I was able to rest up for a couple of days just before Christmas. I had run myself ragged. The scrip fundraiser that I do for the band was a back breaker! Everyone was buying scrip for Christmas presents. There were lots of backorders that caused me to have to hang around the house. I didn't get all my shopping done. We went to my husband's parents' house for the weekend before Christmas, so I lost three days. Once we got there I was able to relax some.

Then, when we got back I started cleaning the house. I had let things pile up. The yard was full of weeds and the house was full of dust. Today I worked on the last bad area, the front yard. As I was pruning the roses and pulling weeds I was contemplating how bad the yard looked. A couple of young boys rode by on their bikes and one of them said, "You have a really nice yard!" HA HA HA!! I guess other yards looked even worse!

It's Monday evening as I am working on this. I can see I'm not going to get it finished until tomorrow morning. My brain is not functioning very well and I don't want to miss anything that the Lord wants to do here in the Bible study. I'm sorry if you came looking on Monday and nothing had changed.

My youngest son went to Phoenix Thursday through Sunday as the band was participating in the Fiesta Bowl National Band Championships. The band came in third in the field show competition and the drum line took first. My son is in the drum line. Then, in the parade competition, they won sweepstakes! I'm so happy for them! They work so hard. I was disappointed because I didn't get to go. I usually help

Here's a suggestion for a resolution for you. It's not a New Year's resolution. It's a daily resolution. You need to make this resolution every single day. Spend more time with the Lord than you did the last year. You don't have to shut yourself up in a closet to spend time with Him. Think about Him while you are eating, brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, or doing anything else. Read a chapter in the Bible (or more) every day. Talk to Him or sing praises to Him while you are driving. Replace your tapes and CD's in your car with praise music. There are many ways you can spend more time with Him. However, you must determine to do it EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Link to the 1/2/01 Bible study.

Goodness, goodness, goodness!!! All of a sudden it occurred to me that I hadn't updated this page this week. Oh, gosh, that has never happened before. I did think about it on Monday, but the day got out of control and it sure must have been downhill from there! They say that the memory is the first thing to go. What were we talking about?? Ha ha ha...

I still have my Christmas tree up. I've been slowly working on putting away the Christmas decorations and the tree is the last thing. Hopefully I will get it all put away today!

I had to get my clothes washed and hung out this morning. We're supposed to be getting a big rainstorm tonight. The sun didn't stay out very long this morning. I hope the clothes get all the way dry. I don't like using the dryer if I can help it.

My day is just whittling away. I was typing some worksheets for my husband's class last night and wasn't able to put together the scrip fund raiser order until this morning. I got up early to work on that and didn't get to spend time in the Word. I feel empty.

Tonight is a football booster club meeting. It is an emergency meeting to see how many parents are interested in keeping the booster club going. It whittled down to two parents and, since the other parent's son is a senior, that leaves just me. I've been praying about how much time the Lord wants me to spend there. He's wanting me to back away. He keeps showing me how much time I've already spent trying to make it a good program. He reminds me that my vision is damaged because of stress caused by the golf tournament I ran for the booster club.

Had I gone with my first instinct I would have agreed to be the next year's president and would have made lots of phone calls and personal contact to try to get parents involved. I've always jumped in where I saw a need and tried to fill it. That is why I have run myself ragged so many times. One person can't fix the world! This time I've waited for the Lord's answer. It's a good thing I did. I wouldn't want to have tried to do it without Him!

Link to the 1/10/01 Bible study.

Here I am, right on time this week! I got the Christmas decorations all put away last week and my house cleaned (well, the main parts anyway). As usual, I have a lot of things I need to do today, but figured I better sit down and do this so I don't forget again. Gosh, if I forgot two weeks in a row I'd really feel awful! (Not only that, I'd have to go get my senility factor checked!)

My husband and I went to a new church last night. We went because a friend of ours was filling in for their piano player. It isn't close to our house, but we used to go to a church that was pretty far away. A wonderful thing happened. The pastor let God take over the service! He felt the Spirit moving in a different direction than what was originally planned and handed the service over to the Lord.

When God wants to do something then it is up to us to let Him. I know that nothing is impossible with God and if He wants to do something then He is perfectly able to do it. What I am saying is that God gives us the choice to allow Him to do something. We can choose to follow the schedule for our church service. We can insert the pre-planned hymns and the sermon or we can allow God to tell us that He wants more praise music, or He wants someone to stand up and share their testimony, or whatever He wants.

