Little Golden Nuggets

The last few days I have been reading in Proverbs and finding some good things...kind of like "little golden nuggets!" I'm liking it so much that I'm just barely into chapter 3. This morning I started reading chapter 2 again before going to work. I was so enjoying reading the Word that I just wanted to stay and keep going! Instead...I went off to work to the job that HE has blessed me with! Before I left this is what I found...

Thinking in terms of how I am on a "scripture hunt" my study Bible says this about vs 3-6...

God's wisdom is hidden from the rebellious and foolish, it takes effort to find it and use it. The pathway to wisdom is strenuous. When we are on the path, we discover that true wisdom is God's and that He will guide us and reward our sincere and persistent search.

Proverbs 2:6

For the Lord grants wisdom!
    From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Reading on down I stop at vs 10...

Proverbs 2:10

For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will fill you with joy.

We gain knowledge by reading the Word of God and letting it penetrate our hearts. By doing this we grow spiritually. My study Bible says...

We gain wisdom through a constant process of growing and knowledge brings joy! 

So...we have nothing to lose by reading and studying the Bible and everything to gain. Who doesn't want to have more knowledge...wisdom...and joy? And which one of us doesn't want to grow spiritually? For me...I want everything the Lord is willing to give me so I can continue to grow in Him.

I am so thankful that the Lord has asked me to go on my own "scripture hunt" so that I can find things that I really have never noticed before. It's amazing to me how He helps us to draw closer to Him if we only ask. When I asked...this was His answer and I'm loving it!

Proverbs 2:1-5

In my personal "scripture hunt" here is what I found today...

Proverbs 2:1-5

  My child, listen to what I say,
    and treasure my commands.
² Tune your ears to wisdom,
    and concentrate on understanding.
³ Cry out for insight,
    and ask for understanding.
⁴ Search for them as you would for silver;
    seek them like hidden treasures.
⁵ Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
    and you will gain knowledge of God.

In my last post I told you that I felt that I am to search the scriptures...Gods Word...and seek after Him to find what I feel I have been missing for awhile. So...this evening I have been doing that. Reading and following different threads of scripture. Today I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. Don't get me wrong...all the scriptures are good and things I need to read. But for me today...It just wasn't right! So a bit frustrated I just started flipping through the pages of my Bible. And what did I stop on...Proverbs 2. I started reading and couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was it...what I needed today! These verses are saying exactly what I have been thinking since what I posted last...

God gives us what we need when we really seek Him. We have to give it our best...give "Him" our best...and really press in and search. We must listen to what He is saying to us...think about it...then ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand what we read and what the Lord is saying through His Word to us.

So for me I must...Search...Seek...Pray...Ask for understanding, and wisdom, to find just what it is I need. The main thing I need right now is more of Him. Which brings me back to one of my favorite scriptures...

John 3:30

³⁰ He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

All of us need to remain open to what the Lord has for each of us on an individual basis. If you haven't done it yet, ask the Lord what it is you need to do to receive what you need. Once He tells you...go for it!

Isaiah 30:15

Recently I have gotten back into reading my Bible more. More as in...not so hit and miss as I was for a while. Really, I don't like owning up to that fact. However, I have found that stating the way things really are works best. Why? Because there are always others out there that can relate to doing the same thing. Also there is a purpose for me telling you this...

As I pick my Bible up and read I am finding scriptures that I don't remember. Maybe I have read them before, and maybe not, but that's not important. What's important is that they seem to be what I need...at the time I read them. One of the ones I read recently was...

Isaiah 30:15

This is what the Sovereign Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
    and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
    But you would have none of it.

When I read this it was as if the Lord was saying to me that I need to really get back into reading His word...searching the scriptures...and really seeking after Him! In other words..."Only in returning to Me". If I will do what I know to do...I will find the rest that I need. The quietness and confidence of Him! We need the quiet, confident, reassurance that only the Lord can give us. No one else in life can do that...only the Lord. For He is our strength! We need to totally trust in the Lord...return to Him...give everything up to Him...and He will save us. The Lord will give us the strength we need to face whatever comes up in our lives. 

So, that is one of the scriptures I "found" recently. I'm going to continue to read, and search, for others that I don't know. It will be my own version of a "scripture hunt"! 

