my mom hiding it. It was no ordinary fruitcake. There was none of the bitter citron. Instead there were cherries, pineapple and lots of pecans. In fact, it was so chocked full of goodies there was little actual cake- just enough to hold it all together.
My granny never baked one, but she would take a store bought one and soak it in brandy for a week. Something my teetotaller mom would never do.
Mom doesn't make fruitcake any more.
But there is a suitable substitute in a Claxton fruitcake.
http://www.claxtonfruitcake.com
Thank goodness for the website because unless you live in their region, you are probably not going to find it on your shelves. It is moist and rich. You can only eat a little at the time. I love it ice cold from the fridge so it slices thin.
If you get fruitcake for Christmas and you hate it, send it my way. If it isn't the right one, I will doctor it up like Granny did.
Now if I could just get Sally to send me some of her buttermilk fudge, my Christmas would be complete.

Faithful God

2010-12-11T05:03:00.000-08:00

I had no shoppers and therefore, no sales yesterday, but I am not discouraged. To affirm my faith, I received this devotional in my Inbox this morning. God may not do things the way we plan, but His ways are higher than mine and I will praise Him because He's my daddy and He loves this daughter.

I was teaching the class on Fear the other day and we use the scripture in Job that says, "

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. Job 13:15

The word "maintain" in the Hebrew means adjust and reprove. So in essence the verse says to me though there are some things that have to die in my life (like overeating when in fear), I am going to trust Him with my life and make the necessary corrections. He has been so faithful to me. It is time for me to be just as faithful.

Thank you for your love, support and prayers.

Diane

This is the devotional from Os Hillman.

"So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, 'Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!'" (Job 2:7-9).

I walked into the room and my friend burst out crying. "I'm so discouraged! I don't know what else to do. Will I ever get better!?" After three years of fighting a medical condition the doctor just told her no progress had been made in the last six months of treatments. Alternative treatment was needed that might have more severe side effects.

Great men of God with healing ministries had prayed for her. A string of doctors had failed to yield any position results. When hope is deferred, the psalmist says, the heart becomes sick. During these seasons, we can only do one thing. We must hang onto whatever faith we have to get through each day and entrust our lives to Him. "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Hab 3:17-18).

When faith doesn't see results it challenges what we believe. We must pray as Job prayed: "Teach me what I cannot see" (Job 34:32). God says there is a purpose in everything we go through. Later that day another friend who once had the same issues, but was now better, had a word of encouragement. "God is going to reveal things to you through this season of adversity that you would never receive had you not gone through this. This is part of your calling even though Satan is the instrument. God is always bigger than Satan's afflictions."

Our greatest tests come when we cannot see positive results from our faith and obedience. In such cases we must die to our expectations and entrust them to our Lord.

It's Time to Live Fully

2010-12-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

There are more dreams buried in the cemetery than there are people.
Recently I started teaching the Fear class in For My Life at Be in Health. There are over 4,000 fears identified by psychologists.
When I came here nine years ago, I didn't think I had any fears. After surviving and I thought overcoming 25 years of varying kinds of abuse, I thought I was an overcomer, bless God and nobody was going to mess with me. You want a piece of me?
I was one tough cookie! But it was all fabricated! Inside I was scared of what others thought of me (fear of man), scared I would do things perfectly (fear of failure), fear of rejection, fear of things falling apart, fear of poverty, etc. The list was exhaustive and frankly, exhausted me!
After layers of more serious stuff were peeled off slowly (again because of fear of change, then that principality of fear was no longer masked as stress, anxiety and drivenness, and I could see it for what it really was. It had to go!
Then last month I was asked to teach it. As I studied it, I could see how I had been duped by the enemy and had come into agreement with his plan for my life instead of God's (to be continued)

Let Us Never Forget the Reason for the Season

2010-12-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. This week alone I have to teach four classes,lead a Mary Kay meeting, audit a class, have a two day Mary Kay Open House and prepare the house for four guests who are coming in this weekend and staying a week.
Then I begin to recover myself and remember Philemon 1:6 which says, "That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
In the chaos of life, I need to communicate at all levels- speech, actions, attitude- that my faith will increase by acknowledging that every good thing that comes from within me is only because I am His.

Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

2010-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Chicken Soup that Warms the Soul

2010-11-23T09:11:00.000-08:00

I woke up the other morning feeling like someone had a foot on my chest. All that congestion was gathered together to make it difficult to breathe.
I laid in bed for quite awhile since I didn't fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, but there were things to do. We are leaving for Florida in the morning.
I plodded through my To Do list.
Then lunch time came. I found a can of Campbell's Chicken Soup and in 15 minutes, my body had a wake up call! Yay!
There is something about chicken soup that warms the soul.
Lord, make me good chicken soup for someone's life today.

Living a Life of Thanksgiving

2010-11-22T05:28:00.000-08:00

There is the eagerness to get there and the hard part of leaving so soon. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. This year my daughter, Margie, is cooking the dinner and she has invited Lori and her family over.
Since I have so many children in so many places, it is rare for us all to be together at one time. Sometimes I think that is best for I so love the one on one time with each child. You don't get that opportunity when you have all of them plus their children and grandchildren.
I am a rich woman to be able to go to so many places and receive love.
This year the visit will be shortened because we have to return for a memorial service for a friend who died in a car accident. Although I would never wish a long illness on anyone, when someone dies unexpectedly in an accident, it takes me longer to get my head around it. I know it is real, but my mind doesn't want to accept it.
So when I am in FL for just two days I will have an abundance of gratitude that I do have a life. It's not perfect, but I have life and love. I have so very much to be grateful for.
I have a husband that loves me unconditionally. He loves me when I am completely unlovable. For this I am grateful.
All of my children are not where I would hope for them to be, but each is healthy and alive. For this I am grateful.
I literally have friends all over the world from Ireland to Africa to Israel to China and from coast to coast in the United States. For this I am grateful.
Happiness is indeed a choice and when you make that choice, you will find so much to be grateful for.
A doctor once told me I would never live to be 60. I am 65. For this I am grateful.
I am blessed to attend a church that is as much a family to me as my own flesh and blood. For this I am grateful.
I love Thanksgiving and it is my heart's desire to live each day in gratitude for the bounty I have been blessed with. May I always remember to give more than I take.

I haven't Got Time for the Pain

2010-11-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

I go to a pretty free church where on Friday nights we sing and dance to Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum version) and other songs that we have redeemed much like they did over 100 years ago when revival swept Europe. The bar songs were adapted to the hymns we sing in church today. Martin Luther and John & Charles Wesley (of the Methodist Church) rewrote popular music from the taverns to accompany some of their hymns as did William Booth, founder of Salvation Army.
Anyway when I sat down at my computer this morning, I thought of the song by Carly Simon "I Haven't Got Time for the Pain." So I pulled it up from YouTube and it was definitely a good fit for the freedom the Lord gives us.
I really don't have time for the pain. I have a life to live for Him!
So if you are willing to be stretched, watch this video and think about your life before Jesus came in and you allowed Him to make a difference. When you release the pain, there is so much room for His love. A great exchange!

