Resurrection Sunday is not ...

just one day a year for me. It is through grace I am saved and set free from the bondage of sin. I am not perfect and fall before my Savior daily to repent for attitudes, words I have spoken that did not bring Him glory. NOPE Resurrection Sunday is not just a once a year event! For me it's a daily event! Thank you Jesus!

Happy New Year! Well our church has started a 30 day fast. Sean and I have decide to fast everything except veggies & fruit. Which means Sean is only eating veggies cause he barely eats any fruit. You would think it would be easier than doing a true fast but it's NOT! I have really struggled the last couple of days craving meat. Giving up the pasta and breads isn't as hard as the meat. Anyway, so we started Monday and I decided that this year I plan to read through the whole Bible. Did it once about 18 years ago or so and decided it would be a great challenge for me.
So I have started with the book of Jeremiah. Which the first few chapters have been very interesting. In fact I almost decided I might want to read something more uplifting but once I really started reading and digesting what it is saying I am more ready to read it now than before. I think digesting what you read is important. Let it sink in and really think about what you are reading. Not just read through and say ok that;s done.
The Word of God is manna. Well when we eat we have to difest the food to get the nurishment our bodies need. It's the same as reading the Word of God. In order for your spirit man to get the nurishment it needs you have to think about what you have read and let the Holy Spirit speak to you.
Well that is what I have been doing this week. Let me tell you something the things that are revealed are amazing! I read through the first chaper and didn't catch it at first. But then I stopped and reread it. Guess what, when I stopped and took the time to let it sink in, I was WOWed.

The LORD showed me something in a vision. Then he asked, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I answered, "A branch of almonds that ripen early." "That's right," the LORD replied, "and I always rise early to keep a promise." Jer 1:11-12 (CEV)

Do you see it? " I rise early to keep a promise!" NOT only does God keep His promises but He rises early to keep them! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! When it's time for Him to fulfill the His promises to us He rises early to do so! How can we even doubt that He will fulfill them when he reassures us that He will not only keep the promise but rise early to keep it.
That encourages me SO MUCH! You see I stand on His promises of healing, provision, guidance and protection. In Jer 29:11 He promises us that He has a plan for our lives one of hope and a future not evil. What we must realize that He has thought about our future and we can trust that He will rise early to keep that promise and will see us through what ever it is we are going through.
Thank you Jesus that not only do You keep your promises but You rise early to keep them. I am trusting you today for many things and know you will do as your has pormised us! Thank you Jesus!

Still Looking...

for the song! Yes if you have even come across this blog for the last few posts you have read I am seraching for a song I heard on the radio. Still can't find it but I am finding some very POWERFUL songs out there. This next one I found...well heard on the radio today hit me so hard I just sat in the car bawling for a good 30 mins. It just hit me squared in the heart strings. Has such a POWERFUL message. Read the words here and then listen. Let the Lord minister to you as He did me today.


You Deliver Me ~ Selah

Deep as the ocean, Bright as rain
This powerful emotion lifts me up above the planes
It's taken me to places I never thought I'd go
Showing me a grace I never thought I'd know

When I feel like I can't go on
You deliver me
When the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me
You deliver me

I feel like a sinner, my sins have been washed clean
I'm absolutely given, this heart has never seen
I must be forgiven sometimes asking why
I was chosen to be given you in this life

When I feel like I can't go on
You deliver me
When the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me
You deliver me

When there's a distance
Between what I am and who I want to be
You deliver me

When I feel like I can't go on
You deliver me
When the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me
You deliver me

When I feel like I can't go on
You deliver me
When the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me
You deliver me

The Shack

Last week a friend of mine gave me this book, called "The Shack" by William P. Young. This book was awesome! I loved it and highly recommend everyone reading it. It truly made me laugh, cry, think and touched me deeply. You can go here to read the forward and first chapter of the story. This book was truly a life changing book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you do read it let me know what you think. I would love to have a discussion of what you thought!

