Blessavations May 8, 2008

If you put blessings and aggravations into one word……….you would get blessavations.  That is what I think of when family comes home from out of state.  I do look forward to seeing my neices (one 18 years and one 20 months) but I hate the hassle of working our working/church schedule around what they want to do when they want to do it, altering my schedule to accomodate them only to feel very unappreciated.  Whine, whine…..I know.  I am blessed that I have family but this old body is used to my bedtime, and my couch, and my quiet home.  My brother and I are  opposite in so many ways, but enough alike in that we both want the other one to change their schedule to accomodate the other.  Whine,whine.  But I think it is in I or II Timothy where we are to practice our religion by caring for our family, repaying parents and grandparents, for that is pleasing to God.  And I of course want to please God.  Now I just gotta work on the mind thing. 

Have a great day!!  (Oh yeah - blessing - I am off work today) (blessavation - more family stuff to do)

Sunday worship May 4, 2008

Do you not think that today’s music worship was totally awesome????  Singing in the choir gives me the best of both worship experiences.  I get contemporary at the early service (which totally blew me away) and traditional at the 11 am service —- and the chance to hear Andy’s solo twice.  Brian does such a great job of putting together songs that bring us right into the presence of God.  Can I hear an AMEN?

Great Banquet May 3, 2008

As I attended the Thursday night service for the Great Banquet, I stood there looking around and just became more enamored with how awesome God is.  We all have chances for divine encounters, sometimes those come back around for us, sometimes that one brief moment in time will be all we have.  Thursday night, the group included young girls from our church that will be the future of 2BC, my daughter and her friend, a girl that my daughter used to ride to college with, the mother of my son’s close friend, my “diet pepsi” friend that went to banquet same weekend as me, a girl who used to work at the clinic, a young man my husband had coached in basketball when they were in the 4th grade, and a golfing friend of mine I had lost contact with over 15 years ago.  I had a brief moment to share with her about God, and then she was gone again.  All these people are from different areas of western Kentucky.  We all share stories that date from this week to years ago.  None of our lives will ever be the same as those first encounters…..All these lives brought back in contact because they felt the Holy Spirit telling them to attend this banquet.  They will leave this banquet weekend and touch even more lives that just perpetuates God’s word going forward.  Just by attending Thursday night I left with a renewed sense of awe for such a mighty God!!  I pray for each of those attending and thank those people who continue to share their message of hope and love of God to others. 

Rainbows April 24, 2008

I have always had a fascination with rainbows.  It is such an awesome display of God’s splendor.   If I am anywhere around a camera when I see one, I take a picture.  This one was last year taken from my back door.  You can faintly see the double one on the top right of the picture.  The most beautiful one I ever saw I was in Owensboro.  By the time I could get to that $1 store on Frederica to buy a disposable camera, it was gone.  But, I have the memory burned in my mind.  That is what we are to do with God’s word too, burn it in our minds, our hearts, keep it close so we may use it at any time for God’s glory.  My friend had a miracle today, God’s glory showed through.  We see that rainbow.  Thank you to all you who prayed.  God is good.

Did I Say Back Pain???? April 23, 2008

If I look back a week, what I thought was back pain doesn’t compare …………tonight………let’s just say when you walk out a door and walk off a stoop and fall into a bed of petunias and then to the driveway………….need I say more?  Last night after small group that was exactly what I did.  I twisted my ankle, my knee is swollen, my lower back is throbbing and my neck is too stiff to turn, PLUS it broke 3 fingernails!!  But just as much as that hurts, I feel bad for tearing up the newly planted bed of petunias at my friend’s house, they were so pretty before I got there.  I owe her some new flowers!  I just didn’t realize that the steps went to the right and I went straight.  THUD!!!!!!  Boy, do I feel dumb (and sore).  My daughter says I can’t go out after dark anymore!!! 

I Should Know Better April 18, 2008

Yesterday was such a beautiful day.  I got home from work about 5:30, looked around the kitchen for something to cook for supper, F came home and said he was going to mow the yard.  Well, it was too pretty outside to just sit on the couch, so I went out and started weeding the flower beds.  Here is where the “I should know better” comes in.  I finished about dark, went in started supper, and then sat down on the couch while food was in the oven.  The timer goes off, but oops……I can’t get off the couch.  I am SO down in my back.  I haven’t been this bad for a while.  Hurts to sit, hurts to stand, hurts to lay.  I couldn’t go to sleep - just not a good thing.  Finally around 3am I gave up and took a muscle relaxer, so the 3 hours of sleep I did get last night just happened to be right through the earthquake.  I haven’t decided if that is a good thing or bad thing!  Anyway, next time one of you hear me say something about weeding my flower beds, remind me I am too old to do that!!!!!  (This is last year’s picture of my peonies)

See you Sunday at church.

Spring fever April 10, 2008

Well, I officially have spring fever.  It is not because the schools have spring break this week, my son is off from student teaching this week, and he went to Louisville with the baseball team he helps coach, but no, my spring fever comes from the Masters Golf Tournament starting today.  I can’t wait to start playing golf regularly (in warm weather)  Even if you are not a golfer, the Augusta National Golf Course is absolutely beautiful.  Dogwoods, azeleas, green trees, beautiful green fairways and greens………….God’s handiwork in an awesome display.  Athletic abilities in an awesome display.  I can’t wait for my season to begin.  Yup, I caught the fever today.  There will be golf soon.  Can’t wait.

Worship March 30, 2008

Sunday morning early worship service was awesome today!!!!  I just love the song Beautiful One.  Bro. Ray ended his series on Prayer.  Great job.  Great praise and worship time.  Great time spent with the Lord. 

Lord, I Want To Be A Paperclip………….. March 21, 2008

Week 5.  The Process of Prayer.  I too was like Jennifer Kennedy Dean said she used to be.  I thought prayer was made up of 2 parts - my request and God’s answer.  A prayer list prayer life.  Prayer is a process.  During that process we are brought to submission to God.  He in turn weans our hearts from the things we desire to learn to fasten on Him - like a paper clip to a magnet.  During this process God’s truth takes on a deeper meaning.  We are connected to Him.  We delight ourselves in Him.  When we delight ourselves in God, He becomes the desire of our heart.  Delight is translated from a Hebrew word meaning “soft, moldable or pliable”.   When we delight in the Lord He molds our heart to match His.  As our hearts change, so do our desires.   As this is happening we also realize that we cannot “know the desire of our heart unless we know the heart of our desire”.  Then in the process of our prayers, we change, because God is shaping our heart like His.  Our prayer stands in the gap and brings God’s will to be released on the earth.  We bridge that gap for each other as we pray.  We also connect to each other through the prayers - like a paper clip to a magnet.  Lord, I want to be a paper clip.

Prayer thoughts March 14, 2008

Wednesday night during discussion of “Live A Praying Life” the question was asked………are prayers answered when you have more people praying?  What do you think?  Do you think one prayer spoken by one person is enough, or do we need “numbers” of people to pray for a prayer to be answered?  Or is it greater that a prayer will be answered if more people pray for it?