Year End

Year end sounds like a sale, right? This has been a year of ups and downs. My daughter married the love her life. My granddaughter married this year also. My god-daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Bentley. I received my passport. I didn't see a way to do that on my limited income but God made a way. My granddaughter, Schanae and I got the chance of a lifetime, a chance to go on a mission trip. I never thought I'd get to do that, even though it has been my desire since I was twelve. I had been so excited about the trip and had to believe for the money to come in. Then just a few weeks before we were to leave my youngest daughter and Schanae's mother died. I saw no way possible to go but God intervened and we were able to go. It was a healing thing for both of us. The hopelessness and poverty in a third world country will change your life forever. We were able to minister to so many people. We will go again this coming year. We will go to Panama this year. We will have to pray in the finances again this year but we know God can meet our needs.

This year has been a year of victory for me. I have grown so much in my Christian walk. There is just no way to put into words what God has done for me. I have learned so much in my journey to publication. I have all my friends I blog with to thank for that. In July I wasn't even sure what a blog was, now I post blogs three times a week and spend hours reading other blogs. I am starting to tweet and I just started my own author's page. I can spend hours reading my emails. I now have a kindle and can download everyone's books. Who new you could teach an old dog new tricks?

My grandson, Jeremy came home from work and said one of his friends was talking about the internet and he had said something about his grandmother being on the computer.(I use to work at McDonald's where he works) and his friends laughed. He told them that I was the one who was always on the computer and if they needed help just to call her. He told them she blogs, she tweets, and she talks to people all over the world. I thought that was cute.

This has been a great year. the only thing missing is publication but I do know I am much closer this year than I was last year. God is good and His mercy endures forever. Has this been a good year for you? What do you look forward to this coming year? God has told me it will be a year of intercession. I like that. I pray you all have a blessed and prosperous new year. I know I will.

One Step

I've managed to take one more step. I have finished my Book Proposal. Now for the first time ever I actually feel like an author. I had no idea how to go about making one but I think it's not bad for a first effort. I just hope that the publisher thinks so too.

I also started an author page. I know that is not a big deal for a lot of you but again I had no idea how to do that. I do hope you will all go to my author's page and click like. Really doesn't that sound kind of high school? Go to my page and like me, I mean really but I do need to be liked. So I would really appreciate it if you would help me. The social media thing is all about the numbers I have found and since I am new at all of this I just don't have the numbers needed to get published.

It is hard to convince a publisher from some huge city to take a chance on someone out in the middle of no where. The social media does help to level the playing field so thank you for all your help and guidance. Do you have any other suggestions? I can use all the help I can get.

HE CAME

He came! How awesome is that. We were lost with no hope.Through one man's sin we were cursed. We were destined to spiritual death, separation from God. A life of desperation.

BUT HE CAME!!!!!!!!!!!! He came as a helpless baby. Is there anything more fragile or helpless than an infant. Yet He came as one. He wasn't born as we were. He wasn't born to live He was born to die. Imagine, He came to die for you and for me. He loved us that much. He knew from the beginning of time that that was the only way. He knew what he would have to endure but He did it for us that we might live in Him. How glorious!

Every single book of the Bible talks about His coming. Every single book talks about His redemption and the plan of of Salvation. Salvation doesn't just mean we get to go to heaven. There is so much more to salvation than that. Yes it means a spiritual rebirth, most of us can agree to that. It means He will reign in our hearts. It also means healing. Not all of can agree with that. Many people believe that only Jesus could heal and it passed away when the disciples died. Did you all see The Passion Of Christ? Parts of it weren't shown because it was so graphic but there was no way to show what was really done to our Lord. The Bible says He was not recognizable as a man. His own mother wouldn't have recognized Him if she hadn't witnessed the whole thing. He took all those lashes for my healing, for yours. thirty-nine stripes. the problem with that count was that each lash was done with a whip that had countless strips of leather tied with broken glass and strips of metal. Each lash tore at his flesh and ripped away His flesh. He did that for my healing. How can I turn around and say it's not God's will to heal today when He did that for me? He became poor that I might become rich. That is what the Bible says. He gave up everything for me, EVERYTHING! If that isn't love what is?

HE CAME!! He came that I might be set free. GLORY!!!!  GLORY!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Merry Christmas

I hope that my post on Monday helped. I know that many are struggling with there finances this year. I have been attacked myself. Through an error I unknowingly made the devil wiped out my checking account but I laugh at the devil. He think he has won but I have the victory. He doesn't know it yet but this is going to be the best Christmas ever. He is a defeated foe! My Pastor has been giving this series for several weeks. You can watch or hear his teaching at ChristianLifeCenterNe.org I know it will be a great help to you all. It has been a real blessing to me.

I have finished my first book proposal.YEAH!!! I am going to print it off today and have my bff at the newspaper edit it for me to make sure there are no great errors. I really want it sent in so I can have it off my mind, give it to God, and enjoy my Christmas. Once I send it it is no longer my problem but God's.

