Woo Hoo!! I did it!! Thanks Robin for the heads up on the "edit html". I am so slow. Please laugh with me not at me (smile!)

I am very thankful that I was able to go to She Speaks and learn to get the little picture on here. I am still working on some other things like "tags". (Angela, I have tried and hopefully will get it!)

I am thankful that my God is so good and answers prayers.

I am thankful for my church which is growing in having a heart for prayer.

I am thankful for blogworld and all the beautiful Christlike sisters I have met and been encouraged by.

I am thankful I get to meet Heather on Monday, and that she is getting a wonderful Bible Study published in September.

I am thankful for the 24 kids at our VBS tonight, and that I got to pray with a 5th grade boy to recieve the Wonderful Gift of Jesus. I was in awe knowing that our Savior is living in his little heart and will be with him always. Please pray for him as he is from an unchurched/broken home and is just transitioning into living with his dad and going to a new school this fall. Guess what his name is...Christian!! I wonder if his mama knew it was prophetic when she named him!

I am thankful for my beautiful daughter who has given up her summers for the last 5 years to be a missionary and lead little ones/and this summer bigger ones to Jesus.

I am thankful for my son who loves Truth and Righteousness and stands strong in his faith. And for his humor.

I am thankful for my husband and how hard he works. That we can have true fellowship in the Lord and that he has prayed with me recently.

I am thankful for my friend Holly who means the world to me. Who God is doing some amazing things for and for her perseverence, by His grace.

I am thankful for the amazing Promised Land/ the Living Word, my Bible.

Sweet Sweetness. That's all I gotta say!

Coffee and Chocolate

I have been very busy lately, and missing blogworld. I love to be encouraged here and I realize how much strength I have gained by daily fellowship. It seems daily life keeps people too busy to connect on a regular basis in my world. So much to attend to...Home, garden, children and all they are into, extended family, daily "surprises" such as car trouble, or leaking dishwashers...I am very grateful for all of you and your openess and love for Jesus!! Thank you!

I have four days left of my 21 day fast from chocolate and coffee. I thought I would give a little report. My days usually contain coffee in the morning and chocolate at least once (being transparent here). I have sadly discovered just how often I reach out for chocolate.

It seemed in the first week, that I was at a loss many times. I would go to get a meal-bar for lunch; they are covered/dipped in chocolate. On hot days, I would have a craving for a blended icey drink; coffee with chocolate mocha. (Have you tried those Archer Farms mixes from Target? mmmmm) When I was on the road a long time, and wanted something to munch when I was driving; m&m's. Honestly nothing else appealed to me!! Deserts at the wedding or the potluck-nope.

When I went to pick up my mom and take her to a prayer meeting I passed a Starbucks, then a Caribeau, then a Dunn Brothers. I was tempted more than once to cheat, but the Lord has kept me. Even at the wedding we attended, they had little tule wrapped jelly beans at all the place settings...guess what flavor they were? Chocolate, cappuccino, mocha and blueberry. I abstained. To the glory of God.

Conclusion: I have noticed that I feel more free. I feel less attached to my routine and more able to do things that I usually put off. Procrastinating less. Accomplishing more. I realize that sometimes a routine (which I love) can become a hindrance to freedom. I haven't decided how I will break the fast, but I think I will need to fast at least once a week from coffee and chocolate, so I don't become so...dependent on the routine of having them again.

There is so much about fasting that I have learned over the years. The Lord is teaching me more. The times I have fasted have brought the greatest breakthroughs.

If you have not tried it, but want to, Stormie Omartain suggests a 24 hour fast that begins after lunch one day and ends after lunch the next day. It is a little easier that way to break into fasting.
The Daniel Fast is abstaining from everything but veggies and water. Or you can fast, like I did, from something that you love...maybe a little too much.

Tagged

I got tagged! Im-a-gonna try to get it going...
By Angela

Here are the rules:
1)Link to the person who tagged you (see above)

2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)

3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)

4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (humm...whom shall I tag)

5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (quick go look)

6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME

1. Of my 7 sisters, only one looks like me. She happens to be the only one who lives in my town (we were here first!) and people get us mixed up all the time. Which is fun for me since I am 4 years older than her. (smile)

2.Because of being the oldest in a farm family, the only sports I did when in school were softball in 6th grade because the neighbor was the coach and could drive me...and ski club on Friday nights in 9th grade.

3. I just did my friend's hair this morning for a wedding. And then her two daughters too!

4. My dad nicknamed everyone. He knew me as "Bean" growing up. (rhymes with Kathleen).
I think he forgot my real name. It's all he ever called me. Then when I got married, he would call me Ms. "B".

5. I have a bad habit of showing up at potlucks without a dish. Either I forget or I don't have anything to bring because I remember last minute.

6. When I was a kid, I had a dream to fix up the chicken coop as a little house. It never happened. I have a chicken coop on our farm now that is just used for storage. I once again have a dream of fixing up the chicken coop!

To my few readers...Tag- You're it!

Discernment Needed

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:2-4

Christianity Today sends out a list of blogs on a regular basis, usually I don't take the time, but one caught my eye the other day. I have been bothered deeply by it. It was a Pastor in California who had been invited to a g*y wedding. He had concluded, based on Jesus' words to the Pharisees, that he should attend the wedding as a loving representative of Jesus Christ. That he would be being a Pharisee if he didn't. Then he opened it up for comments.

