Friday, July 12, 2013

Tumultuous

"So do not fear, for I am with you.  Do not be dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."  Isaiah 41:10

2013 has been a year of change for my family.  It started with our move into a new home 5 days into January.  We joined the masses in doing a short sale on the home we purchased in 2006 so we packed up our belongings and moved into a rental house.

The next thing that changed was our family.  My husbands step-mother passed away on Memorial Day after a 3 year battle with cancer.  We spent two weeks with his father in Albany, New York to help in whatever way we could.

Yesterday my husband started a new job - a great opportunity came with God's perfect timing so he moved up the ladder in the world of wineries.

I am researching surgeons to have an operation that will hopefully put an end to the chronic pain I have been experiencing for the past two and a half years.

Our little man will start Kindergarten in the fall and shortly thereafter, our family will grow as my sister-in-law will be giving birth to another son.

It will be in our minds the year of change.  Some good, some hard, some overwhelming.  But through it all, I know that God is with us.  None of these changes have come as a surprise to Him.  None of it is hard for Him to understand.

So I am grasping for His truth each morning as I read His Word and try to soak in the message He has for me each day...my daily bread.  And as the tears stream at times, I will keep searching for His truth, His love and His presence.

In His Grace...

Monday, July 1, 2013

Love the Lord your God

"Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on  your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on  the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you...then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.  Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.  Do not test the Lord your God as  you did at Massah.  Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.  Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers, thrusting out all your enemies before you as the Lord said."  Deuteronomy 6:3-19

What do you think?  Are we still doing these things in the USA?  Are we obeying the Lord's commands and not following other Gods?

Or has this great country, founded on the biblical principles and truths we find in God's word, crossed over into a period where we are testing the Lord our God?

Everything our country was founded on included God.  Now through organizations like the ACLU, we are removing God from everything.

I pray that we can turn this country around.

In His Grace...