Ever been in a boat on a lake?

You might answer yes to the title question but if you read further, the question isn’t finished yet.

And the dark clouds have gathered quicker than you expected, and you are in the middle of the lake open to the elements?

I have been in such a situation. We had gone fishing early in the morning. The sky was showing off its beautiful Florida dawn colors. The lake was like glass.  We had hot coffee in each of our cups and headed our small boat out across the lake. It was a picture-perfect day.

Our anticipation of having a good day fishing was the only thing on our minds. We anchored near a clump of low-hanging tree branches and cast in the first of many worms. Within seconds, I had pulled in a beautiful largemouth bass. My excitement was evident. I’d learned how to cast a perfect cast under the branches. The bass were bedding, and they hated to have anything invade their beds.

We trolled casually around the edge of the lake getting further from the boat ramp. Because the situation was so advantageous to fishing we lost sight of the clouds gathering over our heads. I glanced up a time or two but because the fishing had taken my entire attention off those slightly darkening clouds, I missed the still small voice within me cautioning us to begin to slowly make our way back toward where we had parked the truck.

Calamity often strikes us quickly. Sometimes we have warnings but most of the really devastating events in our lives come out of the blue. A very appropriate description of our fishing trip.

One minute the sky was blue and inviting and the next it had quickly darkened, and the wind had begun to whip up around our boat. It became apparent that we might be in trouble.

Our small outboard motor was doing its best to get us back to shore. I knew that we were in trouble. Why hadn’t I kept my eye on the clouds around us? I had seen them getting a bit dark, but my mind was so fixed on fishing that I ignored the clouds changing.

Sure enough, the wind grew stronger pushing against us as we crossed the open lake. Halfway across, those luminous dark clouds unzipped, and a torrent of rain began to sting our faces. Streaks of lightning zig-zagged a few hundred feet from the lake.

I prayed. I really prayed. Not one of my daily, “thank you for all your blessings” type of prayers. I pulled out the deep prayers I’d prayed over my lifetime when I not only was in the midst of darkness, but I had seen it coming kind of prayers.

There’s a difference between “saying we know God” and KNOWING God. And because there is such a lifestyle, you can readily see it in others.

There’s something about seeing that glint in someone’s eye and hearing the strength of conviction in their voice when they AMEN to what you have just said. It’s encouraging, unlike Elijah who thought he was the only one when you see others share your faith.

I pray that you are one of those people who don’t just give lip service to knowing about God. I pray that you truly know Him by having a rich trusting relationship with the King of Kings. That you hear His voice and obey His instructions. So that when He says, “ head to the shore,” you will listen.

I bless you.

 It’s already done.

Note: this is a little long but please read to the end.

This is an amazing scripture. First, read it slowly and let it sink in. Maybe even read it a couple of times before you go on.

“I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” – Isaiah 65:24 

Reading this today I was taken back to an incident in my life that I’ll share with you here. First, I’ll give you a little background.

From the moment my mother knew that she was going to have another child and told my father—still in the womb—my life started down a path, not of my choosing. Upon hearing the news, my father spoke these words. “I don’t want another child. You could get rid of it. You could abort it. They do things like that.”

Because I’ve lived with the consequences of those words spoken over my life, no one can tell me otherwise. My father’s words went into my mother and landed in me. I came into this world with a death wish for my own life. From the earliest moment I can remember I hated myself. I found nothing good, no redeemable quality about me and certainly didn’t have any hope of ever seeing myself deserving to live.

Therefore, every moment of every single day I lived without hope of seeing the next five minutes. Do you know what that is like? You watch the world making plans for vacations, or having a five-year plan or where they would see themselves in ten years—I couldn’t see myself being here in the next five minutes. I even acted on those feelings and took the internal threat seriously one day and it failed. As you see, I’m still here.

But it wasn’t enough just to have failed to take my own life—something had to change. When I realized that I had failed and was still facing everything I wanted to get away from, the depression and self-loathing were even greater. What was I to do now? The next part that I feel I must share with you if I’m going to be completely honest is that I was a Christian at the time.

