what do you think??

I read this quote somewhere today,on twitter, I think & it just really made so much sense to me! What do you think?? True?? =)

"If you are not willing to be misunderstood, you're not ready to be used by God."

worthy to remember in these troubled times....

2 Chron 7:14 If my people , which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Practical vision for young mothers....a series..

Joy, The Stay at Home Missionary is doing a series this week on "Practical Vision for Young Mothers". This is an excerpt from today's Part I. Go on over, read and become encouraged, because if you are like me, you really need it! :)


"It is in those moments as a mother that it is the most challenging, and we find ourselves asking the questions (similar to the ones I asked during my meltdown):

Why am I here?

Why am I doing this?

Does any of this matter?

Does my life count for anything at all?

Well, your life and your job as a mother does matter."

 

 

♥Julie♥

~Abigail~

 I found this while searching through my blogger drafts this morning for, oddly enough, a craft about birds nests! ha! Anyway, it made a lot of sense to me so I wanted to share it with you. Hope it helps someone.



REVIVE OUR HEARTS.COM

Caught in the Middle

Series: Abigail: How to Live with the Fools in Your Life
Wednesday, April 16 2008

Leslie Basham: Here’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You don’t have to let a harsh, badly-behaved man turn you into a harsh, badly-behaved woman.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Wednesday, April 16.

Yesterday we wrapped up a series on how wives can understand their husbands better, meet a husband’s needs, and serve him. Whenever we air a series like that, we hear from listeners who are in bleak situations.
Nancy provides biblical counsel for women who have husbands who seem impossible to love, and she gives advice to anybody who has to deal with a difficult person. Here she is in a series called How to Live with the Fools in Your Life.

Nancy: If you’ve been listening to Revive Our Hearts for any length of time, you may remember a year or so ago when we did a lengthy series on the Proverbs 31 woman. We called it The Counter-cultural Woman.
When you think about Proverbs 31 and that virtuous woman, it’s easy, perhaps, for some women to think, “That’s easy for that woman to be virtuous. Look at the guy she’s married to. I mean, he loves her. He’s an honorable man. He’s a virtuous man. Anybody could be a great woman if she was married to a man like that.”

I think of some of our listeners who call us, send letters, or emails. I’m so thankful for those letters and emails. I read as many of them as possible. So many of those women pour out their hearts about some difficult or impossible situation that they feel trapped in.

For some, it’s their marriage. They’re married to a man who just is impossible to love, humanly speaking. He may just be mean. Or maybe it’s a situation at work—a boss who’s impossible, somebody they can’t please.
It may be a situation in their church—someone they can’t get along with, someone who is cantankerous. I’m sure there’s nobody cantankerous in your church. But in some churches, there are some cantankerous people.

Maybe you have one of those impossible people in your life—maybe in the four walls of your own home, in your workplace, in your church, in your neighborhood, wherever. How do you live with those kinds of people? How do you respond as a virtuous woman when you’re living with someone who is an ungodly, foolish person?

Well, there’s an amazing story in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter 25. I want to ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 25. We’re going to be introduced to a woman in the Old Testament. She’s not as well-known as some of the other women that we’ve studied in Revive Our Hearts, not as well-known as Mary of Nazareth or Deborah or Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.

But Abigail has become one of my favorite Old Testament characters. She is an extraordinary woman. There’s a lot we can learn from her life, not only from her life but also from the two men who are the other main characters in this story.

At any given time in your life, you may relate to any one of these three characters. So we’re not just going to study Abigail. We want to look at the two men who were involved in her life. As we do this character study, we want to see what God has to teach us for our lives.

Let’s start with verse one, which is the setting for this story. In verse one of chapter 25 we read, “Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.”
You remember that Samuel was a man of God. He was a prophet. He lived a long, long time. He was the last of the judges. He was the one who anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel. He’s also the one who anointed David to be Saul’s replacement.

