My Verse for 2009

For the past several years I have asked the Lord to give me a verse for that year. It is a verse that I meditate on, pray to Him and claim as a promise to me.

Last year, Isaiah 43:19 was the verse that He gave me.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

I have always loved that whole chapter of Isaiah. It always spoke deep truth & insight to me. So, with my new verse I was anxious to see what the Lord had to show me & accomplish in my life. I had my idea's of what he could (& hopefully) do, but I of course didn't know.

It wasn't until I was reading the Bible in my quiet time a few mornings ago that I realized what the "new thing" was that God began in my life. He opened the door and gave me the opportunity to be the leader of a very exciting mom's ministry in my church. It is something that I have been involved in in a variety of ways for a few years, but didn't think I would be leading it. This has been very exciting to me as I get to do what I love most-minister to & encourage moms.

So, I began praying and asking the Lord to show me a new verse for the new year. I had actually forgot about it until I was at a meeting the other night & the one leading the meeting was sharing some verses and one of those really stood out to me & I felt the Spirit say, "That is it, there is your verse." I got really excited though no one else in the meeting knew what was going on.

Ephesians 3:20&21 is my verse for 2009.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

For about 3 years now, my husband & I have been on a roller coaster ride that we would really like to get off of. We have battled with our selves & are learning to trust & rest. It is a daily dying to self. It is a daily decision to to say, "God I know you are enough."

This verse is more confirmation to me & can arm me with the strength that he has for me. This verse is a daily reminder that of all that I try to ask for & think of for him to do for us, He has even greater things in store. More than I can imagine. WOW!

"He is able to do exceeding abudnatly more beyond all that we ask or think..."

That gives me chill bumps. Do you know why? Because we have been asking for a lot! Not material things, but we have been asking for wisdom, strength & understanding, and we often feel clueless. Have you ever felt like that?

I encourage you to ask for your verse. He knows what you need & He wants to pour His words into your soul.

What is your verse & how has it blessed you and strengthened you?

Isaiah 43:19.

"For I am about to do a brand new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers in the desert!" (NLT)

I have the 43^rd chapter of Isaiah marked in my Bible with the date of 01-30-01 beside it. I'll never forget the night that the Lord took me to this chapter. I was a very fearful and anxious person. My husband was gone on a short business trip and I was so gripped with fear that he would not return that I couldn't sleep. I remember sitting up in bed, grabbing my Bible and telling God that I didn't want to be afraid anymore. Then I heard him tell me to go to Isaiah 43. I don't ever remember hearing the Holy Spirit talk so directly to me like that before, but I knew it was him as soon as I began reading the first verse, "Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name, you are mine." "WOW!" I remember thinking. I fell quickly to sleep that night knowing that my husband would be o'k and I had no reason to fear anything.

Many times since then the Lord has used chapter 43 to comfort my anxious heart. Verse 19 was one of those verses that he used to remind me that he was working on me and starting am new thing in me. He has taken my family through very difficult times and this verse has been a great reminder that he is at work. In the midst of a spiritual desert, he is creating streams of water to nourish and refresh his people.

But he asks in the verse, "Do you not see it?" I know that sometimes I am so consumed by the trials that I cannot see the new work that he is starting. I do not recognize the rivers in the desert because I am too focused on the wilderness.

We are beginning a new year. Is God beginning a new thing in you? He has already begun, but can you see it? No matter how difficult your circumstances may seem, God is at work! Do you believe that? Even when the rent is past due or the medical bills are piled high, God is at work...do you see it? Even when your husband walks out leaving you with the children & the mortgage, God is at work...do you see it? Even when you lose a child and you can't bear to even get out of bed, God is at work...do you see it?

Look for the rivers in your desert that are meant to nourish you. Look for the pathways through the wilderness. Do not ask him to take you out of the wilderness; you are there to draw closer to him. Rather, use the wilderness to grow you in your knowledge and understanding of God.

In verses 20 & 21, Isaiah writes,

"Yes, I will make springs in the desert, so that my chosen people can be refreshed. I have made Israel for myself, and they will someday honor me before the whole world."

I know that my God's love for me is so great that I cannot even begin to comprehend it. I know that he will not take me into a desert and not replenish or refresh me. He has promised me this. I also know that he wants me honor him in the midst of my wilderness. This is not easy, but he never asks us to do anything that he knows we cannot do.

