(this will make a lot more sense if you’ve read parts 1 and 2)
"I am an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking" Psalm 139:2
I said in part one of this that God’s lessons are deep and wide, and through this particular lesson, I have learned and/or been reminded of many things, two of which are this:
1. There are scriptural truths that I can and SHOULD be praying for my children
2. How God orchestrates things to bring about what He wants; ie. Dog going behind the bed so I could find my bookmark, and the other acts that couldn’t come to the Autumn Fest so that Christy could.
However, having said that, there is really ONE main point that God was teaching me through all of this, and the point was "He knows our thoughts!" Why was this so important to me right now?
Here’s why…
It seems that I have been called to intercessory prayer. I say it like that because I don’t think of myself as a prayer warrior. The mental picture I have of someone who is a prayer warrior, is someone who takes the church prayer list, and prays over and over and over for the people on it until something has been resolved. That’s not how God works this intercessory prayer role with me. The way God works with me is, He will lay someone on my heart, and I am consumed with that person. I will think about them practically non-stop, and also pray for them a lot! It’s almost always for a season while God is working something out with that person, or bringing something to fruition.
For the past year, God has had three people on my heart. These three individuals have been so fervently on my mind, that just recently, the day before I wrote the first "thought" post, I asked God to stop. I asked Him to take them off of my mind. (good prayer warrior eh?) I thought it was weird that they were on my mind SO much. I obviously couldn’t pray for them THAT much because I have a life to live…work to do, a family that needs my attention. So I said, "Lord, I think of them all the time, but I feel a little guilty that I’m not praying for them all the time."
Well, the very next day, I found the bookmark behind the bed, and it was if God said to me, "you didn’t pray about this, you only thought about it, and I answered anyway." Then He reminded me of the thought I had at P31 regarding voice lessons, and He said, "you didn’t pray about this, you just thought about it, and I answered anyway." Then He brought up the individuals who are on my mind, and He said, "I know that when you think of them, mostly what you are thinking is how much you care about them, and that you want Me to lavish My love on them, and you want My will done in their lives. I hear those thoughts too, just as I heard your other thoughts."
Could it be that when someone’s on our mind, the mere "thought" that we have of them goes up before the throne of God?
Do we ever see God answer thoughts in the Bible? Yeah, we do.
In Luke chapter 7, Jesus is at the house of one of the Pharisees, and a sinful woman comes in and she stood at His feet, weeping, raining tears on His feet. She poured very expensive perfume on Him. When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself (or thought) "if this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him." Luke 7:39 (MSG) Then, "Jesus answered his thoughts…" Luke 7:40 NLT
I’m not saying don’t pray. I’m not saying don’t go boldly before the throne and ask for what you need. I’m not saying don’t go forth with heartfelt repentance. I’m just trying to stress how FULLY and COMPLETELY He knows us, and understands us, and loves us. And I’m stressing that with you because that’s what He has stressed to me the last couple of weeks. What a personal God He is.
Psalm 139:2, 3
" I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence."
The other thing that God impressed upon me is this: if God has truly laid these individuals on my heart, wouldn’t it make sense that my thoughts of them would seemingly outnumber the grains of sand?
Psalm 139:17, 18 "how precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand."
"Thanks, Jesus, for the lesson. Thanks for allowing us to join you in interceding for the ones that you love. Thanks for loving us so personally that you even know what we’re thinking. Forgive us when we have thoughts that aren’t so pleasing to you. Bless those that read this."
Friday, August 3, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Part 2 - He Knows Our Thoughts
“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.
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.
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!!!
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