Today I receive my social security check so I will get to go finish my Christmas shopping. I really hate to go this late. There are always such crowds and  people can be so rude. Kellie, my daughter and I will have a great time, even though neither of us like to shop.

We will have company on Christmas Eve. We have chili for supper and lots of snacks and goodies. We open gifts then. Sunday morning we will go to church and then we go to Kellie's mother-in-law, Rosie's. We will celebrate Christmas there. She lives in Sargent so it is a thirty minute drive. She is a wonderful cook and it is always a blessing to go there. We have had some loss this year so I pray all goes well.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. God Bless You All. What are your plans this Christmas? Is your church having services? Will you be with family? 

Hope in a Hopeless Economy

It is almost to good to be true news but there is hope even in a time such as this. I want to share with you three Ps that will help you. 1. Plan - no plan means no plenty. 2. picture - if you can see it you can have it. "My people perish for lack vision. 3. Persevere - live with in your means.

If your output is larger than your input, your upkeep is your downfall! We should live by the 80% rule 10% goes to tithes, 10% goes to savings, and we live on 80%. If you can't live on the 80% you are living beyond your means. Luke 16:3 says No servant is able to serve two masters; for he will hate the one and love the other or he will stand by the one or despise the other. You can't serve God and mammon." (riches or anything that you trust and rely on)  Mammon was a Syrian god-the god of debt.

1. Debt takes a way personal freedom
2. Debt robs us of our options
3. Debt keeps us from serving God
4.Debt robs us from giving to God
5. Debt makes you say no to God

Proverbs 13:18 says "Poverty and shame come to him who refuses instruction and correction but he who heeds reproof is honored. Psalms 68:6 says God places the solitary in families. He leads the prisoners out  to prosperity."

I don' serve a god of debt, I serve The God of debt cancellation. God will make a way. He will lead us out of debt. God will give us wisdom, ideas, and witty inventions. If you have a need - sow a seed. You will never do anything about your debt until you get angry about it.

Nehemiah  5:11says "Restore no to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you have charged them."
1. Keep good records
2. Plan your spending
3. Reduce debt (Start with your lowest bill, when that is paid off add that payment to the next and so on)
4. Pay tithes
5. Always give God your best above the tithe

Psalms 66:12 "You brought us out to a wealthy place. (Abundance)

I hope this teaching blesses you as much as it does me. How are you doing this year? Have you realized how important it is to get out of debt? Debt is just the devils way of counterfeiting God's blessings.

Joy

Today is a day of joy! I am going to North Platte today to pick up my grandson. Cade is special to me because his mother was very ill after he was born and I was his basic care giver for his first two and a half years. He is like my own son in many ways. He is seven and a half years old and a real blessing when he comes.

My daughter went home to live with Jesus last May. Cade lives with his dad in North Platte so I don't get to see him as often as I like. This is really a blessing today because my sixteen year old granddaughter lost my phone. I didn't have Russ' (Cade's dad) phone number. I had my prayer group pray with me that Russ would call me.(He has never done that before) Praise God he called and ask me if I would like to have Cade this week end so we could have our Christmas with him.
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Kellie and I will leave at three and meet his dad at four thirty. Kellie will drive home as I hate to drive after dark. We will eat out.(where ever Cade wants to eat) and hopefully get home before it is too late. Tomorrow we will put up our tree, decorate it, bake cookies, and go see Christmas lights. I am so excited. He has always been such a blessing to me.

Well I hope you have a joyful day planned to. God is so good. All the time. Blessing to you all

A Day Off

Today is my Birthday. I am 66 years old. Now is a good time for the old adage:  if I knew I would live so long I would have taken better care of myself. Any way I decided I am taking the day off. God bless you all.

Christmas Music

Yesterday my granddaughter told me she was tired of Christmas music. Did we have to listen to now? She is sixteen and has a Christmas program on Thursday. "That all I hear and all I think about." Schanae shared. So we watched Christmas movies instead. My best friend came over. She doesn't have cable or satellite and she wanted to see The Heart of Christmas. We watched movies four six hours and Schanae never said a word.
 Her idea of Christmas music is different than mine. She sings the generic holiday stuff. (Her words not mine)             

I woke up in the middle of the night to Mary Did You Know running through my head. I laid there for hours trying to remember the exact words. I love old song but I love the new contemporary ones too. I love to have all the world praising Jesus, giving glory to God. I know that some of the radio stations are playing Silver Bells, Jingle Bells, or Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer. (I find that frightening) Every once in a while they will slip in a song that is meaningful simply because it is a well known artist. My radio station, My
Bridge is so awesome the play the best of faith filled contemporary Christmas music, there is little talking, and no commercials. Just wonderful.

This is the only time of the year when everyone is singing about Christ our Lord. There are people who don't like it but when they hear the songs they still can sing alone because it is in them down deep. This year with all it's trials it seems to be even more of a blessing. Santa songs don't help much when you don't have a home, a job, but you do have a family to care for and no idea how to do it. Jesus is the reason for the season and the hope for us all.

