Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pardon My Purity

Hey Y'all,

First....if you haven't heard the news please take a quick moment and read the small post below. Then say a prayer and have a happy dance with me!

Our verse today is found in 1 Corinthians 1:30 "God has united us with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and freed us from sin." (NLT)

I can tell you right now...I do not feel pure or holy! And since everyday I battle with temptation and sinful desires, I certainly do not feel free from sin. I mean...come on...it's a constant battle!

But God.....I have to stop here and say those words again....But God....oh...still not enough...one more time with gusto....BUT GOD....says Christ made me pure. Christ made me holy. Christ made me free from sin.

This is so hard to believe....I am in God's eyes already free....already pure...already holy. But God...in His word says that I am. You see, God sees us not only as we are right this second, but also as we will be when we stand before His throne. God sees without the constrains of time. He sees my eternity of His rest, as well as my short battling time here...all at the same time. Because I have been Set As One with God as we studied last time, all God sees is that pure, holy, delicate piece of His matching set.

Friends, we so often think because we are bombarded with temptations and troubles of this world we are not pure. Look at the cross.....It has already bore whatever has been or will be thrown at us. We are free....because the cross of Christ set us free.

You know why I think I don't feel pure, holy or free when God says I am...because I look at the wrong things. I look at the circumstances, or the temptation, or the trial and not at God. Like two people looking through a set of bars of a jail cell...both see the bars...only one is outside the cell and one is inside. If the one who is outside never turns his eyes to his freedom and only focuses on those bars...he too will feel as if he is also a prisoner.

Look and focus on this verse, instead of the prison bars, sin has fooled us with. Christ made us pure and holy and He freed us from sin. It is not us who are prisoners of sin, it is our enemy who is already the true captive.

So pardon my purity...I am walking this week like the pure, holy and free woman that I am!
Wanna take a walk with me?

Love ya
Pamela

All Aboard!

Hey Y'all,

This is quick. I will add more tonight after church, that is when I am going to post my verse. I could not wait until tonight to let you know that Mike will be going before the Army boards on February 9th! Please pray that God will Grant him favor and he will be one of the few they select to serve as a chaplain for the United States Army!

Thanks talk to you tonight!
Pamela

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What Do you Want First? The Good News or the Bad News?

Hi Y'all,
I think I'll give you the good news first.

Mike's Package is complete. 2 people have to double check and then it will be presented before the Army Boards. We don't know yet if we made the February board's deadline or not....so that is still up in the air. But either way Feb or March we will be presented and hopefully chosen to serve as a Chaplain and his family!

We are all excited!

The bad news is that my computer has been acting up this week and this is the first time I've really been able to post.

So now that the good news and the bad news are out of the way, let's see what God has for us today.

I will post the Identity Bible verse at my next post. Today I want to share a verse with you that is sort of rocking my own way of seeing myself

2 Corinthians 10:12 "Oh, don't worry; we wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!" (New Living Translation)

Friends, I compare my self to others everyday! I use my own standard of measurement and most of the time I come out on the lacking end. HOW IGNORANT!

Did I create the earth? Did I decide what is beautiful? Did I fashion myself? What about those, who by my own ignorant standards, are better than me? Did I fashion them also?


Thank you God that the answer is NO....a hard resounding NOOOOOOO!

So for today...I will not display ignorant behavior by comparing myself with myself or anyone else. Today, I am God's creation. Fashioned by His own hand!

Thanks so much for your prayers! Thanks for being my friends!

I love you all....we are fashioned by God!
Pamela

Friday, January 15, 2010

Set As One

Hey Y'all

I am excited about today's post. First take a look at my updated sidebar. I updated my picture with my new-do and my info is now updated as well. Let me know what you think.

Today's verse is Romans 5:1 "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (NIV)

There is so much here!

I looked it up in my Greek Interlinear:

"being justified therefore by faith, peace we have with God through Lord our Jesus Christ"

This reads a little different because, in the Greek, the most important word/words are placed at the beginning of the sentence: the words the author wants to emphasize. So the words "being justified" are the words being stressed. As I further looked up what the Greek words for "Being justified" meant literally, I discovered it means "to render righteous." So my friends the most important thing about this verse is that we have been rendered righteous! Through Jesus we are--- more in today's terms----presented righteous. And the peace we have with God is this: the word peace here literally means "set as one." So get this, through Jesus I have been presented as righteous and set as one with God! Can it get any better than that?

I am set as one with God!

You are set as one with God!

We have been set as one with God!

Don't that just make you want to get up and throw a happy fit?! It does me!

I Have heard many times...through faith in Jesus I am One with Him, one with God. But there is something that resonates and stirs my soul when I think about being set as one with God.

Maybe its because I like antiques, when you do not have a full set of something, it is not complete. Not that God needs us to be complete, but we are made complete through Him. Now that we have been made a set, we can not be set apart!

It is just making glorious melody in my heart that my being presented righteous and now having the peace I have through Jesus Christ has............SET ME AS ONE with God!

Thank you Jesus!

We all are now a matched set!

So until later my matched set of friends!
Pamela

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Will I run?

Hey Y'all,

Life at our house remains interesting. We are still waiting for Mike to be cleared regarding his feet so that we can go before the Army boards in February. I will NOT be getting a brace for my foot (YES!) and am waiting to see what will happen since I put in a formal complaint regarding all I went through. Me and Zoie have both gotten new hair-do's, and we both love them. Which reminds me I need to update my profile picture. A water main broke at the end of my street this past weekend and in the course of discovering why we had no water, I discovered that our hosepipe had busted. Yesterday I come home from work, and heard a terrible noise in my bathroom. I ran outside and discovered the reason our hose pipe had busted was because our water spigot had been left on where the kids had been playing. During our big freeze here, we had not noticed. Yesterday it warmed up enough, and the spigot popped off from the pressure and flooded part of my back yard! I really don't want to see that water bill! We believe it could have been running like that for an hour at the most but still.....

