Legacy

I have been thinking the last few days, "what do I want to blog about?" I even told Ed this morning, I want to write but I don't know what to write about, then I had my quiet time and ideas came to mind. I am continuing to read the Bible through and this morning, well actually yesterday morning, I read Psalm 22 and came upon verses 30 & 31. They say "Our children will also serve Him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything He has done." As I read this I thought what an important job we have as parents, and even for those who are not parents but are involved in some way with children, maybe our neices, nephews, cousins, or even just those children at church that we teach. Those that are not yet even born are depending upon our faithfulness today. We need to teach our children and those children we are in contact with about the Lord so that they in turn will tell their children and their children's children. If we want our children to serve the Lord they have to hear about him by our telling of Him and what He has done for us. We have to reinforce the teachings of the Bible by our lives, they need to not just hear us but see us relying on God. If we do not tell and show our children who God is and what He has done for us we may be breaking the chain of God's influence for future generations, we need to see children as God's future leaders. We need to remember we are only one generation away from a godless world. The best legacy that we can leave our children is to know God, God does not have any grandchildren, it is our children's decision to follow God or not to follow Him but it is our job to be sure they have the opportunity to learn about Him. I praise the Lord that each of our children have accepted Jesus as their Savior and I pray every day for their children, Isaiah and soon-to-be-born, Mason that they too will give their lives to Jesus but I also pray for their parents, Matt & Hannah, Matthew & Cari that they will teach them about Jesus and also show them a life dedicated to God. Let's leave our children the best legacy we can, let's be faithful to God so when we get the Heaven the circle will be unbroken.

God's Limitless Protection

God doesn't always keep us from troubles, He will either take our troubles away OR He will help us through them and He will make all things work together for our good for those who love God (Romans 8:28). We do not even know how many times God has intervened and taken our troubles from us, He may have healed us and we didn't even know we were sick, He may have protected us from having a car accident, etc. Then there are times that we definitly know we are going through trouble it is then that we need to remember that God is right there with us going through those times along side of us. I was reading Psalm 18 this morning during my quiet time and verse 2 says:

"The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my saviour; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety."

As I looked at the comments on this verse I really stopped and thought how great our God is and how much He loves us. He is a rock that cannot be moved by anyone, He is a fortress a place of safety that the enemy cannot come through, He is a shield that comes between us, nothing can touch us that hasn't gone through Jesus first, He is the power that saves our salvation is ONLY through Jesus, and He is a place of safety he is high above our enemies. What an awesome God we serve.

Sometimes when we are going through difficult times it is hard to remember that God is there with us, at least it is for me. I have to keep praying that God will help me to trust Him completely, I have to pray "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief" just as the father said in Mark 9:24. God WILL help us and protect us, we need to just continue to trust our awesome God.

