February 28, 2017

Greetings My Friend, When Jesus gets a hold of you, you better watch out! I have known Brenda for about 8 years now. Junior saw Brenda's son walking down the railroad tracks and he asked Jeremiah if he would like to help him do some work around our place in Haysi and later on our house here in Coeburn. Jeremiah was in his early 20's and had not really held a job so Junior wanted to teach him some skills so he could go to work one day. One time while Jeremiah was working Brenda came by to check on him when he told her to come talk to me and a friendship began. Brenda has had me so irritated I wanted to strangle her, she was focused on all that had been done to her in her life and her hurt and pain she could not see all that she truly had. She struggles with depression big time, with diabetes and a host of other problems and despite all of this I found I loved this woman like a sister. She came around when I needed a friend, helped me work through the last stages of my hurt from my marriage and we shared the sting of abuse in our lives. Through prayer and medication I began to move forward but Brenda stayed mired in her pain. After we moved and Jeremiah had helped Junior out for a year or so he finally went out and got a job. We felt he should start off with some local jobs in local stores or such. He went big and decided he wanted to be a truck driver so he did his research, got himself into a truck driving school and is now a truck driver. Brenda loved hanging around with us and she often would stay at our house for a few days at a time. Did I mention that Brenda is a hoarder? She is and she has admitted it too. She started to hoard in our spare bedroom and we fussed at her for this, then we started insisting she pick up after herself and slowly she began picking up after herself. Along the way I started telling her how I began getting back into the groove of keeping house like I would watch TV and commercials I got up to do a few things. She watched me as I worked my way back into health.Brenda had breast cancer so I drove her to the cancer center to get radiation. We had long talks as we went back and forth, even sharing the driving due to my exhaustion. After the the radiation treatments were done Brenda kept up her lifestyle of hoarding, taking her medications willy nilly and she backed off coming over. She would call here and there and go on about who did what to her and I listened, fussed at her and thought she would eventually walk completely away. About a year ago Brenda found out her cancer returned and this time she needed chemo. She waited to start so she could go on a trip with her son, then she would cancel and reschedule her appointments sure that the doctors were out to kill her. Finally she decided it was time to operate and the doctor's told her it was not time, the tumor was too big. She had a sobering moment and I believe that is when it sunk in because since then she has slowly opened her heart to Jesus. He wanted her to trust Him and of course she argued with Him about that. I kept telling her she needed to trust Him and if He wanted her in these treatments then she needed to follow what the doctor's told her. She began taking her medications on schedule, eating better and she started cleaning her house. Justin has been helping her slowly the house is getting cleaned out of all the junk in it. She is in an apartment at this point and she wants to go back to the house. She threatened to move back to her house, live in a tent until she could move in. I believed she would too. We visited her the other day and the change in her was astounding. She was giddy, she had brought a friend she has made with her and Justin. She talked about the goals she has of cleaning out that house, to prove a point to her neighbors, her goal to move to Texas with her son and the change was astounding. She is planning on staying in her apartment for another year, working on her house and Jesus has a hold of her big time. Junior and I have prayed for her, our church has prayed for her and even my on line friends have prayed for her. I never ever thought I would see this day but now that it is here, I am so thankful. I believe she will be in heaven and I have longed for this the most. May God bless you and keep you, make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 25, 2017

Greetings My Friend, I am struggling with words and how God sees them. As I read "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!Let your graciousness be know to to everyone. The Lord is near." I have always focused on the word rejoice, which is a joyful feeling and I have learned I can be joyful in most circumstances even though I am struggling. I learned in the previous passages Paul and Silas had been beaten and were in prison in chains. They were singing and praising God even in such dire circumstances. I have felt this joy and carry it with me in the major struggles I have faced in my life. I am grateful to know that I am not alone and on the other side I will marvel even though in the midst I may wonder at times. Being gracious though was a new thought. The first definition I looked up "characterized by good taste, comfort, ease or luxury" that did not help me understand graciousness at all. So I read further down the page on the internet until my eyes rested on "marked by kindness and courtesy." This