Good morning bloggers!! I'm so excited about todays lesson in sunday school. Last year I watched a sermon from Joyce Meyers and she was teaching us about God removing things in our life that will not work while living a christian life. She had a cookie cutter and some play dough (she also had another teaching where she used a small tree and a pair of shears). She was teaching us to understand that when we are saved God has to get in our soul and start cutting away at things that will hinder our walk with Him. It was such a valuable lesson for me! I have been wanting to use this scernio in my class. At church we are doing a series called misson possible and today our pastor is preaching about witnessing (last week he taught us about worship) so I'm combinging both messages into my sunday school class. I believe the 2 go together like needle and thread.
While preparing for the lesson, I realized that our whole body is for worship and witness of God. I'm not sure that we understand that fully. I'm saying that in reference to me, I know that I didn't understand that at 16 when I first got saved. Many of us know the verse that says when we believe that Jesus died for us, His spirit comes to live in us, the old man is dead and the new man lives, but do we really understand what that means? I know I waited for changes to occur the second after I said amen to the salvation prayer. It didn't happen like that. I was 16 and I'm now 39 and just 2 years ago did I really start to understand what is to take place for the changes to occur. 21 years of wondering why the changes never seemed to happen to me, feeling as though God didn't want me, is this really what living for God is all about? How do we truely worship and witness God when we don't feel any different than we did before we got saved? I feel that's why so many walk away from their faith because they don't understand what their responsibilty is in their relationship with Jesus. This brings us to our lesson this morning.
Romans 12:1 tells us that we to give our bodies to God because of what He has done for us. What does "give our bodies" mean? It means that we stop fighting the changes God is trying to make in us. That's pretty simple to understand, harder to do right? I know for me it is. We also need to understand that it's something that is a everyday thing that will happen until we are in Heaven. Changing never ends! But we also need to understand that we are changing for the good of God and it should be a joyful time, change isn't easy but when it's done for God it's sure worth it. It's our responsibility to allow those changes to happen. 1 Peter 2:5 tells us that God is building (shaping, changing) our bodies into His temple! God has to remove things in us that just will not work for us in the relationship that we have with Him. It's the same thing with relationships with other people, we tell them what we will accept from them and what we won't accept, why should our relationship with Jesus be any different? He is the supreme being in the relationship and we are the ones that have to be shaped just right for the relationship to work. Our flesh will fight hard to not have to die, but it has to be the choice we make in order to have the kind of relationship with Jesus that died for us to be able to have with Him. Hard to understand during the younger years but the sooner they realize this the sooner their relationship can be strongly built. I look at my kids (16 and 10) and think to myself "the sooner you learn how important this is the longer you will live the kind of life that Jesus has planned for you". How awesome is that? I wish that I would have understood this at the age of 16, alot of things might have been alot different.
Have a blessed day in the Lord everyone
~Loradoodle~
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
where is God when we are hurting?
Hi bloggers, hope everyone is having a great day! In ohio we are getting prepared for a snow storm that could possibly drop 4-8 inches of lovely snow :( Don't get me wrong I love to see God's amazing work but I don't like to drive in snow at all, but I do love watching it fall as long as all my family is home. Hubby is a truck driver and I hate when he's out driving in that stuff.
Anyways my brother and his wife seperated this past weekend and he's really hurting, I'm sure my sister-in-law is hurting also, I haven't talked to her yet. But how many times when we are hurting do we wonder where God is? He feels sooo far away during our dark hours doesn't he? It seems like when we need to know answers to our questions about what we are going through, we don't hear from God. Why??? I've thought about this all day since talking to my brother, so much needing me to tell him that God will put their marriage back together. I know God can but I also know that there are requirements from us during the process. How do we get those who don't understand that most of the time God doesn't give "yes" and "no" answers. Most of the time our answers come from doing what God asks us to do and in the process He gives us our answers that we have been searching for. I want so much to tell him that God told me he will put their marriage back together when I was praying, but that would be a lie. I pray, then I leave up it to God. But at this moment I'm not the one who is hurting, my marriage is doing really good and our family is doing really good also, so I'm not the one that God would tell that too. How are we going to make the world understand that He wants a relationship with them, that is between them and God? God doesn't want us to have a permnant relationship with Him through other people. We are to tell others about the Good News of Jesus, but the relationship part is up to them, we can encourage them but we can't build it for them.
Father, I pray that you teach me to know when it's time for me to leave the relationship between You and others. AMEN!
