Jigsaw Puzzle

As I was having my quiet time this morning, I started thinking about how God does not NEED us but He WANTS us. God created us, He sure doesn't need us for anything, HE IS GOD, creator of ALL things. But isn't it great that He WANTS us. As I thought about this I got to thinking of my jigsaw puzzle that I have been working on, well I haven't worked on it for a while now, but I will finish it one of these days. Anyway, I thought, I don't NEED to finish my jigsaw puzzle but I WANT to finish it. I want to finish what I started and that is kind of like God, He doesn't need to work on us but He wants to work on us. He wants to finish what He started and He will finish it. Don't we serve a wonderful God. So full of grace and mercy. And He WANTS us, think about it, the creator of our universe WANTS us....that is awesome. That is LOVE!!!

Extra-Ordinary

On Wednesday morning I have a ladies Bible study in our apartment. Two wonderful ladies from our apartment complex attend and we are enjoying a great study from the book of Daniel. We are reading the book of Daniel and watching the DVD study on Daniel by Beth Moore. It is really great.

Today we were discussing chapter 5 of Daniel..."the writing on the wall". Belshazzer took the holy vessels that were taken from the temple of God and drank from them while he was drunk and having a "great" party. He toasted from these vessels to the "gods" of gold and silver. He desecrated that which God has consecrated. He treated the holy as unholy. What a BIG mistake. He was killed.

Beth Moore pointed out that those who trust Jesus as their Savior, are also consecrated by God. Which means that we are reserved exclusively for God. When we accept Jesus into our lives He makes us holy. We are vessels for God, He pours His spirit into us. Lets not treat what God calls holy as unholy. We are to be different, we are to be EXTRA ordinary. Nothing makes Satan happier than for us to live unholy lives when we are holy. Our lives should look different, what we wear, what we watch, what we listen to, how we respond to people, etc. When people look at us do they see that we are being obedient to Jesus. I read a quote one time that said "when we become precious to God, we become important to Satan". But God loves us and He does not overlook Satan's mistreatment of His holy vessels. He did not look the other way when Belshazzer drank from and toasted false gods from the holy vessels from the temple and He will not look the other way when we treat His vessels (our lives) as unholy. God loves us so much He sent His only son to die for us, lets show Him we love Him back by living EXTRA ordinary lives for Him. He loves us but He is God and just as the writing on the wall told Belshazzer he had been weighed in the balances and found wanting, we must remember, God Is, God Knows, and God Acts.

Lets not make Satan happy lets make God proud to call us His sons and daughters. It is not always easy to do the right thing, it takes work, and when we fail we can ask forgiveness and God will forgive. Satan CANNOT desecrate what God has consecrated, He cannot remove us out of God's hands but lets show others that Christians are different, we are EXTRA-ORDINARY!!!

Surprise!!!

I am blessed with a wonderful husband, who is very thoughtful. I was sitting at the table reading when Ed came home from work on Friday. He had in his hand a bag from the PX and he handed it to me and said "this is for all the times I didn't get you a gift for Valentines or other times that I missed getting you something." Although I can't really remember not getting something from him on Valentines Day or any other time for that matter, he says he didn't get me anything this past Valentines Day but that isn't true, he got me a puppy, Liberty, and I love her. She is such good company while Ed is gone during the day and gives me a good excuse to get out of this apartment and go for nice walks and enjoy God's creation.

Anyway, back to the PX bag. I opened the bag and I was excited....this is what I saw inside....

AN IPAD AND CASE!!! I was so excited and have been really enjoying it. I put my books from my kindle library on it and it is great. I love typing on it, it is so easy.Thank you Ed!!! What a great surprise!!!

Today I have been shopping at the Dollar Store and here is what I came home with.....

TOYS!!! TOYS!!!! My little man is coming to visit his grandmama and pappy next week. Hannah and Isaiah, both a blessing from God, are on "spring break" next week and will be here and I am excited!!! We had to have some toys for him to play with and books to look at, although I am sure he will find his own "toys" while he is exploring. I am sure Liberty will be one of his favorite "toys". LOL

It is a cool, rainy day here in Columbus,GA, though it is not raining now. We are very thankful for the rain, it has helped clear the pollen from the air. Thank you God for the rain. Yesterday was also a rainy day so I spent much of the day after church, lunch, and walking the dog reading. My grandma sent me a book that she received for a Christmas gift from my parents called "Breaking Night."

It is a true story about a lady, named Liz Murray. It is the story of how she grows up in a home where both of her parents were drug addicts but how she goes from a dysfunctional home, or as we should say an "ungodly" home to go to Harvard. As far as I know this is not a "Christian" book. I am not sure if Liz Murray is a Christian or not but it is a good story so far. It is a book that I don't want to put down. Reading is one of my hobbies. I went to the Kindle store and downloaded a lot of free books. My kindle was a birthday gift from Ed, another nice surprise. He is a good gift "picker". LOL

If you want a good book to read, try "Breaking Night", it is very good, at least so far.