All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep
Now melodrama never makes me weep anymore
'cause I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

You showed me how, how to leave myself behind
How to turn down the noise in my mind
Now I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain

Sufferin' was the only thing made me feel I was alive
Thought that's just how much it cost to survive in this world
'Til you showed me how, how to fill my heart with love
How to open up and drink in all that white light
Pourin' down from the heaven

Haven't got time for the pain (no pain)
I haven't got room for the pain (no pain)
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you

The Healing Rain

2010-11-16T04:09:00.000-08:00

I awoke to rain this morning, not a thunderstorm, but just a nice steady rainfall.
I love the sound. It makes you want to grab a cup of coffee and sit in front of the fire.
When growing up, we lived three houses away from the St. Johns River. When an afternoon rain came, many times I would walk down to the river. There I would sit under a majestic oak tree that was so dense that it provided shelter from most of the rain. I would watch the rain fall on the river. It was my secret place that seem to cleanse my soul from the conflict within my home.
In the rain everything was clean and fresh. The smell after the rain was intoxicating.
Since I was raised in Florida, I saw many hurricanes. Only a few were devastating, but for the most part they seem to bring an intense winnowing away of the filth of life. Dead, lifeless branches were pruned by the storm. When it was over, even in the chaos, there was a cleanness in the air.
Now in my senior years, I look back and see that there were indeed many storms. Some I was sure at the time that I could not weather. But I did and the things that really were not necessary in my life that I was not willing to release, the storm pruned. My soul was cleaner after each storm. Sometimes there was a time of healing and restoration that had to take place, but when I yielded to that, I was stronger.
What needs to be washed out of your life today? What has been pruned so severely that you ache?

Jingle and Mingle

2010-11-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

As Ray builds the village and I create baskets, anticipation of our Jingle and Mingle mounts.
This is a special time when I invite family, friends and customers to an open house and we catch up with one another and do some shopping from my Mary Kay studio. I love company. Just that sitting down time and sharing with one another makes one realize how very rich we are in the things money cannot buy. I have customers who have become special friends and I am always eager to catch up with them. Invariably, I will hear answers to some of the prayers we prayed together whether for a job for a daughter or healing for a mother, it is always a time to rejoice.
Then there's the cookies. I love to have many kinds of cookies and just as many kinds of tea. Did you know tea tastes better in a cute cup.
I do hope you will join us this year. We are having on Saturday and Sunday, December 4-5 from 2-5 pm. Do drop in and mingle. I'll provide the jingle. Here's a preview of a few of things I have been working on. http://vimeo.com/16803270

Building the Village

2010-11-15T05:06:00.000-08:00

We had gone to Hobby Lobby earlier in the week to buy styrofoam for the platform of the village and it was going to cost over a hundred dollars. So Ray bought a hot wire cutter instead and then checked at Lowe's and Home Depot for a better price and found none. So we went dumpster diving for packing styrofoam yesterday. Three dumpsters later we were in business.
Ray took the hot wire cutter and pieced it together like a puzzle. Now the fun begins as we build our Christmas village. We have begun placing the 30 plus houses and buildings. We move them from one side to another. Mother called to say she was sending us a town hall. So we decided to create a town square like we have here.
Up went the shops to go to the Square.
Life isn't that simple. We don't always get to choose our neighbors or where our house is located. We can't pick it up and move to greener pastures without great expense.
So while we are where we are, we should live life to the fullest.
How may times do we have to be told to bloom where we are planted.
That neighbor next door isn't there by accident. At the very least, she needs your smile, but I bet she could use an encouraging word and a hug.
Perhaps you are there to pray for them.
We are told to love our neighbor as ourself. So perhaps the crux of the problem is that we really don't love ourselves.
Can I just be gentle with myself and just BE the best ME I can BE? After all, I am just a girl.
I found this song on YouTube. It reminded of Irish pub music and the singer reminds me of Lori Ann. Hope you enjoy it.

Where Does the Time Go?

2010-11-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

Though I am working from home and trying to recover myself, emotions sometimes play havoc with the best intentions.
A dear friend was killed in a car wreck last Monday. The first day I was just numb, my processing mode. Then I was able to cry. Then I began to grieve. I tormented myself with the undone deeds and the unspoken words.
Just the week before she had said, "Diane, your heart will be just fine. I've got a pacemaker and fully expect another 20 years for both of us."
She didn't live even 20 more days, much less years.
Of course, when I had lunch with her Sunday, I had no idea that would be the last time I would see her.
Where does the time go?
Are we so busy doing that we forget to BE. We are human beings, not human doings.
In John 5:19, Jesus,says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
In other words, He saw what His Father was doing and He joined Him.
If we would follow that simple formula, look to the Father and do it as He would, there would be no stress, drivenness nor performance.

Breakfast Bread

2010-11-08T06:13:00.000-08:00

Traditionally Publix Breakfast Bread was reserved for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then it found its way into vacations.
Now whenever we drive up to Fayetteville, we stop at Publix to get a couple of loaves so that there is a spare in the freezer. When you get older, every day is a gift and a reason to celebrate.
Their breakfast bread is chocked full of walnuts, cranberries, apricots, apples and a smidge of pumpkin. Two slices with butter and coffee make a perfect breakfast. Because of all the fruit and nuts, you really don't want anything else.
Maybe it is the hour plus drive that makes it so dear, but for a girl raised on Publix, it has the taste of home and love.
It is the simplest of memories that are the most enduring.
I can remember that on Thanksgiving Day the family decorated Grandma's house inside and out. She was too old to do the outdoor decorations, but loved them dearly. So this was a gift she could enjoy for weeks. No two years were alike. There were always additions and deletions.
Let me encourage you to include some simple traditions in the upcoming holidays. Don't make it so difficult that no one wants to do it.