Have a blessed weekend
`Loradoodle~
Anyways my brother and his wife seperated this past weekend and he's really hurting, I'm sure my sister-in-law is hurting also, I haven't talked to her yet. But how many times when we are hurting do we wonder where God is? He feels sooo far away during our dark hours doesn't he? It seems like when we need to know answers to our questions about what we are going through, we don't hear from God. Why??? I've thought about this all day since talking to my brother, so much needing me to tell him that God will put their marriage back together. I know God can but I also know that there are requirements from us during the process. How do we get those who don't understand that most of the time God doesn't give "yes" and "no" answers. Most of the time our answers come from doing what God asks us to do and in the process He gives us our answers that we have been searching for. I want so much to tell him that God told me he will put their marriage back together when I was praying, but that would be a lie. I pray, then I leave up it to God. But at this moment I'm not the one who is hurting, my marriage is doing really good and our family is doing really good also, so I'm not the one that God would tell that too. How are we going to make the world understand that He wants a relationship with them, that is between them and God? God doesn't want us to have a permnant relationship with Him through other people. We are to tell others about the Good News of Jesus, but the relationship part is up to them, we can encourage them but we can't build it for them.
Father, I pray that you teach me to know when it's time for me to leave the relationship between You and others. AMEN!
Have a blessed weekend
`Loradoodle~
Friday, February 18, 2011
Hi everyone! It's a beautiful day here in Ohio, the sunny is shining brightly and so is my soul. God is always working and I love that He never leaves me to deal with things on my own.
My wonderful hubby got me a laptop for our anniversary so that's what I'm using and my fingers and hands, and arms (just put my arm in the wrong spot and completley erased what I had typed) in the wrong places. :( so I spend alot of time retyping. LOL! Life is great!
I'm back to teaching the teen sunday school class @ church and man do I love it! Thank you God for blessing me with the chance to teach our kids your love, grace, acceptance and power.
My wonderful hubby got me a laptop for our anniversary so that's what I'm using and my fingers and hands, and arms (just put my arm in the wrong spot and completley erased what I had typed) in the wrong places. :( so I spend alot of time retyping. LOL! Life is great!
I'm back to teaching the teen sunday school class @ church and man do I love it! Thank you God for blessing me with the chance to teach our kids your love, grace, acceptance and power.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Burdens (n) a usaully heavy load to be borne (past contense of bear) - physically,emotionally and spiritually.
We all have them, so why do we act as though everything is perfect? I have no problems! I hear alot of critisim about others who do have problems that are visible to the world, unable to hide them. So I looked up in my bible NLT dictionary/concordance what burdens mean, did you know that there is 1 mention of the word critisim (Psalm 38:4) in the old testament and there are 9 books in the new testament ( Matthew 11:28,30, Acts 15:28, 2 Corinthians 11:9,28,12:14, Galatians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8) that contain the word "burdens". The first time it's mentioned in the new testament is in Matthew 11:28 Jesus said " Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.". Notice the end of the verse, I will give you rest, what exactly does this mean? As humans we have this thing about fixing things ourselves. We tend to get satisfaction, ego boost, confidence, pride etc. from doing things ourselves don't we? Well I believe what Jesus was telling us that through Him we we don't have to go around trying to fix everything, take our burdens to Him and He will fix it, the right way, the first time! The hard part for our "flesh" is to give it Him. FIGHT THE FLESH!! LIVE A LIFE FULL OF REST!!
Have a blessed and restful day
~Loradoodle~
We all have them, so why do we act as though everything is perfect? I have no problems! I hear alot of critisim about others who do have problems that are visible to the world, unable to hide them. So I looked up in my bible NLT dictionary/concordance what burdens mean, did you know that there is 1 mention of the word critisim (Psalm 38:4) in the old testament and there are 9 books in the new testament ( Matthew 11:28,30, Acts 15:28, 2 Corinthians 11:9,28,12:14, Galatians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8) that contain the word "burdens". The first time it's mentioned in the new testament is in Matthew 11:28 Jesus said " Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.". Notice the end of the verse, I will give you rest, what exactly does this mean? As humans we have this thing about fixing things ourselves. We tend to get satisfaction, ego boost, confidence, pride etc. from doing things ourselves don't we? Well I believe what Jesus was telling us that through Him we we don't have to go around trying to fix everything, take our burdens to Him and He will fix it, the right way, the first time! The hard part for our "flesh" is to give it Him. FIGHT THE FLESH!! LIVE A LIFE FULL OF REST!!
