Feeling versus knowing.....

Something that I've realized I don't want to take into the New Year 2010.

I'm tired of "feeling". I want to "know"

The only way to "know" instead of "feel" is to always seek God in everything.
If I've learned anything in this year 2009 that would be it.

So that will be what I seek to get right in my life this upcoming new year.

The Christmas Ten Commandments

The Christmas Ten Commandments

1. Thou shalt give thy heart to Christ. Let Him be at the top of thy Christmas list.
2. Thou shalt prepare thy soul for Christmas. Spend not so much on gifts that thy soul is forgotten.
3. Thou shalt not let Santa Claus replace Christ, thus robbing the day of its spiritual reality.
4. Thou shalt not burden the shop girl, the mailman, and the merchant with complaints and demands.
5. Thou shalt give thyself with thy gift. This will increase its value a hundred fold, and he who receiveth it shall treasure it forever.
6. Thou shalt not value gifts received by their cost. Even the least expensive may signify love, and that is more priceless than silver and gold.
7. Thou shalt not neglect the needy. Share thy blessings with many who will go hungry and cold unless thou are generous.
8. Thou shalt not neglect thy church. Its services highlight the true meaning of the season.
9. Thou shalt be as a little child. Not until thou has become in spirit as a little one art thou ready to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
10. Thou shall not forget to share your joy, peace and faith with those around you.
-- Author Unknown

Some Food for thought from service today

Here are some of the pastors thoughts from service this morning that really get your brain waves working and get you to realizing what we need to change in our lives. Here you go, chew on these for a while...

• We need to listen and learn, not live and learn
• Heaven shouts when we rejoice through our struggles
• I'm worthless, but with Christ I'm priceless.
• God allows thorns to remain in our lives to keep us humble.
• When you limp in life, you will leap in glory
• God's out to make us just like Jesus, so hold onto your reins and ride with Him

These were just a few morsels, you should've heard the entire sermon. God was powerfully working in this message today, and He had lots to say to me through every Word.

Thanks God for working through your servant and giving each of us just what we needed.

Now allow each of us to learn and to be obedient to what you taught us.

future blogs

OK my dedicated blog reader fans.
I'll be back up to speed in a few more days. I've been sick and just not up to par, so hang in there and I'll start again soon.

Thankful for the Thorns

Exactly what is a "thorn"?

Well according to Webster's dictionary it is something that causes irritation annoyance, a woody plant bearing sharp impeding processes (as briars, prickles or spines) and something that causes distress or irritation, often used in the phrase "a thorn in one's side".

Everyone of us have some kind of thorn in our life, and all thorns need to be dealt with daily.

The best way to deal with these thorns that are pricking us is "to be thankful for them".
Yes I said "be thankful for them".

You are probably saying are you stupid? How can we be thankful for something that hurts us so bad.?

Look at what Paul says to us in 2 Cor. 12:7 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." Through God's grace we can be strong.

There is a lesson behind every thorn we get pricked with, let's do some soul searching, and Bible searching and find out what we can learn from each prick. God has much to teach us, are we seeking to find out what those lessons are or are we just drowning among the thorns.

Today I can cry that roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.
I'm ready to watch some roses bloom...Yeah

Day 448 Update on Michael....

OK everyone, here is a major update on Michael, he will be going to MUSC and will have surgery tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.

They are going to be putting his intestines back inside, and etc. and getting rid of the colostomy bag he's had since his head-on collision.

Please everyone be in prayer for the doctors and for recovery time, he will be there approx. 10 days.

Who is God?

OK people I'm doing a study and I need to hear from each of you with your answer to this question:

Who is God to you?

We treat God like a vending machine....

Why do we treat God like a vending machine. We walk up to the machine decide in our mind what we want, look at the number of it, put our money in, select the button of "what we want" then the item falls into the bottom for us to stick our hand inside and grab the item and get to eating.

Oh now come on and think about it, we do God the same way.

We use God just like this vending machine, we push the button of this machine expecting to get what we asked for from that slot and we get upset when we don't.