That Cozy Time of the Year

2010-11-07T12:46:00.001-08:00

When it is cold outside, I can always find fun things to do inside.
For many years, I made crafts to sell to make extra money especially for Christmas. Some years things were so tight, that I used what I could find outside free for the taking to create special things. From tiny pine cones brought home by my truck driving husband who gathered them in North Carolina to the sweet gum balls from the tree in the front yard. In the fall the kids and I would gather kudzu and make everything from trees to wreaths.
I had an excellent teacher and friend in Sally Swift. She is about 10 years my senior and a gifted artist. We would spend evenings together creating. She patiently coached me through new techniques.
Since moving to Georgia, I have missed that time spent together more often that not with a hot cup of tea.
Sally continues her passion today. You can see her work at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/allthingshomey

When Mom still lived in Jacksonville, I got to see Sally more often and frequently I would leave with a shopping bag of snippets and treasures she had saved for me to use on future projects. I always felt I came home with a bit of Sally with me.
The other day I was rearranging a cabinet in the Mary Kay room and came across a jar of buttons from Sally. I couldn't help but smile.
Today I thank God for special friends. Lord, bless them for all they have poured out in the lives of others and then some.

The Weather Roller Coaster

2010-11-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

Last week we ran the air conditioning. Tonight the temperature will drop to 33 degrees. Each day is a surprise.
I personally love fall with pecan falling from the trees and gathered for baking. I love the crunch of leaves as I walk through the yard. I love a good roaring fire and sipping hot cocoa.
Perhaps it is the cocooning that is necessary to keep ourselves warm that makes us a cozier, nicer person. The pace slows a bit, more so in the North than the South.
When we are still, the things within us that need to be perfected have a chance to percolate within our soul. There are things that the busyness of life impedes. When we slow down, they waft through our spirit and that longing for dreams forgotten stirs.
We are body, soul and spirit. Unfortunately, we do not give each part of our being the full attention it needs to blossom. The weeding is deferred until it chokes out hopes. It is in the slower pace that we take notice of such things.
A crackling fire can ignite our spirit and a warm cup of tea, our soul.
Eanjoy each day fully as if it were your last. It is a gift.

There is always more

2010-11-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Wherever you are in your journey, there is always more.
You can do more, be more and even rest in what has been done more.
If you love the Lord, you can receive more of His love and pass it on more often.
The more that destroys you is striving for more.
It is the striving, feeling like you are not good enough unless you do a little more, that amps up your hypothalamus and peace is no where to find.
Could you just enjoy the moment? Listen to the sounds around you and focus on one. Right now the football game is going in the living, a truck drives by outside, but from my bedroom I hear worship songs. That is what I will choose to hook up to. You see when we try to relate to everything, do everything an cover all of the bases, we find ours selves frazzled.
Find your place in the world, by listening as much as you run. Listen to your Father. His plans for you are for good and not evil. Jer 29:11

It Takes Man to Build a Village

2010-11-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

For years my mom built a Department 56 village. Before she sold her house, I believe it grew to about 4 foot by 10 ft. She placed in front of her picture window and people often came in the evening to watch it. It had many moving parts.
When she sold her house, the village was disbursed primarily to grandchildren. Still Ray has continued to build his village with his "inheritance" and has already added on.
We live in an old Craftsman style bungalow. So the village finds its home in the wide hallway. Ray is already plotting and planning. It takes about a week to get everything in place.
As in life, it is the details that make a difference. From the walkways to the cemetery next to the church we recreate life as it was in the time of Charles Dickens.
Sad that life doesn't allow us such artistic expression to move things around to become aesthetically pleasing. Or does it?
Food for thought.

Holiday Portfolio

2010-10-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

I am so excited to share my new Holiday Portfolio. Let me help you with your personal shopping with gifts she is sure to remember. Call me at 706-646-5638 or 770-365-8621
or go to my website: www.marykay.com/adunndeal and in the comments sec of your order reference this portfolio so I will know how to wrap it. Gift wrapping and shipping is free until December 12th.

Giving Out of Love

2010-10-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

I can remember once when I was a single mom with three small children, I receive assistance from All Saints Daycare where my twins attended. When I walked into the office to receive the food, I saw a sign that said, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.'
The quotation played in my head for days. It has been over 25 years, but I know that was one of the turning points in my life where I began to walk out of victimization. A day care center that loved my girls even more than I was emotionally able to at the time. They showed me to how to give love I did not have by modelling the love of God before me in ordinary, daily ways. All Saints was a safe place for my girls and a good childhood memory.
I was single, working and going to school. I am so grateful for the love they poured into my girls who are both awesome mamas today. They made difference in our family.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." Disraeli

The House is Quiet

2010-09-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Although I no longer have small children at home, my husband is a "crash, boom, thud" kind of guy. Quiet isn't even in his vocabulary. The middle child of 11 of an Irish Catholic family in the Bronx, he knows what it means to live life out loud.
So the guys went to a Men's Breakfast this morning and I have four hours of no noise. It has been blissful.
I can't say I have been too productive, but I have thorough enjoyed my time out. I have been exploring pioneerwoman.com that that Adrienne turned me on to. What fun! That led me to another site and on and on I have played without guilt. (Have you read Joyce Meyer's Eat the Cookie, Buy the Shoes book? lol)
I want to encourage you to make some "me" time at least weekly to feel your soul with a few of your favorite things. Never be too busy to enjoy life. It goes by way too quickly.

The Mosaic of Our Lives

2010-09-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

My friend, Johnda, has come to town for a visit. I love it when she comes because we speak the same language at so many levels. She is straightforward and even blunt at times, but she has a heart of gold and when she laughs her eyes twinkle.
It doesn't matter what project I am in the middle of, I have learned that when she is in town, I need to grab her, because she will be gone all too quickly.
This is a principle I should probably apply to all of my friendships for no one is guaranteed tomorrow. The older I get, the faster the sand runs through the hour glass of life.
If you have a friend like Johnda, you are rich.
Have to share this video. The first pix is of a palm tree. Johnda bought a picture of palm trees today to hang over her fireplace in her Georgia home. She always brings a bit of California with her.

Rescuing Others

2010-09-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes friends and family get in a mess and we see their pain and we want to rescue them.

For some this becomes their lifestyle. It gives them a sense of being needed and may even make them feel important. However, more often than not we are meddling in God's work.

I heard this once and don't remember where: If you fix the fix that god fixed to fix them then God will have to fix another fix.

We are where we are today because of the decisions we made yesterday.

If I have an adult child that I am constantly bailing out, she does not have to learn to be responsible.

I remember once in my 30s as a single mom, I went to my dad to pay my light bill. He told me that was the last time. I said okay.

A couple of months later I was in the same predicament and I went back to him. He said, "What did I tell you the last time?"

"But Dad, " I protested, "What about the kids?"
He said, "You should have thought about that before you put your money elsewhere."
My lights were cut off that night. The kids and I sat on the balcony and I made a game of it. The next day an agency helped me, but I never have had my lights cut off since.

My dad quit rescuing me and I was forced to grow up.

Yes, they helped me from time to time with Christmas and things but I needed to be a responsible adult about day to day expenses.

