“I am an open book to you, even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking” Psalm 139:2 (the Message)
The main lesson that God is teaching me, yet once again, is that He knows our thoughts. Here’s another example of something that He’s done just recently to show me that…
It was Sunday, June 24th, and I was at the Proverbs 31 She Speaks Conference. The conference was over, and I was just kind of hanging out waiting for my friend, Kathy, as she was talking to others. As I was standing there, I had this thought, “you know, if I’m going to be joining this ‘national ministry’ as a worship leader, it’s probably time to take things up a notch. I wish I had someone who could give me voice lessons…”
A couple of days later, I was on the phone with Mat*hew Du*ney, who is country music star Barb*ra Ma*drell’s son. I was talking with Matt about his wife Ch*isty Suthe*land. Christy is a wonderful Christian music singer/songwriter. In fact Sandi Patty has one of Christy’s songs on her latest CD. Anyway, I was booking Christy for a festival that we have here locally every year called the Marshall Autumn Festival.
In the process of booking Christy, I had mentioned to Matt that I lead worship at our church. When I mentioned that, it was kind of like a light bulb went off with Matt, and he said, “did you say you’re the worship leader?” and I said “yes, why do you ask?” To which he replied, “Christy has just started a ministry where she meets with praise teams and choirs and gives them voice lessons, would you by any chance be interested in that?”
I immediately thought, “God, you’re amazing.” I’m not kidding you when I said that just TWO days prior to that, I had been standing there thinking, “I wish I had someone to give me voice lessons.” What is even more cool to me is that God didn’t just offer it to me, but to our entire praise team!!
Here’s a couple of more interesting tid bits about how God worked this out. I had initially thought of Christy for the festival, but figured her cost would exceed our budget, so before I ever contacted Christy, I contacted two other groups to see if they could come in…both of them were already booked that day, so I went ahead and followed up with Christy, which is what I had felt God was calling me to do in the first place.
The other thing that is really cool about this is that as I was growing up, I LOVED Bar*ara Ma*drell. She is undoubtedly my favorite entertainer EVER!! In fact if you were to ask me the three top singer/musicians that have influenced me, my answer would look like this 1. Barbara Mandrell 2. Barbara Mandrell 3. Barbara Mandrell.
Yes, I listened to others, but she definitely had far and above a greater influence on me than any other singer/musician/entertainer.
That’s why at the beginning of this, I was sure to include the scripture that said, “I am an open book to you…” because God knows...He is so amazing to me.
I know that we’re not supposed to boast about what we’re going to do or where we’re going to go tomorrow, but I have to give glory to God for what He’s done thus far…and I totally trust Him with the rest.
I also want to take this moment to say that I have been thoroughly impressed with Mat*hew Du*ney. Not because he’s Barbara’s son, but because he’s God’s son. His passion for Christ is contagious.
And regarding Christy, she is an incredibly anointed singer songwriter, and I really hope that you will go to her website and get introduced to her. You can find her at http://www.christysutherland.net/ If, by chance, you know of a worship team or vocalist that would like to benefit from Christy’s training you can find info on that at http://www.myvoicecoach.com/ they have coached some of the best singers that are out there!
If you're from the Marshall area, Christy will be singing at our church in the 9:45a and 11:15a services on Sunday, September 16th. She will also sing at the Autumn Fest that same day at 2pm.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
He Knows Our Thoughts...Part 1
I just received an e-mail from someone regarding my previous post. In it she asked, "why do you feel that God is so close to you today?" In this particular case, I feel that God is close today because He's teaching me a lesson. Something that I've actually already known, but He's taking me to a deeper understanding of it. This lesson is easy for me to understand, because I'm living through it right now, however, it might be hard for me to articulate, but I'll try...and as always, His lessons are deep and wide, so within one initial lesson...comes many lessons. Here we go...
Psalm 139:2 "He perceives my thoughts from afar" (NIV) "I'm an open book to You. Even from a distance You know what I'm thinking" (The Message)
The other day, it was bedtime, and I went into our oldest son’s room to say a prayer. I laid my hand gently on his head, and said, “Lord, protect Him”, and then I told him goodnight.
As I turned to walk out of the room the Lord said to me, in a very loving way, “you can ask me for anything you want.”
He spoke SO clearly to my spirit that I literally stopped, and stood there for a moment. The sudden stop was so noticeable that my son said, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
I turned to him, fighting back the tears, and said, “evidently, Will, I have gotten into a habit of just asking God to protect you. As I was walking out of your room, God said to me, ‘you can ask me for anything you want’. Like, for instance, I can ask Him for wisdom for you, I can ask Him for guidance thru your teen years, I can ask Him that he would give you clear revelation, that you would know Him more…He was reminding me that I can ask Him for anything I want for you.”
