and I'm so happy...

I've been doing the happy dance this week! My oldest daughter and her family surprised us Tuesday afternoon by calling and informing me that they were about 4 hours away from home. They had left Pennsylvania Monday evening and driven straight through the night to get back home to Louisiana. Needless to say, when they drove up in their driveway, a certain Nana and Papa were waiting for them with open arms! I just couldn't believe it when they all got out of the vehicle and I got to wrap my lonely arms around some very special babies and their parents! My heart was just so overwhelmed with love and is still so full of thankfulness.

Silas had changed so much in the 3 months since we were in Pennsylvania to see them. He is beginning to talk some and he has gone from a baby to a little toddler. He is so sweet and is a very loving little boy! He will lay his head on you and give you sweet kisses.

Mercie has really grown up these last few months as well. She is such a darling little thing and her whole face lights up when she smiles! She just looked at me when she got out of the car and then ran to me and wrapped those sweet arms around my neck and hung on for dear life. I have missed that baby so!

Eli has grown taller and has lost that little boy look. He is so handsome and such a sweet fella. I just love that little boy. He is so funny and so smart and is rocking a head full of curls!

Mikaela has become quite the young lady and it is so sad to realize that she just isn't a baby anymore. She is so tall and so grown up! She has learned to crochet which I think is amazing for an 8 year old! She is so beautiful and has such a heart for God. I have missed her so much!

"I will bless the LORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth"

(Psalm 34:1)

"O taste and see that the LORD is good;

blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."

(Psalm 34:8)

(a collage of cell phone pictures sent by my daughter - I miss this little one and her 2 sweet brothers!)

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It is good to have Megan and her family home. I missed them so much while they were off working and am making up for lost time while they are here. Through it all, God has been so good to us. He supplied Rod with a good job and even though it took them away from home, he was able to support his family and that is a huge blessing. I certainly missed being with my grandchildren those 3 long months, but God kept His sweet Hand upon my heart and helped me to make it through those tough times. His mercy and His grace are so amazing and His love is so tender. He supplies our needs always. When we open our hearts to Him, He is faithful to tend to us and touch those areas of our spirits that need some healing. His goodness overwhelms me. 

"For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we

have trusted in His holy name. Let thy mercy, O LORD,

be upon us, according as we hope in thee"

(Psalm 33: 21,22)

loving this journey

I love my life. I love the journey that I am on with God and am so thankful for the abundant mercy and grace that He has shown me for 49 years. My sweet Lord never fails to teach me something each day of my life. Some are easy lessons and at times there are some hard ones mixed in. The hard ones are usually due to my failure to yield in some way to His authority. But they are still lessons that needed to be taught. Needed to be learned. Lessons that just plain needed to be so that I could continue on this wonderful journey with my Lord. Always growing. Always striving to be more like Him.

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We grow in relationship with God one step of obedience at a time.

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I love learning from my grandchildren. They give me so much joy and I want to be part of each of their lives. I am trying to enjoy life to its fullest and trying to slow down and savor these precious times with them. 

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I love to read the Word of God. It is the Bread of Life. It is the nourishment that I crave. There is no greater food for our souls than the heavenly manna of God's Word. 

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I love the on-going reminder to be thankful  due to my '1000 gifts journal that I started several months ago. My last entry is #631 - "The sweetness of God's presence" 

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I am so excited about the upcoming birth of my 7th grandchild. My youngest daughter Ashlie will be adding a sweet little girl to her family.  She will be welcomed home by 2 amazing brothers who are excited about having a little sister. 

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I love this picture of Ashlie and the sweet baby she is carrying. In 2 weeks, that little baby will be in our arms and the spoiling will begin!

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"Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord,

to whom shall we go? 

thou hast the words of eternal life."

(John 6:68)

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I am thankful for those precious words of eternal life. We have unlimited access to those words and the one who speaks them. Jesus is always there for us. Ready to listen. Ready to respond. Ready to speak those words that cover, heal and restore. Ready to reveal Himself to us as the Christ. The Son of the Living God.

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I am missing my daughter and her 4 sweet babies so much! They send us the cutest little letters and cards that just make us want to get hugs and kisses from them in the worst way! And the photos of them that she sends just make it that much harder!

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My middle daughter, Melissa, will be flying in next week so she can be here for the birth of Ashlie's baby. She will be between semesters and able to visit with us for 2 weeks before she heads back to Boston! I am so thankful that God provided a way for her to be able to come home. I miss her so!

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God is so good. I am continually overwhelmed at His goodness. Humbled by His sweet mercy. Overcome with gratitude by His generous grace. 