Now I have adult children and I have to make those decisions. I see how hard it was for my dad.

I see the joy when I give an unexpected gift when I know my daughter is doing the best she can with what she has. AND SHE DID NOT ASK.

Always expecting others to get you out of your messes is a sign of self-pity and perhaps a spirit of victimization that makes you feel others owe you.

Today at work someone posted the following on the Bulletin Board and I just had to share it:

His Word says in Ps.34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed. 6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
In the Dakes Bible on the side bar "looked" in vs 5 is
l. Look within is to be miserable
2.Look around is to be distracted.
3.Look expectantly to God brings blessing.
Then in the side bar "out" in vs 6 -To get men out of troubles is God's work and gives scripture references of v.6, 17, 19; 25:17;40:2, 54:7, 81:10; 107:6,13,19,28.

Are you interfering with someone's life? You may be keeping them from total dependence on God.

Pushing Through

2010-08-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I was all about quitting. I had had it.
Now I did not want to quit my Mary Kay business, I just wanted to quit the Director Qualification part. As I began mentally to make a list of those who had let me down including family members who were supposed to love me, I became unwittingly swathed in self-pity.
Self-pity is a slippery slope.
Helen Keller once said, "Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world."
The uncanny part is the way it slips up on you. Innocently, you review the situation and begin to make a laundry list of complaints. You think you are just sizing up the situation, but actually you are cementing the problem in place.
"Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world." (Millicent Fenwick) "Round and 'round you go living life on a roulette wheel rather than taking charge of it.
If I want to quit getting what I am getting, I have to change what I am doing. I have to even change my attitude towards what I am doing.
About 2 a.m. I awoke and my head was clear and I recognized that I had been duped by self-pity again. I took responsibility for my part of the shortcomings of my goals. After all, I have no control over anyone except myself.
I turned away from that path of destruction and began making a new plan.
I am ever so grateful that His mercies are new every morning. Today I choose to make it a great day.

God Uses a Crock Pot, Not a Microwave

2010-06-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have been cooking for over 50 years. (Yes, I started early.) When crock pots came on the scene, the lids were not tight-fitting. The axiom was if you lift the lid, add another hour to the cooking time because all of the heat would escape.
It is the same with our lives. God wants to help us deal with the things that separate from us from others, even Him.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Heb. 12:11
I want to get in His Presence microwave-style, push one minute and wait to hear the ding and be done.
I want the peaceable fruit of righteousness, but not the chastening. So I take the lid off, poke, prod, even remove myself from His pot, but I am not done. Now I have to go back, add another hour or so, and learn to abide in Him.
John 15: 1-5 says:
1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
I can work my Mary Kay business to the max or try to be a very good wife, mother or grandma, whatever I chose, but if I am not abiding in Him, there will be no peaceable fruit of righteousness.
If I am still, I will hear His voice, His leading. If I am overwhelmed, I am not abiding. I will be stressed, not blessed.
Today I choose to crawl back in His pot and abiding in Him until He says I am done.

Having a Mary Kay Party is Good forYour Health

2010-06-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Some people think my Mary Kay business is frivolous girl time. Turns out it is good for your health. I got this email today. I do not know the author. Went to the Stanford site to try to validate it to no avail. However, I know from my "day job" that the precepts are true.
"Girlfriend Time – Who knew it was so important!
A thought to share
...a friend just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more seratonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?--rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to shmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health."
So let's get together SOON!

2010-05-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

I probably got in Mary Kay for a reason different than most. I hated looking in the mirror. Well, actually I hated myself. So I figured if I sold Mary Kay I had enough integrity to use the product.
The first two weeks were awful. I would stand in front of the mirror and pray, “God, show me what you see when you see me, because I don’t see any good thing.”
Sometimes I would cry. Over time it got easier and easier. Then I began do one on one facials. I saw other women cry because they didn’t like themselves either. In my heart God's pink mission field was born.
Still I struggled because I didn’t fit the Barbie doll image of what I thought a real Mary Kay consultant should look like. It was torment. I wanted to do it for a myriad of reasons, but I was tormented. Then recently the Lord showed me how I had come into agreement with what the enemy said about me instead of what He said about me. I repented.
Father God says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made and one of His marvellous works. (Ps 139:14) When I say I am not, I am calling Him a liar. Ouch!
So I began again and He showed me the bumble bee. Now some say the bumble bee should not be able to fly, because like me, his body is just too large. But the bumble bee took what he had and allowed the pressures to create a vortex to give him the thrust to fly, hover and work. His weaknesses became his strengths. So I began to copy him and build a team.
Just like the bee goes from flower to flower, I go woman to woman sometimes just to love on them, sometimes asking them to join me and then teaching them to fly, too.
This summer I will become a Director and my flight pattern will increase. I have stopped frenetically recruiting just anyone, but asked the Father to show me the flowers He wants picked. Some may look weak and spindly; some may be strong and showy, but I want the Father to put together His bouquet so we can bring the fragrance of the Father’s love to His daughters.
Last year Mary Kay Foundation gave three million dollars to shelters for abused women. They do this by introducing three special lipsticks. One dollar from each of these lipsticks goes to battered and abused women. Over 30 years ago, I was a victim of domestic violence. I will be 65 this July. My goal is to sell 65 of these lipsticks by then. Is there any reason why you couldn’t buy at least one? They make a special gift, too, as they are in a beautiful tube with “Thank You” written in 14 languages.
Mary Kay has no territories. If you know someone, perhaps even you, who would like to have additional income or who can see this as a pink mission field as do and want to join me, please call or email me today. I would love to teach women to fly.
Bee-utifully Yours
Diane Dunn

marykayhappy@gmail.com
www.marykay.com/adunndeal

The Clock is Ticking.

2010-04-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

I will be 65 in July and one of the birthday presents that I want to give myself is to be a Mary Kay Director. Not only for the freedom in my work schedule, additional income,but because it gives me an opportunity to touch women's lives, often one by one, to tell them that they are fearfully and wonderfully made and one of God's marvelous works.
Twenty-five years of my life I experienced different kinds of abuse. Abuse becomes self-perpetuating. You are a victim, live as a victim and attract more abuse. The one thing you are trying to avoid, you draw to yourself by your demeanor, your self-image and your incredible need to be loved. Grasping at straws, you choose the first love offered to you and it is poison to your spirit. The cycle repeats.
I no longer live in abuse. I began to see myself as Father God saw me and asked Him to help me become that woman.
Nevertheless, I sometimes play "old tapes" of words spoken over me, acts that violated me and lies that deceived me. This is the fastest trek to depression that I know.
Over time I have learned to catch myself before I g down that slippery slope. I do this by encouraging myself. I may sing, get a pedicure or just squirrel away with a good book. We have to get into the habit of holding every thought captive. Every thought.
My life should be a celebration of the victories, not a scrapbook of past failures. Every moment counts.
It is pure joy to be a vessel of His love. Every moment is the right one to love.
God is love. God is the giver of life. Declare your love. You may never know how important it may to someone else. Just do it.

