Keep on Praying!

I don't know about you, but I have times when I become a slacker to pray for someone. In this instance I'm talking about someone who doesn't know the Lord or someone who has strayed from the faith. My faith gets small and I lose my fervor. Well, Scripture has reminded this week to not give up!! I love the fact that God's Word is living and active!

"And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven."...then He said to the paralytic - "Rise, take up your bed, and go home."

Matthew 9:2, 6

What has given me a new fervor is the fact that it was the faith of the friends bringing the paralytic. In verse 2 above it says THEIR faith. It wasn't the paralytic, it was the people bringing the paralytic. So this scripture has reminded me the importance of interceding for others and to not let my fervor die.

On another note, I wanted to fill you guys in on what is going on down here. Well, the weather yesterday was lovely. It was sunny and warm...I think around 60 degrees, maybe. I was outside just loving it. When I went for my run, I was way over dressed. The day before it was 30 and so I just thought it was sunny, but cold again. I was wrong. I got a good sweat out of it.

We are looking for a house here and there. We are currently renting and need to be out of the house by August. We do have time, but it's good to get a feel for what is out there and learn what is in our price range. We are learning a ton about life and living for Jesus everyday with a God centered focus. I am reminding myself daily that my only expectation is to glorify Christ (Phil 1:20). It is easy to expect things that we think are good and right, but be misled in our desires. The heart is deceitful and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9).

We are still visiting different churches to find the one we would like to be involved in. There are several great Bible teaching churches here, which is a huge blessing. We just haven't settled on one yet.

For those basketball sports fans, ADB was able to go to another Memphis Tigers basketball game the other day. They are ranked number 1 and so he gets excited when he is invited to go. The last game was a close one. Go Tigers! That is a little summary of what we are doing. I will try to get some pictures on here soon. There just hasn't been anything exciting to take pictures of and I don't want to post pictures of myself all the time. That would get boring very quickly.

Be Inspired!

The ministry I work for is a discipleship ministry which trains people in building disciples. There are classes every week and this past week was the first week of classes since the holidays. I was really blessed by one of the speakers who spoke on the topic of Quiet Times. To be honest, I wasn't really all that excited because I have heard a lot of talks on Quiet Times. Well, I was sorely mistaken and was blessed beyond belief. Here are some thoughts and words the speaker shared with which I was challenged and rejuvenated.

She started off by singing a song that was sung at the Women's Retreat last year.

"I'm a soldier in the army of the Lord. I'm a soldier in the ar-ar-my." This immediately made me think of you all with smiles. But she reminded me that we are a soldier and therefore must act as one. We must always be ready for battle. And we prepare for battle in our time with the Lord.

Here are some other nuggets she shared:
"What counts will cost." Getting time with the Lord will cost us and there will be sacrifice, but we need to protect it.

"Seek the face of God before we dare to seek the face of anyone else." We need to get up and fight the flesh. God needs to continually be the first thing we seek.

"Ask God to make you simple enough to receive." We need to remember that our time with Him is a time to hear from Him...not a time to come with our agenda.

And the most impactful one for me:
"If I were to die and come into the presence of God this second, would it be a great, glorious and amazing experience or would it feel ackward because it is unfamiliar." Enough said on that one.

I feel I have not done justice to what an impactful time this was for me. It rejuvenated me and gave me a new excitement for gettting up early in the morning. No more hum drum for me.