Being Washed

I totally love it when God uses an example in my life to make me fully understand the point He is trying to make. Last night I told my 12 yr old to go take a shower. So after much stalling off she goes but once in the shower I hear her normal singing and dancing. When she is done she comes out and stands next to me. Well as I was making sure she got her hair dry enough I noticed that it did not smell clean and asked jokingly if she used soap to wash her hair and she said yes...then I put her arm up to my nose and smelled and again no soapy smell. I once again asked if she used soap in the shower which she then admitted no she did not. So I told her that she needed to go back in there and take another shower this time using soap, which she did in record time since she had used all the hot water in her first shower. While I was thinking about how she thought she had been "clean" but really wasn't the Lord showed me that we must continually wash our selves in God's Word. We can not just read enough so that we "look clean" but must get into God's Word to keep our hearts and mind clean and pure. In God's Word is a fountain of blessing that we can only access if we read and apply it to our lives.

Till Next Time~God Bless!

ROBIN

Chili's Guiltless Grill Giveaway 2/23/09

Here is a great giveaway for 2 Guiltless Grilll entrees from Chilis! Yummy! Check out these great new meals!!
http://sweeps4bloggers.blogspot.com/2009/02/chilis-guiltless-grill-giveaway-22309.html

ROBIN

Taming our Tongue

Tomorrow will be my 29th birthday. Only one more year until the big 3-0. I know age is nothing but a number but I think about how quickly these years have gone by and what I have done for the Lord during those years. I can see now more than ever that God is doing a mighty work in not only my life but the lives of my family members as well. I praise God for the salvation of my family! I long to leave a Godly legacy for my daughter. This week at revival has really been well quite frankly painful. The Lord has shown me just how prideful I am. If you have not read the book entitled "Brokenness" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss then I highly recommend it. Man just this morning I was reading it and realizing just how wrong I was in a lot of areas of my spiritual walk. I want the Lord to get all the honor and glory for everything I saw and do and I am realizing that in fact while I say those words sometimes I am not showing that. I get upset if someone doesn't say "Good Job" or even bragging about what I made for the potluck dinner at church. That is pride! When we have pride in us that comes out in everything we do from our actions to our speech. Last night at revival the evangelist preached a wonderful message on the tongue and how it reveals what is really in our hearts. If we have a pure heart then we will have pure speech...but if we have a defiled heart then we will have a crooked, cutting, complaining and condemning tongue. When others hear us talk can they tell by our speech that we are Christians? Imagine on a Sunday after your church service and dressed in your Sunday best you go out to eat lunch with your family and well, the service is slow and then they didn't cook your steak the right way and you are sitting there complaining and cutting down the server with sharp and hurtful words. You didn't know that there was a young lady sitting at the booth behind you considering going to church to find out why Christians are so different from the world. But then she sees you sitting there in your Sunday best and hears the words coming out of your mouth. While they may not be cuss words they are mean words none the less. This turns her off from church because she thinks why should she become a Christian..I act like that person already and she never sets foot inside a church all because your steak wasn't well done. Let us remember to think before we speak and cry out to God to remove pride from our lives and to create in us a pure heart!

Till Next Time~God Bless!

ROBIN

God's Mysterious Ways!

We are currently having a wonderful week of revival services at church and I have had to work. But last night with the storms that came through the internet was down and I was unable to log into work so I got to go to church last night. The Lord knew that I needed to be there last night. The message was titled..."The Avalanche of Anger". I do have a pretty quick temper but my fuse is shortest with those I love. Please do not get me wrong I am not bragging just expounding so you can now how the Lord dealt with me. While listening to the evangelist preach I was overcome with the thought that I am like Jonah and have a "me" problem. Focusing on me me me and not on others. Jonah had such bitterness against Nineveh and the miracle that God performed there that he was angry towards them when he should have been rejoicing that so many people had gotten saved and turned from their wicked ways. The Lord laid it upon my heart that I needed to make things right with my daughter and also my husband. At the time of invitation I went to the altar and cried unto God to help me to stay off the road mentioned in Ephesians 4:31 "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." When we got home I took each aside and apologized to them for letting anger control me. I pray that the Lord will help me to follow the instructions found in Ephesians 4:32 " And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." When we got dropped my mom back off at home after church my dad said that the internet was fine after we left and the modem needed reset. I had done that step a hundred times at a previous job but that thought never even entered my mind last night. The Lord really wanted me at the services last night and I praise Him for allowing that to happen!

Till Next Time~God Bless!