The Easter Song

2010-04-03T08:03:00.001-07:00

This is a reminder that Jesus is alive.
There is a real Jesus and He loves you.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-04-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

What an Awesome Father We Have!

2010-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Please watch this video and then come back to the blog.

Are you thinking "Wow! What an awesome Father!"?
Your Heavenly Father has loved you that way since before you were born. When you couldn't go another step, He carried you. You may not have always felt it, but it isn't about feelings, it is about faith.
Can you come to that place of absolute surrender and allow Him to carry you?
His plans for you are for good and not evil.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jer. 29:11
His expected end is bigger than you could ever imagine.

The Birth of a Wonderful Man

2010-02-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Over 30 years ago, I married a wonderful man. I called him my Sugar Bear. He was a bear of a guy but was so very sweet and kind to me.
I was a divorced woman in my 30s with three children under 12.
He had two children under five. We probably came together for the wrong reasons. I needed a daddy for my children and he needed a mom for his children and we enjoyed each other's company. That is not quite enough for a good marriage, but Ray was tenacious. When I as a wounded woman would push him away, because I knew that he was going to leave me or abuse me like everyone before him had, he never insisted that I respond differently. He just loved me right where I was. Often that place was a miry pit of self-pity that I refused to leave.
I remember once about the end of the first year of our marriage when we went to Marriage Encounter. The priest told me, Diane, there is no reason in the world why this marriage should work except that Ray is not going to give up on you. He is giving you the same kind of love that your heavenly Father has been trying to give you. It is time for you to receive it.
Something broke that night.
Walls from years of protecting myself came tumbling down. I wish I could tell you that immediately we lived happily ever after, but that is not so. I laugh now and say that the first year of our marriage, he re-wrote The Taming of the Shrew. My programmed self-hatred, made it a bumpy road, but the good news is we stayed on the road.
By trade he is a professional driver and in our marriage he has been a professional driver driving us through life's mountains and valleys from Florida to Texas to Africa and Georgia with an awesome second honeymoon in Ireland.
Today is Ray's birthday and I praise God he was born! I am a blessed woman to have him in my life. Happy Birthday, Baby.

Who Do We Give Our Heart To?

2010-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Our worship honors and magnifies God, but it also builds us up and strengthens us. The joy of the Lord is our strength. (Neh. 8:10) No matter what is facing me if I receive His joy simply by worshiping Him I will be strengthened. To stay strengthened I must also have His Word in me alive as rhema.

We become like unto those we admire and worship. When we worship God we tend to value what God values and gradually take on the characteristics and qualities of God.

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor 3:17-18

When we worship God we receive His forgiveness, tenderness, mercy, righteousness, holiness, gentleness and love. As we let go of the things that bind us, these traits become gifts we can give to others. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

It is journey. Christ in me, the hope of glory. How can He be in me unless I ask? As Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ." How do we take on the mind of Christ?

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2 We renew our mind as we study and meditate on God’s Word and worship Him.

Help Me, God

2010-02-14T01:30:00.000-08:00

Because of the years of abuse I experienced over 25 years, the Lord seems to bring the wounded across my path. Often I am unprepared to help in my own strength. If I look at the situation in the natural, I am done.

One young woman we got involved with had addictions as well as an abusive relationship. We ran the full gamut over a period of time from inviting her into our home to her running away from us and then back to us with her abuser close at her heels.

When you feel that you fail someone, it makes you reticent to get involved with another's life.

However, if I remember that I offered love, she was unable to receive it at that time, and there are others still needing it.

If we focus on those we fail, we will never reach out.
Some many need God's love and He uses ordinary people to give it. They don't need my love. I am just a girl and I will fail them and disappoint them.
They need the Father's love. Am I willing to be totally devoid of expectations and just be a vessel?

Valentine's Day Every Day

2010-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day can be a lonely day for many. I try to spread the love, those little hearts with sayings and chocolates to those whose paths I cross.

However, what a sweeter place this would be if we took the time to love every day.

Love takes time- time to care, time to listen, time to get involved, time to hug and hold.

As I get older I am at the past the middle of my time line and time is very precious. Yet that makes the gift of time even more special.

When you give time, you tell that person that they are valuable. You give them hope.

I am well aware of the time I waste. I work full-time and am developing my Mary Kay business. Nevertheless, I find time to watch television. What if I made a phone call instead or send a note of encouragement? How many of the 10,080 minutes that I am alloted each week, do they get?

How I spend my time is a reflection of my priorities. Do I spend it on people or things?
Spend some time encouraging and loving others today.

Most Problems Are Caused Because Our Receptors Are Broken or Turned Off

2010-01-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

As a little child I learned that For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Although I certainly knew I was a part of that world, it has only been the past year that I have understood how unconditional that love and that no matter how much of His love I have received, there is more.
Why is it that we don't receive all the love He has for us so that we can pour it out on others. I cannot love in my own strength. I can't. However, if I receive the Father's love for myself out of sheer gratitude it pours forth.
Wrong doctrine tells us not to love ourselves. The Word says we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind and love our neighbor as ourself. We can only love our neighbor deeply if we first love the Father, then ourselves.
How grateful I am for His love.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

A Baby Changes Everything

2009-12-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

This song is beautiful and an awesome way to share the Gospel. I hope it will bless you as it has us. Merry Christmas!

Happiness is a Choice

2009-12-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

The first time I heard, "Happiness is a Choice," almost 20 years ago, it really riled me up. I was in the midst of rough time of my life and I was sure it was because of circumstances.
Now I am older and hopefully wiser and have learned that I cannot control circumstance, but I can choose my response to them.
I was reminded of this when I got this short email from my Mary Kay Director, Kathy Lee:

NO MATTER WHAT - CHOOSE HAPPY TODAY!
WHEN SOMEONE ASKS HOW YOU'RE DOING SAY,
"I'M HAPPY!" DO IT EVERY TIME & JUST SEE HOW HAPPY
YOU BECOME ...THEN HOW MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL
YOU WILL BE!!!! IT WORKS!
CHOOSE TO LOVE YOUR LIFE!
CHOOSE TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU LOVE!!!!!

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to
success."

If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
— Albert Schweitzer: Was a theologian, medical missionary, and philosopher

Please Remember Our Troops

2009-12-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Remember those serving and those who are not coming back.
Pray for the families that they have left behind.
Ask God to heal their broken hearts.