When I think of Samuel dying, the picture that comes to my mind is a little bit like what happened when President Ronald Reagan died. Do you remember? He had been a great leader. He had led this nation. He was esteemed. He was respected. He’d lived a lot of years. He had led the nation well.

When President Reagan died, do you remember how the flags were flown at half mast and how thousands and thousands of people lined up, first in California and then in the streets of Washington D.C., to just stand and watch as the procession carrying his body drove through those streets. Remember how over a hundred thousand people stood in line there at the rotunda in Washington, some of them for up to three hours, just to file by and pay their last respects.

The nation mourned when President Reagan died. I mean, Republicans, Democrats, people who didn’t know what party they were. They had a lot of respect for this man. And they mourned when he died. They grieved.
I think that’s a little bit what it was like when Samuel died. There was this national sense of grieving, mourning. But of all the people who were grieving when this great man of God, Samuel, died, I think that David was probably the one who mourned this loss as much as anyone else in the whole land of Israel.

You remember that David had been anointed to be the next king of Israel. But King Saul was still on the throne. King Saul was an egomaniac. He was full of himself. He was insecure. And he was trying to kill David. He was jealous of David and knew that David was coming to the throne. There was this war going on between Saul and David.

Samuel the prophet had been a buffer between David and Saul. And now Samuel is gone. I can imagine David feeling abandoned, vulnerable, alone, maybe depressed, discouraged, maybe wondering, “Are God’s promises for my life really ever going to come true?”

In the midst of that lonely, vulnerable, scared time in David’s life, we come to the next phrase in verse one that says, “Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.”

David, in the context of 1 Samuel 25 here, has been fleeing for his life from this madman, King Saul. He’s a fugitive. In the previous chapter he had been in the wilderness of Engedi and had had an encounter with King Saul. Now Samuel dies, and David moves further south down to the wilderness of Paran to get further away from King Saul.

As he’s headed south toward the wilderness of Paran, this story takes place. In this place David encounters a couple, a husband and a wife, and a couple like many I have heard of and met today, where one of the mates is a godly person who loves and fears the Lord and the other mate is a totally ungodly, selfish, wicked person. It happens. And David met a couple just like that.

As we’ve said, there are three main characters in this story. When you study the Bible, as you do character studies, it helps to ask yourself, whether the characters are good or bad.

Is there an example here for me?
Is there an example to be followed?
Is there an example to be avoided?

What does this passage and what do these people teach me about the heart and the ways and the character of God?
That’s what we’re going to be looking for in this story.

The first character we’re introduced to—and I want to just give you a quick overview today and then tomorrow we’ll jump into the story. But the first character is a man named Nabal. His name means “fool,” a Hebrew word for “fool.”

In verse 25, we read about Nabal. “As his name is, so is he.” His name means “fool” and that describes exactly what this man was like. He was a wicked, foolish man.
As we study the life of Nabal, we’re going to see a lot of the characteristics of a fool. As you see those characteristics, you may recognize someone you know, maybe more than one person.

But you know what else? You may also see yourself, at points. One of the things we want to do as we go through this series is say, “How can we avoid becoming like a Nabal? How can we avoid having those characteristics in our lives?”

Nabal’s foolish behavior evoked two very different kinds of responses from the other two main characters in the story. First there was David, the man who was going to be king. He had been appointed by God to be king, but he was still a fugitive from King Saul.

David’s response, when he came face to face with this foolish man Nabal, was to get provoked. He lost control. He was tempted to respond just the same way that Nabal had treated him. The danger is that when you get around a fool, you may respond like a fool.

In fact, as we get into this story, we’ll see that David’s response was even worse than what Nabal had done to provoke him. We’ll see in this story that even the most godly people sometimes act in ungodly, foolish ways.
That’s why we all need wise counsel. We need godly people around us who will help us see when we’re being foolish and, when necessary, will confront us, will love us enough to get into our face and speak the truth to us as Abigail did to David.

