Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Psalm 81:1
There is no greater joy than spending time in prayer, reading God's word, and receiving what God has spoken. Sing aloud, make a joyful noise and expect God to give you strength!
It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.~ Wallace D. Wattles
This morning, I am grateful and thankful for all of God's wonderful blessings. We awoke to the sound of booming thunder, and then watched the torrents of rain and marble-size hail fall from the sky. Hail, in Southern California -- imagine that. As I stood at the door and watched the rain and hail, I was in awe at the fierceness of the storm. All you could hear was the sound of rain. The storm quickly ceased. Now I sit here and hear the lull of our so called "river" and the sweet, joyful sound of birds singing.
I'm reminded once again that God is faithful, and He will give you peace in the midst of every life circumstance. Thankful that the "Lord blesses His people with peace." (Pslams 29:11)
Proverbs 16:9, The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:3 reads, "Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. Pray over your plans, commit yourself to what you desire and expect God to bless the work.
The other night before going to bed Sheldon told me that he was going to write stories during the summer. Here's his first creative writing story
SUPERNATURAL
It was August 18, 1945, when the Nazis attacked my village. They destroyed everything leaving only trails of blood. My friend was forced to go to a concentration camp. After that day, everything changed. It was peaceful before the Nazi invaders attacked are small, village. We lived a peaceful life. But then news had reached that the Germans had conquered France. And then well… they attacked. We cried in fear as we heard the ring of a rifle being shot. My father rushed out of the house with his M-1. We fought back, but our attempts to protect the village were to no avail. My mother screamed as tears flowed down her pale cheeks at the sight of the Nazis killing the residents of Landsmeer.
The Germans had already breached the walls of our village. My mother said to me, “We must pray. It is the only thing to do.” I cried to God, “Lord don’t let us die like this; send your mighty army of angels, anything!” Suddenly the wind picked up speed as mighty angels with flowing white garments and glowing double edged sword appeared. We heard a knock on our door. We opened to see one of these mighty angles of the Lord. The angel said, “God hath sent us to save his chosen ones. He hath said no man shall harm my people.” Suddenly we heard loud hoarse screams, but this time it was the Germans. The ground suddenly cracked with a loud sound and the Nazis were engulfed in fire. There were cheers from the beaten people of Landsmeer.
Two years later the war had arisen to a bloody massacre of Germans and Americans. When I was finally old enough to join the army, I enlisted in the 46th regiment. That day our commander John Higgins told us we were going to take part in the freeing of France. It was a cold morning with a light drizzle. I awoke to the sound of large vehicles and hoorahs. I soon realized today was the day we were to head to France. I arose, put on my uniform, and grabbed my mp 40. As I boarded jeep number 7, the Captain shouted, “Hoorah!”
We were riding along a winding dusty road when suddenly the Captain shouted, “Get down!” Immediately mortars started to fire at us we were hit by one and it totaled our jeep. I was knocked out and awoke in the middle of a battle. I was next to Captain and he said to me, “Son, are you alright?” I replied, “Yes sir, I’m fine. Where is my gun?” He shouted back, “By the jeep.” He told me to stay down until I could find a gun. I found a wounded soldier and asked for his gun. He replied, “Yah, may God be with you.” I joined the rest of my regiment at the base of a hill. The commander shouted, “This is your time. This is what you’ve been preparing for. Make America proud boys and God speed to you all.” Finally, the order came, “Charge!!” Cries of fury and fear arose as we ran up the hill. When we reached the top, immediately soldiers were getting shot--falling like dominoes. But we just kept running. Suddenly we were trapped in a cemetery about 50 ft wide give or take. The Germans had surrounded us. There was no way out. Sadly, only a couple of handfuls of soldiers survived the charge. I remembered what my momma always said when there is nothing you can do pray. I prayed the same prayer I prayed in Landsmeer. God send your mighty army of angels. Again the wind picked up to speeds like of a tornado and thousands upon thousands of angels appeared in white garments holding double edged swords. Suddenly, Germans started falling all around us. I shouted, “Let it be known to all men God hath sent his mighty angels to protect us. God is with us!”
It was that day that I soon realized God was keeping his hand of protection upon me and my fellow soldiers. One evening around our campfire I said to the Commander remember that one time when we were surrounded by Germans and suddenly they just started to fall. Well, that wasn’t by accident. God was with us. I saw a look of confusion upon his face. I decided to quote Deuteronomy 6:4, “Here O’ Israel the Lord Our God is one Lord.” Since that one evening my Commander decided to believe in God. One night he asked me, “How come we can’t see God?” I replied, “That is a strange question you might ask; I really do not know. All I know is it’s all about faith. I asked him when you sit in a chair, do you check to make sure it will hold you?” He replied, “Well… no. I replied, “So then even though you don’t know if the chair will hold you, you sit down. It’s just like believing in God. You don’t know if he’s real but you still believe in Him.” He said, “I get it now.”
Before I went to bed that night I prayed to God. Lord wherever my friend is help me to find him and save him from the harsh concentration camp. On our daily patrols the next day, we saw a small prison like place. Immediately I knew what it was it was a concentration camp! I ran back to camp shouting, “I found a concentration camp.” We decided we would attack it at night when it is dark and we can move around more with a better chance of not being seen. When the clock struck 12:00, we attacked. At first they didn’t know what was going on, but then they fought back. It was 9:00 in the morning before the Germans surrendered. We had conquered Concentration Camp 5! As we searched through the camp to find the survivors I saw my friend. He was skinnier then I remembered and very dirty. But I knew it was him.