As I left Will’s room, I was reminded of a bookmark that I used to have that had a whole list of scriptures to pray over your children. I wondered, for about a week, where that bookmark was. I never actually stopped to LOOK for it, or pray about it, I just thought, “hmmm…I wonder where that bookmark is.”
Well, this morning, I was getting ready for work, and our dog went behind our bed, I could see her hind end, and I could hear her chewing on something, so I stooped down to see what the dog had. As I stooped down and looked behind the bed, there behind the bed, almost as if God had shone a spotlight on it, was the bookmark that I had been thinking about.
I immediately said, “God, you are amazing. You even orchestrate the dog going behind the bed, so that I can find the bookmark that I’d been thinking about”. This was obviously, a bookmark that God wanted me to have. Scriptures, that God wants us to pray for our children.
I had not prayed about this, but He knew I was thinking about it, and He answered.
"I am an open book to You, even from a distance, You know what I'm thinking."
There's more...but in the meantime, I thought you might like to have access to the info that was on that bookmark...click here for awesome Biblical truths to pray for your children. There's 31 prayers...one for each day of the month...
Psalm 139:2 "He perceives my thoughts from afar" (NIV) "I'm an open book to You. Even from a distance You know what I'm thinking" (The Message)
The other day, it was bedtime, and I went into our oldest son’s room to say a prayer. I laid my hand gently on his head, and said, “Lord, protect Him”, and then I told him goodnight.
As I turned to walk out of the room the Lord said to me, in a very loving way, “you can ask me for anything you want.”
He spoke SO clearly to my spirit that I literally stopped, and stood there for a moment. The sudden stop was so noticeable that my son said, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
I turned to him, fighting back the tears, and said, “evidently, Will, I have gotten into a habit of just asking God to protect you. As I was walking out of your room, God said to me, ‘you can ask me for anything you want’. Like, for instance, I can ask Him for wisdom for you, I can ask Him for guidance thru your teen years, I can ask Him that he would give you clear revelation, that you would know Him more…He was reminding me that I can ask Him for anything I want for you.”
As I left Will’s room, I was reminded of a bookmark that I used to have that had a whole list of scriptures to pray over your children. I wondered, for about a week, where that bookmark was. I never actually stopped to LOOK for it, or pray about it, I just thought, “hmmm…I wonder where that bookmark is.”
Well, this morning, I was getting ready for work, and our dog went behind our bed, I could see her hind end, and I could hear her chewing on something, so I stooped down to see what the dog had. As I stooped down and looked behind the bed, there behind the bed, almost as if God had shone a spotlight on it, was the bookmark that I had been thinking about.
I immediately said, “God, you are amazing. You even orchestrate the dog going behind the bed, so that I can find the bookmark that I’d been thinking about”. This was obviously, a bookmark that God wanted me to have. Scriptures, that God wants us to pray for our children.
I had not prayed about this, but He knew I was thinking about it, and He answered.
"I am an open book to You, even from a distance, You know what I'm thinking."
There's more...but in the meantime, I thought you might like to have access to the info that was on that bookmark...click here for awesome Biblical truths to pray for your children. There's 31 prayers...one for each day of the month...
Smoke Break
I'm taking a 10 minute "smoke break" from work...however, I don't smoke...but I'm taking the break to tell you this...I feel God's presence SO strongly today. I love that, when His presence is so strong. As a matter of fact, I'm having trouble thinking of anything other than Him.
Then I ran across this pic, for lack of a better word, and I thought, "yeah, me too Elliott"...thought I'd share.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
How to add you tube video to your blog
Okay, blogger class of 07...here's how you add a You Tube video to your blog, now listen up 'cause I'm only tellin' you this once :-) and this is only if you have a blogger account (blogspot.com) Here we go...
1. go to youtube.com and select the video you want
2. to the right of the video you will see a box that says "embed", highlight the information in that box and hit "ctrl c" to copy it.
3. open a new tab in internet explorer and sign in to your blog and do just like you would if your were going to add a new post. At the upper right hand of the box that you would normally type your post in, you'll see two tabs, one says edit html and the other says compose.
4. Hit edit html, put your cursor in the box you type in and hit "ctrl v". this will paste the info you copied into your box.
5. It will look like a bunch of computer jargan (letters and numbers if I recall correctly)
6. You can type your message either before the computer jargan or after...if you hit preview (also found on the upper right corner) you should then be able to see the actual video.
