The procrastinator is back!

First...if you have posted a comment on my blog, I am not seeing it.  I can only see a couple from the first  entries.  I am sorry.  Can you try again? 

"A blog is not a blog if I don't post in it". That's what a friend reminded me last night after choir practice.  That's right! Another friend reminded me tonight that she missed my posts! 

Yep, I've done it yet again, put off posting.  And I don't even have any good excuses!  

We've had a couple weeks of cold and snow here in Virginia.  I had prayed for ONE good snowstorm for the winter.  God answers over and above what we ask for,  we have had three!  

I was born and raised in NW Pennsylvania, so I know how very long and cold winters can be.  I am thankful I am not living there.  We may get a few snow storms in the winter or we may get nothing here.  I like one good snow storm. That gives me the beauty of the snow that I miss, but I don't have to deal with it from October to April.   

So, I have to confess I love that everything gets shut down around here during snow storms. I love to be snowed in for a few days. And if my family is home safe then let it snow!  I love taking pictures of the snow and the birds outside my windows. I love taking pictures of the snow on the trees and on my yard junk.  I love taking pictures of my dogs, kids, husband,  anyone who is out in the snow.  

I'm thinking I am strange, I can literally sit in my chair at my window all day taking picture after picture of the birds at the feeders that my husband keeps filled outside the window for me!  I do move to the other windows in the house and catch the birds at those feeders too.... Then I find myself with hundreds of bird pictures and have to decide which ones to keep and what to do with them!  Thank you Lord! for my digital camera!!  

I was watching the little sparrows the other day, and was reminded of how God's eye is on him. 

Mat 6:25  "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 

Mat 6:26  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. 

Mat 10:30  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Mat 10:31  So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 

So why do I worry when God promises I am worth more than all these beautiful little birds I am taking pictures of?  He has even numbered the hairs on my head!!  I really do not spend much time worrying.  I used to. But it seems  the Lord has shown me over and over in the last few years that worrying gets me nowhere, but trusting Him and taking my trials to Him results in a peace and joy that can only come from seeing my Lord answer my prayers.   I thought of these verses: 

Jas 1:2  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

Jas 1:3  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 

Jas 1:4  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

Jas 1:6  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 

Jas 1:7  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 

When I pray I want God to answer!  He says pray, believe, don't doubt!  If I do I shouldn't expect Him to answer!  Wow!   Well, then, ok Lord, I believe!  I will not doubt!  I will expect an answer!  In His time, in His way.  

Jas 4:3  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 

Jas 5:13  Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 

Jas 5:14  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 

Jas 5:15  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 

Jas 5:16  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 

Jas 5:17  Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 

Jas 5:18  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. 

I love the book of James!  So much in that book that speaks right to me.  I do not receive what I ask because I ask with selfish motives!  Wow!  Why do I pray?  The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  Wow!  And Elijah just blows me away!  First time I read that verse I thought, Wow!! Really!??  It really changed how I thought about prayer.  

Mat 11:28  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

Mat 7:7  "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 

Mat 7:8  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

I've learned so much about prayer from BSF leaders meetings. We are expected to pray for our group members each day. We start everything we do with prayer. Matthew 7:7 is the verse we base our prayers on.   ASK...ask, seek, knock...  and the door will be opened.  

My husband and I are sharing a verse with each other every morning then talking about it. Today was my turn and I was thinking about this verse in Psalm 37.

Psa 37:4  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

Psa 37:5  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 

Which then led to all the other verses and a discussion about God keeping His eye on the sparrow.    So, my weird compulsion to take hundreds of pictures of birds can bring me to a point of worshipping my Lord!  That excites me.  I love to look for God in the world around me. 

I hope these verses encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Maybe there is one here that is exactly what you need to hear today to help you keep going. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart!  

  

Love, 

Barb

Have you ever watched the movie The Croods?  These pics are of my two youngest sons and two grandchildren watching it.  My youngest, Ryan and I and Ayden, my grandson, had taken some furniture to Sean and Sarah and visited for the weekend. 

I had seen this movie once before, wasn't real sure I liked it the first time. Now after the second time, I'm still not sure!  Just something about it didn't sit well with me. 

So, bright and early this morning at 6 am, I was on my way to BSF leader's meeting. We meet every Saturday morning from 7 - 9 am. This is our training time and our time to share what God has been teaching us through the week.  Today we were having our monthly fellowship after class. This is when we eat and casually sit and share with one another what God has been doing in our lives since the last fellowship.  It's one of my favorite times, we get to know each other better and can share some of the awesome things God has been doing that we don't have time for in our normal leader's meeting. 

I was driving to Lynchburg this morning, about a 25 minute drive from my house, and asking God what He wanted me to share with the ladies. Sometimes He just says listen, today was one of those days...But as I was driving and asking His forgiveness for my sin He brought that movie to my mind.  Not because it was wrong to watch it, but He brought specifically the part where the young man and the father had fallen off a cliff and were in a tar pit. 

They were stuck. No way out. Nothing ever survived a tar pit. 
The tar does not let go, it sucks you in more and more till you 
are sucked under.  And now I can't remember what it was that 
pulled them free!!    :(   But, anyway, they grabbed onto I think 
a log or something...shoot, someone tell me what they grabbed!!  And didn't a bird come and pull them out??  You can tell I'm not good at this!  One of you will have to comment and tell it correctly for me...please???   

Anyway,  God brought that to my mind in relation to sin.  Sin is just like that tar pit. Once it gets you, it does not want to let you go.  And the longer you are in it, the further you sink, until one day you are sucked in and covered up with it. Unlike the tar pit that is black and ugly and you can see it, sin can be very deceiving, it can be appealing and sound like a wonderful thing. It can be so small at first that you don't even think it could ever amount to anything big. 

