Verses of the day

For the last couple of days, I have been listening to Beth's wonderful and oh so timely teaching on Psalm 37 called "Dealing with the Thieves of Delight".

One of the many things that she said that stood out to me was that it is our right to delight in Him. And that nobody takes that from us unless we give it away. And I have given it away...time and time again for the last 6 or 7 years.

Today was another one of those days, when had I not heard that amazing teaching I would hae given it away. Instead I have decided to post my verses of the day...

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.... If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken" (Psalm 37:4-8, 23-25)

Now I definitely know why I was so hung up on that Psalm for the last 4 days. :)

Desires of Your Heart...

If any of y'all read Jenny's blog, you've seen her post on the deceitful heart. Well her post prompted me to write my own post, as I've been thinking about that as well. In sort of a different ligt though.

A few years back, someone told me that the scripture in Psalms that says "Delight Yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" It actually means that He puts the desires of yoru heart in your heart so that He can give them to you. At the time I was shouting Amens and Hallelujahs. But now it's a different story.

I don't say this with anger, condemnation, or anything of the kind towards the person who gave me that explanation because I know she was trying to help me. I also know myself, I know that I probably mis-interpreted it and tried to twist it and make that scripture become convenient to me.

I ws thinking about this yesterday and I thought about the scripture in Jeremiah that says that the heart is deceitful above all things. And then I remember hearing Beth Moore say a number of times, regarding how much our heart can mislead us that, it can get to a point to where we won't even be able to say "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

So how does that work...if the heart is deceitful above all things....which I believe with every fiber of my being because I've been there? On what Biblical grounds was that person telling me He puts the desires of our hearts in our hearts so he can give them to us? because it sounded more like she said "Everything that your heart desires, it desires because God wants you to desire them" I know from experience that just because I thought that what I wanted was God's will, didn't mean it actually was His will. So that's why I don't get how the thing she said, and the verses that I know to be true go together. Any thoughts?

P.S. I just went and downloaded Beth's teaching on "Dealing With The Thieves of Delight" I will probably come back with a follow up post, but I would really like to hear y'all's thoughts on my post so far.

Decided to play with Photoshop tonight, and try out a new signature....

Just for Jenny

This one is being posted just for Jenny, cause she hinted that I needed to post again. And she's right.

I was going to post this the other night, but I didn't get a chance to. Thursday night, I was sitting at my mom's computer doing some work for a friend's website, and started thinking about how it always seems that those who are "tired of hearing about God" or those who don't act like they want to have anything to do with Him always propser.... I'm not going to go any further with my thoughts because like Beth Moore says, we know better than to do that. She said in that teaching that we go through times where we think things and we know better than to say them b/c we know that God is way better to us than what those thoughts say, and also we don't want to cause anyone else who hears them to stumble.


And I knew better than to think those things. I did say them to my mom, and at the end of that convo, I came away with, thinking "What is the point of all of this then?"..But then I remembered that Beth said, you go before the Lord and tell Him everything that bothers you and that you know better than to to let them bother you. And after you do that, He begins to soften your heart and work on you.

So I put on some praise and worship music, and a couple of hrs later, I just kept thinking.... There's a scripture somewhere in the Psalms that says something along the lines of "What would have become of me if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living". But I didn't know it word for word...and i knew that it was definitely and "index card verse" I went to look it up, and here's what I got:

"What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living! Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord."


Comes out of Psalm 27:13 and 14 in the Ampliefied version.

I've come to realize...

*That no matter how much you try to fix things, some things just can't be "fixed"

*That moving on means making a daily choice not to look back.

*That sometimes it's best to let friendships that belonged to yesterday,stay in "yesterday" cause God obviously wanted them to end, no matter how much you try to revive them. Because as one of my pastors once said "Blessed are they who mourn" means Blessed are they who know how to let what belonged to yesterday die

*That once you've apologized, you've done your part and you are free to move on with a clear conscience.

*That people will do whatever they want, whether it hurts you in the least way or not.

*That everyone who already has the things that you so desperately want and what you think you may never have a chance to have can be as sweet and caring as they know how, but they will never unerstand the present reality of what it is that you lack.

*That forgiveness is a process, and you will be able to do it when you are meant to, not when everyone else demands it of you.

*That it's not worth holding onto someone's actions forever, no matter how right you think you may be, or how much you think that they've wronged you. It's about learning to let it go and let God deal with them...and He WILL, that I can promise you.

*That no person, family, friend or otherwise is worth your spiritual freedom and emotional health, and NOBODY has the right to keep you in a pit. (But also realize that the same God who brought you out of the pit, has the power to bring them out).

