To Bring Him Joy

"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5 ESV I love beginning a new journal – all those crisp white or cream lined pages to fill up with new thoughts and prayers and scripture!! I call it a twiG journal because that is my shortened version of “time with God” which also reminds me that He is the vine and I am a branch or twig and I must remain in Him to bear much fruit. To remain in Him I must spend time with Him in His word and in prayer. A couple of weeks ago, while it was yet November, I wrote the last word in the last page of my twiG journal. On Friday November 25, 2016 I began my new journal with this prayer: “ Abba, thank You for this new day – for this new journal. O may the words I put down on these pages be honoring unto You. Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit please open Your word to me – show me Yourself – Your glory. Help m...

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Jesus  (Mark 12:30-31 ESV ) Ahh, this has been the prayer of my heart for some time now. I think that I have prayed it almost daily for my family for over 8 years now. It is usually what I pray when I wake up in the middle of the night. Many times when asked if I have any prayer requests this is what I ask for myself and my family. My prayer has gone something like this: Father God, please help Cary and I, Kayla, Katina, Keanan and Kenton to love You with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves -beginning with one another. Why have I made this my almost daily prayer? Because Jesus said that this is the greatest commandment and if I love God and love man I will fulfill all the commandments. ...

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...

 This is something that I just sat down and wrote shortly after my mother in law died.  I felt like God wanted me to write and so I did.  It is just me fairly raw, not at all polished, sharing with God. I hope it helps someone out there.   I am just not sure where to start but I know that I need to be writing so here goes. I have been wondering about my mother in laws death and just why she died in the way the she did. It was so weird. She fought to the end. Screaming and kicking and biting, mocking and glaring, just mean and weird. I don't know if it was the melanoma reaching her brain, the Alzheimers, or the medications that we were giving her to try to relieve the pain and delirium she was having. It was awful. If I hadn't really believed that she was a christian, there are times that I almost thought that she was possessed! Father, this seems useless, just writing for the sake of writing. Lord, only You truly know why she died in the way that she did...