He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

I was able to attend a conference this past weekend called Compel.  My mom and I go every year.  This year the speaker was Lisa Whittle and she was really, really good......funny, real, smart, convicting and challenging.  She is a published author and has a web site, and books, and an online bible study that is free if anyone wants to check it out.  One of her challenges was to begin a process of Soul Revival that will last the rest of our lives.  I do want this soul revival that will be sustainable long after the "Spiritual high" wears off, after an event like this.  If only every day could start with an hour of prayer, worshipful singing and scripture......oh wait.  It actually could.  I would not be in the company of 200 women who were also gathered to glorify God and learn more about how to know Him and do His will.......but I could and should and maybe can have this experience every day.....with Jesus. Lord Jesus, I ask you to awaken in ...

Some days end with feeling very sad and not hopeful.....and it is not even personal sorrow....but the empathy I feel for mankind when s/he suffers.......and tonight I feel that sorrow.  I try not to post political assaults because, quite frankly, I don't even know what I feel or believe from day to day.  I do know that we are in very scary times in this country.  Oh.  My.  Word.  A wall?  That's the answer?  A wall.  Is this how far we have come as a species of humans?  Where is God?  Why is He not speaking up?  Maybe He should come like a tsunami or an earth quake or a nuclear war......I don't know if I can stand 4 years of hatred and bigotry and down right meanness.  Marriages are caving in.  Families are falling apart.  Teen age girls are feeling like there is no reason to live.  What the heck? What the heck. My disclaimer for my mom, my mom in law and step mom....and Jen....and anyone else who gets ...

This blog.....sometimes I write to share wisdom and truth from God.  Sometimes its a vent for me.  Still other times it is a way to record things I don't want to forget.  Tonight its the latter. Being mom.  Mom is.....wow.  It is hard and it is a gift and it is a sacrifice for sure.  Tonight I am having a quiet celebration....happy mother's day... to me.  Maybe all week.  Heck.  Maybe all month. Claire.  Claire is a junior in high school.  She is a good student, a leader on the dance team and at the dance studio.  She has a boyfriend.  She teaches sunday school at church.  She is aching for children in Haiti and for the mission opportunities there.  She is my first born.  This week they are having a Spiritual renewal focus at her (way too expensive) Christian High School.  The speaker challenged the students to identify their cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 12:1-2......and to identify their spiritu...

Recently, Claire and I had a conversation about living for the Lord.  As we discuss her future plans after high school these talks come up more and more.  Her love for Haiti and the children of One Vision practically doubled on her second trip over Christmas break.  She is already working on saving money to back in June if a trip gets planned.  She is reading books about living missionally, and framing up her approach to life with this in mind.  The beauty in her blooms brighter with every day she lives. She commented that she sometimes wishes she had a "story" of getting saved.  That when you grow up with the Lord and ask Him into your heart as a child, you don't have that big story of coming to Him.....because you started with.....Him. I had an answer that I wish I had known as a child myself, before I felt the need to test all the promises of the bible, to step away from the walk of faith and the presence of the Lord and to go "prodigal child" for...

In church today our sermon was from Psalm 20.  Our youth pastor gave the message and I love it when he does because he is a very good preacher, and also, the kids all listen when he preaches.  He told about how this psalm was a prayer for victory in battle, that it was a prayer for King David as he struggled and for God to help.  A focus on verse 7 was notable to me because one year, I gave this verse to Jeremiah as his birthday verse for the year.  I haven't done that for a long time.  I think I will start doing it again in 2017....finding a verse to gift to whose birthday is next.  Verse 7 says:  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.   It's a really good verse. Some trust in chariots and some in horses.  Maybe it refers to their material things.  Maybe it refers to their means of travel, of where they are going.  Some trust in their own plan for their life, there own ...

This is not a recent photo of Precious...I took it last fall, but I don't have another handy just now.  I want to tell a story about her, and about why we live in our small town.  Precious gets to choose most days, between going home on the bus after school with Jeremiah, or walking to her sitter, Jaci, with Jaci's children.  They all go to the same school.  Jaci's children look out for Precious and if she decides to walk with them the few blocks, they are very protective.  Jaci reports that they often burst into the house laughing and talking......she is always so welcome there.  Precious is rather impulsive at 3:30pm.  Sometimes, the morning plan to go on the bus is forgotten and she walks to Jaci's.  Sometimes the opposite happens.  Occasionally, she forgets which direction she is headed and then we have a problem.  Today was that day.  This morning she told me she planned to come home on the bus and I told her that was fine....

2 Corinthians 10:3-6.  For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments, and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.      Happy New Year everyone!  I did not write an end to 2016 because we spent 12 hours on a trip to get Precious Maryn's hair braided and when I finally home....well lets just say I was not in the mood.  I was in A mood but not that one.        I'm so happy that New Years Day was on Sunday this year.  I was able to worship in church as I welcomed in a new year and it was such a blessing.  I missed Claire a lot.  She is still in Haiti until tomorrow night.  I was praying for her as we sang and worshipped and asking G...