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Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Stagnant Water Stinks

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I’ve got peace like a river,
I’ve got peace like a river,
I’ve got peace like a river in my soul!
I’ve got love like an ocean,
I’ve got love like an ocean,
I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul!
I’ve got joy like a fountain,
I’ve got joy like a fountain,
I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul!

Hmmmm…. have you ever noticed it doesn’t say I’ve got peace like a pond in my soul? 
Peace, love, and joy all coming from flowing, active, bursting bodies of water.

“For thus says the LORD,
“Behold, I extend peace to her like a river,
And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
And you will be nursed,
you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.”
(Isaiah 66:12)

As I was working on my lesson for this coming Sunday morning from Luke chapter 2 the Lord zeroed me in on what “the boy Jesus”(Luke 2:43) was doing in the temple. 
When we look at Luke 2:52 we read that “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” What? Jesus had to increase in wisdom? He had to increase in favor? We must never forget that Jesus is our example. He lived it all, so that He could indeed sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 2:14-18).
So now the question is how did he do it? What was His process of increasing? What self-help point plan did He follow? I believe His how is all right here in these few passages that the divinely inspired, God-breathed Word of God has given us.
I believe the point plan has only two points. It has always only had two points. The point of the points is do you carry out the points?

So what are the points?

Point 1: Love God
When we look at Luke 2:46 we read that Jesus was in the temple “sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.” Jesus was seeking God. He was discussing the Scriptures. Notice He was both listening and asking.
Let me ask you… can you ask questions in “big church”.
No you cannot. You only listen. What if in your listening you misunderstand? What do you do with your questions? Do you have them? Oh I hope so. Questions are part of seeking.
What we see here in this example of Christ is we need small groups. Did the disciples of Christ only sit in the crowd? No they followed Him closely. They sat with Him in small groups and asked Him questions and Jesus reasoned the Scriptures with them. This, my precious one, is how we increase in wisdom. It is not in just listening alone, but in asking questions. This is how we love God. By loving His Word enough to seek to understand it. So that we might obey it. And in obeying it we bring ourselves to point 2.

Point 2: Love others
When we look at Luke 2:51 we read that Jesus “continued in subjection to them (Joseph and Mary).” What? Jesus was in subjection to man? Yes. He obeyed the Law of God. What merit would God have if He broke His own Word? Jesus humbled Himself to this point. He laid aside who He was in order to obey truth. Here He is the Creator of the entire universe and He is saying “yes ma’am” and “yes sir”. So at any point and time should we ever think that our position in life negates the common decency of showing respect to another human being? No, it does not. How do we love others? How do we increase in favor with God and man? We show them respect and love. God tells us how to do this in His Word. You can find it all broken down in Exodus 20. He then showed us how as the person Jesus Christ. The commands of God show us how to love Him and how to love others. This is why they are not a burden, but indeed they are a treasure.

Well how does all this relate to where I began this post with peace like a river? As we look at Jesus He is increasing… he is continuing. These are words that are in motion. If we want peace like a river, and love like an ocean, joy like a fountain, then we can’t be a pond. We cannot be stagnant in our Christianity.

Stagnant water stinks and grows gunk. 
We must keep the living water flowing through us.
We cannot dam it up.

We must not just sit in the crowd. We must put ourselves where we can both listen and ask questions.
Come let us reason together… (Isaiah 1:18). 

The living water, the Word of God, must flow through us. It must come into our heart and out of our lives. The Prince of Peace must flow like a river in us. Sending peace to others. Flowing down from the mountain into the deepest valleys.
The love of God must go deep within us and rise up and crash onto the shores of those around us.
The joy of our Christ must spring forth praise out of our mouth with shouts like a geyser from the fountains of the deep and also with the gentle flowings of fresh spring fountains.

Love God. Love others.
It starts with God and spills on to others.

