This Never Fails

This morning I was graced with 3 great things that reminded me of God's grace, love, and faithfulness! As I am typing this, I am realizing that I forgot about the other things that he has graced me with aside from those 3....

1.waking up

2.waking up next to my loving husband
3.the gift of sight-something I am grateful 4 each day because @ any point God could allow this ugly eye disease to take that (ALTHOUGH I am believing for healing)
4.for my son who woke up
5.for the ability to walk without pain (my Aunt Shannon is not always walking in that blessing)
6.for the great news that my bestie shared with me-THE IMPOSSIBLE! ha!
7.for my mom who prays for me daily
8.for my family who have loved me in the bad and the good
9.for the awesome package that arrived for my family this morning
10. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THAT NEVER FAILS. THIS WORLD AND THE SIN IN IT DEFINITELY WILL BUT THE LOVE OF GOD WILL NOT CEASE AT THE END OF TIME. IT WILL PROTECT, BELIEVE WHEN I DON'T, IT IS THE ARMS THAT ARE HOLD ME.

LOVE NEVER FAILS ME! IT IS SEEN IN THE ENDEARING EYES OF MY HUSBAND, IN THE MIDST OF THE WAITING SEASONS WHEN I LONGED TO BE MARRIED, LONGED FOR A SON. IT IS AND ALWAYS WAS THERE! JUST HAD TO EMBRACE IT! LOVE, NEVER GAVE UP ON ME EVEN WHEN I CHOSE MY WAY, MY TIME, HOW I WANTED IT.

Thank you Lord for your love that sent your son Jesus to a cross to suffer and die for me. That rose him from the grave to show the defeat of death, and ascended into Heaven sending your spirit in love's place as another form of your love.

Love is what sent me to my knees on January 17, 2009 as I cried out for better than the love that walked out on me. I cried out for real love, the love of a Savior and that very love has never left me and is sailing me into my bright future when I not only get to share his love with others BUT I get to be his love to a broken world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8isf9PVz4&feature=related

Waiting

Wanted to share a little something special with you today to give you hope

Ever since surrendering and allowing the Lord to take control of my life and to be my guide, I have found such fulfillment. For the first time in my life, I not only have 2 of the biggest desires of my heart BUT I feel so loved. Don't get me wrong, I still have to make choices that cause me to wait for things that I cannot have now and this can be frustrating. It is frustrating living in a World that tells you that if you cannot have it NOW then it is not worth it.

So with that said, I will choose to be a good steward and be grateful for the many things that I have been blessed with from my relationships to my finances, to my time to my car. I will choose to wait because there is one thing that I have found in the waiting, in the not being able to see the miracle but being the miracle, is that....


When I wait on him, and allow him the time to work behind the scenes in my defense and on my side, I get more than I could have ever hoped for, imagined, or gotten for myself. Trust Him!

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

UNGLUED AGAIN-BUT THIS TIME IN TRUTH!

Can I just get real with you and share something on my heart???!!! I wanted join an egroup that my Pastor's amazing wife leads alongside another amazing woman of God that helped start our church-Heather Bishop (great examples of Godly wives and mommies) and when I got in touch with her she told me that she was not going to be able to lead a group anymore and 2 days later at church I found out why.

At church we found out that Heather Bishop and her family were moving to Toronto, Canada to start our new campus Elevation Toronto. Funny how I got an answer and explanation within days of each other...

It gets better.......

So, my Pastor, Pastor Steven, makes a comment (paraphrasing here) that they are leading the way and we should follow their example and pick up where they left off (the campus that is and the Bishops). We should go and start something ourselves if we see a need for it and want it. The Lord at that moment said-"Angelina, since you cannot be in that group that you desired to be in and cannot seem to find one (for young married women/with or without kids) then step out and do it yourself!

It gets even better..........

 At the end of the sermon, they make a call for people to step out and lead an egroup! YEAH, GOD WAVING A BIG OLE YELLOW SIGN NOW!

The plane is about to land........

 So, I am asking God which study that I should do either "Greater" by my Pastor Steven Furtick or "Unglued" by Lysa Terkeurst (both NY Times bestselling books with awesome mesages). The next day-a sunday my husband and I decide to drive over 30 minutes away to another church campus not to the one 10 minutes away (we have 7 church campuses) and GUESS who is preaching about Unglued, Lysa Terkeurst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, here I am without all of the resources that I need for the study on the day that my group begins SEPT 20, 2012 (meet and greet day) (mind you, we start the study in the 1st week of October), and I am discouraged because for the past 24 hours I have lost over half of my egroup members :( and I am doubting it all. In my devotional I read Psalm 42:5
 ⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

I then go to my favorite blog by Pastor Holly Furtick on the very same day to find this http://hollyfurtick.com/giveaway-time/..A blog about her giving the UNGLUED dvd set and resources to a commenter who is leading an egroup or is in one! ON THE DAY I START THE GROUP!!!!!!!!!!TODAY!!!!!!!

Now did I win it, yet ;)  ????