*That just when you think you couldn't take one more thing going wrong, God has a way of sending someone your way to make you realize that He was there all along.

*That you cannot let guilt or shame or past behaviours determine your worth. You are more valuable than you will ever know. Your value consists in the shed blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of your sins, and the right-standing with the Father that Jesus alone can bring you.

*That it's not in getting everything on your list of "I've got to have this or I'll never make it" but in knowing that at the end of the day, God still knows the desires of your ♥ and He has not for one second forgotten the things that are so dear to you. And if He says no, It's because there's a greater yes somewhere down the road....He knows where that is and is working on getting you there. And in the mean time, when you think you can't make it, He will always be there to remind you that you will make it.

*That when it's all said and done, it's not about the amount of "good" or "right" things you've done, but about knowing that at the end of the day, even the days when you think you've blown it, you are absolutely, rooted, established and secured in the un-chainging, un-failing love of a God who is absolutely wild about you, and will do anything to get you into a daily relationship with Him so that you can experience that absolutely amazing, totally un-failing love every single day of your life.

*And that when you have a bad day,or a bad week, or a bad month, you can go cry it out before Him for however long it takes and He won't cast you out of His presence cause your faith isn't strong enough, or because He'll think you're bothering Him. He will dry your tears, heal your broken heart, set you back on your feet and show you the way to go, and you'll have some awesome surprises along the way

This post was not directed to anyone in particular. Especially the friendship sections.They were more like a reminder to myself regarding some friendships from my Live Journal days that I was trying to revive, that I shoudln't be reviving. This is a summary I just wrote up of things that I've learned along the way during the last year and a half. (I realize it sounds like one of those tacky emails that's always fwded around but it's not)


Life is hard. There are good days, and there are bad days. But when you look back you see that there was a lot of good that happened along the way. New friendships, new levels of faith, a new understanding of what this thing is all about. I belive it all comes down to this:

~"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"~Jermeiah 29:11

Not a Single One of Any Kind

I was looking over some old notes from Beth Moore's teaching on Romans 8. And they are soooo worth repeating. So from here on out, ©Biblegateway.com and ©Beth Moore and Living Proof Ministries.


But here we go.... She starts out teaching out of Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. "

here come the notes:

*We are meant to be more than a conqueror in ALL these things

*We have been set up for victory by the absence of condemnation.

*If we can get it through our head that we are out of condemnation and self condemnation-- that constant echoing that says "you are not enough, you will never be enough,you will never be good enough, you will never keep it together, you will always fail, you will always be what you have always been"—That echoing condemnation continues to take us back to the pit because we will act out who we really believe ourselves to be in Christ.

*We live out the truth of what we believe…it's not that we necessarily believe the truth… but whatever we're living out…it's what we believe to be true.

*If we are continually feeling condemned, we will continue to act in such a way to condemn us . This WILL become a vicious cycle…


Then she follows with a reference to one of her commentaries. I think Ouden is the phrase from which we get "No condemnation"

*No condemnation –Ouden—Stornger-- no condemnatory verdict, it's saying means "Not a single one of ANY KIND" There is not a single condemnation against you of any kind."

Need more proof? I'm gonna go back a couple of verses....

"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns?

Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...


No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God

Florida Outpouring

Has anyone been watching the Florida Outpouring on God TV? It's absolutely phenomenal. If you don't get GOD TV, you can watch on the website. The live service starts at 8/7 central on the U.S. feed And then they re-run it on the UK feed the next afternoon starting at like 1. p.m.

If' you're interested go check it out

God Tv

Picture...

This is mainly for Ms. Beth and Amanda...

If y'all need to see the picture I made for Ms. Beth, y'all can get it from here...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y251/andreeaflorentina/Special%20pictures/beth.jpg

Y'all have got to see

The recap vid from the Vancouver conference that Beth Moore did this weekend. You can find it on her blog...

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/03/vancouver-recap-video.html

Go take a look :)

The bottom line...

"In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction;you have put all my sins behind your back. For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise;those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you."

I was what Beth Moore calls a "pit jumper". In talking to a very dear friend a couple of days ago, about the book "Get Out of That Pit", I realized that not only was I a habitual pit jumper, but I was getting ready to jump back in AGAIN...

I am so thankful tha the Lord didn't let me do that. Looking back over the last week or so, I had noo idea how close I was to taking that jump. In fact I'd have probably jumped back in, and felt right at home...hanging my pictures back up and everything.