So how did this happen? Where was God? I’d accepted Him as my savior. I was walking in a newness of life. I was going to church regularly. I was reading my Bible. My life had drastically changed. I did see significant changes. I wasn’t the same person I had always been. So why this?

When the Holy Spirit comes into us at the moment of rebirth we step into a lifestyle that is so foreign to us. It’s as if we have been dropped down into another country not knowing the language, or the customs, and certainly don’t know where to go or what to do.

This is what stepping into the Kingdom of God is like. It’s so totally different than how we have been living since the moment we came into this world. The good news is God already knew this would happen. He knew that what He would ask us to do now that we took the first step would be utterly impossible for us to do. Seems strange, doesn’t it?

Why would God ask us to do things, even give us commandments to do certain things, knowing that we couldn’t do them? Doesn’t seem like a kind thing to me. There are so many promises about spiritual weapons that we use on the outside of us but what I want to express in this posting is that we need to examine not the attacks that come to us from the outside but the internal war that is already within us.

But, here is the even better news—He gave us the Holy Spirit abiding within us to DO everything God asks through Him. The Word says that the Holy Spirit is sent to be our helper. Comforter. Guide. Teacher. And most of all to tell us exactly what He hears the Father saying and relay it to us. Whew, what a relief. We don’t have to go it alone anymore in this world. We don’t have to try and figure out life. So my next question is why then do we keep trying to navigate life on our own even when we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us?

That was the introduction, now I’ll get to the example. Because I never saw a future this meant that I never planned for anything. I lived within every day. I was raising a child by myself and worked tirelessly every day just to make ends meet.

I had a car that looked and ran like it wouldn’t make it back into my driveway. It had reached a point where I didn’t know when I would get in it, and it was done for. I was lying on my mother’s couch feeling so overwhelmed with life anyway that having to even think about getting another car was catastrophic. I was literally physically ill thinking about it. Even my mother noticed that something was wrong with me. She asked me if I was alright and at the same time I heard the voice I had come to recognize as the Holy Spirit telling me to get up and take my car to a local car dealership.

At that moment I thought I had sincerely lost it. Somehow, with some physical strength enabling me to move off the couch, I stood up and walked out the door. All the way to the car lot I was screaming inside. What was I doing?! Why was I purposely doing this to myself! What did I even think would come from this insane act!?

At this point, everything I was doing had to have been God in me. When I got out of my car and a smiling eager salesman walked out to greet me I almost threw up in his face. Of course, he greeted me with, “Hello, what can I do for you today?”

I wanted to say, “Just shoot me now and get it over with.” But thankfully I didn’t. Somehow the rest of the conversation led me to a Blue 1992 Pontiac Sunbird. Thank God that he only left me just long enough to get the key to it or else I would have bolted and ran.

He handed me the key and told me to take it for a drive and see what I thought. Again in my mind, I was screaming, “WHAT I THINK ABOUT IT?!! I MUST BE CRAZIER THAN I THOUGHT TO BE DOING THIS!!”

But again, I got in the car and found myself driving down the street wondering when the man with the padded jacket would be zipping me up. I remember willing myself not to cry the whole time. To keep what little sanity I had left and just take the car back, thank him, and leave as soon as I could.

When he asked me what I thought, again I had a laundry list of thoughts that should have come spewing out of my mouth. “What I think is that my credit score is zero, I have nothing but a car that is a wreck not worth the dollars’ worth of gas I put in it. My life can't afford this car and why would you or anyone even think to give me a car?” But once again, those words didn’t come out. Instead, he led me into his office, and I sat down like a bag of rocks.

I’d been through this humiliation many times before. Trying to get a small loan from loan officers who lean back in their chairs, tapping a pencil against the desk and finally telling me that they are sorry, but they can’t or won’t loan me a dime. Getting up and slinking out of the bank once again seeing what you already feel about yourself—you are nothing and never will be worthy of anyone ever giving or doing anything for you.

As he tapped on his calculator at this point I was sinking even further beneath the waves of total humiliation and despair. Why was I doing this to myself? WHY? Hadn’t I suffered enough already?

