What's Weighing You Down Today?

Hebrews 12:1 says Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us or ensnares us.
Lay aside....in other words put it down and get as far away from it as you can!! We can't put down those things that weigh us down in our christian walk and yet try to keep them close to us. We have to realize how important our walk with Jesus is and how important it is to put away the weight and the sin that does so easily ensnares us. Jesus took his mission to die on the cross serious! We have to take our walk with him serious! Satan will try his best to zoom in on our weaknesses if he can.
What's weighing you down today?

Are You Following Jesus From a Distance?

As I sit here this morning, looking out the window at the glorious sunlight filtering through, my thoughts are on the message Pastor preached yesterday. Are you following Jesus from a far? I have been thinking about this since yesterday and God brought some things to my mind.
How closely are we willing to follow Jesus? Are we willing to do whatever He asked us to do? Are we willing to give up anything He wants us to give up? Do we seek Him daily in our lives, are we offended by what He is offended by? Or are we kind of careful in what we do for Him because we don't want anyone to make fun of us, we don't want anyone to feel like we think we're better than them, or maybe we still want to fit in with the crowd? God said if we are lukewarm He will spew us out of His mouth. We can't straddle the fence, so to speak, when we are living for God.
Peter loved Jesus, but not quite enough to follow Him closely. When Jesus was arrested and taken to Caiaphas (Matt. 26: 57), Peter followed Him from afar. Now Peter had just told Jesus, back in Matt. 26: 32-35, that He would never leave Him. Jesus told him that he would deny Him 3 times before that night was over and even then Peter said," Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!" But Jesus knew he would.... So Peter stayed close enough that he could see Jesus from afar.....but not be involved. And 3 times that night, people recognized him from being with Jesus...and Peter denied him..... Do we want to follow Jesus from a distance? Are we afraid of what others will think of us? Are we more interested in fitting in with the crowd than we are interested in following Jesus closely? And if so, how can we be a witness to others when we ourselves don't even want to walk as close as we can for God?
We need to search ourselves, our lives, our hearts. We can't have it both ways. We can't serve God half heartedly and still expect Him to be there whenever we need Him. He's not our buddy, our genie in a bottle for whenever we need Him. He's our Creator, our Savior, our Provider. We have to be willing to give Him our whole heart. We have to be willing to follow Him closely. I will never reach a point where I feel like I have enough of God, or I don't need to go to Him with everything in my life, or I don't need to talk about Him or tell others about Him too much, or I have arrived.
My sweet Mother used to love to talk about Jesus. She would witness to anyone who would listen to her tell her story, tell what God had done for her, and worship Him. Even up until the day God called her home, she loved the Lord and she followed Him closely.
I don't want to follow Him from a distance.....I want to walk as close as I can to Him. He has been so good to me and I will never be ashamed of Him. Am I better than others? Absolutly not! Never have had that attitude and don't want it. When we stand before God.....it won't matter what kind of clothes we've worn, it won't matter how many degrees we have, it won't matter where we've worked or what our profession was, it won't matter what kind of house we've lived in, and it won't matter how much education we have. It won't matter how much money we have. We will stand before him with just what we have....ourselves, us, nothing more.
Do you want to follow Him from a distance? Or do you want to follow Him closely? ............. I want to be as close as I can be to God....

As I sit here tonight thinking about everything that has happened in the past 4 weeks in our lives, I can honestly say this is one road we haven't traveled before. We can seek God's will all we want and tell God we are willing for his will to be done in our lives, AND actually convince ourselves that we mean it.. but until we are stripped down to where God can receive from us COMPLETE surrender then we haven't quite reached that point that we can say we truly are yielded to h...is will for our lives.
Tonight, I finally understood that. Tonight, I finally see the place I have to come to with God. It's hard to get to that point but complete total surrender is what it takes. It's true, no matter how much it seems like the fire we are going through is going to completely destroy us......we have to embrace the fire and know that when God's work is done in us, he will fashion and form us and mold us to be what he wants us to be....then we will eventually see how God was working his plan in our lives. Tonight I had to come to that point.
I don't know what God's plan is for mine and David's life but I do know his plans for us are good and far beyond what either one of us can see. And I know that David and I love the Lord with all our hearts and we want to be used of him. Those of you that know us, know that we love God with everything in us and our desire is to be used of him. But we have learned a lot these past few weeks that only the Lord knows about. Sometimes God has to show us things in ways that we do not understand, and it seems so hard to accept....but God will never leave us, however he will allow things in our lives to mold us and shape us for he is the Potter and we are the clay...... and no matter what things look like, he sees the bigger picture and he knows the direction he is taking us.
Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you. Plans not to harm you but to prosper you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
You have my total attention God.........