We need people who will give us godly counsel when we’re acting like fools. And we need to learn to listen to that counsel, to take it, to heed it.
That’s what humility really is. It’s the willingness to listen to wise counsel and to change direction when we realize we’ve been wrong. We’re going to see in David a man who, though he initially responded foolishly to this fool, was willing to listen to wise counsel and to change his course, to change his direction, when he realized he’d been wrong.

The third character, as we’ve already referenced, is this woman named Abigail. She models an incredible response to foolish people. There’s so much we can learn from her, whether the fool in your life is the husband or it’s a boss or it’s a son or daughter or it’s an in-law or it’s somebody in your church or your neighbor. Whoever the fool is in your life, Abigail teaches us how to live with and deal with the fools in your life.

She’s a woman of discretion. She’s a woman of wisdom. She’s a peacemaker. Her life changes the whole outcome of this story.
As in every story, including yours, there’s a fourth, mostly-silent character in this story and that is God Himself. God who is always behind the scenes ruling, overruling and intervening in the affairs of men. God who is always sovereign; He’s always on His throne. He’s always working to achieve His purposes and fulfill His promises.

We see in this story a God who is never absent, a God who is never asleep on the job. It’s the same God who is in your story, a God who is involved in your life, who cares about the fools that you live with or work with or go to school with. There’s a God who is involved.

Verses 2 and 3 tell us:
There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite.

Most likely this marriage between Abigail and Nabal had been arranged by her parents, as most marriages were in that culture. She probably had no say in the matter. She was beautiful. He was rich. Her father may have thought he was really doing her a favor by marrying her into this rich man’s family, thought he was doing a good thing for her.

A beautiful woman and a rich man—you’d think that was a great combination. But the problem is that beauty and wealth are only external characteristics. What really matters when it comes down to real life is the heart, the character, not the outward appearance or the material wealth.
In the case of this couple, the difference between their hearts and their character could hardly have been more extreme. It was like night and day. This is a totally mismatched couple when it comes to matters of the heart.
He was a foolish, ungodly man; she was a wise, godly woman. We don’t know if he had always been that way, if he was that way when they got married. Maybe she thought he was a great man when they got married. As is true of many women that I’ve heard from, they say, “I had no clue till years into our marriage what kind of man he was going to turn into.”
Or maybe he’d always been ill-tempered and ill-mannered. We don’t know. All we know is she ended up in this very difficult marriage.

There are a couple points of application that are pretty obvious to me already in this chapter. First is the fact that if you are godly, that does not necessarily guarantee that your mate will be godly or that others in your life, others you live with, family members, friends, co-workers will be godly. The fact that you are a godly person does not guarantee that the people around you will be godly people. Neither does it guarantee that they will change.

Sometimes people who write us about our program say, “You give me the feeling that if I just live a godly life, my husband will become a godly man.”
I want to make it clear. We are not saying that, because the Scripture doesn’t say that. Scripture does teach that a godly mate can have a powerful influence on an ungodly mate. But there’s no guarantee that your choosing to live God’s way will change the people around you who are fools, who are Nabals. They may never change.

There’s a second application here, and that is that you don’t have to let a harsh, badly-behaved man turn you into a harsh, badly-behaved woman. That’s one of the powerful things about this story. The fact that your mate or someone else that you have to live with or work with on a regular basis, the fact that they are ungodly doesn’t mean that you can’t be godly yourself.

You see, we tend to feel that our level of godliness or spirituality is tied into the people around us. They make us react this way. No one can make you react in an ungodly way. The fact that you have to live with a person who is ungodly doesn’t mean that you can’t be godly yourself. Your character, your responses don’t have to be controlled by theirs.

One of the things that I love about this story is by the time we enter into it—we don’t know what all had preceded it but we know that Abigail has been living with this harsh, badly-behaved man. We know that had to affect her. She was living with the man.

But it’s obvious that she had not let Nabal destroy her. She was still a discerning, wise, godly, beautiful woman. She had not let his behavior control hers. She was still winsome, courageous, gracious.

And most important, she had not lost her faith in the promises of God just because she was living with this wicked man who, as far as she knew, never would change. In fact, he never did change.

