a hungry soul

His Spirit awakens me in the early hours of the morning.

My hungry soul is desperate for God.

I feel an intense longing deep within for a touch of His Spirit.

A persistent ache resides in my heart as I yearn for His Presence to manifest.

Oh, I how I need to feel His ministering touch. How I long deep inside for revelation of Truth from the hands of My Creator.

Speak to me, LORD! Show me Your Glory!

Make Yourself known to me down to the very marrow of my bones. 

EMPOWER me... ENLIGHTEN me...

Stir me up and cause a deep dissatisfaction to rise up within my spirit. One that will compel me to seek You. One that will propel me to lay at Your Feet. One that will cause me to continually long for more of you. 

Oh, how I want to be like You! The great I AM. The Creator of all things. The Giver of Life. Quicken my spirit, Oh God. Bring life to these dead bones. Revive me with the same breath that breathed out the stars in the sky.

Speak to me with the hushed whispers of a loving Father that contain Power and yet so gently caress. 

Come to me. Let me feel you in an unmistakable encounter. Free me... so you can use me.

I want to be like you, Lord. I strive to be Holy. Christ-like. Pure.

Let the Scriptures astound me and spur me on to obedience. I sit still before You. Patiently waiting for a glimpse of Your Glory. Seeking to know you deeper. Craving a new intimacy with the Author of my life. I close my eyes in anticipation of a mighty and powerful move of God.

You are Here. You speak and You move and I hear Your Voice. Oh, how glorious is Your Name, Oh LORD!

My soul settles down as I feel the ministering touch of Your Hand. Peace floods my soul. Comfort washes over me. Deep satisfaction of spirit begins to fill me as I know I have been where You are. My soul has found rest and for the moment it is deeply satiated with the provision of today's encounter.  

Fill me with the sweetness of who You are. May I glory in Your Name. 

Who is like You, Oh Lord? There is none greater. Only You can speak life. Only You can breathe life into existence. 

My hungry soul has tasted of you and is full. Only You can fill the spirit with completeness.

I have a resting place in the shadow of Your wings and for now I sleep under Your covering.

You alone, Oh Lord, can satisfy....

we can't do it ourselves!

"And they said, Believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,

and thy house"

(Acts 16:31)

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The hardest part of our salvation experience is realizing that it has nothing whatsoever to do with us. We are saved by FAITH and FAITH alone. We are saved without works and we are saved without merit. There is absolutely nothing we can do in ourselves to be saved and there is nothing we can do to stop being saved. 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the

LORD shall be saved"

(Romans 10:13)

It's all about Jesus. It's all about the work that the Son of God did on the Cross at Calvary. It's about a loving Savior dying a cruel and ugly death on a cruel and ugly cross and exchanging His perfect and sinless life for our depravity and wickedness. It's about believing that God's Son is the only way to eternal life. The only way to forgiveness of our sins. It's about knowing that God is who He says He is. And that His Son became our sin - all of our heinous, filthy, wicked sin - so that we could live. 

Now, don't misunderstand me here. Once we acknowledge that TRUTH in our hearts, we have to acknowledge that same TRUTH in our minds.  We have to allow Him to penetrate deeply into our spirits so that things will begin to change within us. 

See, the scriptures tell us in Romans 6:14, that once we have received that precious gift of grace, sin loses its dominion over us. The NLT says that "sin is no longer your master".  Once we understand the magnitude and the cost of the amazing gift of GRACE, we begin to see those sinful areas of our life in a completely different light. There will be things that we no longer desire to do. Places we no longer desire to go. Things we no longer desire to obtain, or read, or listen to, or watch. As we begin to let God be our master, something begins to happen deep inside of us. The Holy Spirit begins to work and to show us the depths of our sinful nature. And as the Spirit convicts us when we do sin, we begin to learn how to put away those areas of our life once and for all. We begin to see our sin through the eyes of Christ. 

We aren't saved by our works. Scripture is clear about that. But, oh, my friends, when we are saved by the precious, shed blood of our Savior and Lord, we want to do good works. We want to do things that please Him. We want to put away those sinful deeds that once beset us and walk in the ways of Jesus. We are to be imitators of God ( Ephesians 5:1). We are to have a yearning to be like Christ. The Word commands us to be holy as He is holy!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He loved us with such a great love that He did something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves. He redeemed us with His blood. He bought us with a price. He became the sacrifice for our sins. Past, present and Future. And there is nothing that we can do to make ourselves worthy of what He did other than believe that what He says is TRUTH and allow Him to be the Savior and the Lord of our lives. It truly is all about Him. 

"For the wages of sin is death;

but the gift of God is eternal 

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 6:23)

Faith is believing and receiving that gift and then purposing to be like Him as we walk in the newness of the life He gives us. Somebody say Hallelujah!

catch up time

So much has happened over the last month. My husband and I made a trip to Missouri to see our oldest and youngest daughters and their families. Their husbands were working the same pipeline job for the first time in their married lives and had their travel trailers parked side by side. We had such a great time while we were there. We miss them so much when they are off working.

Eli, Sawyer and Bryton - cousins, brothers and friends

Silas and Mercie with Nana

Mercie and Laylah Beth with Nana

Baby cousins Titus and Liam with Papa

Sweet Mikaela with Papa and cousin Laylah and sister Mercie!

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My ministry team, For REAL Ministries, had the privilege of doing 3 conferences in March and April. What an honor it is to serve the Lord and be able to do what He has called you to do. We are just ordinary women with ordinary problems teaching women to live victorious lives in Him and for Him. We aren't perfect, but we serve the Perfect One! It was a blessing to see women get freed from bondage and we even got to see several women come to a saving knowledge of Christ. It was a very humbling experience to stand before a group of women and pour out a message that God had birthed in my heart on "Prepare for Rain" out of Hosea 10:12. He is still working out this Truth in my heart and I pray that He never stops!

What a precious team of amazing women that I get to serve alongside! They are my best friends and I can't imagine doing life and ministry without them. They bless me and they encourage me and they keep me accountable. Thank you, Lord, for this blessing and privilege.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My precious girls and their families finished their jobs and came home. It is always fun when they are back at home and I get to see them many times during the week. It's nice to have them 25 miles away instead of 800 miles away! I know that it will be short-lived until the next job comes up, but I try to enjoy them while they are here and focus on the God-given moments of Joy they bring me. 

Melissa came home from Boston for Mother's Day and it was the first time in several years that all the girls were home at the same time. What a blessing it was to fill up several church pews with my daughters, sons-in-laws and grandchildren. It was a special day indeed as my husband had the joy of baptizing 2 of his grandsons. Eli and Bryton had made the most important decision in their lives. To acknowledge the precious gift of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Savior and Lord. 

Bryton being baptized by his Papa

Eli being baptized by his Papa

 A joy-filled Nana and her 2 sweet, newly baptized boys!

Me and my girls - Megan, Melissa and Ashlie

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What a great mother's day I had surrounded by a loving and caring husband, children and grandchildren. I am so thankful for my many undeserved but much appreciated blessings in life. God has been gracious and kind to me. Even when the times have been rough and hard, He has walked beside me and enabled and empowered me to keep my eyes on Him and walk on. What a mighty and powerful and loving God we serve. 

May His Word always " burn like a fire in our bones". (Jeremiah 20:9)