Have a blessed and restful day
~Loradoodle~
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Well it's almost the 2011 and I haven't posted much on here in 2010. I started blogging because I wanted to share what goes on with me and my family. What are hobbies are and things that we experience. I got really discouraged when I realized that no one reads it, but there is so much that I've learned over the last year that I realized I really should have kept my blogging up to date. It's not about how many people read it, it's about sharing with just right people/person at the right time. So here it goes and I promise that I will keep up with it in the coming new year (one of my resolutions).
I will give a quick highlight of 2010, first and most importantly my 2 children gave their life to Jesus, my daughter in Janurary and my son in May. In June the 2 of them and their dad all got baptized! This happened the day after we came home from Alive 2010 (if you don't know what this is here is the website Alive.org). I have a few pictures up on my facebook page (taylortown community church life teen). My son (Robby) started driving, decided that he wanted to go the Pioneer JVS, had his first girlfriend and got to play some varsity football. He's had a year of alot of changes but he's adjusted well. My daughter (Leesha) is really doing good in school, since she entered school she has struggled every year, we held her back in 2nd grade thinking that we might have started her too soon. That helped for that year because she remembered alot of things that she had already learned, but when she hit 3rd grade her sturggles started all over again except this time she got tested for learning disabilities and it came back that she struggles with short term memory. She is now in the 4th grade and has an IEP teacher to help with her work and she is having a TERRIFIC year. We have went to church regularly this year and man oh man has God really worked in our lives! My marriage isn't even close to the way it used to be. I feel like I got divorced and married a new man, (which by the way I'm still married to the same one LOL). God has worked on Charlie and I so much that it's hard to believe we are the same people.
I was talking to a friend a while back and was telling her about being discouraged lately, I was teaching the teens class at my church (Taylortown Community Church) and it really just wasn't going as I had planned. The attendance consisted of just my 2 kids and maybe 1 other one if I was lucky. I got really discourage and just stopped teaching, then I got the idea of feeding the football team after the friday night home games (thinking that if I could just get them into the church then maybe just maybe some of them would start coming to sunday school and church) well that didn't workout either. Have you ever felt like you had a calling to do something and then when you stepped out to do it, it didn't work out? Well that's where I was at. I have to be honest about this, I'm thinking that for right now I my calling might have been taken aways for awhile, that may not make sense but I got a "righteous" when I started teaching and got an holyier than thou attitude. I'd like to say not a bad attitude but in God's eyes it wasn't a humble attitude. Proud is the word I've been looking for (had to sit here for awhile and try to think of it). So anyways a couple of months ago when my friend and I were talking I was telling her about my struggles and she recommended that I keep a record of it. That's where this blog is coming in. Everyday I find myself struggling! Trying to live a life that reflects God's love, doing the right things, saying the right things, reading my bible and so on. Why does itseem to get so overwhelming sometimes? How many times am I going to go around this mountain? My favorite saying is from Joyce Meyer, "I might not be where I should be, but Thank God I'm not where I used to be". Isn't that the truth!~ I don't want to be anywhere near where I used to be a few years ago. I was sooo lost and spent soo much time feeling confused, rying to be at peace. That's one of the reason why I felt the urge to help with the kids, so many of them are lost and confused and terrified on the inside. I watch Robby (17) trying to act like he's got it all together, trying to make decisions on his own, sometimes handling situations that he's just no able to handle by himself and he's not the only one I know, his friends are the same way. My heart just aches for these kids. I don't want any of them to have to wait until they are grown to have peace, that's my goal.
I will give a quick highlight of 2010, first and most importantly my 2 children gave their life to Jesus, my daughter in Janurary and my son in May. In June the 2 of them and their dad all got baptized! This happened the day after we came home from Alive 2010 (if you don't know what this is here is the website Alive.org). I have a few pictures up on my facebook page (taylortown community church life teen). My son (Robby) started driving, decided that he wanted to go the Pioneer JVS, had his first girlfriend and got to play some varsity football. He's had a year of alot of changes but he's adjusted well. My daughter (Leesha) is really doing good in school, since she entered school she has struggled every year, we held her back in 2nd grade thinking that we might have started her too soon. That helped for that year because she remembered alot of things that she had already learned, but when she hit 3rd grade her sturggles started all over again except this time she got tested for learning disabilities and it came back that she struggles with short term memory. She is now in the 4th grade and has an IEP teacher to help with her work and she is having a TERRIFIC year. We have went to church regularly this year and man oh man has God really worked in our lives! My marriage isn't even close to the way it used to be. I feel like I got divorced and married a new man, (which by the way I'm still married to the same one LOL). God has worked on Charlie and I so much that it's hard to believe we are the same people.