one helped me to see that I can be kind and respectful to others even when they are rude or obnoxious. My devotional helped me even more so when it defined gracious as "being grateful for all I have in Christ." I am very grateful for my life since I have taken my faith seriously and started following Jesus' example of right living. Later my devotional teaches me that I need to have this attitude with other believers before the watching world. As the body of Christ begins to live out love and respect towards each other we in a small way are teaching the world how to love as Jesus loved us. This convicts people more so than all the finger pointing and shaming we often get into. Some people seem to need a harsh in the face way of understanding deep truths but most people seem to need the gentle and kind ways. I know by Jesus' example that there are times we need to be much bolder and abrasive like when He talked with the religious leaders or when He threw the money lenders out of the Temple. In general though Jesus was gracious to the sinners He met like the woman caught in adultery or the woman at the well. After this lesson I read my Bible and came across Moses asking God to show Himself to Moses, "Now therefore, if I have found favor in Your sight, please show me now Your ways that I may know You in order to find favor in Your sight." I found it interesting that Moses asked God to show him His ways. Moses desired to walk close to God, to know God and to grow in God. I find that as a believer we need to seek God and ask Him to show us His ways. I know I have asked God something very similar to this. As I study God's Word I find the Holy Spirit drawing me near to God, teaching me how to walk in God's ways. The Holy Spirit started my faith journey by pointing me to look at the cross and as I looked at my Savior dying for me I was able to look into His pain and suffering and see a deep love a gracious love. We begin to desire to "know" God on a deep and personal level and then we desire to go into our world and love others. For me that is all I had ever wanted to do is love and be loved. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 23, 2017

Greetings My Friend, Our Sunday School lesson has had me looking at the make up of the church body. I recall a lesson one time where I learned about lighthouses, in these lighthouses it was found that work was needed to be done on them to keep them functioning for the passing ships. A group of people got together to work on the lighthouse and soon it was in great shape, the people enjoyed each other so they decided to fix the inside up nice so they could gather there and be comfortable. Carpet was put down, tables brought in and even curtains were hung and it was not long before the people were more interested in socializing than in maintaining the lighthouse for passing ships. A couple of the group members felt that was not the reason for the lighthouse so they broke off and decided to go fix up another light house and soon the same thing happened as in the first one. Then a few broke off and went to another lighthouse, before long all of the lighthouses were social clubs and ships were not able to see in bad weather. If I look at this story I can see our churches may be like the social groups at the lighthouses. They invite like minded people to run the church, ministry is the agenda of the church and then the people slowly turn the church into a social group of people that share the same social things and ministry is left for other people and churches to do. One of the things I have enjoyed about being a member of a church body is the diverse types of people within that body. There are the lawyers, doctor's and other professional people alongside of them are the blue collar types of working people and then there are those who are struggling to make ends meet, those that are challenged mentally or physically and the church reaches back into the community, the world around them and around the world. We get comfortable and then we start nit picking at the new members, the long time members and so on, the church declines and one day that group of believers has no more new members. We are seeing a transplant church in our community that has dwindled so much that there is not another generation to take the reigns and carry on the work of the church. It is sad, people within the church do not want the doors closed but the members are to old to do what they once did and again no younger people are stepping forward. The ones that are left long to stay. My Sunday school lesson is teaching me to not be overly critical when a new person comes to the church, if they dress in less than acceptable clothing we need to accept them, let God convict them. We need to welcome the heart that is searching and leave the convicting of sinful lifestyles to God. We can lovingly direct people to the Bible. If long time believers fall into sin other members can talk with that person but a new believer will have many sinful habits that will be refined as they walk in the Word. We do not need to make church an entertainment church to attract new believers, God usually directs believers to the church that is right for them. Junior and I were talking about our lifestyle, we seem to be outside the comfortable norm of most places we attend. The older I get the more I believe God has me