Day 7

Statement # 7 really hit home to me because it is something I have struggled with all my life. It is:
7. I am an heir of God, I can be secure.
Col.3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, NOT FOR MEN(emphasis mine.) Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you are serving."
I think I could just leave that and you all would know what I men. We, especially those in ministry and particularly women struggle with with constantly. We want to make everyone around happy and we don't want anyone to get mad at us or upset. We have to remember as Beth says, "We work for the Lord and He and He alone will compensate us." A lot of times we seek work because we crave the attention and affection it brings. I had that very thing happen to me this week. A person called and was wondering if I would be willing to lead the music for a fairly large gathering of people. Boy, my head started to swell just a bit at the thought of them wanting me. After talking with my husband, he reminded me of how stressful my week had been and told me that I probably didn't need to do it. He was right! Really, the only reason I would want to do it was for myself. It wasn't that God was leading me to do it my ego wanted to do it. I called and politely declined, but I tell you this to remind us all that doing things solely so that we will get noticed and pats on the back is simply not a God honoring motive.
When God calls you to do something a lot of the times we will not think we can do the job. He wants His glory to shine and not our own so more times than not, He will give us jobs we are not qualified for. Beth made this statement and it wraps everything together." God wants us to be the miracle not our work to be the miracle." Whatever you have been asked to do, first make sure your motivations are right and then do your job to the best of your ability. The areas where you don't feel adequate are the areas where God is going to do something grand in you! Have a blessed Lord's day! Look in the mirror and say, " I am and heiress/heir of Christ and I am a miracle!!!" Love you all!

Day 6

This statement was a great thing to think about. Statement 6 is:
6. I am an heir of God the will has been activated.
Most people have a will. In order for you to get an inheritance, is for someone to die. We have had someone do that for us. It is available for us. Hebrews 9:15-17 says, "For this reason Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, that those who are called nay receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant." Jesus died so that we are the beneficiary of our inheritance which is eternal. This is much better than anything we could ever receive on earth. We will never spend all of this inheritance since it is eternal. This is great for me because I love to shop. As soon as you receive Christ, we are automatically eligible for this inheritance. What a great comfort in this world where the economy is so unstable to know that we have a guaranteed inheritance waiting for us! Thank you God for taking care of our every need. Have a great day of worship tomorrow.

Day 5 that was supposed to be 2

I just realized that I made an error in the listing. What I wrote as statement #2 is really supposed to be statement #5. Sorry to all you Siestas! I know you think I as losing my mind!!!Anyway, here is statement #5 that is really statement #2:
5. I am an heir of God, I am inheriting a kingdom.
Matt. 25:34-- This is Jesus speaking," Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'"
Col. 1:12--...Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints.

When we accept Christ, we are immediately included in the inheritance. We will get our rewards in heaven and will be able to enjoy them for all eternity!!
Have a great long weekend don't forget to spend time enjoying your family! Love you ALL!

Day 3 & 4

Boy this week is about to kick my tale! We are full swing into school and this new curriculum is A LOT of work. It will be nice if you are like me and have a busy week just to spend a few moments reliving some God moments. Things got so crazy yesterday that I am going to post # 3 and 4 together.

Here is statement #3

3. I am an heir of God, He is my portion...And I am His
I will try to explain this but I am not sure that I can even do it justice. The scripture that goes with this is of course Psalm 16 and Deut. 10:8-9. Where God was dividing up the land to the Israelites and the Levites He did not give them land but told them that He was going to be their portion. In the same way, God is our portion. Since we are the chosen priesthood of the believers we fall under the same category as the Levitical priests. You know what is even better, God thinks of us as His portion. Deut. 4:20 and 32:9 say that God considers the people of earth His inheritance (His treasured possession.) I cannot even wrap my mind around that one. That God, the creator of the universe considers me His portion! Eph 1:18 sums it all up. "I pray ask that the eyes of of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hoe to which he has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,"

Statement #4 is:
4. I am and heir of God, the down payment has been made.
You ca never have the fullness of God by just obeying the rules. You have to have a deep intimate relationship with Him. Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly. IF you never accept that free gift, then you can never be an heir. Jesus has already paid the price and has taken care of your tab. IF you don't know Him today, please make today the day. IF it has been a long time since you spent time with God, stop NOW and ask Him to forgive you. If you have never taken that step of trusting Christ for the first time go here and then email me and let me know, I would love to answer your questions and pray with you. I can also help you hook up with a local church in your area. Trust Him today, it will be the best decision that you ever make!

