Fasting

I did something yesterday that I have never done before in my life! I went to Books-a-million and bought Jentezen Franklin's book "Fasting" and started at 3:30pm reading NINE (9) chapters before putting it down and then I finished the other 8 chapters this morning! I couldn't put it down! I have never read a book, cover to cover, in less than 24 hours!! For that matter, I can't remember ever reading a book cover to cover in less than 24 months! Ha! Oh yeah, I did read "Primal" cover to cover just a few weeks ago (i forgot), "am I turning into a book nerd?" If it glorifies God in my life, it's ok to be a book nerd! Anyway...

One of Jentezen's first comments in his book is this, "When I feel myself growing dry spiritually, when I don't sense that cutting-edge anointing, or when I need a fresh encounter with God, fasting is the secret key that unlocks heaven's door and slams shut the gates of hell." Do you ever feel like you are drained spiritually and your anointing seems to be fading away? I've been in that feeling before and the enemy will try to make mountains out of mole hills when you feel this way. As previously blogged, I have challenged my congregation to join me in a 21 day fast for the new year beginning this Friday at midnight. I'm ramped up and ready to go!

As we begin a new year, I want God's anointing to be "in high definition" in my life so that the "gospel of Jesus Christ can be spread abroad" to a lost and dying world. I'm seeking direction in my ministry as well as for Kempville Chapel. "Lord, what is your will for your people for 2010?" Let's have this question in our hearts and minds as we begin another great year of our Lord!

Understanding

My devotion this morning came from Ephesians 5:1,2 "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." As you read on in this chapter it explains how to be an imitator of God, verse 17 says to "Understand what the will of the Lord is". How do we do this? Prayer and fasting! How do we communicate and cultivate the will of God in our lives? Prayer and fasting!

I Thessalonians 4:3 says "It is God's will that you should be sanctified". A little bit about sanctification for a moment...We were at mom and dad's for Christmas Sunday afternoon and the subject of smoking came up and my mom told us how she stopped smoking ... she said, "You know when I stopped smoking? When I got sanctified!" You see sanctification will allow us to live a holy life before the Lord because it causes us to not want to do the things that we used to do and that are sinful! Verse 4 goes on to say "that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God...". Verse 7 says "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." If we are to understand the will of God in our lives we have to be sanctified, we have to live pure, holy lives before Him. How do we do this ... through prayer and fasting!

Why should I fast? So that "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, ... give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might" Ephesians 1:17-19. In other words, "to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, the utter extravagance of His work in us who trust Him - endless energy, boundless strength!" (message)

In my prayer this morning I asked the Lord to sanctify me! All of me! Yes I did this a long time ago too, but I believe that you can't out ask God! Do you need to "understand the will of God in your life"? Talk to Him!

Weekend Reflections

Yesterday morning's service at Kempville Chapel was somewhat of a mellow sitting, if you will. It seemed like the hype, excitement and adrenaline from Christmas was settling. Our attendance was down quite a bit (other churches reported low attendance as well) due to sickness and holiday stuff but nevertheless we carried on with the Lord's work.

The Lord has challenged me to do a 21 day fast (Daniel fast/partial fast) beginning Jan. 1. I shared this with the congregation yesterday morning and challenged all that were there to join me in fasting and prayer. I shared about what God is calling me to fast for and one of those is direction. I feel the Lord is calling me to seek His will and direction, not mine! He is calling me to seek His salvation for lost people. We're not seeing people SAVED and that's a problem!!! He is calling me to seek a greater desire for Him, a desire for people and a desire to know what will bring people to Him! We have a message to bring to people and sometimes the methods need to change to reach them! Are we in the right direction or does our direction need to change?

We need to seek God for direction in our personal lives as well as the direction of the "church". Have we let "desires for other things" choke our purpose of being Christians? Food for thought!

