pray

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:26-28 NLT

I admit it:  there are many times I open my heart to pray, and I can find no words. Groanings that can’t be expressed in words – that’s exactly what it’s like!  There are times when I’m overwhelmed, tired, afraid, upset, lonely, uncertain, discouraged, hurting – I’m grateful the Holy Spirit takes over.  He lifts up my prayers to God.  When I can’t.

I came across this quote some time ago – I didn’t make a note of the author:

When praying to God. God knows what you need and the Holy Spirit will lift up your prayers and will shape those prayers in ways that we as humans can’t begin to imagine.

~unknown

it's that time of year....

I’ve spent a lot of time lately gazing out at my backyard secret garden and day dreaming about all the things I long to do and things I want to do and things I need to do and things I love to do.  There are bulbs that need planting, some shrubs that need trimming, flower seeds to collect, a new flower bed to prepare, shrubs and flowers that need transplanting, the garden pond needs some attention, two birdhouses need to be set up, two brackets mounted on the arbor for the new bird feeders.  Right now, all I can manage is keeping water in the birdbath, filling the bird feeders, and hanging suet baskets.  To me, this is more than just a hobby, it’s rather like a sense of duty I gladly accept.

I love being outside, getting dirty, breathing in fresh air, enjoying a breeze, listening to the music, and appreciating all of nature, from the little orange beetle to the red-tailed hawk to the hungry raccoon to the sneaky opossum and the writing spiders and yes, even the very long shiny black rat snake.  I have been awed by the fall colors, look forward to winter snow, but, most of all, I will savor every single bit of God’s creation and soak in His wonderful gifts of nature.

 The last few days have been gray and gloomy.  The darkness will soon chase away the late afternoon light.  I’ll adjust, it is a part of nature that must be. 

Soon my theater will burst open ushering in sunny days, rainy days, birds that are blue and yellow and tiny and large, scampering squirrels sneaking birdseed, and wonders great and small.  I will be serenaded with chirping and chattering and peeping and singing and screeching and...

And, all will be well.

quick quotes

Charles R. Swindoll 

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.

✝

the path to take

This verse is high on my 'favorite verses' list. This post focuses on the second line.

 

Seek His will in all you do,
and He will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6 NLT

and He will show you which path to take.  

God has a plan for my life.  He has a path he wants me to take.  There’s a road He wants me to travel.  In following His will, He will always be right there, right there beside me, right there with me, right there to guide me, right there to hold me, right there to comfort me, He will always be right there.  I may look back to a time He has led me in a direction I didn’t want to take, and then I see it was His will all along. 

There are times I just don’t get it.  There are times I do what I want to do.  There are times I do not understand.  There are times I just don’t want to do anything.  There are times I am confused.  Will I ever learn? Will I always obey?  Will I always seek His direction?  The answers are no, no, and no!  I’m a sinner saved by the grace of God.

God made a promise to each and every one of us.  We must first believe, love, trust, have faith, and willingly give our lives over to Him.  He will show you which path to take.  Trust Him to lead you.  God will always be right there.  Always.

pause 'n ponder

I am trying  to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

(I love CS Lewis’ quotes.  This one, I must admit, challenged me in understanding its message..)

quick quotes

It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

 Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.
~ Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones

If God gives you a watch, are you honoring Him more by asking Him what time it is or by simply consulting the watch?

~ A.W. Tozer

whimsy, whimsy, whimsical, whimsical

A few years ago, my hubby, on a whim, embarked upon a new direction in his life.  It quickly became a ‘whimsical collection hobby’.  When he first began, he ran.  Didn’t walk.  Just dived right in.

It all began with Lorena Garcia and there lies the blame.  Her ‘Element’ collection was being discontinued, her dinnerware is sold in Belk stores, he saw it, and he was immediately taken away on a quest to purchase every set and odd piece he could get his hands on. Yep, dishes.  He searched in every Belk store - in at least six NC counties.  We have more dinner plates than anyone.  (Maybe that’s a little exaggeration, but we do have bunches and bunches.)

Funny thing, we don’t entertain.  It’s just me and hubby.  We definitely have an array of choices.  The plates with the colorful rings are designated as ‘special’ plates.  The bright, colorful, primary colors are rather cheery...and whimiscal...

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.♪♫•*¨*•♫♪

Happy 3rd Birthday J!  I love you bunches and bunches!  Nana

X

I  literally felt sick when I saw this video. Horrified. Shed tears. Dear God, what have we done?  What have we become?