Trusting

Lately we have had a LOT of things going on around here. So many things that I am not at the moment able to even post. Private things that we are trusting God for. We are in a transition period and are expecting some big changes for our family in a lot of different ways. Unfortuately even if I were at liberty to talk about them God has been speaking to me about keeping things quiet and in prayer. A few of my closest readers may know what I am speaking about...or at least a few of the things that is. But seriously there are a few things that I have been petitioning before the Lord about and trusting Him to give us the direction, guidance and provision we need for these other things to happen. SO until He releases me to share some of these things I will simple continue to sing:


You are God in heaven
And here am I on earth
So I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You

And I'll stand in awe of You, Jesus
Yes, I'll stand in awe of You
And I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You

The simplest of all love songs
I want to bring to You
So I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You

Wonderfully Delicious Cake!

Ok so my Fishing series didn't go as long as I wanted it to. Sure I could have taken a spin on the reel on a lot of different subject but lets get serious here, how many more blogs do you need to read about casting out your hook and reeling in the fish...in other words fishing for souls. Seriously, this blog is suppose to be about my personal walk with God and if you get blessed by it great and if not great....seriously it's not really out here for you or for me to gain readers or popularity. I hope to minister to my readers but if not then I hope it glorifies God!

A friend of mine sent me this little story and it ministered to me. I needed to hear it tonight and thought instead of it just ministering to me I hope it will minister to others. I have NO idea who wrote it just know it has lots of truth! Enjoy!

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanantion!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everthing is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.

"Yuck," says her daughter.

"How about a couple of raw eggs?" "GROSS, Mom!"

"Would you like some floour then? Or maybe baking soda?"

"Mom, those are all nasty!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!"

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God know that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will make something wonderful!

Tangles ( #2 of the Fishing Lines Series)

One of the many things I love about fishing is that it isn't really about catching the fish. Well for me it isn't. It's being able to just relax and be quiet. BUT when you take 4 excited kids fishing there is little peace let alone quiet! No those things do not go hand in hand with the kids and fishing. In fact tangles happen more often with kids when you are teaching them how to cast and reel in their hook.

This one instance I was helping Sara remove a hook from a fish she caught and here comes Eli, crying and mad! Mind you I am in the middle of removing a hook and into my lap he throws his fishing pole. Looking down I can see the cause of his discontentment. A massive tangle!

Let me tell you something, a tangled fishing line is not something you want to deal with...but it builds character and determination. I would love to say that I was able to magically untangle that line or at least say it was untangled within 5 mins. But the truth is it took me over an hour to untangle the mess that was more like a birds nest on his pole! UGH!

In that time God started to show me a few things about that tangle and how it applies to our lives. Our lives are just like that line! How you may ask?! The whole reason that this tangle was created was do to impatience! Eli was having difficulty reeling in his line because the hook got stuck on some underwater plants. Instead of slowly reeling it in or even asking for help he took matters into his own hands and yanked it. When he yanked, the line somehow got wrapped around the pole. He is 5 yr old mind you, so he at that moment had no idea what to do. The best thing would have been to bring it to me or lay it down but instead he started swinging the pole which caused even more issues. Until he threw it into my lap.

Now how many times have you and I done this? We are following God's direction and seeking His will for our lives. You know which way to go and are heading that way but hit a snag, that slows you down or impedes you from going forward and instead of waiting for help or going to your Heavenly Father for guidance you yank! You take matters into your own hands trying to make things happen the way you want or expect them to be done. What do you end up with? A HUGE TANGLE! Once you have this tangle, you like everyone else including me, throws that mess into God's lap. I am sure He must get weary with our messes and having to weave through the mess to get us back on track.

Sometimes God lets us hit those snags to slow us down on purpose! Hello did you read that? GOD LETS US HIT SNAGS TO SLOW US DOWN ON PURPOSE! Yes His word tells us He knows the plans He has for us (Jer 29:11) and sometimes those snags are there on purpose...usually to slow us down so we can get our focus back or to teach and train us in those difficult times. But if we hold on to those promises - that He has a plan and trust Him to get us through those times then we will not deal with the major tangles. Tangles slow us down even more so than those snags!

What snags are you trying to speed by? What tangles have you created because you decided to take matters into your own hands? Today, trust that He KNOWS what is best for you and let go of the line and deal with the snags of life. Maybe instead of trying to fix the snag you should pray for God to remove it or help you through it.

Heavenly Father, I am so guilty of this in my own life. Trying to speed things up when I need to slow down. Lord forgive me for not trusting You for the fine details and trying to control the outcomes. Help me to see the snags in life are your way of helping me get my focus on You and not about my plans.

God and the fishing line.

Ok so yes that's a strange title, I'll admit it! But there's a reason for the title. You see last week when our area was hit by a storm that took out our power for over 5.5 days I took the kids fishing daily. Sometimes for more than 3 hours at a time. Which I have to say for our kids to stay focused on one activity for that long is a miracle. Even today the kids asked if I would take them fishing when they get home from school.

Anyways during our fishing trips God has been showing me some things. When I started writing this today I thought it might just be a short little post but I have realized that what I am learning and God is showing me is a lot more than I thought. So this may be a series, not sure how long it will go but I will let you know if it's over. Just keep coming back and checking.

So how does fishing line apply to our lives? Have you ever wondered why it's important to have some kind of weight on your line? Ever casted your line with no weight? What happened? Ever reeled in you line and got so anxious that you jerk the line? What happened? Have you ever caught a fish without using any bait? Do you celebrate even when you catch something small or nothing at all? Have you ever gone fishing unprepared? These are just a few things I will discuss in the next few posts. I hope this series will encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Make sure to leave me a comment and let me know what you think! (please)

So Let me share a bit here before I go any further. A few of these things happened to my kids last week, such as casting with out an anchor (weight). I sat back on the first day I took the kids out and watched Jaron repeatedly cast his line and it plop down in front of him. He was extremely frustrated and almost quit. It was his first time fishing and he had it in his head that he knew what he needed to do. No granted I am not a fisherman. I have only fished when I was his age with my brothers and the kids in the neighborhood. But I knew what part of the problem was. When he could take no more he threw the pole down and said, "I quit!" I asked him if he needed some help and he was so angry he wouldn't listen to me. So I took over. I added a small weight and a bobber replaced the bait (worms-so fun!) and casted the line. When he saw his line fly through the air yards away he was amazed. He asked me what the difference was and I smiled at him and said, "I added the anchor and it helped the line fly!" Had Jaron just completely quit that day he would never have caught the fish he did on that cast.

We are just like that line you know! When we try to do anything in our lives without an anchor in more instances than we realize, we plop! We need an anchor that will help us fly! That anchor is Jesus! We don't plop when we trust in Him and seek His will in all things! Sure things don't always go our way. There were many times Jaron cased out his line to reel in an empty hook but that's just how things happen sometimes. Does this mean God isn't there or that He causes things to happen....NO! There are times when it may seem that way but seriously, is your focus on giving God the glory in all things or is your focus more on you and how He can serve you?

Our Heavenly Father is not a waiter to serve us! In fact we were created to have fellowship with Him and if we are seeking that fellowship, serving HIM will come from the love we have for Him without conditions! So many times I have heard people (including myself here) say, "If God will do this I will do that!" It's bargaining with God and God DOESN'T bargain! There is no instance in the Bible that says He will bargain with you for YOU to get your will. Our purpose is to serve HIM and if we get blessed while doing so great! But if not even more so I will serve Him.

Today are you anchored in the Lord? Are you trying to cast your line in life without an anchor that will help you soar? Why not cast your cares on Him! The one true anchor that will never leave you or forsake you!

Lord in my life I pray I will stay anchored to you and no matter what comes my way I know that You alone will help me succeed in all I set out to do if it will bring YOU glory!

** come back tomorrow to read the next insert in this Fishing line series!

Today's post is just for you Lord.

I have no idea what You are doing or why You allow things to happen. I am thankful that today I was not hurt when the tire blew out but at the same time I feel like everytime we get a blessing immediately it is stolen from us. Just like today, when the wheel blew out, Lord the financial blessing we got yesterday was going to be used for something else...instead we had to use it for this tire. I am thankful we have the money, I am thankful I was not hurt and that I was only going 25 mph instead of the 60, I am thankful that I got stopped at the light before it blew other wise I would have been doing 60. Lord, now once again I need you to step in and provide again so that we can take care of that other need we were planning to use that money for. Sometimes I just don't get it! Either way I will worship you and I trust that You alone will provide for what we need.

Gentle Reminder