Milestones: God's Been Good

Reviewing a few things in my mind this morning:

1.  I turn 60 this year! Wow! I think that number sounds so young this year :)

2.  Rick and I will be married 40 years on August 17! Wow! We had a Christmas picture where we had a chalkboard that said something like "It gets better with age."
God has blessed us so much to have each other.

3.  It dawned on me that I need to remember my spiritual birthday! 45 years old this year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Thank you to the Peters who spent time with me to show me the way to God. Boy, God has had a lot of patience and teaching to do in these years. As I said recently, I can't believe how many times He has had to adjust my GPS when I got off track. But I love Him so and wouldn't want my life without Him.

     My thoughts this morning turned to the importance of not the number of 45 years in my spiritual life but what have I accomplished in those years. Not as much as I would like. I have always considered myself to have the "gift of helps" as stated in I Cor 12:28.
     Paul said in I Cor 3 that some plant, some water, some sow, but God gives the increase. I am not pushy with the gospel.  I know what it has done for me and rejoice in how real God is to me every day. I hope others will want that same relationship that God so willingly offers:  to wipe out our past when we ask forgiveness, every day to have Him as our leader and guide and a glorious home in heaven. Hallelujah!

Wonderstruck again!

It has been such an awwwwesommme day of worship and prayer and.........whohoo!

Started yesterday and here is a quick timeline:

God inspired "prayer box" like a recipe box for my prayer burdens. First time I used it yesterday morning and a God inspired prayer enveloped me and He blessed me all day.

Wonderstruck Sunday School lesson today on being wonderstruck by prayer. Try praying in brief 3 or 4 word phrases concentrating on your request without a bunch of "filler words".  You don't have to pray like this all the time but boy does it help you to focus and not have mindless prayers. Praying for a couple in our class who are certain God is going to answer prayer about the husband's recently diagnosed cancer in his neck.

Wonderful worship service with lots of praise, inspiring message, prayer at the alter and rejoicing closing song.  I received more than I prayed for yesterday. :)

Started instrumental worship practise playing my flute with a group.  Always wanted to learn real worship instrumental music.

Wonderful time at evening Bible study on prayer.  God gave the 2nd confirmation on a prayer request that we have had for years. Men and women were teary eyed as we learned and relearned how important prayer is over top of everything else we do for God. Closed with great heartfelt prayer for each others soul burdens.

I tried to go to bed on time so I can get up early to go to gym before work. But I'm just bubbling over...it's bubbling...it's bubbling...it's bubbling in my soul. So here I am up again.

Ok...I'm starting to feel sleepy......

God Wonders

Involved in Sunday School class Bible study on God Wonders. Looking for wonders of every day to be thankful for.

3 for today:

Good evening with my husband and I together.
Making progress on year end accounting at work.
Able to have Bible study at the gym this morning

Another day:

Beautiful sky in the morning
Someone at the gym asking me what I was reading in the Bible
Encouraging service at church

Also, there is a group I found on facebook that is eliminating negativity for Lent and replacing it with positive God thoughts.

Half Empty or Half Full?

Most of the time when we hear the phrase half empty or half full, it is in regards to how we are to look at life in a positive manner. It goes right along with being thankful to God for what we have and being content.

The other day it came to me in a new way. For a long time I was taught to look at other Christians as half empty and unexceptable to God. God has, is and will be, teaching me to look at other Christians as half full. If I am to see my own life that way, shouldn't I look at others that way?

No, I don't believe in people or myself claiming religion or belief in God yet living a life without any "fruit" or choosing to live any sloppy way we want and expecting God to just forgive our lousy choices.

Yet for too long I didn't try people's spirits as the Bible tells us to, I just looked at outward appearance and where they went to church and judged them guilty. Thankfully, I haven't been too old for God to teach an old dog new tricks :)

And I have realized that some people are really strong in areas I'm weak. Each one of us has things we've conquered and things we are still working on and things we haven't even started on yet. And we're all working on our individual weak areas and hopefully admiring others strong areas and getting tips from their life on how we can do better.

I love God and the good things He is doing in my life and have faith in Him working behind the scenes on what I'm praying for.

Who Receives God's Message?

Still reading in Luke. This morning beginning of chapter 3.

Luke lists who is ruling in Rome at this time, Caesar....Pilot was the governor...Herod and his brother Philip were tetrarchs (rulers of a portion of the country). This was the government officials.

In the religious realm....high priests were Annas and Caiaphas

Luke didn't say anything about God speaking to any of these government or religious rulers.

The fact is we have to "Know God" and be in touch with Him and listening to Him before He is going to make an effort to talk to us. But I'm getting ahead of myself or ahead of the scripture. :)

Luke then says, after listing the government and religious rulers,........"the word of God came unto John in the wilderness."

Are you or I in a wilderness time of our life? God speaks to us there. Praise God!