There is a Music Give Away!

If you like Michael W. Smith, you will definetely enjoy this christmas album! Just click free music and sign up--So maybe you can be the blessed recipient of a free CD!!!! God bless you all! Now run along and get yours!!!!

One of my Favorites...

"Over a hundred years ago, Annie Hawks said of this song:

"One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks. Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words, 'I Need Thee Every Hour,' were ushered into my mind, the thought at once taking full possession of me."

The song was met with great acceptance, which she didn't understand until the day she faced the death of her husband. "It was not until long after," she wrote, "when the shadow fell over my way, the shadow of a great loss, " that she experienced herself the comfort of the truth in the song she had felt compelled to write so many years before." Nicole Sponberg, of Selah.

PART THE WATERS/I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR

When I think I'm going under, part the waters, Lord

When I feel the waves around me, calm the sea

When I cry for help, oh, hear me

Lord and hold out Your hand

Touch my life

Still the raging storm in me

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord

No tender voice like Thine can peace afford

Refrain

I need Thee, O I need Thee

Every hour I need Thee

O bless me now, my Savior

I come to Thee

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain

Come quickly and abide, or life is vain

Refrain

Tempering His Vessel

I have been learning a LOT in my walk with Jesus lately about various things, that when written in and of themselves don't sound all that profound, but in the heart they have been DEEP, and sometimes painful procedures. Lessons that have been difficult for my natural mind to fully grasp because of the intense supernaturalness(is this a word? If not I want to make it one!:)) that has been occurring!

One of these lessons, probably one of the BIGGEST ones for me lately has been about the "seed" of complaint. What I mean is that it can be so easy to complain, "I'm too fat", "I'm to skinny", "I'm not a good housekeeper", "I'm not doing what I was called to do, I shouldn't be a chaperon God has bigger plans for me, don't these people see that", and yadayadayada the list could be endless, really. But if you look at these things that we complain about, the complaint is really towards God about how He created me or you, or where He has you in your life right this moment. Whatever the complaint, ALL complaints come from Satan, himself. He, was and still is the first complainer, Satan's complaint against God was that he himself wanted to be like God. Satan wasn't satisfied with being an angel in heaven, and not just any angel, as we can read in Isaiah 28:13-17, but a VERY beautiful angel, he wanted to be recognized and worshipped. So he complained against God. Satan's complaint got him kicked out of heaven for eternity. NEVER to be allowed back in again. When he left heaven, 1/3 of the angel's went with him, how do you think that happened? I propose that over time(since God isn't confined by time and this ultimately was before time) Satan approached the hosts of heaven with his "seed" of complaint against God and planted the "seed" in the minds and thoughts of thousands of angel's. Thus bringing a devastating end to their heavenly placement.

Never being allowed back into heaven, my friends, makes Satan VERY mad. So, who, do you think he targets? God's creation, human beings. It started in the garden of Eden, when he approached Eve. He told her that God had not given them EVERYTHING, they only knew of the good. If God really loved them then He would have told them that they too could be as God is and know good AND evil. Thus, placing the seed of complaint against God and His wisdom, into the very heart of Eve and subsequently Adam. This seed of complaint was that God hadn't done His job right. No, apparently He had messed up and forgotten to tell them something, never mind that He created the WHOLE UNIVERSE with His words!!!! So, this little seed of complaint brought all of mankind to be born with a sin nature, or a nature that tries to make evil into good. It doesn't stop there. Oh No... Satan is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour... He has his eyes set on all of God's human creation, because he knows that we are created in God's image! And he HATES God. He wants so desperately to get back at God, that he is willing to pull out all the stops so that he can take as many people as he can to Hell, for eternity. Where he will torment them mercilessly.