I was talking to a friend a while back and was telling her about being discouraged lately, I was teaching the teens class at my church (Taylortown Community Church) and it really just wasn't going as I had planned. The attendance consisted of just my 2 kids and maybe 1 other one if I was lucky. I got really discourage and just stopped teaching, then I got the idea of feeding the football team after the friday night home games (thinking that if I could just get them into the church then maybe just maybe some of them would start coming to sunday school and church) well that didn't workout either. Have you ever felt like you had a calling to do something and then when you stepped out to do it, it didn't work out? Well that's where I was at. I have to be honest about this, I'm thinking that for right now I my calling might have been taken aways for awhile, that may not make sense but I got a "righteous" when I started teaching and got an holyier than thou attitude. I'd like to say not a bad attitude but in God's eyes it wasn't a humble attitude. Proud is the word I've been looking for (had to sit here for awhile and try to think of it). So anyways a couple of months ago when my friend and I were talking I was telling her about my struggles and she recommended that I keep a record of it. That's where this blog is coming in. Everyday I find myself struggling! Trying to live a life that reflects God's love, doing the right things, saying the right things, reading my bible and so on. Why does itseem to get so overwhelming sometimes? How many times am I going to go around this mountain? My favorite saying is from Joyce Meyer, "I might not be where I should be, but Thank God I'm not where I used to be". Isn't that the truth!~ I don't want to be anywhere near where I used to be a few years ago. I was sooo lost and spent soo much time feeling confused, rying to be at peace. That's one of the reason why I felt the urge to help with the kids, so many of them are lost and confused and terrified on the inside. I watch Robby (17) trying to act like he's got it all together, trying to make decisions on his own, sometimes handling situations that he's just no able to handle by himself and he's not the only one I know, his friends are the same way. My heart just aches for these kids. I don't want any of them to have to wait until they are grown to have peace, that's my goal.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Oh my gosh!
Hello everyone!! Long time, no blog :) I've been extrememly lazy about blogging. I'm sorry, I have a tendancy to loose my inspiritation easy.
Here's a few updates about church
1. My youth group went to Alive 2010 at Atwood lake near New Philidelphia Ohio. What an awesome weekend of worhip and praise! If you can at all attend a christian concert, please do so. They are so spiritually uplifting.
2. My son, daughter and husband were all baptized on June 27, 2010. God is performing miracles every second of everyday. It is really inspiring to see kids get baptized, go to the alter and etc.
3.We are getting ready to have a rummage/bake sale at church for our blessing box fund. Our church fills shoeboxes every fall and takes them down to another organization called Evanelistic Outreach, who then take them to the Appalachian Region for the needy. If you would like to get involved here is the list of items needed.
http://taylortownchurch.com/blessing.html
Here's a few updates about church
1. My youth group went to Alive 2010 at Atwood lake near New Philidelphia Ohio. What an awesome weekend of worhip and praise! If you can at all attend a christian concert, please do so. They are so spiritually uplifting.
2. My son, daughter and husband were all baptized on June 27, 2010. God is performing miracles every second of everyday. It is really inspiring to see kids get baptized, go to the alter and etc.
3.We are getting ready to have a rummage/bake sale at church for our blessing box fund. Our church fills shoeboxes every fall and takes them down to another organization called Evanelistic Outreach, who then take them to the Appalachian Region for the needy. If you would like to get involved here is the list of items needed.
http://taylortownchurch.com/blessing.html
4. Our churches vacation bible school starts July 26th - 30th. We are having a Fun day on July 31st for the kids. Please come out and join us! Here is the link if you would like to sign your kids up http://taylortownchurch.com/id42.html.
Updates about my family
Robby got his license in May! He's so excited about being able to drive. Always a big milestone in your life. He's been weight lifting all summer, getting ready for football. This week he's been working the little kids camp in the morning, weightlifting in the afternoon and then his captains practice in the evening. He's sure been busy!
Leesha played softball this summer, which she really enjoyed. Then she's spent most of her time swimming at her buddy Brycen's. I'm so thankful for the friends they both have. All are such great kids!