How To Be Happy!

You are not suppose to be anyone else....You are suppose to be who you are! We waste so much of our time comparing ourselves to other people.....oh I wish I looked like her/him....I wish I was as popular as her/him...... I wish my hair looked like hers...... I wish I was as small as her or I wish I wasn't so skinny.....
We are who we are....and that's who we are suppose to be and we need to love ourselves ....then we will be happy with who we are!  Love yourself....take care of yourself....be good to yourself....you are beautiful/handsome!!  Just be Happy  :)

Is It Fate....or ....Excuse?

Is It Fate.... or .....Excuse?
Have you ever been around someone that when they start talking about the way their life has turned out, you hear, "Well, I can't help it. When I was little, this happened or that happened, or my parents were not good parents, so that's why I'm like I am." I know a woman who used to say, "Well my ex husband was an alcoholic so now my son's going to be  an alcoholic."  I asked her at one time, "Why do you say that? You're son doesn't drink." But she would say, " Well I know he don't now but he will eventually because of his dad."  I never understood that. She had already determined what she just considered his fate in life.  I am a firm believer that we make our own choices as we get older...as we grow up.  God gives all of us that option. Once we learn the truth and know that we can make different choices, then if we had a bad upbringing, why would we want to continue that cycle?
On the other hand, we could turn that around. For example, I was raised in a wonderful christian home! My daddy was a minister and we pretty much lived our lives in church. However, when I got older, I decided I wanted to see what was out there. So I sang in nightclubs, drank, and acted stupid. Made a lot of stupid mistakes. But they were choices I made for myself. I got back in church eventually, then later on, after my divorce, I gave up on God again. I was angry, so I decided to do things my way. (I know God had to be laughing on that one. Your way? Yeah right..)  But my upbringing was wonderful. Two of the best parents anyone could ever have! I love my parents with all my heart! But I made a decision to go a different direction. Now they continued to pray for me, and God convicted my heart, and I rededicated my life to Him and have been serving Him every since. But it was choices I made. I know someone who didn't have the best upbringing in her childhood. She seen things and witnessed things that she should not have had to. So when she got grown, she could have continued down that road and said, "Well, that's just the way I was raised." But she didn't. In fact she said that when she got old enough to make her own decisions, she decided that she was going to do things different. She said, " I don't have to be like that just because they did." And now she is serving God and has a beautiful life!
So is it fate...or is it excuse? There are times when people have lived a life that has been horrible and the things they have been through are unheard of. And at first, they may think, "I guess this is the way it's always going to be." But then when they discover that it doesn't have to be like that....that they do have a choice....then it's up to them to change their thinking and to make better decisions. Now where the excuse comes in at....is when they realize they do have the option to be different...they do have the choice to change and make something out of their lives... and  yet they choose not to. And I want to say that  the best way they can  do that is to ask Jesus to come into their hearts and He will forgive them and help them to make those right choices. So if they  choose to lean on that crutch and say, " Well, I can't help it. I was just raised that way so it's just inevitable that my life has to be this way" ..... then to me, that is an excuse. It's easier to blame than to change.  Now some of you may disagree with me, and that's okay. But I'm saying, don't let anyone convince you that you are stuck into living a certain way, just because you had a rough childhood. Don't let anyone steal your dreams and convince you that the bad cycle can't be broken!  Remember....we all have choices to make.... What's your choice?