Oh Father, Let me be one that increases and continues…

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Overcomers

>”Jesus Christ, who went through hell for you, can give you the power you need to overcome the worst kind of condition in your life.” (Chuck Swindoll)

There is no greater peace than knowing that Christ is on my side. When I am in the pit of frustration for whatever reason He has never failed to pull me out. I can have my moment of panic. I can cry. I can even scream. I can even be angry at my God, but as I bring all this emotionally fleshed out ick to Him, He never ceases to amaze me how He turns my ick into peace and my peace into praise.

I realize that as I look at my life I am so extremely blessed.

I am loved and I love.

I have the absolute great joy of teaching the truth to whoever will let me.

I know and have experienced the overcoming power of the grace of God that is available in Christ alone.

I know that no matter how bad I may feel the condition of my life is at any point in time Christ is greater still. His grace abounds.

I believe part of the mercy of our God is letting us know that “In the world you have tribulation” (John 16:33). God tells us “When you pass through the waters… When you walk through the fire,” (Isaiah 43:2). He says you have not you might. He says when not if.

Then He says, “but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). And God also says “I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2).

So my dear precious one, whatever your struggle has been today… whatever it might be tomorrow… know that in Christ you have the power to overcome. I have learned that overcoming doesn’t necessarily mean the problem, the struggle goes away, it just means that this struggle will not destroy you. It will indeed only make you stronger.

When we look at our Savior’s message to the church in the book of Revelation as He exhorts the churches to overcome He never says He will remove the issue they are told to overcome. He simply says overcome.

So the question is how do we overcome?

The answer:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;
and this is the victory that has overcome the world–
our faith.
Who is the one who overcomes the world,
but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
(1 John 5:4-5)
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>God Knows Best

>This morning I dropped off my babies. Shelby is spending the day and night with a friend and my Bekah is headed to Louisiana with my wonderful in-laws to visit with our relatives down even further south. This is her first trip down and she is so excited. It is also her first trip away from Momma and Daddy… praying it goes well. She is the one child we have who is really attached to home. The other two will go as long as they are invited and as many times as we say yes.

So with my husband at work and my girls gone, it’s just been me and the dog. Who presently is snoring on the rug beside me. I had every intention of spending the day in this quiet house writing. I planned to work on Devotions From Exodus, planned to work on transfering the study I am writing on the book of Luke from my spiral notebook to the computer, and planned on working on the Judgment scene and the Hell scene script for our church’s fall drama the Judgment Seat.

That was my plan.

However, I believe God has had another plan for today. I think He just might know that I have not quite recovered enough from my past week and a half to attempt to step into the mind of Satan today and write this script. Yes, that will wait for tomorrow. So prayers are humbly requested for tomorrow.

The goal in writing these two scenes is in the Judgment scene to make sure those who witness it are left with a clear understanding that those who are being judged are receiving their judgment solely on their rejection of Christ and not for any particular sin they committed and also to share the good news of the gospel. In the Hell scene it is to clearly expose Satan and his lies and the way he worms them into our life and also somehow in the midst of this have Satan himself deliver the gospel one more time to those who are going through the drama. You also have to soak yourself into each of these characters lives as to accurately speak for them. Our youth minister forms the character and… well… I get to send them to hell. Yay me…lol.

So, anyway, God know best. My partner in, “Oh yeh, God we can do one more thing right.?!?.” has called and I am heading to her house to work on Homeschool Co-op stuff. A very important thing that must be done and taken care of and can be taken care of with some much needed sisters in Christ time.

So I won’t have to send anyone to hell today.
I’ll do that tomorrow 🙂

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

Thrown Under the Bus

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Have you ever had a moment when you felt like God just threw you under the bus?
I have those moments.
Sometimes I feel like I am never going to be enough.

It’s in those days, those moments, when I just want to curl up in a hole and go to sleep. It’s those moments when I can completely relate to those who have decided that life is just too much…

Suicide always hurts those who are left behind, but I will never be one who condemns the one who did it or be one who says I can’t believe they did that. I will not be one who says that they could not have been a Christian and took that step because I am fully aware of the weakness of my own flesh. I am fully aware of the weight of the condemnation and oppression of the enemy of my soul. I am fully aware that if I did not have this hope that is the anchor of my soul, this hope that is sure and steadfast and enters within the veil (Heb 6:19), in a moment of physical exhaustion, emotional havoc, and spiritual oppression, it could easily be me. The spirit is willing but the flesh is indeed weak (Matt 26:41).

