David Wilkerson with our Jesus

So yesterday found the passing of one of the really really greatly used men of God, David Wilkerson. Instead of  posting about the accident that took his life from this earth, I wanted to share the last thoughts that were on his heart for us. Here are the devotions he wrote this past week.
FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011
AN ANCHOR IN THE STORM
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19).  The anchor referred to in this passage of Scripture is hope. Not the hope of this wicked world, but the hope founded on God’s oath to keep, bless, govern those who trust him. This hope alone is our anchor in the storm falling on the earth at this present time. The writer of Hebrews admonished, “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:12).
God made an oath to the “heirs of promise” who are all those who are in Christ. He made an oath in order to end all strive—all doubts—so that “…we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (6:18). 
Here is our hope: GOD HAS SWORN TO FULFILL HIS PROMISES AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE. He kept his word to Abraham—he will keep his word to you as you trust him. We need strong consolation in these times. After all is said and done—and all the sermons have been preached on
hope—it comes down to this: Are we willing to commit all into his hands—rest in his Word—and stand without wavering in the love of God, fully convinced his promises to you will be fulfilled? You can take that kind of faith beyond the veil into the holiest!
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2011
TRUSTING GOD IN THE FACE OF DIFFICULTIES
Nothing honors God more than trusting him in the face of difficulties. How qickly we forget the miracles and past blessings.
In Psalm 106 we see Israel beholding an incredible miracle as the Red Sea caved in upon the Egyptian army, drowning every soldier. “When they saw the Egyptians lie in the sea before them, then they believed in God, and sang his praise.” And the next words that follow are, “They soon forgot his works” (verse 13).  But we cannot trust our faith to past experiences—we are too forgetful and recall is too fragile. Past experience alone will not be enough to strengthen us in present difficulties. We need fresh faith—anchored in a daily supply of the Word of God—a fresh word from God! Trust God when facing difficulties and God will trust you with more of his grace, his all-sufficiency and his strength. To trust God in the face of dire difficulties requires a venturing faith—committing all things into his caring hands. There comes a time we must launch out into the deep and cast every care upon him. This venturing faith is all-pleasing to him. Faith is our only hope, our only way out of difficulties. So let us step out and commit all to him! 
TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011
WE ARE TESTED BY OUR FALLS AND FAILINGS 
I do not mean that Christians who fall back into old sins and turn back to the  world are being tested. No, those believers face a shipwreck of faith. But Peter warned, “Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17). Peter is warning believers who are growing in holiness and are set on following the Lord. Some of you may have taken a fall in spite of all the progress you’ve made with the Lord. If I asked you what caused your fall, you might answer, “Brother Dave, it was a fit of anger. I was provoked by my own family and I blew up. I can’t understand it. I thought I was becoming a little sweeter, a little more like Jesus. But somebody just pushed the wrong button and I lost
it.” You may say, “I’m only human. How much am I supposed to take?” It does not matter that you were provoked or even that you were in the right. The provoking simply proved you need deliverance. Scripture says, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor [fighting], and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice [grudges]” (Ephesians 4:31). God is going to keep testing you until you say, “I’ve got a spirit in me that’s got to go.” You will see no growth in Christ, no peace at home or on the job, until you can say, “You’re right, Lord—take it out!” If you’re being tested in this area, or any other area for that matter, you may be thinking, “I feel so unworthy. How much ground have I lost? Does the Lord still love me?”
Dear saint, if you have truly repented, you haven’t lost any ground whatsoever. God puts his loving arms around you and says, “I allowed that to happen so you would see what’s in your heart. But you’re making progress. You’ve said you want to walk with me, and I’m teaching you. I know what’s  inside of you and I’ll allow you to be provoked until you get rid of it all.” 
Are you being tested? If so, just pray: “Lord, you’ve put your finger on some areas in me. Pluck them out of my heart. Encourage me, Lord, that I’m not going backward—I’m going forward with you!” 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011   -yesterday the day he passed
WHEN ALL MEANS FAIL
To believe when all means fail is exceedingly pleasing to God and is most  acceptable. Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those that do believe and have not seen” (John 20:29).
 Blessed are those who believe when there is no evidence of an answer to prayer—who trust beyond hope when all means have failed. Someone has come to the place of hopelessness—the end of hope—the end of
all means. A loved one is facing death and doctors give no hope. Death seems inevitable. Hope is gone. The miracle prayed for is not happening. That is when Satan’s hordes come to attack your mind with fear, anger,
overwhelming questions: “Where is your God now? You prayed until you had no  tears left. You fasted. You stood on promises. You trusted.”  Blasphemous thoughts will be injected into your mind: “Prayer failed. Faith
failed. Don’t quit on God—just do not trust him anymore. It doesn’t pay!”  Even questioning God’s existence will be injected into your mind. These have  been the devices of Satan for centuries. Some of the godliest men and women who ever lived were under such demonic attacks.  To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping  willlast through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but
one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.”  Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means  fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word.
There is no other hope in this world.

what will your last words be the week you are taken from this earth?

PRAYING FOR MY SIS AND HER HUBBY IN ALABAMA. THANK YOU JESUS FOR KEEPING THEM SAFE AND GIVE THEM WISDOM AND STRENGTH TO WALK THESE DEVASTATING DAYS AHEAD. USE THEM FOR YOUR GLORY!!!