ROBIN

Exercising your Faith

Sorry for not posting yesterday had a wonderful day out with my hubby! We went shopping in Kennesaw and I finally got to buy my Love Dare book. I am so excited to be starting the 40 day journey. It is such a beautiful day out that this post may be short and I may go for a walk. I have been thinking and praying alot about dieting and exercise. We all need some form of exercise to keep our bodies in good condition and for overall health. But that also led me to think about how often I exercise my faith and my relationship with God. We must work at loosing weight we can not just read a book or watch a workout video and have the pounds just fall off. We have to participate in it in order for it to benefit us. The same is true of our spiritual lives as well. According to James 1:22 it states, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." While reading God's Word is a vital part of spiritual growth so is putting it to work. I have recently bought a copy of "My Utmost Devotional Bible" and it has some great commentary from Oswald Chambers and many of the books he has written including "My Utmost For His Highest". While looking it over I came across a reading in one of his books "Making New" which states "If we have experienced regeneration, we must not only talk about the experience, we must exercise it and work out what God has worked in. We have to show it in our fingertips, in our tongue, and in our bodily contact with other people, and as we obey God, we find we have a wealth of power on the inside." Have you exercised your faith and walk with God today? What about yesterday? As the children's song says..."Put on your running shoes.." let us put our feet to work spreading the Gospel message and the love of Jesus Christ!
Till Next Time~God Bless

ROBIN

My Testimony(long)

I was supposed to have posted this a while back but have been prayerfully considering how much that I actually should share. I am still not certain at this point what will come of this but here goes. This can at times be difficult to write but I know that we must share our testimony so as to encourage others and show just how far the Lord has brought us.

I grew up catholic and not going to church very often. I have always known there is a God but my thoughts about who Jesus Christ was were not correct. In all the years I attended mass I never truly felt like I belonged. Something always felt missing. I know that this may sound cliche but it is the truth. In 1994 we moved from Florida to North Carolina where as a freshman in high school I met Tony and that night at a football game changed my life forever. I started attending a small baptist church with him on a regular basis and in June of 1995 I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I wish that I could remember the exact date and what songs were sung and such but all that matters is I remember repenting of my sins and begging Jesus to come into my heart and life. Now I wish that I could say that I have been fruitful ever since but in fact just the opposite for a long time. After we were saved there wasn't any discipleship or encouragement from anyone. We did not grow therefore our fruit withered and dried up. In July of 1996 Tony and I got married in that same little church and later that month found out that I was pregnant. I was only 16 yrs and scared...In December we were told I was going to be having twins but that there was a problem with one of the babies. 2 days after Christmas of 1996 we had to decide whether or not to abort the baby with the birth defect or to carry both babies out as long as possible. We chose to carry them both out as long as the Lord would have, which turned out to be only another 2 weeks or so and on January 14, 1997 Rebecca Lynn was born weighing 1lb 2.2 ounces and her identical twin sister Tami Grace was born weighing 13ounces and stillborn. Oh how my heart broke over the loss of this little one and the worry that Rebecca might not live. Praise God she did and is now 12 years old. After the loss of Tami and blaming myself for her not being with us I went into a deep deep depression. My lowest point came when I was sitting on my kitchen floor with any and every pill I could find and was going to take an overdose and be done with the pain I was feeling inside. But then I heard Rebecca cry and realized how foolish I had been. I immediately called Tony and he took me to my therapist who told me I would need to go into the hospital for this. In the years that followed I became rebillious and wanted to things "my" own way. I did not act like a wife or mother or a child of the King during those days and I deeply regret it and crying as I write this but I know that I have repented of those times in my life and that I have the Lord's forgiveness. It took a miscarriage in 2005 for us to realize we could only depend on the Lord and not ourselves and we started attending a good baptist church on a regular basis. The transformation in our lives has been miraculous and the Lord's grace and mercy endureth! I am so thankful for His patience with me and for bringing me to the place of realizing that I needed Him and only Him.

It is very hard to be "vulnerable" but the Lord has impressed on my heart to share this with you today. I pray that someone out there can benefit from this post today.

Till Next Time~God Bless!

ROBIN

Love Dare Challenge

On Feburary 14th there will be a Love Dare Challenge starting and I am so excited to be doing this. No matter how "good" your marriage seems there is always room for improvement. I have learned that over the years just when I think that my marriage could not get nay better..it does. If you are interested in signing up for the challenge please check out Angie's blog for the details. There is a link on the right side on my blog but I will also include it here for you as well. Hope that you are up to the Love Dare Challenge. http://www.5vinezmonkeys.com/2009/02/update-on-love-dare-challenge.html

Till Next Time~God Bless!

