Nailing it Down

Isaiah 26:(Amplified Bible)
3 You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.
4 So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].
via Isaiah 26:2-4 – Passage Lookup – Amplified Bible – BibleGateway.com.

Charles Spurgeon went to live with JESUS almost 60 years before I was born but his words are often a means that ABBA uses to speak correction and comfort to me. This morning is one of those mornings.  Click HERE if you would like a little more information about Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

In part my reading from Morning and Evening — the Morning selection said this:

“for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into His place to do for Him that which He has undertaken to do for us.  We attempt to think of that which we fancy He will forget; we labour to take upon ourselves our weary burden, as if He were unable or unwilling to take it for us.”

Now I don’t know about you but I didn’t like that at first reading. And he got tougher on me with this:

“Now this disobedience to His plain precept, this unbelief in His Word, this presumption in intruding upon His province, is all sinful.”

Who would have thought that our anxious care – our worrying – is arrogance in disguise? When we refuse to take our burdens, our anxious cares, our worries to the LORD and LEAVE them with Him, we have professed ourselves to be wiser than GOD ALMIGHTY. Not only that we are calling into question His Love for us.

So again this morning Charles Spurgeon hit the nail on the head.  But you know what? That slight sting that comes with agreeing with the HOLY SPIRIT that I have sinned is way over shadowed by the comfort and the joy of having a word picture firmly in place to help me trust more surely my DADDY GOD who is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent.

And so I offer this to you this Thursday morning that you may have that same comfort and joy.

ABBA, thank You. You are so AWESOME. So willing and able to take care of us. And I have some cares and concerns. Some people that have huge challenges and I am praying now for help for them, even that You would heal them, take away completely cancers and imbalances in their bodies. In particular I am thinking of Diana this morning.  I don’t like what the doctors found, I don’t like what it means for her and I could cry out with others it’s not fair and it’s not but based on Your Word I am choosing to trust You with this and wait to see your Glory in it. And not just with Diana but others — Kerri, Elaine, Megan, Halli, Gracie, Ken, Dawn, and others — so many. And the death and destruction in Joplin and the continued aftermath here in Alabama and other places – all of it, ABBA, it’s impossible to explain or understand but this I know; for those who will trust You, You will prove You are faithful and kind and worthy of their adoration.  HOLY SPIRIT, help people trust You, the GOD we cannot see but Who we can KNOW more fully and more wonderfully than even the people we can see.  And as we close this time I pray for each one who comes to this screen to read and pray that You will answer the cares and concerns of their hearts and that they will embrace Your love for them. I pray this day will be a red letter day for them in JESUS Name. Amen and amen.

Click HERE for the PFT list.

Love being His Handmaiden,
Kathie

A Red Letter Day

It has been a red letter day!

Two beautiful daughters have arrived to the loving arms of parents who cherish them. One of those little girls bears the name Thompson — making her a great niece.  And the other, well she’s the daughter of two young people that allowed me into their lives about 7 years ago and my life has been richer since.

And, and — Larry is expected to move to the next step today– townhouse recovery!

My sister-in-law called to let me know my niece has a summer job.

And in Mobile County, Summer has officially begun!! School teachers are rejoicing!  :)
For Baldwin County I think it will be Friday afternoon.
And with that let the prayers begin for this Summer to be the greatest summer yet for our children. Let it be a Summer of fun, safety and coming to know in a deeper way that JESUS loves them. May it be a Summer of growth in confidence that He has only good plans for them.  May it be a Summer when Moms and Dads open the WORD, love it, live it and lavish it all over those young ones who don’t know what to do with themselves for three months!

And having said all that, who would share with us Summer activity plans to keep children engaged in learning and growing rather than sulking and moaning: “I’m bored!” ?

Yes, a red letter day! May red letter days continue!!

Yikes! time to get ready for choir —
‘see’ you in the morning — LORD WiLLING,
Kathie

We Got No Business

It has been a productive Monday as I sit to write for our Tuesday time together. At this writing Larry continues to improve. The 10 days to two weeks on the liver transplant recovery floor as of today is looking like a 5 day stay instead.  The mercy and grace of God is incomprehensible but we are receiving His goodness and rejoicing.  Again thank you for your prayers and your continued ones.

My Journey gave me some good reading this morning.  May I share a portion with you?

“Some of us turn to relationships, hoping the love of another person will determine whether or not we’re lovable. Some of us turn toward careers or other types of achievement to determine who we are and whether or not we’re valuable. Some of us let our past determine our identity–what people have said about us and what the world says about us, whether we’re attractive, or successful, or valuable.  We pretty much let anything and anyone else but God define who we are.

Author Chris Tiegreen has this to say: “Our identity is not made up of the ideas we have formed over the years; it’s made up of whatever God says about us. If He says we are His children then we are, whether we feel like it or not. When He says we are precious to Him, then we are, even if we don’t consider ourselves very precious.

. . . If God says you’re His beloved child, seated with Him in heavenly places, treasured as a specimen of His redemption and glory, cleansed of all sin, and gifted for divine works, you have no business contradicting Him” (indeed, March/April 2006). “

No business contradicting Him.

May I tell you that I am LIKING that a LOT?! I want it to stick with me and make changes in me.  Perhaps you would like the same.  Just a little more from Journey and I’m finished sharing from it for today.

“Ask God to show you what’s true about yourself. Ask Him to let His opinion of you speak louder than the world, louder than your past successes and failures, and louder than what you feel. Read through the New Testament and look for how God’s Word describes the redeemed, and choose to believe what God says is true about you.”

Ephesians 2: (New American Standard Bible)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
via Ephesians 2:4-7 – Passage Lookup – New American Standard Bible – BibleGateway.com.

I visited briefly tonight with LaJuanna at her Mother’s visitation. Please pray for the Kotis/Hinton family – the funeral is tomorrow (Tuesday.) Simply put, we have been asked to pray for Susan’s family. For more details click HERE. And there are many others. I am still praying for Megan, Kerri and her family, Kathy and Joe, Elaine, Karen, Dori, and others listed at PFT web page. Click HERE to go there. 

ABBA, thank You again for this ministry, all these dear people, I pray for them to be encouraged and to come to know more assuredly who they are in You; for You to be the ONE who defines us. And we come with each of these named here and on the web page, asking for grace and mercy and help of every kind needed in JESUS Name. Amen and amen.

Blessings!
Kathie