When we are in church we are there to worship and serve Him, not to please the people who are attending. So many churches are busy planning ways to get more people to attend. They are busy in the flesh working out better, more exciting services and fancy programs. In actuality, if they would only allow the Holy Spirit to run the service then people would come. They might feel the presence of the Spirit as they drive by. They might feel the call in their heart that they need to go to that particular church. They may see evidence of the Holy Spirit in they eyes and life of the members of the congregation and be drawn that way. When God is at a church then people will want to come.

We each have a choice every minute of every day. Are we going to go on with business as usual or else do everything the way we think it should be done or are we going to allow God to dictate what we do and how we do it?

We had four new parents, two couples, show up at our emergency football booster club meeting last week plus one person who had been to a couple of meetings in the past. They all seemed like they would help get the booster club back on its feet. Sunday is the award assembly and we need to try to get even more people involved. After all, without the parents' help there is no booster club.

I've been jumping up and down while I've been working on this. My husband brought home a bunch of video tapes of television shows he's taped for his driver education, drug education class. He asked me to copy them for the teacher at the other high school. I'm trying to conserve tapes and fit them in on the ends of other tapes so he doesn't have to waste the new blank tapes. Sometimes I have gotten distracted and ended up doing something else and forgetting that I had this to finish. I will finish it up now and get it online.

When people look in your eyes what do they see? Do they see Jesus?

Link to the 1/15/01 Bible study.

I went to bed EARLY last night. I was exhausted! Yesterday was the football awards ceremony. I was in charge of giving a speech to the parents to try to get them involved in the booster club. It had to be a perfect speech because I was the only parent left that attended the meetings and did any of the main work. The other parent was leaving because his son is a senior.

Well, how does one go about giving the perfect speech? I gave my mouth to the Lord. He had to be the One to come up with the exact words that would get parents involved. He has pulled me back away from involvement and I pointed out that since He was pulling me out, He needed to bring other parents forward. He did.

Last week a parent called me and she was telling me how she would be able to help. What a blessing! The areas where I had been working were the areas where she had talents! She was telling me that she wouldn't let me do things any more because I've done enough!

Many other parents signed up to help. Eight parents signed the commitment form I had designed that stated they WOULD help and they would make every effort to attend the monthly meetings. They had to sign their names. Glory! I'm so glad!

That booster club meant a lot to me. My husband is one of the football coaches. My son, who is a junior on the team, has been involved in the program since he was one year old! It wouldn't be fair that it fall apart now. He wouldn't have the benefits of pre-game meals, trophies, and all the other things the club buys during his senior year! The coaches would not have a lot of the things they need, either. It was breaking my heart to have to say, "If no parents come forward to help there will be no booster club next year!"

I must have really worked myself up for the ceremony yesterday. I was fine until I got home. I felt like crying. Crying gives me a headache, so I went to bed instead!

God is so very GOOD! He knew my desires. He knew how important it was to me. He knew I was being obedient to what He told me and I was backing away from the booster club. He brought people to take over. I know He brought enough people with varied talents that all the different needs will be filled. He is AWESOME!

The bad news is that we couldn't go to the new church we found last week. We were having to set things up yesterday morning and the ceremony lasted too long to go to the evening service. Sigh.

I think I'm discovering a gift I didn't know I had. I don't believe in coincidences or in luck, so those are ruled out and that only leaves God.

Thursday morning I was waiting for my friend/prayer partner to arrive. I was reading my Bible and my mind was wandering a bit as I wondered what was taking her so long. My friend has had the same car for as long as I can remember, which is a long time. Her husband drives a big pickup truck. As I was thinking about her I imagined her to arrive in her husband's truck for some reason. Then that thought changed to, "No, she's driving her new car." Now, I had no reason to think she had a new car. She hadn't mentioned getting a new car, having problems with her old car, or anything else that would give me that idea.

Well, up drives a car I didn't recognize and she got out!! She and her husband faced some major work on her old car and they decided to go see what was available and bought a new/used car! It was a bit unsettling for me to realize that there was no way I could have known about it ahead of time.

Then another thing happened yesterday. My youngest son cleaned out his closet and gave me a pile of clothes he no longer wanted. In that pile was a t-shirt with a list of all the names of the seniors from the year my oldest son graduated from high school. I hung it over the back of a chair. Yesterday I was praying about the awards ceremony and reading over my notes for my speech when my eyes settled on that shirt. One name jumped out at me. It was the name of one of the football players, George Chenier.