We get up in the morning, want a drive through service time with God, because we have no time to really spend with Him, so we ask for a quick word, we might lift up a quick prayer, we ask God to answer this prayer and that prayer and then we move on our way to work or the next activity that has filled our slot for the day. We want to push a button and expect God to give us what we want just like the machine did.

God does want to give us what we want but He also wants us to seek Him and spend quality time with Him. Even though we might think so, this is NOT Burger King and we can't always have things our way.

Let's stop treating God like a vending machine, or drive through service and spend true time with Him and then we will not only see Him meet our needs but He will sometimes bless us with the wants (the button we pushed).

Update on Michael.....

Ok here is an update from Michael's father-in-law:

We went to MUSC on Monday for Michael's doctor visit.

They are saying that with-in the next 6 weeks they will try to but his belly back together.
This will involve removing the grafted skin, reattaching his large intestine, removing the colostomy bag and pulling his abdomen skin back together.
They say that this surgery is horrible.
Michael has got to be in pretty good shape in order to endure this surgery.
He needs to lose about 15 pounds and try and be fit.
By fit they mean he needs to walk and exercise everyday for they say this surgery will be like fighting Mike Tyson.
We are encouraged by this pending surgery and we are hoping Michael's body will function normally when completed.
The down side to all of that is if it doesn't work out, then he will remain with a body function that won't be normal and could remain on the bags forever.

Now some more disturbing news but possible hope in the eventual outcome.
On Wednesday we went to the orthopedic doctors to look at his right leg. It remains as they say dead from the knee down. The main nerve (sciatic) is destroyed from the knee down. The remaining nerves if they grow back will only cause him extreme pain.
The bones were put back together as best they could but it is determined that they are not healing well.
His right foot is always cold and is useless.
He has to use the wheel chair for it is easier to get around rather than use the walker, even though he tries, but the result with a walker is that he just drags the right leg.
Their conclusions are to amputate the right leg from the knee down.
Trust me many tears were flowing at this news.
Granted, it is not the end of the story here.
With all the new advances in prosthetic devices, I am sure Michael will be far better off if the amputation is to occur.
Obviously Michael is going to seek a second opinion but we feel that the doctors are going to strongly emphasize the amputation.

Keep him in your prayers, there is an even longer road ahead.

I'm back....

OK I'm back from vacation and back on track so time to get busy with my thoughts again. Keep in touch

4-wheelin' trip to Colorado....

We drove a total of 4033 miles in the truck, 77 hours and 49 minutes

but get this we drove a total of 294 miles on the 4 wheeler....and every mile was as good as the first.

Check out these names....

On our trip out west here are some of the names of churches that I saw that are very different than any I've ever seen. Check these out.

• The Drunkard Brethren Church
• The Feed Store Church
• Church Unscripted
• Rock of Restoration
• Rhema Bible Church
• Jesus Project
• Fellowship of Excitement
• Blue Mound Church
• Prairie Friends Church
• Mercy & Grace
• Overcoming Believers Church
• Kodak Church
• New Song Church
• Kings Creek Church
• Faith Church

One year ago...

It has been a year ago since Michael McDaniel's car accident...and he still has some areas that are not completely healed per say...

many of you prayed him through recovery....

many of you helped his family financially.......

many of you helped them move into a new home....

many of you have helped them with miscellaneous things since that day...

many of you went to visit him at MUSC....

many of you have continued to pray for complete recovery since that day...

Even though he's doing much better he still could use your prayers....as he is not 100% but you know what even if he never gets to 100% that's OK because you see God allowed him to still be here with his family and all of us....God had a reason then and I'm sure still has plans for Him now.

Pray as Michael seeks God for all those answers and continue to pray for further recovery.
Thanks Michael for allowing me to keep everyone informed of your progress over this year and I will be praying for further recovery.

God's beauty...

It's been several weeks since I've written a post.
Well you see I'm on vacation in Colorado on a 4-wheelin' trip, having one of the best vacations I've ever had.

It is so hard to share in pictures or in words how beautiful this part of the country is. I just want to say you gotta come to believe it. My husband has tried for so many years to describe it to me, but until you ride up into those hills, over 13,000 feet up you just can't describe that into words.