After we had finally conquered France, I retired from the army with a medal of honor for rescuing the prisoners from the concentration camp. I had decided to share my knowledge of God to many others and become a Pastor. And later I had a family.
The moral of the story is though we can’t physically see God with the human eye, we can sense his presence with our spiritual eye. Follow the right path and you will do just fine.
"Be a rose which gives fragrance even to those who crushes it." ~ Author Unknown
The allure of a puddle - love stomping, watching the water splash in all directions and if you happen to be close by, well, I guess you are going to get wet. Puddles are delightful and bring much cheer to the one who dares to take a moment and simply splash! Thank you dear puddle for the joy that you bring with the simple reminder that life is precious and you must stop and stomp in the puddles!
He found you in the desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness, He encircled them, He cared for him as the apple of his eye. (Duet. 32:10)
God found you in the "howling waste of the wilderness." He found you when you were in your most unloveable, ugly time of life. And yet God encircled you with His grace and a mercy and you became the Apple of His Eye! Thank God for mercy, love, forgiveness and unfailing grace.
Lights went out and then we headed to bed. Still no worries. Thankfully, there was a gas stove for cooking. Sabrina is the best cook ever. Homemade pancakes and sausage. Yummy!
After breakfast, it was time to have fun in the snow. Fun and more fun. We had a snow fight, laughed often, and made a snowman. This city girl learned something new too. Call me silly, but I always wondered how you create a perfectly round snowman. Thanks to Joseph, the trick, I learned is to simply form your base and then roll it in the the snow; as you roll it, it picks up snow and until it forms a perfect ball. I know, silly me, but this little tidbit was a fun fact to learn. And our snowman was picture perfect. You can't play in the slow without sledding. Our bunny slope was fun. The girls decided to summersault and roll down the slope; crazy, fun times.Returned from lunch to still no electricity. Finally, reality began to set in. Hmm, we just might need some candles. Time to start asking complete strangers for candles. Did not make much progress until a gentleman said he would bring us candles. And a very nice lady gave us a couple boxes of candles. The gentleman stayed true to his word, and in the evening we enjoyed a delightful night illuminated by the soft glow of candles. Much fun indeed. Everyone continued to play games and simply enjoy the moment.Unable to end this post without giving God the glory for the serene moments in life. Looking down on the city below, it was simply gorgeous. All bundled up and simply taking in this breath taking scenery. Then it started to snow. Nothing will take your breath away as you sit and tenderly feel the snowflakes gingerly fall on your face. You then begin to think about a faithful God. God is ever present even in those silent moments when you are just breathing.Moments that simply take your breath away are unique indeed. The annual youth snow trip just ended. I can still smell the smoke scent in my hair, but this subtle scent just serves as a reminder of this wonderful trip.
Getting up to Crestline was a journey in and of itself. Thankfully, we left early and arrived just before the snow storm. The snow starting falling and the roads were quickly becoming slick. We, did however, have a wee bit of a challenge trying to find our road. Once we arrived at the cabin and settled down, all was well.
Dinner was simple: grilled cheese sandwiches. Dessert was even more fun, flat chocolate chip cookies. Learned a valuable lesson, higher altitude means adding more flour and extra bake time. Oh, and you will need to add more sugar too! We also had "homemade" popcorn. You know the kind that you make on the stove and then load it with lots of butter and salt! Watching Courtney, Kevin and Cody make this timeless treat was a blast.My favorite memory for this first night was watching the young people play games. The unity was simply "off the charts!" There is no sweeter sound then yelps, laughs, and lots of noise that equates to great fun. We also had a memorable devotion. Nothing will take your breath away as you watch young people pray and encourage one another. Lovely time indeed!Then to end the evening, the lights went out, but we were not too alarmed as we knew it would be back on tomorrow or so we thought. That is an exciting story in and of itself. Stay tuned as there is more to come.Always enjoy those special moments when Sheldon shares something significant concerning his day. Each day I will call and ask how his day went or sometimes I will ask while we are driving to dinner. Regardless, his answers to my questions are usually short quips such as as good, no test tomorrow, no I don't have any homework. The highlights of his day are not usually spoken until we are ready for bed. Then it is as if a light goes on and he suddenly, much to my enjoyment, wants to talk about his day.
He proceeded to tell me about a compliment he received. He was really excited. He said that a friend of his challenged him to race and Sheldon won. The friend then said, "You run fast." Sheldon responded, "Thanks and so do you!" While I was excited to hear about his race, I was also proud of him for returning a compliment.Robert Orben states, "A compliment is verbal sunshine." Compliments whether big or small bring much happiness and everyone likes a compliment!
Florence Littauer states, "Our words should be like a little silver box with a bow on top. We need to speak words of encouragement." Ephesians 4:29 reads, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those that hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with malice. Be kind one to another; tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Corrupt talk is like a bee sting; you will feel the pain, but after awhile it will not be as intense. When you are the subject of someone's hurtful remarks, please do not be discouraged and most importantly apply the salve of love and forgiveness and give it over to God!