Thank you Lord for your presence in my life. Thank you for drawing me and speaking those words of eternal life to me. I love you from the depths of my soul.

broken and spilled out

"To be broken is the beginning of revival.

It is painful, it is humiliating,

but it is the only way"

 - Roy Hession

Broken......

shattered. stripped down. laid bare. softened.

Brokenness is not an emotion. It is a choice that is made. It is a way of life. It is coming to a true understanding of the condition of our heart. It is seeing the vast depravity of our sinful nature.

Brokenness is tears of conviction. Tears of shame. Tears of repentance. Tears of cleansing and restoration.

It's acknowledging our failures and the depth of our sin head-on. It's about releasing the grip on our pride. It's about the deep desire for God to begin doing a mighty work in our lives.

Broken. Surrendered.

We can choose to be broken, or God can break us on His own initiative. The process will be much less painful if we come to a place of brokenness of our own volition.

As God began dealing with my heart on some areas of pride in my life, I began to realize the deepening need I had in my spirit to be broken. Truly broken. Shattered. I had some places that were filled with 'self'. I had some places that lacked the Holiness that I professed. I needed to turn some things over to God and allow Him to crush them once and for all.

This shattering of my self-will was coming. I could feel it. I could sense it. I was even welcoming it. Because I knew that until I met it face-to-face, I would be virtually ineffective in my walk. Until I released that which I was clinging to so tightly, God couldn't do the work in my life that He was desiring to do. I was preventing an awesome work of the Lord with my stubborn pride.

I had been praying for a breaking of my self-sufficient attitude. I had been praying for God to allow me to be broken. I was ready for it. The anticipation of it had been building up in my spirit for some time. And when it came, it came like a hurricane. It blew into my spirit and uprooted so many things that I had been holding on to. It pulled up things that I didn't even realize were there. It flattened some places that needed a good flattening. And when it came, it came in a torrent of tears. Deep, gulping sobs.

And it felt so good. I felt such release. I felt freedom like never before. I had a new joy in my heart that I hadn't felt in a long time. I feel a lightness in my spirit that is so amazing. I feel unspeakable peace.

".... God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13b)

This refining and purifying process in my spiritual life is one of revelation and restoration. It is one of shaping and molding me into His image. It is one that will make my walk match my talk. It is about my theology becoming my reality. It's about allowing the Potter to have full access to me, the clay, and allowing Him to mold me and form me into the image of who He would have me to be.

I want to look like Him. I want to walk like Him. I want to be like Christ.

I pray that this broken state I am in remain with me to be a constant reminder in my life that alone, I am nothing. Alone, I am shattered into a million pieces and unusable. But in Christ, those broken pieces can be put back together and molded into a vessel that can be used mightily of Him and for Him.With Jesus, anything is possible. He can take me in my wretched and unworthy state, clothe me in His righteousness and use me to bring glory and honor to Him.

God takes my brokenness, reveals His glory and makes me whole.

Lord, pour me out to be used of you. May I never be the same....

"Create in me a clean heart,
O God; and renew a right spirit within me"
(Psalm 51:10)

Praise Him for Deliverance!

Salvation - "deliverance from the power of sin; redemption

So many times, people mistakenly believe that salvation is deliverance from sin itself. But the deliverance is from the POWER that sin holds over us.

We are most assuredly still faced with sin on a daily basis. The world is full of sinful things, sinful ideas, sinful people. But those of us who have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and acknowledge His birth, death on the cross, burial and resurrection don't have to succumb to the death of sin, because we have power over it through CHRIST.

Sin doesn't have dominion over us. Praise God that the Holy Spirit convicts us and we can repent and turn away and seek forgiveness from Him. When we seek forgiveness with our whole heart - He gloriously forgives!

I don't know about you, but I need this merciful forgiveness every day!

I need deliverance.
I need redemption.
I need forgiveness.
I need mercy.
I need compassion.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14)

Oh, wonderful Grace. That He would find favor in me.

Not because I deserve it.
Not because I earned it.
Not because I am worthy.

Because He is.
Because He was.
Because He is to come.

Share the Gospel

It occured to me last night that in the midst of my busy life and in the midst of me pursuing my own spiritual growth and subsequent feeding of my soul, that I have neglected to truly reach out and share the gospel one-on-one with other people.

Oh, sure, I talk about the Lord with people all the time. I share my faith with others but in reality, most of the people on the other side of these conversations are those that already have a relationship with Christ.

On rare occassions, my office at work has given me an opportunity to plant some seeds, but it hasn't afforded me a real chance to lead someone to Christ.

I haven't taken the initiative or the time to get out of my comfort zone and seek out a lost soul. I haven't really been "soul conscious" of anyone's soul except mine!

