My new tote/purse

Here is the bag that I made today. It is reversible. All of the things from my purse fit into the pockets that are all around it. I am using it with the pockets on the inside. It was very easy to make and I will probably make a couple more. I am thinking one out of jean material would be nice.

Luke 6:37

Luke 6:37
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Is it easy for you to forgive? What about when someone really hurts you in some way, emotional or physical? What about when someone hurts one of your children? If you are like me, it is easy for me to forgive a hurt to me, but hurt one of my children and I am a mama bear. It is much harder for me to forgive you if you hurt my children.

That being said, we are commanded to forgive, and there are no exceptions that I can find. I am praying that the Lord would help me in this situation, cause in my flesh I just can't do it right now.

Are you weary?

I was chatting on imms with a friend I met a couple of years ago on another list. It is a flylady sorta list, and I was made a moderator when one of the owners of the list died. The other owner and the one who died were best friends and she (owner now) just can't bring herself to give it up or close it, but she also can't oversee it anymore. Anyway, all that to say, this lady I chatted with this morning was a member for awhile on there. She is a Christian, and we would encourage each other some days on imms when we were marathon cleaning for holidays, etc.

So this morning she caught me to ask for prayers and she is feeling some of the same things I am but for different reasons.

I shared with her two of my favorite verses.

Is 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

Is 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Now a lot of you know everything I have been facing recently. The world would tell me I have good reason to be weary. But here the word of God tells me that if I wait on the Lord, my strength shall be renewed.

Hmmm does this mean I am possibly not waiting on the Lord? Am I trying to move ahead in my own strength? Now I know none of you ever do that, but could I possibly be trying to deal with these things on my own??? Why would I do that??? I know that the Lord is bigger then any situation or circumstance. Well, maybe, just maybe even though I know that in my heart, I need to find a way to get it to my head. And no I didn't type that wrong. It is exactly what I meant to say. Cause I know that I know in my heart that God is faithful, and that He is totally in control of every situation and circumstance in my life. Now I just need to get out of the way and let God be God in these circumstances and situations. What circumstance are you dealing with that you need to give to God?

Ps 139

This was my reading this morning. Comments from me are put in here and there.

Ps 139:1 O LORD, You have searched me and known {me.} 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 {Such} knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is {too} high, I cannot attain to it.

Does it amaze you as it does me that even with all the people in the world, God still takes the time to know ME and YOU this intimately?


7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

This passage reminds me that there is no place I can go that God can't see me. If I keep this in mind, I will try to resist temptation harder, won't I?


11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night," 12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike {to You.}

Sometimes we think if we sin in the darkness God won't see. Well this reminds us that the truth is God can see no matter what.


13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, {And} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained {for me,} When as yet there was not one of them.

God made us! Rejoice! You are fearfully and wonderfully made. It says so right here. Don't like the way you look? Well God does. He purposely made you that way. And He purposely made me the way I am. And each of us is different. Do any of you have a WII? Did you make yourself a MII? Or do you have the computer game Zoombinis? Did you ever design your own zoombinis? Takes time and thought doesn't it? Think about it next time you think your nose is to big/small, etc. God put thought into what you look like.

He also knew what each day would hold for you before He made you. He gave you free will to chose certain times, but He knew the problems, questions, etc you would face daily. And I really believe He is cheering us on with each choice we face that we would choose the right one.


17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. 19 O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. 20 For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take {Your name} in vain. 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.

How precious are the thoughts of God! How do you find them out? Read His word. He left them there for us to discover. And no matter how many times I read a verse if I look hard enough I can find a new gem in it. What about you?


23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

This is my prayer today Lord, search me, try me, and if You find something there You don't like, show me so that I can repent of it and change.

I can only imagine

I have been thinking about this lots lately. Can you imagine what it will be like when all we have to do all the time is worship Jesus??? That is gonna be incredible. I have this song on my computer, on a cd for my van, and on my mp3 player. All day yesterday and today I have had the praise and worship songs going through my head. It is an amazing way to spend the day. I listened while I did dishes, weeded the garden, quilted, prepped blocks for quilting, well you get the idea. How often do you spend the day just listening (and of course I am singing at the top of my lungs even though I don't sing well lol) to praise and worship music? Has it been to long? What are you waiting for?