Day 2

Well I know you are all on pins and needles waiting for the next point (not really because only about 3 people actually read this blog, but a girl can dream can't she!) Anyway, point # 2 in the list of 8 Statements About Our Inheritance is:
2. I am an heir of God my boundary lines form a pleasing place.

This one really started to make sense after Beth explained it. She says that our life is kind of like a square. (you are really going to have to use your imagination.) The top of the square is our INTIMACY WITH GOD. Our anointing can never be higher than our intimacy with Him. If we are not willing to go deeper with Him then we are not going to go very far spiritually.

To the left is your PAST. In order to have the intimacy we want we are going to have to surrender our past to Him. God know that the pain we went through would be for His glory. Go ahead and surrender the pain and hurt of the past as an offering for His glory. One thing Beth said in this section was, " IF I know where I'm going the past doesn't seem so bad." chew on that one for awhile.

On the bottom of the square is our LIFE EXPERIENCES. These are the things that happen to us everyday whether good or bad. These things are what God uses to make us into what He can use.

On the right is our GIFTING. These are the gifts God has given us to use for ministry. All of us are called to ministry of some kind, but we are never to let ministry take away our intimacy with God. If you are too busy doing and preparing for your ministry that you don't have time for a quiet time, then you need to reevaluate your ministry. This really challenged me. My personal time with God is more important than ANYTHING else!!!

In the middle of the square is FAITH. This is the glue that hold everything together. Around faith there is a lot of space. Any of that space that God is not occupying, Satan is standing on it ready to claim it. We have to open our hands and let God come and take over those empty spaces. Even if there is a little crack, Satan will come and take it for his own.

To sum it all up, our life is not our own, it belongs to God and everything we have been through in our life is for His glory and He will use it in ways we can not even imagine!! Have a blessed day and remember I am an Heir of Christ! I am a miracle!

8 Days From San Antonio (Day 1)

Hello all! I am back from San Antonio! I got back about 12:30am Sunday morning and had a great day at church yesterday. Now it is time to get back to the swing of things and share what God had for us in the Lone Star State!

The entire weekend was based on the topic of our inheritance which was mentioned about 310 times in scripture. If it was mentioned that much it must be a pretty important topic. The theme scripture was Psalm 16 verses 5 and 6. Beth wanted us to learn these from the ESV version so here it is:
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You hold my lot
6 The lines have fallen on me in pleasant places, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Beth gave us 8 statements concerning our inheritance and I will try over the next 8 days to break them down and share them with you. Here is statement 1
1. I am an heir of God, my life is not left to chance.
Everything in our life has to pass through the hand of God. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Beth said, " Everything whether good, bad or ugly is working together to build a beautiful inheritance. Providence is the FACT that God never lets anything happen by chance. There is no such thing as fate."

Because God has given us this inheritance, we need to live our lives like we are an heir. Not to be boastful, but to give us the confidence and then we will be secure in ourselves.

Trust me the first few will be a little harder to grasp, but as we go along, the whole thing will tie together! I hope you has a great weekend. Now I have to go get ready for school! Have a great day! Look in the mirror and tel yourself, "I am an heiress, or heir if you are a guy", and then live your life today like that! I promise it makes all the difference in the world!

This time tomorrow I will be eating lunch here, and hopefully will have already visited here. After that I will go here and worship with some of the most awesome women in the country! Please pray for my family as I am away. Also pray for the Living Proof team and especially her. I am going by myself so it will be a great chance to be alone with God. I will post pictures when I get back. Have a great weekend!!!!
Love you all!

I Survived...

Well, I survived day 1. The beginning was stressful but it got better. I think the kids were just so excited that they all wanted to do everything at the same time! It was a little stressful. Most of our books came today, but with church tonight I did not get a chance to lay them all out. I will get organized one day. We will do what we can tomorrow and I will be leaving Friday, so I am not sure exactly what their school day Friday will look like. Anyway, I hope your day was good. Have a good rest of your night!

The Day Before...

This is the eve before we start our new school year, and this week has been anything but calm and organized. This new school we are trying this year is through the public school system and so far, I am not impressed. Granted that this is their first year doing this, but the only thing we have in the way of materials is the computer they sent us. Today at the last minute their "teacher" sent us some supplemental things that I have had to print off and get ready. Not to mention I still have to get the music going for Sunday and get ready to go to San Antonio on Friday! I say all this to ask you to be in prayer for me. Whatever gets done with school gets done. I want to be able to prepare to meet my Savior this weekend, but I have to get through all this life stuff first. I will let you know how tomorrow goes!

Any Siesta Arriving in SA around noon on Friday???

