A wonderful quiet moment

I was blessed this morning to have a quiet house all to myself. Joey took the kids to church and I stayed home with a baby sleeping, my Bible, a journal and a heart ready to receive from the Lord.
I am currently studying the book of Isaiah and it is proving to be a wonderful journey.
The poetry in this book is amazing and beautiful to my soul. I feel like I am experiencing his life as he pleads with the people to repent and come back to the Lord:

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease
to do evil..." Is. 1:16

Then he goes on and says in the Spirit,

"Come, let us reason together."
Says the Lord,
"Though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you
are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land." Is.1:18-19

First, I am just blown away once again at how much the Lord loves this nation. He calls them to repentance all the time. He reminds them of what they are doing that is grieving His heart... They were worshipping idols, marrying the pagans, participating in disgusting things that perverted their worship to the Lord. But He loves them so just as He loves those who have been grafted in.
So He offers them a pardon, a way of escape to those whom He loves. We just need to choose it. We reap what we sow, but He still offers goodness and freedom when we choose His ways.
To be cleansed from all unrighteousness:

"Say to the righteous that it shall be well with
them for they shall eat the fruit of their doings."Is. 3:10

And you know why? Two things come to mind,

1. Because He loves His kids and wants the best for us.
2. But ultimately He desires to bring glory to Himself in every way.

When He sets us back onto the straight and narrow, people will notice and will rejoice or get saved! We are giving honor to Him when our lives are renewed and put back where they belong, in His loving and powerful hands!

AWESOME!!

I was also blessed by another passage in Isaiah,

"He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and will whistle to them from the
end of the earth...no one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep nor will the belt on their loins be loosed
nor the strap of their sandals be broken."Is.5:26

That word banner reminds me of the song His banner over me is love from the book of Song of Sol.
I was meditating for quite some time on what it means to have His banner over me. The first thing that came to my mind was how an army goes forth under a banner or a flag of colors which represents what they are fighting for. I have never seen a war movie or history book on war that did not show an army without their banner.
There is a powerful presence when you see an army well trained and lined up orderly ready to fight with their colors or banners waving in the wind, (see Joel 2:7-8). They know what they are fighting for or getting behind in a sense. They have purpose and a goal. Both demonstrated this sense of determination and pride in a belief.
The Lord also uses a banner to show His protection over us. He covers us with His banner of love. That gives me a security that nothing else can give me. That is powerful!

I am blessed to know that my belief in the Lord God, is unwavering and worth fighting for.
His banner which offers me protection, a purpose, and a sense of security makes me motivated to share this hope with others.
Some other references to His banner are found in:

Ps. 60:4-.You have given a banner to those who fear You, it will be displayed because of truth! (love that!)
Ps20:5
Song of Sol. 2:4, 6:4
Is. 13:2-Lift up a banner on a high mountain , raise your voice to them wave your hand,
that they may enter the gate of the nobles.
Is 5:26
I wrote out the two I like the best knowing that some of you won't bother to look up the passages. I know I
don't always :)

The last thing that I will leave you with today is from Joel 2:15-16, 18

"Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly;
gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children and nursing babies...then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and
pity His people."

God desires a people to be set apart! To pray and seek Him to come together in one accord, fasting and praying. This is really on my heart and I know the heart of my husband, especially being on the verge of a church plant. The call is to consecrate, to gather, and to assemble. To consecrate is to give your whole heart. Rom.12:1 states,

"I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

Proverbs 23:26 is a good ref as well.

And of course when we gather in unity under the banner of Jesus Christ there will be victory or should I say the recognition of the victory we already have! Praise the Lord!
I pray this blessed you today and restores your soul.
SEEK HIM! Pray with us as we move forward in His will.

We will be fasting and praying every Tues. so if you would, please remember us in your prayers and if the Lord puts it on your heart, fast with us as we seek His will concerning Cambridge and the work He wants to do here.

God bless and I love you all.

Our wonderful family having some fun.

Laugh for the week part II: Josiah gets a hair cut.

We had Bible study last night.
My kids were the only children I had to watch, so
I carried on and taught the lesson I had
prepared.
As we read through the story of Jesus and Nicodemus
I notice that Josiah has a bald spot on the top of his head.
I kept thinking that it was just bed head or something,
but noooo it was a bald spot!! But wait...not just one, but two
bald spots and a side burn cut off as well!!

I had to hold back the giggle and mental image
of my mom scolding my brother for playing "barber"
with my head of hair as I stared down Maddie in
disbelief that she would do something so irresponsible.

This is the dialouge...
"Josiah, what happened to your hair?"

Josiah responds,
"Maddie took your razor thing and cut it.
"I told her not to but she didn't whisten(listen)"

I ask, (with a slight smirk on my face),
"Oh, so you just sat there and let her cut into your hair, almost
cutting you, after you told her not too?"
"It sounds like you wanted her too."

"Weeelll, I told her not too."

So I turn my gaze upon Maddie,
She is standing sheepishly with her head lowered.
Of course my heart was a bowl of mush, but I still
had to let her know that she is not a hairdresser and
should never do that again.
So I say,
"What were you thinking? You know better!
Now he has funny looking hair."

"I know. I'm sorry. But he cut mine too! Only a little."

You must promise to never do that again okay?

"Okay mommy. Please don't be mad at me. I'm sorry."

Of course I forgave her and then proceeded to tell her about my barber
experience with uncle Chaddy. He took scissors to my bangs and cut
them into a mountain range! And then took off a huge chunk of my long
locks! Needless to say, my mom flipped out on him. She wasn't as gracious
due to the long hair thing and it being the front of my hair and all. I would've
been a bit more miffed had she done the front of his hair.
So we will wait for it to grow back and thank the Lord that she didn't cut his
scalp because she came awfully close!!!
Gotta laugh!!

Just getting some water, mom!

"Okay where are you Josiah?"

I ask for the 3rd time.

"Didn't I ask you to come here?"

As I shove baby food into the yelling little person in front
of me.

"Coming mom. I'm just getting some water!"

Then I hear the sound that every mom cringes at.

"Splash, crash, glugg glugg glugg!"
"What was that?"

I calmly exclaim as I get up.
Josiah's eyes were about the size of golf balls;

"OH it was just an accident mom!"
"I didn't mean to do it."

Okay breathe...
I slowly walk into the kitchen and there on the floor
is a large bottle of sunflower oil nicely spread accross
the floor. Gushing torrents of slick oil for me to clean up
before we have people over. Have you ever tried to clean up oil?
It is next to impossible. After the sopping of towels,
you mop. After you mop, you get on your hands and
knees to find any left over residue. After the hands on experience,
you take another go at it with the mop.
Needless to say, 2 days later, we are just now walking on the kitchen floor
without slipping all over the place.
I have to say it has been funny watching Jordan(the baby)
crawl accross the slippery floor.
His legs kept sliding out from under him.

So of course I forgave him, until he took a marker and decided
the bathroom door downstairs needed a little red marker on it
to livin up the color. And then Maddie knocked over her cup in
the living room the next day and then Joey knocked the tea pot spilling tea
all over the counter...I know it will never end, because I go with
me everywhere and I make disasters all the time.
So thank God for forgiveness, laughter and lots of Bounty paper towels. :)