Mom

Today is my mom's birthday so I am dedicating this blog to her. I am so thankful to have a wonderful mom, God has truly blessed me with her. As I look back growing up my mom was always there for me. She did not work outside our home and I am very thankful for this. I remember when we were living in an apartment my mom repaired window blinds to help with the finances, she did this in our livingroom or outside on the patio so she could be there for us. In the summers,she would try to get her work finished so she could take my brother, Greg and me to the pool in the afternoon. She would sit on the side of the pool and watch us play and let us hang on her legs while she moved them up and down to give us "a ride" in the water. She didn't get in the water much, she didn't want to get her hair wet : ). I remember when she would make homemade popsicles, they were so good. Of course, she didn't only make them for Greg and I many of the kids in the apartment complex loved them too : ). In the winter if we would have snow I remember my mom at times going out and sledding with us, she would give us ideas of how to make our sleds go faster. We would come in and have hot chocolate, yum. My mom would read a Bible story to us every night before we went to bed from, "The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" I can still see this book in my mind today, in fact she bought that book for me when I had my own children so I could read to them. She would pray with us every night before we went to bed. We would kneel beside the bed and I remember she would always remind us to pray for "pappap" (this was her dad), he was not saved, so every night we would pray that PapPap would ask "Jesus to come into his heart". It almost became a habit but our prayers were answered many years later and PapPap gave his life to Jesus. As I grew my mom taught me so much, she taught me how to cook, clean, take care of a family. Many of this she taught me by example, she didn't just tell me how to do it she showed me. I still think of times when she let me "skip" school and we would go shopping and just enjoy our day together, what wonderful memories. I heard a song the other day which really describes my mom in so many ways, I can't remember all the words but I remember this part,"....but now that I am gone, she covers me with prayer" and this is so true I know my mom is praying for me every day, I am sure that it is because of her prayers that I have made the most important decision I will ever make in my life, at a young age I gave my life to Jesus and because of her prayers I continue to try and live my life for Him. Last year my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer and this past year has not been a good year for her. She had to go through chemo treatments which caused her to be really sick and lose a lot of weight. It made me so sad to see her have to go through this. It was so hard for her, you see my mom cares for my dad who has MS and not only this she is a true servant and it is very hard for her to have people wait on her when she is the one who is usually serving others. God has given her such a servant's heart and she is so unselfish. I remember times when she was going through such a difficult time yet she would always want to know how I was doing or how my brothers were doing. Even when she was feeling bad if we had good news she was so happy to hear it. There were times during her battle with cancer that she would have to be in the hospital and she would always be concerned about dad being taken care of. Praise the Lord that she is now cancer free and feeling much better. But what a women! I could go on and on she has taught me so much and she truly is the women that Proverbs 31 talks about "She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." I am truly blessed and I do rise up and praise her. Happy Birthday Mom!!! I love you and I am so thankful to be celebrating your birthday.

"Used To Be"

Ed and I watch "The Waltons" Monday through Friday from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. We both love this show. As I was watching it last night I was thinking how much better in so many ways times "used to be". Not as far as conveniences go, there weren't "easy" ways to do things. Times were hard financially but many people still trusted in God and family was important. As I watch the Waltons I see family being involved in each others lives, communication was a key, they care greatly for their neighbors and help each other out, John helps Olivia, Olivia helps John, the children help their parents, sisters and brothers help each other, oh yeah they have their differences and they argue at times but you can just feel the love they have for each other just watching the show. We will never go back to these times but sometimes I wish we could. We have so many conveniences now and they are nice but just think of the conversations you can have just doing dishes together. I remember drying dishes with my mom and we would talk, I remember washing dishes and my brother drying them and we would talk. Now with times of texting and email we have lost the art of just communicating (I still talk to my mom and brothers, don't get me wrong, first of all they do not do "computers" lol). I have been working on a 1000 piece puzzle and it brings back memories of when I was home and we would work a puzzle together, it was fun. Ed and I do not use our dishwasher that often, not many dishes to do now lol, and you know what I kind of enjoy doing dishes with him, we talk and work together. Doing dishes is just one example of a "used to be" there are many, people helping people and actually being involved in others lives and not through technology. Ed and I have been reading a devotional together every morning. We have been reading "In God We Still Trust", a very good devotional. As we read this "used to bes" are very visible. We read about our founding fathers and those in leadership positions in our government, what a difference to today's leaders. Our founding leaders talk about God and how when we lose sight of Him we will fall as a nation, we have come to that place. It wasn't unusual for someone in office to speak of God in public, we need to go back to that place but instead we just keep falling farther and farther away from Him, how sad...we need to go back to this "used to be". As I was reading this morning, I read Psalm 12 it says "Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished from the earth!" Wow, look around, this verse was written many years ago but how true it is for today, I guess maybe "used to bes" weren't always so good either. But I still think many "used to bes" need to come back to our families today and to our country.

God Intervention

Wow!!! Ice in Columbus, GA. That hasn't happened I am told for ten years. I think weird weather must follow us: while in Alaska we had the biggest earthquake in North America; we came back to KY and we had I think, the biggest ice storm ever and then hurricane winds; we move to GA and what happens ice, good grief. It has been a good day though. It has been relaxing and I spent a lot of the morning reading. Then an icy walk this afternoon with Ed...the roads were clear by the time we walked so it was more of a water walk LOL.