on the fringe between middle class and lower middle class for a reason. I am able to reach back and I may convict the more financially secure. I would rather fit in with the more upper middle class type of people but I don't. Junior says he has been on the outside so long that when we are around town and he sees someone from church he won't acknowledge them because they put up with him in church and that is enough. I guess God has led me to write in order to teach about getting to comfortable with a lifestyle and not allowing others in. The church needs to love people where they are at both in the building and outside it otherwise the church body is not unlike the socializing found in the lighthouse story. Are we willing to be a friend outside of church to a new believer? May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 21, 2017

Greetings My Friend, It is not June yet but Doug was on my mind this morning. He died at 12 years of age on a school weekend science camp 25 years ago this June. Each year at some point I think of him, wonder what he would have grown up to be like and sometimes in the dark of night in my dreams I remember him coming to me. We all were beset with grief with the passing of such a young man, he was well liked by his classmates, friends at church and even in the family so in my grief I was asking all the "why's" that the grieving have. While I was crying I thought I heard Doug's voice and opened my eyes to see him hovering above me, he had that earthereal look about him and he was saying to me "I am okay". I had no questions, I was stunned and warmed at the same time, he repeated that he was okay several times and then it was like I was wakened from a dream. My grief diminished although it never goes away fully and I was thankful he was able to let me know he was okay. I find great comfort knowing that he truly is in a better place. Ten months later we were facing my Dad's death. With his polio he had gone for a longtime with bladder cancer growing in him and for some reason it was hard for the doctor's to find it. Our minister was concerned and asked a doctor in our church to look at him and that is when we learned of the bladder cancer, with a very short time left to live. As a family we came together to help Mom care for Dad which meant he was bed ridden so we sat with Dad during those final 3-4 months. Sitting with the dying is a sobering time for the living and the dying. Dad allowed us to talk and enter with him into the process of saying good-bye. By the time Dad was ending his time on earth I had fairly much had come to terms with all that had gone on in my growing up years. I felt compassion for Dad, respect for all that he went through in his life and I wanted to make him comfortable. My sister-in-law sat with Dad during the day while the rest of us worked and she had her youngest with her during the day. She mentioned to us that she could feel her son Doug in the room with her and stayed longer to be near Dad and her son. For me I talked with Dad and let him tell me his stories, his memories and a few times I told Dad that if he wanted to go I understood, that we would take care of Mom. Dad mentioned to me he was not afraid of going, I felt his peace then he would say he did not know how to go. He mentioned he saw Grandpa, I believe it was my mother's father. He seemed comforted to see him. Dad was at peace with his impending death. There was a point when Dad did not absorb the seriousness of his cancer so I called his doctor to come talk to him and she did. She was a tall woman who sat at the side of the bed, held Dad's hand and explained it to him. After that Dad was okay with going away from us. Dad died in my arms as the nurse cleaned him and I felt peace with his passing, I sat in the room with him until the Fire Department came, then the undertaker. Mom's passing was not so peaceful. She too elected to die at home so we got a team together to help care for her around the clock. Mom's response was,"give me a pill and let me sleep until it is over." I was the one in charge of her estate and finances, she gave little information and I did what I could. When the night came that she was leaving she was restless and the hospice people suggested we have our minister do a bedside service. The minister asked each of us in the room to talk about what we admired about Mom, we each said something, mine was how I respected her for stepping up to Dad's polio and going to work, college and keeping a roof over our head. When we were done everyone left the room except my son and I. He held one hand and I held the other one, we stayed until her last breath.Later I was told my daughter-in-law had left before the service. Today I worry for her soul. Mom was gone and for me grieving lasted a long time. My grief was all the unanswered questions of "why". Many years later God brought me peace and acceptance. Honestly I don't grieve them as I do Doug, Dad and Doug I felt God's presence in all of it. Mom's I am not so sure. I know that there is an eternity waiting for us all and I long to bring Jesus to all who will let me. I've seen peace with death and I have seen a struggle. I pray for the peace to know where we are going to live in eternity which is with Jesus, if not it scares me for those who refuse Jesus, because their eternity is in hell. In Jesus name I pray. Love Janet.