His next question must have shocked me back to the moment when He asked me what year my current car was. It’s a wonder I could remember. The conversation went on and when he reached for his phone I knew that the final knife was about to be thrust into my heart. He was calling to check on my credit. Why I didn’t burst into flames at that moment or fill his office with insane laughter had to only be the Holy Spirit lovingly controlling me.

This is what happened next. He asked the secretary to come in, he asked me for my keys, he asked me if I had anything in my car that I needed to get out, and finally told the secretary to tell the mechanic in the back to get the 1992 Pontiac detailed for Miss Todd.

I thought, “What is this man doing? Has he gone nuts? Doesn’t he know who I am?” I’ll spare you any further anticipation. Within the next ten minutes, I had signed my name, we had exchanged keys, he walked me outside, shook my hand, and thanked ME for doing business WITH him!

God had gotten me off the couch and now he had seated me in a new car and helped me drive it off the lot. I must have come to my senses by then because I kept looking in the rearview mirror thinking that at any moment the salesman would realize what he had done and was sending the police after me.

When I pulled back into my mother’s yard and shut the car off. I heard the Holy Spirit. “Susan, I had already told that man to give my child a car.”

Now you might have read this lengthy posting and I truly hope you have. This happened to me. Every word of it is true. I lived through this. I experienced this loving faithful act of God in my life. And this isn’t the only time.

As unimaginable as it seems that God would already answer our prayers even before we pray them is beyond the scope of understanding.

He loves us so much. He longed so much to care about his creation that He came in human form in His Son Jesus.

It’s humbling when it finally hits us that God really is Good. He really does care about every one of us. That’s means—YOU also.

I always want to leave you with a blessing. But my blessing is nothing compared to how much God wants to bless you. But I’ll add mine anyway.

Bless you.

There are Giants in their Land

I don’t think If I lived to be one hundred years old I would ever not go through times of dealing with personal Giants. By that, I mean the things that come into all of our lives that we have to deal with.

Disappointment is one of my biggest giants. Right on the flipside of that is discouragement when things take a turn for the worse in my life. Things that in the back of my mind I knew might happen but hoped that they didn’t.

One of my giants involves a friendship that has gone haywire many times before and yet God keeps resurrecting it over and over. Maybe you have that friend that you love with all your heart, and they keep disappearing from you. I’m a very hands-on kind of gal when it comes to my friends. I text, email daily thoughts, reach out when they have gone silent, and then…Wham! My heart gets a punch that I don’t see coming. I should know by now how it goes but if you are like me you keep thinking, “This time it won’t happen!” And yet it does.

I have to learn to get my cry out of the way and settle back down so I can hear from the Lord. He already knew that this was going to happen again, so He was not caught unaware. I’m the one that feels blindsided.

Ugh! This flesh of mine of just too sensitive for this world. My heart hurts for days, and I have to keep bringing my hurt feelings back for the Lord to apply the Balm of Gilead on it once again.

Today when the problem arose again I ran to the Word! I have to. I can’t let a lot of time go between having the Lord rescue me or I suffer for far too long.

I sat and listened to a Charles Stanley message that came to my attention (it was the Holy Spirit leading me) and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

It came from the book of Numbers the 13^th and 14^th chapters. He began talking about how the children of Israel were knocking on the door of the promised land when the report came of giants being in the land. Of all the spies that went into the land only two, Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. All the rest spewed fear into the people and they became afraid. They began to murmur and complain and cry about wishing that they had stayed in Egypt. EGYPT!!! They had just cried to be delivered out of their life there under all the brick building and suffering and God had heard and here they were now ready to go into a land of milk and honey with God’s promise of going before them and taking care of them.

It’s easy to judge Old Testament characters but when we do, we are no different. I have to admit that right in the middle of being so incredibly happy with moving here into my promised land and seeing my giants, I fell prey to the same humanness. Maybe I should have stayed in Ohio.