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

For as long as I am allowed to say, Merry Christmas, I will. For happy Holidays doesn't capture the love our Father had for us when He sent His only Son.
Merry Christmas!
Got this email. Don't know the author but I support most of it so I thought I would share it with you:
Letter from Jesus about Christmas --

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up... It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary--especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you..

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don't forget I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember :

I LOVE YOU,

JESUS

Ring This Christmas Bell by the Way You Live

2009-12-13T19:05:00.000-08:00

THE BELL

I KNOW WHO I AM

I am God's child (John 1:12)

I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )

I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)

I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)

I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)

I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)

I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)

I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)

I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)

I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)

I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)

I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)

I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)

I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)

I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )

I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )

I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )

I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)

I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)

I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).. I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)

I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)

I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)

I belong to God

Do you know

Who you are?

2009-12-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

I was watching a Hallmark movie the other night and a remark caught my attention. The beauty of children is that they live in the present. They don't look back and they aren't worried about the future.
That reminded me of the Scripture, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt 18:3
We have become converted but have not become as little children. A little child is totally dependent on his parents for food, home and safety. Are wee that dependent on our Heavenly Father or do we plow ahead to do it ourselves without His guidance?
Here's a testimony about seeking first His kingdom, then I have added the whole song uninterrupted. Consider whether you are seeking His kingdom or yours?
Enjoy.

Now consider the fullness of the Scripture as she sings all of the song.

Dare to Believe

2009-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

My Director, Kathy Lee, called the other day. I could hear such excitement in her voice as she shared a Christmas party that she had just attended. Dreams were stirred in all that attended and that hope came from someone who had literally lost everything. She dared to dream again.
Do YOU dare? Do you dare to take back what has been stolen from you?
From Mary Kay Director Liliana Smith's signature line,
"Do you "Bee~lieve"?
How does the Bumble Bee fly?
It's body is too big and it's wings are too small.
God whispered in it's ear, "You can do it!" and it did.

I'm passing His whisper along...... "You can do it!"

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

So many of us have lost our dreams along the way, but if you know Jesus and have a living relationship with the Father, then you know the power of believing.
The Polar Express tells the story of a young boy losing his hope in Santa Claus. Many of our dreams have been Santa Claus dreams. Not related to reality.
But the message of the power of believing is undeniable. When we know who we are in Christ Jesus, then fear has to go for perfect fear casts out fear. God's love is that perfect love and it is a free gift.
So I invite you to watch this Polar Express clip and remember the God-given dreams that you were given. Dare to believe for you can do it!

Old-Fashioned Christmas

2009-12-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

When I first moved here, I compared Thomaston to Mayberry. While it isn't that simple, it is a safe place with lots of good people.
The first hometown parade I saw here was the Fourth of July. It was like being transported back to the 50s with decorated cars and floats without all the pyrotechnics or other blaring electronic devices like a Macy's or even a college parade.
It is real people sharing neighbor to neighbor. I felt so safe that I stood there and cried with joy. They aren't the least bit concerned with being politically correct. They are just real.
We arrived home in time Saturday night to watch the Thomaston hometown parade. It is like a blast from the past and it passes right in front of our home.
First there were the screaming sirens from decorated fire trucks and police cars. These were followed up with tractors with Christmas lights on them. There was a particularly old one that seemed to huff and puff like chitty-chitty bang-bang. There was a gleaming John Deere as well.
All had lights and drivers and passengers shouting, "Merry Christmas!"
There was a horse drawn carriage with lights on its wheels creating a pinwheel effect as it traveled down the street.
We had begun our outdoor Christmas lights and they were the only ones on the block. So the kids would shout, "I like your lights!"
Soon I began shouting, "Merry Christmas!" back at them. It's contagious!
Yet I could not help but wonder how much longer we would have that privilege. In many places Merry Christmas has been replaced with Happy Holidays. Where is Christ in that? I am expressing my heart. Merry Christmas.

What is love?

2009-11-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

"Divine love tender and self-sacrificing and devoted, and glad to bear and forbare, and suffer, and eager to lavish its best gifts and all blessings upon the object of its love. Put together all the tenderest love you know .... the deepest 'love' you have ever felt, and the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you, and heap it all up ... and you will begin to perhaps have some faint glimpses of the love and grace of God." The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. Hannah Whitall Smith

Sometimes in our journey called life, we focus on the circumstances that we would not have chosen -the broken heart, the grief, the dashed hopes. We spend so much time looking back, that we lose sight of the fact that God's love is all encompassing and unconditional.
Jesus told us that unless we become as little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
It is my hope that the following clip will bring you back to the simplicity of God's love.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I have so much to be grateful for. I had one cardiologist tell me that I would never see 60. I am 64 and happy. Each day is a gift.
I am married to a man who loves me unconditionally.
Recently we had a wedding at our church and at the close, they played, "Dance with me, Lord." All married couples were invited to come dance with the newly married couple. As Ray held me in his arms, I was reminded of our first date and our first dance. What a long way we have traveled.
A friend, Marcia Fisher, took a picture of us dancing. I don't usually like pictures taken of me because I am overweight. (translation:not perfect) However, there was something endearing about this picture- belly and all. So I made some copies to send to family and a 8X10 for our family wall of pictures. When I framed the 8x10 and took it to the wall, I noticed the similarity of that picture to the one that was taken 30 years ago on our wedding day as he held me in his arms. There was that same look of love for one another, that same surrender into the safety of his arms.

This 30 years has not been without sadness, even grief, rebellion and brokenness, but what matters most is we have come full circle with God's help. The key is to keep dancing. No matter what your dreams are, don't give up.
Dance as if no one were watching,
Sing as if no one were listening,
Love as though you've never been hurt,
Live every day as if it were your last.
In the attached video, Paul Wilbur opens in prayer and if you listen carefully you will hear prophetic declarations towards the end...darkness has passed...sickness has passed... Then you see a woman dance across the stage and in my mind's eye, I see a little girl dancing for her daddy and I know that is how I want to dance and live for my Father God - in abandon.

Where Do You Worship?

