To Bring Him Joy

"So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And everyday of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived." 2 Kings 25:29-30 In 2 Kings 24,Jehoiachin was 18 years old and had just become king, reigning 3 months when he and all Jerusalem, except a few who were left to care for the land, were taken into captivity by the king of Babylon. Jehoiachin was put into prison and we don't hear anything about him again until the end of 25 where Nebuchadnezzer's son has just become king and "graciously freed Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison."Jehoiachin is now 55 having been in prison 37 years! Don't feel too sorry for him. All of Israel and Judah had made a covenant with God promising to walk in His ways, keeping His commandments and observing His statutes. God had told them all the blessing they would experience if they kept their...

"The thoughts of the righteous are just, the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.   The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood but the mouth of the upright delivers them.   The wicked are overthrown and are no more,   but the house of the righteous will stand." Proverbs 12:5-7 A little over a week ago, on a Tuesday evening, I decided to stay over on the west side of town instead of making a drive back and forth after work as I had Bible study that evening. Of course, I hadn't finished my study and so decided I would get a bite to eat and work on it. I really felt that God was leading me to go to the McDonald's that was not to far from where I work. I wasn't really craving Micky D's but I went feeling that there must be someone that God wanted me to pray for as that is frequently the case when I feel strongly led to a particular place. So going in and when ordering I was on the look out for "the person" for whom I was to intercede. Then I go...

A while back, I was challenged by a young preacher, as were the rest of the Christians sitting in the auditorium, to share my testimony.  I was delighted to hear his story of how God drew him unto Himself. It is so cool that God saved a "hungover college student" and has so radically changed his life that he was sent out about a year ago by Desert Springs Church along with 50 adults and over half that many children to plant a new church, Redemption Church in Rio Rancho . Well, today God is saying remember that testimony blog that you barely started. It is time to finish it. Share your testimony. I am one of those people who sometimes thinks my salvation testimony is boring, especially compared to some of the dramatic testimonies of being saved out of drug addiction or alcohol abuse or right before they were going to commit suicide. For some reason, God, in His great mercy spared me from those things. He called and saved me when I was 6 years old. I grew up a Southern Ba...

  “ After all that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and terrible guilt—though You, our God, have punished us less than our sins deserve and have allowed us to survive...” Ezra 9:13 HCSB As part of my reading, in what I write down on my “to do” list as “twiG” (time with God-twiG to remind me that I AM is the vine and little I is just a branch. I've got to be attached to Him to survive.) I read Ezra 9 and verse 13 stuck out. I was amazed and convicted. Amazed that someone had this attitude and convicted that I rarely do. We had community group last night and were discussing how we struggle with believing that God loves us and I realized in thinking of this verse that true to myself I go from one extreme to the other so many times. Either I struggle with truly believing that God loves me. O, I know it in my head but how different my life would be if I really grasped how great His love is for me and for others-to see people as someone Christ gave His life to ...

  “ this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you should tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.” ” Joshua 4:6-7 HCSV Joshua 4 is basically what God commanded the Israelites to do in response to what He has accomplished for them. In Joshua 3 we read that the Israelites were ready to cross the Jordan river which was overflowing its banks. God told Joshua to have the priests who carry the ark of the covenant to begin to carry it into the river. “and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water...the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away...so the people crossed...And the priests w...

  This blog post is in response to both a blog and a sermon. Recently, Trent Hunter wrote and shared a blog about listening to a sermon. You can find it here http://www.desertspringschurch.org/blog/?p=3220 . It resonated with me, as years ago my pastor at the time, Ronnie Rogers made a comment from the pulpit about our worship on a Sunday not just happening during the music part of the service. In our listening to the sermon we should continue to interact with God. It has changed my worship on any given Sunday, how I sing, how I listen, how I participate in the service. I think that we feel that when we are singing we are worshipping or that we can worship when we pray if we are giving praise or thanks but that we don't feel like we are worshipping when we are listening to a sermon. It is though we have to talk to be worshipping. It is rather arrogant of us, really. Actually, we ought to be listening through out the service, through out the week, daily, moment by moment ...

Elmer Fudd has been a part of our family life for quite a while now. I don't really remember how long. I don't even remember for sure how we came to have him, I think possibly a kid's meal toy from somewhere. He actually wasn't even the original figure. I'm not sure who originally started the game. We've had a couple of the vultures that didn't know what to do but were part of a great barbershop  quartet. Also I believe we had a King Kong figurine at one time. But "The Fudd" as we lovingly call him, made the trip 4 years ago from Oklahoma to the Land of Enchantment. He rode in the housing of the speedometer of our black suburban, known as the Subbubble, but mostly just as the sub. He has been kept around because of a game that my husband started with the family so many years ago, when the KRHs were children.  We now would call it Find the Fudd. Anyway, Cary, started hiding these kid's meal figurines around the house, sometimes in such obvi...