Happy Monday, its a brand new day!!!!

Hello and happy 3rd day of November...a beautiful windy, cool morning, a wonderful porch sitting and God talking way to start the day! You know I love to porch sit, especially just before the sunrise...I love sitting, chatting with God and watching the world wake up...I love the alone time, the quiet and still, the calm and the oneness I feel! I also start with a prayer and ask God to guide me so that I know what to share here on my blog...sometimes I sit for a very long time, listening and waiting and sometimes the answer comes as soon as I ask the question...This morning the sit was long, so long that I almost gave up and came inside, the chill in the wind was, at times, almost to chill for me to stay...just as I was getting ready to come inside a quiet voice left me with the feeling...."what?? are you giving up this easy? Are you going to let the cold take you away from what I have to say? " I started laughing...it felt as if I had been out for hours just waiting for HIS answer and when I checked I had only been out a little over 30 minutes...LOL...okay you got me Heavenly Father....yes I was packing it in pretty quick...but then that was all I got...just he question..."are you giving up this easy???" so I sat a while longer waiting to see if there was more...boom....there was nothing more..so I broke this question into segments and began to analyze...is this what you want me to write about??? giving up easy??? and I am supposing it is!!!

When I look back over my life I realize that I DO want everything RIGHT NOW...I do give up when I don't get what I want, the way I want it RIGHT NOW...I don't give God a chance sometimes to answer my prayers when I start making a way for myself without the prayer being answered....this weekend, on Friday, my husband and I were chatting and he said to me..."you make me crazy sometimes...when you get something in your head you want it right then and there...." REALITY CHECK...do I do this....thinking, thinking, thinking and YES...I do do this....when I get something in my mind, I want it right then and there....my husband is one of those people who thinks about the situation, plans it out and then executes it...I don't think either of us is wrong, I just think I need to slow my roll and take things as they come! I pray that today you are faced with a "flaw" you are carrying around and that you are open enough to listen and figure out what you can do to make it better! YOU ARE LOVED....YOU ARE IMPORTANT....YOU ARE A BLESSING!!!

November 2nd..."Tank fillin' day" oh how I love you!!!!

Good morning and happy Sunday...many of you know I refer to Sunday as "tank fillin' day" you might ask me why and I am always here to tell you!!! I love going to church, I love the feeling I get when I am within the walls of the spirit...I love the joy in my fellow church goers and I love love love the messages that are spoken. When I leave church I feel refreshed, I feel happy, I feel FULL....I so love the spirit and am so very thankful that I can get that "fill up" just by being a part of a group of people that are there for the same reason...It is like..for me...my internal spiritual tank has been depleted and when I go on Sunday's I am able to refill, I am able to get that UMPH back into my heart and I feel ready to conquer anything that comes my way the coming week. Not going to lie to you...satan would have me do other things on Sunday morning, like sit a little to long to have time to get up, dressed, and ready to go, he likes to throw broken glass in my path hoping it will stop me from completing my mission...."just sit a little longer Dawn, you don't have to get ready yet!" "It is very cold out this morning, a chill you will not get over quickly if you go out!" "you really don't have anything to wear, you wore that dress the last time you went to church!" " You know...so and so...is going to be there and she is never friendly to you!" You know the such and such family, they  go on Sunday and act all churchy, and then you see them in town not being very churchy!" and the excuses keep on coming, coming, coming....Well all I can say to you satan....get out of my way, close your mouth, get out of my head because I AM GOING TO GO AND FILL MY TANK!!! LOL...DO you ever have things such as this happen on Sunday morning and you decide not to go??? I promise if you will get up and go this morning, or this afternoon, or this evening, you will be so full of the spirit that you will wonder why it was so hard to get up, get ready, and gooooooo....Join in with others who are in need of the  spirit and allow yourself to be full! What's that??? Yes I used to feel the same way...I don't need church, I can study the bible right here at home, I can pray and honor GOD here I don't have to go to church to feel the spirit...VERY TRUE, you can and you should keep God in your home, you certainly can feel the spirit...I pray you do....right there in your house...it is not that you cannot get what you need at home, it is the unity, it is the over abundance you receive when you sit in that group of people, it is the fellowship...the love....the goodness that overflows....sure there are people there that are living a different lifestyle on the outside of the church than they should be...but that is not your problem, that is not for you to judge...remember Don't try and take God's job...that is a promotion you will never receive!!! Just go and let your heart be filled by all that is good in the church session...Don't worry about anyone else! 