God knew His plan and I'm looking at that beauty each day I'm here. We are exploring every trail we can find. Finding old mining cabins...old mines...found an old fork used by a miner...seeing all kinds of wildlife (groundhogs, mountain lion, sheep, deer, elk, moose, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, bear)

I wish all of you were here to experience this beauty with us....

Time.....where does it go?

How in the world can you stretch a 24 hour day?

let me hear some ideas from ya'll. I need to find a way....laughing cause I know I really can't but if I could it would be stretched out to at least 56 hours a day with the current list of things I have going on.

Bound up in chains....you don't have to be

Yep you've got it, this is a picture of chains.
These chains are sometimes invisible around our arms and legs and you can't see they are even there, but God knows if we are wearing them.

But why do we wear them? Because we are in bondage to things in our lives that we haven't given up to God therefore we are bound to them.

But you know what every "Tuesday" night God is breaking our chains one link at a time in our little Bible Study group. I think all of our ladies are wearing chains, maybe some not as many as others and some wearing so many they can't even walk, but all of us have links to break and things in our lives that need to be "free" and tonite God freed many of us. Thank you Lord for leading us and showing us how to smash those links that are holding us.

Instead of being held in bondage I want to be held in You Lord. When I stay in Your Word, in prayer to You these are the places that will teach me how to break a link to freedom and to stay in a right relationship with you.

One link at a time Lord.....

Still....

Have you ever thought about this word "still"?

Well as my Sunday School teacher was giving us the message God layed on her heart to share with us this past Sunday she said something during her lesson that got me to thinking about this one word. She was teaching from Acts Chapter 1 and as she continued to share my mind kept wandering to this word.

I kept saying Lord what is it about this word that you want me to glean, gain, learn? So He hit me right between the eyes with His answer, here are some of the things He was saying to me:

• is your relationship "still" in the same place it was when you first accepted me or have you grown?
• what have you "still" not changed that I told you to?
• do you "still" love me the same as you did or has your love for me grown deeper since then?
• do you "still" do the same ol' things you did back then or are they now things that honor and praise me?
• do you "still" pray and read my Word everyday?

God was hitting me with a left and right continually during Sunday School. When I got home I thought hmm..let me look up the meaning of this word "still" in Webster's to see what it says is the meaning, ok here it is:

---quiet, motionless, calm

When I read this meaning my immediate thought came to the verse in the Bible Psalm 37:7 (NLT) Be "still" in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act.

I quickly realized there are some areas in my life I'm "still" not being obedient to the Lord about and surrendering to Him, so how can I expect Him to "still" be satisfied with me when I'm "still" not doing, obeying, surrendering those things to Him.

God I pray right now that I will be quiet, motionless and calm as I hear you, and listen to you speak to what you need to change in me today. Thank you for allowing me to pick up this little but powerful word "still" in your lesson as it has taught me so much since then about what I'm "still" doing or not doing and what You "still" want me to be doing.

One thing I know for sure, I want to go deeper "still" in my knowledge and relationship with my Lord, and I look forward to the quiet, motionless and calm as He takes me there.

Saying the blessing for your meal...

I recently met a child who when we were out eating at a restaurant and the family got ready to say a prayer for the meal, they ask the little girl that was a guest of them that day if she would like to say the blessing and she said NO and placed her hands up by her face and then said to the mom "I don't know a blessing"

The mom said to her "you don't know the prayer God is great, God is good.......etc. etc.

The little girl said NO....and looked sadden...scared...frightened as if the family thought bad of her because she didn't know it.

It's up to us to teach the children in the world how to pray even a blessing for our food.

We can't expect children to have a relationship with God if we aren't willing to spend time to teach them how to pray....because one day a prayer will lead to a prayer of asking God to be their Savior....Yeh....if we don't teach them now....how will they know.....

So are we?.....those are simple words....easy to learn...and as they get older their prayers become even better....special conversations between them and God....

Come on everyone let's do some teaching....