Thankful!

God does answer prayer! I know you all know He does but I just wanted to say it again!

This morning before going to work I opened my bible and read a few scriptures in Psalms. The next thing I knew I was looking at Psalm 23...one of my favorites. I tend to read that when things aren't going real well. It somehow calms me and gives me peace. Then I left for work. Without to much detail this is kind of how it went...

My day really didn't start very good and as it went along it just kept getting worse. About 2 p.m. I finally didn't think I could take the way I felt any longer and just asked the Lord to please help me to get through the day. As I was praying, Psalm 23 came to mind again so I just simply prayed that. Something amazing happened. All the stuff I had been experiencing all day...eased up. I am very thankful! 

So tonight I am reading Psalm 62 and 63.

Psalm 62:5 and 63:8 are two of my favorites...

Psalm 62:5

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁵ Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.

Psalm 63:8

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁸ I cling to you;
    your strong right hand holds me securely.

So tonight I am...

waiting quietly and clinging to Him, so thankful for His strong right hand...and that He holds me securely in it.

Blazing Missiles Of Fear

Today when I came home I decided to read my Jesus Calling book. If you don't have one you are missing out. It seems to be just the right words, on any given day, for whomever picks it up and reads it. I am going to share today's with you because it was just what I needed...

Bring Me all your feelings, even the ones you wish you didn't have. Fear and anxiety still plague you. Feelings per se are not sinful, but they can be temptations to sin. Blazing missiles of fear fly at you day and night; these attacks from the evil one come at you relentlessly. Use your shield of faith to extinguish those flaming arrows. Affirm your trust in Me, regardless of how you feel. If you persist, your feelings will eventually fall in line with your faith.

Do not hide from your fear or pretend it isn't there. Anxiety that you hide in the recesses of your heart will give birth to fear of fear: a monstrous stepchild. Bring your anxieties out into the Light of My presence, where we can deal with them together. Concentrate on trusting Me, and fearfulness will gradually lose its foothold within you.

Isn't that good?! How do you feel when those "Blazing missiles of fear" are flying at you from all directions and it seems you just can't get out of their way? I know what it does to me and it generally isn't good. The devil is a liar and we have to remember that at all times. He will keep coming at you...from every direction he can...throwing those arrows at you. What we need to do is when he throws an arrow...quote a scripture...he throws an arrow...say In JESUS name get away from me, you have no power over me...he throws an arrow...lift your hands and Praise the LORD...when he throws an arrow...put on some praise music and sing praises to the LORD...when he throws an arrow...you get the idea. Do whatever you need to do to change how you feel and change the devils arrows...into little darts...into little push pins...into nothingness!!!!

Romans 8:37

New King James Version (NKJV)

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

When things go wrong in our lives that little lying devil will do everything he can to make us fearful and anxious. It's really his job to do that. We shouldn't expect anything less from him. It's our job when this happens to call on the Lord. Because of Jesus all things are possible. Remember...Our SAVIOR can move mountains! Our SAVIOR can raise the dead! Our SAVIOR can heal the blind and the deaf and any sickness there is! Our SAVIOR spoke and the wind and the waves were still! Our SAVIOR can do anything! Is their any reason then for us to be fearful or anxious? No...we just have to have faith...and believe.

Faith...we've got to have it!

Mark 9:23

New King James Version (NKJV)

²³ Jesus said to him,.......all things are possible to him who believes.”

Matthew 21:19-21

¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

²⁰ And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”

²¹ So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.

Scriptures

Tonight I picked up my Getting To Know God Bible. I was reading some of the verses I had underlined in it and just thought I would share some of them with you. There is a theme going on. Do you see it?

When trouble comes our way...run to the Lord! He is everything we need no matter what the problem is.

Nahum 1:7

The Lord is good,
    a strong refuge when trouble comes.
    He is close to those who trust in him.

Proverbs 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe.

Psalm 18:2

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Jeremiah 10:6

Lord, there is no one like you!
    For you are great, and your name is full of power.

Then after reading these verses I turned to Isaiah and found these....