February 18, 2017

Greetings My Friend, My new way of studying the Word has me digging deeper than I ever have. I underline and circle as I read the Word. In the past I underlined or highlighted what was speaking to me but now adding the circles seems to slow me down and I delve deeper into the Word. This morning I came across the Word "consecrate" so I stopped to look up the meaning "make or declare something is sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose." I went back to the text in the Bible in Exodus when Moses told the people to consecrate themselves for in 3 days God was going to speak to them. Moses then told them to put clean clothes on, later he told them to not lay with a woman and at another point I learned that God did not want them to expose themselves when they went up the steps, I took this to mean our private parts. I understood that expensive clothes did not matter to God but clean clothes did and that God did not want us exposing ourselves in worship. I believe these first outward physical displays were pointing us to our spiritual worship. We need to have clean hearts for God and not allow our minds to be filled with things of this world. After this I went to my NT reading which was in John about the woman at the well. As I circled and underlined I saw a depth to this passage I had never seen before. "But the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." My thoughts were running a mile a minute as I circled and underlined. there was the words "true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit," a little further "God is spirit" and the climax for me was "the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." The Bible is teaching me yet again that God is spirit and He is not interested in physical acts of worship as much as He is interested in spiritual worship. Physical acts that honor God are many and a few are, to clear our minds of the filth we allow in so that we can hear God, then our hearts will want to worship in the body such as going to church or stopping to take notice of creation. Being blessed by God does not mean how many things we have but how grateful we are for the beauty around us, the food we have to eat, the roof over our head no matter how large or small. The more we hear God "whispers" on our heart the closer we will draw to God and desire to be in His presence all the time. He will lead us if we allow Him to and that may mean some very uncomfortable moments as we learn to let go of things in this world. Once more God reminded me that being in the spirit is not a dramatic moment but a day in and day out walk in the Lord.I likened my spiritual walk not unlike learning a career such as a doctor. When we begin learning about being a doctor we start by studying the human body, then we move into different diseases and their affects on the body. One day you have a degree to help people get better. You know deep down all the things you have studied and learned, you will further study if your patient has something unfamiliar. The same has been going on in my walk with Jesus, I study the Word and have read the Bible through for 19 years now. Each year I find myself learning a bit more, growing some more and life circumstances play out in my life and I struggle so prayer, the Bible will speak to me as to what I need to do. The more I read the Bible and pray the more I empty my mind of hurt, anger, addictions and even lusts that want to consume me. I then fill my mind with God's Word growing to look like Jesus more. In this reflective way I discover my spirit connecting to God and hearing His "whispers" on my heart. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 16, 2017

Greetings My Friend, Junior had to take Red back to the Vet, his wound is not clearing up like it should. We have had problems with the cones we put on him, someone seems to be taking them off of him. When the cone is not on he licks his wound which reinfects the wound and makes it worse than it is already. I am afraid he may now need stitches which means we will need to keep him from tearing out the stitches. Whatever he needs we will do the best we can. It is like having a young child around, you want to do what is right for the child but they are going to fight you because they dislike the discomfort of the situation. When I run into situations like this I almost can understand stand God's frustration with us. He knows what is best and points us to it but we think we know more and refuse to listen and obey. I don't know how many times I attempted to get God to change His mind and I pointed out all of my logic which seemed so right to me only to give up and do it God's way. In the end I was grateful for God's insistence I do it His way. After more times than I would like to admit to I started to let go of my thoughts about things and worked at doing life God's way. I am learning that the struggle will end and at the end of the struggle I will be amazed that I was able to walk through it with God's love and guidance. It seems like a major part of a faith journey is learning to trust and obey. Today my goal when facing huge hurdles of struggles is to realize there will the other side where the struggle will go away and I will have grown profoundly. I have a strength and courage in me that I never knew I had, although that inner strength is not my strength but God's strength in me. Since I began my journey of faith I am amazed at what I have had to deal with and lived to tell about it. Divorce was about the most difficult situation I had faced at that time. I was beside myself and I started talking to God, one day at a time I found myself growing