But, oh, isn't that just what our enemy wants us to think??  The Bible tells us that He masquerades as an angel of light. 

2 Corinthians 11:14   And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.


2 Corinthians  11:3  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 

It is all too easy to fall for the trap our enemy wants to set for us.  So how do we keep from falling for it? 

One of my favorite passages is Ephesians 6:10-18 

Eph 6:10  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 
Eph 6:11  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 
Eph 6:12  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 
Eph 6:13  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 
Eph 6:14  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 
Eph 6:15  and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 
Eph 6:16  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 
Eph 6:17  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 
Eph 6:18  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. 

Have you ever really studied this passage. I think it's pretty amazing.  I can be strong in the Lord's mighty power? Wow!   I can take a stand against the devil's schemes?  And all those struggles I see as against another person are against the forces of evil. Wow again!  That is hard to see when I'm right in the middle of a "disagreement" with someone. It sure does seem to be them I'm battling against.  But to see it as spiritual puts a different light on alot of arguments and differences of opinion with others.  I need to step back, pray, and allow God to shed light on the truth. 

But I can not fight this battle on my own!  It very clearly says put on the armor of God. I need a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, special shoes for my feet, a shield of faith to extinguish those flaming arrows of the evil one!!   Oh cool!!   I need my helmet of salvation, and my sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And I need to pray always, with all kinds of prayers and to be alert and keep praying for the Lord's people!  

I need to stay close to my Lord in order to fight the battles in this life!!  In order to stay close to Him, I must stay in His Word, I must be around other Christians, I must pray continually. If I don't I am going to get stuck in that ugly, black, miserable, life sucking tar pit.  I don't want to be there!! 

With that in mind I ask as Paul did that you would keep me in your prayers and I will pray for you!


Eph 6:19  Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 

And that is where I believe God took me this morning on my way to leader's meeting!  I pray you have a wonderful Sunday. That you will  join in your own church and worship the Lord. 


It's supposed to be 65 here tomorrow, I am hoping to spend the afternoon outside enjoying His beautiful creation. 

Love, 
Barb

Thank you all for the prayers for Daddy. He is doing better. Apparently it was  just an infection he picked up.

I've been thinking lately about hearing God speak.  Last year seemed to be the year God taught me how to know I was hearing Him speak.

 Every year in BSF I can look back and see at least one overall lesson God had been teaching me.  It is exciting and encouraging to look back and see that I have learned something through studying His Word. 

I have learned the difference between my thoughts and that voice I hear speaking to me that is God.  Have you ever heard God speak to you?  I don't mean in an audible voice, but when He tells me something there is no doubt whatsoever that God just spoke.  It's as real as if He is sitting  beside me talking to me in a normal voice.  

I love those moments. They come out of the blue most times. Even times when my mind has been on something entirely different than what He tells me.  When He speaks it is about something I have prayed about.  There is  an unmistakable feeling of knowing I have no choice but to obey Him at these times.  Sure I could always say no, God has given us that free will to do that...but, honestly, after the mistakes I've made and all the times I have disobeyed Him, I am afraid to not do what I know God has told me to do!   

Those times I have followed through with what God told me to do have been absolutely amazing.  Not always easy....downright hard sometimes....but  the peace, confidence and joy afterward are beyond explanation.  

So, I've been praying and wondering why I haven't heard God's voice in a while.  I know He's  not really gonna talk to me every day.  I don't expect that, although just think how awesome it will be when we are in Heaven and can have a conversation with Him just like we do each other now!!!   Ohhh, I can't wait to see Jesus!!   

Anyway....back to praying about it...actually I guess now that I think about it maybe I did hear His answer and I am just now realizing it!....  What I heard was.......Do you not realize how LOUD facebook is??    What????? facebook loud????  really????    hmmmm 

This stopped me...got me to thinking...and you know God is right.   It is loud. Very loud.  We are on there, checking to see what we are all doing, posting our own ideas, and yes, I can see how loud it is.  

If I want to hear God speak, I need to get rid of the distractions that block His voice.  God is not going to shout to be heard over top of everything else in my life. He wants my undivided attention.  He wants my devotion. God demands to be first in my life. 

So, I am working at NOT looking at facebook, or email first thing in the morning.  I agree with God that I was/am not putting Him first.  I have asked for His forgiveness and help to put Him back in that first place where He belongs.  

God wakes me up around 5 every morning. No alarm. I hate alarms and don't set it.( only on Saturday mornings for BSF.)  I love getting up early when the house is silent, and just looking at the stars and talking to my Lord. I then usually study my BSf and spend time learning and searching for more of Him.  It is my favorite time of the day. 

But I seem to want to reach for my phone and peek at facebook or email!   And this distracts me and yes it is loud!!  

Psalm 46:10  Be still and know that I am God.......

John 10:27  Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me."

Luke 10:39  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said. 


Revelation many times says: Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 

And Revelation 3:20 "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

 So, how do I hear if I am too busy "listening" to everything around me?  I have chosen facebook only because that is what I feel God has pointed out to me.  But we have tons of different ways not to listen to Him.  

If you want to share I would love to hear.  Or maybe you would share how you block out the distractions of the world and spend time with God?  

Now, I am sorry I have procrastinated once again in posting.  I sincerely ask that you all would be praying that  I can listen to the Spirit pushing me to write and to do it when I hear Him!!   I hear Him say you need to write in your blog...but I tend to come up with excuses... guess what.....that's just plain disobedience when I hear and ignore..........Please Lord forgive me!  And I also ask for your forgiveness also. 

Love,
Barb