What is God doing in your life right now? What are you learning about him that is new? Do you see the paths through the wilderness that he is making for you and are you being refreshed by the springs in the desert that he has provided for you? I do not ask any of this without knowing my own answers to these questions. My family is living in our own desert right now and learning to walk in his pathways and bring honor to him while in our desert has become a daily lesson for us; a lesson well worth learning. Our lives are a brand new thing and that is very exciting!

I pray that you are blessed by the rivers in your desert this brand new year!

(A river in the Mohave Desert)

O Come Let Us Adore Him

For weeks now I have rolled over in my head what really is all of this Christmas stuff about. I shared with some friends that around November, I began to dread December. I grew up in a family that knew that Christmas wasn't about Santa, it was about Christ. Now that I am a mom, I am so convicted that my children are to truly understand what this time of year is about.

The way America celebrates Christmas literally makes me ill. I am not one of those who thinks it is so wonderful that everyone whether they believe in God or not is singing songs about him at least once a year. They are not singing to him, they are simply singing a song they grew up hearing. What I see is that Christmas has become about the Christmas list. It is all about what you are buying for someone or what you are asking someone to buy you.

I listened to people at church this morning in simple conversation ask others if they are ready for Christmas. What they meant was if they were finished shopping? Did they have their house decorated & their goodies all baked? Not one mention of our Lord Jesus. My children were asked several times what they wanted for Christmas. Then one mother asked me if they believed in Santa, when I said no she was very surprised. At that point she had no other questions for my boys. It was like she didn't know what to ask them anymore if she couldn't ask them what they wanted Santa to bring them.

So, what are we doing? Why are we Christians celebrating Christmas? The way many of us celebrate looks just like the rest of the world. How much of what we do is really about Jesus. We bake a "birthday cake", set our our nativity and read Luke 1. But the rest of our time is spent busy with activities that are not done to honor our God.

This popular Christmas carol has been on my mind lately and one particular phrase has really stuck.

O Come, let us adore Him.

Adore. To Worship or honor as deity. To regard with loving admiration. Attitude of worship.

O Come, let us adore Him

This is worship. Something that only our God is worthy of.

You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

He is particular about how we worship also. Remember Cain & Abel? Who found favor with God? Abel did because he brought God the best he had, but Cain only brought some of his crop.

Jacob understood what God wanted. He wants our whole & complete hearts, not traditions or rituals. Genesis 35:2

We are to only serve & worship our God.

Even the evil spirits knew to bow down to him, but could not worship him.

Our worship is not about what we do for God. The Pharisees were really good at acting as though they worshipped God. They had great prayers and ceremonies that were meant as worship. But were they really? They had lot's of great festivals and celebrations that were meant to worship God, but did they accomplish that?

Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Amos 5:21-24 explains about a time when God had run out of patience with his people. They were wicked at heart, but still enjoyed all of the festivals that were set in place to cause them to stop & worship. All of the celebrations were not done to worship God, they were only traditions & rituals.

21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, ^[a]
I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

When I read this passage, I couldn't help but see the similarities between what we do now in December and what they were doing then. I wondered, how much of what we do in December all in the name of celebrating Jesus birthday does God despise? How much does it bother him that we spend more time shopping for that perfect gift than we do preparing our hearts for worship? The more I have pondered this & prayed about it, I am convinced that He is grieved greatly. I feel as though he thinks that we have missed it.

I know that December 25th is not really the date of Christ birth. I know that the date actually stemmed from pagan holidays. I know that the Bible never specifically said that we are to remember his birth. I don't think that celebrating during this time is what grieves him. I think it is how we celebrate. Are we like the Israelites whose hearts had turned from God, but kept the traditions? I think so.

This is a time for us to worship him for sending His son to us. We can't even comprehend what that meant for Jesus to become a man. But if you will spend just a few moments in quiet meditation & open your heart, I think the Lord would love to give you a glimpse of what it meant.

Spend the next few days adoring your Savior. Spend time everyday with your children discussing what He has done for your family this year. Remind them that it isn't about what we have done, but what he has done for us. Worship is a response to a gracious God & it needs to be placed in this context if it is to be understood properly.

I love Mary's song that she sang after the angel had just rocked her world and told her that she would carry the Son of God.

46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."

Not one of her words are about what she has done, but what her Jehovah Adonai had done for her & the faithful who had come before her. That is worship.