I am a believer. I know that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). I know that it is not I that live but Christ that lives in me and the life that I live, I live by faith in Him (Gal 2:20). I know all this. I believe all this. I also know how the burden of life can overwhelm me at times, even with this knowledge and with this Hope, therefore how could it not overwhelm someone who doesn’t have it, or even someone who doesn’t know how to live their faith because they have not been discipled?

I was overwhelmed yesterday. It began last week and when I thought it would be over it wasn’t. It just continued on. Carried over by the weakness of this flesh of mine. Weak in so many ways. Weak because it is physically off. An infection leading to an antibiotic that has not set well with my stomach leaving me nauseous since Saturday night. A constant dull headache due to hopefully just allergies. A tired flesh from not sleeping at night because of all the other issues. Then after going to the bathroom for the third time to apply rubbing alcohol to another sore blemish on my face, I am reminded that yes, it is also hell week.

You see I should have been ready.

Have I not been here a million plus times?

Yesterday, I actually ended up in the laundry room crying as I frustratedly swapped out the laundry and let God know how disappointed I was at Him because I felt like He was throwing me under the bus. You see my hurt, my frustration, had been rooted from comments that came as a result of failing at some things I am trying so hard to be better in. It’s not something I am ignoring, but something I am purposely trying to improve. I was angry, hurt, and upset at myself, at those that called me out, and yes– at God for not covering my failure and instead exposing it.

I hate messing up. It’s the perfectionist in me. It is indeed a curse, because I am not perfect, but I want to be, no actually, I am driven to be. Somehow in my emotional DNA perfection = pleasing, but that is not what God says. God says faith = pleasing.

 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and
that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
(Hebrews 11:6)

 

Yes, I was disappointed in God, and letting Him know it. It sounds absolutely ridiculous now, but at that time I felt completely justified in my complaint. The amazing thing is my God patiently listened. He did not strike me with a lightning bolt. He was just still and let me rant. By the end of the day God had reminded me of His love. He had calmed my personal storm.

This day’s moment reminded me of that song with the lyric that says, “please don’t fight these hands that are holding you”

Oh God, thank you for being mindful that I am but flesh.

“For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.”
(Psalm 103:14)

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Enemies

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>If you ever want to know what the voice of the enemy sounds like I recommend reading Isaiah 36-37.
After you prayerfully read these chapters I promise you will better recognize his slimy little lies. It truly is a must that you learn to recognize his voice… because he will speak to you. No one is exempt. If Jesus was not exempt why on earth would we ever even consider that we should or would be?

As you read to learn his voice, you must also pay close attention to how we are to respond to his voice. The only way to fight the voice of the enemy is with the Voice of Truth, the Word of God. Jesus showed us that. Hezekiah shows us that in Isaiah 36-37.

What’s important to know as you look at Isaiah 36-37 is the condition of Hezekiah’s heart before this enemy was permitted by God to approach him. You see only a short while earlier Hezekiah had become deathly ill, but he prayed to God and asked God to heal him… and God did. However, the Bible tells us that “Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 32:25).

So God permitted this enemy to come against Hezekiah.
It can be hard to swallow can’t it?
It’s hard to believe that this God that loves us so much allows our enemies to come against us. It can be hard to take in that it was indeed God that allowed this calamity, this enemy, this illness, this voice that hurts to the core and shatters you to the bone.
Many refuse to believe that.
Even men from the pulpit many will try to convince a congregation that a God of love wouldn’t do that… to say that is to negate much of the Word of God. For God clearly says “…I am the LORD, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.” (Isaiah 45:6-7) 

Many will hear God in this light and say well, that’s not my god. To that I must say, then you serve a false god. 

