Jesus

O what a name!
It causes the corners of my mouth to sort of perk up.
It resounds with a steadfast peace, calm and joy within my heart.
It is a name I love.
Why?
Am I some supper spiritual nut who has nothing better to do than go around with a silly grin on her face whenever she hears the name of her Savior?
Well, I guess the answer is yes:-)
However, my interpretation of "supper spiritual nut" may be different than yours:-)
By answering yes to the above question I do not mean that I am someone without a brain or who lives in some loony fantasy world. Not by a long shot!
I mean someone who has experienced Something better, and is so wrapped up in that Something that she can not help but go around with smile upon her face for Those who look to him are radiant (Psa 34:5a)!
Even if it means I look like a nut to this world, may I ever be willing to appear like a fool for Christ's sake (1Cor 4:10)!

Oh my dear readers, Jesus is worth our all!
He, being God, came to this earth and lived a sinless life. Mary, thought Him worthy enough to pour out her very best upon his feet! (Joh 12:3) He bore our sin and the wrath of God that was rightfully ours upon the cross over 2000 years ago and He died. But Glory to God in the highest! He did not stay dead! He rose again on the third day and He now sits enthroned at the right hand of God and They have sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper. We need no longer live in bondage to sin or our own desires! We can be free!
Have you ever heard the saying "The truth will set you free"?
Well it is true my friends!!
Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
He is the TRUTH!
The TRUTH will set you free if you will but turn to Him!

May we ever lean more fully upon Him. Ever desire Him more! Ever be willing, as Mary, to pour out our best, our ALL upon our Lord! May we ever live for HIS glory!!


*Picture credit goes to Christy Osborne

Christ is Risen

Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling over death by death, come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.
Christ is risen from the dead,
We are one with Him again, come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.

O death, where is your sting?
O hell where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light,
The glory of God has defeated the night
O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead He's alive, He's ALIVE!

The Terror of Love

Can love be terrible, my Lord?
Can gentleness be stern?
Ah yes!-intense is Love's desire
To purify His loved-'tis fire,
A holy fire to burn.
For He must fully perfect thee
Till in they likeness all may see
The beauty of thy Lord.

Can holy love be jealous, Lord?
Yes, jealous as the grave;
Till every hurtful idol be
Uptorn and wrested out of thee
Love will be stern to save;
Will spare thee not a single pain
Till thou be freed and pure again
And perfect as thy Lord.

Can love seem cruel, O my Lord?
Yes, like a sword the cure;
He will not spare thee, sin-sick soul,
Till He hath made thy sickness whole,
Until thine heart is pure.
For oh! He loves thee far too well
To leave thee in thy self-made hell,
A Savior is thy Lord!

From Mountains of Spices (chapter 10) by Hannah Hurnard

PRAISE JESUS!

With about 14 out of the last 18 days over 100 degrees and the other 4 days in the high 90's this mornings going out to mid 60's-ish was beautiful!


What's even better is I don't know that it has even sprinkled (maybe it has a tiny bit, I'm not sure) since the post I wrote on June 29th titled "He Opened the Floodgates". Well today He did it again!
I love Jesus!

God is a good God, YES HE IS!!

My brothers and sister and I thanked Jesus as the rain came pouring down. It is lovely to see puddles of water after so many days of dry hot weather!

Thank You Jesus!
We humbled ourselves and prayed and You are healing our land!

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2Chr 7:14

“It's so easy to know what to do,

but doing it, that's the challenge.”

Thank goodness we have the grace of Jesus!

For the JOY Set Before Him

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb 12:1-2

Here is a smile, a hug, and a prayer from your sister in Christ who is running the race with you. Let us find our strength, hope and joy in Him Who is seated at the right hand of the Father and in Whom we abide!

2Corinthians 12:9

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Ah, how sweet these words are to my soul!

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.