2009-11-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

One of the most powerful thing about the gospel is that it liberates people from the concept that God dwells in any building. That will challenge some.
I can remember as a child how proud I was of our church. I thought the church was the building I went to. I had no real understanding that the church was the people.
In Acts 7 Stephen reminded the Jews of the journey of the tabernacle and how it was full of pagan idols that did please God. He reminds them of Solomon's temple.
Then he challenges them by saying, "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven [is] my throne, and earth [is] my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what [is] the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?" Acts 7:49-50
Because he dared bring truth about worship, he was stoned to death.
Our Father wants to meet with me not in just the concrete block building I call church, but daily as I take time to thank Him for being my Father.
I will never win a perfect attendance pin or be recognized by men in this place, but my heart will be warmed by His presence.
It is leaving the business of our lives and taking time to thank Him and praise Him.
[Even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:26-27
Imagine carrying the hope of glory within you and literally spilling it on others as you make it through your day. Here a splash, there a splash. What a blessing to bring His hope to others. But we have to take time for that infilling, because sometimes the cares of this world cause us to "leak."
I love to go to church, There is time for fellowship before the service that serves to connect me to the body. Then there is corporate worship and then whatever and wherever the Holy Spirit leads. However, what I receive will be in direct proportion to what I prepared my heart for before I came.
The building isn't a filling station. The filling station is anywhere I pause to meet God. Frequent fill-ups are encouraged.

Perception

2009-11-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

PERCEPTION (author unknown)

. . .Something To Think About. . .

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made..

How many other things are we missing?
*****************************************
My question is how many things has God set before us? Are we so busy doing "good" things that we totally miss the "God" things?
How many thing are we doing because we think we "ought" to do them? Yesterday I unplugged the phone, turned of my cell and watched three chick flicks on the Hallmark channel. I had laid out some jewelry findings to create some more jewelry when I thought, "No. I just need to chill. I don't need to DO anything." I put everything back up.
For SIX hours I literally struggled with being still and relaxing. I was never truly successful as I cooked dinner and folded clothes during the movies.
Why is it so hard to be still? To do nothing without feeling guilty? How many things are we missing because we are rushing through our "to do" list?
Why is it so hard to "be still and know He is God?"
Do we fear not being accepted unless we are doing? Do we get our identity from our activity? Who taught us that?
I think one of the reasons it is so hard to receive the love of the Father is because we won't be still long enough.

What Do You Deserve?

2009-11-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago while watching a Mary Kay training video, I heard the term deserve level. Apparently the term has been out there some time, but I had never heard of this self-imposed glass ceiling. It certainly helped explain some of the restrictions and boundaries I had put on myself.
I really didn't think I deserved any more than I had in life. Oh, there would be bursts of belief, but like a boomerang, I would return to my comfortable corner.
So I began to explore (and I am still exploring) how this all came about so I can move the boundaries.
We all have a deserve level. It is ingrained in our belief system. But what is the source of those beliefs? Is it a godly source or have have a believed lies spoken over me whether in ignorance or malice?
Subconsciously, we all have a a limit on what we believe we deserve. It is a reflection of the way we see ourselves. This is our "deserve level." We find it in the work place, our home life, on the golf course, we pretty much get what we expect to get based on what we think we deserve. This is insidious, because we don't wake up in the morning and consciously say, "Today I only deserve to be able to pay half of my bills. Or I only deserve to be able to third in the sales contest."
But are we self-sabotaging to arrive at the level we deserve?
Our life experiences are all governed in quantity and quality by our own personal deserve level. When we don’t get what we deserve, we find a way to get more. When we exceed our deserve level, we find a way to lose what we perceive to be more than necessary. We rise and fall to the level we feel we deserve.
As children, we think the world revolves around us. Then through abuse or abandonment, the paradigm shifts. Our sense of security, worth, and love is threatened, we adapt to that condition. We drawn the conclusion that life just happens. We see ourselves as receiving what we deserve. After all, as children we have nothing with which to measure or compare. We emotionally accept as much or as little as we are given. We believe what our parents and others in authority tell us about ourselves. As we mature, these experiences become our internal regulators.
Some people have unreasonably high deserve levels. They may be spoiled brats, but sometimes it comes out of victimization, too. Often these are the "takers". They believe they are entitled to have anything and everything regardless of the expense to themselves or others, because the world owes them.
At the other end, are those of us, who have allowed artificially low caps to be placed on our deserve levels. We unnecessarily limit our participation in life’s abundance.
I had a friend once who bought a house beneath her ability to pay just in case something happened in the future. She always wanted to be able to afford her house. She lived in an unsafe neighborhood in a house chocked full of family heirlooms out of fear of tomorrow.
This deserve level defines our commitment level as well. It colors our attitudes and acquisitions, as well as our position and possession. What if you really knew what it was to be a child of God? You would find that He doesn't give us what we deserve, but in His mercy, He gives us all He has. Changing your deserve level by knowing your identity in Him can change your life.

Choosing vs. Trying

2009-10-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to see than many times when I say I am trying, it is a lame excuse for not giving it my all. When we choose to do something as opposed to try to do something, then we will have to make decisions at many levels. Choosing to read the Bible will result in turning off the TV. I can try to read my Bible but not find the time because of the choices I make.
In Hebrew try means to test. However, if trying was transliterated to test, I would not get a good grade at all. Try gives room for gray coming out of default.
Choose is black and white. Where we fall short is gray and there is mercy.
So today are we going to try to be obedient to what God has called us to or are we going to choose to be willing and obedient?
God is moving some pieces around in my life and I swing from fear to faith. Am trying to LABOR to ENTER into HIS REST. It is almost an oxymoron. I first thought the dichotomy was labor and rest. Today the LORD showed me it was labor to enter. Once I enter, the rest will be there. The labor is simply making a choice as opposed to trying. Labor means to make haste, do it diligently. It isn't a casual decision.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Hebrews 4:9-11
I was trying in my own strength.
This is my journey.

Forgive Me

2009-10-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

I think it is very important to speak out the things in our heart.
Sometimes because we don't "see and touch" God, we mutter prayers in our heads, but our heart needs to hear these prayers to help shift from regret to hope.
What do you need to ask God to forgive you for today?
Or is it possible you need to forgive God for the time when you thought He failed you?

Worthy of Love?

2009-10-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

I found this "accidentally" while looking for something else. There is not much more I could add to this.

His Strength Is Perfect

2009-10-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I was blessed to have my Mary Kay Director, Kathy Lee, spend a week with me. She spent a week coaching me and encouraging me. We almost hit a $1,000 in sales that week and gained two very good recruits. Then as soon as she came, she was gone.

I was flooded with doubt and unbelief. Can I do this without her? That was not God speaking to me for He had already enabled me to lead the unit in sales my first year and I came in second my second year.

So what was the real problem? The self-conflict comes from loving a job I have at Be In Health where I have an opportunity to speak into people's lives and balancing it with a 10 hour a week job with Mary Kay where I speak into people's lives that I would never see in church. Last week I prayed for ear problems, ulcers and more as they came for a facial. Which is better? Can I have both?

I recognize that some of the conflict comes from having been so sick for several months. Seems that when you are worn out physically, your spiritual strength is apt to wane as well. But it doesn't have to for when we are weak, He promises that He is strength is strong. Now that I am healing, I am better able to see places where I was relying on my strength and not His. For this I repent for my best strength is as a wet noodle compare to His.
As I draw near to Him and take the time to be still and listen to Him, He will give me direction.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect.