Then I snapped myself out of it and ran for the Word. What am I thinking? God is the one who brought me here. He opened the door miraculously, answered one prayer after the next, and here I sit.

One other thing Dr. Stanley said that they neglected to do was to remember everything God had already done for them. I need to have my head examined if I forget even one of the amazing ways in which God has already taken care of me over the years. The fact that I am still alive these two years since my health issue in itself is nothing but a HUGE miracle!

Dr. Stanley went on to say that the fearful report of the other spies not only hurt them but hurt all the other people. So much so that it caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years and they didn’t get to go into the promised land when they were standing right on the edge of it.

Boy, this Word hit me exactly where I needed it to today. He closed with this other scripture that he said he has lived with since he began to preach.

Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord, thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

If I believed in tattoos I’d have this tattooed on my arm so I could look at it every day; instead, I’ll opt to just print it out and tape it on my desk.

I’m sitting in Florida because this is where I know I belong. I need the grace and help of the Holy Spirit to weather the attack of the giants and continue to trust God. He’s not going to leave or forsake us just because of a few giants. Maybe the giants in your life are screaming at you too and threatening to destroy you but God has already, through Jesus, given us the victory. We just need to keep standing and trusting God.

Giants today…POOF! Gone tomorrow.

I hope this blesses any reader who comes by directed by the Lord whose heart is under attack. Please ponder what you have read, take it into your heart, and stand strong. God has not forsaken you or me; we need to remember this.

I bless you.

Did you wake up this morning in a blessing?

I’ll start by saying that my boast is in the Lord. Where I now wake up every day is due to nothing but God's loving-kindness. I’m in the new home that I prayed for about over a year. I had no idea how overly abundantly above my prayer God would answer.

I’m tucked under His wing. If you are a Christian reading this then you understand the reference. In this ever-changing world, knowing that your life is under God’s care is worth more than anything money can buy. Finding myself there causes me to praise and thank Him every day.

But, God is no respecter of persons. Yes, it is true, He loves everyone and gave His Son Jesus so that we all might come to the saving grace of God. But not everyone will accept the gift of salvation. This is an unbelievable event to me. Who would reject such a gift? Yet, you might be one of those very people. That is why using my voice here I cannot help but offer to you the Gift of the salvation message.

My voice is small in this world. But how I use it can have far-reaching outcomes for the Glory of God. That’s what He wants from your life too. There’s so much waiting on you; you have no idea. If you're a believer who comes here to read my postings then I pray that you will always receive something you can carry off into your own life and the lives of others. Only what we do for the Lord will carry over into Heaven.

Recently, my sister went through some things that she has saved for years and asked me to find the value of them. It’s going to be a task for sure. While I have been searching for these things online it has come to me several times that no matter the value, one day they will not matter at all. Sure we pass on to family members the things we gain in this life, but they will not keep them either. Material things just keep being passed from hand to hand. But none of it will make it out of this world.

The only thing we have of any value to God is our souls. The saddest thing is to gain the whole world and end up losing your soul. For some of the wealthiest men in the world that is going to happen if they don’t know the Lord.

What will it have all been worth? And sadder yet is that they won’t know the truth until it’s too late. When they finally stand before God and cry out knowing now that He did exist, and that their eyes were blinded; leaving them eternally separated from God.

Yet each one of us can run the risk of doing the same thing. I hope that one of the main things I will accomplish with this blog is to move you to jealousy. Not of me but of the goodness of God.

Our source is and should always be God. I recently read this statement, Not from the government down, but from the people up. It was the truth about where the hope and help for our country will come from. It just goes along with my thoughts today.

God has clearly said in His Word, 2 Chronicles 7: 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

There it is. The answer to our country’s woes.  As a Christian, I pray every day for this Nation to come back under the covering of God; That what our forefathers established this nation upon will come back. It’s the first prayer God instructs us to pray every day as believers. The second is for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel.

I’ll leave you here to reflect on your thoughts.

I bless you.

 The FAVOR OF GOD 

This posting today is coming through extreme thankfulness for the favor of God over my life. The first thing I want to say is if you know the Lord and have an active relationship with the Holy Spirit, then you have the favor of God also.

