I'm back from Tennessee, the state where the sky is blue, the hills are green, and the birds are gorgeous! I'm home where the sky is brown, the hills are brown, and the birds are brown.

I enjoyed my visit with my oldest son, J.J. He is such a sweetheart to buy me tickets to visit him.

The worst part about my trip was the nasty cold I caught. Fortunately, it didn't get really bad until the day I left. I was down for the count the two days after I got home. Finally, this morning I can say I actually feel better! I wonder how many people on the plane with me coming back caught my cold.

Yes, I did spend time with the Lord every day last week. Most of my time was spent in the Word, or praising Him. He and I both enjoyed Tennessee!!

I've been going through my Bible collecting promises from God. I am going to create a list of promises that He has given us. I will be putting it on this site so you can benefit. When we have a promise that God made, we can be assured that He will carry through with that promise. When we pray His promise we can be assured that our prayer WILL BE ANSWERED!

Doesn't that just make you want to jump up and down? Well, at least doesn't it make your heart beat a little faster? If it doesn't then you are not grasping the reality of what I just said, or else you are not familiar with the Bible and with some of the promises it contains.

I hope to have a partial list of promises ready for next Monday's Bible Study. Come back then and check it out!

I want you to know that when your life is falling apart around you and your mind is spinning out of control, you can ask God to wrap His loving arms around you. You will be able to rest in His arms and He will ease your mind and send your troubles packing. If you don't believe me, then try it. Ask for the peace you have been promised in John 14:27,

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

and the peace promised in Philippians 4:7,

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

That peace is already yours. Ask for it! Then rest in it!! The action that needs to be taken is on your part--ask for it, then rest in it.

Link to the 5/3/99 Bible study.

Don't look around! My house and my yard are not looking very tidy. I am still suffering from the cold I caught almost two weeks ago. I am feeling a lot better than I was, but I can't shake it completely. I just don't have the energy to pull weeds, or vacuum, or dust, or even make my bed. I'm using all my available energy on the things that have to get done, like laundry. I'll be OK, but if you want to stay for a while- -just don't look around and if you see something that looks bad, don't say anything!!

When I am meditating on the Lord, just enjoying His presence and praising Him, I keep getting the feeling that something is happening, or should be happening. I get a feeling of anticipation and excitement.

Earlier this year He told me that this is the year of preparation. He is preparing me for something. I need to be filling myself with His Word. I am like an Olympic athlete in training. I need to be ready for the big event! I need to be in good spiritual condition. Gosh, I wonder what He will have me doing?? The hardest part is not knowing what event I will be in!!

As I mentioned last week, the Lord taught me a lesson about His promises. I've put what He's shown me into an article entitled, "God's Promises." You can read it by going a little further down this page to the list of articles I've written.

The Lord also impressed upon my heart to share something else He revealed to me. The subject is opinions. There are lots of people sharing their opinions about God. Many of those people are campaigning on God's behalf without knowing how God feels about it. Man's opinion is nothing without God. It is God's opinion that matters. All else is as good as dust blowing in the wind! The title of that article is, "Opinions (Everyone Has One)."

OK, now it's your turn! I've been sharing with you. Tell me about yourself. How is the Lord using you? What is it about the Lord that you are seeking? What good things has He shared with you?

Do me a favor, please! I am trying to put together a list of sites that are edifying, encouraging, and are designed to bring people closer to the Lord. As I said at the start, it is very difficult to find life-changing, soul-touching, eye-opening Christian sites on the 'net. If you know of any, please send me the URL! Thank you!!

Link to the 5/10/99 Bible study.

Remember when I told you my house was a mess last week? It's worse this week. All the things I wanted to do I haven't done because I'm still not feeling well enough. Then, Sunday, I took a nap and woke up with a HORRIBLE sore throat! Good grief!

I've been thinking about this being sick phenomenon. I was pondering the fact that God doesn't want me to be sick. I've not been a perfect child, but I've been seeking understanding of His Word. I've been learning how to love people and how to minister to people. I've been being asked to be used by God and I have been being used by Him. I would think that God would want me to be well so I can be effectively ministering in the body. By now you are probably thinking, "And your point is???"

The point is that the closer I get to God, the more I do to bring other people closer to Him, and the more understanding I get of the Word of God the more satan wants to stop me!!! I wanted to go back to bed this morning. I feel lousy. I have no energy. If I did that you wouldn't be reading this and the Bible study (a good one, I might add) wouldn't be here this week.