and living and eventually I knew I would be okay. Cancer was hard, so was my health issues but I have moved through all of them with God's help. Prior to my diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease I was anxious and since I found out I am accepting the diagnosis, living life and enjoying life. I have been on a journey to live a simple life which God has pointed me to and I find that I love it. Instead of piling up places to go, structured ministry endeavors I have learned to bake bread, dehydrate food for the next year, to sew again and make a few quilts, skirts etc. and I am enjoying it. If we loose power we are able to survive and that too feels rather nice. We have food for about six months to a year so again we are able to sustain ourselves in the Lord. I am able to minister to others at a less hectic speed. I am able to teach the lessons I have learned through writing, friendship with people in my community and on line. I wanted to stay social because I am a social butterfly, but my health has not allowed me to do so. I believe God has been in the process of slowing me down so that I am more dependent on Him, I am not wore out from frantic activity or not available to minister to those He has in mind for me. It is not about how fast, how many or how often but about where God wants me to be. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 14, 2017

Greetings My Friend, I have been thinking about the strength I receive in corporate worship with other believers again. I find for me it teaches me to live with people who are different than I am. The person who is a little overbearing at church is the person I need to understand and then learn from so that as I deal with people in my day to day walk I will be able to reach out with the love of Jesus more fully. This principal applies to all of the personality types within a church body, if I am to reach out for Jesus then the church body will have all kinds of personalities to grow and learn from. My goal is to take my time in corporate worship out the door into my week to reach whomever God places in my path during the week. As I think about taking Jesus into my week and not leaving Him at church I find that one of the complaints I receive about not going to church is because of the hypocrites. I am usually stunned with this attitude and lately I have been working on how to explain that there are hypocrites at church, at the grocery store, at work and the list goes on. We do not avoid all of these other places because of the hypocrites so why church? After I get over my first thoughts I begin to formulate in my mind that church is not a place for all of the people who have their faith walk figured out it is for the sick, the lost, the lonely and the hurting, basically a hospital for all sinners no matter where their life journey has taken them such as the biker gangs, drug addicts, people on the streets or the business person. When I think of the church I think of all the people Jesus reached. He taught that the sinners and tax collectors were responding to His message more than the religious leaders were and were entering heaven before them. Then He taught that the religious leaders were not teaching God's ways but mans rules. Jesus' disciples were not from the highest ranks in society but from the lower ranks for the most part. All is this teaches me that a church is a hospital for sinners, for those who are broken and in need of a Savior. My goal is to reach out to whomever God directs my path to, sometimes it is to the clerk at a store, to an office worker or to those whom society has forgotten and I have seen Jesus touch souls of all kinds of people. One of the hardest things for me to admit to is at one time in my life I was just a church goer and I befriended my daughters Girl Scout leader. This woman was very obese and a bit on the slow side, she mentioned one time that she would like to attend church where I went and I did not encourage her to come because she wasn't the type we would have liked. I am so embarrassed I felt that way although through the years I have grown in my faith and I see the error of my ways. That woman needed a church family a whole lot. Today I attempt to reach out to people just like her and I would have no problem being associated with people like her. I have grown from my days of being a hypocrite, I am thankful for the true God fearing Christians who have directed me to read my Bible, to study God's Word, who have had the faith to reach out to others like this woman and I have grown from their examples. When we enter a relationship with Jesus we begin a journey that will last the rest of our lives which means as a broken person Jesus will take me toward healing and wholeness in God. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 11, 2017