I chose this little discussion today because as with many of you...satan nags at me very strongly on Sunday mornings....I am not the only one!!!

I hope you enjoy the read and that you will put down what you are doing, get ready and gooooo!!!

by Noah Curran

It seems a rather simple question doesn’t it, why go to Church? You would figure that millions of people would know the answer to such a question within the blink of an eye. But, if so many do, why do we walk into Churches filled with people who would rather not be there? The question is simple, but the answer is difficult.

My Personal Battle with Church

In order to respond to such a question, I’d rather just tell you a bit of my story. You see, for years I went to Church and was even very involved. I didn’t particularly like Church, but I felt it was a requirement of my faith, so I did it anyway. Frankly, I have a sneaky suspicion I was not the only one at Church on Sunday morning attending for a reason other then my own personal desire. The facts of the matter are that I thought it was the thing I was supposed to do and so I did it. Plain and simple.

As I grew up I still wrestled with Church. I failed to understand why so many people went to Church that didn’t want to be there. I mean, I understood why they went, but my gut said that those people really could LOVE Church if something was different about Church. The facts are, those people sitting in service Sunday morning, waiting to bolt for the parking lot, simply aren’t being reached in the right way.

The facts are, those people sitting in service Sunday morning, waiting to bolt for the parking lot, simply aren’t being reached in the right way.

 When I began to come to this conclusion, that those people could really LOVE Church if they found the right kind of Church, it was life shattering.

It might sound silly, but the reason I didn’t really like Church was because I had a holy discontent with what happened after Church. I would walk out of the building and it was as if the Church had installed magic metal detectors that switched my brain off ‘Church mode’ and back to ‘life mode’ immediately upon exit. I was going to Church, but what good was it if when I left the building and nothing was different? What good was Church if I attended for months and my day to day actions were barely affected? Sure, I would often remark that particular sermons were moving, but was I really changed? Could other people really see that I was changed? Or were the sermons just eloquently delivered and intellectually stimulating?

My Breakthrough

The reality was I didn’t want to go to Church because Church wasn’t really equipping me for the mission God gave me, the mission God gave all of us.You see, in Matthew, God himself gives man a mission we aptly nickname “The Great Commission,”

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (v. 18-20)

Therefore, if Church was aimed at feeding me the spiritual calories I needed to be nourished, but not equipping me to do as Jesus said and make disciples, something was inherently wrong. When I realized that, I dramatically altered my Church attendance strategy. It’s comical, but today I go to Church for the same reason any superhero has a home base – to gather together with those people on the same mission and, together, re-equip for the mission we all go on tomorrow – to mission to make disciples.

So, Why Go To Church?

If we thought of Church not as a place we go to be fed, but as place we go to better serve tomorrow, what would Church look like?

If we thought of Church not as a place we go to be fed, but as place we go to better serve tomorrow, what would Church look like?

 Would you have the same feelings about Sunday morning? Would you act the same way come Monday? Would the Church itself look and act completely different? Personally, I think if the Church would become more about what happens on Monday-Saturday and less about what happens on Sunday morning, we might all see the change we have been looking for and we all would surely know the answer to the question… “why do I go to Church?”

1st day of November and I am BACK!!!

Boy oh boy had it been a while...

I will not say I have been lazy, I will say I have been overwhelmed with some new ventures in my life and have been working like a fiend to try and get my day to day activities in order so that I can sit and take time on my blog and do justice to this wonderful media item that is made possible for me...

