Here is another great song by Jesus Culture.

Speaking of Jesus Culture, after listening to this song, check out my last post.  It is a story about a miracle (at least a blessing) that my daughter and I experienced!

Here is the song….I hope that you enjoy it and are blessed yourselves!

My husband Ron is an on-call heavy duty mechanic a.k.a “Big-Rig Fixer Upper”.  The shop is almost 2 hours away so we communicate with the boss-man via email, mail and phone.

The other day I emailed Ron’s boss, letting him know that our church is trying to raise money for the youth group to go to New York City. They are hoping to see Jesus Culture and attend a “conference-type” deal. I asked if he would like to donate and told him that any amount would be appreciated.

He replied back that a check was in the mail. He’s paying my daughters way!

Praise God…..

Now we have to raise enough for me!

Then today my daughter and I were leaving camp.  She wanted to stop and get hair stripper to get a bad dye-job out of her hair and redye it.

She usually buys her own stuff but had no money right now.   I had $3.75 cash in my pocket, and I wasn’t using a card for hair dye!

She thought she needed about $10.00 or so and was a bit upset that I wouldn’t give her more money.

All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I saw a paper fluttering around between my daughter and I.   It was kind of like a leaf falling to the ground.

As it was hitting the floor, my daughter bent over and picked it up, stating that it was a $100.00 bill!

We were like, huh?  We were in our “dump” truck, a beat up old jalopy we use to run stuff to the dump.  I think that is the only thing it’s been used for in the past several years, and it was out of commisssion for quite a while.  I have used it the last two weekends to go to camp as my stepson needed a ride to work.  Their car recently died (for good) so I let them use my car while we were at camp.

I couldn”t explain where it came from.  We didn’t see it come in the window, or fall from anywhere specific.

We took it as a blessing from the Lord, and decided what to do with it.  We knew what we wanted and decided to bless someone else with the remaining amount.

We got my daughters hair stuff and a straightener she has been wanting. I got Ron another rotisserie for the grill so he has one at home and one at camp.

There was $27.00 left.

$7.00 went to The Childrens Miracle Network.

The rest went……..???

That’s a secret.

Let’s see if anyone here was blessed my it…..

Let me know if you think YOU were the one blessed and how.

BTW…I have an idea where that $100.00 came from but I’m not gonna blow their cover if it even is them!  God put it upon their heart for whatever reason …probably the truck-lol!

Or maybe God supernaturally put it here- that would explain it just “being” there all of a sudden!

We took it as a blessing and passed some along.

God has a very funny sense of humor- I can’t wait to get to heaven one day and find out the whole story and how many people were blessed along the way!

The song this week is called Deep Cries Out. Our worship team plays this at church and when they get to the part about going to the left or right we all kind of move/dance left or right. It’s alot of fun and full of the Spirit.

Here’s something funny that happened a few weeks ago. Ron & I stopped by a friends house. Another friend was also there at the time.

They are all what I call “Unsaved Semi- Believers”. What I mean by that is that they all believe in God, they just aren’t QUITE ready to accept Jesus and walk the walk.

They had music going (no, not Christian!). As usual I was bouncing around and tapping my feet to the music.

The one fellow said, “I wish I had your energy!”

I told him it starts on Sunday morning and every morning during the week I listen to Worship music. He kind of rolled his eye’s (I’m sure…) but he knows it’s true. Every week I feel more and more full of God, full of Joy!

Praise the Lord my friends see it and want that joy.

I continue to pray for them!

And now, the song:

From Marshalls

Our family has a thing about shoes.  We have family stories that involve shoes.

When my youngest son was first born we moved to Oregon.  He learned to walk while living in Oregon .

He obviously learned how to throw things away, too!

Namely shoes….

One day we were going to the store.  We could not find one of his shoes ANYWHERE! This was after my 1st husband and I broke up and I had a small one bedroom apartment. The building had an incinerator that the garbage went into.

I can only assume my son threw his sneakers into the garbage, only to have them consumed by fire and forever lost!

My 2 year old (step) Grandson, Little Brother,  has a fascination with shoes.  He loves to put on his own shoes and ask to go out.   One day a relative brought a bag of her sons old shoes for him. There was a pair of winter boots, a pair of work boots and several pairs of sneakers.

Little Brother found the bag of shoes and it was like Christmas! The kid had a ball for days wearing them all .  The only problem was, he never put on matching shoes!

He would walk around with one work boot and one sneaker.  Or a blue sneaker and a white sneaker. Such a silly boy!

One day I came home from running errands and thought I would warm up a cup of coffee.

I opened the microwave door and found-  you guessed it-  a sneaker in there!

The funniest story is from a long, long time ago (back in the dinosaur days…)!

I was in high school and some friends and I had taken a bus downtown to do some Christmas shopping.

My friends and I were taking an escalator from one floor to the next when a thought popped into my head.

Said I,  ”I wonder if anyone ever got their shoes stuck in this thing.”

JUST THEN, we reached the bottom and went to get off.

My shoe was stuck!

Everyone was like, “Huh?”

One of my friends was demanding the store give me a new pair of shoes.

I was embarrassed and just wanted to get away!

Which I did . ..and I have always from that day forward done a little “hop” when getting off an escalator!

That’s about it for now!

How about you?

Do you have a shoe story?

If you ain’t got a shoe story, you ain’t got no sole (ha-ha..just thought of that!)

Have you ever been in this situation?

You were born and raised strict Catholic (or some other formal-traditional type church). You are used to rows of pews, and standing to sing those beautiful old hymns. It’s neat and orderly, you know what’s coming minute-by-minute.

Your friend invites you to his church.

You walk into the place and the first thing you notice is the stage.

A stage…not an altar….

You’re getting a funny feeling….

On the stage are drums, keyboards, trumpets and all that other stuff.

You look over at your friend. He’s sporting a cheesy little grin!

The Worship Team gathers on the stage and asks everyone to stand to their feet.

Before you know it music is blasting, and people are clapping and dancing around.

What kind of Holy Rollers are these people?

Have they lost their minds?

No, actually they are worshipping the Lord, the way He commanded that we do.

If you look to your bible, you will see NUMEROUS references to this:

Raised Hands

*** “We lift up our hearts with our hands toward God in heaven.” Lamentations 3:41

*** “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands” I Timothy 2:8

*** I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:48)I will

There were many more references to the lifting of the hands during worship.

Clapping

Oh clap your hands, all people; shout to God with a voice of joy.” Psalms 47:1

Dancing and Shouting/Laughing

*** “Thou has turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou has loosed my sack cloth and girded me with gladness.” Psalms 30:11

*** “Let them praise His Name with dancing.” Psalms 149:3

***Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.” Psalms 98:4

***Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with joyful shouting.” Psalms 126:2

So now you know why many churches worship in this way.

This is what God told his people to do.

So next time you are in “that kind of church”, why not take a leap of faith and raise your hands to the Lord? Why not dance and jump around?

He would be so pleased

Until next week…have a blessed day!

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday!

Wow…the SOZO training was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  People were having real encounters with Jesus and God.  Unfortunately I haven’t been SOZO’ed myself yet, but will be sometime in the coming weeks.  Can’t wait!

At the end, the Worship team played for about 1/2 hour, then we did a prayer tunnel.  The Spirit was in the house.  Everyone was laughing, clapping, etc…as people were going through the tunnel getting prayed over.

Then a couple of the guys got up and played the bongos and drums and we all went nuts dancing, jumping, clapping and just getting into the Lord.

One of my friends at church and I were discussing that it was better than any bar we’ve ever been to (old life, people !) …everyone was drunk on the spirit!

Of course if you think about it, we WERE in a bar! Remember, my church used to be a bar!

 
One of the songs they played was “Take me in your arms”.

I just love it. Check it out and see what you think:

What is your favorite song that worships the Lord?

Please share in the comments below.

Uncle Brynn Steals the ball!

Big Brother watches the birdfeeder

That’s it for now…have to get my daughter to take her to the doctors, then over to a friends and on to SOZO.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend- Be safe!

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday!

This weeks song is one I hear quite a bit on klove.com.

It is really a great song and the artist has a wonderful voice!

Enjoy and have a Blessed Day!

I hope you really thought about the meaning of that day.

Can you imagine walking into that cave and finding Jesus’ body…GONE?

Imagine what the people thought.

They were told that this would happen. Exactly as it did happen.

Countless people witnessed it…many wrote about it. That is part of our Bible.

It is historical fact.

And yet so many still do not believe!

The song I am featuring this week says it all.

Lord I Lift Your Name On High

Check it out…pay attention to the words!

I LOVE IT!

Don’t you?

Oh no it’s not!

God wants to have a relationship with us.  Relationships are daily things…minute-by-minute things!

He wants to be there to forgive (and forget!) our sins, comfort us when we are struggling or  hurt, and bless us in so many ways!

He wants us to come to him for advice just like we would our earthly fathers (biological and adoptive….).

He loves us so much and he just wants us to love him back!

When we worship Him we show Him reverence,
adoration, honor, and  respect.

There is overwhelming evidence that the God of the Bible is the Almighty Creator. It’s undeniable,  yet most people prefer false gods and choose to ignore the truth.

Until something happens.

THEN, even the most hard-hearted are yelling, “Why, God, why?” “Please, God, save her!”

God detests false worship. Why reward faithless people who deliberately turn from the truth and believe in lies?

God put it into our very hearts to want a relationship with him, but like some of us might do with our earthly parents, we sometimes turn our back on Him. We are spoiled children that want our own way.

We think we have the answers, when the answers lie in His Word. Between the Bible and what he “reveals” when we are in relationship with him, we have all we need.

If you have been out of alignment with God and want to find your way back, here are a few things you can try.

It all starts with worshipping Him…he will provide the rest.

He will begin to do a healing within you- your body, emotions, your very soul!

So don’t delay…start today!

He eagerly awaits your company!

• Pray! Praying is one of the easiest ways to “contact” God. It doesn’t have to be formal, just talk to him!  I’ll admit that just about every morning I pray for God to reveal the times when I should  speak and when I should just shut up! This helps me to keep my cool when dealing with everyone currently living under my roof, including my stepson, his girlfriend and 3 extra kids!  The great part is, I can throw up a prayer anytime, on the spot,  and He is there to help!

• Read the Bible and other books…it’s a bit difficult in the beginning but God will reveal more to you as you progress. Start with Luke..that is the account of Jesus’ birth and ministry and is pretty easy to grasp.  Along with that, get a good Christian book. There are tons of them out there. And they put what the bible says into an easier to understand format.  One thing to remember…. the Bible is a very exciting book- it has great battles, love stories, miracles and more! Something for everyone

• Build relationships with other believers…The easiest way to do this is to go to church.  Try a couple of different churches until you find one where you are comfortable. Just because you grew up Catholic or Protestant doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go that kind of church or God will strike you dead! It’s relationship with Him he wants, not a particular religion!

• Tithe…sow into his kingdom! While you are at church, tithe! That means give 10% off ALL your income! Many people don’t understand this principal- they think the church is just being greedy. NO! It is a command from God that we tithe. How else is the church going to pay the electric, heat the building, provide coffee, go on missions, etc.  Many Pastors (including mine!) don’t collect a salary for their services. But fear not! God will greatly reward you for everything you give. I SWEAR I don’t even miss the money I tithe, and more keeps coming! It’s wild and crazy, really!

• If you like to write…write! As I talk to God throughout the day, he reveals things to me through words and “visions”.  I like to write these down so I can remember them and watch how my life is being changed through my relationship with Him.

• Music…did you think I would forget this? NOT! I love music! When I go to church and sing (and dance!) to the songs that our AWESOME worship team is playing, the Spirit just hits me!  My new routine (when possible) is to go into my room, throw on my favorite Christain radio station on my computer, and do some stretches. Then I pray, read the bible, write, etc…depends on how God swings my mood

So there you have it….different ways to worship.

Don’t forget that God loves you and he sent his only son, Jesus to save us from our sins.

All he asks is that we confess our sins and that we ask for forgiveness.

And then make a relationship with Him a part of your daily life.

Are you ready? Then pray about it!

You’ll never regret it!

Here’s to a Blessed life!