As I continued my Bible reading I read Gen. 20 and 21 this morning. Here are some of my thoughts:
Genesis 20:6 "In the dream God responded,"Yes, I know you are innocent. That's why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her." (This is about King Abimelech when he took Sarah, Abrahams wife, to his palace not knowing she was Abraham's wife for Abraham said it was his sister). As I read the comments about this verse I thought it was very good, God kept Abimelech from sinning, what mercy. I wonder how many times God has kept us from sinning in ways we did not even know? Then I read Psalm 10 and it was talking about the wicked and I started to think this could be related to what I read in Gen. 20; it is God who keeps us from being as wicked as we could be. We all have a sin nature we are born with, we are all sinners and if it wasn't for God in our life we would be just like the wicked. I praise God for His mercy and that He intervenes even when we don't realize it to keep us from sinning and when He does not intervene He always makes a way to escape.

The New Testament reading I read was Matthew 12. Matthew 12:43-45 says,"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says,"I will return to the person I came from. So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation." I read this and I said to myself "what does this mean???" So I read the comments below the verse and what I read was very interesting: we can clean up our lives from sin BUT if we don't fill it up with God's love and His ways we will be unfilled and complacent people making us easy targets for Satan. I thought this was very good and very true. We have to fill up our lives with something and it needs to be God. Spend time with Him reading His Word, talking to Him in prayer, and hang out with other believers. What a great way to begin 2011, fill your hearts and mind with thoughts of God and live for Him.

Matthew, Jesus Disciple

Good Morning! Usually I post in the evening but while my thoughts are still fresh thought I would post this morning instead. The study Bible that I read from has a lot of interesting articles and I read one about Matthew today that I thought was very good. Matthew was a tax-collector before he became a disciple of Jesus. Unlike many of the other disciples when he left his job to follow Jesus there was no turning back, this was guaranteed unemployment. Some of the other disciples were fishermen so if something didn't pan out with following Jesus they could always go back to fishing, in fact I believe they fished while following Jesus. Two changes happened to Matthew when he followed Jesus. He now belonged to Jesus and Jesus gave him a new purpose for his skills. "The only tool from Matthew's past job that he carried with him was his pen." God had made Matthew a records keeper from the beginning, this was a God-given skill for Matthew. Matthew was probably a keen observer and he probably recorded the events going on around him. Now we have a Gospel that bears his name, the book of Matthew in the New Testament. Just like Matthew we are a work in progress. I believe God has given each of us God-given talents or things that we really like to do that we can use for His glory. "Matthew couldn't have known that God would use the very skills he had sharpened as a tax collector to record the greatest story ever lived." I am sure that God has a meaningful purpose for us too...what to you like to do, what are your talents? God can use them for His purpose to bring glory to Him. For me, I don't know if blogging is my talent but I am really enjoying it and I pray that it will bring glory to God.

As for my Bible reading today in Matthew 9:1-7 Jesus healed a lame man but before he healed him he told the man that his sins were forgiven. I think this shows us that spiritual wellness is much more important than physical wellness. One day, as long as we already have spiritual wellness through Jesus, we will have physical wellness in Heaven. The Pharisees were really trying to "trap" Jesus in this chapter of Matthew, they accused Jesus of eating with sinners, which he did, but Jesus says He came to call those who know they are sinners not those who think they are righteous (Matthew 9:13). We are all sinners in need of a Saviour that is why Jesus came. He was the sacrafice for us because of His love, mercy, grace, and compassion he will save us. We only have to come to Him and ask for His forgiveness and trust Him to be our Saviour. He will save us for eternity if we truly trust Him (John 3:16).