Greetings My Friend, After 3 years without a Pastor we called Pastor Joe to come to our church in December. He was able to start right away and we were looking forward to his time with us and then he got sick. Pastor Joe lived near the fires near where he and Jenny lived in Gatlinburg TN and were working toward moving here. Many of their friends saw damage and they even lost some good friends in that fire. Jenny had a business she wanted to sell which the fire set things back so selling the business delayed their moving which meant Pastor Joe and Jenny found themselves traveling back and forth to finish things up and in the craziness Pastor Joe got pneumonia and wound up in the hospital. They gave him antibiotics and he was sent home only to relapse so off he went back to the hospital again. He spent the month of January sick so when he was at church today we were very happy to see him. He still looks weak but he made it through the services and joined us at the potluck after services. I am sure he has spent the afternoon resting. Junior and I enjoyed our time at the pot luck today. Ruth was there and we caught up for awhile. Then we chatted with Jody about some minor health problems and I had a chance to ask Dorothy if she would mind stopping Junior from time to time and ask him about me. Dorothy's husband has Parkinson's Disease too. Dorothy understood Junior's internal struggle and said she would ask him once in awhile. She even told me to not worry about the next phase which I do but I am more so interested in having an idea of how long the medication is working for him. Brad, Dorothy's husband has been on medication for 3 years and has been fairly much the same which helps me to understand what I need to look for. Brad is not doing anything major other than being on his feet as much as he can throughout the day. My goal is to be on my feet as much as possible and I also am attempting other exercises so I am hoping these will help me last longer before the next phase comes along. After my talk with Dorothy I saw Terri and Janet F and I chatted with them while Junior gathered up our dishes so we could leave. Since we have very little family interaction these potlucks give us that family time we long for. It is strange how a simple potluck time can minister to Junior and I but it does. We had a chance to share our joys, our struggles and I was surprised at how many people stopped by to ask how my son was doing. I had asked for him to be on the prayer list due to a fall he had. I felt loved and my concerns were validated by the people that asked about him. I felt energized to face another week of living and sharing my faith. I see the reason why we are called to meet with other believers, we can worship God in the woods, on a lake or in our house but God does not call us to be lone ranger Christians, He calls us to be in corporate worship so we can grow, learn and go out into the little area of the world we come in contact with and share how Jesus has helped us. To be honest there are times that I felt very close to God but I also need to be with believers both a church, other believers in my life or on line. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 9, 2017

Greetings My Friend, My read through the Bible in a year has me reading in Exodus. For years I have found myself all absorbed in each of the plagues and a remembering when I was working as a youth adviser when the children at camp were learning a song "Let my people go," which plays through my mind as I read. This time I found myself taking a different look as I read the historical events, I saw God telling Moses exactly what to do with each plague and then when Pharoah asked Moses to make the plague stop, Moses often asked what time then Paroah sent Moses to pray to God to make it stop. My lesson today actually started with a conversation I had with Junior about how the people "heard" Moses talk about God but actually believed the miracles were from Moses. I see where I myself have felt I did something myself. My faith journey has slowly shown me I do very little on my own but with God's strength. I do not overcome my emotional struggles on my own even though I may be in counseling or support groups, even with medication. God has guided me, held me and given me the words, the thoughts so that I was able to do what I do. I started to see this interaction early in my faith walk. There were the times I had lifted up a prayer asking God to help me have the right attitude, the words to talk with others. Many times I found myself saying things and later I wondered where in the world those words came from, I felt like "was that really me who said that?" Later I started to see how God taught me to go through marriage retreats with Junior and how to relate to Junior with "man thinking" ways. I learned to ask God to teach me to be Junior's wife and I found myself enjoying my man. I found myself in a happy marriage and for the first time in my life I believed that a man and a woman could really enjoy each other and be best friends. Until Junior I felt that men and women just endured each other. It would be easy to think I was a good woman to be married to but having a failed marriage and dysfunction pointed me toward finding poor relationships. I know for a fact that learning to accept Jesus as my Savior, seeing how ugly sin is to God by looking at the cross that my life has changed because God has been teaching me to turn to Him for all things no matter how small or how large. Living with PTSD due to abuse meant that I had undue fear of men, God has helped me walk away from fear. I used to relive my fears all day everyday, with God's direction I now can go days and weeks without being afraid that I may be hurt again. Our relationship with Jesus and His Father is a spiritual relationship and God will provide for our earthly needs, not our wants. I am understanding this more fully. I can also relate to these OT stories where I believe God is real, but it takes years to understand this relationship is more spiritual than fleshly. Somehow I wonder if we learn these spiritual things we will live in heaven a life that is good and right. If we do not comprehend the spiritual nature of our relationship with Jesus and do not accept the gift of the cross we are choosing our eternity not in heaven but in hell which is explained rather explicitly in the Bible. God is love as we have learned but God has insisted we must believe He is God and His Son is Jesus so we must accept Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to grow us spiritually and if we do not then we have chosen hell for our eternity. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 7, 2017

