Grit Your Teeth

NO! I will not go back to sleep! I will pray, I'm not
listening to what you have to say flesh.
I keep shuffling around the
room.
Hm...if I just sit down on this couch then I could...NO! Don't
fall for it! Keep going! If I sit down I won't be able to pray better because
I'll be asleep.

Sometimes getting up before or shortly after sunrise is tough. But in order to have a good amount of time with Jesus before the kiddos wake up it is necessary.
Though- as I was telling a friend recently- it sometimes feels like I just spend most of the time fighting to stay awake.
In spite of this I have found that this morning time is a vital part of my day.
Without it I may not necessarily have a bad attitude, but I just feel like I'm lacking something. That substance that props up my day.
Jesus is the Bread of Life, if I don't come to Him first thing I find myself getting hungry (John 6:35).

So my encouragement to all who read this is: spend time with Jesus. Even if you have to get up at an "insane hour" of the morning, spend time with Jesus. You'll be so glad you did. Even if you don't notice a difference right away keep pressing in, soon you will notice the difference. You will began to have more joy in your heart, more patience in those trying times and you will notice more of Jesus sweet presence within you throughout the day, at least this is how it is for me. So grit your teeth, tell the flesh to be quite and keep pressing into Jesus!

Thank You Jesus for making Yourself available to Your people at all times! I Love You!

He Opened the Floodgates!

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,...Unto him be glory

Eph 3:20a & 21a

God is SO good!!

So we have been having quite a dry spell lately. We have been praying for rain.
Today when I was on my way back to the house from having my morning time with Jesus, I saw the cracks in the dry, thirsty ground and asked Jesus to fill those cracks with water.
The song "Open the Floodgates of Heaven, Let it Rain" has not only been reverberating in my head and heart, but has also been sung and hummed by other members of the family quite allot lately.
It would be one thing if we did have over a hundred head of cattle on our land (my Daddy's doing lease grassing, leasing our land out to a man to graze his cattle on), then it might not been such a big deal, though the horses probably wouldn't like it so much if the grass dried up.
So Momma and I decided that we were going to start praying for rain. We thought it would be fun if we just prayed for fat cows. We thought it would be quite a testimony if we had no grass and still had fat cows. Then we saw the problems with that. The man who owns the cows would probably move them if we didn't have any grass. Even if they were fat. He might not have the faith to believe they would stay that way without any grass :D So I suggested we pray for 1) Green grass. 2) Fat cows. 3) a jolly owner (who would want to leave his cows with us).
Well, after the pond in the pasture where my Papa's cows are dried up I could see the wisdom of praying for rain. God knew what He was doing when He made rain. It's allot easier just to pray for rain than to pray for green grass, fat cows, a jolly owner, water in the pond, the cracks in the ground to be filled...yeah, it's just wiser:D

So yesterday it looked like it was going to rain. Anticipation was high.
I heard someone say there wasn't supposed to be rain for another ten days or maybe this weekend at the earliest.
Was God going to do it?
That night the rain went around us. It was as if God was saying "Do you trust me?"
I had faith that my God would come through, He's ALWAYS faithful, maybe not always the way we think He should be, but He always is nonetheless.

Tonight I looked out the window at the huge, lumbering, gray cloud coming our way loaded down with water. Was this the answer to our prayers?
A small succession of pale colorful stripes began to peak out of the bluish gray mass. It began to get brighter and longer.
I asked John if he saw the rainbow and he asked "did He answer my prayers? I prayed for a rainbow!"
What had started out as a short pale striped piece of an arch soon grew brighter and stretched into a full ark with a dim ark above it. Not only that, but soon we could see one end resting in our pasture (something I've never seen before)God is so good to us!

It had been raining for a while now and John and I were out on the trampoline jumping and singing praises to our wonderful God. Thanking Jesus for His goodness in sending us rain. We were getting quite wet.
I had read and explained (the best I could) Ephesians 3:20 to John the night before and after I reminded him he quoted it in his own words over and over saying "He is able to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, ABOVE ALL we could ask or EVEN thing!!"
After a while I got off the trampoline. I could still hear John singing praises.
The rain began to stop. I walked over to John who had stopped singing and asked "Did you stop praising Him John?" He said "I'm praising Him in my heart." To which I replied something like "It stopped raining". He began to loudly praise Jesus once again and the other kids joined in. The rain began to pour once again.
We praised our Jesus for the wonderful rain. It only rain for about 30 or 40 minutes, but as Daddy, Mom and I were talking afterward, we think this is just the beginning. Sort of like the appetizer before the meal.
So this post is my offering of praise unto the One Who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, ABOVE ALL that we ask or think! To HIM be glory! I Love You Jesus!