Isaiah 40:28-31

²⁸ Have you never heard?
    Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
    No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
²⁹ He gives power to the weak
    and strength to the powerless.
³⁰ Even youths will become weak and tired,
    and young men will fall in exhaustion.
³¹ But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
    They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
    They will walk and not faint.

The Lord is always there for us. He never gets tired...He is full of strength and power. The Lord understands all that we are going through. 

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Best of all...

If we trust Him He will give us peace. We could all use some of that!

In His Presence

Where is a good place to find yourself any time of the day or night? For me...in the presence of the LORD is where. If I'm honest with you...No, I don't always feel HIM with me but, I know HE is. And just to let you know...I'm not super spiritual and I don't always do what I should be doing. What I have noticed though is that He has a way of getting my attention...

As we go through our everyday life it can be hard to always be thinking about the Lord and what He has done for us. Here's some things that happen to me quite often. Little reminders just sort of "pop" into my thoughts about talking with Him.

For instance...in my car. I'll be driving and start to turn on some music and as my hand is reaching for the radio I think...Pray instead. That's the Holy Spirit reminding me that this quiet time by myself is a good opportunity to just talk with the Lord. So I do because I know that it's a good thing and I don't want to miss an opportunity!  

Another time is when sleep won't come or I wake up in the night just not feeling so good...I have a Bible by my bed. Sometimes I don't even have to read it...just pick it up and hold onto it. Before I know it there is a Peace that comes and I wake up a few hours later. You know what...Who...that Peace is? It's Jesus. When I hold my Bible it's like holding on to Jesus and Jesus holds me back! It's another way to just fall into His presence.

Music works for me too. Not usually today's music that I listen to all the time...but usually quieter, worshipful music from my past. Music that never really meant anything to me but now...I love to hear. Most times I find it on You Tube. The one that I listened to this morning is actually why I am writing this post. It's called...In The Presence Of Jehovah...the Martins are singing it. It just seems to speak Peace to my soul...what I seem to need a lot of these days.

Many of you...for one reason or the other...could probably use a little extra Peace for your soul today too. Ask Jesus to just give you His Peace. He will. We all have things that we go through in life and a little extra added Peace can't hurt. In fact...the Peace that I'm talking about is the only Peace that can help you. JESUS...the Peace that passes all understanding. If you don't know Him today...or you just feel that you have slipped away a little...talk to Him. Ask Him to come close again and give you His Peace. He will. He's just waiting for you to call on Him.

If you want to listen here's the link for...In The Presence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqiLWWxZulM

He Will Take Care Of It

Sometimes it seems that our days are filled with things that we don't want to hear. Regardless of what we are told we have two options. Hear it...accept it...and think the worst. Or...hear it accept it...pray and believe that God has it all under control.

What choice are you going to make today?

Psalm 23

¹ The Lord is my shepherd;
    I have all that I need.
² He lets me rest in green meadows;
    he leads me beside peaceful streams.
³     He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
    bringing honor to his name.
⁴ Even when I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
    for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
    protect and comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a feast for me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
    My cup overflows with blessings.
⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
    all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
    forever.

He is our Shepherd and He will take care of everything! That's what I choose to believe.

Thank You For Praying

I so appreciate all of you praying for Wayne and Marge. I know that they do also. Yesterday I shared the prayers all of you put in the comment section with them. Last night I received this e-mail from Marge.

Thank you for sharing these prayers with us.  GOD is in control and HIS faithfulness never ceases to amaze us!
Wayne's appointment was at 8:15  The Lab results showed he was anemic and his platelet count too low to have an infusion.  He wound up having a blood transfusion so we were still there for over 5 hours.  They warned us of all the possible problems to watch for.  So far all is well.  The two nurses who administered the transfusion are Christians, who were so encouraging and shared testimonies of GOD'S healing touch and new strength one day at a time.
Wayne will not have another infusion until July 30th giving his body a rest.  The oncologist explained more about the PET scan results.  When we read the report it did not   look very encouraging.  GOD clearly is asking "Whose report are you going to believe?"
We saw him failing right before our eyes, his color was gray/ashen, so very weak and could only lay down and wanted to sleep.  Faith is believing, even though that is not what our eyes see.
That all shared, we continue to ask for prayers, knowing they work!

Again, thank you all for your prayers. Whenever you need prayer for anything just ask.