(The quotes are from the NLT Study Bible)

People Are Most Important

In my Bible reading today I read in Matthew 8 about Jesus casting the demons out of the men in the cemetery and telling those demons to go into the pigs knowing full well that the demons would enter the pigs and cause the pigs to go off the cliff into the water and die. As I was reading this I thought about how much more Jesus loves people, who are made in His image, than animals. Oh, He cares for the animals, He made them for us to enjoy and for some, animals give them their financial means to live but when he saw these men being tormented by demons he did not think twice when he sent them into the pigs. As I think on this even more I think that Jesus also cared very much for even the pigs because if the pigs would not have run off the cliff and died they would have been tormented by the demons but at their death the tormenting ended because they are animals without a soul. Jesus loves us so much and values us so much more than any of His creation.

The Old Testament reading that I read was Genesis 11 and 12. Chapter 11 was about the Tower of Babel. The people were building this tower not for God's glory but for their own glory. There was nothing really wrong with building the tower in and of itself but they were building it to show their greatness not God's, they were not giving a thought to God. We can do the same thing, we can build "towers" to try to give us identity and self-worth. We are free to develop our lives in many areas but we are not free to replace God with these things. He is the one who should give us our identity and self-worth. Chapter 12 is about Abraham. As I was reading about Abraham setting up an altar, I thought how good it is if we keep a journal, kind of like a personnal altar, of the times God has helped us then we can look back on it and it will strengthen our faith and we can know that Jesus will calm our storms in life just as He calmed the storm in Matthew 8:23-27.

Finally I read in Matthew about Jesus curing the leper. The study Bible I have made a good point with this story: it said "Just like the leper we all have an incurable disease called "sin". Only Jesus can heal us of this disease but first we have to realize that ONLY Jesus can heal us and when we realize this and come to Him he will take our sins from us and save us." People are very important to God and He doesn't want anyone to perish. WE ARE MOST PRECIOUS TO GOD, MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY OF HIS CREATION.

Exciting News

We got exciting news today, we are going to have another grandson!!! Last I heard his name is Mason Hamlin, although this could change before he gets here.  Matthew says his name will be "Mason Jar Hamlin" lets hope that isn't the case LOL. His birthday is supposed to be May 29th and I cannot wait to meet him. I already love him so much and pray for him daily. I pray he will be healthy and his mom will have no complications during her pregnancy and that he will have a heart for God and trust Jesus as his Saviour at an early age in his life.

As I continue my Bible reading through the year I was reading about Noah this morning, pretty interesting God told Noah that he (Noah) was the only righteous person on the earth at that time. Now how awesome would it be to hear God say that to us, but as I was thinking about this and talking to my dad he said "you know God says the same thing to you", not that I am the only righteous person on earth, but that we are righteous in God's eyes because of our relationship with Jesus and His sacrafice for us. He also was telling me about a book he had been reading and one of the illustration of how God sees us, before Jesus death and the Jewish people would sacrafice lambs for their sins, when one brought a lamb for the sacrafice no one looked at the person bringing the lamb to see what that person had done they looked at the lamb to be sure it was perfect, without any blemishes. How true that is, God doesn't look at the sinner if we are saved He only looks at His Son and by looking through Him we are made righteous. What an awesome God, He loves us so much and we are so undeserving. I am so thankful for His grace and mercy. Now on a lighter note, when I think about God telling Noah he (Noah) was the only righteous person on earth, it is a wonder Noah didn't get the big head and start bragging about being better than everyone else. Noah was a humble man, I am afraid if it were me pride might have stepped in. It took Noah 120 years to build the ark, wow he stayed on task a long time, we can't even keep a New Year's resolution. I also read in Matthew today, Matthew 7:22 is where Jesus says "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in Heaven will enter." To me that is one of the scariest verses in the Bible. As I read the note about this verse in my study Bible, this verse says that only those who have a relationship with Jesus will go to Heaven; not those who are trying to get there by being "good" people and saying or doing religious things, that IS God's will for our lives, to have a relationship with Jesus. So if you trust Jesus as your Saviour then and only then will you have a home in Heaven, not by doing good. We can never be good enough plus why would Jesus go through so much pain and suffering on the cross or even come to earth for that matter if we could be "good" enough???!!!