Choose

Deut 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

This tells me that what I do with my life is a choice. It is my choice. Sin is a choice. Not sinning is a choice. What will I choose? What will you choose?

Our plum tree and flowers

We call these graduation flowers cause they always blum in May.



Here is one of the many lilies I have.



We call this a shrimp plant cause it looks sorta like a shrimp lol.








Here are pictures of the tree. See how heavy the limbs are with plums!

Our Garden

Here is a roma tomato!



Here is jalepenas.



This is eggplant with flowers.




This is cucumber flowers.




This is cherry tomatoes.


And yes we weeded after the pictures were taken lol.

Saturday Ramblings

Today has been an I don't want to do anything kind of day here. I am in the process of cleaning the kitchen, but doing it slowly lol. Lester and I ran to the grocery for a few things. I have been preparing some blocks for sewing. I watered the garden. Leslie and her family popped in for a couple of minutes. Now I about to do a little hand applique. I haven't done any in a couple of weeks. It is time. It is one of my favorite things to do and usually I fit in a few minutes a day. But with all the stressful things happening lately, blogging and sewing have sorta taken back seat to everything else.

Hop over to my quilting blog and see the two small quilts I did machine quilt and bind this week.

Out of the mouths of babes

My daughter and her two sons were on the way to school yesterday when a vehicle pulled out in front of them. The vehicle was going very slowly and since they were on the way to school and then Leslie would go on to work, she understandably got annoyed. When the vehicle finally turned off, Leslie said "thank God". Colin (6 year old ) says, "MOM! You are not supposed to take the Lord's Name in pain." lol guess he miss understood the word when they told him about it lol.

Leslie's Quilt

It was brought to my attention that I never posted the picture of Leslie's Quilt.

Life must go on

As some who read my blog know, the pastor of the home church I attended was like a dad to me. He went to be with the Lord today at around 1 pm. Over the next few posts I will tell you about him and the incredible part he and his wife played in our lives over the last 15 years.

Please keep all of us in your prayers, the service is tomorrow.

Bible Driven Life

This is the title of the 4 part series my pastor started today. He said it could also be called the God driven life. I really like that title and after the introduction today can't wait to hear what else the series holds for me.

Here are some thoughts I had while listening. Some of them are things he said that really spoke to me. Some are my thoughts as he spoke.

Now a days scriptures are posted on screens in most churches. Alot of people don't even bring bibles to church anymore. I always do cause I am one of those people that have to see it in my own bible and I like to take notes. Since alot of people aren't bringing them to church anymore they have taken them out of their vehicles. Most of those same people only opened their bibles during church so now their bibles are sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. How often do you open your bible? Do you know where it is?

God's wisdom and truth are revealed in His word. We leave our bibles closed and wonder why our faith is at a low point. Why we don't feel as close to God as we did at one time in our lives. Were we in our bibles seeking truth and wisdom more then? Probably so.

Do you count on your pastor to look up things for you when you are going through stuff? Do you try to find the answer in the Word of God first? Do you feel as some do that it is his job? Have we not all been called to search the scriptures?

If we lean on God's wisdom and understanding by reading and studying His Word daily, then when we have a need the words of wisdom will come to us when we need them. You first have to bury them in your heart for them to be there.

He made the following quote, "The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts."

Don't wait for a crisis to happen to open your bible and seek the Lord. When I was a child, that is exactly what my mom did. She never opened the bible unless she was in a desperate situation. And there were many, but I grew up thinking that the bible wasn't for every day, just when things were really bad. How sad for me. I think it is probably one of the reasons even now that I struggle with consistently studying in my bible.

If you don't bring the bible back into your every day life, no one else will do it for you.

Pr 30:5-6 Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him
:6 Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

The word of God is as stable as God sitting on the throne.

Don't add to, take away from, twist, turn, or try to make the word of God say what you want it to say. Let it say what GOD said.

Be sure and listen to the song in the post below this one. It was one of the songs we sang during praise and worship and it really touched my heart. I so want to rest in Christ, do you?

Word of God Speak