How have you been??? Even though I have not been here I have continued to be very active in sharing my life with those I communicate with on facebook and have continued to pray like crazy for each one of you and each one who comes in with prayer requests...Life has been a whirlwind at times and I have found myself wanting to just retreat...BUT never from prayer...no matter what is going on in my life, I will never not take time to lift in prayer those in need. There has been so much death and sickness that we have prayed over, so much heartache and financial woe for so many...we have prayed for the ones slipping from the world, we have prayed for miracles for those who are devastated with the news of disease, we have prayed over those who have been struck down with sadness and we have prayed for those who are lost and alone...That is what we do...WE PRAY...WHY???? because we know the power of prayer, we know that our Father in heaven is ABLE and we know that even though prayers are not answered in the way we would have them be answered...THEY ARE ALWAYS ANSWERED....Our God is so mighty, he has taken each of us and written our books, he has mapped our a plan for us that is so amazing that there is no way we can even begin to understand the power he is giving us. HE has put us on the right track more than we will ever even begin to know and HE is ALWAYS there for us, even in the darkest moment of our lives...HE loves us without condition and HE longs for us to love him the same way...All HE wants if for us to have faith, and to give love...sounds pretty easy huh? Well as long as we live here on this earth we will be tested at every turn, we will be tempted in every breath we take and we WILL make mistakes on a daily basis...the reason we are here is to learn the difference between right and wrong and to take the knowledge we acheive each day and share it with others...we are not here to be perfect, if we were perfect we would have no need to be here on earth...We are here to embrace the tests that are given to us and to get things right so that we can move on to the next test....you can't graduate if you don't get through every level of school right? Well that is going to be it for my return..PLEASE..never ever forget YOU ARE LOVED....lets start this day off with a scripture...for today I have chosen...

How to Get Right with God When You’ve Blown It Bigtime

March 7, 2012 — Chip Ingram

Sometimes smart people do dumb things, wise people do foolish things, and Godly people do sinful things. For some of us those things are a big, dark, ugly past. For others, it’s a secret we’ve never told anyone. Maybe it’s an abortion you had, or an affair, or you stole something.

Regardless of how we messed up, the one thing we all share in common is that we’ve all made mistakes. The Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) Yet, many of us don’t know how to recover afterward.

So, how do we get right with God again after we’ve done something entirely wrong?

In the Bible, the story of David is one of the best examples of someone who blew it big time and then got his life right with God. David was one of the most Godly men in all of Scripture. He loved the Lord, yet in a weak moment he found himself committing adultery with Bathsheba and trying to cover it up by murdering her husband.

Psalm 51 gives us a snapshot of what’s going on inside of David’s heart after Nathan the prophet confronts David in his sin (2 Samuel 12). This Scripture also shows us the steps David took on his “road to spiritual recovery.”

Here are the Seven Steps that David took to get right with God: 

Step 1: Come clean with God. Get honest and get your mistakes out in the open. Sometimes we’re afraid of losing our reputation or being publicly exposed. And sometimes we’re afraid of losing the security we got from indulging in our “favorite sin.” But the peace we get in return for coming clean will be worth it! We can trust that God’s ultimate outcome will be good.

Step 2: Ask God for forgiveness. We have to ask God to wash, cleanse and forgive us. Notice that David doesn’t try to negotiate a deal with God or minimize his sin. He says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1)

Step 3: Own responsibility for your sin. We need to own our part in our mistake and also its consequences. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” (v. 3-5)

Step 4: Accept God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Like David, once we confess that we messed up and tell God we want a restored relationship with Him, at that very moment we receive His grace and forgiveness. But in order to experience God’s forgiveness, we first need to believe that we are forgiven, accepted and loved unconditionally.

Step 5: Request a fresh work of grace. Have you ever been tempted and then found yourself saying, “I’ll go ahead and sin and then ask for grace later”? What we need is for God to create a fresh work in our hearts so that we don’t want anything to do with sin.  Like David, we need to pray, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (v. 10)

Step 6: Resolve to use past failures for ministry. God wants to use the most difficult, sinful thing we’ve ever done and make us a trophy of His grace. God will use all of our sins to glorify Him, if we let Him. David tells God, when you do this new work in me “then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Open my lips, Lord and my mouth will declare your praise. (v. 13, 15)

Step 7: Pray for limited fallout. Our sin never affects just us individually. But we can pray that in His grace, God will minimize the damage our sins might have had on those around us.

Over and over in Scripture we are reminded that we serve a God who, although doesn’t treat sin lightly, understands that we are mortal and struggle with sin. And out of His love for us, He wants to forgive us and take our very worst moments and claim them for Himself.