Also, there are other things I've wanted to do that have to do with the kingdom of God that I've not done. One is, I've been wanting to invite a family from our new church over here. I know that they are on fire for the Lord, as am I. I know that together we may be able to light our entire congregation on fire for the Lord. I've not invited them because my house is a total disaster. Satan knows my intentions of getting together with this family. Satan also knows how I feel about letting people into a dirty house. Get the picture?

So, what can I do about this? I am going to go dive into my Bible. I am going to remind satan that the Holy Spirit in me is greater than him any day. I am going to see about getting healed. Is God capable of healing me? Uh, let me think a second, uhhhh, YES!!!!! Then, if I am not healed for some reason I am going to carry on in the strength God gives me!! Oh, yes, I'm going to invite that family over. If my house is a disaster, so be it!

There is so much good stuff in the Bible! The sad thing is that our little human minds don't comprehend the enormity of it all. There are so many things we are missing out on because we just don't understand what God is trying to tell us.

What we need to do is quit trying to understand using our life experiences to translate the Word. We need to ask God to open our eyes and for Him to translate it for us. God's Word loses a lot in the translation to human words. We need to allow the Holy Spirit in us to be our translator. As it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Our own understanding will get us absolutely nowhere when it comes to the Word of God!! Nowhere!!

I still need you to do me a favor! I am trying to put together a list of sites that are edifying, encouraging, and are designed to bring people closer to the Lord. As I said at the start, it is very difficult to find life-changing, soul-touching, eye-opening Christian sites on the 'net. If you know of any, please send me the URL! Thank you!!

Link to the 5/17/99 Bible study.

Well, that was a rotten trick! My sore throat turned into a full-blown relapse! I got sick all over again last week. I've had it with being sick!!!

I'm finally feeling better. I have more energy today. Wow, it has been quite a few years since I've been out of commission for so long. Satan slowed me down, but I'm picking up right where I left off! I'm not a quitter!

I have a question for you. What is your portion in the Body of Christ? What job does the Lord want you to do? Some people assign themselves jobs, such as Sunday School teacher, choir member, bulletin-passer-outer or whatever. That can more of a bad thing than a good thing.

What if God wants the Sunday School teacher to be an intercessor and to be praying for the Sunday School classes during Sunday School? Then the person that the Lord wants to be teaching that class is not doing their portion and the person who is teaching that class is not doing theirs! The Sunday School classes are not receiving the protection that the intercessor would be providing! Do you get the picture?

The Body of Christ is missing body parts! Too many people are not allowing the Lord to show them what He wants them to be doing. Too many other people are sitting in the pews thinking they are unusable. Nobody is unusable in the Body! NOBODY! God has a plan for you. Are you in it?

The last two weeks I asked for help in putting together a list of sites that are edifying, encouraging, and are designed to bring people closer to the Lord. I haven't received any links from anybody! Now, that either means nobody knows of any good sites, nobody comes here to this site, or nobody wants to take the time to send them to me. Hmmmmm.........this is getting weird.

Link to the 5/24/99 Bible study.

Oh, my! I'm pooped! I've been pushing wheelbarrows full of wood chips up the hill from the bottom of our yard. I'm putting them in a planter in the upper part of the yard. The planter is probably 10 feet deep and miles long! Well, not really miles, but it sure seems like it!!

My hubby has a wood chipper and he has been chipping up old wood that he's collected. The entire bottom half of our yard is covered with chips. We replaced our shake shingle roof a few years back and all the shingles got chipped up, too. We saved money. We didn't need to rent a dumpster to throw away the shingles. We didn't have to buy wood chips to cover the yard. The only thing was we had to buy a good chipper. It's worth the investment!!

Last week I asked what your portion was in the Body of Christ. Have you been thinking about that? You do have a specific job, you know. God has placed you in a strategic, important spot in the Body.

Every single part of the Body is important! Imagine, if you will, the framing of a house. All the boards are attached to all the other boards by cross members and supports. The building is not strong unless it is firmly braced. Start taking out the supports and the building becomes weaker and weaker and will eventually collapse. That's the same way with the Body of Christ! Every piece is important and serves a purpose.

Some members of the Body might have jobs that pertain to protecting other members of the Body with prayer or encouragement or other things I don't even know about! God has not left anything out! He has a place for you!

I finally found out what my job was in the Body! There is a great story that goes with it. I added it to my articles list below, but you can get there by clicking here.

I'm still needing your help in putting together a list of sites that are edifying, encouraging, and are designed to bring people closer to the Lord. I still haven't received any links from anybody! Very strange!

Link to the 5/31/99 Bible study.