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=9BMM1CNU

Down Syndrome and Abortion (Susan W. Enouen, PE - Life Issues Connector, April 2007)
This video is a montage of photos of children with Down syndrome, to the beautiful song, 'Sometimes Miracles Hide' by Bruce Carroll.
Tragically, 90% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero are aborted. What those moms don't know is that sometimes miracles hide. If current trends continue, it may eventually become "unacceptable" for parents to continue a pregnancy knowing that their baby has Down syndrome. Recent US studies have indicated that when Down syndrome is diagnosed prenatally, 84-91 percent of those babies will be killed by abortion.

.`*.¸.*´✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸

Nature is God’s first missionary.

Where there is no Bible, there are sparkling stars.

Where there are no preachers, there are spring times.

 

 

Where there is no testament
 of scripture,


there is the testament of 
changing seasons and 
breath-stealing sunsets.

 

If a person has nothing but nature,

then nature is enough 
to reveal something about God.

~ Max Lucado

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Romans 1:20 NLT

seek and seek again

Seek His will in all you do,
and He will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6 NLT

I’ve always liked this verse.  I often think of it when I see an old path or an old dirt road.  (Maybe it’s one reason I take so many pictures of old paths and old dirt roads and old barns and old homes and old fences and old cabins and old wooden bridges and old water mills and old clapboard churches...oops, I took a detour... back to my post.)

Seek His will in all you do,

God wants us to believe in Him, follow and obey Him, and accept His gifts of salvation, mercy, and grace.  God wants us to love, to trust, to serve, to worship, to pray, and to praise Him. God gave each of us hearts to love and to care, ears to hear and to listen, mouths to speak and to tell, feet to walk and to go, eyes to look and to see, brains to think and to learn, hands to hold and to carry, and hearts that He knows.

God has ways He wants me to act, words He wants me to say, commitments He wants me to make, places He wants me to see, love He wants me to share, help He wants me to give, food He wants me to serve, money He wants me to contribute, places He wants me to go, visits He wants me to pay, times when He wants me listen, kindness He wants me to show.

One thing I know for sure: God always wants us to always seek His will.

 

There are occasions and situations that I don’t even give a thought as to what God’s will is.  Don’t even consider it.  Furtherst thing from my mind.  I’ll do what I shouldn’t or get too angry or say something stupid or act like jerk or... other stuff.  I have regrets and embarrassments and feel awful.  Sometimes, I’ll find myself all in a mess.  A big mess.  More often than I care to admit. I know better. Why?  Why didn’t I stop for a moment?  Why didn’t I question my actions beforehand?  I have what I call a ‘Christian’s Conscious’.  God gave it to me.  I just need to stop for a moment and listen.

I’m a sinner saved by grace.  I’m loved and forgiven.  Each day I can study His word.  It’s sitting right here.  Do I use it everyday?  How much time?  Do I pray?  Not just in the car or working outdoors, but deep in prayer for forgiveness and for needs and for praises and for direction...?  One more thing...

Seek His will in all you do

♫

Many, many times over the years, I have found myself humming or singing and not even being aware of it, let alone knowing how long nor how many songs I’d gone thru.  Sometimes it’s Christmas songs, children’s songs, contemporary Christian songs, but the vast majority are the good old hymns inside the unused pew hymnals at church.  I really miss that.  I do like the big screens with the lyrics, but what about the words on the pages inside that hymn book?
  
Let me think... my favorite songs are:

Victory in Jesus

The Old Rugged Cross

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder

In the Garden

Wonderful Words of Life

Amazing Grace

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

When the Saints Go Marching In

Standing On the Promises

Good grief!  I’m thinking too hard and too long on this list.  You get the idea.  Those are the best songs ever.

Okay, where did this post begin?  Oh!  My point was going to be when I’m doing that humming/singing thing: I’m happy or I’m content or I’m feeling good.  I’m not sad or upset or angry or troubled.  With these songs in my head/heart, there ain’t no room for the bad stuff.

I looked up bunches of verses in Psalms about singing, rejoicing, shouting, and joyful praising.  It’s a good thing...

 

Psalm 5:11

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them sing joyful praises forever.
Spread your protection over them,
    that all who love your name may be filled with joy.

Psalm 95:1

Come, let us sing to the Lord!
   Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalm 98:4

Shout to the LORD, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy!

*New Living Translation (NLT)*

come by here

Yesterday, for some reason, I had a song in my head.  I realized where it came from: Saturday summer nights at RAM’s (Resort Area Ministries).  A bunch of youth from various churches around town, would all converge at a popular campground.  We’d head out in all directions to stop at each and every camp sight and invite them to our campfire service.  It was in a large clearing area behind the showers.  We sang songs to the tune of guitar music, did some funny/stupid/hilarious/silly skits, a short devotion-like was spoken, etc.  