Attitude Is Everything

How many times could we make a difference in a person's life,just by sharing a smile with them.... We never know what a person may be going through, problems they're dealing with, maybe they have a situtation in their life that they don't know how they are going to handle, and they are burdened down by it. But if they happen to look at you....maybe glance your way....and you give them a sincere smile....you could possibly give them some hope, some encouragement, just a bit of happiness...even if it's just for that moment... it's still something they might need. And what does it cost you? ... nothing, and it should make you feel better! I LOVE  to see people smile! And I LOVE  to smile! Oh my goodness, to me it's just a good feeling  and I love  to make other people feel better! I think it's a beautiful thing! Why don't you give it a try today?

Wisdom....

Wisdom...
How much wisdom do you have? How much wisdom do you display in your every day life? The decisions you make...great or small... how you handle things? I believe it is so important to have good wisdom. So important that God wants us to ask Him for it, desire it, seek it out! God told Solomon to ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. (2 Chronicles 1: 7-12) What did Solomon ask for? Wisdom! This pleased God so much that He not only gave him awesome wisdom, but He also gave him great wealth, possessions, and honor! Sometimes, we get that backwards. We want wealth first because we like having money. We like to be able to buy what we want. We want possessions because we like to impress others. We want to look like we have it all. (Have you ever tried to buy a present for someone who seems to have everything? It's not fun.) We want honor because we like to recognized, acknowledged, know that we're important. But we need wisdom more than any of these! Because if we have wisdom, we will be wise in how we handle our money, how we use our money. (And there have been times David and I needed more wisdom on this..believe me.) If we have wisdom, we won't feel like we need all those possessions. We won't feel like we need to impress people. If we have wisdom, we won't feel like we need to be recognized for what we did, or for helping someone, or for being obedient to God. If God wants us to be recognized, then He will make that happen. But there are times He just wants us to be humbled and be obedient and do  whatever He lays on our heart to do. If we have wisdom, we will be satisfied with that.
I don't know about you, but I pray for more wisdom because I desire only what God wants me to have. Is that your desire today? Truly deep down in your heart, is it your desire to have wisdom above everything else? If God offered you anything you wanted....what would you ask for?

Good morning! It has been several months since I was able to post but I am back full force! So much has changed and hopefully I will be able to share some with you about that eventually. But for now, Mr. Fall has brought us some beautiful weather and such a crispness in the air.... and I am loving it! I hope 2014 has been kind to you. We are only 3 months away from Christmas!! Can you believe it? Time has flown by....for me at least. I will be writing more now and I am excited to be back doing my writing! Have a super Monday!!!
                                             Renee'

"I Don't Understand" ..........

Tonight, after CIMS class, David and I went with 2 other couples to get a bite to eat. Our waitress came over, and she wasn't her usual happy self. We asked her what was wrong and she began to share with us what she was going through at home, which was very sad. One of the ladies in our group asked her if she was a Christian? The waitress asked what that meant? My friend said, "Have you ever asked... Jesus into your life?" She said, I don't know what that means." I sat there amazed because I was raised up in a minister's home and was taught about the Lord all my life. We began to share with her about how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and how much He loves us and wants to live in our hearts. My friend told her about the plan of salvation. When she asked her if she would like for Jesus to come into her heart and life, she said yes. Then we told her we would pray for her and she looked at us and said, " I don't know how to do that. I've never prayed before." We prayed the sinner's prayer with her and she received Jesus into her heart!
I sat there, just going over in my mind what it must be like to have never known the plan of salvation, never known how to pray, never been to church in my life.....I can't imagine..... My heart went out to her. She is a beautiful young girl, with a lot of turmoil in her life, and she didn't know how Jesus could help her. There are so many people out there that have no ideal what Jesus is all about! Sometimes as Christians, we take for granted that people know, they just don't want it. But this isn't true as I seen tonight. We need to seek God and ask Him to lead us to people that need to hear about Him so we can be a witness to them. I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to tell someone about the Lord. Even as I type this, I can still see her face as she said, " I don't know how to do that....I've never prayed" ......God help us to be a light to the world..... "The harvest is plenty but the labors are few"

"Are We Really Seeking God?"

