YOUR MIRACLE IS ON IT'S WAY!

Merry Christmas!  Yes, I'm a few days late, but better late than never.  Christmas came and went so fast, my head is still spinning.  Seriously, it did come and go amazingly fast, just like 2013 did.  Many, many things happened in 2013 and most were not good, so it's kind of a blessing to me that 2013 did go by so fast.

I'm praying 2014 will be better.  I'm believing for restoration and some wonderful blessings to come my way.  What about you?  What are you hoping and praying for?  Our God is a God of miracles and I'm believing for a miracle.  The word miracle keeps rising up in my spirit.  I believe it is turn around time for the children of God.

A few days ago I was telling my husband that the word miracle kept coming up in my spirit.  The very next day I read a friend's post who said exactly the same thing.  She said she kept seeing the word joy on people's Christmas trees, but the word miracle kept coming to her mind.  I was astounded, because this was exactly what I had been feeling.

So if you need a miracle, get ready, because 2014 is bringing one your way!  Do you believe it?  If so, then share this blog with your friends.

Charley Pride - Roll on mississippi

http://www.youtube.com/v/wEL7nGyQ_iA?version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&autohide=1&attribution_tag=KggB8s7hgxlAPts1zT6jxw&showinfo=1

Roll On Mississippi

This photo brings back such bittersweet memories of days gone by.  All the males in this photograph are gone.  Only me, the oldest, and my two younger sisters are still here and just as this photo is fading, so are our lives.

Those were happy times.  Dad was on vacation.  We'd all pile into our old family car, with no seat belts, no air conditioning, and no radio in the middle of summer and make the long, hot trip south from Indiana to my dad's home state of Mississippi.  He loved it!  He was headed back home to the cotton fields and the farm where the sun beat hot, the chicken was southern fried, and time slowed down to a crawl.  How we all looked forward to seeing our loved ones, who we only saw about once a year.

I especially liked playing with all my cousins, the farm animals, making mud pies, catching fire flies, drinking water from a pail with a dipper and sitting around in the evening with grandma telling stories in her long, southern drawl.  Then, the ghost stories would start.  When I got good and scared it was time to go to bed, but I was so sleepy by then I just sank down into that big, white feather mattress and drifted off to sleep.  About the time I was asleep, it was time to get up and run to the storm cellar, because it might be a tornado coming.  This was long before weather radar, so any time the wind started blowing hard, it was off to the cellar.  How I hated that cellar!

We'd stay and visit about a week, then it was time to head back north, until next summer.  It was goodbye to those good old purple hull peas, cornbread, tomatoes, and that southern fried chicken.

Driving home from the mountains a few weeks ago, my husband and I were listening to Charley Pride singing, "Roll On, Mississippi" and all those memories flooded my mind, just like the Mississippi River, old Charley was singing about.  

Pray, Pray, Pray!

A storm that had been brewing in our lives, became full blown just after Christmas 2012.  The devil had been wrecking havoc behind the scenes, and although we felt it, we didn't know what it was until that fateful day when it was revealed to us by a close friend.

I knew in my spirit man that something was awry, something was just not quite right.  I was troubled, but didn't know what it was.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I knew the devil was working against me and my family.  He was coming against us, but I wasn't sure how.

In the fall of 2012, a friend of mine invited me to go to a church service in a neighboring town.  I really didn't want to go, but decided I would.  After the message that night, the speaker invited everyone with a need to come up for prayer.  They had several prayer lines and I happened to get in the one where the Pastor was praying with people.  He laid his hands on my forehead and prayed.  Then he stepped up and whispered in my ear and said, "Sister, I see the devil standing just behind you and he's done more damage than you realize."  Needless to say, this was a very disturbing word to me from the man of God.  I came home and shared it with my husband.  Neither one of us knew what it meant, but we were soon to find out.

I received a call from my husband on that fateful day and it was concerning a very, very close member of our family.  Yes, the devil had been working behind the scenes and just like the Pastor told me that night, the devil had done more damage than I realized.

That was at least 6 months ago and we are still trying to pick up the pieces that the devil has strewn everywhere.  Many, many lives have been hurt and broken because of one person's decision to sin.  Sin has consequences.  Sin destroys lives.  Sin separates.  Sin is ugly.  Sin is poison.  Sin is sickening.  Sin is ugly.  Sin affects those around it.  When the seeds of sin are sown, it will reap a harvest and it's not pretty.  It's really pitiful how the devil is destroying lives today.