Random Thoughts on a Friday AM

Sleeping in felt so so good. Haven't done that in a long time. My running schedule gets me up at 5am, but I must say I am really beginning to like this whole running thing. NOT DURING NOT AT ALL but before and after. 4 weeks from tomorrow I will actually be running my first 5k. Unbelievable! These last 4 weeks is all about building up speed for this thing. Not looking to win, just looking to produce the best run for this soon to be 45 overweight body. From a 60 second run that I was sure I would die of a heart attack, to a 38min run yesterday. Yes I was hating it but when I was done I felt so fantastic. I never never thought they could make a believer out of me. NEVER!
Good Friday this is what today is and as I sit here and think about what my Jesus did for me I can't help but get emotional. How loved I am. ME He loves ME, He died for ME, He suffered for ME!!!!! He did THAT on that cross so I could be called His - yep that is pretty stinkin perfect. may I never take that for granted.
So for Children's Worship I choreographed the song 'Glorious God' by Casting Crowns.  I wanted this to be the song for the kids to worship to for Resurrection Sunday. We have been teaching it to them over the past couple of weeks. WOW that is a sight to behold. So beautiful. It's moments like that when I realize yes I'm getting pretty old and I should be hanging up my hat in this ministry soon. BUT I can't imagine missing out on moments like that. I'm very technically challenge, but I will try to figure out how to video it and post it up here. I love teaching this kids worship with all their body and voices. May they all grow up to be adults with no inhibitions in their worship to our Lord. Nay they all have that place of pure intimacy with the Lover of their souls.

This morning while doing my Bible study I was meditating on Eph 5;10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
I got to thinking is this true of me. How often am I mindful of wanting to know what pleases my Lord's heart? after a few pages of cross referenced verses and many challenging questions to myself regarding this, I came to the bottom line in my rabbit trail that in all things said and done I want to live a life pleasing to Him and if this is really my conviction then I am opening myself up to some pretty hard refining times ahead. BUT wouldn't that be a great thing to have been said of you. " she really loved to please the heart of Jesus" O Lord grow me into that truth for my life.
In closing I'm looking at how badly my house needs cleaning. I will have 18 people including dogs in my home on Sunday and you know what i think I'm better off not cleaning it before they get here. It will take 5 min before it doesn't show 1 trace of evidence that it had ever been clean. So never mind with the cleaning.
Well enjoy your Friday!

Happy Monday !

Well most people dread the awakening of a Monday morning, I rather like it  - no I pretty much love Mondays. I guess it's coming off a day of serving the Lord and watching all the amazing things that God is doing in and through the lives of His people. I always wake with a song of praise on my heart and just a sense of thankfulness of all i got to see displayed by our Lord the day before. This morning the song resonating in my head was "Lovely" by Chris Tomlin. I had just finished choreographing it for our upcoming VBS - AND tomorrow is Chris Tomlin at the Gibson Theater. O MY I CAN'T WAIT !!!! Going with a few friends - we all do children's worship so you can bet we will all be doing hand motions to most likely every song he sings. Seeing that we have choreography for ALOT of his songs. LOVE Chris Tomlin for kids worship: perfect words, perfect beat - everything translates just right for the kids. I should write him and share with him how his music has taught our kids how to worship and praise our Lord!!!!
To see the joy on a face of a 6 year old autistic boy who has no ability to have a back and forth conversation YET he can sing every word to Exalted / Sing Sing Sing and do every hand motion. To see that face and you know he understands. That is priceless. To watch a 5th grade teacher singing and doing hand motions then falling to his knees in total abandoned worship to our King while singing' Jesus Messiah". To see the 10 year old girl who is often picked on by her peers at school, yet she can come to church and sing and dance and laugh with her Sunday school classmates in absolute joy to the song "Made To Worship? I could go on and on but I'll just state that I am so thankful for his gift of writing music. It is perfect for kid's worship!!!!


So Monday is here: back to running after a stupid ankle injury. Minor set back but one that is leaving me with some discouragement. I did 1-10min mile then walked 1/2  mile then ran 1/2 mile. SO stinks I'm supposed to be on week 8 of C25K which means 28min run. So the plan is do what i can this week, in what is responsible for my ankle and then pick up next week with week 8. Glad i went running though it felt good to get out there.
After run, home to morning coffee and time in the Word. Looking at Ephesians 4. That is what "k" group will be doing tomorrow night - remember I wont be there I will BE AT THE CONCERT!!!! spent the last 2 weeks inductively studying it. So many nuggets. As I was reviewing it this morning to look at what changes I'm going to be accountable to doing. I was drawn once again to verses 1-3  Therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with all patience, showing tolerance for one another in love being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Really seeing this as a question to myself - am I walking in a manner worthy of the calling placed upon my life?(  Then I see there is a check list to match the way I walk to check it by God's standards, if I am in deed walking worthy: humility, gentleness, patience, showing tolerance in love, being diligent to preserve the spirit of unity. That is a tough list but one of great self examination. So this is the standard and to not allow God to do the hard work in these areas would only mean 1 thing. NOT WALKING WORTHY. So today my prayers are focused around this verse, for the Lord to show me the true intentions of my heart in this and for me to have a conscience awareness of pulling from His strength to walk in this manner. Great piece of scripture!
Happy Monday All make it count for the Kingdom! - even if you only smile and say hello to one stranger then shoot a prayer up for them as you walk away. No telling how that could change that persons day, week, life. Yep I believe we have that kind of influence for Jesus.

Miles for Melanoma

So race day is coming soon May 21st to be exact. Our team leader, Mary - yes you all know Mary she is the one I complain much about with this crazy 5k idea. ANYWAY, most of our team was formed because we are a bunch of old out of shape mommas and this was APPARENTLY a good idea. However, Mary asked if any of us are running in honor of someone. I got this idea that I would put it out there to see if any of you have battled this yucky disease or have known someone who has. I would love to write names on my race day shirt as a small way to honor them all. So please let me know and I will run with my head held high and I will even throw in a cross the finish line victory dance - just wait and see!!!!