-no BUT, I am reminded about one huge thing-HE IS A GOD WHO KNOWS YOUR NEEDS AND DESIRES AND IF HE CALLS YOU TO SOMETHING YOU BETTER BE SURE TO REMEMBER-REMIND YOURSELF OF HIS PROMISES AND REMEMBER THAT HE COMPLETES WHAT HE STARTS! HE HAS NEVER LET ME DOWN AND TODAY, WITH ALL MY PERHAPS', I TRUST HIM AND I WILL MAKE MY BOAST IN HIS GLORIOUS NAME! HE IS A GREAT BIG GOD WHO LOVES ME!

Psalm 34

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Happiness of Those Who Trust in God

A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

34 I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
² My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

⁴ I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
⁶ This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
⁷ The angel^[a] of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
⁹ Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
¹⁰ The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

¹¹ Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
¹² Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

¹⁷ The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
²⁰ He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
²² The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

AMEN!

 
 

I AM UNGLUED!

I guess I just need to get this off of my chest....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ever have one of those moments where you just had to, it had to be done, you needed to say it to stay sane, and someone had to (help them Jesus) be on the front end of it? Looking forward to learning how to hold that in and make something useful out of it with Lysa Terkeurst's new book/dvd study "Unglued."

Buy it here @http://lysaterkeurst.com/unglued

You are Chosen!

This morning in my devotional I read from Romans 8:1

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

As I read this, the word condemnation stood out to me and I realized, have I ever really looked at the word condemnation?  So I wiki-ed it! According to Wiki, the word condemned refers to "Damnation, the anithesis of salvation"-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condemnation. As I read the definition it hit me that whenever I believe the devil's lies, I begin believing that I am not saved, that I am doomed and will spend the rest of my eternal existence in Hell. WHAT A LIE FROM THE PITS OF HELL! I have a seat in Heaven!

So today, I am making the choice to believe the truth and not a lie. I am Saved, I am Chosen, I am God's! Christ made me worthy by dying on the Cross and rising again. Once the Benefactor died and rose again, I became his beneficiary and now get to walk in his Holiness, his purity.

So, instead of forfeiting your blessings today by believing the lie, choose to receive what the Benefactor died to give you, HIS LOVE, THE IMPOSSIBLES, THE MIRACLES, THE TRUTH!

"I have a beautiful booty!"

I used to be a lead teacher of a class consisting of 10-12 2 year olds and boy do you hear some interesting things. There was one child, Lilly who had recently begun sharing with me how beautiful she was or how gorgeous her clothes were as she'd twirl around. One month we conducted a classroom activity we called "our weekly prodigies" where we would choose a child and spend a few days learning about that child, posting pictures of the child and their family, and would discuss what made that child special.

Well, this particular week Lilly was our class "Prodigy." She got to wear her pretty Prodigy crown that her and I made together and the teachers and the rest of her classmates shared why we thought she was so special/a prodigy. When it came time for Lilly to explain what she liked about herself and what made her special, she replied, "I have a beautiful booty!"  Quite hilarious indeed and was looked so proud saying it (got to love a 2 year old's answers).

But a funny thing began to happen since her prodigy week, she began acting very different from the Lilly that I knew. It was great that she knew that she was beautiful and special, a prodigy but I started noticing that she would begin to use this as a way to get what she wanted. Yes, a 2 year old began manipulating and using what she had to get what she wanted. It was from that instant that I realized something, we should teach them that they are smart, beautiful, special, loved BUT we should also teach them that it was God who made them smart, beautiful, special, loved so that when someone tells them that they are wrong and makes them doubt themselves, they give into arrogance, something life altering happens (a tragic accident that leaves him/her wounded physically, divorce hits, their heart is broken, etc.) they can fall back on the truth that it is not them BUT Christ in them. They can remember that they were made in his likeness. They cannot take credit for something that you did not create.

So, to reel her back in a little, I spent time reminding Lilly that God was her source, that he "made her very special" and it was him that created her "beautiful booty." Constantly speaking him over her and giving him the credit along with edifying her in that she was smart because he made her smart, etc. changed the ways in which she acted, it was quite instant especially for a child that was not raised in a Christian family. Imagine if she did hear this everyday at home, imagine if everyday she was reminded that God made her smart, loved, special? If at 2 years old it has that much of an impact, imagine the adult that she would one day become? What she could one day accomplish due to this confidence in herself and in her God?

What does scripture say.......

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Psalm 139:13-18

¹³ For you created my inmost being;you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;your works are wonderful, I know that full well^.15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!¹⁸ Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand —when I awake, I am still with you.

You Are Not Just a Mom!!!!!!

Great wisdom for mom's who feel like they just cannot get it together, for parents who understand that they are training up our grandchildren's mommy and daddy, who want their children to know they are loved, and for those that see other women who seem to got it together so much better than we do.

Every mom should be able to relate to this. Great broadcast from Focus on the Family. Guest Tracey Eyster blogger and author of the book- Be The Mom. Here is the broadcast below...

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/popups/media_player.aspx?MediaId={A3A07FDF-1A54-4B45-9C76-88623994A860}

Also, you can follow Tracey on her blog at http://traceyster.com/ and buy her new book at
http://family.christianbook.com/overcome-attitude-traps-enjoy-your-kids/tracey-eyster/9781589976849/pd/976849?p=1158279&event=ORC