Do You Think I'm Beautiful?

Early Saturday morning some friends & I headed to this nice place in Blue Ridge, GA for a Leaders Prayer Retreat for Ladies organized & led by the sweet Mardy Freeman.

There were 15 leader ladies altogether: Moms, a single single, pastor's wives, heads of support groups, the wife of a state congressman, etc. Wonderful women who love the Lord & could use some refreshing & stress-free fellowshipping.

One component of the spiritual freshening-up was speaking to NO ONE except the Lord before 11 a.m. to give everyone plenty of quiet time for prayer, meditation & reading.

Laughing, crying, dancing & singing were optional.

Once I got out of this bed in the a.m. I could help myself to breakfast laid out in the kitchen & wander all around the quiet hills & house but was not supposed to even say "Good morning" to

my roommate, Betty, which, as some of you who know me well can guess, was challenging to my constitution!

The first day there during some free time, I looked through the stack of books beside the bed, glad to see them because I had not brought any extra reading materials with me. I know you are shocked but I tell you true, this librarian brought only my Bible & a notebook.

The little stack of books on the bedside table included one Thomas Nelson published in 2003 called "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" by Angela Thomas, a title this practical person would avoid under normal circumstances. I prepared to endure the book, expecting it to be so girly I would gag. Surprisingly enough, it was good. Interesting. Funny even.

Mardy told us in advance that she felt led to focus her testimony talks (not to be confused with teaching, said she, since she doesn't need stricter judgment - James 3:1) on speaking the truth in our minds. Monday morning as I (silently) read in the Beautiful book, I was astounded to find that Angela Thomas was addressing that very topic. So well did the book apply that I, when Mardy breezed through at 11 a.m. with "Good morning! You can talk now!" asked her if she had planted it in my room.

She sat down & listened as I read to her what I had just devoured a few minutes prior & with tears streaming, agreed that this was planted by God Himself for our additional edification. PTL! He is so good to us!

How valuable did I find the words to my soul?

I am purchasing one for the library AND one for me - to write in! :-)
And I can say with confidence that it really doesn't matter how the world sees me because my Father Who made me, delights in me.

I am beautiful in His eyes.

Stock Broker Wisdom

My Aunt Louise sent this email:

I called my stockbroker today and asked, "What are you buying"?

His answer: "Canned goods and ammunition".

Some days that seems like an excellent answer...
:-)


BTW:
I cannot believe no one had an answered prayer to share. Does this mean God answers just the way you were expecting?

I know that some prayers are so huge it's hard to know WHAT to expect but was there really nothing you could share to proclaim the Hand of God at work in your life?

Who can read the Mind of God?

Pastor James has been preaching a short series on prayer, appropriate with the National Day of Prayer coming up on Thursday.
One of the things he mentioned was how God answers prayer in unexpected ways.

I was reminded of the time the beast broke down on our way home from Knoxville. I know I've said that it happens so often that we nearly consider it traditional for the beast to require some form of mechanical help on road trips, even so, sitting beside the highway in Chattanooga in a dead beast is not fun. Especially when we are hours from home.

But we were not hours from God, nor were we hours from family.

I don't know about you, but traveling always brings out the prayer warrior in me.
Stan drives. I pray.
One of the boys drives. I pray even harder.

We had made the quick trip to TN for Pawpaw Alex's funeral. Stan was expected back at work the day after we headed home. On the edge of the road, I prayed for someone to stop to help us. Finally, an area lawman picked us up & took us to the nearby station where we were able to hang out for several hours in AIR CONDITIONING (PTL! - did I mention it was mid-day in July...) & use their phone to send out an SOS to Aunt Judy. She drove to the rescue. Stan rode with the tow truck driver back to Knox. & stashed the beast at my cousin Larry's auto repair place just down the street from Grandma's.

I remember asking God to please show me what His plan was as I worked the phone & yellow pages trying to find us a way home & kept hitting roadblocks: No one would rent us a vehicle one direction that would a.)hold our entire family nor b.)tow the beast home - both of which needed to happen. A flight home was way out of our budget plus would still leave the beast in TN.

The only course of action I could see was to get us home. God's plan was better: Stay in TN & fix the beast.

Here's what God did through this:
My sweet Grandma had company in her home for over a week after her husband's funeral, even on her birthday. We were blessed with some quality time with my extended family.