We’re first introduced to Nabal in this story and then to David and then to Abigail. Verse 2 tells us that this man was very rich. He was a business man, a wealthy business man. He was influential.

As you read this story, and this will unfold over the next few sessions, one of the things that’s real obvious is some of the potential pitfalls of wealth. These things don’t have to be true of wealthy people, but they often are. By the world’s standards, we are wealthy. So these are qualities we need to watch out for in our own lives.

People who are wealthy can become independent-spirited. Others need them, others are dependent on them, but they don’t need anybody. They don’t need anything.

Sometimes with people who are very rich in the world’s standards in material goods, it’s hard for others to be honest with them. In verse 17 the servants said about Nabal their master, “One cannot speak to him.” He won’t listen to anybody.

Nobody can tell the truth to him. He’s powerful. He’s influential. He’s wealthy and people are scared to death of him. Nobody will really speak the truth to him.

We all need mirrors in our lives. We need people who will be honest with us, who will love us enough to speak the truth. But here’s a man who, partially because of his wealth, had gotten into a position where no one would be honest with him.

People were afraid of telling him the truth, afraid of losing their job. What if one of those employees had spoken up and said, “Nabal you’re wrong; you’re acting like a fool”?
“Off with your head.”

So, people were afraid of him. Sometimes when you have a lot of wealth by the world’s standards, it’s easy to assume the worst of others, to assume negatively of others, as we’ll see that Nabal did of David.

Proverbs 18:23 is a verse that has always been very convicting to me. It says, “The poor use entreaties.” They appeal. They plead. “But the rich answer roughly.” They can talk any way they want to talk. They own the world. It’s all theirs. There’s this pride, this arrogance that sometimes, not always but sometimes, goes with wealth.

Not only was he very rich, but verse 3 tells us he was harsh. If you’re using the King James Version you’ll have there the word churlish. It’s a word that in the Hebrew means “hard, unyielding, unbending, uncontrollable.” You get the picture of this man? He’s a harsh man.

He’s an abusive man. He’s abusive to his wife. He’s abusive to others. He’s verbally abusive. He’s a hard drinker; we’re going to see that. He’s just a mean man.

There are those men in this world and sometimes you have to live with a fool. It may be in your marriage, in your workplace, in your church, in some other sphere of your life. We’re going to see from this study that there is a way to deal with fools in your life and there’s a way not to deal with fools in your life.

The Scripture says that not only was he harsh, he was badly-behaved. The NIV says in that verse that he “was surly and mean in his dealings.” He was corrupt. Chances are he’d gotten some of his wealth by cheating others. He was a badly-behaved man.

And then that phrase, “He was a Calebite.” That may mean that he was a descendant of Caleb, who was a godly man from the tribe of Judah. But the word Caleb in Hebrew means “dog.” Some commentators suggest that, rather than being a descendant of Caleb, what it’s really saying is that it was an adjective to describe his behavior.

One translation renders it, “He was snappish as a dog.” His character is best described as we’ve seen by his name—Nabal, fool.

When we see the word fool in the Scripture, we need to remember that a fool is not somebody who is mentally deficient. It’s someone who is morally deficient. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). It’s a person who wants to live his life as if there were no God.

He has no fear of God, no fear of man, no regard for what is moral, no regard for what is spiritual. As a result, he acts stupidly, foolishly, disgracefully.

Isaiah 32:6 says, “The fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness and to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.”
We’re going to see that Nabal, the fool, lived up to that description of a fool. He kept back food and water from those who were hungry and thirsty. He was a foolish man.

I think you can see already that your heart determines your character and your behavior. If you have a foolish heart, you will act foolishly. Your character and your behavior reveals your heart. If you’re acting foolishly in foolish ungodly ways, that reveals that you have a foolish heart.
All through this series, it’s going to be easy as we read about Nabal to think of someone we know. But I want us as we examine this passage to let God shine the spotlight of His Spirit and His Word into our hearts and say, “Could any of this be true of me?”