  This morning, as David and I were on our way to Sunday School, we were going over our lesson and just talking about God and how He wants to bless His people, but yet He wants us to desire Him and His presence first. As we talked, God spoke to my heart and reminded me of this scripture. Jeremiah 29:13 says, " When you seek Me, you will find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." I spoke that scripture out to David, and God spoke to me strongly again and said, "You say you seek Me....but do you really seek me with ALL your heart? Because when you seek for Me, when you really search Me out, then that's when you will find Me. I testified to this in Sunday School this morning because it was so profound to me!
Think about it, and this might be a simple example, but David and I got on a kick a while back where we tried the maple flavored sausage, and we loved it so much that we went back to the store, and couldn't find it again, so we began to look in every grocery store trying to find it. One night we went to 5 different grocery stores...hunting this sausage. Why? Because we desired it! We wanted it so badly that we were willing to do whatever we had to do to find it. We were seeking it out. And we found it.
Well, God wants us to be that way with Him! He wants us to want Him so much, desire to be in His presence so badly, that we will seek Him out until we find Him! You may say, "Well, why would we have to find God? Isn't He always there?" Well of course He's always there, but I believe that we sometimes half heartedly desire to be in His presence. We half heartedly seek His will for our lives. But He's saying that when we Seek Him, with everything in us, desiring to be in His presence so badly that we won't stop praying and seeking Him until we find that place with God that we know He wants us to be in, and we are in tune with Him, and we're in His presence........ that's when we will truly find Him. My heart's desire is to seek God with ALL my heart, above any and everything in my life.......that is when He is pleased with me.......that is when I find Him in such an awesome way!
I don't know about you....but that excites me!!

"Some People Want a ..... Feel Good God.... "

Sitting here reading in Revelation today and talking with the Lord. In Revelation 11:10 "The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth."
In this particular reading, this is during the first part of the tribulation and God has sent these two prophets to the earth to prophesy ...for 1260 days. God had given them power to breath fire out of their mouths to anyone who tried to harm them. When they had finished their testimony, Satan had them overpowered and killed (only because God allowed it for a purpose), and their bodies laid in the streets, no one allowed to bury them, for three and a half days, and the people were gloating over them being killed, they loved it, and they left them there so everyone could see, not knowing God was going to bring them back to life and take them up to Heaven.
But why did they gloat over them and why were they happy they were dead? Because the prophets were prophesying the truth and they didn't want to hear the truth. Sound familiar? Isn't that like a lot of people today? They don't want to hear the truth. They don't want to be condemned, they don't want to know this way of truth. They want a "feel good God". They want to be able to do what they want, when they want, and how they want, and then want to use God as their " go to " buddy when things aren't going right or they need something. So many times I've heard, "Well I'm not a bad person." or "Well, God is a loving God so He understands me and He won't send anyone to hell." Guess what? He doesn't send anyone to hell. He gives us a choice to choose if we are going to serve Him .... or ..... serve Satan, so if we don't choose Him, we send our own selves to hell. I've heard people say, "Well I don't have to serve either one." Guess what? You do. Because you are either going to live for God .... or the devil. Whichever one, you are making a choice.
God is a God of love, but He doesn't tolerate sin no matter who you are or how good of a person you are. We cannot earn our way into Heaven! We can talk about God all we want to, we can post God sayings on here, we can talk about how good He is to us, BUT if we do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if we have not come to Him in prayer, asked Him to forgive us of our sins and come into our hearts, and then do our best to serve Him and stay away from sin and the temptations that the enemy puts before us every day, then He will not give us a pass into Heaven just because He is a God of love. We have to have a personal relationship with Him and read His word, and walk in accordance to His will for our lives. It's just that simple.
I want to be ready...don't you? I can't imagine wanting to live my life without Him anymore. PLEASE .... don't wait too long.... just please don't put it off... Don't make anymore excuses.... just choose to serve Him no matter what you have to give up or what you have to change in your life..... To know that your heart is right with Him, is worth everything! ~ReneeSee More

"Invisible Scars"

Husband and wife are sitting on the couch. Suddenly, the husband decides he wants them to go to the store or out to eat. The wife says, " Can I change clothes, or put on a little makeup first?" The husband says, "No! Besides, no one is going to look at you anyway." .... Slash to the heart.......