Yet, I have to tell you....God is good!

I am in the process of doing a Bible Study here using verses that specifically tell us what God thinks about us. I'm doing this because I need to understand not just in my head but my heart my identity through His eyes. I can't trust my own perception in this area. If I want the truth then I need to go to the Only one who can see all truth. My FATHER.

Today, as I was pondering what to write I got to thinking about this study. As we study together these scriptures about what God thinks of us...Let me tell you what I think of God.

HE is everything! He is my CREATOR, REDEEMER, HERO ,FRIEND, SAVIOR, FATHER, My BREATH, my BANNER, my HOPE, my KING, my FORTRESS, my LOVE, my EXISTENCE.

I love HIM!

I long for His return!

I crave the day when I can look upon His face and bow before His throne. I often wonder which emotion will prevail on the day I see Him....will I fall in awe to my knees or run into His arms?

Or...like the old Phillips, Craig and Dean song will He run to me?

The truth is it doesn't matter as long as He is there any reaction based out of the love and honor I feel will be correct.

I am going to run this race until the day I run to Him.

Love you all so much
Pamela

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I Saw What You Did!

I saw what you did!

Hey Y'all,
Our identity verse today is Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." HCSB

Now there is a lot to gnaw on here, and I'm sure, like me, you have heard this verse many times before. Like the Great Commission, we know we are to be witnesses for Christ in our own city, state, country and all over the world. I know I have heard this verse preached about during many sermons on missions/evangelism. We should take this directive seriously and be about spreading the news everyday.

But our question for this study is: What does this say about what God thinks of me?

So I looked at the only word we are actually called, witnesses.

As I've searched out this word, I see something wonderful here I've never connected before. I am a witness for or against Jesus. In a court of law a witness is someone who has seen, heard, or experienced an event that happened. They were in most cases a participant, even if only as an observer. A witness is also someone whose signature verifies that something is true, such as the witnesses to a will or a marriage license. In either case a witness is someone who by their own omission or the courts, has been considered a truth bearer to the event.

Now, as I've pondered this over the last week or two...or more...I have been amazed at how that sits with my being. I am a witness to Jesus. I am a witness for Jesus. Why? Because I have participated in events where He has acted...either by experience or by observation.

I know and can bear truth to Jesus because I have experienced Him.

When I look at this verse like that, I am filled with awe, wonder, and pride. Yes, pride! Not the bad kind that seeks self. But a good kind that is humbled and yet honored to have been chosen to be a truth bearer for Jesus...to testify, tell and share about my experiences with Him.

So listen up!

You and I can shout from the mountain tops....Jesus, I saw what you did! I heard what you said! And I know what I've felt with you...I am a witness!

Love you all so much!
Pamela

Monday, January 4, 2010

My Own Game Of Asteroids!

Hi Y'all,

Listen, do you remember the old video game Asteroids? I have lived out my own version of that game today! No, no one tried to ram me with their car...but I have been hit with obstacles today. From the tiny beam of lights (those small stuff that just flash by at you) to the big honking shapes (those bigger problems that take your whole attention and focus)...anything to get in my way from getting things done.

But my motto to Endeavor to the End is still in tact...and here is a readable example. I have not had time today to sit down and write until now....with most of the day gone...but I'm here and here it is!

I am going to start out by trying to catch you up on our adventures. I don't know if I can cover everything but I'm a gonna give it a try!

First my leg brace: I received it on 12/3 and wore it only two hours. It wasn't right...it caused much more harm to my good leg and did nothing to help my arthritic foot. The truth is, I truly could not walk with it on! I would've had more mobility in a wheelchair. I called the PA (Physician's Assistant) who had prescribed it and she called back the next day. She said she would contact the brace people, and a new and different one would be made. Given that it was Christmas time I gave both the brace place and her office a week or two, but still did not hear from either one. So I called again and left a message with her nurse. To this day, I have not heard from her. I called the brace place myself on Monday 12/28. They told me they had never heard from the PA and did not know the brace had been wrong. They said they would correct the problem right away. I took it to them on Wednesday the 30th. In all this time my foot has gotten considerably better. I prayed for healing and I think the Lord is honoring that prayer. I believe He is using better shoes, and chiropractor care to heal my foot. With that in mind and the fact that I could no longer trust this PA; I decided before I get another brace made, I need a second opinion from a Doctor. Nothing against the abilities of PA's in general, but I don't trust this one and before I change my life or put my walking/mobility in danger again, I'm going to know from a doctor that it is honestly my only choice. I explained this to the brace place and was informed that I would still have to pay for the brace. I told them that I would be talking to my insurance and other professionals, and if I had to pay for it even though it caused me medical harm, I would....but I would not be taking that one home with me again.

I did call my insurance and I am in the process of getting an appeal letter to them. In the mean time, I am trying to get a sit-down with a lawyer to see if there is anything I can do to not have to pay for this brace....that I believe was a miss-diagnoses and caused me medical harm.

I also have put in a complaint at the Doctor's office about both issues.

I've learned a lot through this about myself and the medical/insurance rackets.

The fighter/Jacob in me has come to the top, only this time I'm not fighting God! I believe He is leading me into this battle...so whatever happens He will get the glory. Whether the battle won is over the cost of the brace, or an inner battle in myself that ends up with me being more like Him....Victory will be His and His alone!

After all He is my Banner and Asteroid shield!

More later!

Love you all!
Pamela