Am I sometimes impossible to deal with?
Are people not honest with me because I’ll blow up?
Am I arrogant, proud, harsh?
Do I assume negatively of others, assume the worst of them?
Do I answer roughly rather than graciously?
If I act in those ways, if I speak in those ways, that tells you something about the condition of my heart.

The Scripture says we’re all born fools. Only the grace of God and the power of the Gospel, the power of Christ, can transform our hearts, give us a new heart and give us a wise heart.

That’s why we need a heart transplant. It’s only the grace of God if there’s anything in us that is gracious and kind or sweet-spirited, in our homes and in our other relationships. That’s why we desperately need God’s grace.
Apart from the grace of God, every one of us would be a Nabal. That’s why we desperately need the grace of God.

Leslie: That’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss reminding us of how needy we really are. All of us need to learn to not be a fool and how to love other people who are being foolish.

Our team has developed a Bible study on the story of Abigail that will help you incorporate God’s grace into areas of need in your life. It comes with a CD of Nancy’s teaching and you can use the booklet and CD together to study Abigail’s life. Identify areas where you want to become more like her and take some practical next steps.

We’ll send you the Abigail teaching on CD and the accompanying study guide when you make a much-needed donation to Revive Our Hearts. Your gift will help us to continue speaking into the lives of women, and I think you’ll get a lot out of this study we provide as our thanks to you.
Look for information on this study guide, and donate at ReviveOurHearts.com or donate by phone: 1-800-569-5959.
A lot of people call for a lot of reasons, so when you make your donation, would you specifically let us know you’d like the Abigail CD and study guide?

Do you ever have trouble controlling your anger? Get some perspective on the danger of acting in anger from the story of Abigail. We’ll hear about it tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.
Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.


♥Julie♥

~a God stop~

Last night, I was thumbing through my new Bible I had just received in the mail. What I already LOVE about this Bible is the 1 minute thought starters that are placed throughout the book! This is what the packaging box says about those, "Throughout this Bible you will find fifty-two one -minute thought starters that let you dip into God's word for a minute of refreshment. To go deeper, each one of these Thought-Starters is followed by an option for a five-minute Reflect and Pray or a ten-minute Study to help you to learn even more about what God's word has to say to you today."

Anyway, as I was going through it trying to find something that applies to my right now, I came across this one:

RESTORE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

What's that, again, God??????

Restore your Relationships. 

And, it continued on and I knew I was out of my comfort zone:

1 minute:   "If you ...remember that your brother has something against you...go and be reconciled to your brother." Matthew 5:23-24

'Forgiveness from God coupled with responsibility toward the other person are key to restoring relationships. In Jesus' eyes, broken relationships are always our responsibility. If someone has something against us, He calls us to go and make it right. If we have something against another, we're responsible to take the initiative to settle our differences (Matt. 18:15). It's not always comfortable, but it is always the right thing to do. Do whatever it takes to restore the relationship. Do it because it pleases God and because your relationships will be richer for it.

5 minutes:

Reflect and Pray: What are some ways you might need to reconcile your relationship with God? What relationship did you once enjoy that has since unraveled? What are steps you could take to restore that relationship?

10 minute: Study:

Turn to pg. 1151 for additional verses on Your Relationships. Look up and pray through some of the verses to learn more on this topic.

Word to take with you today:  RESTORE

Wow. I could write a book on my struggles with relationships. I try, really I do but sometimes I give up.  But, according to the study I am doing, it doesn't matter to Jesus. I need to get over myself and my hurt feelings and reach out. Even if I get kicked in the teeth (which is the case with a few people) I need to keep trying. For my sake. For my husband's sake. For the sake of my children. Because God says to do it. And that should be enough motivation to try. 

This being a Christian stuff is hard sometimes. But oh-so-ever worth it!!!