It's a relationship promise. But it comes with a requirement and that is that you have to know God, not just know about Him. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity and He comes into our lives when we accept the salvation promise.

He is sent to teach, comfort, guide, and relay to us whatsoever He hears the Father saying. Stop and think about that for a minute if you will.

The God of unfathomable universes, the creator of everything that was ever created, the One who has no beginning or end, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and is Love itself, comes to abide within us.

He knows the number of hairs on our heads, maintains our lot in life, loves us with unimaginable love, forgives us, and loads us with benefits every day. His Goodness and Mercy are following after us every day. I could go on and on.

That He even sent His Son to take our place is more than we deserve and yet, the Word is full of so many promises beyond that. I truly cannot understand how anyone would refuse the offer of Salvation; I honestly can’t.

I’ve posted previously that I was waiting on God for a promise given to me well over four years ago. I have praised Him and thanked Him continuously with faith that believes before you see things come to pass.

I have been praying to move back to Florida. Well, at the end of this month that will be my new home! I cannot begin to find the words to tell you everything that God has done for me to make this move possible. This scripture recently came in my email, and it was so very timely.

Luke 1:30: “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.’ ” KJV

We often think about how God put His favor on others in the Word, but do we really believe that when He says that He is no respecter of persons that means that we too can expect the favor of God on our lives as well?

We are living in a troubled world right now. So many people are experiencing tragedies beyond imagination. Peace is a scarce commodity. But there is a place of refuge that is available to everyone who trusts in God.

I hope this posting will stir you to acknowledge the favor of God over your life if you know Him. If you don’t and are searching for a safe place to surrender your life to find a peace that passes all understanding, you will make that decision today.

I bless you

 

And just like that, it’s over.

I was about to sit down and work on one of my books, (yes, I write books. I’ll leave a link below.)

Oh, my, my, my, the Lord sure teaches me so many practical lessons. I just finished writing this post and clicked on another page without saving all that I wrote and—Poof—it's gone—just like that! I think God also has a very rich sense of humor.

I was writing about how later in the day yesterday after the eclipse, it felt as though nothing had happened. There was so much hype around the event then it lasted only a few minutes and it was all over. Everyone went back to their lives I’m sure just as I did.

Later that night it felt strange that the sun had come back out, and life went back to normal just as though nothing had happened. I have a very grainy picture in my Gallery but other than that there was not one slight difference in the rest of my day. I knew I’d experienced a phenomenon and could now say that I had witnessed an eclipse but that was it. I’m sure all the scientists in the world would beg to differ. I’m sure they have a whole pack of evidence that they are pouring over today.

My other point that I so carelessly deleted, was that I’m not good at waiting. I’m quite bad at it. Today as I sat down to write I was a bit anxious and even might add, sad. I’m not sure why. I’m waiting for a new part of my life to come but today I'm on the waiting side of it.

Unlike the eclipse, I do have a whole lot of evidence about the things that God has changed in my life. I know that I am not the same person. I know that there are things that I don’t think or do anymore. I know that I waited on the changes and one day I turned the corner, and everything became new.

The same thing is going to happen with what I'm waiting on today. One day I’ll say, “And just like that, it's over.” There is nothing like answers to prayer. The time praying is often long and can even add some sad days, but when that answer comes—Hallelujah!

Just like this post today, I spent time writing it, and then just like that it was gone, and I had to decide if I’d forget it and go write something else or discipline myself to not give up and start over. As you can see I chose the latter. That’s one of those things that’s not easy for me. But I’m growing every day in the Lord. I love when there's evidence that I can see of changes in my life. When some of the things that used to bring my life to a standstill are no longer a part of my life—that’s a reason to rejoice!

I hope that as you read my simple blog posts you will find something encouraging to take with you into your life. And even more importantly anything bothering you right now, know that one day you will also be able to say, “And just like that, it’s over.”

I bless you.