It's easy to share our faith and beliefs with someone in everyday conversation. It's easy for me to talk about all the things that Christ has done and is doing in my life. But the thought of going to someone's house (uninvited) and knocking on the door and then asking them if they would let you come in and tell them about Jesus... well, that's a little harder. A tad out of my comfort zone.

But in these perilous times, we need to be sensing an urgency to get God's Word and His gospel out to a lost and dying people. A people that need Jesus in a big way. People like me and people like you. People that are hungry.

We know where to find that road map that will lead them to Jesus. We need to be willing to share that with others. We know that One who can fill them with the Holy Spirit. We know where they can taste the Living Water.

We know where they can find the food that will satisfy their hunger. After all, we are just one beggar showing another beggar where to find the bread.

Christ died for us all. We are all sinners, but for those of us who have accepted and received God's gift of salvation and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior, there is forgiveness. There is hope. There is mercy. There is grace.

Let's share that with others.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16)

His Manifest Presence!

The Omnipresence of God is the unlimited nature of God or His ability to be everywhere at all times.

The Manifest Presence of God is when our ‘unseen God’ moves into the ‘seen realm’ of our life.

When we:
See His footprints
Feel His touch
Experience His Glory

In Luke 18:35-43, we see the story of Bartimaeus. Now, Bartimaeus was a blind beggar of Jericho. And as he sat on the side of the road that day, he heard a multitude passing by and he asked those around him what it meant.

They replied, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” In other words, the Manifest Presence of God is passing by! Wouldn’t that be awesome to hear those words today?

Bartimaeus immediately cried out, “Jesus have mercy on me!”

Do you notice here that Bartimaeus didn’t wait for a committee meeting to decide what to do. He didn’t even ask someone else to go get Jesus for him. He didn’t question this statement at all. He just immediately recognized his need and recognized that his solution was passing by. He felt the presence of God in a mighty way and he acted upon it the way that we should act. He cried out to the one who could help him.

He didn’t need a visual confirmation and he didn’t need a vocal confirmation. All he needed was the confirmation that he received from the Holy Spirit.

The scripture tells us that Jesus stood still and requested that he be brought near to Him. He asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want Me to do for you?”. Bartimaeus could have asked for many things, but he requested the one thing that he desired most and that was his sight.

Jesus said, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”

Immediately he received his sight and followed Him and glorified God.

Oh friends, that is what we need to do today! We have got to recognize the Manifest Presence of our Savior. We have got to recognize our need for our sight. We have to ask for the healing, receive that healing, open our eyes and FOLLOW HIM! Then we have to give God the glory that is due Him.

His Manifest Presence is available to us and it is attainable to us. We just have learn to always be seeking, always be looking, always be aware of when Jesus is passing by. We don’t want to miss Him.

Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. I know that at times I am blinded to the truth and I pray that you will show yourself to me in a mighty way. May I open my eyes, seek Your Presence, cry out to You, receive what you have for me, and then may I follow You and give You all the glory.

The Precious Lamb of God

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I read this verse as part of my daily bible reading this morning. I know that I have read it many times and probably so have most of you. But this morning, it just really spoke to my heart with the magnitude of what this actually means. I read it afresh. I read it with a new understanding. I read it with a new appreciation. It just flooded through my soul that this is mercy.

When we align ourselves with Christ and we enter into a full relationship of repentance and obedience with Him – we will never be the same. We don’t want to ever be the same. We become a changed and new creation. We become visibly different.

Just like a butterfly breaking free from the cocoon that binds him, we break free from the cocoon of this world and emerge a new, beautiful creation in Christ. We have been changed from old to new. From death to life! From defeat to victory! From sinful to forgiven.

We have been given the sweet gift of mercy. As the old things pass away we now have unlimited access to the new things.

New affections..
New actions..
New desires..
New appetites..
New relationships..
New life..
New love..

Through Christ, He enables us to make the transformation. He has provided the way. But it’s up to us to spread our wings and leave the confines of the cocoon of the world. The transformation is more than just an outward change, it is an inward reformation. We have been given the chance to have new life in Christ. We have been given the ability to be reconciled with Him and receive the forgiveness we can’t earn and the mercy we don’t deserve. Through Him, our sins have been washed away and we are cleansed and made whole.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

As Christ became sin for us on that cross, we immediately were given the opportunity to become new creations. As the Lamb of God took on our sin, we became spotless. Righteousness has been imputed TO us and then implanted IN us. We have been made fully justified through Him. Freely justified! We have been made the righteousness of God! Hallelujah! I don’t know about you but that just excites me! As my husband would say, “If that don’t light your fire, your wood must be wet!!”