Wife is trying to eat healthy so she tries to change her way of eating. When it's time to go to the grocery store, the husband starts picking out what he wants to eat, and the wife is willing to fix it for him. But when she tries to get some things that she needs for her healthy eating, the husband says, "I'm not buying that! Besides, no one cares if you're fat. I know I don't." ...Slash to the heart........

Husband and wife are arguing, which seems to be an every day thing.... The wife says she's tired of him treating her that way, so she's going to leave. The husband says, "Do you realize I can have you killed and no one would ever be able to trace it back to me?" ...Slash -now fear has been applied....

Wife decides she can't take it anymore, so she's getting out, even if it means her life. The husband says, " You try and leave me and I will go after your family! I have ways that I can destroy them!" ...Slash- now fear for her family.......the abuse continues.....

Wife finds out the husband tells someone that he thought about putting rat poision in her food. .....Slash- fear again for her life......

The name calling, the cut downs, being yelled at, degraded, threats, being laughed at, being made fun of, lies, and the list goes on...... invisible scars.

Physical abuse is a horrible thing and the scars that it can visibly leave are terrible and sometimes fatal. The pain that a person experiences during being hit on is also horrible.

But there's another kind of abuse that people don't think about much.....and that is mental/verbal abuse. This kind of pain leaves invisible scars. Scars that you can carry around for a very long time, some carry it around for a lifetime. No one deserves to be treated like they aren't worth anything. Mental and verbal abuse can be and usually is just as devastating as physical abuse! The only difference is .... you can't see the scars on the outside, so no one knows. Everything may look great on the outside, but behind closed doors - it can be a mess. Sometimes, if you look close enough, you can see the pain in someone's eyes.

We live in a hurting world. A world that needs Jesus. I am thankful and blessed to have a wonderful, God fearing husband like David, who loves me with his whole heart and would never harm me in any way! I know I can trust him! But not everyone has someone like that.

If you are out there, and you are being abused physically or mentally/verbally; please love yourself enough to get help. Get away from it! God loves you so much and His plans for you is not to be abused by someone that supposedly loves you. Years ago, I asked someone who was in my life at the time, this question: "Who are you? You are not the same person you were when I met you." His reply was, " I had to act that way to get you, but I don't have to act that way anymore to keep you!" ...... WRONG.........

Whoever you are, if you're hurting, if you have physical scars or the invisible scars, ask God to help you. If you haven't given your life to Him, ask Him to come into your heart, then ask Him to help you get out of the situation you are in and He will help you. He truly loves you! If you can't get out of the situation you are in by yourself, then ask God to send someone your way that can help you get out of your abusive situation. But please love yourself enough to get away from it!

......Physical or Mental/Verbal abuse ...... Either one or both can leave scars that last a lifetime...

God bless ...... Renee'

Facing The Enemy.....

Saturday night, David had already gone to sleep, and I was sitting in the bed reading my Bible. After I read, I laid my head back and dozed off. When I did, I seen a vision and there was this huge snake raised up, and it was looking at me...eye to eye. Suddenly, I woke up and I began to rebuke Satan and told him to leave. Shortly after, David got sick and I assumed this was the battle of the snake.... Well, it wasn't........
......Today, I have come face to face with this snake...the enemy. God showed me today that this is a huge battle I am facing with the enemy.... I called my Dad, and shared what was going on. He called me back and said as he was praying, God put it before him... "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord"....
God spoke to me in another way this morning also, and at the time, I had no idea what I was about to face. On my phone, I have it set up where every day, I receive a scripture from K-Love Christian station. This morning, my scripture was from Exodus 14:14 (NLT) "The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm."
God is Almighty....all powerful.....all knowing....He never changes...Nothing is too big, Nothing is too small for Him.....He knows how to work it out, when to work it out, and what it takes to work it out.....I TRUST YOU LORD! I BELONG TO YOU LORD!
.......Don't know what you're facing out there today, but God does......Don't face it alone....You know who you are...God told me to tell you......You don't have to face it alone.......
................I covet your prayers....... ~ReneeSee More

Can You Imagine???