The beast got an engine transplant >
In TN, Cousin Larry provided a nearby place under a shade tree & the few tools Stan needed which were not in his toolbox (FL = sun & tracking down or purchasing special tools).
Cousin Kevin drove him across town to meet a truck carrying the donor engine (We had no vehicle aside from the beast at that time that would have carried an engine.) - plus FINDING that engine at an affordable $$ - woohoo!!!
Stan was able to focus on fixing the beast without having to do it around his work schedule so it took DAYS to fix rather than MONTHS, plus, Uncle Jim helped!

Aunt Elaine told Stan about the new family-friendly leave act which allowed him to use sick leave for family emergencies rather than just when he was sick himself. It was so new that his boss didn't know about it yet. Stan wound up using only the approved 4 days annual leave plus 4 days sick leave for this trip. Trust me, it was a blessing.

*******
Last night our well sputtered dirty water then pumped air. I'm praying for God's plan. It could be as simple as call the well guy & he will fix it, but with God, you just never know. :-)

How has God blessed you by answering your prayer in unexpected ways?

Feasting on Fasting

I believe I mentioned before that Caleb, Andrew and I have been reading through Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney - available in the church library once I return it!

So far, the study had reminded me of things I knew and encouraged me in areas that might not have been emphasized previously but which I was not completely unfamiliar with: Bible Intake (reading, meditating-on, memorizing, hearing), Prayer, Meditation, Stewardship (in time and finances), Worship, Evangelism, Serving.

Today we began reading about fasting & I must admit that I've never closely examined this topic; still haven't since there is only one chapter on it here, but this one chapter contains a feast on fasting compared to my previous study. Here are some nibbles for you.

Christians in a gluttonous, denial-less, self-indulgent society may struggle to accept and to begin the practice of fasting. (OUCH! My toes!!!) Few disciplines go so radically against the flesh and the mainstream of culture as this one but we cannot overlook its biblical significance... Most of us dare not overlook fasting's benefits in the disciplined pursuit of Christlike life.

Fasting is mentioned in the Bible 77 times, baptism 75 times. I mentioned this to my pastor who preached on baptism not too long ago but from whom I've never heard a sermon on fasting. He surprised me by saying he had recently downloaded a free e book about fasting from http://www.elmertowns.com/ . Perhaps a sermon on this topic is in the works?

A biblical definition of fasting is a Christian's (no eternal value for the non-Christian) voluntary (not to be coerced, although may be encouraged) abstinence from food for spiritual purposes (more than just the ultimate crash diet). A broader view... defines fasting as "the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity"... such as involvement with other people, the media, the telephone, from talking, from sleep, etc.

Matthew chapter 6 makes it obvious that Jesus expected that His followers would fast. [Jesus said] "So when you give...", "And when you pray...", "But when you fast..." No one doubts that we are to give and to pray and there is nothing in all of scripture that indicates that we no longer need to fast, and since we know Christians in the book of Acts fasted (9:9, 13:2, 14:23), we may conclude that Jesus still expects his followers to fast today.

If you are wanting any kind of a blessing for it, fasting is to be done ONLY for God-centered purposes such as to strengthen prayer, seek God's guidance, express grief, seek deliverance or protection, express repentance and the return to God, humble oneself before God, express concern for the work of God, minister to the needs of others (an example was included here of donating the $ one would have spent on food to the needs of those for whom one is fasting), overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, and to express love and worship to God.

REMEMBER THAT even at our best we do not deserve what we desire, nor can we force God's hand. Whether or not you receive the blessing you hope for, one thing is sure: If you knew what God knew, you would give yourself the identical blessing that He does. And none of his rewards are worthless.


At the end of the chapter are application questions, in this case asking readers to confess and repent of any fear of fasting. The boys & I agreed that it wasn't something we feared just something we hadn't thought about before & that we didn't enjoy being hungry. We also agreed that we had skipped meals in the past just because we didn't have time to eat and wonder of wonders: WE DID NOT DIE.

Another thing brought up in our discussion was that since fasting is between a person and God, and we are not supposed to proclaim our fastiness to the world (Matt. 6 again) that plenty of people could be observing this spiritual discipline without the rest of us knowing about it. Now don't start looking your fellow believers in the eye to try to spot that "hungry" look. Don't mess with their blessings!


The chapter concludes by asking readers, "Will you fast as the Holy Spirit directs?" and "Will you plan a fast of dedication now as an expression of your willingness to fast from now on?"

My question to you is, "Now that you know that Jesus expects us to practice it, will you closer examine the spiritual discipline of fasting?"