Blessings...Chelle

Peacespeaker

Tonight I turned on the tv to a Christian program and the preacher mentioned how Jesus speaks peace to us when we need Him to. 

Do you remember the story in the Bible when Jesus and the disciples were in the boat and the storm came up and Jesus just simply said..."Peace, be still!"  and everything became calm?

Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

Mark 4:39

Jesus will do that for us also. In our lives how many times in a week...a day...do we need Jesus to speak peace into our lives? Sometimes, doesn't it seem like it's something you need Him to do hourly?! The great thing is that when we are anxious...stressed...feeling like we might just have to dump someone out of their chair if they don't be quiet (that would be me today)...all we have to do is say "Jesus, help me" and He will. He will come in and speak peace to our hearts and our minds. He will give us the same great calm in our lives as He did for the disciples that night on their boat in the storm. How awesome is that?

No matter what you are going through in your life right now remember...Jesus is the Peacespeaker. He might not take the storm out of our life but...He will walk with us through it speaking peace to our heart all the way. We "know" the Peacespeaker and we know Him by name! JESUS!!

There is an old song called Peacespeaker written by Geron Davis. Here is a link to The Heritage Singers singing Peacespeaker. Click on it and listen and let Jesus...the Peacespeaker...speak peace to your heart right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8BTMZO0Jg&feature=related

Prayer For Wayne

I just wanted to ask all of you who read this to please pray for Wayne today. He is going in for another chemo treatment this morning. Wayne hasn't been feeling very good the last few weeks. He really needs the Lord to touch him today and give him some extra strength...and just touch his body so he feels good! God is able! Remember Marge also as they are walking through this together.


I was just thinking of this verse in Ephesians but couldn't remember it all so I went to Bible Gateway to look it up. It is the verse of the day. Isn't God good!

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT

Thank you all for your prayers. They are very much appreciated.

May all of you have a very blessed and wonderful day.

Life Lessons

Have you ever done something and afterwards wished that you could roll the clock back to a minute before it all went down? Because, you're sure that if you had that moment over again you would make a better choice. You know...I had one of those days this past week. I'm not going to go into any of the specifics but I will tell you that I said some things that probably I shouldn't have...

It all started with me making a phone call to say...Hi, happy 4th of July...and to just have conversation. It all ended about an hour later after after many things that shouldn't have been said...were. Because of this I have learned a few things...

The first, and most important thing, was this. When you get turned upside down and don't know what to do...God is still there. We do have to turn to Him though.

Matthew 11:28-29

²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The second thing I learned was this. No matter how much someone needs help, if they don't want it, you can't help them. You can pray for their situation...you can listen to them when they call...you can tell them options that will help them, in a calm voice. But, until they say...I want and accept your help...don't do anything. If you're on the phone, tell them you have to hang up. If it's in person, just excuse yourself and leave. As another bloggie friend of mine said on her blog this week...Shut Up! God spoke to me big time in what she had to say also.

This is how God put it to me when I decided to listen...

I was watching a movie last night and the camera panned out over a river. It was early morning and was showing a place in the river that was calm and quiet. I thought to myself...The water is so still. Immediately this verse popped in my head...

Psalm 46:10a

“Be still, and know that I am God!

I knew He was talking to me...in that moment...through a movie. Since the incident happened it has been hard because it's family and family can be very unforgiving at times. But today, at church, I finally realized that...it will all be okay. Probably not as soon as I would like it to be...but someday. I just need to "be still" and let God fix it.

The third thing I learned was this. No matter how bad you mess things up...how many mistakes you make...God will always be there. He will always forgive you. God is always here...right here...in the midst of all that you are going through. When you think that you are all alone and life just really isn't what you hoped it would be...He won't ever let you go.

There is another scripture I would like to share.

Lamentations 3:22-23

²² The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
²³ Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.

These two verses are two of my favorites. I have used this in other posts but I'm going to say it again because I need to remember it...Every morning when we get up we get a new 24!

So even though today you might really blow it and you think nothing will ever be okay again...get back up, dust yourself off, ask the Lord to forgive you and try again. Tomorrow is a brand new day!

God will take care of everything, and everyone, if you ask Him too...in His time.