My first "red flag of discernment" was to question the Pastor's reasoning, which was that by not attending the wedding, he was being self-righteous (that is what the Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for). Would that then mean that if you were reaching out to someone who was into the occult and they invited you to a se*nce and you didn't attend, it would be self-righteous? Or if you were reaching out to one who was a thief and they invited you to join "a job" you would be self-righteous to refuse?

Other arguments for going to the wedding were that when those who have sinned before marriage get married we wouldn't stay home from thier wedding. But think about it, when a couple who has crossed the line before marriage gets married, they are getting things right with God, they are coming under His authority. When a g*y couple gets married they are desecrating an institution ordained by God with perversion. It is actually spitting in God's face. (See Romans 1) rebelling against His authority.

When we attend a wedding, we are there as witnesses to give our approval. The Pastor (used to)ask if anyone objects to the couple being married before he pronounced them husband and wife, insinuating that there is great worth in the approval of the witnesses.

And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. Acts 8:1
The above passage shows that even though Paul didn't throw a stone at Stephen, he was, by approval, a part of his murder. With that I conclude that we actively participate in that which we give approval to.

Remembering that weddings are sacred ceremonies estabished by God to represent Him and His Bride and that there is a covenant being made in God's Presence, we dare not take this lightly.

If the Pastor has already established to his g*y friends that he loves them, and then he does not attend their wedding, but keeps loving them afterward, he is showing the true love of God which never negates his justice. When we agree that the law is good we are not being judgemental, we are upholding the perfect law (Romans 3:31). We love His law! (Psalm 119).

I don't know if anyone else has seen it, but it seems alot of Christians are calling other Christians "judgemental" these days if they take a stand on something. Oh God, give us more Light and keep us in Your Truth!!

Many Hands Make Light the Work

My precious friend had a skin cancer spot removed from her upper cheekbone a few days ago. That after coming off of a week of camping, and in between, taking her 20 yr old daughter to a hospital where 5 of her frineds were suffering from a car accident. A bad one.

We all know what it is like coming home from camping...Loads of laundry, house tasks, yard in disarray, garden needing weeding...but to go to the accident victims (one of the girls is in a coma, with a broken pelvis and brain damage, another with a broken pelvis and internal bleeding...) and then on to her own surgery-exhausting!

Her recovery is restrictive because the cutting is so deep that they have 2 layers of stitches. She is not sudposed to do any stooping or strain in any way so the blood doesn't go to the incision as it heals. They told her it could take 6 months for it to heal completely inside.

So another friend and I headed over to do her weeding this morning, and help her with K.P.

I want to tell you what a blessing it was for us to be together and conquor her tasks in just a few hours. It would have taken an able-bodied person an entire day to do it all herself. It was such a joy to know that we could love on her that way and have such a good time doing it!

We thought, "wouldn't it be nice if we could just go from house to house and work together more often?" It was fun not work!!!

Would you please pray for my friend, that she will heal and be able to manage her busy life with four children along with her yard and garden during her recovery. Pray for her emotions too as the Dr. has told her she has pre cancerous tissue on other areas of her face (like her nose). Pray for her healing.

A Fast

A couple of days ago, as I was pressing in to the Lord, desiring Him to make Himself known more to me, I heard him say that He wanted me to give up chocolate and coffee for 21 days. Well I have heard whispers to fast from time to time and I brush them off whenever I walk over by the coffee pot. Excusing it as being "only me" and not God's voice.

This time I knew that it was the Lord. I felt like arguing at first, certainly a groan crept in. But He reminded me that I had offered myself as a living sacrifice. I am His. So I submitted to His authority.

The temptations weren't over though. That first evening I scooped up a dish of my Schwan's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Yogurt, convincing myself "this isn't chocolate, like chocolate chips or a Hershey bar..." As I was scooping, I heard the Lord say, "Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew." I then left the bowl on the counter and went and sat down with my Bible. I said Lord, help me.

Wow, I knew the Lord was telling me that I would be giving up something of eternal value if I allowed the lie and ate that fro-yo. I then went and got the box out of the freezer, and plunked the CHOCOLATE FUDGE BROWNIE yogurt back in it's container. (Notice the title made the contents quite obvious!)

Today is my third day. I know that the things I am seeking the Lord for are near at hand. The last time He called me to fast I had a whole list and He has broken through so many things on that list, some which had been strongholds for a long time.

I realize too that just as I sucked my thumbs as a baby, I overate as a teenager, I smoked in my late teens and early twenties as a hairdresser, now I have the Christian woman's vice: chocolate and coffee. The Lord wants me to be free from those things as vices. You wouldn't believe how many times I have discovered in the past two days, I go for "something". Of course chocolate and coffee are okay in moderation, a blessing to be enjoyed, but when He asks me to yield the blessing, I need to be willing.

I recieved a word from the Lord at the She Speaks confrence...that word was FREEDOM and I believe this is one step He wants me to take to further my freedom from earthly attachments.

He also showed me that when we want Him, it costs us something here. When we want eternity we need to die to the temporary.

Jesus, strengthen me to say no to my flesh and carry the cross you ask me to carry. Thank you! Amen.

He takes my breath away...

I found a sweet new blog today. Angela @ http://christianwaitress.blogspot.com/ And while Iwas there I found this sermon: (sorry I don't know how to do the html coding thing so it's here)
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Leading_the_Way/archives.asp?bcd=6/19/2008 What an amazing panoramic view of our God the pastor gives here. If you have a chance to listen...It is on 9 names of God. I keep asking Him "Show me your Glory!!" This is an answer to that prayer.