Reading the Bible thru

Ed and I are going to try and read the Bible through this year. I have never read the whole Bible but I have always wanted to. I have started it before but got to about Leviticus and kind of gave up. Ed got a Bible that is made just for reading through in a year and so far so good but then again it is only the 4th of January. It is so neat that when you read the Bible you always come away with something new even if it is a passage that you have read over and over. Today as I was reading Genesis 1:1 & 2, it says "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the suface of the waters." Does this mean that water has always been with God? I believe that if it was God created it but I never have thought about it before. Kind of interesting thoughts. Also think about this there was light and darkness before there was a sun or moon. Another thought. Where did God create Adam? It says in Gen. 2:8 that God made Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes when we think about creation, well at least I do, I just think about the garden and tend to forget about the rest of the world. Also Gen. 2:24, I read about marriage, the study Bible that I have had good insight on marriage. It says marriage includes three important aspects 1. A man leaves his parents and in a public act promises himself to his wife 2. Man and woman are joined together by taking responsibility for each other's welfare and by loving each other above all others 3. United into one in the intimacy and commitment of sexual union that is reserved for marriage. Now if our country would just remember marriage is one man and one woman that defines marriage and nothing else. Marriage is God ordained. As I think about marriage and I think about my marriage I am so glad that God has given me a wonderful Christian husband. We have been married for 26 years and almost 2 months and I would do it all over again. The longer I am married to Ed the more I love him, I love him more now than I did when we first were married. I pray that we have many more years together. My quote to Ed is "If you live to be one hundred I hope I live to be one hundred minus one day so I will never have to live a day without you."

Panama City, FL

Ed & I went to Panama City, FL this past weekend for New Year's. This is the first time that we just took off with no plans and it was great. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. We camped at Tyndall Air Force Base campground, FAMCAMP. It is a very nice campground but the only spots they had left for the weekend was overflow, still really nice and it only cost $10 a night so that left money to spend : ). We arrived in Panama City on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 30, it is only about a 4 hour drive from Columbus, GA. We just set up camp, took a nice walk, and relaxed that evening. Then Friday morning we got up and had pancakes, Ed's specialty, then off to the beach. We went to Crooked Island Beach, a secluded beach which is only for the military. It was beautiful, God is awesome and He has created so much beauty for us to enjoy. We walked across the broadwalk and boy what a sight. We took off our shoes and put on our flip flops, more fun walking on the beach in flip flops and barefeet than tennis shoes. The sand was so white, it almost looked like snow. We walked the beach and looked for seashells, it was so relaxing. But we forgot a bag for seashells so we had our hands full BUT then I spotted an old cut off milk jug and it worked perfectly to old seashells plus we cleaned up some litter when we picked the milk jug up : ) We found some sand dollars...no silver dollars, Ed forgot his metal detector : ). The waves were so pretty and sounded so nice hitting the shore. After walking on the beach for about two hours we crossed back over the broadwalk and headed back to the truck. I just kept thinking about how great a God we have, He told the oceans how far they could go and has everything under control. If He removed His hand from the universe, it would all be over and yet so many people don't even acknowledge Him, how sad. Well back in the truck we headed toward Mexico City Beach just for a drive and to check it out, it was pretty neat seeing the beach and all the cabins, many for rent, they were unique. After seeing Mexico City Beach we turned the other direction and headed toward Panama City Beach, also just for a drive. On our way out we saw a "Florida" turkey, I do not remember the correct name (Ed said but I can't remember). It was really neat we were able to get close to take pictures, which I will include in the blog...if they will upload. It was a great day and the rest of the weekend was just as good, although it did rain both Saturday and Sunday, we had a good time. Our last day we got up and went to the Air Force Chapel for church, it was very nice. The people were very friendly and the sermon was good.  What a great way to start a New Year, a nice, relaxing weekend with my best friend..a walk on the beach, time to sit together and swing, looking out over a bayou and reading together. I praise God for giving us a wonderful weekend to enjoy Him and each other.