Sunday, May 24, 2009


Memorial Day weekend!!!! And everybody's at the lake, or out of town.... except my family and some others... we went to church today. Ü Hallelujah!!! haha..... anyway...


I just wanted to shout out a thanks to the soldiers who give their lives on the battle field every day for us and for their families. I can't express my gratitude for those few who are still willing to go straight to Irag after training, leaving their loved ones. I can only imagine how trying it is - probably a battle just getting on the airplane to leave! And the families who allow their sons (and daughters) to go fight...... it takes guts. Keep praying for our American soldiers, and pray for more to come. They need backup over there. Thank God for men of the past who believed in fighting for freedom - a godly and God-given freedom that they knew was a gift. Thank the Lord for men who have given their lives just so we could walk on free ground. I'm so glad I was BORN in a free country. I'm so thankful I was here to behold its days of glory and power. I'm greatful that I was allowed by God Almighty to live to see how great my America was before these days of darkness came. Thank you soldiers, and thank you God, especially, for giving me that.

Keep Yourselves From Every Wicked Thing - Part 1

"When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing.




For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." Deuteronomy 23:9 & 14




This post is gonna be (kinda) about the battle field and soldiers on it, but it's also about our spiritual battle field and us soldiers on it. If you've been washed in the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) and you've been ransomed and freed from guilt, sin, death and hell, you are a soldier and whether you like it or not, you're on the battle field. The moment you asked Jesus to save you, you "signed up" to fight the invisible (and sometimes undetectable) battles of the soul. You will be fighting a battle for the rest of your life. Yep. But not to worry - the Lord will go before you, to fight for you. You just trust in Him and His strength and you'll win those battles. In Deuteronomy 23 it shows how God would have us behave in the battle camp. God says for us to keep ourselves from every wicked thing. So, in our camp, God wants us to have pure hearts, pure minds, totally separated from every wicked thing! It's hard to follow when it says every wicked thing. When you think of something that's wicked, you'll find just about every time that what God thinks is wicked is totally different from what you thought was wicked! There's no room for compromise when you are determined to live God's way. And if you don't live God's way, it tells you in verse 14 up there what will happen if you don't follow God's command. It says "...the Lord walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee..." God's ready to give your enemies over to you so you can win the battle! But think it out "...therefore shall thy camp be holy..." Holy? Yep. It's hard to be holy. Let me tell you, when you think of holiness - when I think of holiness - more than likely, you'll find that what we think is holy and what God thinks is holy are two different things. God knows more about holiness than we do. He's always had it. He IS holiness. We have not mastered it - will never master it - if we've even attempted to gain it at all. Yet God says to keep our camp holy. Keep your heart holy before the Lord. That is something that is going to be sooooooooooooooooo hard to do. I want to be holy before the Lord. My parents want to be holy before the Lord. Oh man, holiness is so beautiful! I've learned that being holy isn't boring or stuck-up or down-cast looking. It's free and pure! It's wonderful!!!! I'm praying so hard for God to help me be holy. I WANT him walking in the midst of my camp. Look at this: "...therefore shall thy camp be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." When we are unclean and when we've turned away from God, maybe have some unconfessed sins that we're aware of, or have this sin that we just can't seem to let go of, God's not gonna fight for us, because we are at enmity with him. God wants your whole heart, ya'll. He wants everything - and he wants the battle! If you have some sin that you never knew was sin (just like we don't always understand wickedness or holiness the way God understands it), you need to ask him to reveal it to you so that you can get right and gain more power for the battle! Sin is like a burden before you're saved. When Jesus saves you, he washes all your sins away with his perfect blood. But when you discover something wrong in your heart that you never knew was there and you just refuse to get rid of it, it acts as a burden that you've given yourself, and it hinders you from fighting all those battles successfully. You'll tire out too quickly! You can't win the battle when God's not helping you, and he SAYS that if you have unconfessed sin in your life (uncleanness, wickedness, etc.) and you're not letting him take control, you won't have his help! It's like Jonah. (Read about him in the book of Jonah, in the Bible - haha) So, Jonah heard the call from God to go and tell a town called Nineveh about God's coming judgement for their evil works. Jonah didn't like the Ninevites, and he was afraid of them, so he ran away from God. The battle inside him raged and fought against his desire to obey God, and the fearful spirit took over. He deliberately disobeyed God, and God punished him for it. In the end, Jonah surrenders and he does go to the Ninevites and they ask God to forgive them, which God does forgive! But while Jonah was running before that, God allowed him to get thrown off a ship and swallowed by a gigantic fish. He stays there for three days and nights, praying to be delivered. He gave into the enemy in that first battle, and now he was in a worse scrape than he probably would have ever been in if he would have only obeyed the Lord! The Lord did deliver him from the fish's belly - he got thrown up onto the shore!!!! SICK!!!! Hey, that's what ya get for refusing to keep yourself from every wicked thing. Jonah let fear of the Ninevites control him. So, in this story, fear was a sin - a wicked thing. Yep. Something as simple as fear can be wicked. See how serious this is? What happened to trusting in the Lord and leaning not on thy own understanding? What happened to not being afraid of sudden fear? Keep yourselves from every wicked thing. Please. It's not going to be easy - it never has been for anyone! But it's possible. Do you want to win the battles or not?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Get Wisdom


Here's the Proverbs post! Lately I've been asking God to give me wisdom and understanding. His Word says that wisdom is a gift, and there's also the verse that says "Ask and it shall be given unto you..." Well, I asked, I've sought, and the Lord is helping me to understand his Word much more! My Mom's been reading us the Bible in the mornings, we started with Proverbs, and she has a keen understanding of the Bible - she's studied a lot. My Dad still does devotions with us at night, and we're studying the Ark of the Covenant - maybe I should post about that too. It's amazing!!!



But anyway (haha)...... How many of y'all have wanted wisdom? How many of you have dug for it as if it was precious gold? Psalms 37:4 says "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." To delight in God is to delight in his Word. I'm here to tell y'all that when you have wisdom, you can choose either to live by it or turn from it, as Solomon did. Wisdom is the principal thing. You need it first before you can be discerning, understanding or even truthful, because wisdom is all these things! This is God letting wisdom speak: "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world ... Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." Think I'm crazy??? You should read the whole chapter of Proverbs 8!!!! God possessed wisdom before the earth was ever thought of. God IS wisdom! He gives it and it is his to give. I'll tell you what - I WANT wisdom!!!! Here's some amazing verses about wisdom.








Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Pro. 4:5, 7


How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! Pro. 16:16


For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Pro. 2:6




Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman... Pro. 7:4



The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Pro. 9:10



For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Pro. 8:11




Isn't that awesome??? God says wisdom is no to be compared to ANYTHING. That's right - ANYTHING!!!! See how much wisdom is worth? Now, I am not professing to be anything close to wise - I'm a fool and a sinner saved by grace.... but someday, I want to be called wise. I desire to be an understanding, wise young woman. It's a hope and a desire of my heart! And I hope you will desire wisdom as much as I do... oh, it's so precious - its what God has!!!
















Thursday, May 14, 2009

Still Obsessed

Well, not obsessed - just thinking about it a lot! My friend Karen is getting married in June and I've just been thinking a lot about weddings...................


This is a wedding DRESS!!! The girl is spinning in this pic... so gorgeous!
(come on guys, you gotta admit this is cool!)






Okay, done! Now I'm going to post something from Proverbs later. Ü

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Hey Gals - What about Weddings!!!!!!!!












Sorry guys...... this one probably won't interest y'all one bit!!!!! Recently I've been almost, I guess, obsessed with weddings! Maybe it's because my friend is getting married in June and that's almost ALL she talks about (haha)! But honestly, I've always loved to watch weddings, go to weddings, be in weddings... I just think they're so beautiful..... Especially when the couple has kept themselves pure as pure can be. Oh - it just grips me!!!! And to think "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." That's an adventure right there. So anyway, here's some pics that I think are awesome!!!


























Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We're All an Abomination to Something!

I was reading in Proverbs 29 the other day and verse 27 says,
"An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked."
A funny thought struck me - either way, we're all an abomination to something! You can be dishonest, vile and wicked, and be a corruptible sight to the righteous, but the righteous are abhorred by the wicked!!! And even though it struck me as funny, it's really a serious thing to ponder. These days, people trying to serve God and be good are disliked and trodden upon by the wicked and called "haters", while we that follow God sit back and are disgusted by the sins of the world. Abomination to abomination - I'd rather be an ugly, abominable thing in the wicked man's eyes than in God's!