♥Julie♥ 

~All my tears....~

When I die don't cry for me
In my father's arms I'll be

The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I'll be whole

Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of jesus face

And I will not be ashamed
For my saviour knows my name

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free

It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away

Gold and silver blind the eye
Temporary riches light

Come and eat from Heavens store
Come and drink, and thirst no more

So weep not for me my friend
When my time below does end

For my life belongs to Him
Who will raise the dead again

It don't matter, where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free

It don't matter, where I lay
All my tears be washed away

It don't matter, they're washed away
It don't matter, they're washed away
It don't matter, they're washed away

Yeah, yeah, yeah
It don't matter where you bury me
Yeah, yeah, yeah
They're washed away
They're washed away

~Selah

Nothing....

"Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. NOTHING is too hard for you!!!!" (emphasis & exclamation points, mine) Jeremiah 32:17

 

Nothing. Not one single thing is too hard for our GOD. What does this mean in my life? How does this apply to MY current needs?? How about yours???

Slow Fade...

Slow Fade,by: Casting Crowns

Slow Fade:

Be careful little eyes what you see
It’s the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it’s the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade,
it’s a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

*This song used to be on my playlist. I need to put it back up along with some others. I can never listen to it enough. I pray that those who open their hearts to these words may never forget the truth they hold. Be very careful, very, very, careful. Please.

Love to all,
Julie

God in us!!!!!....

God in us! Have we sounded the depth of this promise?God was with Adam and Eve. God was with Abraham. God was with Moses and the children of Israel. God was with the apostles.But he is in you. You are a modern-day Mary. Even more so. He was a fetus in her, but he is a force in you. He will do what you cannot. Max Lucado

John 15 and a prayer request...

I had meant to start on John 15 this week and I am still reading it and planning on posting my thoughts. However, my Uncle died on Tuesday so that's kind of delayed the posting of it until after the funeral which is today at 2. Please pray for the family.

I will try to post the first part of John 15 on Friday or Saturday. I would really love to know your thoughts, as well.

Be back soon!

Monday Meanderings...

Memory Verse: I am working on the entire chapter of John 15. You are welcome to join me!

Bible Study: RENEW and John 15.

Zone: Kitchen clutter & deep cleaning & laundry room

Train them up: We had an EXCELLENT week last week!! Such beautiful weather and the kids were so well behaved and kind so all in all, it was a great week. This week, we are working on getting back in our routine of picking up after ourselves and putting up our laundry as soon as it's folded! It's the little things that make a home... :)

Husband Encouragement:

Work on "The Love Dare" again..
Write a long "steamy" sweet love letter
Get the house in order and keep it that way!!
Make Charlie a chocolate pie (I'll share the recipe later)


Must Do:

Pay Insurance
Work on budget (again)
Clean out car (as always!)
Keep laundry folded and put away
Cook every night
Take kids outside more every day & do school outside!!

Fun things:

~Charlie is off for a week (paid, yes!!) starting Friday...so this will be a short week for us and we are SO looking forward to that week with Daddy!!!!! We have a date night already planned and some time with family, lots of things that will be super exciting!! Can't wait and pray for NO sickness! =)

Menu:

*Monday:
breakfast: oatmeal cookie bars
lunch: egg salad, fruit
supper: Soft tacos, sliced apples

Tuesday:
breakfast: pancakes w/spiced apples
lunch: leftover tacos or taco salad
supper: Julie's spicy spaghetti, salad

Wednesday:
breakfast: breakfast burritos
lunch:PB&honey on sourdough bread,bananas
supper: Italian sandwiches, pickles,olives, peppers,fruit salad

Thursday:
breakfast: apple spice scones
lunch:crescent roll pizza, fruit
supper: chinese chicken fried rice

Friday:
breakfast: Holiday Gingerbread muffins
lunch: homemade mac & cheese,carrots
supper: Beef Fajitas, Homemade refried beans guacamole, salsa, chips,

Saturday:
breakfast: biscuits and gravy
lunch: nachos
supper: homemade pizza, salad

Sunday:
breakfast: pumpkin scones
lunch: Jambalaya, brown rice, cornbread
supper: leftovers

*I am using what's in the pantry this week and trying to get by with buying very little to NO groceries this week...we will see if I can do that or not!! (I've got more recipe links to put up; I'll try and be back later to do that!)