If you have any questions...feel free to call someone else :-) just kidding, feel free to contact me...hopefully I've told you the correct way to do it!!!
1. go to youtube.com and select the video you want
2. to the right of the video you will see a box that says "embed", highlight the information in that box and hit "ctrl c" to copy it.
3. open a new tab in internet explorer and sign in to your blog and do just like you would if your were going to add a new post. At the upper right hand of the box that you would normally type your post in, you'll see two tabs, one says edit html and the other says compose.
4. Hit edit html, put your cursor in the box you type in and hit "ctrl v". this will paste the info you copied into your box.
5. It will look like a bunch of computer jargan (letters and numbers if I recall correctly)
6. You can type your message either before the computer jargan or after...if you hit preview (also found on the upper right corner) you should then be able to see the actual video.
If you have any questions...feel free to call someone else :-) just kidding, feel free to contact me...hopefully I've told you the correct way to do it!!!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Glory to God and the cell phone
$10 bucks says that my cell phone is better than yours...why would I take this cell phone challenge? Well, let me tell you about my cell phone. If I wanted to be really funny, I would tell this story from the cell phone's perspective, however, I don't have that much creative energy right now.
Really, I have to tell you, that I'm amazed by my phone. I have a Motorola Razor phone. It has proved to be quite impressive. You see, one day, this past winter, I was, well, I don't know of any politically correct way to say this, other than to say, I was going to the bathroom. I had on one of those "hoodie" sweatshirts, and I had my cell phone in the front pocket of it. As I stood up, my cell phone slid out of my pocket and into the toilet.
I had already flushed the toilet, so my cell phone hit the water just in time to disappear from my sight...yes, I had successfully flushed my cell phone. I immediately prayed, "oh my, God, that's my company phone, please do something!!" And then my phone which had previously been TOTALLY out of sight, floated back into the toilet. I was very glad to see it, but not so glad to have to reach in and get it out! However, I rescued the phone, and took it apart, piece by piece, and laid it out on a paper towel to dry. I could give you many details on the drying process, but let me just say that after THREE days of drying out, it came to life again (I'm sure there's a devo somewhere in that just waiting to be written) Anyway, after three days my phone worked PERFECTLY...I mean Perfectly, just as if nothing had ever happened to it...amazing, and I actually TOTALLY believe it was an answer to prayer!
Now fast forward to last week (or so, I lose track of time) I was leaving for work one morning, and that's always a hectic time. I was putting Joshua in his car seat, and we were having, let's say, a discussion, about whether or not he could eat the swiss cake rolls, that he had a firm grip on, for breakfast. I put my cell phone on top of the car so that I could get Josh to release his grip on the swiss cake rolls, and then of course, I backed out of the driveway and left for work.
I pulled out onto the highway and had got my speed up to about 50 miles an hour when I heard something hit my trunk. I said, "what was that?" and I looked back just in time to see my cell phone hit the pavement and break into pieces. Gasp. To be honest, I almost just kept on driving...but I didn't, I stopped and drove back to the approximate location that I thought it was, and walked along the ditch, for 1/2 hour looking for my phone, while Josh sat and ate his swiss cake rolls. :-) (true story)
The amazing thing is, I found my phone. First I found the battery, and about five feet from the battery was the rest of the phone...(most of it anyway, I actually never found the battery cover) Anyway, I put the battery in the phone, and turned it on. Maren was with me too, and she had her cell phone, so she used it to call mine, and sure enough it worked, perfect, as if nothing had ever happened. And fortunately I had a cell phone cover at home, that I had never put back on after the toilet incident...so I put the cell phone cover back on and it holds the battery perfectly in place. So it's broken, yet whole...kinda like the rest of us.
And if you ever ask to borrow my cell phone, you might want to remember where it's been first.
Really, I have to tell you, that I'm amazed by my phone. I have a Motorola Razor phone. It has proved to be quite impressive. You see, one day, this past winter, I was, well, I don't know of any politically correct way to say this, other than to say, I was going to the bathroom. I had on one of those "hoodie" sweatshirts, and I had my cell phone in the front pocket of it. As I stood up, my cell phone slid out of my pocket and into the toilet.
I had already flushed the toilet, so my cell phone hit the water just in time to disappear from my sight...yes, I had successfully flushed my cell phone. I immediately prayed, "oh my, God, that's my company phone, please do something!!" And then my phone which had previously been TOTALLY out of sight, floated back into the toilet. I was very glad to see it, but not so glad to have to reach in and get it out! However, I rescued the phone, and took it apart, piece by piece, and laid it out on a paper towel to dry. I could give you many details on the drying process, but let me just say that after THREE days of drying out, it came to life again (I'm sure there's a devo somewhere in that just waiting to be written) Anyway, after three days my phone worked PERFECTLY...I mean Perfectly, just as if nothing had ever happened to it...amazing, and I actually TOTALLY believe it was an answer to prayer!
