Thanksgiving Eve's Thoughts

Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord, He is God;
It is He that hath made us, not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful unto Him and bless His name.
For the Lord He is good;
and His mercy is everlasting.
His truth endureth to all generations.

This was my favorite Bible verse when I was a child, so I thought I would share it with you on this Thanksgiving Eve.

What I am Thankful for: I am thankful for a loving husband that will put up with my mood swings, lousy attitudes and moans and groans. I am thankful that God is changing my heart and working on me to be more patient and understanding. I am thankful that He has convicted me of thinking too much on the negative side of things. I'm thankful for the normal things such as my health, my wonderful church family, and loving friends. I have the best kind of friends anyone could ask for. Friends who will tell me when I am wrong about things, friends who will remind me about what God says about thinking negative and just general all around keeping me on the "straight and narrow". They do it with a loving tone and attitude, not judgemental. Therefore, I take it as "constructive criticism" rather than "destructive".

I am truly blessed in my life, and I hope that when I come into contact with others, I pass on the love that God has in my heart to others. I pray that I am a "shining example" of God's love to others as my "church elders" and friends are to me.


Bible Seeds

Everything We Need

Today's Seed: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

Hidden in the middle of this seed is a powerful little phrase that can be easily overlooked as we hurry through our daily Bible reading. Three little words, "everything we need."

It doesn't say that God gives us some of what we need or part of what we need. It is a firm commitment; we are given "everything we need." God has given us "everything we need" through Jesus Christ. it tells us that we have been given all that we need to live life, and to live it in a godly manner.

Stop and thing--what do you need right this moment? According to this promise, whatever that may be is available to you. Now there are some qualifiers to the promise; What we need comes to use from Gods "divine power." Therefore, we must have received Jesus Christ as our Savior. and with that the presence of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, giving us power. That is the first qualifier. The second is getting to know Jesus Christ, who he is, how he lived and the example and instructions he left for us. So our needs must also be in accordance with the teachings of Scripture.

Dig Deeper: The Greek word for "knowledge" is ginosko. it means to take in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, and understand,. In the New Testament, ginosko often indicates a relationship between the person knowing and the person being known.

Weed & Water: Because everything we need will com3e through our relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to know him. The only way we can really get to know a person is to spend time with him or her. We also need to converse with him or her. So spending time with Jesus will include our reading the Bible to learn about his attributes, commands, and promises. It will also include our talking with him about our needs. In listening to him, we may find him clarifying the difference between what we see as our "needs" and what he sees as our wishes, wants, and desires. Have you ever stopped to consider that God might view your "needs" differently than you view them?

Sprout & Scatter: Many people get discouraged when they feel that God does not keep his promises. At such times they have confused their needs and God's view of their needs. As you begin to get to know God in a relationship you will understand the difference between needs and wishes or wants. Then you may be able to bring encouragement and hope to others. Matthew 6:33 reminds us: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Think about it:

• How can you get to know God better?
• What is one "need" you have that God might see as a wish or want?

Prayer Pot: Dear God, show me the difference between my needs and wants and help me to .....

Image by jspad via Flickr

To my "friends" out in "Blogland" I thank you and wish you all a Very Happy Thanksgiving. ( Don't eat til you get sick, just happy).

Good Night to All and May God Bless!

PJ

Our Branson Trip

Good Evening to All!

As promised, I have some pictures of our Branson trip all ready to upload.

I must say, once we got there, we had a blast. Of course that's usually the way it works. The trip is pretty stressful because of the traffic, detours for some reason, everywhere we go there are always detours and we get lost. Hubby always finds his way around eventually, but the detours are enough to drive a person bonkers. Anyway, Don had planned on getting into Branson about 2 or 3. It was about 5:30 if I remember correctly. We didn't do much that night except find a little something to eat and go to sleep.

The next day, we went to the Roy Rogers Museum and Show, which I already showed some pictures of, but have plenty more. I've never been a very good photographer. My hubby's got some great pics, but I don't know how to get them off his lap top. I'll get him to upload them on my flash-drive tomorrow. As you can tell, that is Dusty Rogers, Roy's son. He has a band called the High Riders. I tell you, if you close your eyes when he's singing it sounds
almost identical to Roy Rogers. He even came off stage and started telling us about his family Christmas'. In the theater, they had a Very large star of David, with a cross in the middle. He said his mom (Dale Evans) had it made special because so many people kept sending her Christmas cards that said Merry Xmas, and she didn't like the way they had taken "Christ out of Christmas, so she had that made and put on their roof every year til she passed in 2001. Anyway, I guess that is what impressed me the most was how much he talked about Christ during his show. Another place we went was to see Andy Williams. You youngsters may never heard of him or his records, but he was my mom's favorite singer and I can remember sitting in front of the tv every week and watching his variety show and hearing him sing. I have always loved his voice. He also told some pretty cute jokes. Anyway, that was an excellent show and brought back a lot of fond memories of my mom. She has been passed away since I was 13 years old, and when things like this or her favorite Christmas song, or something like that comes along, I still get pretty emotional. Her birthday was the 11th of November also. Anyway, I really enjoyed the show and thinking of mom.
Another place we went was Butterfly Palace. It was a really neat place also, but I guess I'm gonna have to wait on showing anymore pictures because this farce of a "fast speed internet" is so slow, the pictures won't upload. I'll have to wait until tomorrow I guess. I'm sorry. I have lots more places and things to tell you about and show you pictures. I click on the picture icon, but nothing happens. It's after midnight, so I guess I'll close and tell you more about our fantastic trip tomorrow. I hope that I can upload more pictures than I did tonight. I have some really nice ones of the Butterfly Palace, and an Antique Car Museum, and also for the History buffs, I have some neat picture of the Veterans' Memorial Museum. The Trail of Lights, (Christmas) was really pretty also. Anyway, see ya tomorrow.

Good Night All and May God Bless!

PJ

A Plea For A Special Prayer

Image via Wikipedia

Good Evening to All!

Don and I arrived home from our vacation in Missouri earlier this afternoon. I was going to start this post out on a high note with telling you all about it, but something much more important came to my attention when I looked at my e-mail. My sister's sister-in-law(a preacher's wife) wrote me a message on Facebook with the following information and ask that I send up prayers for this precious little boy, so I told her that I would include him in my "Prayer Line" and ask my loving blog readers to include him in their prayers also. She went into great detail as to what her church is asking to "pray in agreement with" and included some of the "Healing Scriptures" for praying the scriptures just in case you like praying that way, or else just praying a prayer asking for God's healing power to rain down on this boy will do wonders, I'm sure. I know that God hears all prayers, and that He is the "Great Physician". Anything we ask in His Name in His will shall be given to us. (Paraphrased). God is not a God of Sickness, He is a healer, so I rebuke this sickness in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for your prayer support. Here is Isaac's story:

Isaac was diagnosed with leukemia 2 years ago. (Isaac is 12.) He's gone through treatment but doctors aren't hopeful. I'm not being negative I'm just giving you some facts, I know God's truth is greater. About a month ago he was in the hospital with pneumonia and the doctors at that time gave him a 0-1% of living. He went home with lungs clear Nov 8. Praise God! Now we need a miracle. This is what we are in agreement for: 1. Bone marrow to function the way God intended. 2. White blood cells to increase. 3. Red blood cells to increase. 4. Platelets to increase 5. Protection from any and all infections, germs, bacteria, viruses. 6. Strength and wholeness in his body. We know that there is nothing that is impossible with God. We also know that the prayer of agreement is strong. Please post the following scriptures to pray: Ps. 41:1-3, Psalms 107:20, Psalms 107:2, Ezekiel 16:6, Romans 8:11, Isa. 41:10,Ps. 118:17, Malachi 4:2-3Isa. 53:4-5, Joel 3:21, there are many others but any of the healing scriptures apply.

Thanks for all your prayers!!!!!

I don't want to take away from this request, so I'll close for tonight and pick up on a lighter note on tomorrow's post. By the way, if anyone knows how I can register as a Bone Marrow Donor without having to pay for the test, please let me know, as I would like to be a donor, but can't afford the $75.00 they want for the dna typing or whatever that's called. Thanks.

Good Night to All and May God Bless.

PJ

Hi Everybody! THis is not a regular post. I am still trying to get my button fixed, so please bear with me. I can't tell if it works or not. Everytime I click on it it takes me to photobucket of course because I'm already on my blog, so I don't know if it actually would take you to my blog or not.

PJ

Howdy From Branson!

Hey Everybody from Branson Missouri!

This is a "lousy picture I took of the entrance of the Roy Rogers' Museum and Theater. I've about decided to leave the photography up to hubby and just mooch off his computer pictures.

We've has a FULL 3 days! We left Tuesday morning, spent the night in Oklahoma, and drove on in to Branson yesterday. We had a time getting here (navigationally) so it was after dark when we arrived. We were so worn out, we just found a place to eat and then crashed. Today has been quite full. We started out at 9 this morning. We went to breakfast, then went to see the Roy Rogers Museum and Dusty Rogers show (his son). It was great. After that, we went to a place called the Butterfly Palace. If you can't tell, I love butterflies. Anyway, it was really cool too. It was a "rain forest, with over 1000 different species of butterflies that were flying around freely. one even landed on my hubby's shoulder when he was taking pictures. It was beautiful. They even had a live model, painted white and dressed up like an angel moving just ever once in a while. I don't see how she did it. Tonight we went to see the Trail of Christmas lights. I'm bushed ! Tomorrow, our day starts as we go to Silver Dollar City, then tomorrow night, we go to see Andy Williams' Christmas Show. The next day is Silver Dollar city again, because we've been told you can't get through the whole thing in one day. Then it's to the RFD Theater to see some of the "older country & Western stars like Whispering Bill Anderson, Lynn Anderson, Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius, and a bunch more. Anyway, I hope to have lots of pictures by the time we're finished. Thank goodness it's easier to upload pics on here than it is on Facebook! I've been having trouble with that since last night. Well, Guess I'll close for now and write more tomorrow, (if I can see straight as tired as I am and will be). The statue of the horse is of Trigger, of course, and the picture on the lower left is Dusty Rogers on stage singing. It was an excellent show. Afterward, the band came out and had pictures made with all of us. I'll be putting that one up when we get home. I've got to get it from Don. Anyway, for a couple of "old folks" we're having a great time. I had to laugh when I said that cause I got a senior citizen's discount at IHOP today. I don't mind being considered "old" if it means saving money!

I wanted to put some other pictures in here but Zemanta didn't load for some reason.
Good Night and May God Bless!

PJ

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Good Evening to All!
In case you are wondering, I type in the Verse of the Day for "tomorrow" because they change at midnight, and usually, it's late evening before I get my post typed. I tried typing it in the morning, but I always felt rushed, because I leave for "Curves" at 9:am and start cleaning houses at 10:am, then by the time I get home, and rest a bit, it is time to straighten up my own house and cook supper, and clean up. Before I know it, it's 9 or 10pm.

Tomorrow's Bible Verse of the Day (Amplified Bible)

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.
Psalm 119:18

Bible Seeds Devotion:

Judging by Appearances

Today's Seed: "You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he." 2 Corinthians 10:7

The Amplified version states it this way: Look at [this obvious fact] which is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him reflect and remind himself that even as he is Christ's, so too are we.

Look at that guy over there. And that young woman with him--what color is her hair anyway? And those earrings and their shoes and....No matter what our age, there are people in the world who look strange---to us.

Judging by appearances can become an everyday habit if we allow it. With our mental critique we often condemn others. Who are we to set ourselves up as judges? We forget that, perhaps, they're judging us--and finding us lacking also.

When the apostle Paul was trying to prove himself to the Corinthians, he accused them of looking only on the surface of things, of judging by appearances. Paul asked, and we should ask, too, is it right to judge people by what we see? Or think we see? Based on appearances its difficult to tell what a person is really like. Many people hide their true emotions--some under a facade of humor, others behind a prickly pear mask.

Only God knows our inner being. We can tell what a person looks like, but God can tell who a person is. first Samuel 16:7 reminds us, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." What does God see when he looks at you?

Dig Deeper: The Greek word for "judging" is aisthesis, meaning perception and discernment, to see or understand differences. We need to look beyond the surface and forget about judging others.

*** Unfortunately, I believe that it is human nature to compare others to ourselves as a human mechanism. I have even wondered if it isn't involuntary. That doesn't make it right, it just means that we have to work hard to keep those thoughts out of our minds. Even the most harmless comparisons can be judgmental and turn out to be harmful even if they aren't meant to be. The more we allow ourselves to have these thought patterns, the harder it is to control them.

Background Bulb: In the first six verses of chapter 10, Paul defends his ministry. ;He has been accused of not being "spiritual" enough and not having the credentials to be a true apostle. Paul doesn't mind being asked about his credentials, but he doesn't agree with the Corinthians' measuring tool. Surface things, such as a person's stage presence, speaking skills, confident claims, and authoritative manner impressed them. Paul wanted to be judged by how his ministry had affected those who had heard him, not by how he looked or spoke. He didn't want the Corinthians to be led away from truth by the next great speaker who taught unbiblical ideas.

Weed & Water: Make an effort to open your heart and mind to people who are different from you. Look beyond the clothes, hair, language, skin color, and way they do things to find common ground. You might be surprised to find that your difference can be fascinating. You might even discover that you like different.

Think about it:

On what basis did Paul want to be evaluated by the Corinthians?
How can you accept others who belong to Christ?

Prayer Pot: Lord, help me to look beyond the surface and see....

God Loves You. God loves all people. We are His creation, our actions are our own.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!

PJ

God's Miracles and Bible Seeds

Image via Wikipedia

Good Evening to All!

I would like to elaborate on the word commandments. So many of us think of the word "commandments" as automatically meaning the Ten Commandments and that's the extent of it. We could not be further from the truth. According to Psalm 119:127, Commandments pertain to anything the Lord God has ordered. The word alludes to God's authority to govern His people. The commandments of God are positive and negative, specific and general, restrictive and permissive. Yet most important, they help a person to identity his or her way in a would that is filled with confusion, sin, and error. In other words, they are there to guide us on our journey through life to help keep us on the path to righteousness and Salvation. They are not all written in the form of "you will do this, or you better do that, or else. Some are written in a parable for example the "sower" , you reap what you sow. If you so discord, you will get discord back. If you treat people with love and respect, you will gain love and respect from others.

I have heard so many people say, "I don't read the Bible because I can't understand it. First of all, there are too many versions out there written in today's language to use that reason. Besides that, If you pray for God to give you understanding before you read, He will do so, and last but not least, the Bible isn't rocket science. Think of it as an instruction book for living. It is one of the most interesting books ever written. It's a romance novel, a history novel, a murder mystery, a how-to book, poetry and more all rolled into one.

According to Psalm 119:130, the entrance of God's Word brings light, which is something we all need. We do not always know or see what we need to do, and many times we do not recognize our own problems. We need God's light to understand ourselves and too see how we need to change and how we can cooperate with God to make things better. Reading God's Word is like looking in a mirror. It enables us to see what needs to be cleaned up in our lives.

Before I start Bible Seeds, I want to acknowledge two different blogs which have had miracles happen recently. My Charming Kids blog had their miracle in the form of Stellan's successful procedure. I truly believe he will be if not already completely healed, praise God.

The other is Yaya and Josh becoming parents! Be sure and check out their blog for the details! God is sooooo Great! His miracles never cease, we just don't look hard enough.

I am so happy for all the precious people involved in receiving these miracles!

God Bless you and may God keep His hand upon your families!

Bible Seeds Devotion:

Today's Seed: "I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. Psalm 123:1

Have you ever searched for an important face in the crowd? Perhaps this happened when you walked into a darkened movie theater or when you were lost in a mob at the stadium. You may catch a glimpse of the person, only to have them disappear again.

Is God's face equally hard for you to locate? Or is He standing out above the crowd, looking directly at you when your eyes meet His? And once your eyes lock on His, are you able to maintain a steady gaze to see into His heart and soul for your life?

The psalmist who wrote today's seed was looking for God. His hope was tied to his knowledge that if he looked hard enough, he would witness God's mercy in his lifetime. God never hides His face from us. He does not play peekaboo, discounting our present condition.

When we have difficulty seeing God, it is often because we have focused our eyes on someone or something else. Our point of focus shifts too easily. Material possessions, self-worth, and personal fulfillment--all considered "noble" causes in today's society--have clouded our eyes. Unfortunately, we fixate on God for shorter periods of time and are quickly distracted by these so-called causes.
God's Word repeatedly reminds us to seek His face. The greatest blessing of seeking God's face may be that he also has His eyes trained on each one of us.

Background Bulb: Psalm 34:15 says, "The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." How He does this we may never know, but we can trust in the Almighty's ability to watch over us. His majestic throne is in heaven, not here on earth.

Weed & Water: How can we seek the face of the Lord? God reveals Himself through His written Word, through prayer, and through fellowship with Himself and other believers. Eventually we won't have to look so hard to find His face. And we'll find that He was there all along. So keep seeking!

Think about it:

* Think abut the last time you couldn't see God's face. Why couldn't you?

* What benefits or blessings will come to you as a result of lifting up your eyes and seeing God's face?

Prayer Pot:

Dear Lord, I confess that my eyes... (insert in what way you need help focusing on God and His Word.

This isn't the exact picture I was looking for, but it really has some relevance as according to the Bible, we are to believe as little children in the Word of God. Therefore a child planting or harvesting seeds or flowers definitely shows relevance to this post.

Look up, not in.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!

PJ

I don't know how formal I['m supposed to be about sources I use, so just in case, I use "Bible Seeds A Simple Study-Devotional for Growing in God's Word" and "The Everyday LIfe Bible (Amplified Version) Featuring Notes and Commentary by Joyce Meyer.