The devil is in the business of separating us from God.  He hates God and he wants to separate us from Him.  In the garden of Eden, he separated Adam and Eve from God by tempting them to disobey God's command, which they did.  Then they were ashamed and full of guilt, so they hid themselves.  That's what the devil wants.  He came to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came to give us life and not only life, but abundant life!

The only thing that will restore what the devil has stolen is prayer.  Prayer changes things.  That's what we are praying.  That God will restore back to us everything the devil has stolen.  He did that for Job.  God gave back to Job double everything he had lost.  For example, if he has 200 sheep, He gave him back 400.   If he had 300 camels, He gave him back 600.

God is good!  He can deliver, restore, and renew.  What looks hopeless, is not with the God of hope.  So if you too are facing something that looks like a lost cause, don't lose hope.  Pray and intercede to the God of all hope to restore back to you what the devil has stolen.

GOD'S WORD IS TRUE!

We can stand on the Word and it will always work if we work it!

ACTS OF KINDNESS

In the above picture is Jesus sitting on the well waiting for this adulterous, sinful woman.  It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  Why?  Because Jesus went out of His way just to minister to this one woman, that everyone else shunned.  How do I know that?  Because the woman is coming to draw water at noon, the hottest part of the day.  She didn't come in the early morning hours with the other women, because she was an outcast, a loner, one who didn't fit in, because of her sins and her life style.  But Jesus cared for her so much he told the disciples I have to go to Samaria.  Jesus was a Jew and the Jews wanted no part of the Samaritans.  However, that didn't stop Jesus.  He loved this woman and wanted to let her know there is a better way.  In fact, He is the way, the truth, and the life.

He shocked her by speaking to her first of all and asking for a drink of water.  That was out of the ordinary, but Jesus wasn't ordinary.  He came to do the work of His Father and He only had a short time to do it in.  The same is true today.  Time is running out and we need to be about the Father's business, the business of winning souls.

Have you ever needed a friend or just a kind word?  Have you ever felt so alone, that you would turn the TV on just to hear human voices?  Have you ever wished someone would just call you on the phone and ask how you were doing?  There are many, many people out there who are lonely and need someone to care for them.  They need someone to show them love.   If we are like Jesus, we will show love and compassion to others.

That's what Jesus did to the Samaritan woman.  It didn't matter that others shunned her.  He went out of His way to talk to her.  It didn't matter that the women would not have anything to do with her and the men used her as an object to satisfy their own lust.  Jesus truly cared about her.  It didn't matter that His own people would not talk to her because she was a Samaritan.  Jesus talked to her.  She was so shocked by His display of love that it melted her heart.  How could she not love a man like that!  Jesus had compassion on her.  She fell so in love with Jesus that she ran back to her village to tell everyone about the Savior, the Son of God, who had come to her town just to show her He loved her!

That's the Jesus I know.  He will go out of His way to show His love to you and me.  Just a few days ago I casually mentioned to my husband I wish someone would give us some tomatoes.  Our tomatoes didn't make this year and I was craving some delicious, red ripe, home grown tomatoes.  One wouldn't do, I wanted several.  A few minutes later as I started to leave there was a basket full of red ripe tomatoes sitting there on my back porch steps.  I smiled, picked them up, and rushed to the bedroom to show them to my husband.  I said, God answered my wish for tomatoes.  He just proved to me once more how much He loves me.

Our daughter had surgery a few weeks ago and she was just overwhelmed by the many acts of kindness from her friends.  Several sent flowers, brought food, sent her cards, called to check on her and on and on.  She was grateful for the acts of kindness shown her during this difficult time.  It meant so much.

Ephesians 4:32 says, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

The Father's Love

"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me.  Make yourselves at home in my love.  If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love.  That's what I've done---kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love."  John 15:9,10 (Message translation)

You may have grown up without a father, or your father just wasn't there for you, for whatever reason.  It's sad that so many fathers are just absent.  They're too busy doing their own thing.  In other words, they are selfish.  They care more about their interests than they do about their wives and children.  This is a sad fact of the day and times we live in.  If you grew up in a home with a Godly father as an example, you were truly blessed.

If you were not blessed with a Godly father, just know that your Heavenly Father loves you!  In fact, there's not a thing you can do to make Him stop loving you.  He loved you so much He sent His only Son to die for your salvation.  Jesus loves you and came to die for you.

Do you feel unloved?  If so, come back home to the Father and make yourselves at home in His love.  He will accept you with open arms.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!