Is this what it feels like?

So this is what it feels like not to have kids at home anymore. Kevin is gone for 3 days to visit his sister and brother-in-law in Conway.

Well let me say to the whole world. I don't like it!

I've heard people say forever, "it will be so nice when our kids grow up and move out then we can do so many things we haven't been able to do since we got married"

Phooey! I love my kids being at home with us and I miss them terribly.....

What kind of Junk is in your trunk?

This is one of the topics we discussed during Bible Study last night. I'm using this picture to represent someone who just has all kinds of junk and doesn't know where to put it or what to do with it, so they just kept piling it up in a trunk.

What kind of junk do we have in our trunk? Nope I'm not talking about the ol' hope chest you have at home filled with momentos of your life going back to your childhood and sometimes as far back as great-grandparents even, nor am I talking about the ol' tool boxes and such in your husband's shop, nor boxes tucked away in your attic or closets that just keep seem to keep piling up the longer you live. We have no where to put the "stuff" so we just continue boxing it up, and storing it somewhere so that one day we have to deal with all of it.

I'm talking about all the "junk" we have stored in our souls that we just keep boxing up, storing away, hiding in the crevices so far back till our trunks are now "overflowing". Our souls need to be "freed"

So ask yourself these questions:

1. Why am I holding onto all the junk?

2. Am I going to "really" use or need this junk later?

3. If it's junk why am I not throwing it away?

4. Am I scared to get rid of it? If so, why?

It's time to do some house cleaning or I like to say some "junk-cleaning".

Let's get RID of the junk from our trunk(lives), so God has room to move into that free space and use us again for HIS GLORY! Yeh!

Got Junk?

Five Benefits God intends for every one of His children...

OK here are the five benefits we are learning in Bible Study this week that God wants for each one of His children.

1. He wants us to know and believe Him.
2. To glorify Him.
3. To find satisfaction in him
4. To experience His peace.
5. To Enjoy His presence.

Without going into this entire week's Bible study (because its around 20 pages long) and you just meditating a few moments on these benefits listed above, would you please share with us some of the ways you personally experience these five benefits.

What a way to grow in the Lord by hearing how God is growing and teaching others!

I am praying for you as God leads you what to share with all of us and I pray for God to use you to teach me even more....through your experiences

Our Two "Peas in a Pod"

Ok for those of you who read this blog and don't know my daughter and son-in-law and didn't get to attend the wedding.

Here is one of the wedding photos from her beautiful wedding/reception.

"Our two peas in a pod"

Matthew & Kelly Brown (May 2nd 2009)

We love ya'll.........Mamma and Diddy

So that you may know Him......

Let me share my new memory verse with you that I'm learning this week:

"You are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me". Isaiah 43:10

Let me pick out a portion of this verse that God has laid on my life heavily (that you may know me). Yes Lord, that is exactly where God is taking me each day. I DESIRE to KNOW Him more than I did yesterday and God is paving some great paths to help me do that. (my Tuesday night Bible Study group---oh man what a class!!!!) and one of the most recent is I'm going back to Bible College (soon, haven't actually started yet but the plans are in motion as I seek the right place where God would have me to go.)

.....so I may KNOW Him....yeah
if I don't know Him then I can't share Him, I can't teach about Him, I can't show others how to know Him and love Him and receive Him.

What about you "You wanna KNOW Him.......

Bondage...is it holding you?

We've started a new Bible Study last week and God has taught me so much in just one week. Whew! It's so exciting....

How about this one word bondage? Anybody know what this word means?

Well for anyone who doesn't, it means "slavery" We are a slave to something that we are holding on to, hand cuffed to, chained to that we don't want to give up so we can be in complete surrender and service to our Lord Jesus.

If you sit down and really do some deep thinking about this word and what things in your life you are in bondage to, you might be very surprised at some things that are keeping you a slave. I did some soul searching during this week's Bible Study and especially last night as I was sharing with a friend God spoke to me and said "Aha Beverly there's one thing" and I said no God are you sure and again He said yes.