Quote From "The Spirit is Willing"

...your like "God, I'm willing but I'm weak."
And God's like "And I'm willing to help you."
~Eric Ludy

www.ellerslie.com/BT11.html

My Utmost For His Highest

Here are some things that stood out to me while I was reading today's section.

June 26th
"We...beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." Cor 6:1
Don't say- I will endure this until I can get away and pray. Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment

Draw now, not presently...Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in ever conceivable condition you may be in. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be humiliated without manifestation the slightest trace of anything by His grace.

I Will Go Lord!

Open Your Eyes

Privileged to Answer His Call

Praise Jesus!

Sing all ye little ones
To the goodness of God!
Praise the Lamb of Righteousness
For shedding His blood!

In the words of Mr. NRJohnson "Oh what a Jesus!"

If your wondering what I am celebrating about, just wait until you hear. It will most likely make you want to celebrate too!

Yet another sheep has entered the fold. Yet another sinner has found forgiveness and cleansing by the wonderful sacrifice of Christ!

Oh the glorious thought that the sacrifice that was made 2,000 years ago on that cross, the blood that was shed is still efficacious for the sinners of this present day.

This glorious event which has all the angels rejoicing in heaven, brings to mind a verse from a song that says:
"My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin not in part, but the whole
is nailed to the cross and I bare it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul"

Okay let me rein it in a bit.
So here's the story: we have a young man staying with us these days. He's in his early teens.
So this young gentlemen-in-the-making had stated that he wanted to learn about God. Well I guess he came to the right place!
Not many days have elapsed since our young friend came to stay with us and yet God has done a work. God does not always take days and weeks to do the work He has set out to do. As was evidenced tonight when this young G-I-T-M gave his heart to Jesus.
"He's grinning from ear to ear" Said Momma upon entering the room after seeing said gentlemen to bed.

Hmm... if this is the state of a mere human, what must be the rejoicing in heaven?

Corrie Ten Boom

"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"

Of Mosquitoes a Cat and Persistence

This morning while I was having some quite time with the Lord, I got two lessons in persistence.

The first
I usually come outside in the early morning to be alone with Jesus and so far I haven't had much of a problem with distractions from the nature around me, usual it does the opposite, pointing my eyes to Christ.
But this morning as I was sitting out up against our gate an element of the nature around me began to invade my quite time.
This particular invasion was just that, it was a pesky nuisance and a distraction. It was persistent and annoying and itchy. If you haven't guessed it yet, it was mosquitoes. The little pests. For some reason they seemed to like my fingers this morning.
I would be sitting there, not bothering them, and they would come souring in and with that nasty little straw-like fixture on the front of there faces they would proceed to steal from the supply of blood with which I have been entrusted. Well, that wasn't about to happen without a fight! And I must say, most of them came out allot worse off than I did.

The Second
On my morning outings with Jesus we have obtained a tag-along. We usually have two, but one is a little more persistent than the other.
Each morning when I go out these two friends will usually fallow me around.
Well the smaller of the two has taken a fancy to getting a good scratching (which I made the mistake of giving her one morning, now she thinks she can have one every morning).
So this morning, I went out a little earlier than usual and nether of my friends were around.
I whistled for D.J. (our Border Collie) but I guess it was a little early for him.
Okay, I'll just be alone than this morning. I wasn't to perturbed by the idea. But then, as I came to my spot up by the gate, seemingly out of no-ware comes my other little friend. How she happened to be right by where I was going to by I don't know.
So in her usual fashion she began to rub “up and down and all the way around”.
In my usual fashion, I tried to ignore her.
I calmly took my seat and she began to persistently rub her nose and head under and around my hands, trying somehow to get them to scratch again. While, she wasn't that successful, so then she did something that wasn't acceptable! She unsheathed her claws and proceed to grab my hands and climb up my legs. She had already been pushed away, but she got a pretty good shove this time. (just encase you hadn't guessed- and I'm not quite sure what to say if you haven't- this friend is our little gray and white kitty, Lace or Lacy- I'm not sure which, she's Kay's cat)
So after that she went backed to nosing around my hands and amazingly they began to scratch. Hay, if it keeps her from clawing, I don't mind scratching her head a bit.