Just wanted to share something with you that touched my heart today.
I was reading VOM (Voice of the Martyr's) today and as I read, my heart was saddened and alarmed at the same time. Here in America, even though we have things going on here that we don't like or agree with, and we look around us, seeing the things that are happening, and it makes us feel like the return of Christ is so close..........still, we are blessed in so many ways! I was reading today about a 13 year old girl that was beaten and tortured because she became a Christian. Her own father beat her repeatedly, then finally locked her up in a room in their mud shanty & kept her there for 6 months, without feeding her. The only food she got was when her brother would sneak her roasted bananas under the door after her dad ...left. She has since been rescued but not without physical damage to her body.
Another pastor there was on his way to church one night and heard a man call out to him, "Pastor". When he turned around to see who it was, a man poured acid on his face, and others joined in pouring it all over his body. He was burned so severely that he has already had 6 surgeries trying to rebuild his face, and still having more. In the meantime, these horrible men that did this to him, continue to send him threatening letters telling him they will finish what they started.
As I read on, I told David, we have no idea what our brothers and sisters in the mission fields face every minute of their lives! We read about it, hear about it, but it seems like it is worlds away...and for a moment, we will think about how terrible it is...but ...it's not us going through it....so we turn our thoughts back to other things. You and I both have been guilty of it....because we don't like to think about things like that. But if we belong to Jesus..... AND .... they belong to Jesus, then that is our brothers & sisters in Christ, & they are a part of our family! So we need to be seeking God for them and their safety. We are fortunate here in the US, even with all the bad things that are happening....still.... we have the freedom to read our Bibles, go to church without having to be afraid we will have to be tortured or killed for it. We don't have to face beatings, torture, giving our lives......we are blessed. And yet if you talk to one of them, they will tell you they are blessed too! Because they don't complain about anything they have to go through....for the sake of Jesus!
We need to uphold them in prayer all the time. We need to realize our blessings....and be thankful every day! Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful .....but the workers ..... are few..... ~ReneeSee More

So What Now God?

 Have you ever reached a point in your life where you ask God....."So what now"? I know I have. You face things in your life, and you pray about them, asking God to answer your prayers, then all of a sudden....what you thought was going to happen.....didn't. And you're like... "Now wait a minute! I prayed for God to work this out....and now....it's going in a different direction! What's going on? " Then when that happens, sometimes we get frustrated, or angry, or we begin to worry. We feel like we've lost control of things and we panic.....get scared.....maybe start trying figure out what went wrong... did we do something we shouldn't? Did we not handle it right? Did we read something wrong? Questions....questions.....questions.....
But maybe God is working things out for us..... just not the way we thought they should be worked out...
Maybe He's taking us in a DIFFERENT direction! A direction we didn't see coming. I found out a long time ago that God has a permissible will ..... and a perfect will. I also found out that when we pray and we tell God that we want to be in His perfect will....We better mean it! And.....we better be ready for it! Because God may have a completely different walk or direction for us than what we had planned. We can make all the plans we want to....but if and when we say to God, "Lord, I want to be in Your perfect will.....Your perfect plan for my life"..... then God hears our prayers, sees our hearts, and begans to take us down that path that HE wants us to go. When He does, we may begin to think, "Oh my goodness God.....what is going on? Why are these things happening in my life?" And we don't understand. But God sees the big picture and He knows what His will is for our lives. He has known all along.....but He waits for us to reach a point in our lives where we surrender, and become willing and have a desire, to be in His ...... perfect ....... will. Sometimes, what He has planned for us, may be something we didn't see coming.....or He may take us down a path that we would have never imagined. Sometimes we have to give up things that we hold dear to us, things that we may not understand what the purpose is of giving it up...... but God didn't say we would always understand.....He said to Trust Him. He said He would never leave us or forsake us. He said He would supply our .... needs...
God does have a plan for our lives. It's up to us to decide if we are willing to put it all in His hands...be obedient....be willing to go wherever He leads us.... and even though we may not understand, and even though we may feel like Peter when he told Jesus out on the sea that night, "Lord, if it's really You, bid me to come to You." So Jesus bid him to come to Him on the water, and Peter stepped out of the boat and began to walk on the water....but then suddenly, he began to look all around him and he seen the waves tossing to and fro, and suddenly everything seemed scary to him, and he took his eyes off Jesus...... and he began to sink and cry out to Jesus, "Lord, save me!!" Jesus so calmly reached out to him and pulled him back up..and He said, "Why did you doubt?" When I find myself beginning to worry about what's going on in our lives, I can hear Jesus softly whisper, "Trust Me.....You have to trust Me... You said you wanted to be in My perfect will. Now you have to trust what I'm doing and the direction I'm taking You in."
"So ..... what now God?" .............. He's telling me, "Trust Me.... keep your eyes focused on Me and not your circumstances, stay in My Word and Trust Me. " If you are going through something in your life that you don't understand and you're saying, "What now God?", as hard as it may seem to be to you, ...... Trust Him, because when we truly put our trust in HIm, He will calm our fears, He will never leave our side, and He will never lead us down the wrong path. "I trust You God"....