He showed me one area in my life that I was holding back from giving to Him to control, instead I've just been trying to keep it in my pocket and deal with it in the way I saw and felt best and now He is showing me oh no, give that to me too and watch how I can "release" you.
Here's an example to help bring it to some simple terms: think about when you have air in a water line and you have to turn on a valve to relief the pressure on the pipes so everything can begin to flow properly again. Hey ya'll its the same with God, when we give Him the stuff backed up in our lives, He can relieve our pressures, and release us from the captivity of bondage and we can be free.

I don't know about you but I can use a pressure relief valve daily, and my valve is Almighty God.

I don't wanna be a Christian who is held captive by bondage, instead I wanna be a Christian who is HELD by my God and helping me to be an effective Spirit filled woman who wants to learn all she can about Him, serve Him, know Him, believe Him, Glorify Him, experience Him, enjoy Him, witness for Him, take a stand for Him boldly. I wanna be able to always recognize what's missing so with Him He can help me fix it.

Bondage can be broken....and He can be the one to set us free from it.

How about you today, are you in bondage? is there something you have that is holding you or are you ready to let Christ hold you?

Here's all you have to do to let Him "Hold" you and "release" you from the bondages you may have:
1. acknowledge you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself
2. acknowledge that Christ is the Son of God and only He can save you
3. Believe His Crucifixion was for your personal sins and His death was in your behalf
4. Give Him your life and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior.

Four easy, simple steps to be released from bondage and to "Be Held".

Remember those times when you were growing up and being held by your mama who comforted you when you were needing some love, Well you know what God wants to hold you like this every day, every moment! Won't you let Him......

Talk about faith....WOW..should've been with me tonite

Tonite I was called to go meet a friend who needed to have a listening ear.

The faith this lady exhibited was yep that's right AWESOME!

God is really moving in her life through her trials right now. Here she was calling on me to hear her struggles and trials and to help her understand the why's about all of it and WOW was she ever lifting me up to hear what God is doing in her life.

Here's what she said to me that is getting her through her trials. She said the Lord showed her in His Word "I have a future for you", and she is holding tight to that promise and continuing to remind herself often during the day of what God showed her.

You know that each of us have trials that we are facing and hardships we are going through.
Are we going to God's Word to find "the answer" like she did and like she found?

Thank you Lord for allowing me to listen and share with her tonite and thanks for how You spoke to me through what you've taught her these last few days.

Friends helping friends. Ain't that what it's all about. God you teach us so we can help teach others. I love you Lord!

X-Ray of our heart....

Have you ever wondered what your heart looks like?
I don't mean the physical heart, I'm talking about the spiritual heart.

Have you ever wondered if you could go into the hospital and take an X-ray of the inside of your heart, what it would look like.

The place where everything you say or have said or do or have done is stored. What would the X-Ray look like?

Would it be clear nothing there to clog it up, all sin confessed?

or would it be clogged up with pits of black spots covering it up? Is it completely full of black spots of unconfessed sin? is it half full?

What is keeping us from getting a clean clear X-Ray. Jesus is waiting on us to come to Him for forgiveness.

We want a good clean X-Ray at the doctor when there is a problem with our heart don't we?

What about for Jesus? Do we also want a clear one?

No we can't take a physical X-Ray of our heart to see what it looks like spiritually, but we know personally what it looks like and feels like. If it doesn't look like it should what are we doing about it?

"If Only" I had....

Have you ever said those two little words "if only"......
You hear people say "if only I had said that instead"......"if only I had done that instead of this".....
"if only I had not gotten angry".....if only, if only, if only........

I talked a little bit about these little words last night at our Bible Study but you know what in doing more thinking today I had to really search more in my heart about these two words, and here are my thoughts.

Why do I think these two little words can change something?
These two little words keeps me looking backwards at things I no longer have control over instead of looking forward at the future things that I can affect by my decisions and choices.

These two little words keep me caught up, unfocused, unplugged, wastes my thoughts, keeps me at a barricade that hinders my growth.

I have made mistakes, made bad decisions and choices and maybe you have as well, but you know what? These two little words don't have to be the end of everything.