Our family is trying something new this year on Christmas Day in hopes to take the focus off of ourselves & put it on the Lord. We are exchanging gifts for each other on December 24th. On the 25th we will spend time together as a family in prayer and worship to our Lord Jesus together as a family. We will enjoy a big breakfast together as we remember how the Lord has provided for us over the past year. Late afternoon, we will pack up the van and head to my parents house for a few days to enjoy more time with family. I'm hoping that this will be something that we can continue to do for many years to follow.

Come & behold Him.

O come, let us adore Him

O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.

O come, let us adore Him

Christ the Lord.

Listen to; O Come All ye Faithful

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Funny Craigs List Ad

Scott & I like to check out Craigslist every now & then for some freebie bargains. Yesterday we were looking on there & he saw an ad titled, "The Loudest Vacuum on the face of the Earth". Scott clicked on it & this is what we found. It is kinda long, but way too funny not to pass on.

The loudest vacuum cleaner on the face of the Earth (PPU)

Giving away absolutely free of charge, with no lien, mortgage, or other encumbrance of any sort,
the undisputed world-record holder in the "loudest vacuum cleaner on the face of the Earth" category!
Act now to take advantage of this truly unique opportunity! "Wow" your friends with this incredible Hoover!

To accurately describe this fine piece of machinery, I will need to be rather wordy, so please bear with
me on this matter. Imagine you are on the runway at D/FW airport, right in front of one of the jet exhaust deflectors.
A Boeing 747-400 has just taxied on to the runway about 8 feet in front of you, and holds there, awaiting clearance for takeoff.
After a few short moments, clearance is given. The pilot keeps the brakes firmly applied as the co-pilot
gently places his hand on the throttles, then, in an instant, violently shoves all four of them forward
to maximum thrust; right up against the stops.

The ensuing cacophony resulting from the dissonance between the screaming whine of the turbines
spinning at ten bazillion RPM and the 65,000 MPH blast of air and choking exhaust blasting you into
the cold, sooty metal of the deflector is utterly deafening.
That is not how loud this vacuum is. It's louder.

Just as the pilot of the 747 releases the wheel brakes, and the silvery, tubular behemoth commences its
trip toward the other end of the runway and into the wild, blue yonder, air traffic control realizes they
have made a deadly mistake; they had previously cleared an Airbus A380, the largest plane in the
world, to land on the same runway, in the opposite direction! Frantically, they radio the two planes in a
vain attempt to prevent the impending disaster, but to no avail. The planes meet nose-to-nose in a gut
wrenching, mind-numbing collision. Add that noise to the already earsplitting din that was being
emitted by the first plane.
That is not how loud this vacuum is. It's louder.

While all of this is happening, the air traffic control supervisor has notified the airport's fire department
and they have rolled to the scene just as this tragedy takes place. Their sirens are blaring as they pull
up, only adding additional decibels to the already unbearable level of noise you are experiencing. Your
eardrums feel like red hot razor blades fired from a 12 gauge shotgun careening around inside your
cranium. You honestly wish a 2-ton piece of the shrapnel flying from the ruins could just catapult your
way and sever your head, putting you out of your misery once and for all. It never happens; you survive
this, the most miserable moment of your entire life, surrounded by carnage, the noise level absolutely
unbearable, with blood now flowing profusely from what used to be your ears.
That is not how loud this vacuum is. It's louder.

Take the entire scene and insert it into the humungous wind tunnel at the Chrysler factory. Run the
wind tunnel up to about 350 MPH. Take the noise you are now being subjected to, and triple it.
Now, THAT'S how loud this vacuum is.

I've had people tell me I'm wrong, that this thing is much worse than I've described, and I'm being
gentle just to be able to unload it on some poor, disadvantaged housewife in an act of masochism,
thinly veiled as generous, selfless philanthtopy.

I expect the competition for this beauty to be fierce, but if you want it, just email me and I'll set it out
on the curb for you. If you need help finding the place after I give you the address, just let me know. I'll
turn the lovely contraption on and you can follow the roar. Don't worry, it'll drown out the highway
sounds from the semis, and the traffic choppers overhead and you'll have no problem getting here,
even if you're just pulling out of your driveway in Guatemala.

Don't get me wrong, it does what it's supposed to do; it cleans the floor.
I'm just tired of cleaning the blood from the walls that sprays out of my ears when I use this little gem.

ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED!
ALLERGEN FILTRATION!
BRUSHED EDGE CLEANING!
WON'T LAST!
ACT NOW TO TAKE THIS CREAM PUFF HOME WITH YOU TODAY!