Hey all!! Only 3 more days until I leave for San Antonio. I got my hair done today with highlights to cover some of that gray. I wish I could get a pedicure before I go since I haven't had one in several years, but my fundage went to the hair this time. Hopefully son I can get one. Anyway, I was wondering if any of my Siestas are coming into town around noon on Friday and wanted to share a cab downtown. I am going to the lunch at 1 and am a little nervous about riding alone. If not, then I know God will take care of me. If you are coming in or know of anyone coming in that would want to share please let me know. I don't want to bother Kim and Patty with my minor details. I hope you are having a great week. We start school tomorrow!!! I will let you know how it goes.

A Great Day!

We had a great day at church today. There were a lot of things that happened, but the best was that Hannah Beth our 6 year old made her decision public to accept Christ as Savior!!! She has been asking a lot of questions for about a year now. Last Saturday the bigger kids attended a Children in Action day camp where they gave them a booklet about the plan of salvation. At the end of the booklet it has a prayer and she said that prayer. Jamie talked with her about it last Sunday night and she did it!! 3 down and only 2 more to go.

Welcome to the family my daughter and now sister in Christ!

For all of you who work in the children's area at your church do not grow weary because you NEVER know what you will say or do that will help draw a little one to Christ.

Calling All Computer People

I have about had it with this computer!!!! I was supposed to go online today and view parent orientation for the 3 oldest children's school. (They are doing virtual charter school this year and a good bit of their school work will be online.) The whole thing locked up! Not to mention I have only gotten 10 brochures printed out today! I am in the process of defragmenting the computer. Other than that I have no idea of what to do! This computer is 5 or 6 years old so it may be that it cannot keep up with the new technology. If that is the case, then we will need a new computer and we have no $ for one right now. Please pray for something to happen in the next few days. The kids school starts Wed. and I HAVE to watch this orientation! It is mandatory! Thanks for letting me vent a little. I know God is in control, but the unknown is stressing me out!

Yes, I Am Alive!

I know all of you who are blogging buddies have been wondering where I am this week. Let's just put it this way. It is the week before school starts. I have been getting things ready for our school year and trying to print out brochures for the church. We have a kindergarten at our church and tonight is orientation. For the past couple of years Jamie has wanted a brochure about the church in each folder the parents receive. This is all fine and well when your computer and printer are working. Ours has had issues ALL week. I have spent countless hours deleting files and printing out fronts and then backs and have managed to get only 34 printed out!!! Jamie wants about 100 more! It is going to be a LONG day!

With all this I did not even get to post about Jamie's birthday. It was Monday and he wanted to go to the beach. We went to Hilton Head for the day. It is a couple of hours from our house. I like it a lot. The parking is free, there are bathrooms with soap to wash your hands, and the best thing is there is a covered walkway over the sand all the way down to water. This makes life at the beach with 5 children and all our stuff so much easier!

Happy Birthday Jamie! I love you and am so thankful that God brought you into my life. You love me in spite of my flaws. Thank you for loving me just as I am! I love that you are such a great Dad and that you allow God to use you. It has been so neat to see how you have grown. You are so much fun and we have a great time together! I am so blessed to call you my man! Happy Birthday Babe! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

A Thought as We Go to Worship

What are you holding on to that is keeping you from getting to that place God wants you to be? Abraham had to leave Ur and go to a place that the Lord would show him. He did not know where he was going, he just was just instructed to go. Where has God asked you to go? What things has He asked you to give up and move onto a new place with Him? As you go to worship Him this morning, ask Him to help you let go and surrender to him. I have something that I am wandering in the desert with Him on. He has shown me glimpses of the Promised Land, but I have not been allowed to enter yet. I know that if I keep surrendering to Him, soon I will get to enter that promised land! I found this video with a song that speaks to this. Let this worship leader lead you.

It's Getting Closer....With a God Stop in Between

In 2 weeks, I will be on my way to San Antonio for the Siesta Fiesta. If you don't know what that is just click the link on the right. Yesterday, while Jamie was visiting some people in the hospital, the kids and I went to Walmart. Walmart is okay, but for the most part I am a Target girl. I was really wanting a few new pieces of clothing to wear on my trip, so I went to the clothing department. TO my shock, I actually found a CUTE pair of bermuda shorts that were only $12!! And that was the regular price. The other great thing about them were that they were 2 sizes smaller than the clothes I have now! Praise be to God!!! Now, don't get me wrong, I still have a LONG way to go, but it is a start!