Now fast forward to last week (or so, I lose track of time) I was leaving for work one morning, and that's always a hectic time. I was putting Joshua in his car seat, and we were having, let's say, a discussion, about whether or not he could eat the swiss cake rolls, that he had a firm grip on, for breakfast. I put my cell phone on top of the car so that I could get Josh to release his grip on the swiss cake rolls, and then of course, I backed out of the driveway and left for work.
I pulled out onto the highway and had got my speed up to about 50 miles an hour when I heard something hit my trunk. I said, "what was that?" and I looked back just in time to see my cell phone hit the pavement and break into pieces. Gasp. To be honest, I almost just kept on driving...but I didn't, I stopped and drove back to the approximate location that I thought it was, and walked along the ditch, for 1/2 hour looking for my phone, while Josh sat and ate his swiss cake rolls. :-) (true story)
The amazing thing is, I found my phone. First I found the battery, and about five feet from the battery was the rest of the phone...(most of it anyway, I actually never found the battery cover) Anyway, I put the battery in the phone, and turned it on. Maren was with me too, and she had her cell phone, so she used it to call mine, and sure enough it worked, perfect, as if nothing had ever happened. And fortunately I had a cell phone cover at home, that I had never put back on after the toilet incident...so I put the cell phone cover back on and it holds the battery perfectly in place. So it's broken, yet whole...kinda like the rest of us.
And if you ever ask to borrow my cell phone, you might want to remember where it's been first.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Kirk Talley Concert
I'm singing tonight at the Kirk Talley concert at Mill Creek Park. The concert starts at 6:30p. I'm getting ready to go make final preps for that, and as I was thinking about making the final preps I thought, "I sure would like to have some additional prayers regarding this". So, if you read this, and it's still Saturday before 6:30p, please say a prayer for me. And if it's after 6:30p, it's still okay to pray for me! Thanks friends. "Father, thank you for my friends who read this be with them also, and meet them right where they're at today...I love you Lord."
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Quick Note
Quick note to tell you what's going on at the Milbourn household. Monday night, lightning struck somewhere near our house. Our boys, Will and Joshua, were playing Nintendo at the time, and it shocked them thru the controllers (I'd been telling them that God thought they were playing too much Nintendo!)
It also blew out a couple of our TV's, and all satellite receivers, both garage door openers (you realize you're spoiled rotten when stepping out of the car to put the garage door down is a major ordeal). It took out the Nintendo (YAY!!), it destroyed most of our phones, and our internet is gone.
So, this week, we've been learning to live life without all the modern day conveniences!!! So, if I haven't returned your e-mail, or if you've tried calling and can't get ahold of us...that's why!!!
It also blew out a couple of our TV's, and all satellite receivers, both garage door openers (you realize you're spoiled rotten when stepping out of the car to put the garage door down is a major ordeal). It took out the Nintendo (YAY!!), it destroyed most of our phones, and our internet is gone.
So, this week, we've been learning to live life without all the modern day conveniences!!! So, if I haven't returned your e-mail, or if you've tried calling and can't get ahold of us...that's why!!!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Power Wash
Today I decided to wash the van with our power washer. I had set the wand down for a moment when our five year old, Josh, pictured below in a previous post, decided to power wash our five pound puppy dog. Pertnear blew the dog half way across the garage. The dog is inside now and resting peacefully....behind the couch...as far away from Josh as possible. :-)
Monday, July 2, 2007
Cause for Celebration!!!
The last verse of the book of John says this, "if all the other things Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books." John 21:25
That's the way I feel about my past week. If I were to tell about all the things God has done in my life from the last Sunday (at the P31 conference) to this Sunday, this blog post would never end, for it has certainly been an amazing week. I may share some of those God-incidences in later posts, but today I wanted to at least hit what was definitely the highlight of our week.
Below, you'll see pictures of Maren, our daughter, as she makes her own decision to follow Jesus! I was very honored to be the one to baptize her!
That's the way I feel about my past week. If I were to tell about all the things God has done in my life from the last Sunday (at the P31 conference) to this Sunday, this blog post would never end, for it has certainly been an amazing week. I may share some of those God-incidences in later posts, but today I wanted to at least hit what was definitely the highlight of our week.
Below, you'll see pictures of Maren, our daughter, as she makes her own decision to follow Jesus! I was very honored to be the one to baptize her!
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