Anyway, the song was ‘Kumbayah’, Gullah for ‘Come By Here’.  It originated with the Gullah, an African-American people group living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. They lived there alone for hundreds of years.  The Gullah speak a dialect that most native speakers of English find unintelligible on first hearing but that turns out to be mostly heavily accented English. (And...it became a standard campfire song...)

From singing ‘Kumbaya’ years ago, it now invokes a warmness and contemplation in my heart.  How often do I ask God to ‘come by here’?   I want Him to ‘come by here’ when I’m singing praises and laughing with joy and crying with pain and earnestly praying and while I’m asleep and every time in between.                          

‘Kumbaya’

Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya  x3
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya  x 3
Oh Lord, kumbayah
Someone's laughing, Lord, kumbaya  x3
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, Lord, kumbaya  x3
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's praying, Lord, kumbaya  x3
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's sleeping, Lord, kumbaya  x3
Oh Lord, kumbaya

quick quotes

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
CS Lewis

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'
CS Lewis

Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. 

I know that by experience.

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

birds bugs bees bunnies beetles

Today was awesome.  No humidity and temps in low 70’s.  I moseyed around the backyard this afternoon, stopping here and there to see and watch and look and peep and view and observe and glimpse at all I could see around me. 

A couple of bees briefly buzzed around me, then went along their merry way.  I settled back into a comfy chair in the shade.  A large buttercup yellow butterfly put on an amazing dance just for me, then slowly disappeared from my view.  I know her dance was just for me because there was no one else around except me.  It really was an awesome thing to see.  I’m thinking she did her best ever dance just for me, because I talk.

Yep, I talk.  I talk to them.  In my backyard haven, my secret garden, I talk.   To butterflies and bunches of birds* and grasshoppers and bumble bees and ladybugs and earthworms and lightning bugs and tree frogs and other frogs and praying mantises and snails and caterpillars and beetles and bunnies and crickets and squirrels and goldfish and spiders and stinkbugs and ants and aphids and June bugs and feral cats and moths and dragonflies and turtles and, and, and...

Oh, I forgot: once to an opossum and a black snake and a raccoon and a couple of puppies and a cute little lime green snake.

Hey, a girl’s gotta draw a line somewhere, and I have drawn mine:

I do not talk to wasps nor slugs nor bats nor gnats nor hornets nor some other stuffs.  And (drum roll...), I don’t talk to mosquitoes.  I just smack ‘em.

*for Mother’s day, my sweet grandkids gave me ‘The Birds of the Carolinas’ book so I can look up (by colors) birds and learn about them

am i meek ? ~ release

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Matt. 5:5 (NIV)

O LORD, thou wilt hear the desire of the meek; thou wilt strengthen their heart, thou wilt incline thy ear
Ps 10:17 (RSV)

What does meek mean? It’s defined as showing patience and humility; gentle; easily imposed on; submissive; enduring injury with patience and without resentment; deficient in spirit and courage; and not violent or strong.

To be meek, I must:
not easily get angry
put up with insults and injuries
be considerate to everyone
think more of others than of myself
not be envious
take orders and criticism
accept God’s will
attribute all I have and all I am to God’s grace

Wow! That’s a tall order to fill! I can only work towards this goal with Jesus in my life. I admit, I’ve not really thought about this - God’s desire is for me to be meek. To be meek - at home, at the grocery store, around friends, at WalMart, with family and friends, driving in traffic, around enemies, at church, on a walk in the neighborhood, eating at Chili's - everywhere I am and with everyone I am with.

Wisdom, fear, and meekness, say they, are of high esteem; but, "meekness", is greater than them all.
Author: Unknown

God, teach us to be meek but not weak and to be bold but not arrogant. Amen.

(Photo: Taken by Andrew, on the hill behind Mt Vernon Baptist, Boone, NC)

♪♫

I love this song: Ginny Owen - 'Say Amen'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6gotSNp3Yk

♡

I am blessed.  I know I am.  But I can’t begin to know just how blessed I am.  Does than make sense?  God has given me a life overflowing with blessings. 

Speaking of  blessings, let me tell you about my grandkids.

I love how my heart feels when I hold them close.

I love their smiles and laughter and giggles.

I love their hugs and kisses and snuggles.

I love them.

I'll tell you about another blessing.

I truly, sincerely thank God for Skype. 

You may wonder why I’m so thankful for that blessing.  Well, I’ll tell you.

Today I watched my grandkids playing and laughed so hard I almost snorted!

Skype!

♡

Today is one of those days when I clearly need to remember this...