This is where my God Stop comes in to play.God is just showing me that when I give control over to Him He WILL set you free. I am not totally free, and I do not know if I will ever be. This could be my torn in the flesh, but this I do know that when you rely on God and live your life with Him, He will help you whatever area. It doesn't matter how big or small, God wants EVERY area! What are you holding onto today? Open that hand and let God have it! Everything is His anyway. Right?

Update #3

I just got another text from Jamie that says "Finishing surgery now. Not sure if good/bad. May not know anything for another couple of hours." Pray for peace for Dan and Rebecca right now as they wait to hear what's going on.

Update #2

They actually did not start the surgery until 2pm. Jamie and David had to leave to get back. I have just checked Dan's blog and they called at 3 and said everything was going well. Since Jamie is on his way back Dan's blog will be the best place to get updates from. If I hear anything, I will update here also. Dan's blog is Jesus and Java under my blog list. Thanks again for praying!

Update on Lauren #1

I just got a text from Jamie. They are starting the surgery and it could last 8 -12 hours. It's going to be a long day and night!

Pray for Baby Lauren!

As most of you recall our friend Dan and his wife Rebecca have a baby girl named Lauren who will be having her BIG surgery tomorrow at 10:30. Jamie and another pastor from here in town are travelling right now to Durham to be with them during the surgery tomorrow. If you are unfamiliar with Lauren's story, you can read about her here.
I do not even know what to ask you to pray for because it is a very real possibility that Lauren might not survive the surgery, but all I can say is that God be in control. Please join me tomorrow in a day of prayer for the Browne's. I will update as Jamie updates me. Thank you in advance!
Love,

Weekend Recap

Our weekend went well, what about yours? Friday was spent getting ready for the yard sale, while Jamie went to the lake with the youth for some tubing. They had a good time.
Saturday was YARD SALE DAY. I got up around 5:15 or so and started loading the rest of the stuff into the back of Jamie's truck. (we yard sale out our NANA's house(she had adopted our family and that is what our kids call her).) It started off VERY slow,but there was a nice breeze so it wasn't too bad. By the time we were wrapping up it was HOT, but strangely that is when the people came. We had a successful sale.
The beginning of church yesterday was stressful. You never know how the service is going to turn out when you walk in the sanctuary and see 3 out of your 5 children on the floor crawling under the pews!!! We had just had a great prayer time in the choir room and I walked out and found that! Talk about a spirit buster! I know some of you are rolling on the floor laughing right now, but this was right before the service started!!! Can you even imagine? I managed to gain my composure and the worship time was awesome! The message was great! Jamie spoke about being set free! Who doesn't need a reminder about that every now and again. All in all it was a nice day! I hope you have a great day!

My Prayer Journal Entry

How awesome are Your works God how faithful and loving You are. Lord I praise You for what you have accomplished for our family through our yard sale yesterday! You really showed Yourself. Lord I was praying for rain and You delivered. With the amount of things we had $200 was a GREAT amount! When I took out the $ I put in for change You made for us $170!!!!!How AWESOME is the LORD MOST HIGH!!!! God I cannot express my gratitude enough for what You have done. Lord when we were getting ready to close up, You brought a few more people in and you moved that bed!!!!! You also moved the car seat and some bigger toys and a few more clothes! Praise be to my God!
Help me to spend the $ wisely on the things for Kaylee's room, a big kid booster seat for Jarrett and hopefully enough left over for a night at the beach which my husband so desperately needs!! Father I am in awe of You. Help me today as I go to worship You to remember how faithful You are. Help me to remember that whatever need I have You are there to fill it!
I love you Jesus!
In Your name I pray
AMEN and AMEN!!!

God Stop Friday

I can't believe it is Friday already not to mention August! Patty hosts God Stop every Friday, and asks us to reflect on our week and what He has done.

God has shown me so many things this week. I guess the biggest is that we need to "Pray for Rain" in our life. If you have seen the movie Facing the Giants then you know what I am talking about. We had a meeting a church on Monday night where Jamie shared a vision for what he thinks God's plan is for us doing this next year. We want to see all our classes double. And we need to prepare ourselves for that to happen.

God impressed upon me that the choir should do this as well. Have choir practice on Wednesday, I presented it to the choir. We currently have 16 so to double would mean 32. In order for that to happen we needed to move things around on the stage to begin to accommodate that many people.

We moved things around and then we had the sweetest time of prayer where we circled on the stage and just claimed that area for Him. It was a great time of unity.

All that to say that whatever it is in you life that you need pray with anticipation and then prepare to receive what God has for you.

I think this it up. Go here and listen!

Have a great weekend!!!
Love you all!!