2012 His Year, A Year Of Praise!

Despite Jason having two surgeries this last year, 2011 was a great year for us. Jason healed quickly, you provided abundantly for us Lord, and Max was baptized! We feel so blessed, especially when we think back to more difficult years we have survived. God is good. Thank God for that! Literally, "Thank Him!" That is a big part of what this post is about today. Praise. This last week was a little, well, a lot crazy. Busy, and hectic with school starting back. I showed up Tuesday at school to drop kids off and start back my first day at work also, and the parking lot was deserted. Oops. (Do you hear the crickets chirping?). I felt just a little stupid. It turns out that Wednesday was their first day back. Jason met me at my office and took the kids and worked from home since I had 6 clients scheduled in an 8 hour day with travel in between each. Hard to do, but whew, I did it. That was just the beginning of the week. Dad is sick again, Maizie (our dog) keeps stealing food off of the table, and Jason's brother's friend, Jim committed suicide this week. Please pray for the family. It is tragic and devastating. Sooo, more than just a bad week.

Anyway, it was a reminder to me of a time when Jason was close to that point and so was I. Suicide can be extremely seductive. I never realized that until I hit that point and found myself wrapped up in the warm blanket of the daydream, seeing it down to the details. New I had to get help then and did. Not proud of the fact, but it is what it is and a lot of people don't like to admit it until it is too late. I know that Jesus, my family and several friends (willing vessels of Christ-his hands and feet) carried me and Jason. Thank you Jesus! Anyway, enough rambling, but I am so grateful, especially when I see where He has carried us to now.

Knock on wood, but I know 2012 may not be as blessed as 2011, but God is definitely with us. I am so grateful to be aware of it. I am declaring 2012 as "Your Year" Jesus---A year where you increase in me, Jason and my family. Let us hear you guiding us, clearly, more clearly than ever. May our love for you grow bigger than anything else in our lives, even ourselves. This is Your Year Lord. We are yours. (John 3:30 and Joshua 24:15).

Back to praise now. "God sits enthroned on the praises of his people". (Psalms 22:3) "Praise the Lord! Oh my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being." (Psalms 146:1-2). "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus." (I. Thessalonians 5:18). We are called to praise, created for it, and blessed by it. Not only does it please God, but it blesses US. It draws God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit close to us. It is a witness to others, a testimony. We are called to praise in times of goodness and thankfulness, as well as times of trials. Even if through gritted teeth. Many times I have praised God half-heartedly and with a bitter and angry spirit just out of obedience and for my children's sake. But speaking words of truth helps changes our heart and perspective and brings us back to God and the reality of His sovereign goodness. "Hoo-Hoo's" did that for me. It blessed me even more than my kids. When we pray and praise it Changes us and Protects us. Satan and his demons can't stand it and flee. When we are praising God, they can't influence us. We are refreshed again in the blood of Christ and the sweet fragrance of praise goes up to heaven to the Trinity. Demon's can't touch us without touching the blood of Christ or smelling the aroma. It burns their ears and nose and touch, their spirit. It also makes us too slippery to get a grasp on. Sooo---Praise On! He is worthy of it. Join me in making 2012 His Year and a Year of Praise in any and all circumstances we encounter this year. Again, Praise On!!!

New Years Dragon!

The Chinese celebrate New Years with dragon costumes in parades. Maybe there is something to that. I know it is not meant to be tied to the bible, but my quiet time a few days ago was about the woman and the dragon in Revelation 12:1-7. Read this:

"A great and wondrous sign appeared it he heaven: a woman clothes with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down---that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in the heaven say:

"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and b the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil had gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpents reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river; to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring---those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

In reading these passages, I am brought to the realization that at Jesus' birth, his birth was not the only thing going on. There was then, and always is a spiritual world where things go on that we are completely unaware of and couldn't try to comprehend. Spiritual warfare is real. Not only was a new star created in the cosmos by God the night Jesus was born, but this imagery in the bible gives us a glimpse of other things going on behind the scenes. I forget sometimes and focus only on the things that are seen, obvious. What we see is only a dim reflection, a tiny glimpse of the great glory of what God and Jesus are and have done and are continuing to do on our behalf. Jesus' birth isn't the end of the story, it is just a beginning. Our choices each day have a spiritual impact for eternity that we can't know just now. We usually unknowingly are part of the spiritual battle going on around us. We must daily rely on God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit to guide us. Revelation continues on to the end of the earth when Jesus returns. Make this New Year one that is used for His purposes. Jesus' birth is apropos for the beginning of a New Year. I feel silly that I never thought about the two holidays going together so well. Commit each day to following Him in this next year.