Have a great week and join us at Sarah's for more Monday Meanderings!

John 15...a bible study!!

1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8 My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. 9 "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13 And here is how to measure it – the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. 14 You are my friends if you obey me. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 I command you to love each other. 18 "When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. 19 The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? 'A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! 21 The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. 24 If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us – me and my Father. 25 This has fulfilled what the Scriptures said: 'They hated me without cause.' 26 "But I will send you the Counselor – the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. 27 And you must also tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning.




When we were at our Gospel meeting this weekend, Brother Gerald (aka "Papa Gerald" to my kids) spoke on some of his thoughts concerning John 15. He also challenged us to "take your Bible home, read John 15, soak it up, spend some TIME on it, break it down" so I am doing that this week!!! I am SO excited!! I know when God is speaking to me and believe me, that was a GOD moment for me, for sure! So, if you want to join me, that would be great! I will try to be back every day and just post a little bit each day on what I am learning! I am also in the middle of a great study of RENEWal that is really challenging me! Stay tuned....


~Love ya'll!


Julie

Edifying words...

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29


May I carry this in my heart and on my tongue all through the day!! 

~Love,

Julie

Bible Study...

I have been feeling that I need to be part of a womens bible study for awhile now and I think I will join in with this one. If you are interested, please join us. I just feel the NEED to be a part of this so I am going to. You don't have to agree with someone completely on every.single.issue to study with them. so be in prayer about it and if you feel led to join, we would be glad to have you! I am also thinking of having a bible study on this blog. We shall see. I will have to pray about it before I commit.  I have done this in the past and really benefited from it but it's been a long while.....maybe it's time to dig deep into God's word, again!

~Love,
Julie

what do you think???

As Christians, we spend a great deal of effort in our sermons and Bible studies trying to make the Scriptures relevant to us. Perhaps it is time to make our lives relevant to the Scriptures. ~ Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus By D. Thomas Lancaster

Is God in my home?

Reading this today. Reading & dwelling there. Reflecting and studying myself and my actions and motives. I love Sally Clarkson. She writes some very inspired things and always I dig deeper to find more of myself to give to my family after I read one of her posts or a page from one of her books. She is just that inspiring. And this post, right here, well, God gave her a good word. That's for sure. Read this and be changed. Like I am today.

My prayers are with all wives and mothers tonight.

Love,
Julie

starting over again......

I have went almost all the way through The Love Dare and maybe I am just being completely ridiculously hard on myself but as I am doing the Husband Encouragement Challenge along with The Love Dare, I am finding so many things that I am just not getting! Call me hard headed but I believe that my husband deserves MY VERY BEST and I will continue to do this Love Dare and the Challenge over and over probably for the rest of my life. I don't want to ever again, get caught in a rut in our marriage. And, I can definitely say both of these marriage tools are working! My husband is so different and considerate (he was before but now, A NEW LEVEL!!!) I am different. I am more thoughtful. I put Charlie's preferences and wants FIRST, most of the time. It is changing me so much but I want to continue to be changed!! I want to continue to be challenged and I want to feel that pain of being pruned because I know it is working!!

I only have a few minutes on the computer as I am trying to limit my computer time and be more disciplined. So, I am going to share with you Day 1 of the Love Dare. I am starting over!! Well, here goes:

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in Love." Ephesians 4:2 NIV

"Love will inspire you to become a patient person. When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation. You are slow to anger. You choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and being extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm." pg.1

"This Love Dare journey is a process and the first thing you must resolve to possess is patience. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. But it's a race worth running." pg. 3


TODAY'S DARE: DAY 1:

"THE FIRST PART OF THIS DARE IS FAIRLY SIMPLE. ALTHOUGH LOVE IS COMMUNICATED IN A NUMBER OF WAYS, OUR WORDS OFTEN REFLECT THE CONDITION OF OUR HEART. FOR THE NEXT DAY, RESOLVE TO DEMONSTRATE PATIENCE AND SAY NOTHING NEGATIVE TO YOUR SPOUSE AT ALL. IF THE TEMPTATION ARISES, CHOOSE NOT TO SAY ANYTHING. IT'S BETTER TO HOLD YOUR TONGUE THAN TO SAY SOMETHING YOU'LL REGRET."