We need to think of these two little words as a computer virus, once it gets into your computer it messes everything up, "if onlys" do the same we can't get past the virus and move on if we continue to let the virus fester up in our thoughts all the time.

So how do we get rid of these two little words in our life and move on? We need to move our thoughts from "what was" to "what is".

We need to totally get rid of these two words from our vocabulary, our mouths, our thoughts and instead use words like "next time I will".

When we stop saying “if only” and start saying “next time I will” then we begin to push back the barricade of regret. We instead begin to move forward, and hold onto what can be in our future. We begin living in a way that is productive and working our lives the way God needs them to be rather than allowing defeat from our past "if onlys".

God will guide our way!
First John 1:9 says that "if you acknowledge your sins and failures (the things you have said and done and now regret), God will wipe them out as though they never even existed, and guide you every step of the way toward a promising future".

If our life is dominated by “if onlys,” let's throw those two little words away and let God teach us how to say “next time I will.”

After all my thoughts when I returned from Bible Study last night on these two little words I'm truly going to "try this" and watch how God can change me by changing these two "little words", and I challenge each of you to try the same and I hope to hear from you as to how God changes you by changing two "little words" in your life.

Another Hill..........No

OK today was 21.5 miles at the MS Walk.
It was a killer day. Erin has two big blisters. I have 4 baby blisters but one is between my toes. Yep you can say it "Ouch" is the correct word.

Probably 3/4's of todays route was all hills. We are praying for "no hills" tomorrow and Sunday.

Our calves were spasming on the last 1/2 mile of today and finally is beginning to settle down.

Maybe rest tonite will help clear that up. I know that I'm gonna lose three toenails as they are already purple and very tender.

Okay but beyond all these bad sounding details of today, We have 19.5 miles to walk tomorrow

Pray, Pray, Pray (did I say pray) We sure would covet those prayers being lifted up. We start walking at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

We love all of you and if there is anyone who is reading this blog we can still accept donations up through June 30 2009. You can visit the National MS Society website and do a search for our chapter Mid Atlantic and then search for my name and you will see instructions on what to do.

Guess What......

OK here is a test for all of you. Can anyone guess what this is?

Complaining / Pouting....what does the Bible say about it.

In our Bible Study this week Day One was about pouting.....

What do you do when things go wrong? What do you do about it? Do you just accept it and move forward or do you complain?

Sometimes it is easier to be a whiner but it's not a beautiful character trait. The Bible gives us some help to understand why we shouldn't complain and pout.

1. Complaining Can be a Sign of Being Ungrateful

From day to day there are times when we find ourself complaining even about the "smallest" of things (like "I asked for extra ice in my tea mam"). When things don't go the way we want we start complaining and whining.

Complaining shows an attitude of ungratefulness and bitterness. Complaining tests God’s patience.

1 Corinthians 10:10 - And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Job 10:1 - I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

2. Complaining Sometimes leads to Disobedience.
3. Also after complaining then comes the pouting.

The more we complain the more we lose sight of the many good things that God does in our life every day. This will lead us to an attitude where we lose faith in God and we can cause others to lose faith too.

Psalm 106:25 - They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD.

We need to be Keeping a Positive Attitude as much as possible, not let "things" bother us to the point of complaining/pouting.

Things will go wrong in our life. We can spend our time complaining, taking our eyes off of God, or we can find a way to make things better. We can remember all the things God has provided and blessed us with and not only will we be happier, but we will be a positive Christian example to everyone around us

Ephesians 4:29 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

I have to admit I have had my share of complaining and pouting in my life, but I'm sick of it.
God has really shown me for about a year now how to rid my life of both. No I'm not completely there yet but I've made tremendous progress and intend on doing everything I can to get rid of it forever. I want to make "positive" influences on others and let them see Jesus in me, so that they will want Jesus in them.

I know that I will not be able to completely rid myself of complaining and pouting because I'm human and Satan somehow finds a way to show his ugly horns in all our lives.

But I can say "I'm giving it my best", Thank you Lord for what You are teaching me and how You are leading me.