Hannah's Reminder

Wow, Hannah wrote an awesome blog today. Such words of wisdom. It made me really stop and think. Yes, I totally agree with her, our identity is in Jesus not in what we do. All that really matters in this life is that we give our lives to Him and live for Him to bring Him glory. I have to admit though since Ed and I have become "empty-nesters" I have looked back on my life and wondered "did I do the right thing in being a stay-at-home mom?", should I have gone to college and found a "career"? "Now what, now that the kids are grown?" As I read Hannah's blog though it brought back to my mind what is most important.....PEOPLE!!! Especially our own children, Jesus told us to go to our own first then to others. I am very thankful that I was able to stay home with our children and very thankful for a wonderful husband who liked and wanted me to be home with them and I think even now he likes the fact that I am a "stay at home" wife : ). I remember as I was growing up and people would ask "what do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer was always "I want to be a mom." That has always been my dream and God has given me the desire of my heart. Now our children are all grown but praise the Lord, and I truly give Him all the credit, each one of them has accepted Jesus as their Savior and two are married to wonderful Christian spouses and one has a wonderful Christian girlfriend. Ed & I taught the children about Jesus and took them to church with us and tried be a Godly example for them but it is God who gives the increase not us. It is all about HIM.

So thank you, Hannah for such a wonderful blog. I really enjoyed reading it and it was a great reminder!!! And God has blessed us with a wonderful grandson, Isaiah, and a grandson on-the-way, Mason and we will help teach them too about Jesus and how important they are to Him. So yes, I believe I did the right thing, at least for our family, and I am very thankful that I was able to be a "stay-at-home" mom. But no matter if you are a "stay-at-home" mom or if you work outside the home remember your children are most important and the most important thing you can teach them is that they matter to Jesus.

"Fall In But Not Out"

Ed and I read a devotional every morning, well most mornings, together. We are reading two right now but the one I want to blog about is the devotion we read in "What Every Christian Ought to Know" by Adrian Rogers (who has gone to Heaven but his words live on). On Sunday Ed read "Then the Lord shut him in!" Gen. 7:16 Now I would have never thought about this applying to our salvation but Adrian Rogers did...listen: "Why did God shut the door on Noah and his family in the ark? Two reasons: to shut the water out and to shut Noah in. How safe was Noah? As safe as the ark. How safe are we? As safe as Jesus, who is our ark of safety. Noah may have fallen down INSIDE the ark, but he never fell OUT of the ark, because God shut him in. God sealed him in, just as we are "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Eph. 1:13)

Isn't that an awesome thought, God SEALS us with His Holy Spirit. His Spirit literally lives inside us. I have been reading "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. It is a really good book, all about the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives. Without Him our lives would just be ordinary but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can live extra-ordinary lives, lives that are lived for Jesus.

I fall so far short of what God wants me to be and I want so much to live for Him...every minute of every day. I want to love as Jesus loves, I want to be His hands, feet, eyes (to see people as Jesus sees them). I want to use a nice tone of voice, say kind things and not get so aggravated at things that really don't matter or say things I really don't mean just because I am feeling down or maybe angry about something, it is NOT about me!! That sinful nature likes to rear its ugly head many times, but praise God for His grace,for when I fail, which is quite often, I cannot fall OUT of the ark, and neither can you if you have given your life to Jesus. He will keep you "in the ark" because He has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. It is not about us but it is all about HIM. "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Eph. 2:8,9,10

Isaiah's 1rst Birthday

I cannot believe it has been a year already since I became a grandmama and Ed became a pappy. I sure do love that little man and he is growing like a weed. He has been learning so much. He now walks around and mimics so much from what Hannah tells me. I sure do miss that little guy but I am so thankful that we can visit quite often. Hannah and Isaiah will be here with us in Georgia for spring break and I am so looking forward to their visit. I just wanted to share a few pictures of our little man on his first birthday, I hope you enjoy them:

And of course Mason attended "undercover" : ), our new little man, expected to make his appearance May 29th and we cannot wait to meet him, another blessing from God. :

Love

Wow, it has been a long time and I sure have missed blogging these past few weeks. I was gone for a while helping my son, Matthew, and his wife, Cari move into their new home and then went to Maryland to visit and help my parents. I am glad God has blessed me in the fact that I can go and help out. It is a beautiful day here in Columbus, GA, in fact it has been very pretty the past few days. New life is springing up all around us and we can see God's handiwork in all of His creation, although I do believe the earth is groaning for His return, which could be any day and I am so looking forward to that day when I see my Lord and Savior, Jesus. But for now I will blog *smile*.

I read this morning in John 13:34 Jesus said "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other." That is a large command. Do we really love as Jesus loves us, I know I fall very short of this. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul tells us how we are to love. It says, love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. This is how Jesus loved. Now take those verses and insert your name instead of the word love. Here goes: Pam is patient and kind NOT! Pam is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude NOT! Pam does not demand her own way, she is not irritable, and she does not keep a record of being wronged...again doesn't sound like me all the time. Pam does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out, I hope I do this. Pam never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and will love through all circumstances, I have a LONG way to go, what about you? We cannot do any of this on our own. Jesus gave us this commandment but notice He gives it to his followers. Without a right relationship with Him we CANNOT love as he loves and even with His help we have a sinful nature, unlike Jesus who never sinned, we have to really work on loving others. Jesus loves us so much he gave his life for us and it was not an easy death, being crucified was a terrible way to die, yet he was willing to go to the cross for us. We need to love Him and love others for what He did for us, he deserves our love. But praise the Lord the death was just the end of the beginning. He arose and now lives in Heaven making intercession for us and He delights in every detail of our lives(Psalm 37:23, "The Lord directs the steps of the godly, He delights in every detail of their lives"). And I believe it will not be long and He will be returning for His children. Be ready, if you have not given your life to Jesus don't wait, He gave His life for you and wants you to be His child.

Now lets go and work on loving others as Jesus loves us. Nothing matters in this world more than people, they are the only "thing" we can take to Heaven with us and they matter to Jesus.