You are thought of

Hope everyone had a great Christmas with your families and hope that "Santa" brought everything that you wanted. It's always a good feeling when you know that you have given to others and they are "happy" because they know that they were thought of. It's good to know that we are thought of from time to time!

I'm glad that God thought of me from the very beginning just like the Bible says in Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee", and also Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end". God thought of us even before we existed! That's awesome to know and awesome to realize, that we serve an Almighty God that loves us and cares for us and wants us to have everything that makes us happy, but we must want Him in order to be happy!!

Be blessed today and don't eat too many leftovers!

Merry Christmas

I want to take this opportunity and tell everyone that I appreciate you reading this blog for whatever reason you get out of it. Hopefully it has been a blessing to you, a since of humor to you, or whatever it is to you. I hope to continue it after the Holidays and seek God's direction and thoughts so I can share with you daily!

I wish you all the very blessed Merry Christmas that you can have and don't forget to thank God for the Christ Child that came to save you from sin!

Baby Jesus

"Seeing was believing." Luke 2:17 (MSG) As I read the Christmas story again today I thought about the Shepards when they came to the manger to see the baby Jesus. An angel had come to them in the field and spoke about their Savior being born. I wonder what went through their minds when they saw the angel appear to them? Do you think they may have thought they had been out in the field to long and were now seeing things and hearing things? They acted on the Word of God! Is that not what the angel was speaking to them, the Word of God? Notice what they did, they went straight to the manger to see for themselves this baby Jesus. Does the bible not say that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). I believe that the Shepards were acting in faith by going to see this thing that they had heard. Can you imagine what they must have felt to see the "Savior" face to face!

Do you remember looking at your baby's or someone else's baby's hands and feet and noticing the size and wonder of God's creation? I wonder what was going through the mind of Mary when she looked at Jesus' hands and feet for the first time. Do you think that she was concerned about him being healthy with ten fingers and ten toes (like we do our own) or do you think for that moment she was trying to figure out how it was all going to play out with him being the Savior of the world? That must have been a great weight upon the mind of Mary knowing that someday those little hands and little feet would change and be a great testament to men, women and children of the world. Those little hands and feet grew so that they could withstand the weight of Jesus as he carried the weight of sin for the world. That makes the manger scene more special to me when I think about it in that manner.

To borrow a phrase from our Christmas play at Kempville: Don't miss the manger!

Primal

"Primal - A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity" is the title of a book that I finished reading last night (by the way it feels good to finally finish a book without picking another one up). The author of this book is Mark Batterson which is also the author of two other books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase (which I will be purchasing and reading both of them). Mark is the Pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC and lives on Capital Hill with his wife and three children.
I was searching some blogs one day and I came across Mark's blog and noticed his layout (I have a link to it on my blog) and it caught my eye and I began to read some of his postings and was intrigued by what he was writing and so I began to be a frequent reader of his blog. One day I read his blog and he was introducing a brand new book by the name of Primal. It caught my attention as well. Long story short, I received a copy of his book from his publishers and read every page and was fascinated by it and I would like to share a little from his book.
The title in itself is eye catching, Primal-A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, and it is based on the scripture "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) He asked the question to the reader, "Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God?" This really spoke to me because it was a question that really seemed to not come from Mark, but from God through Mark to me personally. I have to admit I needed this question to be asked to me and if I hadn't read another sentence in his book, God was already convicting me on my heart, soul, mind, and strength condition! Right after this question in the book is this statement: "If it doesn't, you need to repent". And so I did!
I could write all day long about this book but you would never look at this blog again, but I do want to tell you some of the high points, or at least I think they are, and cause you to want this book to be the first one you read for the new year.
Mark says that the quest begins with rediscovery, but it ends with reimagination. This is totally true and after you read this book and listen to what God is telling YOU, you will agree with Mark. Our love for God is of most importance. He says that it's a reimagination of the four primal elements detailed by Jesus in the Great Commandment: The heart of Christianity is primal compassion, the soul of Christianity is primal wonder, the mind of Christianity is primal curiosity, and the strength of Christianity is primal energy. The author makes a statement that caused me to look at the love meter that I have for God, he said, "It's not about what you can do for God; it's about what God has done for you." Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. The most primal form of love is not doing things for God. It is receiving with gratitude what He has already done for us. And then reflecting it in our lives! One of the last things that Mark says in his book is this and it's true; "In its purest, most primal form, loving God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength is loving God for God. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else."
This book, and the Spirit of God within me, have shown me that my heart doesn't break enough for the things that break the heart of God and that my wonder of God's creation and his HAND, his TOUCH is not what it needs to be. I could go on and on about the book, but this might be one that you can only be impacted on by reading it for yourself. You can purchase this book and more at RandomHouse.com, so go out before the end of the year and buy this book and let it be the first you read, after your daily devotion with the Word, and let it change your mind, heart, soul, and actions!

No Room in the Inn

"She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7

When I read this verse today it sort of hit me in a different way. The last part of this scripture says that "There was no room for them in the inn". This wasn't just another pregnant woman needing a place to rest, this was the mother of Jesus, although the inn keeper probably didn't realize who he was dealing with. I got to thinking about those words, "no room", and I began to wonder if with all the things that I have in my life, all the daily activities, all the things that take most of my time, do I have room for the savior? Do I have room for the things that God wants for me? Do I have room for his presence to flow in my life? Do I have room for Him to work through me to touch someone else? Do I have room for obedience?

I think we all can make room for God in our lives because our lives are supposed to be His anyway! Have we made room for everything else besides the plan of God? It's my prayer today to make room for Jesus in my life and to spread His Word, daily!

Christ Child

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

As we get closer to the day that we celebrate Christmas with family and friends, I wonder if we're reminded of the real reason for the season during the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating, and scheduling. The Word became flesh! God knew that man had messed everything up and that in order to have a real relationship with man, He needed to "become flesh". That's what Christmas is about, God becoming flesh and living among us showing us the way!

When we think about the Christ Child we don't always acknowledge that the baby in the manger was "full of grace and truth". When we see a manger scene outside a church building or in a Christmas play, it seems like we only see a mother, father and baby because that's the mentality of our world today. But I'm convicted today to look at the manger scene the way that the wise men did. When they came to the manger the Bible says that they worshiped the Christ Child. They didn't worship the mother, Mary, or the father, Joseph, they brought gifts to the One that was "full of grace and truth", God in flesh, to take away the sins of the world!

Let's be reminded the true reason we celebrate Christmas! Jesus is the reason!

Real Ministry

Just read a post from another blog and it convicted me and caused me to look at the "ministry" and rethink some things. Are we really reaching out to the lost with an open mind and an open heart? I think it's time to take down the facades that we have in front of our "churches" so that the lost will feel like they can be a part!

Check this post out. Caution - your mouth may drop open when you read the title, but it's worth reading! http://www.perrynoble.com/2009/12/14/this-sh_t-is-awesome

Weekend Reflections

Blessed Weekend! Saturday evening we celebrated the Holidays (Thanksgiving/Christmas) with a great meal prepared by our very own Lisa Thompson. We actually started "take-outs" around 4pm and at last count we sent out approximately 115+ meals to those in need! To God be the Glory and Praise!!! We served well over 200 people when everything was said and done!

Sunday morning services were good as our attendance was down a bit but the Lord is good and continues to bless our congregation. Last night's service was special as to having a baptizing at the end of service. Sister Stacey Pedigo was baptized and before we got out of the water Sister Alicia Wills came and was baptized! I love it when people "listen" to the voice of God and are obedient! It didn't end there, after we dismissed the service and some had already left for the night, Haley Gibb's dad came up to me and asked if I still had my wet clothes laying around and if I did Haley wanted to be baptized. Needless to say, Haley was baptized also!!!!

I made a comment last night in the service that "we are a work in progress". Everyone of us that are breathing are a work in progress and we should let God do His complete work in us. I was reminded this weekend that God is not a mean God, God loves us and wants us to just love Him back! Love Him today and let Him do a work in you!

Glorify God

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men'!" Luke 2:13, 14

As I sit in my office and write this, the kids and adults are practicing the Christmas play right outside my office door. Some know their lines, some don't. Some know the songs, some don't. There is only eight more days until the "Camel Lot" program! Nerves are beginning to surface for the director and the kids! It seems like nothing is going right, all the props are not yet built, I just had to change some mics around to get more sound from the "shy" voices, there had to be a "pep" talk to get everyone to pay attention, etc...

I am reminded that the heavenly host glorified God and glorified the infant King on the day that we are about to celebrate and is the reason why we do these programs during the Christmas season in every church (hopefully) across our nation. So, even though things may not be "up to par" just yet, the final time that these kids go on stage to tell about the birth of Jesus will be a Glorious time because WE will be the one's that will be glorifying God in the highest!

The infant child, born of a virgin, was divinely sent to us to be our Savior! This, we should glorify our Father for because the Word says, "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Wise Men

"On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of insense and of myrrh." Matthew 2:11

They had it right on the very first Christmas. The wisemen took gifts not expecting to receive gifts. The bible says that after Jesus was born, a band of scholars or Magi, came to Jerusalem to ask of the one who was born king of the Jews. They had observed a star in the sky that signaled the birth of Jesus and they wanted to go and worship him and bring him gifts. I believe that these wisemen had the intentions that we ought to have this Christmas season. They had it right, they brought gifts to Jesus.

It seems like the most exhausting thing to do is to figure out what to get someone for Christmas. We put stress, strain, and anxiety upon ourselves because we want to please someone with the best gift that we can give them. Sometimes I believe the stress that comes along with it is because of the attitude of kids, and some adults, that they expect a gift. I don't think that I have heard one time from my two kids mouths the question of "what would so and so like for Christmas" or "what can we give someone for Christmas this year". I wonder sometimes if we (and I'm not faulting my kids by no means) have forgotten the real meaning of Christmas?

The wisemen didn't go seeking out the new born King to receive gifts from him, they took gifts to him without any inclination of getting anything in return. The gifts that the magi brought to the infant Jesus are really of great interest. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are all significant gifts that demonstrate the wise men's understanding of Jesus' identity. Gold is a gift fit for a king. Frankincense is a gift that would be offered to a Deity. Myrrh is what would be used to preserve a dead body -for someone who would die. But let's remember that all this happened because Jesus is the most precious gift for us that we will ever receive. God's gift to us because he loves us!

This Christmas let's tell everyone the true meaning of Christmas is about Jesus. Also, let's have a giving heart instead of a getting heart. Let's show God's love that lives in us and show someone some compassion and give them Jesus this year.

Friend needs prayer

I write this today and I'm mad in my spirit as well as in my flesh. I'm mad at the devil. I have a very, very good friend that I spoke with just a moment ago that lives in Elizabethtown, Tn. and the devil is trying to destroy his witness, his character, his career, and everything about him. My friend has a heart for people, he has a heart to see people's needs met both physically and spiritually, he has heart for God. He shared with me what happened to him last Saturday evening as he and his wife were sitting for a while at the home of a friend whose husband and son was on a trip for the afternoon. Their friend was inside the home as he and his wife was sitting out on the porch, and he noticed a dark figure walking through the gate slowly and quietly as to almost a sneaky gesture. This person had on all black, with a stocking like hat and a scarf around their neck and face and when my friend called out to them, they had no response, they came on through the gate and latched it and began to walk toward my friend, who was now walking off the porch. As this individual got closer to my friend and still not responding to the requests of who they were, my friend took defensive measures and grab this person and wrestled them to the ground with force. Long story short, this individual turned out to be the mother-n-law of the person they were sitting with and her other son came later and assaulted my friend. This is already having adverse effects on my friend and his witness of being a Christian. The lady has pressed charges and my friend needs your help with prayer! Please keep Lynn Peters in your prayers today that God's glory will shine from this situation somehow! Through a mistaken identity and no verbal response from this individual my friend acted in a manner that any of us would have and the devil is using it to destroy him. He needs faith to get him through this and to trust in the Lord for the outcome. I ask you to pray for him today.

Keep in step

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:22,23,25

"Tis' the season to be jolly" is a familiar phrase that we sing this time of year and for some, due to the economy, sickness, death, etc..., it's not such a time to be jolly. I'm reminded this morning that even though we have to go through life and all of it's frustrations, disappointments, let downs, difficulties, etc... we "Christians" have a way of overcoming those sad, ugly, lowly, dark times. We are to "keep in step with the Spirit" and God gives us the joy, peace, faithfulness and love that we need in our lives today. I like what Eugene Peterson said about this scripture, he says, "but what happens when we live God's way is He brings gifts into our lives much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives."

The Bible tells us in the book of Romans 8:1,2 "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." This is GOOD NEWS for those that have Jesus! The greatest joy that we can have is the joy of our Salvation and that Salvation came about by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is because of Him that we can be jolly this season, no matter what the circumstance in our lives!

Let me encourage you today to "keep in step with the Spirit" by praying, fasting, reading the Word of God everyday so that your fruit can come forth and be ripe before a world that is rotten. Be blessed in the Lord in your walk everyday!

Radio Show

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" Matthew 28:19

Today I have an opportunity to spread the gospel through radio! I received a letter from Lafayette Broadcasting that explained their mission and gave a schedule of events and I was informed that there is a radio show that comes on everyday and I could be a guest if I was interested. Long story short, I will be a guest of RJ Wheaton "today" on his radio show beginning at 3pm. He is the host of the Christian Talk Program from 3pm-5pm weekdays on WEEN AM 1460. I don't know what the range is as far as who can pick it up, but if you can, listen in. I believe you can get it on the Internet at www.wlct.com and click on listen to WEEN at the right side of the page. It ought to be interesting!

Keep me in your prayers today as this could lead to our church services being broadcast weekly on this radio station!

Snowy day

This morning when I woke up and began to fix my morning coffee (I forgot to set the automatic program on it last night) I looked outside to find that it had snowed overnight. Even though it was only as deep as a finger nail on top of my car, it was a sight for sore eyes. It attracted my attention as I began to notice how beautiful it looked lingering on the leaves, branches, rooftops, vehicles, etc... It also brought to my attention a passage of scripture that has been in my spirit for quite a long time now. 2 Samuel 23 is a list of King David's "mighty men" and there are several mentioned, the chief three being Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah. Also mentioned is a man by the name of Benaiah. When I saw the snow this morning my mind went straight to this passage of scripture that talks about Benaiah.

Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada and the bible says that he accomplished a great deal of things but the thing that I want to bring to your attention is that the bible says that on a snowy day, he climbed down into a pit and killed a lion (2 Sam. 23:20). Now the bible doesn't say how big or how small the pit was, or it doesn't say how much snow or how little snow was on the ground but I think that we can learn from this passage a lesson about our battles. The bible didn't say that he fell down into the pit, it said that he climbed down into the pit. I like to believe that Benaiah knew what was in the pit to begin with and he had confidence in the Lord that he was going to overcome what was in the pit that just so happened to be a lion.

Do you have a lion in your way today? Do you have a pit to cross? I believe that we all as Christians will face a circumstance in our life that resembles a snowy day, a pit, and a lion. It's not really clear why Benaiah climbed down into this pit with this lion but maybe he needed some nourishment and the lion was the only food that he could find. I like to think that Benaiah overcame some obstacles just to get his reward. I'm sure that his footing or his hand hold might have been difficult due to the snow causing it to be slippery, but he climbed down anyway taking the chance of being attacked by the lion if he had fell and became weary. But I believe that Benaiah had his eyes set on the lion the whole way down into the pit because if he had taken his eyes off the lion he may not have been the one to climb out alive. God will take care of us if we keep our eyes on what we are doing. Just as soon as we take our eyes off the path that the Lord wants us to take, the enemy will pounce on us like a lion and devour us. We have to be ready to take on the enemy no matter what the "elements" or "obstacles". We have the power to overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb!

Be blessed today and let's not let anything keep us from our blessing. I'll talk more about this passage in future posts.

Protection from our enemies

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me..." Psalm 138:7,8

As Christians we have a purpose to bring glory and honor to the Father by living our lives in such a way that we bring pleasure to Him. Have you ever felt like you had enemies that seemed to get the upper hand and no matter what you did or said it just continued to escalate? In this scripture it says, though I walk in the midst of trouble, we could translate trouble in many ways: people trouble, financial trouble, spiritual trouble, the list goes on and on but the thing about it is God will "walk" every step with us if we allow Him too. We don't have to go through difficulty by ourselves, we don't have to go through frustrations by ourselves, we don't have to go through any trouble by ourselves. The Bible says that Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother!

When I think about God stretching His hands out against my enemies, I'm reminded of the prophet Elisha when he disclosed the king of Syria's counsel and the servant of Elisha was afraid because of the great host that was encamped around them. Elisha knew that the Lord's hand was stretched out over his enemies and he told the servant "... they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (II Kings 6:16). Elisha asked God to open the eyes of the servant and let him see the host of horses and chariots of fire standing around them on the mountain and the servant began to see the hand of God stretch out over his enemies.

In future post I want to elaborate on the rest of this scripture but for today let's be encouraged that we have a Father that loves us and that walks with us in the midst of trouble. Let's look for the hand of God in our situations that we face daily and draw strength from the Lord God Almighty!

Rewards

"Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth and it endures." Psalm 119:89,90

I'm going to let you in on a little secret this morning (some of you already know if you sit in our congregation). The end of October, somewhere around the last two days of the month, I was in prayer and the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to be more "consistent" in my devotion with Him. It wasn't the first reminder from the Lord because I had a man of God minister to me through his calling and spoke some very strong words from the Lord. Let me tell you, when you know that God is talking to you "in plain English", i.e. when you get the understanding that God isn't pleased with you, it's a wake up call! The Lord has had me to awaken very early in the morning for the whole month of November. Since November 1st I have been setting my "alarm phone" (who knew what a phone's capacity would turn out to be) and going over to the church, or in one case sitting in my living room, and spending time in prayer and devotion to God. Its amazing how you feel and things go when God is the first one you speak to and meditate on first thing in the morning. Try it sometime!

I didn't say all this to boast in me and my discipline on getting up early in the morning, I want to brag on God! Yesterday was December 1st and I went ahead and set my alarm phone the night before and had every intention of getting up and continuing my devotion as I have been doing the whole month of November, but I never heard the alarm go off! When I woke up at 6:30 am (I have been waking up around 4:45, before the alarm) I had missed my wake up call! I looked at my phone and just like it had for 30 days, it did everything in its program to wake me up. When I was able to collect my thoughts I realized and "heard" God tell me, "thank you", for He let me sleep another hour and a half yesterday morning. When I told Kelly about it her response was, "He let you sleep this morning." Even though the phone did it's job, the Lord softened the sound in my ears (and Kelly's) and we received some good sleep! You see, I saw this as a "reward for those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) How great a God we serve!!

Let's be diligent in our walk with God today and let Him teach us His ways and His love for us. He does love us and wants us to know that He's not a "mean God". He loves you today and His word is true and eternal! Live by faith and He will honor you! Be blessed today and be careful, it's a messy morning outside (rain and cold).