Have a Safe and Blessed Happy New Year!

Lifestyle Christianity - Movie FULL HD ( Todd White )

This is an amazing movie that shows the power of God to take his broken children and turn them into his strongest tools. Todd White is an evangelist every day that his eyes open. He is ON FIRE for the Lord. Personally, I felt like I received a spiritual refueling just from watching this movie.

Psalm of the Week - 6:9 - December 26, 2016

Photo by Cassie Pilger    Lighthouse on Lake Michigan

The Lord is My Lighthouse.

Love unending

Incredible gift of love

Grace is given through Jesus' sacrifice

Holy, Holy, Holy

Turn toward Jesus' light and

Hopelessness turns into never-ending hope

Only Jesus could rescue me from addiction

Ugly life of mine was changed forever! 

Son of God, Jesus Christ, redeemed me

Eternal life with him is my prize

Verse of the Week - Ephesians 6:18 - December 26, 2016

Photo by Cassie Pilger                                                   Lake Michigan shoreline

Wherever you are, look around you. 

Is there someone you can pray for? Ask Jesus to show you someone who needs prayer. Believe it will happen and it will! He will show someone to you.  

Ask the person if you can pray for them. 

Don't wait to get home. Offer to pray with them wherever you are. Honestly, very few people have ever turned down my offer to pray with them.

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to speak. 

Believe it will happen and it will! Open your mouth and be surprised by the Holy Spirit flowing out of your mouth in the form of words. 

However, if your person appears to be uncomfortable with praying on the spot, 

tell them you will pray for them as soon as you leave them. People who don't go to church still believe in the power of prayer. 

As you start to leave your person, 

start praying and keep on praying. You can pray silently and walk at the same time. Wrap them in a spiritual blanket of prayer. 

Matthew 7:8

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

Romans 8:26

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

1 Timothy 2:1

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered on behalf of all men

Have a Merry Christmas and Joyful Holiday Season!

Happy Jesus' Birthday!

Psalm of the Week - 148:11-13 - December 19, 2016

Even in this world, dark and bad as it is, God is praised. 

• Let all manner of persons praise God. Those of every rank, high and low. 
• Let us show that we are his saints by praising his name continually. 
• He is not only our Creator, but our Redeemer; who made us a people near unto him. 
• We may...understand Christ, whom God has exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour.
• In redemption, that unspeakable glory is displayed, which forms the source of all our hopes and joys. 
• May the Lord pardon us, and teach our hearts to love him more and praise him better.

Adapted from Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary

Verse of the Week - Galatians 4:6-7 - December 19, 2016

Sons and Daughters of God
"As a consequence of your being adopted into the family of God, and being regarded as his sons. It follows as a part of his purpose of adoption that his children shall have the spirit of the Lord Jesus."
Barnes Notes on the Bible

Act Like Heirs

"May the temper and conduct of sons ever show our adoption; and may the Holy Spirit witness with our spirits that we are children and heirs of God."

Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary

Psalm of the Week - 9:9 - December 11, 2016

Not everyone enjoys Christmas. 

Some have never enjoyed it. Others are not enjoying it because they are the victim of holiday heartbreak. 

Holiday heartbreak is when your relationship ends during the holiday season. 

Yep, your soulmate, or so you thought,  breaks up with you. Many partners choose to end their relationship before the holiday season officially starts. 

I had this happen to me. 

However, it occurred immediately after the holidays. Just as I felt that we had safely survived our first Christmas together, I received an 8:00 A.M. phone call at work that turned my world upside down. I was emotionally blindsided. Numb and stunned would be an accurate description of how I felt while I listened to my fellow end our relationship via a phone call. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you that this happened on a Monday morning.  After he ended the call, my first reaction was to call a close friend and pour my heart out. After that, I buried myself in the Lord. I hid in the shelter of his refuge for weeks.

If this has happened to you, do not forget that God wants to shelter you. 

He is a refuge in times of trouble. He is waiting to welcome you with open arms. Pour your heartache and hurt out to him in prayer. Then, grab your bible and read, read, read. Let your Heavenly Father take charge and heal you. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. 

