This morning in the shower I was looking at the MANY prayer cards hanging on the shower wall and looking at the world map, so vast. So many countries I’ve never even heard of and places I will never see.  That doesn’t bother me.  I don’t have any desire to travel for the sake of traveling, but I do desire to go where God sends me and to accomplish what He assigns me to accomplish.

A prayer partner in Pakistan, Maria, emailed this morning requesting prayer.  She is planning to travel to…

God still has a plan for the world, and we still have a part.

Jesus said in Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me, therefore go…”

That was what He commissioned His disciples to do a couple thousand years ago, and that is still what we, His disciples, are commissioned to do. 

I went to urgent care this morning.  Acute bronchitis and a sinus infection bought me some much needed downtime. I'm prayerfully talking to the LORD about my tendency to get so busy I don't prioritize rest until I get sick.

I'm on a steroid and Z-pac and the doctor said I can be "back to work" by Tuesday, so Tuesday I’ll be back to my routine: discipleship, book deliveries, and Bible study. 

Peek-a-boo is one of my favorite silly little games to play with babies.  There is nothing more fun than catching a baby’s attention at the grocery store, smiling at them, then slowly moving behind a post or a shelf, watching them crane their little neck as I disappear and having them squeal with delight as the smiling stranger “magically” disappears and reappears!  

Sometimes their parents notice and smile, and sometimes their parents are so distracted that they…

Last night here in the intensive care unit, my kids and a couple good friends of mine came to visit my husband after his heart surgery. 

While we were in the lobby, my friends were talking to the kids and I noticed a distressed looking woman sitting in the waiting room behind them.  I quietly stepped behind my friends and family and sat down with the woman.

I asked, “Is everything ok?”  She told me…

Here I am, back at this coffee shop in Los Osos, California with a few hours to study before my family picks me up to go body boarding. They headed to San Luis Obispo for an afternoon of snacking and shopping.  

I’m becoming less and less interested in window shopping when I don’t need anything or eating when I’m not hungry.  When I AM hungry, that’s a different story.  When I’m hungry, I’m very interested in eating, but what I eat is of less consequence these days.

(This “Blog Post” - or what began as one - turned into 20 pages in a Word document, so I broke it down into 4 blog posts that I am sharing over the 4 weeks so as not to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.  This is the final post, part 4.)

Here is what I wrote out as I studied today.  In this list you will see what God told Jeremiah was:

(This “Blog Post” - or what began as one - turned into 20 pages in a Word document, so I broke it down into 4 blog posts that I am sharing over the 4 weeks so as not to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.  This is part 3.)

Prophet, Prophecy, and Prophesy

There are five major prophets in the Bible and twelve minor prophets.  Two of the five major prophet books are from the same prophet, Jeremiah.  These are the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.

(This “Blog Post” - or what began as one - turned into 20 pages in a Word document, so I broke it down into 4 blog posts that I am sharing over the 4 weeks so as not to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.  This is part 2.)

Prophecy

In Acts 2:17-18  Peter quotes the prophet Joel saying that God will pour out His spirit on “all people” and that sons and daughters, men and women will prophesy.

(This “Blog Post” - or what began as one - turned into 20 pages in a Word document, so I broke it down into 4 blog posts that I will share over the next 4 weeks so as not to overwhelm you with too much information all at once.  This is part 1.)

I’m on vacation in Los Osos, California in my happy place….a local coffee shop. I love to get up early in the morning and come here to study the Bible with noise canceling headphones and not a care in the world.

Have you ever had a heart-stopping, adrenaline-rushing, blood pressure rising, fight or flight reaction to losing something?  

In these moments it feels as though all of the blood in your body rushes to your head and you can almost hear your heart beating in your ears.  Your stomach twists into unnatural positions and your eyes fill with tears. 

I have been going to the same dentist for years and years.  I raised my kids at this dentist, and my youngest just filled out her paperwork for the first time as a full grown adult, two days after her high school graduation party.

Six months ago was the last time my daughter and I were here.  She drove us to the dentist and somehow lost the car key.

These are some of the most FREEING words God has EVER said to me.  They were spoken in a moment of gentle correction and redirection.  There was something I wanted spiritually for someone else more than they wanted it.  We can’t successfully “want” something for someone else more than they “want” it for themselves.  When you grasp this concept, you become more influential than ever because you stop TRYING to influence others.

It’s amazing when you take a half of a second to breathe and check your spirit before responding, what you will discover about spiritual principles!

I am sitting on my old riding mower with a pile of tasks before me and a limited amount of time to accomplish them before my daughter‘s grad party on Saturday.  

Before I started power washing things and getting the grass all wet as a consequence, I was going to mow the lawn.

Sometimes it takes many words to convey a message and sometimes I think it takes few.

It’s been weeks since I’ve posted a blog because when I have a concept I want to share, I bury the concept in a lot of words, the LORD lets me know it’s not right and I let it go.

This week a friend of mine reached out and told me she’s really struggling with the concept of minding her own business.  She has coworkers who are skimping on hours and not doing the work they should be doing, falsely reporting hours and SURELY her boss must know what they are doing.

Talk to God.  Plain and simple.  Talk to Him.  

It doesn’t matter how you start or how clunky it feels.  It may feel like you’re talking to an imaginary friend at first, do it anyway. 

Push past your insecurities, questions, logic and reasoning.  Push past your pride, discouragements, disappointments and disillusionment.  Push past your church hurt, childhood trauma, and ANYTHING that is keeping you from talking to God, and simply talk to Him. 

How hard does the enemy have to work to discourage you from doing what God has asked you to do?

Have you ever thought about how little it takes to truly discourage you and make you question if “God really said” or “you’re really supposed to” do something?

Let me share one of many such examples from my life.

I am unsure if this makes me a really bad person or a really good parent to teach a life lesson.  Truth be told, I don’t even know who I’m teaching a lesson to…yet.  You see, someone is spending the night with my daughter and they have one of those dolls that is supposed to teach them to take responsibility for a baby.  It’s a high school class.

As I was walking down the driveway to my car, I noticed the car parked next to mine had an infant car seat in the back of their car.  I was a little confused because I don’t know any of my daughters’ friends who have a baby.

I don’t think there is ANYTHING more honorable or important that a wife can say than “My husband loves me.”

Scripture says for wives to respect their husbands and for husbands to love their wives.  I think it was written this way because women NATURALLY love, but we do not NATURALLY respect.  We can be quite disrespectful in how we look at, think about and talk about our husbands.  I know I have been very disrespectful in how I spoke about my husband over the years and it should come as no surprise that I have been hard for him to love.