"Why Do Some Things Happen?"

Sitting here in the early hours of the morning, recapping yesterday's events, and wondering .... why some things happen...
Yesterday, after my neice and her family came home from church, they pulled up in their yard only to find their house on fire. By the time the fire department arrived...the entire house was gone. Everything they had...just gone.....
If you have never had to go through that, let me tell you, it is devastating! When I was 17 years old, I lived with my parents and we lived in the church parsonage. One day, our house caught on fire, and we lost everything we had.... nothing was left.... So for the past several hours, all I have been able to think about was my neice, Brooke, Stan and the children and my heart has just been broken for them.......If you've never been through it, I can tell you it's almost like losing a family member. The loss is unexplainable.
David and I have prayed for them and asked God to wrap His arms around them and let them see His great love for them in the people around them. I didn't ask God why this happened to them, but it's hard to understand sometimes why things are allowed to happen. But, God always sees the bigger picture and we don't. As I sat there yesterday evening thinking about them, it seemed like I couldn't do anything but cry and pray for them. But God reminded me that He protected them and didn't let any of them get hurt in the fire. And I praise Him for that!
I don't know what God has in store for them....but I do believe it will be better than they could ever imagine! I believe when He allows us to lose something, He will replace it with something even better! Sleep doesn't seem to come tonight.....but I'll keep praying for them....I ask that you do too... Sleep well my friends and family.... be thankful for everything you have, for all those in your life that give you love and also need your love ...be thankful for them.... God bless....

Come On....Just SMILE!!!

How many times could we make a difference in a person's life,just by sharing a smile with them.... We never know what a person may be going through, problems they're dealing with, maybe they have a situtation in their life that they don't know how they are going to handle, and they are burdened down by it. But if they happen to look at you....maybe glance your way....and you give them a sincere smile....you could possibly give them some hope, some encouragement, just a bit of happiness...even if it's just for that moment... it's still something they might need. And what does it cost you? ... nothing, and it should make you feel better! I LOVE  to see people smile! And I LOVE  to smile! Oh my goodness, to me it's just a good feeling  and I love  to make other people feel better! I think it's a beautiful thing! Why don't you give it a try today?