Charlie's hours have finally dropped a little for him at work. Thank God! He was working about 70 - 75 hours a week which is great financially but for the home life it really took a beating. I'm thankful that he cares so much about his family to try to spend enough time with us and make a good living.
As for me, well there's been alot going on. I'm now writing the newsletter for my church (which I'm really excited about). I'm still teaching sunday school for the teens, but we haven't had classes in about a month since I got my room tore up painting and such, but that's ok we all still keep in touch.
Right now I'm trying to fiqure out what it is God is calling me to do. Have you ever had so many ideas run through your head that you feel all foggy up there? Well that's me, there's so much I wanna do for my family at home and at church but I feel overwhelmed by it all. Pray for God to help me sort through the confusion and find the answers!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Being Lead!
I feel that I'm being lead lately to blog about my faith in God. You see I become the Teen youth leader for my church in January, it has been a stuggle for me too! I'm stubborn when it comes to getting out of my comfort zone!
Let me start back at age 16 when I got saved. I was the type of kid that didn't see any bad in anyone so I was hanging around people that my parents didn't approve of. I liked boys! So my mom called a pastor friend of hers and he came out to talk to me. Before he left he asked if I wanted to get saved. I thought "well if it makes me quit liking boys, YEAH!" the way I was treated made me feel as though something was wrong with me for liking boys and only God could fix me. So he had me pray a salvation prayer and I was saved! I went to church by myself in Lexington Ohio but I soon lost interest when I developed a crush on a boy at church and eventually quit going. Something must be wrong with me! God didn't cure my crushes on boys. I spent the next 2 years trying to cure myself, I finally gave up,and walked away from my faith. I questioned everything. Does God exist? Doesn't God want me? Apparently not since he didn't cure my "crushes".
During all this (my whole life actually) I felt this calling of some kind on my life. I always thought to myself, "how can you use me since I like boys?" Somewhere I lost myself. The best thing God did was make me a good mom! Even though I had walked away from Him, He never walked away from me! He always kept my conscience visible to make me the mom that I'am.
In 1999 God kept putting it on my heart when I would drive past this church that I needed to go here, that same year my gallbladder almost put me 6 feet under and I came home with a new look on life. I told my husband that I wanted to go to church because God is the only reason why I"m still here. We attended Taylortown Community Church in Shelby Ohio.
That same year I found out that I was pregnant with our daughter. We had her in April of 2000 and Charlie and I seperated in August of that same year. He had had an affair on me 2 years earlier and God was really working on him about it. We stayed seperated for a month and during that time, I could feel God's presence with me the whole time! He was telling me to stay with my husband. What???? Are you kidding me??? I wanted to run from this man as far as I could!
So that brings us back to my comfort zone.
Let me start back at age 16 when I got saved. I was the type of kid that didn't see any bad in anyone so I was hanging around people that my parents didn't approve of. I liked boys! So my mom called a pastor friend of hers and he came out to talk to me. Before he left he asked if I wanted to get saved. I thought "well if it makes me quit liking boys, YEAH!" the way I was treated made me feel as though something was wrong with me for liking boys and only God could fix me. So he had me pray a salvation prayer and I was saved! I went to church by myself in Lexington Ohio but I soon lost interest when I developed a crush on a boy at church and eventually quit going. Something must be wrong with me! God didn't cure my crushes on boys. I spent the next 2 years trying to cure myself, I finally gave up,and walked away from my faith. I questioned everything. Does God exist? Doesn't God want me? Apparently not since he didn't cure my "crushes".
During all this (my whole life actually) I felt this calling of some kind on my life. I always thought to myself, "how can you use me since I like boys?" Somewhere I lost myself. The best thing God did was make me a good mom! Even though I had walked away from Him, He never walked away from me! He always kept my conscience visible to make me the mom that I'am.
In 1999 God kept putting it on my heart when I would drive past this church that I needed to go here, that same year my gallbladder almost put me 6 feet under and I came home with a new look on life. I told my husband that I wanted to go to church because God is the only reason why I"m still here. We attended Taylortown Community Church in Shelby Ohio.
That same year I found out that I was pregnant with our daughter. We had her in April of 2000 and Charlie and I seperated in August of that same year. He had had an affair on me 2 years earlier and God was really working on him about it. We stayed seperated for a month and during that time, I could feel God's presence with me the whole time! He was telling me to stay with my husband. What???? Are you kidding me??? I wanted to run from this man as far as I could!
So that brings us back to my comfort zone.
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