ROBIN

God's mercy and grace

I have been meditating on the mercy and grace of the Lord a lot lately and one scripture keeps coming to my mind over and over so I thought I would share it today along with some other scriptures. All the scripture I reference is from the KJV Bible. The verse that the Lord keeps bringing to my mind is Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Just think about that..as far east as you can possibly go and as far west as you can possibly go, which in my mind would be a continuous circle, that is how far our sins are from us once we ask forgiveness for those sins. Wow! The next verse goes on to say "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Psalm 103:13 Just like you and I have compassion for our children the Lord has so much more compassion on those that fear him. In Isaiah 38:17 it tells us that God has cast all my sins behind his back and in Isaiah 43:25 it says "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." How wonderful these verses are telling us that once we ask forgiveness of our sins and truly repent of them that the Lord will turn his back on that sin and blot it out. He will not remember them! Have we said we have forgiven someone for something they said or did to hurt us but keep bringing it up or "hanging" it over their head? In order to truly forgive someone we must turn out back to the act or words that may have hurt us. Forgiveness can be tough especially when the devil keeps bringing it up in your mind. But we must keep our focus on God and on the mercy and grace that he bestows on filthy sinners like us, and remember that we are required to forgive others. In Luke 17:3-4 it states "Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying I repent; thou shalt forgive him." Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive..there is no better day than today~

Dear Father thank you for your love and mercy to us. Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Help us to always remember that you first loved and forgave us and we must do the same for others. Help us to yearn for a deeper love for you Father and to live our lives in a way that bring you all the honor and glory. Help us to focus on others instead of ourselves and help us to truly forgive one another. Help us to become more Christlike. We love you and praise you for everything. In Jesus name..Amen

Till Next Time~God Bless!

Robin

My new favorite movie

Last week my husband and I sat down to watch the movie Fireproof. That movie had us laughing and crying throughout the entire movie. While I believe the Bible is the best source for marriage advice this movie will open your eyes to the way that we treat our spouses whether it be good or bad. A friend and I are going to be starting the Love Dare challenge on Valentines Day. I am looking forward to this as I believe it will help me to gain a deeper love and respect for my husband. I have struggled with submission to my husband for a long time and while the Lord is helping me in the area I still have a long way to go. How many of us are like Caleb? Or Catherine?? Or Wayne? I saw myself in each of those characters in the movie as well as the book. Wayne is self absorbed and prideful. So am I. Caleb is selfish and full of anger. I can be too. Catherine is also I believe selfish and proud. I can be too. But thanks be to God for it is by His grace and mercy that I can overcome those attributes and strive to become Christlike. Till next time God Bless!

ROBIN

Sorry for not posting

Well here I am a few months since my last post and I have no clue where to start. The Lord has been working in our lives in so many wonderful ways. He is so merciful and full of grace. Our pastor said this past Sunday in church that mercy is God not giving us what we deserve and grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. How true is that! Praise God for His goodness to us. I have recently completed a ladies Bible study on brokenness, surrender and joy. What a blessing that was for me. Just a short 3 week Bible study but what I have learned I will keep with me for the rest of my life. For an early birthday present a dear friend of mine gave me a book that contained 3 of Nancy Leigh DeMoss's books in it. It is entitled Brokenness, Surrender and Holiness. I am a few chapters into brokenness but I have already had to stop reading and cry out unto God to show me what sin there was in my life. I shed a lot of tears as God did just that. He showed me areas of sin in my life that I had not even realized I was doing. He also reminded me that I was holding on to things and "feelings" that were in fact sinful. One item in particular the Lord and I wrestled with for a long time and finally last night I threw the item in the trash. The Holy Spirit would not let the conviction go away and when I threw out the "garbage" I immediately felt a peace about the situation. Now that doesn't mean I wasn't tempted to dig it out of the trash (I purposely set it at the very bottom of the trash can under the trash) but I left it at the altar for God to remove it from my life. I am praying for revival for not only our church and our country but for myself. That is where revival starts in us as individuals. Please pray with me for revival for ourselves, our President, our churches and our country. For no clue where to start I sure said a lot huh? Well as for the family and I we are doing great! Tony has started working 3rd shift now which has taken some getting used to but the fact that he is making more money sure seemed to help in that transition! Becca turned 12 on Jan. 14. She is growing up so fast although she is still so tiny. I know the Lord is in control of her life and her body and in His perfect time she will blossom. For those of you who do not know Rebecca was born 3.5 months early and weighed only 1.2 lbs when she was born. She is truly our miracle from God. She is now 12 and weighs around 60lbs now but eats like a horse. She wants to serve the Lord as a missionary. Well that's all for this post take care and God Bless!

ROBIN