Verse of the Week - Matthew 1:23 - December 11, 2016

The mystery of Christ's becoming man is to be adored, not curiously inquired into. 

It was so ordered that Christ should have our nature, yet that he should be pure from the defilement of original sin, which has been communicated to all the race of Adam, or mankind.

It is the thoughtful, not the unthinking, whom God will guide. 

God's time to come with instruction to his people, is when they are at a loss. Divine comforts most delight the soul when under the pressure of perplexed thoughts. 

Joseph is told that Mary should bring forth the Saviour of the world. 

Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, speedily, without delay, and cheerfully, without dispute. 

He was to call his name Jesus, a Saviour. 

And the reason of that name is clear, for those whom Christ saves, he saves from their sins; from the guilt of sin by the merit of his death, and from the power of sin by the Spirit of his grace. In saving them from sin, he saves them from wrath and the curse, and all misery, here and hereafter.

Christ came to save his people, not in their sins, but from their sins; and so to redeem them from among men, to himself, who is separate from sinners. 

By applying the general rules of the written word

We should in all the steps of our lives, particularly the great turns of them, take direction from God, and we shall find this safe and comfortable.

Adapted from Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary

Psalm of the Week - 125:3 - December 4, 2016

Confidence in God

1. All whose minds are stayed on God, they shall be as a mountain supported by providence, much more as a holy mountain supported by promise. They cannot be removed from confidence in God. 
2. Committing themselves to God, they shall be safe from their enemies.
3. God's covenant with his people cannot be broken, nor his care of them cease. 
4. Their troubles shall last no longer than their strength will bear them up under them.
5. The scepter of the wicked may come and may fall upon the righteous, upon their persons, their estates, their liberties, their families names, on anything that falls to their lot; only it cannot reach their souls. 

Adapted from Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary

Verse of the Week - 1 Corinthians 10:13 - December 4, 2016

Things to Remember

• Carnal desires gain strength by indulgence - Do not indulge them.
• Nothing in Scripture is written in vain; and it is our wisdom and duty to learn from it. Others have fallen, and so may we.  
• God is wise as well as faithful. He knows what we can bear. 
• He will make a way to escape; he will deliver either from the trial itself, or at least the mischief of it. 
• We have full encouragement to flee from sin, and to be faithful to God. 
• We cannot fall by temptation, if we hold fast to God. 
• Whether the world smiles or frowns, it is an enemy.
• Believers shall be strengthened to overcome the world, with all its terrors and enticements. 
• The awe and reverence of the Lord, put into the hearts of the faithful, will be the great means of safety from sin.

adapted from Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary

Procrastination, Prayer, and Cupcakes

My personal procrastination seems to increase as my prayer life decreases. 
Yesterday morning, I finally realized why I was feeling overwhelmed and promptly started praying out loud in the car on the way to work.

Since, I live and drive through a rural area, only cows and deer are going to see me talking out loud to Jesus in the car like a crazy lady. Yep, I am crazy about Jesus! 

The sense of overwhelmedness slowly receded as I talked with Jesus in prayer and my workday went well.

Procrastinating at Home
The procrastination proceeded to return after I arrived home and should have been making three types of frosting for the 8 dozen cupcakes I was going to make Friday evening to sell at at community marketplace event. 

You know the consequence of procrastination is normally not getting a task completed, or having to work hours longer to get it done. Knowing this consequence and going ahead with the task are two different things. Unfortunately, I didn't pray either. 

Yep, the frosting didn't get made because I was procrastinating, but I told myself I was tired from working all day and deserved to rest. Additionally, no prayer was involved in this small decision because I knew that I was setting myself up to bake, frost, and package 96 cupcakes the next evening. Can you identify?

Friday evening arrived and I started baking cupcakes the moment I arrived home from work at 4:00 PM. With cool down times, two cupcake pans, etc. it took me until about 9:44 PM to bake the almost 100 cupcakes and complete the trio of frostings for them. 

Now I said a prayer and made a pot of coffee as I began to pipe frosting and package the cupcakes. At 1:35 AM I finished loading the last container of cupcakes into my car and said a quick prayer to Jesus thanking him for giving me the strength to complete my cupcake marathon. 

Moral - Pray more and procrastinate less.

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Ephesians 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.