Pursuing God

2009-10-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 29:11-13

When we find God in the little things, then we need to tuck ourselves up under His wings like a baby chick does with a mother hen. Our Father loves us and we need to hear His heartbeat for our lives.
Most of my life, when things got too intense, I ran to avoid the pain. I hated confrontation. Soon I found I had gone full circle and this unresolved issue was facing me once again.
It isn't running away that works, it is drawing closer.

God's Original Masterpiece

2009-10-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

since I have been working at home, there have many more opportunities to work on that "stuff" that keeps me form being the Diane that God saw before the foundations of the world. He knit me together in my mother's womb. He fashioned me.
Now I am trying to remove the baggage that I picked up in my journey. Baggage from words spoken against me that I took in as reality. They came from the accuser.
Now I must stay in the Word so I can rightly discern good. God's good is so much richer than man's version of good.
I am giving God irrevocable permission to chisel away anything that was not part of His original masterpiece. Yes, sometimes it hurts. But in the end, it will "yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

Pushing Against the Rock

2009-10-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Pushing Against the Rock
~Author Unknown

There was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room was filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all of his might.

The man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture placing thoughts into the man's mind sauch as: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it!" Thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man even more. "Why kill myself over this?", he thought. "I'll justput in my time, giving just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough." And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in Your service, putting all of my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all of this time, I have not even budged that rock a half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

To this the Lord responded compassionsately, "My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.

Your task was to push. And now you come to me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewed and brown, your hands are calloused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard.

Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. This you have done.

I, my friend, will now move the rock!"

Holy Is the Lord

2009-10-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Do You Really Want to Go Deeper?

2009-09-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

There is a cost to going deeper. You will not be particularly popular for you will have to withdraw from the day to fray and choose your time carefully realizing that it can never be regained.
It may mean turning off the computer and the p-hone and just listening to the Father. can we be still that long without any results for the world to see?
You see the things that are wrought deep in our heart may not show for weeks or months. It isn't a microwave experience but a slow cooker one.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:11
You may even be deemed unfriendly as you withdraw to spend more time with the Father to fully receive His love not just for yourself, but so that yu may heal and pour out that same love on others.
There is a cost. Do you really want to go deeper?

Leaving things behind

2009-09-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Corrie Tem Boom once said, "Hold everything loosely, because it hurts when God pries your fingers open."
When God calls you to a task, there are things that must be left behind. The inability or unwillingness to do that keeps us from receiving His best for us. Some call that His permissive will. I am not convinced that a permissive will really exists. I think it is more likely our rebellious version of what He really called to do.
The older I get, the more rebellion I see that still needs to go. Why is absolute surrender so difficult? Part of it I think is cultural. We have performance and drivenness and no one exceeds Americans in competitiveness. That unfortunately is not God's mindset, but the enemies. As long as we compete, we are at odds one with another.
Let's skip through the Bible and see who God called and what they had to leave behind:
Beginning in Gen 12 we see God calling Abraham. "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.'" (Gen. 12:1)
God told Abram to leave his father's house, bid farewell to his relatives, leave his country, and move to a country to which God would lead him. To man's way of thinking, what God asked Abram to do was extremely difficult, but God had plans to greatly bless him.
Through out the Old Testament men and women were called to leave what was familiar and follow God. You didn't have to be royalty or notable. Rahab, the prostitute, left everything familiar and became part of the lineage of our Lord.
In the New Testament, Jesus continues to call people out. He calls Matthew, the tax collector, the fishermen, the woman at the well, the beggar. After Jesus' death, Saul is called out.
The call has never stopped.
And in a way that only God could perfect, when we lay down those things so precious to us, we find true freedom and a peace not known before when we clutched those things. When we open our hands, we no longer struggle. We surrender to His will. There we find peace and the fullness of His perfect will.
I so encourage you to read and meditate on Ephesians 3. Ask the Holy Spirit how to reach that exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. He says it is "according to the power that worketh in us..."
What is He calling you to leave behind to follow Him?

When We Know Our Father Loves Us...

2009-09-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

There is a new commercial for Publix that I adore. Publix has some of the best, most wholesome commercials centered around family values.
This one is called First Game. The little boy comes with his parents to his first soccer game. The Dad is more nervous than the son.
If you watch it closely, you will see how all of the time the Dad spent with his son to prepare for that game gave the boy incredible confidence.
Each time I watch it, I think that is the way I should trust my Heavenly Father. If He is watching (and He is) what is there to fear?

When we don't understand

2009-09-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Rick and Mary Pat are my bosses though they cringe when I say that for they see us as team members. Nevertheless, in the past 18 months, Mary Pat has lost a son, a mother and this morning her last son after a 13 month struggle for his life after an auto wreck.
I have seen them pray and stand. I have seen God move on their behalf. I was not prepared for last week's turn of events. I do not understand, but I know my understanding would pale to the Father's. So I release it all to Him.
Please keep Rick and Mary Pat in your prayers.

Love Letter from the Father

2009-09-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Are in the Desert?

2009-09-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

In God's order nothing is ever wasted. I have done some pretty inane things in my lifetime. Not all am I proud of, but all have proven to be threads of a tapestry God is creating of my life.
What seemed like wasted time has often proven to be seeds of insight to help another or to avoid an even greater pitfall.
Moses was in the desert for forty years. I get impatient if nothing is happening immediately. But just as you cannot rush the rising of bread or the slow-smoked pork butt, you cannot rush the fulfillment of God's plans.
If you break open the chrysalis of a butterfly or crack the shell of a baby chick to allow them to experience freedom sooner, they will be crippled and die an early death.
Should we not be content to stay where we are until God makes the way for us to move forward?
Os Hillman in his daily devotion, TGIF, says, "The time frames may not be quite as long. But the characteristics of the training are still the same. Do not try to shortcut the desert time of God. It only leads to cul-de-sacs, which force you to revisit the lessons you are meant to learn. Embrace them, so that He can use your life for something extraordinary."
Ask God how to maximize your desert time. Very importantly, make it a time to spend with Him getting to know Him intimately and in a very honest relationship.
That relationship will guide your future.

Hillsong has released the Desert Song. Here are the lyrics:

VERSE 1:
This is my prayer in the desert
When all thats within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

VERSE 2:
This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame

CHORUS:
I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

VERSE 3:
This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise Ill stand

BRIDGE:
All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

VERSE 4:
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favour and providence flow
I know Im filled to be emptied again
The seed Ive received I will sow.

Here is the music for you to play: