Friday, February 25, 2011

could write pages n pages....

I can't help but wonder how a man who went Home almost 100 years ago can speak daily, directly into my feeble life. Oswald Chambers died in 1917 and still the devotional compiled by his wife after his death continue to pierce my soul with the biting truths of Word.

Today's reading points to the Apostle Paul's self sacrificing service to the lost and to the found that they might know Christ. The Destitution of Service

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Jeremiah


So much I could say about how proud I am of the man you are becoming. I can see God moving in your life. Continue to see His face and seek His will for your life. I am grateful every day that God placed you in our family and made it complete. And Yes, YOU will always be my baby.

more Chambers

IS YOUR HOPE IN GOD FAINT AND DYING?


"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee." Isaiah 26:3 (R. V. marg.)

Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and be saved. Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature - the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

"We have sinned with our fathers; . . . and have forgotten" - then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. "God is not talking to me just now," but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.


Lord Jesus, show me how to do this. Help me remember.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Oswald and me

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

When we pray to be sanctified, are we prepared to face the standard of these verses? We take the term sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Sanctification means intense concentration on God's point of view. It means every power of body, soul and spirit chained and kept for God's purpose only. Are we prepared for God to do in us all that He separated us for? And then after His work is done in us, are we prepared to separate ourselves to God even as Jesus did? "For their sakes I sanctify Myself." The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God's standpoint. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. Are we prepared for what that will cost? It will cost everything that is not of God in us.

Are we prepared to be caught up into the swing of this prayer of the apostle Paul's? Are we prepared to say - "Lord, make me as holy as You can make a sinner saved by grace"? Jesus has prayed that we might be one with Him as He is one with the Father. The one and only characteristic of the Holy Ghost in a man is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, and freedom from everything that is unlike Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit's ministrations in us?

Isn't this always the bottom line? No to our flesh, to our personal preferences, our fleshly desires; it matters not whether they are legitimate needs or godly passions...but if they are ours, and not in His plan for our lives they are made void when it comes to us responding to His personal call on our lives. We must daily submit to His plan, His call, His purpose for our today, and every day thereafter. There is no wiggling or whining out of His way. The day and the plan he sets before us should not merely be our first choice after much debate but our only choice after no debate. We can waffle around and pretend we do not know what it is He wants from us this day...but it is usually the thing He has set right in front of us, the very thing we seek refuge from. But alas, there will be no peace in our lives, not right to our upside down ways until we submit and give our total will to Him. It begins in our small daily choices to choose, kindness over apathy; to choose obedience over excuses; a willingness to be nothing when we long for recognition and appreciation. Jesus never once asked for any of those; only to serve the Father and to feed his sheep. Find the sheep God has placed in your life, and give your life to them; never looking back.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

wasting time vs relaxing


Florida trip 2o11 day one...

Sitting in a Hampton in Stauton VA. Ate at a Red Lobster and now sitting watching TV and messing on the computer. My font is looking extra dark like its stuck in BOLD. So I do not know how it will look when published.
I do miss my babies already. But, I know I need this getaway. We considered bringing Kaleb, he did so well in Canada and is 6 months older. But, common sense won out. I guess. DA was clinging when i left saying, "don't leave Ammie, don't leave." He did run off and play then, but it still broke my heart. I had been talking to Kaleb for several weeks, trying to prepare him as he is less adaptable to new routines and situations. DA is usually just happy to be alive, rarely worries about much. I am blessed to see he is beginning to feel part of a home, our home, our family.
kaleb was doing well with the vacation he wasn't going on; he understood who was staying with him and that we would be back. Drew talked to them tonight and had pleasant conversation.

We have been making this trip for 13 years this year. Jer will be 15 a week from Sunday. I can hardly believe it. Life at our house is as intense as it was 15 year ago, well maybe not; Drew's dad had just died and Julia had skin cancer...That was rough. Now, the boys are active but growing fast, learning good things and not so good every day. But I can see God working in their lives.

My life has been difficult as of late. My mind seems like it has left for vacation months ago. I know I have been cranky, short tempered and down right nasty at times. Looking for find rest, much rest, and a way back to my saviour. Peace that has escaped me is what I seek. Rest in spirit, mind and soul will take me home a kinder gentler mom, wife and grammie.