Here is the link on Amazon, I’d appreciate it if you took a look at all my books. I’d appreciate it even more if one of them catches your eye and you purchase it.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Dexter-Bridgestokes-Bequeath-ebook/dp/B0CSXGMNCZ

 

 A need to stop beating a dead horse and the big - BUT.

How often have you had something stuck in your mind? Sometimes I wake up with a word or thought on my mind and it hounds me until I sit down and think about what’s going on with me. That's what I'm doing now.

One of my faults is always thinking that I’m the only one with what I struggle with. I have very little interaction with people daily right now, (I hope that will change soon.) So naturally it's more likely that I deal with myself and myself as confidants.

Let’s start with the phrase, stop beating a dead horse. You’d think that action wouldn’t need any encouragement at all. Who in their right mind would keep beating a dead horse expecting it to get up?

We might not be actually beating a horse, but if you are like me and I’m going to believe that you are, we do this. Sometimes it’s like a broken record. And while I’m at it, they say that doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is insanity. Now most of us are not really insane as the definition of insanity suggests but I think a lot more people than would admit—follow this pattern in their life.

I added in the BUT, because there is always one. My, BUT is, when I keep beating a mental dead horse, I know better. BUT thank the Good Lord that I finally do sit down and deal with whatever it is that is creating all those mental flies in my life. And we all know what draws flies—garbage.

There are so many things that people struggle with, whether of their own making or by others that are completely unnecessary. If it is just my own shortcomings that I’m being convicted about to either start to do better or stop doing altogether, then that’s the easier of two. BUT what is genuinely crazy, is trying to get someone else to change. Yes, dear reader, let’s have a time of confession before we continue. That’s something I do think I’m not the only one who does it.

How many times have you asked someone to stop doing something or to PLEASE do something? If you are like me you walk off more frustrated after encountering these individuals than you were to begin with.

So let’s go back to that picture of someone beating a dead horse. They can beat it until they fall over and join the horse, and NOTHING is going to change; other than both are now dead. That horse is not going to get up. As bystanders, we could all see that the person doing the beating has a problem—not the horse. It’s dead.

So why do we as humans do this? I have to ask myself during one of my self-conversations, “Why am I going over this same ground every day?”

I can give me, myself, and I some grace because I don’t do it as often or as long anymore. Maybe it's getting older and just not having the mental or physical strength to keep beating a dead horse situation. The other thing that I think helps is running out of time.

Boy, oh boy, if I had all the time back that I spent fuming over my own shortcomings or those of someone else, I’d have many more years of life added to me. But sadly we can’t get back those years that we wish we hadn’t given so many of them to beating dead horses.

That good old—hindsight- is another part of this posting. Can’t we all look back to some time in our lives and wish that we had done things differently?

As I write I see this common boat filling up with other people who just might have some of the same issues I struggle with. I am not the only one. Thankfully there is a boat that we can all get into when our Titanic begins to sink.  

Maybe my honesty is a fault, but I’d rather be honest than be the opposite. Some people are so closed off that you never know what they are thinking. What a merry-go-round of emotions we can get caught up in if we are not careful.

BUT, hear is the glorious silver lining, knowing the Lord. I know that there is help for me. I know that I don’t have to struggle with my problems alone. I might never understand the reasons why things happen or what people do that I can’t change, but I do know this—having the Lord in my life is the most important part of my life.

So today, I’m going to walk away from one of my dead horses and get on with something more productive. And I am the only one who can make the changes in my life with God's help. That might be the first dead horse you are beating. If you got up today trying to deal with all your problems alone and God isn't a source you believe in, stop reading right here and give God room to speak to you. 

We are only given one life to deal with. It’s not up to us to try and change another person or ourselves—only God can do that. When I woke up today with my current issues already racing across my mind, I came here to make this post. I know what to do today. I know where to go for the help I need in my life to change these old mental habits. I have no one to blame but me, myself, and I if I continue to get out my whip and beat my dead horse.

I hope my being honest helps any reader in some small way. If nothing else, if the main horse you are beating is that you think that you are the only one, let me assure you that you are not. In assuring you, I’m assuring myself.

We are not the only ones.

I bless you.