How about you? Do you get tired of the Christmas Music? Do you know the true meaning of Christmas? Do you share it with the homeless and the hopeless? Can you help others to show them God Love? If you struggle with depression (I know a lot of people do) go out and find someone who has less than you do and help them. It works every time.

Time

How can time be so out of control? Is it only me or is it flying by at warp speed. I turn around and days have gone by. I can't believe it is not only December but it is almost half way over. That is frightening to me because I
I have a birthday coming up next week.

How can I possibly be another year older? Did anyone see Tangled? The evil mother has a line that comes to mind to me at this time. "It can't be your birthday, I distinctly remember you had one last year." It is too bad that doesn't count.  At sixty-six I should just be glad I am alive and healthy.

Tomorrow we will have our Christmas Tea. Next week my grandson Cade is coming to stay a few days so we can have Christmas with him. (You remember my daughter Amie went to heaven last May so he lives with his dad) I am excited to spend time with him we have always been close. He is now seven and one half. That one half is important at his age.

As a single mother raising four children alone Christmas was a hard time for me. That birthday made it that much more difficult for me to handle. Each year you know you are that much less attractive and odds of finding someone to care about getting worse every day. Now it is not so important.

Christmas is still hard for me. My daughter and her husband are very happy together but I am still alone.
God is my Husband but there are times when that seems like not quite enough.  After my birthday I will do
much better.

How about you? Are they holidays hard on you? Do you get bogged down? Are you alone like me?

Christmas Movies

I do need to tell you that our Heaven is for real event was awesome. We will probably never know all the lives that were touched but it was wonderful.

Now I want to share some things about the movies I saw this weekend.  After this last week I was terribly run down and was hit with some kind of virus, so I spent Saturday and Sunday reclined in my chair. I did little more than watch TV. Between the Hallmark channel, Hallmark Movie channel, and GMC I watched a lot of them.
One i really like was Christmas with a Capital C.  It was about a man who returned to his hometown and decided to run for mayor so he could get rid of the town nativity.  I thank God that I live in a town that does have a nativity that sits in the town square. There was a time when they tried to take it from us but thank God we still have it. The movie was very well done.  I love it when faith in God is shown in such a positive way.

The Heart of Christmas was another movie that really touched me. A story of a family with a terminally ill child and a town that bans together to help the family and how it changes the lives of those people.  November Christmas was another film with this theme, they both touched me.

The Ultimate Gift is another one of my favorites. A Christmas Wish was excellent too.  All in all I had a great weekend. I hate being ill but I did enjoy the rest. I thank God for movies about Christmas that are not just some story about Santa.  We all need more love in our lives and I praise God that others realize that too.

What about you? What are your favorite movies?

Heaven is for Real

Well tomorrow is our big day. We have been preparing for months for this. We are a small church of an average of fifty people. Tomorrow night we are expecting around six hundred.  Todd Burpo is a New York Best Seller and has been on some of the big name shows on TV, including Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show, 700 Club, Praise the Lord, Fox news, Marlyn Hickey, and all kinds of talk shows.

His PR people say that thousand have shown up for his meetings. To deal with the crowds we will be having two services; one a 6 pm and one at 8 pm. Everyone that attends the church is involved in the meetings; greeters ushers, video workers, sound systems workers, computer programmers, ect.  We will start working at four and will be there until well after midnight.

My granddaughter and I took cookies and candy to all our neighborhood with invitations to come.  We really want people to be saved.  We live in a huge county. A poll shows that over six thousand people in our county that do not attend any church. We have claimed thousand six thousand souls.  For tomorrow we claim two hundred souls.  We have sown for that number, we have prayed for that number, and we believe for that number.  God's heart is for the lost and I know he is pleased that we are reaching out to the lost.

This year has been a year of miracles for our church.  We had been told that we couldn't update anything in the church because of the electric capacity. We needed a new heating/ac system, needed video capabilities, ect. It was going to cost us a huge amount of money to get our electricity upgraded. It was impossible.  No way!

This year the city changed their electric cables that ran right by our church.  We were offered to upgrade our electric capacity for practically nothing.  It was a miracle.  We were able to get a new air conditioner/heating system. It is up and running.  We now have large screen TV in every room at the church.  We have a new web site where you can watch our services on video and we have hits from all over the world.  We were able to have our very first Mission Conference this fall.  We have just been able to replace our women tiny little bathroom for a new three stall bathroom that is simply beautiful.  It has been a glorious year and it is not over yet.

Tomorrow night will be another chance for God's glory to fill our sanctuary.  We are expecting miracles and expectation is the breeding ground for miracles.  I am expecting great things. His story is awesome.

What is God doing in your life? Do you expect great things?  Are you putting God in a box and not able to believe He can do anything to help you?  Please God deliver us from small thinking.