Breaking Open the Flask

 Reading Psalms 83 this morning, “A Prayer When War Threatens”  Ten Nations conspiring against Israel, God’s Nation 🤔😵‍💫😎 ‼️The TEN forgot, God has “hidden Israel like a hen hides her chickens, under His wings; like treasure hidden away from the hands of their thief.” (Research by Roman Emperor Diocletian AD 284-305, cited by Spurgeon) 💡 ‼️ “Ten against One is long odds but then God was on the side of Israel.” (Spurgeon) 💡 ‼️”There was good reason for a pause when the nation was in such jeopardy and YET it NEEDS FAITH to make a pause, for UNBELIEF is always in a hurry!” (Spurgeon) 💡 Personal reflection: Sometimes, UN-Belief hovers over head…attempting to over power BELIEF. Pray, “God, Help my Un-Belief !”  Mark 9:14-24

 I’ve been in “reconstruction” for 131 days since losing my bestie and her husband. In today’s reading from Nehemiah 6, for me the realization of the 52 days to rebuild the wall symbolizes my grief journey. Not my first great loss by any means but because of those previous losses, I knew this journey would have to take it’s own course as the others had some 16 years ago.  I cling to this one short and simple phrase in the NLT: “…the enemies lost all confidence!” They were frightened and humiliated because This work was a work of The God whom they did Not trust.  In the darkness of grief, it is not unusual for the enemy to attack with all vengeance; I’ve had my share. YET because my friends were saved, I’ve been comforted in this truth: “God is Sovereign from the Beginning” => my bestie and her husband are perfect and complete, lacking nothing in Heaven w/ Jesus. Therefore, I t is in God alone, I find My comfort. Though my heart is lost without our coffee chats, water w...

 Nehemiah 5:4-5, “And others said,‘We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.  We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.’ ” (NLT) Selling my kids… could I even do that?!!! It only takes a split second before I ask myself a bigger Q: What might I have “sold” my children off to?! Devices!! Knowingly??? NO!!! We couldn’t KNOW what we didn’t KNOW! It was JUST a flip phone; an “Emergency Contact” BUT what it quickly became… a source of pornography!!! We had no idea until we heard about a couple of kids arrested!!! JH boys & JH girls sharing “innocent” photos on flip phones. And back then, parents could only monitor phone #’s! 🙄 Nowadays, I quiver to think what young eyes l...

 Happy 1st Birthday in Heaven, Dear One! 🩵🎂🎉🥳🎈🩵Oh, I can see your face clearly and hear your infectious giggle, Sheri 🩵💞💝💞🩵 What it must be like to dwell in the House of The Lord!! What it must be like to sing there!!! “What a Mighty God we serve, angels bow before the Mighty One we serve! Lord, You’re Mighty! Lord You’re Mighty! You are Awesome, Awesome!” Carpooling to our MK meetings together is really where our friendship began nearly 20 years ago. You were the perfect “partner in crime.” One who could fill my heart with joy while distracting me from deep grief after So Much Loss! One who could make me laugh again. You’d go anywhere with me to keep me above the struggle 💓 and it was always a party to be with you! 🥳 We’d be singing to the top of our lungs back and forth everywhere we went, back then! And I was in heaven when you got that Lexus with the sunroof that I had never had! You’d open up that roof, our voices rising to the Heavens, “My God is Awesome, Awesome...

       Today's entry is a direct quote from "Still Higher For Highest: March 22 Bane and Blessing in the Cross" Matthew 10:22, 24, 25 by Oswald Chambers.     Most of the time when I read anything by Oswald, I am awestruck by its timeliness. Words written years ago could not be anymore fitting for the present times we are living in. With that, I quote his entire devotional entry for March 22nd. Still Higher For His Highest,  March 22, Bane and Blessing in the Cross by Oswald Chambers  Passages from the ESV Bible:      Matthew 10:22, "and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."     Matthew 10:24, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master."     Matthew 10:25, "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign th...

  "Alone with The Divine Teacher," from Oswald's, "Still Higher for His Highest" was the title of my opening Devo this morning. Mark 4:34, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed." I stared at the words go and be for a moment... curious about go in peace followed by be healed. It seemed to me there was an important message in the order of these words. The Devo went on to reveal: simplicity comes in allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through the scripture, alone : The Scripture itself is the very Truth that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to the reader: truth for our mind, heart and emotion. And in His Truth we discover our shortfalls. That's where I began to consider the order of "go in peace and be healed" further. God is His infinite wisdom gives us the free will first to be open or closed to the realization of sin in our lives and secondly to verbally acknowledge it to Him. If as we read the word...

  Today's Takeaways, * Return to your 1st 💗 * As Believers, we Called to testify to God's Sovereign Work * Believers Go Forth, Go Up, Grow Up in the Liberty and Boundless 💗 God has given us * Believers receive the Choicest of Care from our Redeemer & Savior * It's time to Open my 💗 to breath in the life He has put in me 💯 💗 💯

  Galatians 1:15, "When it pleased God..." We calculate and estimate based on math but factor God into any equation and His Infinite Self will BlowUpAnyEquation! God is infinitely able to blow up our Normal, Normal is our Nemisis! Look for Him with expectancy. Oh, He's going to show up in a way you cannot even imagine, that's God... our minds are just too finite to comprehend! The Great lesson to learn? He may show up at any minute and BreakItUp BlowItUp watch for His element of surprise ThisIsHim! WHEN it pleases Him, He will reveal Himself! Leave Room for God... how much room you gotta leave for Infinite God? Infinite... ToInfinityAndBeyond! (MyUtmostForHisHighest, Leave Room For God)

Are You Salty?  What’s the saltiest thing you can think of? What does "salty" mean? Mirriam-Webster says, “‘Salty' first appeared in the 1440 Latin-English dictionary as a translation of the Latin salsus , which means both "salty" (tasting of salt) and "salted" (covered or preserved in salt).” By the late 1800s, 'salty' referred to various aspects of naval life and culture. Since sailors had a reputation for colorful language, 'salty' soon came to refer to crude speech—and, later, to explosive anger. Who do You think was the 1st to coin this phrase?  Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out of and sampled under people’s feet.”  Break it down: -You are Salt -If you lose your saltiness, how can your Salt-less-ness be restored? -Its no longer good for anything except thrown out & trampled unde...

Singularly The Greatest Gateway to your  # BreakThrough  rests in the Truth of this scripture!  This same power that raised Christ from the dead sits ready for You to Access! Abandon a heart of flesh for His Perfect Plan. Then BELIEVE, Access and Activate His Plan for you with your prayers and praise. As you align your prayers with His will and praise through for your Breakthrough, He will show up BIG in the waiting!!  Remember my story, I was having my morning devotion in Virginia overlooking The Peaks of Otter when God clearly spoke to me, “Amy, you’re OCD! You have an Overly Controlling Disposition!”? Once I realized my greatest Blindspot and yielded my will to His, God began to move mountains for me and my family. That day, I began a new journey to crush the enemy with God’s Word and my Praise while awaiting His answer! What do you need Him to do for you today? Tell Him and Praise thru while He engineers your circumstances to bring your BREAKTHROUGH...

     Titus 1:4-5, "To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and  Christ  Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you."      Paraphrase Paul left Titus in Crete so that he could create order out of the chaos there. Titus was the instrument that God  intended  to use to bring the Cretans Up , Out and Into Salvation with Jesus Christ. Titus had his work cut out for him since there was all kinds of ungodly  behaviour  there.       When was the last time you felt Order in your life? What does Order look like i n your world? In God’s economy, order is a beautiful 5 letter word,  P E A C E .             How can we find God’s PEACE and order amidst the chaos in our life?       To discover ...

21 years ago, I couldn't imagine walking with both of our moms and my dad through cancer diagnosis', treatments, hospice and death followed by grief and a whole lot of years of recovery. We make our plans but it is God who orders our steps. Would I have chosen these circumstances which God clearly deemed necessary? Never! Seriously ya'll, there's no chance at all we could've lifted ourselves Up and Out and Into this Wonderful Life God has given us as Believers! https://www.bible.com/97/mat.19.26.msg

Go On With God Mark 14:35 “Then He went on a little further” Setting Garden of Eden when Jesus is praying and soon to be arrested. There were those that were so indifferent to Jesus that they were unaware He was even in the garden.  Then there was Judas who knew where Jesus was but was too busy with his own schemes to join Him.  Then the rest of the Disciples joined Him but they were distracted by sleep.  Jesus told them the urgency of the hour, but they didn’t comprehend it.  There were the inner circle of Disciples Peter James and John who initially prayed with Jesus yet even they could not grasp the significance of this moment.  Ultimately Jesus prayed alone. He went further than His disciples and prayed longer.  At the greatest moment of intercession in human history, there was no one willing to go with Jesus and watch with Him .  I believe God is calling you to go deeper in your prayer life with Him. I believe this is ...

Over and over again as I pursue to Know Him better and make Him known, He repeats a Word regularly. The Truth, Amy, MY Truth, will set you Free! Free to know me better and Free to make me known. Today, it was the correlation of these Five Statements of Faith: God is who He says He is God will do what He says He will do I am who God says I am I can do ALL things thru Christ who gives me strength God's Word is alive and active in me Therefore, I am Believing God! Beth Moore, Believing God And these passages of scripture (abbrev.): Romans 8:31 (ESV)  If God is for us, WHO can be against us? 1 John 4:4 (ESV)  For He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Philippians 4:13 (ESV)  I can do ALL things thru Christ who gives me strength. Romans 8:28 (ESV)  In ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him; who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:37 (ESV)  No in ALL these things we are more than conquerors thru Him ...

Remember when TV ended at midnight every day? Some of you are too young! Seriously though, every night at midnight Television went silent. You’d see a symbol on the screen. Some stations employed a flat line sound others were just silent with the symbol in the screen. Can you even imagine that now in our social media world?! There was no Internet back then so there was literally no public entertainment after midnight. The USA was quiet for several hours straight.  Only the sounds of nature or an occasional vehicle out on the roadway. You should give it a try sometime. Let your house go completely silent after everyone is in bed. Step out into nature at midnight. Look up into the night sky. Dream of being on a Hover Board in the midst of the stars. Just gaze at all the wonder of God’s Creation! Imagine a Genesis 1:1 moment!! God will meet you there in all His majesty and it will become a favorite encounter, I promise! In Psalm 95, David calls us to “Come, make a joyful noise t...

     Nearly a month has passed since I completed my posts on When God Doesn't Fix It by Laura Story. I've realized a few really great shifts in my world so I wanted to take a quick minute to share them.      Twenty years ago, I believe I knew  in my head that God was sufficient and would provide for my every need. But now I see it with a fresh perspective from the evidence of His work. Mind you, while I was living those twenty years, I wasn't able to know what my life was going to look like now nor imagine the outcome of the all the grief and loss. In fact, most of the time, I could only sense that He was lighting the way right where I was. That's why I appreciate the Myth/Truth at the end of Chapter 18, " Myth : God is indifferent to the desires of our heart. Truth : God is able to do abundantly more than we ask for or imagine!" (2 Corinthians 9:8)        Chapter Nineteen, A Better Broken. Following are several "stand out...

    Hey Girlfriends! I'm gonna jump right into it today!     Most people know that I was born with an overly controlling disposition but I'm not O.C.D., ha! I've been forced to find the humor in it and laugh at my M.O. The struggle is REAL! Most likely it began with the typical insecurities one develops in their childhood. I came by it naturally and I have owned it though I really wasn't cognizant of the effects it was having on my marriage, family and circumstances.     Early in my marriage, security was an issue for me but it had nothing to do with my choice in a mate; my husband is strong and fearless! Instead, my insecurities were rooted in a lack of faith in my Heavenly Father, I'm sad to say. I didn't know how to put my faith and trust in a Savior who loves me and desires His best for me. So, I made sure my opinions were known and if that wasn't enough, I made sure they were met!      When I began having children, my "high achievi...

     Somehow our culture has planted a lie in our  heads  and subsequently our  hearts  that life is easy. We've bought into a lie that we can control our circumstances by setting boundaries to all things tumultuous. In the event we do face adversity, we believe God will completely protect us from pain. Rarely is this true, right? Yet, isn't it so familiar in our society?      In the last 20 years, grief  has beckoned at our door. Loss of life, loss of dreams, loss of relationships, loss of time. I could go on and on. Oh yeah, you bet I asked God why. I've begged Him to heal the loss even to remove it. It's been a somewhat lonely place from time to time. However, what I tell people regularly is this: Though I would NEVER choose the circumstances that created our grief over these 20 years, I would NEVER change them !! Why? (Haha, gotcha!) Because the relationship I have with God today has given me Faith to Believe Him when the...