At the awards ceremony it was announced that one of the regular awards, Most Courageous, had been changed to the George Chenier Memorial Award. George had been a witness to a horrible accident. He left his own family in his car and pulled a 15 year old boy out of an upside-down burning truck. He tried to pull the father out as well, but couldn't. George died the next day from burns he had suffered.

Why had I zoomed in on only his name in a list of 700 names? I don't know. I have a feeling the Lord is showing me that He has given me the gift of knowledge. I need to be more alert to the things He reveals to me. I need to be able to hear what He says and then know what to do with the information He gives me.

If we don't spend time filling ourselves with the Word by reading our Bibles, if we don't spend time in communion with God, and if we don't find out more about His ways then we might as well be a car mechanic with no tools, trying to fix cars with our bare hands. We might as well be books with blank pages. We cannot be useful in the Body of Christ. We cannot be effectively used by God. We can't even be sure that we have made the right decisions on any given day! Every day is a struggle just to survive, mentally and physically!

Do you know your position in the Body of Christ? Do you know what gifts He has given you? Do you know what He wants you to do with those gifts? Do you know what He wants you to say and do today?

We humans have come a long way since Adam and Eve. It is a very long way THE WRONG WAY! We are continuously busy about the world's business. We have so many things bombarding our minds every day that we probably feel we don't have time to read our Bibles. We have lots of other things we need to be thinking about. Every day we have new decisions to make.

There is only one thing that never changes, is always available, has all the answers, knows what will happen tomorrow, is the calm in the midst of every storm, is a rock when all else is sinking sand, and loves us no matter what we do or say. You know the answer. It's God.

He will provide you with everything you need. He asks for a little of your time in return.

You say you have no extra time? Do you read the newspaper? How much time do you spend reading things in the paper that don't affect your life? Do you watch TV? How much time do you spend watching things that don't make a difference in your life? Do you have the opportunity to eat lunch or breakfast alone? Can you read and eat at the same time? Probably you already see where you can take some time to spend with the Lord!

Enough! Enough! On to the Bible study!

Link to the 1/22/01 Bible study.

This is the day the Lord has made! Take time to rejoice and be glad in it! Do you have difficulty with that concept? Do you have no reason to rejoice or be glad? I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you are feeling that way. I know how you feel. I've been there. I've felt that.

I could tell you that you don't have to feel that way, but I won't. I could tell you that you could separate yourself from the things that are bringing you down, but I won't. I could tell you that I know of a sure cure for what ails you, but I won't.

Look deeply into God's eyes... see the love He has for you. Look in His hand He is holding out to you... see the comfort and peace. The comfort and peace are yours if you take it and hold it close to your heart. You will lose them if you allow the fear, anger, sorrow, and disappointment back into your mind. It's a choice thing. Choose wisely.

Looky there... how did that Bible study end up in the welcome message?

Well, it looks like we have found ourselves a new church. I just love how the leadership is open to what God wants to do there. Apparently there hasn't been a sermon since last year. The pastor prepares a sermon, or a few sermons, and the service takes a different route each week.

Have you ever watched or played a game where a couple of people get together and try to make up a story by saying one word at a time? The first person says a word, the second says whatever word pops into his mind, the third says a word, etc. It can be very funny as you observe the twists and turns the story takes. It is equally funny to watch the faces of the people coming up with the words as they hear how the next person totally changes what they were thinking by adding a different word than what they were thinking or how they struggle to come up with a word that will make sense as it is attached to the other words.

A church service is similar to that game, only God is whispering in the ears of the people and telling them what to say, sing, and do. If they are listening to His voice then the entire church service flows with the anointing of God and everyone there will go out blessed and refreshed. There will be no confusion or misunderstandings. Everything that is said and done will flow with an unearthly rhythm. You will hear your own thoughts and desires expressed by someone else. One word will flow into another. One song will flow into another.

If your church bulletin has an "order of worship" listed in it and that order is followed every week you might want to ask your church leadership this question, "How do you know that's the way God wants it?" If the response is similar to, "That's the way we've always done it," then you might consider finding yourself another place to worship. Find a place where God is put in charge of the "order of worship."

Try something this week. As you read your Bible this week think about the things you read. As you think about them keep these thoughts in your mind about what you have read: God created the universe with just His Words and you are reading God's Words, the Words you are reading have power and strength, the Words you are reading take life as they enter your heart and mind, and the Words you are reading are as real as anything you can taste, feel, touch, or hear. Let the Words gain substance and become real inside of you. Allow them to be alive and to work within you.

If you think of it, send me an email and let me know if it made a difference.

Link to the 1/29/01 Bible study.