Okay, here goes!! Starting over again! Be praying for me!!

Love,
Julie

Is America really this biblically illiterate?!

I would twitter this but no one is reading twitter right now! :) (Sis?) This was, I believe, the very first verse I ever learned. How about you? What do you think? I, personally, am very proud that he is wearing this on his face. Also, I do not think it is all America's fault that they are googling John 3:16 to find out what it is. I believe that the reason a lot of peple don't know is because Jesus' followers (aka..Christians) don't take the time, don't make it a priority, don't put out enough effort to serve those who don't know Christ. And by that, I mean, we don't show them what true Christianity is. True Christianity, being a follower of Christ, walking with Christ, is SERVING. I can't say that enough times. :) Acts of kindness, listening, just being there for someone......being a SERVANT. And by serving, by loving those who do not know the Lord, we are opening the way for their salvation. By doing this, we may make those who don't know the love of Christ, curious about HIS word. :)

That, folks, is my humble pitiful attempt to explain what I am feeling about this article! And, by the way, I AM SO GLAD THAT THEY WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am from Oklahoma but I am NOT an OU fan!!!!! I am an OSU FAN ALL THE WAY, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! GO POKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I don't have orange as a text color option or I would have put that in ORANGE!!)

Have a great week!

Julie

*Kids are sleeping and have been for 2 hours. Please continue to pray. I really do appreciate all of your prayers & emails & phone calls. Feeling loved today!! :)

James 3 & spiritual battles..

The kids are all sleeping. They have just been sleeping on and off all morning and I can't sleep (to much caffeine so I could stay awake this morning & now I can't sleep) :(

I have pretty much quit trying to read the Bible chronologically for now. It's just too much jumping around to do when I need something right now(with 3 babies) that I can read quickly and focus on. (make sense?) So, I have been reading along with Amanda in James. We are on James 3 right now.

I am really enjoying reading along with her. James is really convicting me of some issues I need to deal with in my life at this point. It's not easy reading but it is what I need to do right now. Hopefully, I can share more with you about that later this week. I feel like I have walked around in a haze this past year and I am struggling so hard to break through it. I feel like God has so much in store for me that He wants for me but I feel like it is such a fight to get there. Spiritual battles have been VERY heavy lately.

Well, I have to go and get some things done. Just wanted to let you know I will be sharing more on what I am learning in James throughout the week. Today I am understanding just HOW MUCH evil my tongue can do.... more about that tomorrow. :)

Love you all,
Julie

updates!!!

Jase (my nephew) does not have RSV!!! Thank you for your prayers!! :)

And, on the bible through a year note, I know that it is January 7th but I am only on day 2!!! Sorry, life has just happened and I believe that God knows that better than anyone! :) So, here's where I am picking up today:

Day 2
the line of Seth: Genesis 4:25; 5:3-5; 4:17-18, 26; 5:6-20
the line of Cain: Genesis 4:19-24
from Enoch to Noah: Genesis 5:21-30; 6:1-8; 5:32; 6:9-10; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4
Noah's flood: Genesis 6:11-22; 5:31; 5:27; 7:1-8:12

Thanks to those of you who are trying to read along with me! The accountability helps and evidently I am needing that as a push to pick up and read!

So, please read with me and continue to let me know how you are doing. If you emailed me in the past couple of days, I will try to get back to you sometime in the next couple of days. Today is going to be super busy and very stressful. Please pray for me. Maybe I can share details at a later date. We will see. Lots of things happening and right now I am just trying to sit still and wait on God.

Love to all,
Julie