Greetings My Friend, One thing I keep learning as I read the Bible is there is always something new that will stand out and questions will arise as I try to digest what I am learning each time I go into the Word. Our Sunday school lesson is in Philippians and with my new practice of underlining and circling the passages I "saw" "who, though He was in the form of "God." What? Then I read "did not count equality with a thing to be grasped?"Now I am confused and since I am studying this with my husband I ask him what he thinks this means. As my husband is talking it comes to me the statement "fully God, fully man." I am reminded by Junior, my husband that as man there is the weakness of sin in our lives and Jesus had no sin. In His perfection as God He did not use His powers but allowed the events to happen in His life so that He was hung on the cross and died for our sins. We learn to imitate Jesus because He was among us and today we read God's Word to learn how Jesus carried Himself as a man in the flesh. Jesus never sinned and was perfect so His life is our example. Our God, 3 in 1 came down in the flesh to live among the flesh. He felt all that we feel, was bombarded with all of the temptations we feel and amazingly He did not give into sin. Part of me starts to absorb "in the form of God." Jesus was fully God but through His birth He became fully God and fully Man. Jesus prayed and lived a life in His Father giving us a model to grow our faith in the flesh. Jesus was in prayer all the time, He quoted the Bible when He was dealing with Satan and did not cave into the temptations Satan was bombarding Him with. Okay I am starting to understand "form of God" Jesus being God in the flesh did not have the need to out do God, to defy God but to submit to God. This is what I am to imitate. I am reminded that I am not able to do this on my own as well. I need the Holy Spirit to guide me, Scripture teaches me this so the only way I am able to imitate Jesus is with the Holy Spirit's direction. In our dicussion I realize in my heart that the Holy Spirit is not dramatic in His teachings. I learn to be still and hear His quiet still voice. This is how I am able to imitate Jesus. With my mind and heart on the Word of God, God makes the Word come to life for me. God was telling me to slow down and to absorb the lesson for some reason. Sometimes I am convicted in my heart like I was today and that is the Holy Spirit telling me to slow down and "hear" what He is saying to me. I realize that the Holy Spirit is not about being dramatic but He is there putting thoughts into my mind and it is important that I quiet my thoughts before going into God's Word. When I do this I feel the conviction, the lesson I need to absorb. With a little back and forth with Junior I began to absorb Jesus' divinity, His humanity and how the Holy Spirit is working in my life. It took me along time to grasp who the Holy Spirit and His presence in my life. One year I decided that the only way I would meet Him is to begin a consistent dialog with Him. In so doing I have found I am able to "hear" His voice in my life. It is not an audible voice but that tug on my heart when I need to be quiet and listen. If I am too busy being involved in life, in church ministry then I will miss His direction and some deep lessons. Just as God has taught me to make time to sit down and talk with Junior, to go off and be alone with him I also need to do so with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 4, 2017

Greetings My Friend, The anger that abounds has me wondering if we can overcome our internal struggle within our country. Sometimes I see people quoting things they believe the Bible teaches like welcoming all aliens. God did tell Israel to treat foreigners as themselves because Israel was once slaves in Egypt. Those foreigners were to follow the laws of Israel and were not given any special privileges or hand outs. In fact when God set up the laws of Israel He told them to glean the crops once and to leave the edge of the fields for the poor within the land. The poor then were able to go through a glean the leftovers for their provisions. This means the foreign people were not given handouts nor were the poor people of Israel. The people of Israel were not to marry the people of the lands they were overtaking. They were to keep themselves separate because the outsiders would take their focus off of God and that is what happened when they did not take over fully the lands. The people intermingled and walked away from God. In other words God did not want His ways watered down and His chosen people were to be priests who brought others to Him. God calls us to be set apart today as believers in Jesus. We are to bring the Gospel to others but we are to not water down our lives to make it more appealing for others to meet Jesus. If this is our guide then we need to not take each people group in need. There needs to be a thorough investigation into those that are entering our country and they should be willing to blend in with our customs and ways not for our country to blend into them. I saw someone compare President Trump as the "beast" in the Bible. Reading Revelation is difficult and should not be taken lightly. The beast in the Bible is not described, what we do know are certain events will begin to take place. Some are happening today and others have not yet come about. I do know that the end will never be announced so those