Sunny Day

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Sunny Day, originally uploaded by childofGOD / Beckie.

Wishing everyone a beautiful, sunny day!

EASTER BLESSINGS!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

EASTER BLESSINGS!, originally uploaded by childofGOD / Beckie.

Prayer

In our Beth Moore study of Daniel, we have reached chapter 9. The theme of chapter 9 is the prayer of Daniel and the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. This chapter of Daniel has been called “the greatest chapter in the book and one of the greatest chapters of the entire Bible.” Philip Newell.

This post concerns the prayer of Daniel. What have I learned from Daniel’s example?

1. Daniel knew his God! Prayer was no haphazard matter with Daniel. It was purposeful and planned. “I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”
2. It was painful. “…in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes” was NOT comfortable. No, I’m not saying we have to be uncomfortable, but our prayer does need to reveal the sincereity of our hearts and sometimes that’s not comfortable.
3. It was plain. Daniel got right down to business. It wasn’t long and flowery. His prayer was only about 3 minutes long as was the prayer of Jesus in John 17!
4. It was powerful. Daniel received an answer while he was speaking and praying. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5:14.
5. It was personal and private. He didn’t call a public prayer meeting; although sometimes that’s a good thing to do too.
6. It had full penetration. Prayer is the only force that penetrates outer space to the very throne of God!

Just think ~ God knows us by name. We will never pray an anonymous prayer~our petitions never go unsigned. That is so comforting.

Beth said “I believe…that God has great things ‘stored up’ for those of us who esteem Him and take refuge in Him. Not earthly riches, but a life of purpose, tremendous fruit, deep satisfaction, godly influence, open doors for ministry, restoration of relationships and astonishing breakthroughs. These things are stored up by God but released BY PRAYER.”

In this process of prayer, we are developing a relationship ~ with GOD! After this prayer, Gabriel was sent by God to tell him, “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.” What a relationship.

Believers (I use that word because many people call themselves Christians) have that kind of relationship with God. But it is only possible to have it because of the blood of Christ!

NOTE:  Some information is from the study of Daniel by J. Vernon McGee.

Thankful Thursday

There are so many things to be thankful for but today I’m only listing one:

If you’d like to participate, please visit Iris at Sting My Heart. This is part of her favorite verse!

Thankful Thursday

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psm. 28:7

I am thankful for Christian music and those that perform it. Music has always been an important part of my life and now that I am a believer, praise and worship music is so meaningful.

I’m also thankful for all the believers I’ve “met” through blogging. It’s so amazing to see God work in these lives and for that I give Him praise.

I’m thankful that our youngest daughter got her GED.  She has struggled through school and this has been a great accomplishment!

I’m thankful for all the free stuff on the internet. Free bibles, free Christian graphics, free WordPress and free Blogger, Christian Women Online, bible studies, devotions. If all of these weren’t free, I, for one, wouldn’t be here.

I’m thankful for Hubby’s job. He has been with the same company for over 31 years. I’m thankful they provide medical insurance and retirement. This past year, he had perfect attendance and they gave him money for us to go out to dinner! Wooooo Hooooo!

I’m thankful that we are planning a vacation this Spring. We will be taking a week to head up to New York state to see the country~outside the City~and visit some family for a couple of days. It will be our first real vacation in several years.

What are you thankful for? If you’d like to join us, please visit Iris at Sting My Heart and play along.

Wordless Wednesday~Contrast

I’ve been critiqued!

I have to give glory to God for anything in me that is good.

When you visit Beckie’s blog you get a real sense of calm…at least I did. I don’t want to sound crazy but Christian’s have a way to bring calm with their faith and it is clear here at Beckie’s blog. Her first post that I stumbled upon was the Meme about “Why I Blog“. It is great to see the reasons people blog and it gives a real insight into the minds of bloggers and why they choose to dedicate time to this way of expression. Nice job Beckie and keep on blogging!

You can be critiqued too at Critique My Blog. Go ahead~you know you want too.

Rules from God

Got this in an email and you may have seen it before, but I wanted to share it.

1. Wake Up !! Decide to have a good day.
“Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up !! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart.”
I Samuel 16:7

3 Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. “He who guards his lips guards his soul.” Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up!!… For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. “Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good…” Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up !!… To the Lord.
“I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up !!… For something higher. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path.”
Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up !!… Your Prayers.
“Do not worry about anything;
Instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING.”
Philippians 4:6

Remember:

God answers Knee-Mail.

Life Under the Sun: Shift Happens

I just saw this video and it just about blew me away! Talk about feeling insignificant! Good thing I’m significant in my Father’s eyes.
Life Under the Sun: Shift Happens

Tasty Tidbit

Yesterday I told you I would share something that had really blessed me from my Beth Moore Bible Study of Daniel. If you enjoy Beth’s studies, you HAVE to do Daniel! It’s awesome.

Some of you have read here about how much I enjoy music. It has always been a part of my life. I never liked the “acid rock” as it was called but mostly the “pop” music that was popular in the 60s and 70s. After I got saved, I would walk out of stores where the music was so loud and offensive. Music styles have changed over the years but there has always been a message in music, sometimes not a very clear message either.

In this study Beth compares our world today with Babylon ~ centered around SELF. No arguments there. People seem to want more~clothes, money, happiness, entertainment, etc. Entertainment is the specific area she was addressing when she said

Nothing is wrong with wholesome entertainment. A Babylonian musician, however, plays a Babylonian tune. And what is more intoxicating, more aluring than music? Why are some of us moms so particular about our children’s taste in music if not its profound influence? Perhaps Babylon’s musicians~not unlike our own~played loud, rhythmic melodies of carnal pleasures, warping the listener’s sense of reality. Can we spell MTV?

Beth further quotes Eugene Peterson who said of the world today,

We try to get [joy] through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another’s imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary~a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run out of money, the joy trickles away.

When our girls were small, we taught them a song that said, “Oh be careful little ears what you hear.” I think that applies to all of us. I don’t know about you, but I find a lot of today’s secular music extremely offensive to my ears. I don’t choose to listen to it, but our girls do. Yes, I pray for them.

Beth ended that lesson by stating that “Satan is the cheater and Babylon is his queen, offering false fulfillments for any taker.”

I say Amen!