So why would God allow “calamity”? Why would He allow an enemy to come against us? Why would He allow an illness into our lives? We must learn “that an enemy is more than an enemy and an illness is more than an illness. It has been permitted by God for our good.” (Kay Arthur)

Here is some insight, some life lessons, to hold on to that I learned while studying these chapters of Isaiah with Kay Arthur through Precept. These insights will help you learn how to recognize the enemy and also how to understand how if you have faith any enemy or illness becomes a blessing:

-> An enemy wants to take you into captivity
-> An enemy challenges your faith (faith just is not faith until it has been tested)
-> An enemy tests your loyalty (he will offer compromise and compensation and even rewards if you will just come on over to his side)
-> An enemy can talk with God talk (yes the devil can quote Scripture)
-> An enemy talks will test your knowledge of God’s Word (the enemy always speaks God’s word out of context and he uses words of truth but perverts the truth)
-> An enemy will challenge your ability to hear God’s voice for yourself (you know, “well God told me that…”)
-> An enemy attempts to rule you by fear
-> An enemy seeks to divide and separate
-> An enemy will drive you into the presence of God and cause you to remember who God is
-> An enemy will drive you to your knees in prayer
-> An enemy will cause us to remember our dependence upon God

The thing about enemies is that they can blindside you. A lot of times they can come out of no where, well personally I think most of the time they come out of nowhere. Life can be great and wonderful and then BOOM!

So when these enemies come we have a choice, to quote Kay again, “we can faint or we can wait”.

We can fall down and faint before this enemy or we can stay silent and wait on God to fight for us or for God to tell us clearly how to respond. What we cannot do is respond out of our flesh.

I have learned that my biggest challenge in this process is not the attack, it is not staying silent or waiting for God to tell me how to respond to the attack, it is what I do with the hurt. I have a tendency to stay silent before the enemy and then become an enemy myself to someone else. I can just see the devil rolling over with laughter when he accomplishes this in me.

So why does God allow enemies and illnesses and calamities in our life?
To make us more like Him.
That is His goal.

I have learned that it also is to prepare us for the future. Before David ever faced Goliath he first faced a lion and a bear. If God has plans to use us for great things in His kingdom we have to be ready for the battle. Jesus tells us that we are not greater than our Master and if they hated Him they will hate us as well. If we are on the side of God we have just made an enemy of the world, our flesh, and Satan himself.

However, let us never forget…

“If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:31
and
“But in all these things
we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 
For I am convinced that neither death,
nor life,
nor angels,
nor principalities,
nor things present,
nor things to come,
nor powers, 
nor height,
nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 3:37-39 
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Driving School Part 2

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>I have completed my driving school adventure and am determined to not be there again.
It makes me sick to think that the money that is going to pay for this is coming out of my families budget. It makes it worse for me as a stay-at-home mom, a housewife. You see I don’t add to this budget. So I hate taking from it… always have. I try to cost my husband as little as possible.

*** (Please know that it frustrates my husband to know end that I feel this way… but I can’t help it, I just do. He does not push me to work outside the home and is very supportive of me being at home with our girls and homeschooling them. We both thoroughly enjoy the fact that our family is together more than it is apart and that we are not dependant upon the state of Alabama to tell us when we can take a family trip or take our children to the doctor. We have never been a scheduled family. My husband’s work hours have always crazily fluctuated… so homeschool just works best for us for a plethora of reasons. Besides the fact that we absolutely love being able to teach our girls from a Biblical worldview.) 

When something like this speeding ticket happens, heaps of condemnation are dumped upon my shoulders by the enemy of my soul. I immediately begin to think that I need to quit teaching at church and at home and I need to just quit writing books and studies and go to work outside the home full time so I can be a contributing factor to our household financially.
Then with that thought comes… well who would hire me? I am a thirty-four year old woman who has never had a full-time job. The thought of filling out a job application or trying to put together a resume makes me cringe. All my past part-time employments are now out of business… well with the exception of substitute teaching. By the time I get to this point I feel as if I am a nobody who has nothing to offer anyone.

Oh how thankful I am that I am aware that my feelings will lie to me. How thankful I am that my God has warned me that my heart can and will deceive me.
“We will know by this that we are of the truth,
and will assure our heart before Him 
in whatever our heart condemns us;
for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”
1 John 3:19-20. 
How thankful I am that He has give me His word in which to hold up the Light of truth to the darkness of lies and expose them for what they really are. How thankful I am that my Jesus warned me that the flesh was weak. How thankful I am that He taught me that man does live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. How thankful I am that He has told me over and over that He is Lord. He is Jehovah-jireh. He is Creator. He is the One who owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. The world and all it contains are His. Yes indeed, the truth will set you free.

“Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will give heed and listen hereafter?
Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?
Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned,
And in whose ways they were not willing to walk,
And whose law they did not obey?
So He poured out on him the heat of His anger
And the fierceness of battle;
And it set him aflame all around,
Yet he did not recognize it;
And it burned him, but he paid no attention.”
But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
“For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your place.
“Since you are precious in My sight,
Since you are honored and I love you,
Isaiah 42:24 – 43:4
You see the Lord has burned me several times for speeding, but I have not paid attention. I have had no regard for the authority of these posted signs and chose to believe that what I had to do, where I had to be, overrode these signs. I would even justify myself by convincing myself how ridiculous that speed was on that particular road anyway. But the bottom line is these signs are put in place by a government that my God ordained whether my government recognizes it or not (Romans 13:1-7). And I am to obey them as I obey God, as long as they do not contradict the higher law of my God. So by not obeying these, I am not obeying God. So I can be mad at the police officer that, (as my driving school instructor liked to say), blessed my heart all I want, but the truth that I cannot escape is that it was my God who gave me up for spoil. 
BUT, He still loves me. I am still His. I am still precious in His sight. He still has redeemed me. And as I go through whatever waters or fire He has me pass through to burn away this rebellious flesh of mine I know that He will be with me, because He said He would be.
   
Now my mother was so kind as to hire me out to clean her house. Which thankfully was enough to cover my driving school fees and a fourth of my court cost. So I thank God for that. And of course the Clorox high I received from cleaning all the baseboards and doors and kitchen cabinets Friday afternoon possibly made driving school more bearable this Saturday morning (ummm just kidding). Can you really even get high off of clorox, lol? I did make the almost fatal mistake of mixing clorox and ammonia one time when I was cleaning the bathroom when we first got married. DON’T EVER DO THAT! 
I suppose from now on I will have to become the woman you are passing instead of the woman passing you.
I might make it fun and get me a special hat when I drive… the kind of hat I used to see through someone else’s back window and know that I was going to have to get around them some how or loose my mind.
Yes, I think that just might be what I do…and as a matter of fact I do believe I already own said hat, courtesy of my wonderful great grandmother. I even have her gloves to boot 🙂 

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Uncategorized

>Waiting in the Wilderness

>“And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.” Luke 1:80

What happens in the wilderness?
As we look through the Scriptures what we see is that testing and trials happen in the wilderness. Temptations by the enemy of our soul happen in the wilderness.
Why does God allow this?
And yes He does allow it.
(“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” Luke 22:31)
Let us not forget He is sovereign. Satan has to have permission to touch you and even then he can only go as far as God allows (Job 1:6-12)

In the wilderness God allows us to face trials, temptations, and testing so that we may grow strong in spirit. We can think we believe something. We can think we could stand in a certain situation. We can think, but we just won’t know until we are in the midst of it.
Have you ever let your mouth boast about how you would do something if it was you and then… it is you? In the real situation, not the hypothetical one, how did you respond?

The wilderness is used by God to show us who we really are. In the wilderness we learn that we cannot trust our hearts, our emotions, our flesh. We learn that we are completely dependant upon God.

In the wilderness we also, most importantly, learn that our God is completely dependable.

We learn that if we trust in Him, He will never fail us. We grow strong in spirit, so that in the day of battle, in the day that we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we truly will fear no evil, and no one and no thing will be able to crush our spirit, because we know our God.

It didn’t matter who came against John. It could be the king, it could be a religious leader, it could be soldier, it didn’t matter. He was strong in spirit. He knew his God and nothing would stop him from crying out the the truth. Nothing would keep him from calling out in the wilderness, “Repent the kingdom of God is at hand” Everyone had to repent. His shout didn’t change according to who was listening. In the desert he had learned who his God was and he feared no man.

John waited in the wilderness, growing in the knowledge of God and becoming strong in spirit, and he stayed there until God knew he was ready. Not until he thought he was ready.

The wilderness may not be a fun place to be… but the benefit of it lasts until all eternity. If you desire to be a mighty soldier, a mighty servant of God, to be used by Him to shine the Light of the gospel of our God to those who are hiding in the darkness, then you better be ready for some wilderness training.

You will not learn to speak with bold confidence any other way.
Building a strong brick house with a solid foundation takes a little more sweat and effort than throwing together a grass hut on the sand… but which one is going to stand through the storm? 

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Brick in the Head

>Have you ever had God just pick up a brick and throw it straight at your head and say “Now do you get it?” I would have to say this happened to me today, just a moment ago.

I sat down and was watching a little David Jeremiah on Turning Point and his sermon was on prayer. I’ve been doing a lot of praying, but sadly what I realized was that the majority of my prayers were focused on me. I mentioned others and their requests, but mainly, honestly, I was primarily focused on me.
ME, ME, ME, ME and ME.

As David Jeremiah so kindly pointed out, God did not design prayer to be me focused. It’s primary purpose is for interceding for others.

“The LORD restored the fortunes of Job
when he prayed for his friends,
and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold.”
Job 42:10

Who does Jesus pray for? (me)
Who does the Holy Spirit pray for? (me)
Who am I to pray for? (not me)

I have just realized I need to do a Willy Wonka reverse in my prayer life. I need to focus on praying for others and interceding for others and just mention my own request. I know that God has heard plenty from me… and as I look through my journal I can see that they are quite repetitive. So my focus shall be complete intercessory prayer. Yep, this will be a No Whining Allowed prayer zone.

As for my own requests I shall do as the Scriptures commands me.
In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch
Psalm 5:3

I shall watch.
I shall indeed shut up and trust that others are persevering in prayer on my behalf as I myself persevere on behalf of them and even if no other saint were to remember my name, the Holy Spirit never forgets me and my High Priest ever lives to intercede on my behalf. The prayers that I shall pray considering myself will be praying back to Jesus the prayer that He prayed on my behalf in John 17. And I will keep watching for Him to fulfill His word in me and I’ll keep praying for others and watching for Him to fulfill His word in them.

 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation;
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26:41

The word watching in the Greek means to give strict attention to, be cautious, active, to take heed lest through remission and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtake one.

In Revelation 3:2-3 it is the same word used for wake up.
‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain,
which were about to die ;
for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 
So remember what you have received and heard ;
and keep it, and repent.
Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief,
and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.”

I don’t know about you but God can throw all the bricks at my head that He wants if it is what I need to stay awake, to wake up, to keep watching, to remember what I have recieved and heard.
How easy it is to slip into selfishness… even in our prayer life, or maybe especially in our prayer life.
And is that not the goal of the enemy of our souls.
To keep us so self-centered that we are not God-centered.
To keep us so selfish that we can’t be selfless.
To be so focused on meeting our own needs that we can’t clearly see the need of others.
To be so consumed with talking to God about ourselves that we don’t shut up long enough to hear Him tell us the need of another. You know He’ll do that, if He knows He can trust you.

“Be of sober spirit,
be on the alert.
1 Peter 5:8
In the words of Wyatt Earp, ”I don’t think I’m going to allow you to devour me today, Devil.”
Nope I think I’m going to be alert and watch. I think I’m going to pray with expectancy to see what God is going to do in the lives of the others that I am praying for. God wants to use me to help complete what is lacking in another believer’s faith. What a priviledge.  
“as we night and day
keep praying most earnestly
that we may see your face,
and may complete what is lacking in your faith?”
1 Thessalonians 3:10
I challenge myself to spend the rest of this week lifting up others. Praying for my friends. Praying for my church. Praying for THE CHURCH. Praying for my enemies. Praying for my family. Praying for strangers. Praying for our nation. Praying for others. 
May God’s will be accomplished in every prayer according to His Word.

  
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>Humility or Humiliation

>This week has been a trying week… as is painfully obvious from most of my past posts.
I am still not sure if it is to be a week of humility or a week of humiliation.

The week began with Monday bringing driving school.
Wednesday was the whole realtor freak out thing.
And now today… I have to go to THAT doctor. Ladies you know the one.
Then Saturday I get to look forward to going to driving school… again.
Thank God for Sunday!

I shared in my last post that I would give more info into my “blessed time” at church Wednesday night, so here it is, it concerns what I face today… you know… THAT doctor.

Yes, the ob/gyn today. I hate going to see this doctor.

I walked into church visibly not okay… like I said, I just don’t have the time or energy for games concerning putting on a face of fine when all just is not fine. One of my most favorite persons ever came up and said, “You look like you could use a hug.” And my answer, “Yes! I could use a hug”
And I got a hug 🙂

This broke the ice for the conversation to begin… you see my day was not going good at the moment and then I knew that tomorrow would not be better because of where I knew I had to go.
So as I shared what I had to look forward to today, another of my favorite persons ever, replied “I always take myself out to a nice lunch on this day so I know I got something to look forward to.”
To which I replied “Oh I know I just feel so violated”

Then the mention came of the leg position and we know inside we are crying out “No! No! Knees together! Knees together!”

By this time at least four other ladies had joined our conversation as we shared the emotional horrors of this day:
The multiple 2 hour showers (we discussed how it would really be best if they would just install showers at the clinic, then you could get one immediately before you go in and immediately after it’s over)
The nervousness (this is just not fun at all)
The uncomfortableness (you are left so vulnerable)
The embarrassment (and it’s just so awkward)
The emotional stress of just knowing you have to go…

I am sure that some of my emotionalness of the week has centered around knowing this day was in my very near future. Yes I know I am married. Yes I know this woman delivered both my children. But this is awkward nonetheless.

Not to mention I still have this hidden hope deep in my heart that one day God will just choose to reverse my tubal and just decide to begin knitting a life together in my womb. I even justify this thought with a “You know God that would really show the unsaved how awesome You are.”
Unfortunately I am coming to realize that sometimes decisions made in the flesh, without consulting God, come with consequences He sometimes chooses to not erase on this earth in this life…

Then there is the slight fear that something will be found wrong. You know this is a standard yearly biopsy. It is serious business and I have already faced cancer scares with this before…

Ugh not to mention the breast exam… I am only 34 and am already in the mammogram line due to already found lumps.

This is just not a good time at all…

Therefore, gentlemen, husbands, any future husbands that might be reading this… when this time of the year rolls around for your wife. Do something extra nice for her that week… something non-sexual please, because I guarantee you this is not a week that she is feeling free and sexy.
My husband came in this morning from work with ingredients to make a meal with one of my favorite foods. He’s a good man 🙂

So how was Wednesday night at church a “blessed time”?
Laughter.
Plain and simple.
Just laughter.
Laughing about the issues of life that make us uncomfortable.
Laughing because as we share these moments we realize that maybe, just maybe, we are not the only crazies out there 🙂
   

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

>See Told You I Was Crazy

>See I told you I was crazy…

So this morning was a beautiful time with my Lord. I studied through Luke chapter one some and then spent time in Isaiah 42-44 and then went to Exodus, it was wonderful. The Lord had me so full I was crying as I studied. How foolish I felt for ever doubting Him.

