Hanging with Jesus

Will I ever cease to be stunned and deeply angered and grieved at those christians who pounce on and stomp on and then chew up and spit out other people?!? Sometimes it seems as though I spend more time ministering to those who have been mistreated by other christians, than those who have had to endure the pains and hardships of the world and the so-called ungodly! What is WRONG with these christians!?! What bibles are they reading, and where is thier relationship with my JESUS?
Today was my last day at the preschool that I have worked at for 2 and 1/2 years. I turned in my resignation 2 weeks ago. Three days ago, I sat with a fellow employee, and sister in the Lord, and listened to her share with me how afraid she was that I was leaving, and how she now would be left to fight off for herself the attacks of the other employees. She shared with me how, on this particular day, they had many unkind words directed at her and how they were shunning her, as she tries to do her job with the children. Here is my sweet precious friend, crying and pouring her heart out, broken, torn, and afraid, and deeply wounded, again, by this pack of women; and the "leader" of this pack is a pastor's wife!
I am crying right now as I see again the look in my friends eyes...the bewilderment and confusion, the pain of being unjustly attacked by so called ' friends ' ; of being abused... of being rejected!
I wonder how and I wonder why... and then I think of my Jesus. HE knows how, and HE knows why. HE was there, and we were there with Him!
Thursday night as I lay in bed, talking to the Lord about my friend, I suddenly saw myself on that cross with Jesus! So real was it to me that I could feel the warmth of His Blood as it began to cover my body! I felt all of the pain, the grief, the anguish, the terror, the abuse, the rejection... all that I have suffered, and all that my friend was suffering, right there, flowing over me with Jesus's Blood, and I remember telling Him that "I can't bear this; this is too much!!" It was gruesome and horrible and unspeakable, and I don't have the words to describe the intensity of what I saw, or what I felt, but when I told Him I couldn't bear it any longer, HIS Love came over me so intensely and I felt Him drawing me closer to Him, and saw myself clinging closer to Him, on that cross, with His Blood still pouring out, but now it no longer felt hard to bear, but instead was so comforting, so healing, so REAL! !
I know that He showed me this, openly and vividly, because I needed to SEE HIM THERE! Just like I now see my friend, just like I see myself, just like I see you, and them, and everyone! HE was there, and we were with Him! HE is here, and STILL with us! If we don't continually see Him on that cross , we won't be able to bear anything of true value, that will be advancing the Kingdom of our Father! Of our Jesus! We need to, we MUST, bear one another up in our individual battles and struggles! Jesus had compassion on that cross! He had mercy and forgiveness and love and encouragment!! He bore us up!! Each and every one of us, individually!
**This blog entry has been edited from the original post of yesterdays(26th) entry. I hesitate to share, with many, the intimate times that I have alone with Jesus, but this I am sharing with you, because I believe most of you know my heart, and this is the purpose of my blog.
I would like to encourage all of you, at some point today, to find a quiet place and get alone with God. Close your eyes and see Jesus hanging on the cross! Meditate on that. And then next, put yourself right there with Him! If you can do that, I believe Jesus will show you things, and take you to a place, a relationship with Him, that you have never been or had before! I know that He did this for me thursday night!
Please lift my friend Debbie up in prayer, and all those that you know of today who need encouragment and strength, and the love of Jesus to overflow into thier lives! Let's bear one another up! Let's keep on hanging with, and hanging onto, our Jesus!!!

Cowgirl boots...

I am sooooo thankful for the Word of God, and that we can look to Him to show us how to walk in love towards other people! For the past several days I have wanted to wear my cowgirl boots to work and kick a certain someone right in the rear end, because frankly, some people seem deserving of that! Now just how "spiritual" and "godly" does that sound, you may ask? Well, I tell you truthfully that it was SUPER NATURAL in that I did NOT!! (We always seem to look for these huge, super natural acts of God to take place, but fail to recognize the seemingly small ones, which occur each and every day, in each and every one of our lives!) I don't know about you'all, but I have the "Supernatural" going on in my life 24/7, and I am thankful for Him! :)

The Prayer of an Old Man

In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee. I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. Let them be confounded and consumed that are advesaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: hitherto have I declared thy wonderous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to came. Thy righteousness, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: who is like unto thee! Thou, which has shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.

*Psalm 71

For His glory

I have been under extreme pressure these past few days and feel as though I am being squeezed at every turn. 'Fiery darts' have been bombarding me from all directions, and by the end of each day I am actually physically exhausted from this battle. Yet I am persevering, and I maintain His Peace. When our minds come under attack and our emotions are taking us on a roller coaster ride, we have to remain steadfast and confident in Him. He IS our strength! Romans 5:3-5 says that, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develope endurance. And endurance developes strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love".
I am growing stronger, and trusting God more deeply, with greater confidence than ever before!
And in doing so, I give Him all the glory for the victory that I have in Him!
We serve an awesome and glorious God, and I love Him so very much!!

it's the little things...

...I am sooo excited right now!! In all of my 52 years, I have struggled with making my cookies come out of the oven " soft and chewy " like it always claims on the recipes. Well... today I have had a breakthrough!! My peanut butter&chocolate chip cookies came out "soft & chewy", just like they have always said, and this time I didn't even pray over them! :) ( I did that once with a prime rib wedding rehearsal dinner I hired out to do, and God in His mercy and grace saw me thru THAT one!:) So anyway, plain and simply, I am praising God! It's the little things that I encounter daily that make my heart sing, and rejoice, and continually see just how awesome God is and how much He really cares!! ( I will tell you that I did burn one pan of these cookies, but it was ALL JESSICA'S FAULT for keeping me tied up on the phone for soooo long!) Ha-ha, Jess! :) :) Just teasing you, and again, it was great talking with you, AND Lily! My love to all, and may all YOUR cookies turn out "soft and chewy"!

HIS Word, our voice...

God is doing soooo much in my (our) life right now that I truly am just holding on tight and watching Him, almost minute by minute, DO IT! I feel like I am standing on the outside, looking in, and watching Him put all of the pieces of this puzzle together, one piece at a time, all seeming to fit together PERFECTLY! And QUICKLY! I had NO idea that what is happening, would happen, except that He prepared me enough in advance that I was, and am not, shaken or moved by these chain of events!! God definitly knows what He is doing! I don't doubt that for one breath!! This, although, is not what, or why, I am writting today. I am writting to say a big THANK-YOU to a new found friend of mine for an e-mail that she sent to me! I read it early this morning before I went to work, and what an encouragement from God that was! She had the perfect words that ministered to me in only the Perfect way that Gods Word can, and HE used her for just that purpose! So, Suzanne, I thank God, and I thank you, for allowing Him to give you His Word, through YOUR VOICE, to bless and encourage me!!

"Affirmed", not "Anonymous" !

Recently on one of my blog entries, there was a comment posted and then signed as "Anonymous". Please read this(David) because you can never be "anonymous" in the eyes of God! O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I am far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is to wonderful for me, to great for me to understand! I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night-- but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-- how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! Psalm 139:1-18 (NLT)

"Tolerationist" ?

"Tolerate", as defined in Webster's Dictionary; 1. to allow; permit; not interfere with. 2. to recognize and respect (others beliefs and practices, etc.) without necessarily agreeing or sympathizing. 3. to put up with; bear. Also defined in Webster, "Tolerance", as; 1. a tolerating or being tolerant, especially of others' views, beliefs, practices, etc; freedom from bigotry or prejudice..." And then we have "Toleration", defined as; tolerance; especially , freedom of religious worship; freedom to hold religious views that differ from the established ones. Thus we arrive at the term "Tolerationist", defined as; a person who advocates toleration, especially in religious matters. The action and momentum of these words are speeding along full force in this world, and especially in this country! The " I'm ok, you're ok" mentality is rapidly spreading into the minds, and hearts, of many Americans, and it's really not ok! I wonder if people stop to think about who governs the laws of "tolerance". It certainly has its boundries, depending on whom you are speaking too. In other words, there ARE no boundries to tolerance! The world(people) makes it up as it goes along, with each generation becoming more and more saturated with beliefs and behavior that used to be unacceptable. Untolerated. Tolerance has become the worlds defining "belief system", and as such, (referencing the above definitions) it leans on nothing, believes in anything, and tolerates everything. Thus, the life of a "tolerationist" is consumed by making sure that every relationship they have is based on both parties accepting acknowledgment of one anothers "belief system", being based on nothing, believing in anything, and tolerating everything. Experiencially speaking, as a bible believing christian, these people can be the first to reject you. They throw daggers of criticism at your life because you are so firmly rooted and grounded in your beliefs to the degree that you are convinced, committed, and unmovable! You are on solid ground, and, oh how the spirit of tolerence hates that! It aggravates and frustrates those who are decieved into thinking they can live thier lives to the fullest thinking, "I'm ok and you're ok, and we will accept one another on the grounds that there IS NO ground, and we will go thru life seperately, together. We will believe anything we want on any given day, as long as we "feel ok" about it, but even if we don't, we'll tolerate everything that anyone wants us to, as long as they, to, tolerate us". This is a very serious matter and lives are at risk here with this pattern of thinking. Eternal lives! I almost lost my life to this "worldly belief system", and although I have been saved and pulled out of it, I led a very miserable life because of it! I hope to share more of my heart on this in another blog entry soon. There is much to ponder, and much that God has to say on this, in His Word. Good night.

Hope

I cannot seem to get close enough to God today! He is right here, in me and with me, but I can't get enough!! It's like a never ending, ongoing hug ...He is hugging me ever so tightly, and I hug back. Then He hugs me tighter, and I hug back tighter. And THEN He hugs me EVEN TIGHTER, and I hug MORE tightly, and it doesn't let up and neither one of us lets go!!! My heart is very overwhelmed today! DEEPLY grieved by seeing the condition of the heart in those that I love so very, very, VERY much, and right now all I can seem to do is hang onto my Fathers hugs! As I write this, I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that His hugs are just another word for His Hope!! May all of you recieve, and give, lots of hugs today!

Fresh and new...

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new". llCor.5:17 The New Living Translation says,"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone; a new life has begun". The Message Translation says, "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons". The Amplified Bible says,"Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ the Messiah he is a new creation, a new creature altogether; the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come". SELAH!!!