We can never earn this grace. We can never earn His mercy. But we can accept it and embrace it and live for Him.

Praise you, Lord for your never ending mercy. Thank you, Lord, for so freely giving up your life on the cross at Calvary for me. Thank you for enabling me to become a new creation. Thank you for giving me new life. I love you and I will seek you and find you and love you more and more.

I Surrender All

All to Jesus, I surrender.
All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him.
In His presence daily live.

I surrender all.
I surrender all.
All to thee my blessed Savior.
I surrender all.

How many times have we sung this hymn at church and not really focused on the words we are saying? So many times, we are just singing words from our mouth and not letting those words penetrate our hearts.

Do we even know the definition of the word surrender?

1. To declare yourself defeated.
2. To give up possession of something.
3. To relinquish control

When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we should be totally surrendered to Him. Most of us will SAY this is true of our lives, but when we get right down to it, we are far from surrendered. I think that it is something that we have to do on a day to day basis. Surrender doesn’t come easy. It’s a battle that we have to keep fighting.

When we lift our hands toward Jesus as we sing praises - we are in the posture of surrender. Hands held high. Humble. But it’s more than just an outward expression that creates a surrendered heart. It’s that inward attitude that truly denotes the humility associated with surrender.

* We have to declare ourselves defeated. We have to admit that without Christ, we are defeated by sin.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus" Romans 6:23

* We have to give up possession of our own lives. We belong to Jesus. We are His.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name” John 1:12

* We have to relinquish control. God is in control.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” Proverbs 19:21

If we want to live productive and fruitful lives, we have to come to that place of total surrender in Christ. He is our creator. He is the author and perfector of our faith. He is the one who determines our steps. We are at His mercy - under His authority - dependant upon His provision.

I confess that I need to take “me” out of the equation. I desire total surrender to Christ. Without Him, I would be nothing. Everything I am is because of His mercy and grace upon my life. I want to approach Him with hands held high - head bowed low - heart overflowing with gratitude and praise.

It is God who amazes me

I keep 2 scriptures taped to my bathroom mirror. They have been there for over a year now, so I have them memorized, but I still look up there every morning when I dry my hair and read them out loud. The one on top is:

“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect” Psalm 18:32

I see this every day. Several times every day. I know exactly what it says, but for some reason this morning (perhaps a lack of sleep), when I looked at it I read “It is God who amazes me”. I thought, “wait, that isn’t right!” I had to look at it a second time to make sure what it really said.

But then the wheels started turning in my head and I thought how true that was. God really does amaze me in so many ways.

He amazes me with the amount of mercy and grace He has shown me in my life. Mercy and grace that is so undeserved.

He amazes me with the daily provision in my life. I can look back from the very beginning of my married life and see how God took care of all our needs at times when we were very dependant upon Him. He always supplied our needs.

He amazes me in His faithfulness.

He amazes me with the beauty of his creation. Sunrises. Sunsets. The stars. A rainbow. (“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1)

He amazes me with the power of His Word. No matter what is going on in my life, I can open up the Word and find peace and solace. I can find answers to questions. I can find promises. I can find the Truth. (“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.” John 17:17)

He amazes me when He sends me a Word just at the time I need a Word. Amen?

Simply put, God is simply amazing.

If we cry out - He hears.
If we repent - He forgives.
If we confess Him - He enters in.
If we pray - He listens.

I will never look at that scripture card again without thinking about how amazing my God is. I needed this reminder today. I needed to put my focus on something besides myself. I needed to ponder and dwell on my Lord. I needed to remember what I had in essence forgotten.

It is God who amazes me.

Joyfully His,
Beth

Fresh start anyone?

New beginnings. New mercies. What an awesome God who gives us daily chances to renew our love for Him. As hard as I try to live a life in the Spirit, my flesh somehow manages to rear it's ugly head and I allow defeat to creep in. Praise the Lord that there is repentance and forgiveness.

New determination. New desire to live my life for Christ. I want to be a consuming fire for God. I want to do all I can to bring Glory to His name. I want His name to be on my lips 24 hours a day! He is so worthy and I am so lacking. I long to feel His presence as i go about my daily life.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the mundane things of this world, that I realize I have become the very thing that I try so hard to avoid being. Worldy. Materialistic. Forgive me Lord for hungering after things when I need to be hungering after You. Let there be more of You and less of me.

May my hands do what You will. May my feet go where You lead. May my paths be directed only by You.

New direction. New passion. A new start.

"Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22,23)

In Him,

Beth

I would love to get some suggestions on daily devotions. I do my "Journey" each morning. I also have a devotion book by Jennifer Rothschild. But if anyone has any good books to recommend, please let me know!