In Luke I was reminded how Christ was my horn of salvation. How He is the horn that I can grab hold of when I have sinned against God and against man and no one can fall upon me when I have grabbed hold of Him. He is my sacrifice and He is my High Priest who intercedes for me…

Then I go to Isaiah and I praise and thank Him for not leaving me undone (Isaiah 42:16). I read through these passages of Isaiah and look closely at “Thus says the LORD” and then I write down what the thus is that the Lord says and tears stream my face as I write “I have called you by name: you are Mine!”
You are Mine, exclamation point! Oh I think of my child or any child and the passion with which they grab something that is the object of their desire or their personal possession and say “This is mine!” And I am overwhelmed that my God looks at me and calls me by name and says, “Nicole, you are Mine!”
Oh don’t miss the exclamation point…

Then I open up to Exodus and begin working in Devotions From Exodus and writing on the third commandment of God “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” And then it’s “Oh God let me understand what this means. The totality of this command, because I do not want to take your name in vain. Make me aware of all that this means, for I want Your name to be treated as holy when it comes off my lips…”

Then the call comes that the house is going to show (oh have I mentioned the house is for sale). Oh yeh and did you read the Surrender post from yesterday? You might want to…

So I am immediately elated and confident.

Why you ask?

Well I have just had this amazing morning with God as I repented from my sins and was washed by His word and strengthened and encouraged and reminded solidly who I am in Him and to Him.

Not to mention that somehow since last Friday I have managed to clean the entire house including mopping the floors and rearranging the girls bed room to give them more space (you know space is what everybody on House Hunters wants, right?) All the laundry and dishes were already done. And on top of that Patrick and I had just went through the garage and the attic yesterday getting ready for a yard sale. The house was perfectly staged for a showing.
So this one had to be the one right?
Right?

Well we leave the house everyone all getting along, no yelling at the kids to stop making a mess, you know the “Don’t you see I’m trying to pick up here!?! And you are dragging out faster than I can pick up!”
(Or is that just me?)

Anyway, we spend all day away from the house 12pm – 4pm and no realtor. Then our realtor calls and discovers that oh the realtor that is supposed to be showing our house by 4pm is still in another city that is 40 minutes away.

So we go home.
Let the dog out that’s been in a kennel since 11am (because we had to get all the dog hair up out of the floor one last time)
Patrick gets his work clothes on and get’s to take the crockpot pinto beans by themselves to work, no cornbread because this realtor is now supposed to be here within the hour.
So Patrick heads to work.
And I cry on the way to church. Yes, pour pitiful me cries…

I have already forgotten that I am His.
I don’t know why God chooses to test me so quickly… but for some reason He does. I learn something and I get a pop quiz in 12 hrs or less.
I almost don’t go to church… almost keep going… almost plan to look for a quiet spot where I can attempt to convince myself that I am alone praying, but really I’ll just be having a pity party for one.
So I go to church… and truly have a blessed time.

(PS: Separate post to follow on the “blessed time”)

Would you be believe the lyrics of the closing song tonight was “I am Yours, I am Yours, I am Yours, I am Yours, I am Yours, I am Yours”
Coincidence?
I think not. There are no coincidences with a sovereign God.

So then I come home to discover that the realtor never showed.

Yep, tears again… ugh, see I told you I was crazy… a life of insanity… have I not been here before.
I know I have, because I sometimes date Scripture references in my Bible as God speaks to me on certain occasions with them and well I found one of those this morning in my study time… found, ummm most likely was led there by my ever-patient, long-suffering God.

“They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But craved intensely in the wilderness,
And tempted God in the desert.
So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them.”
                                                      Psalm 106:13-15

Out beside this verse I have written “Oh Father not my will but Your will be done” with Your will be done being double underlined.
The only thing that makes me feel even slightly better about this constant prayer I have of not my will but Your will be done comes from the fact that Jesus prayed this 3 times in the garden…
He is my example…
So if He prayed it 3 times then it must be okay for me to have to pray it at the very least 3 million times… right?
Right?