Closing in on 2008

Hi Everyone,

Wow! It’s been a good minute since I’ve written a new blog, but don’t worry because I’ve got a lot to cover and I will more than make up for it in my next two blogs, so there will be plenty to read. Let’s see, it is Friday, December 14, 2007 and the New Year is rapidly approaching. So much has changed in my life this year as well as around the world – so much so, that I don’t know where to begin. Well, I guess I’ve got to start somewhere… if you know anything about me, you know that the beginning of the year was very, very hard for me. My husband and I were living off of one income. I was in and out of the emergency room and going through bouts of stress and depression. Thank God for being a picker upper! It took some time, but I finally realized that nothing in my life would change until I decided that I wasn’t going to let what I was growing through get in me. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I began to encourage myself, and things eventually started turning around… (You thought that I was going to say immediately, hunh?) Nope! This year was all about God teaching me to keep my joy in spite of what was going on around me.
The year has been full of ups and downs, but nothing has been too hard for God to keep and sustain us through. The Lord blessed my husband and I with two new better paying jobs, but there were still waves of trouble to disturb our finances, and all I can say is that we’re still here! Over this year, I’ve seen many things that have broken my heart. I’ve seen friends have their hearts ripped apart by other friends and family members. I’ve seen co-workers and employees go from losing their possessions to losing their relatives, but through all of this, God has kept me! … Oh to be kept by Jesus!
Yet and still more disturbing, I have seen the testing and trying of the credibility of the Church and all it stands for. I’m sure I don’t have to recap the recent events that recently polluted the media. If you have a television and have watched the news even one time since June of this year, I’m sure you’ve caught one thing or another. As one of the few saved people on my job, people tend to look to me for an explanation when things like this happen. Most times, it’s not in a question, but in a statement or a look. If you’re saved and in a similar position, I know you know what I am talking about. You get statements like, “Did you see that Pastor so and so did so and so?” followed by a look that if could talk would say “Now what are you going to say to defend the church?” My answer… Well, I am so glad that I know Jesus for myself. I know Him for myself, so it doesn’t matter who says or does what. It is not going to sway my trust in God.
I must admit, recent events have sparked my curiosity and I have wanted to know why, and if not why, at least the full truth, but the only truth that can be found in all of this is still Jesus. If you are following anyone other than Jesus, your faith is sure to fail you. People will let you down, but there is one person who is always true, and that’s God. Let’s not forget however that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Just because someone you once believed in has made a mistake doesn’t disqualify all of the good they have done. We too have made mistakes, but just as God has forgiven us and given us another chance we also have to forgive. I don’t know about you, but I would hate to be thrown away based off of one mistake. Somebody thank God for being a forgiving God! (LOL… I get to preaching in the middle of my blogs – I think I picked that up from my mother.)

Anyway, I think that’s enough for one blog, take time to mediate on today’s scriptures:

1) Job 33:28 [God] has redeemed my life from going down to the pit, and my life shall see the light!
2) Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
3) Ecclesiastes 9:8 Let your garments be always white, and let your head not lack oil [of gladness].
4) 2 Chronicles 6:30 Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You only, know men's hearts,
5) Psalm 85:2 You have forgiven and taken away the iniquity of Your people, You have covered all their sin. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!