So these to episodes got me to thinking, why would a mosquito be willing to risk life and limb for just a few drops (if that) of blood?
And why would a little cat be willing to face rejection and “persecution” for a little scratch on the head?

The Conclusions I Came To:
For the mosquito: they had to have it. It was the very substance they had to have to sustain their life. Without it they would have died anyway.
For the cat: it was her joy and delight. She was willing to face a little hardship to gain what she held dear.

My Questions:
Are we so hungry for more of Christ that we are willing to risk our very life for more of Him? Is He the substance of our very life?
Is He so dear to us that we are willing to face rejection and persecution and still press forward toward more of Him? Is He our driving passion?

Are we going to let mosquitoes and little kitty-cats outdo us in our persistence toward the One Who gave His life that we might live? Toward Life Himself? Toward our Jesus?

Oh Lord, let me not be such a one!

Listen

Your Grace is Sufficient For Me

Your strength is made prefect when I am weak
And all that I cling to, I lay at your feet.
Your grace is sufficient for me!

May The Few By Shane Barnard

May the few be many, Lord
May they see You as You are
May Your kingdom come...

Glorious and mighty
are Your ways in all the earth
and may Your worth arrayed in glory
render hearts that only worship..You

Isn't His Blood Enough?

Isn't His blood enough
To cause your heart to break
Isn't His blood enough
He died for sinners to be saved
Isn't His blood enough
To get you out of your seat
Isn't His blood enough
To claim your hands and feet
Isn't His blood enough
He's calling you to more
Isn't His blood enough
To get you out that door
Isn't His blood enough
To call you to action
Isn't His blood enough
To quell every enemy faction
Isn't His blood enough
The power in which we stand
Isn't His blood enough
To save a sin soaked land
Isn't His blood enough
He shed it on the cross
Isn't His blood enough
To take us to the lost
Isn't His blood enough
To share it with the least
Isn't His blood enough
To see sinners released
Isn't His blood enough
Our loyalty to purchase
Isn't His blood enough
To deserve our deepest worship
Isn't His blood enough
To claim our deepest devotion
Isn't His blood enough
For us to give Him our will and emotion
Isn't His blood enough
Our very life to purchase
Isn't His blood enough
He died and shed it for us
Isn't His blood enough
To cover all our sin
Isn't His blood enough
To give us life IN HIM!

Remember Them That Are In Bonds

China: Yang Caizhen Released

Yang Caizhen, a Chinese Christian detained for organizing a prayer rally, was released from prison last February. With more than six months left in her sentence, Caizhen was given an early release due to poor health. She had been held at the Shanxi Women’s Prison in Taiyuan City for more than a year.

Relatives who had visited Caizhen said she did not look well. She was missing a front tooth, her hair had become very gray and her hands were swollen. Before her release on medical parole, Caizhen had been taken to the hospital for treatment several times during her imprisonment.

On Nov. 25, 2009, Caizhen was sentenced to two years of “re-education through labor” for organizing a prayer rally on Sept. 14, 2009, with the Linfen Church. The prayer rally was raided by 400 military police, who arrested Caizhen, her husband and three other pastors. They received sentences ranging from two years to seven years in prison.

Although the Linfen Church has 50,000 members, it is one of many unregistered house churches in China. Chinese house churches range in size from a handful of people meeting secretly in a home to large, public churches like Linfen that advertise and meet openly in a large church building. House churches operate independently from the government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) churches and are therefore considered illegal. The TSPM is the only officially recognized Protestant church in China, with an estimated 20 million members. In comparison, there are an estimated 80 million to 120 million house church believers in China.

“Please remember [Chinese Christians] in your prayers, and appeal for them!” Caizhen’s daughter, Esther, wrote in a letter. “I call upon everyone to fight for religious freedom in China.” Esther also urges Christians to continue praying for her father and the other church leaders who remain in prison.

Sources: VOM Sources, Release International, China Aid Association

Posted: May 26, 2011


Heb 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.