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Season and then a wonderful New Year's Eve night to lead you into a fantastic New Year!  My husband and I had an unusual Christmas season with him having to be taken to the ER in an ambulance. But thank goodness it was nothing life threatening. They found out he has a kidney stone and a hernia which he will be having surgery later on this month to repair the hernia. But then on top of all that, we both came down with this nasty sickness going around and still have a touch of it, although it is nothing like it was.  So that's how our holidays were spent. lol   But I'm so thankful that God blessed me with such a wonderful husband so at least we got to be together!
Expecting new and great things this year!  Just finished reading a book that my beautiful cousin, Rita Young Allen, has written and it will be available soon, titled  "The Sheaf Dreamer".  This is an awesome book and a must read!  I will let you guys know when it will be available for purchase! It is a book that you will begin to read...but then....you will try to find a place to stop reading....and you find you don't want to put it down!  I was up until 4:00 finishing it up because I just couldn't put it down!  So believe me, it will be a book worth purchasing!
I am excited and looking forward to this year and what God has in store for our ministry and what He has for us to do! So are you ready?  I am!  Keep on smiling!!!!!!!
                                                               Renee

Knowing God or Having a Relationship With Him??

Sitting here tonight thinking about a conversation I had with a friend earlier this evening. We were talking about people that say they know the Lord. But there is a difference in "knowing the Lord" and "having a relationship with the Lord". for example... when we work with someone, we may know that person, or know of that person, but that is different than having a personal relationship with the...

m. How many times do we hear people say, " well, I know the Lord", but do they have a personal relationship with God? .... that deep walk with God that we need to have....
Another example is just like with our companion... If we just "know" our companion, but don't feel that closeness with them, then it's sometimes a cold empty feeling. Just like when 2 people marry... they may just know each other, but not really have that closeness. But when we have a personal relationship with them.... a closeness with them, we can feel how much they love us, and we know their love is truly real. We love them in return and we know we would do anything to protect them, take care of them, and show our love for them. A personal relationship with them.
I don't want to just " know God" .... But I want that close walk with him. I want to live for Him in such a way that he knows that I love him with all my heart! Matthew 22:37 says Jesus replied,"Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." There is so much more to knowing God then just knowing who he is. I want to be a woman after God's own heart! I want a closeness with him like I've never had before, and I want to continually have a desire to be closer to him! What about you? God bless...

See More

Christmas Time Is Here!!!

Hello fellow bloggers .............  Christmas time is upon us! ...........
It is just 14 more days until Christmas Day and I'm looking forward to it! My Dad and my brother and his family are all coming to our house to be together and I know it's going to be wonderful! But most importantly is that Jesus will be there  too! But why would He not be? He is with me every day of my life!  My husband and I watched a Christmas show last night and the first thing the guy said to everyone was "MERRY CHRISTMAS"!  And it was repeatedly said throughout the program. I told my husband that I loved it because they were not ashamed to say it.....they didn't say  HAPPY HOLIDAYS ......  they weren't offended by it....... but wait.....oh that's right...they were in Canada..
I love my country and I'm proud to be an American, but no matter what anyone says, WE ARE A CHRISTIAN NATION  and it amazes me that the word CHRISTMAS is not allowed in most work places now and in so many other places! My opinion is, we allow other religions now to voice  their opinion about what they believe, we are not offended by that, but suddenly the Christian belief is offensive and not allowed. I think Christians should be offended by that!  It is sad when I go in somewhere, or pass someone on the street, and when I say MERRY CHRISTMAS they drop their head and either just look at me or say, "you have a good holiday".  God help us.....
However, I will continue to say Merry Christmas, and I will continue to keep that Christmas spirit throughout this glorious season, and every day of the year! Because I love to be happy...I love to smile....I love to see others smile....I love to encourage people.... I love to love people.....and I love my Savior Jesus Christ!!  So God bless each and every one of you this Christmas Season.  Love your families, enjoy the time you get to spend with them, because it could be your last time together....I was blessed to have my sweet precious Mother in my life for 50 years, and Dec. 6, 2010 God took her home  to be with him. But we had a wonderful Thanksgiving that year together, not knowing it would be our last with her. So cherish the time you have with each other. Love each other, laugh together, cry together, share memories together.... It's not about the gifts that we go out and buy....It's about being together and sharing life.
Have a  great day .......  and.......   KEEP SMILING!!!!!!!!