Be His Bethlehem

Here is the quiet time reading I had yesterday, Christmas Day from the book, "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers (page 360). Perfect continuation of the song message that inspired me two nights before. Thank you Jesus!

"'HIS BIRTH AND OUR NEW BIRTH
"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Isaiah 7:14)

HIS BIRTH IN HISTORY. "Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

HIS BIRTH IN ME. "Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." (Galatians 4:19) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "Ye must be born again." This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifests in the flesh---that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption."'


Lord, help me to continually work at pushing out of your manger in my soul, my God spot, the place for Jesus' spirit to reside in me--- all of the things that take His place...every longing, desire, everything that is not of you Lord...desire for comfort, security, money, possessions, good image, etc. Make them prick my spirit so that I am always compelled to kick them out at the slightest hint of their presence so that only you reside in me---Your Bethlehem. It may be dirty, lowly, humble and unworthy, but I hope it always, I always, have a vacancy for YOU...and YOU ALONE. Make me your Bethlehem!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas with Christ as the Center of our hearts and minds. This song really puts me in the right frame of mind for this blessed season. It reminds me of the miracle and amazing love that God and Jesus have for us. I'm ever grateful for the Trinity in my life and in your's.

Be Born In Me

Crazy Week

It has been a crazy week. Jason had shoulder surgery on Wednesday. All the prayers for it to go smoothly and heal quickly were effective. Instead of having to have things sewn together creating much more time to heal, it turned out Jason didn't have tendonitis and some other things the surgeon thought he needed repaired. It was a large piece of the labrum that was flapping he cut off and another large piece that was floating around causing pain. So a much easier fix and should be a much shorter healing time. Praise God.
Jason is healing and I am exhausted from trying to do it all here at the fort. However, Jason is surprisingly good at functioning with only one arm/hand-better than I could do. I have also been fitting in a lot of clients for speech therapy, trying to get them all seen in half a month instead of a whole month with taking off for the surgery and then taking off for the kid's holiday break-out of school. My head is spinning.
Anyway, God is good and worthy of our praise. I hope everyone has a great holiday season. I'm ready for Wednesday to get here and then I can finally take a breath and start my relaxing and celebrating. The kid's last day of school is Tuesday which they are counting down. However, Max has a biography to read and book report to write over the holiday break. Whew. Maybe Jason can do that one. Anyway. Happy Holidays!

Art Trading Cards

My kids love art, drawing, painting, PROJECTS,etc. My youngest son, Sam's favorite word is "project", which he loves to yell like a banshee on days we don't have school. Needless to say, it keeps me creative. Well, my sister, Brook had a great idea she read about. As soon as she told me I had to go out and get the materials for her and my kids to do it. I am so excited about it.
The kids are making art trading cards. Hobby Lobby has paper the size of baseball cards that are blank. I got these and binders and the clear plastic sheets with pockets to hold 9 cards in per page. It cost me about 11 bucks per kid. Pretty cheap. The kids have already filled up one page tonight drawing pictures.
I love my kid's art and have it on my fridge and on their walls, framed. But I'm always running out of room. Even putting them in drawers takes up space. I don't want to tell you the TRAUMA that ensues if the kids find one of their pictures in the trash (despite me trying to hide them under other things so not found). Ugh. Well, this saves lots of space.
The cards are small and the kids can trade them with other kids if they want to, but theifavorites they will keep. They are all neatly displayed in their special books. I put two pictures, one on front and one on the back of thier notebooks in the clear cover-regular sized pictures they had done in art class at school. This made them look even more special.
Anyway, if you have kids this might be the perfect idea for you. It will keep mine entertained for months, maybe a few years to fill it up. Thanks for the idea sis!