"Where is she going with this?" you ask. Well, let me tell you. When we, as TRUE followers of Jesus Christ, have something in our lives, some circumstance, some imperfection, whatever it may be and we openly complain about our dissatisfaction to somebody other than taking it to the Throne of God, then we are ultimately complaining against God. NOTHING can happen or does happen without His consent or knowledge. We have to make our complaints known to Him by spilling our hearts out to Him not complaining about it to other believers. When we complain to other believers about what it is we are not happy with, then we are planting "seeds" of complaint. These "seeds" bring a VERY dark harvest... They can cause a stop in growth, or lead people away from salvation rather than drawing them.

Jesus has been showing me through my struggles with vanity(of the appearance variety) that ultimately this has been a complaint against the Very One who knit me in my mothers womb, exactly the way that HE wanted me! It is a whole lot more involved and deeper than that. But suffice it to say that this has been something that I have been complaining about FOR YEARS!! And Jesus took me through the movie reel of my life to show me the harvest that it has been producing! Not pretty, it has been the underlying discontent in EVERYTHING that I do or don't do! Amazing. This complaint has caused needless hours of unhappiness, where the enemy has wreaked havoc in our lives, for my family. Thank GOD that He is patient and slow to wrath, His mercies endure forever, His grace is sufficient for ALL that He allows us to encounter and endure. So, Take it to the Lord when you are feeling unsatisfied!!!

Anyway, that is one of the lessons He has been teaching me lately.

You must go to this website and watch this touchingpost!

Staight from the Motherland with Camouflage

You might recall me telling you that I am a transplant to the "south". Not just to the "south", but to a farm in the "south". And one of my adjustments, as it were, is that finding decent Italian food is VERY challenging. At best. This poses as a BIG problem for me. You see I LOVE me some great, authentic, mouth watering cuisine, from Italy! People from these parts have only been exposed to what the world of chain restaurants have to offer... Enough said.

So, imagine my joy, my sheer elation at the discovery of a VERY fine restaurant, of AUTHENTIC Italian cuisine! Straight from Rome! AWESOME!!!! It has been over 3 yrs. since I have partaken of such a succulent feast. First on the menu calamari! Yum! Just as I suspected--delightful, lightly breaded, served with a fabulous tomatoey, garlicy type of yumminess. I thougtht that maybe we had made it to a part of my new world that was more, shall we say refined in the art of detecting AUTHENTIC cuisine not of the Hispanic persuasion, or the Chinese(albeit American) persuasion, or even the fried food persuasion.

Let me preface this with a Restaurant that serves some kind of authentic food(and by authentic I am sayin' the food could be served in it's motherland and pass) does not last, people! They go down like "skinny" jeans should. The people have been soooooo brainwashed by mediocre chain restaurant's renditions, that they think it, I don't know, maybe "tastes bad"? It boggles my taste buds, not to mention my mind!

ANYHOO. Moving on to my point.

Not that I make it a practice to be a nosy neighbor, but these people were EXCEPTIONALLY LOUD! My husband noticed that they had ordered the calamari as well! Yeah for them! BUT, then he looks at me and says they just asked for some ketchup(catsup) for their calamari!!!!!!!!!! OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! I could not believe that they were about to assault their mouth with that stuff slathered on some of the best squid I think I have ever eaten! That, my friends sums up the the extent at which some people around my new domain enjoy AUTHENTIC Italian cuisine! They don't. Without some camouflage, anyway.

Now, I have to say here, that there truly is something all together strange about me pointing out the ketchup on calamari thing. Because when you call it squid. It sure sounds gross.

I was just thinkin'.

You Might Be a Redneck if...

Your husband brings this home to you...

Cleverly placed on the HOOD of a jeep.

With strings tied to its legs, for them to hold onto.

So as not to allow the beast to fall.

OH MY whatever would we do if that were to be the case! :)

When you thought they were going to be hunting for deer...

Not at all what I had my sights set on!

Praise God anyway, right?! Right.

Because here is what it ended up looking like!

And MAN is it good(the seasoning we used is absolutely fabulous!)...