who insist that they know will never see the prediction come true. Jesus says that no one knows the hour or the day. It seems believers and non believers in Jesus have a general idea that there will be a one world government and a one world system for money. It is inferred but are these thoughts right? I don't know. I do know that it is important to read the Word to be in prayer and allow God to guide us. It is important to stay focused and on Jesus until the end. My heart is striving to stay focused on God and what His Word is teaching me. I love God with all that is in me and I strive to love my neighbor as I love myself. I love myself the way I see God love me, He seeks my highest good. That means I can not reach each person I come in contact with, Jesus did not minister to or heal each person He came in contact with. I will continue to believe that accepting any and all immigrants is not what God is asking us to do. I will state my belief and I believe that God expects us to make sure our country is in good shape before we accept immigrants which means our seniors are taken care of, our veterans receive the help they need to reenter life back at home such as proper medical care, employment and housing. If our own people are not taken care of then we do not have the resources to take care of other people groups around the world. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

February 2, 2017

Greetings My Friend, Recently I have talked with several of my closest friends and felt the support of my online friends. I have also interacted with a few of my church friends and I keep coming back to "The body of Christ" or the church. I admit to thinking for far too long as being in the church to mean only in a building of believers and associating only them as the body of Christ. I was told often enough that we are the body of the larger church but I could not grasp the "larger body" in my thoughts. Since moving from Michigan 8 years ago though I find the body of the church in many of my social interactions and I am comforted. The church of Jesus is not one particular denomination but believers in Jesus only. I find that in the body at large we all connect because of the joy we have in fellowship with Jesus more than the doctrinal issues that tend to divide us. I am not Catholic although I find great comfort in their ritual ways of worship. When I see the sign of the cross being made it makes me stop and reflect. Every few years I buy myself a new cross to wear and sometimes I buy the crucifix with the body of Jesus on the cross. As a Presbyterian first and now a Baptist we worship the risen Christ so we generally wear the cross without Jesus on it. To be honest the body of Jesus reminds me of all that He endured to cleanse me of my sins. I am grateful as well for the empty cross. My friend Marilyn is Catholic and we walk in the grateful faith of on Savior for all of our sins. We talk freely, openly and often about the grace we have been given. I do this with many other friends as well. Some people I know are stuck only on their particular church's doctrine. I find myself desiring to be in relationship with all believers who follow the Word of God more than the doctrines of man. Some of my on line friends are disabled and I appreciate their fellowship of sharing and caring. I know for a fact we are not all of the same denomination but again we come together in Jesus loving and serving each other. At this moment in time I am a Baptist and I am enjoying the way I am being fed in the Word at our church. My Presbyterian background has many differences in the way we worshiped and I felt for a long time that I could not worship weekly without saying the Lord's Prayer or having communion monthly. Time has shown me these way of worshiping are good but they are not the only way to be immersed in the life of Jesus. Our Baptist church has communion throughout the year and I can't remember ever saying the Lord's Prayer in worship. I often say this prayer when I am in a crisis mode and can't think of words to pray. I repeat the prayer over and over until I settle down so I am grateful I learned the prayer as a young child and said it most of my adult life. Now though I see it is my personal walk with Jesus that matters. Another thing the church at large and God's Word is teaching me to open my heart to what I hear God saying to me. God is not looking at my outward appearances but at my heart felt walk. This heart lesson helps me to look at other people's hearts more and less at their outward appearances. I am learning to see if their words match their actions. The more I learn to do this the easier it is for me to relate my faith journey alongside of another. Sometimes we talk about a struggle we have and we are able to share what we have learned. Sometimes we give a hug and we "know." Linda and I have know each other for decades. I no longer see her at my church in Michigan but we are on line friends and we "know" as we read about each others lives on line. I feel I have a connection to my past with her and we have finally found peace in a healthy relationship and I love her like a sister in the Lord. One more thought is Ellen posted a picture of her Mom and Dad recently from the church I grew up in and attended as an adult for many years. Those pictures took me down memory lane and I was grateful for that as well. The church is the building but it goes far beyond that building. Sometimes going back brings back happy moments and moving forward takes us out unhealthy lifestyles. All that truly worship Jesus are the entire body of Christ. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet