Normal

I love the way her little hands are clasped together in this picture.

I love her smile that was part of a giggle in that moment.

I got the call yesterday... her MRI came back "normal".

Such joy and thankfulness that floods me with this news is hard to put into words.

As I recall having a complete breakdown when we got the news that she had regressed in all areas since three years ago... I remember the enemy immediately started screaming his lies at me...
"Her brain is degenerating... it's happening... right now... your fear is happening... you are losing her."

But then my God, my Father, my precious and loving LORD came to me and let me know...

"My love and my holiness is enough."

And I believed Him. 

And I was touched, embraced, and enveloped by Him.

 And I was healed.

And she is healed.

God continues to hold her safely in His hands.

Despite a seizure almost every day.

Despite what "should" be happening.

Despite the lies that are thrown at me by the one who wants to wound me deeply.

And I give HIM all the glory, all the praise, all the adoration, all the credit.

Oh how I love Him.

"I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.  Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands."  Psalm 63:2-4~

"We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds."  Psalm 75:1~

"Your ways, O God, are holy.  What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples."  Psalm 77:13,14~

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the LIVING GOD."  Psalm 84:1,2~

"I will sing of the LORD'S great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.  I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself."  Psalm 89:1,2~

Don't you just love to praise the Lord!?

(and I love it when I see exclamation marks in the Bible!)

Praying for healing in the South...

Spring pictures and some random ramblings...

About a month ago, I took the kids up to the front of the neighborhood where a grove of old fruit trees were in full bloom... it was so beautiful.  I didn't bother dressing Marc for the occassion.  Last fall, he had a complete breakdown when I asked him to smile for the pictures...

so of course this time, not only did he WANT to be photographed... he gave me the best smiles ever!~  Isn't that just like a three year old!  So after several shots, I got an idea.

I turned his shirt around backwards to at least get rid of the clashing orange and distracting graphic!  Next time I'll pretend he is not going to be photographed and then have "back up" clothes in my bag!

When I see these pictures, I am just struck with so much wonder and thanksgiving for these children.  I see them together like this, think about where they have come from, what they have been through, how much they have grown as people, and how God brought them all together... and I am really humbled.

T is totally amazing.  I am blown away almost daily at the great depth of protection God has had over this child in her lifetime.  I am blown away that we have had her just a little over a year.  I am blown away at the patience she has for A, the tenderness she has for M, and the servants heart she has for me.  She loves her daddy, but there is something there... holding her back.  I pray that it falls away and she can come to fully embrace his love... it will be so important in her embracing of His love from above.  I pray she continues to be healed and protected.

She really is just a treasure and we are so very lucky to have been chosen and trusted to share our lives and love with her.

This little guy just continues to grow and mature.  It's wild to see such development.  He has become much better at being able to play alone.  And he is also better with controlling his emotions.  He continues to crack us all up with the funny things he says.  And amazingly enough... he has gone from inhaling his food in seconds to becoming the slowest eatter at the table.  We think it has finally sunk in that he will get another meal!  He loves school and the teachers totally adore him.  He loves playing with his sisters... they all play together very well.  He is a treasure and we are so blessed to have been chosen to share our life and love with him!

And A continues to be a part of my heart that lives outside my body.  She continues to stretch me in ways that are often very painful and exhausting.  But her strength amazes me deeply.  She has been having difficulty with her behavior and it's been very trying.  But we are seeing improvement.  I have made a new reward system for responsibilty and behavior and it seems to motivate her.  Just this morning, I told her that because of her choices to not be obedient and because of her back talking she was going to have to give me a ticket... she teared up in the car and asked how she could earn it back.  Although my heart was broken for her being so hurt by her consequence... I am so hopeful this will encourage her to make better choices and that she will grow emotionally. 

She is having a seizure almost every morning.  I walk closely with God in trying to walk through this trying time.  Without Him, I would be such a glob of mess.  We really can't go up on meds... and we are trying some new nutritional approaches.  So I just keep her at His feet and pray that she continues to do well despite the daily glitch in her brain.  And I continue to pray for her healing in the name of Jesus.

She is such a treasure... and we are so very lucky to have been chosen to share of lives and love with her.

My mission trip to Uganda gets closer every day!  I am so very excited.  I need to go start getting a bizillion shots soon... I am not excited about that!

We are in the process of rehabing our back yard!  We are excited to make it a place where we spend a lot of our time.  I'll share more on that later with some pictures!

I planted my garden last week.  I still have to get squash and another tomato plant in the ground.  I am super excited about having fresh food again.  It's very rewarding.  I love watching it grow!

A gentle rain is falling.  And I am about to tackle a list of "To Do's".  It's already the middle of the week... another week flying by!   

Be blessed.

"I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.  Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you."  Psalm 63:2-5~

Resurrection Day is Here

Today is the day.  Today is Resurrection Thursday, if you will.

It's the day the Son of the Living God came back from the dead.  It's the day the world received the possibility of accepting the greatest gift ever given.  It's the day God showed the world that His Son's sacrifice was accepted on our behalf.  It's the day that forever changed the world.  It is the day the Savior fulfilled prophesy.  It is the day the enemy was forever defeated and death lost her power.  It is the day He came to stay.  It is a holy and precious day.  And it is today.  Praise Him with praises of thanksgiving!

"I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."  John 14:6,7~ 

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will also do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  If you love me, you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth.  The world can not accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and be in you."  John 14:12-17~

"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you."  John 14:26~

"The He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."  Luke 24:45-47~

My family has been celebrating these beautiful days these past week and I am already thinking of how I want to celebrate them even better next year.  It has been beautiful and a wonderful way to present the gospel to my children.  I pray it also starts planting seeds for passion and love for His word!

I received a sweet gift today.  Two friends and readers of my blog came up to me today and shared how this blog and the information I have shared here has affected them and their families.  One said that it has caused her to ask "why?" and to really think about things.  She thanked me for "being bold" and sharing it.  She also shared with me how someone had come to her church that weekend and shared with them the very things I had been talking about and she was so excited.  It was precious!  And as if that was not enough to encourage me... another friend came up to me just moments later to tell me that I had inspired her to research and she had done a Passover meal with her family!  She went on to tell me how her son had enjoyed it so much and was asking to have another "special meal."  Then she took my arm and told me how after they were done, her husband told her... "Now I understand it more than ever before."  She ended with... I have wondered why we never learned about any of that stuff.  And I had another friend and her family go to the Passover meal we attended last Sunday.  THAT was amazing... simply beautiful and blessed!!!!


My heart is BLESSED to see that people are looking into what they are doing and why.  My heart is BLESSED that God would send me such sweet encouragement.  My heart is BLESSED that the Holy Spirit is opening people's hearts and minds.  It is so beautiful.  I am so lucky.  And I am so thankful!

Be blessed... you are loved... so very loved!

Our Savior is Crucified

Today is the 14th of Nisan, it is the day our Savior was nailed to a cross and killed in a way that Hollywood can not even capture.  I was just reading Mark's account about how the Roman soldiers were mocking Him beforehand, after He had been whipped and His flesh ripped apart.  My heart hurts.

My heart hurts even more because the majority, the largest amount of Christians, are going through their day and have no idea... that today is the day.  I wonder what is going on in the heavens today.  I wonder what the Father is feeling today.  I wonder what the Savior is feeling today.  I wonder if the angels are singing something special... if the three hours of darkness that came before Christ's death is observed in heaven.

Tonight we will read accounts of this day from the Bible to our children.  We will talk about it and pray.  We will share a nice meal together and then start our family gratitude journal after dinner.  We each will write down five things we are thankful for.  The first entry in our book will be, "Our Savior's sacrifice."

I am so thankful for God's love, a love I can not yet fully grasp... for the life, death, and resurrection of His Son... for the sweet, sweet and powerful gift of the Holy Spirit, for the beauty and wisdom of the written word... and for the hunger and desire I feel for Him.

Be blessed.

"By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And He made intercession for the transgressors."  Isaiah 53:11,12~

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!"  Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."  John 19:28-30~ 

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."  Isaiah 53:5,6~ 

Cleansing the temple...

The Lord has entered Jerusalem, willingly, in obedience.  His crucifixion and resurrection are just days away.

He has wept over Jerusalem.  "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes."  Luke 19:42~  He is heartbroken... they do not recognize Him.  They have spent their lives studying God's word, the Torah, that is FULL of hints and signs and dates of His arrival... yet they don't see Him.

And to top it off, He goes to His Father's temple, the dwelling place of God, and it is being defiled with common selling and trading of goods.  Holy has been made common... unholy... tainted.  And He does what we should do today... He casts it out without apology.  God is holy and tainting His holiness can not be tolerated.  In just a few days, the veil of the temple, seperating God from man, will be torn in two... God will become accessible... the Holy of Holies will allow us in His presence because of His son's presence inside us... standing in for us with His righteousness!  Can you really soak that in?

Our bodies are now the temple in which God dwells as believers.

 "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  1 Corinthians 3:16~   

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your Spirit which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:19,20~ 

The temple needs to be cleansed.  We are the temple.  How have we made our worship common... the opposite of holy?  How have we made God common?  How have we tainted the temple?  What have we brought into the temple that does not belong there, in God's presence?  Have we ignored the very presence dwelling inside us?  What do we need to ask for Jesus to cleanse?  These are wonderful questions to ask ourselves today... and every day.  And the Lord is there... and He will cleanse.

HOSANNA!  HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!

Do you know what Hosanna means?  It means "Father save us."  Isn't that beautiful.  The Father saves us through Christ.

Today is the 10th of Nisan.  It is THE day prophesied in Daniel 9:24... and it is fulfilled in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19:28+, and John 12:12+ to the day... the same day God told the Israelites to chose their sacrificial lamb in Egypt... the 10th of Nisan. 

This is the reason for these words written in red: "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."  Luke 19:40~  God had ordained before Jesus was even born on earth that He would walk into Jerusalem as the sacrificial lamb on THIS day.  Not the day before and not the day after.  On this very day that coincided with the same day well over a thousand years before.  That is so God.  That is sovereign.  That is beautiful.  It was the day the Lord was announced and recognized as the Messiah... and if no person spoke the words... creation would cry out and announce Him.  That is glory!  That is one of my favorite passages of scripture.

A little more...

For those of you who ask why I/we care about these biblical feasts (God's appointed times)... here is a beautiful link.  I must clarify that we are learning about them and celebrating them... not keeping them for salvation or forgiveness.  We are not slaughtering lambs for our sacrifice.  CHRIST came and was the final sacrifice, the substitute sacrifice... the perfect sacrifice.  We are ONLY SAVED BY FAITH IN CHRIST.  http://askdrbrown.org/ask-dr-brown/35-ask-dr-brown/85-should-christians-observe-the-biblical-jewish-holidays

And for anyone who wants to see how beautiful Christ is... who He is... here is another beautiful link.
http://realmessiah.askdrbrown.org/read/jesus-yeshua-who-he

For those of you who fear we are turning Jewish... we are not.  We are Christians.  We accept Christ as our saviour.  Jewish people are only one of the 12 tribes of God's chosen people, Israel (not a country).  Ten of the tribes were scattered to all ends of the earth after captivity and because of the Jewish people's (tribe's) rejection... salvation was also made available to the Gentile.  God refers to them in the Old Testament often as "foreigners" among Israel... yet He accepted them IF they obeyed Him.  Just like today... Gentile believers are "grafted in" to God's chosen people and become one of them.   

And for those of you calling me, sending me texts, private facebook messages, and emails... I am so blessed and encouraged and thank you so, so, so, much.

Be blessed... this is such a holy week.

Spring... beauty... renewed life... Christ is risen and alive!

Spring this year is moving me unlike any other.  As I prepare to celebrate Passover and as I see Spring burst forth, I am simply captivated and renewed.  We are entering a beautiful and holy week.

This will be our first year to not celebrate Easter.  It, again like Christmas, is such a relief.  It's hard to explain.  It's just different... and in such a wonderful way.  I have to mention it... it's a huge part of what God is doing in our life and there is no way I can not share it and give God the glory.  Here are two sites you can look at for information on Easter.  

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/origin-of-easter.htm

There is so much beauty and life in learning about the Passover Feast.  Walking through the Passover of the Old Testament while walking through it in the New Testament is so beautiful. 

When the people of Israel (while in slavery in Egypt) chose a spotless lamb, it was the prophesy of the lamb of God being chosen... Christ.  God told them to choose it on the tenth day of Nisan... Christ entered Jerusalem to be set aside as the lamb on the tenth day of Nisan.  The Israelites had to examin it for five days to make sure it was without blemish and without fault.  Christ was examined for five days by the religious leaders... trying to find fault.  None was found. (Matthew 23 and John 19:4)   The lamb sacrifice of the Israelites was on the 14th day of Nisan.  Christ was crucified on the 14th day of Nisan.   Jesus came and fulfilled every aspect of the Passover Feast that God's chosen people had been doing for hundreds of years... down to every hour and every detail.  As God told His people to not break a bone in the lamb they were sacrificing, Jesus also had no broken bones. (Ex. 12:46; Numbers 9:12; and Psalm 34:20 and John 19: 30-37)  There are many more exact fulfillment's of Christ and the Passover Feast.  I encourage you to read, "Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts," by Richard Booker.  It is one of the most amazing books I have ever read!

This year, the tenth of Nisan is April 14th... and the 14th of Nisan is April 18th.

When the people applied the blood of the lamb to their door posts and threshold, they were inviting God to pass over the threshold and into their home as their protector from the angel of death.  God... who came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, came and stands in the doorway protecting His people from death.  Isn't that beautiful?  By accepting and embracing Christ as our Passover lamb, God enters our house... our life and is our protector and provider.  And we have crossed over from darkness into light... from slavery to sin to liberty and life!

The "last supper" was actually the Passover meal... also known as a Seder meal.  It was during this meal, appointed feast, that Christ brought light to the disciples of what the Jewish people had been practicing for hundreds of years. 

The "Lord's Supper" at church is actually part of the Passover meal.  And it is not separate from the Passover meal, nor was it ever intended to be separate. You have four cups at this meal.  One cup represents sanctification, one cup represents deliverance, one cup represents redemption, and one cup represents acceptance.  It was when Jesus picked up the third cup that He told His disciples that when they took this cup, the cup of redemption, that it represented His blood and to remember Him.  It was during this meal that He took the unleavened bread, that they had eaten before a hundred times, and explained it was His body.  It was not something He was just showing them, they had been partaking in this Passover meal for their entire lives.  He simply was fulfilling it... bringing to light that HE was the cups and the bread... and His death was the third cup.  This is also why in the Garden of Gethsemane He asks, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."   Matthew 26:39 ~

Everything they ate during this meal also was symbolic of Jesus.  I'll share more on that in my next post.

But simply said, THIS is what we should be centered on right now.  THIS is where our hearts should be.  THIS is how we should be celebrating.  And THIS is what the enemy has blinded people to, Christians to, and tried to keep from them.  But God is bringing TRUTH into light and people are coming back to Him... back to learning about, understanding, and even celebrating His holidays and feasts.  "Feasts" in the biblical Hebrew language means "appointments".  God set aside HOLY APPOINTMENTS... or Holy Holidays.  God gave the day and month for these times.  God declared them "His".  They are God's appointed times to celebrate Him and Christ and Salvation and they are for His people.  And they are to be separate from the world (paganism) and holy.  God and paganism don't mix.  Now when I see Easter eggs during this time of year I just cringe... what a slap in His face.  And the enemy couldn't be happier.  And so many people have no clue... that's what makes me so sad.  And that is why I am posting this.  It is our responsibility to know what we are doing and why. 

My prayer is that one person will be moved to read and research about how "Christian Holidays" are being celebrated and WHY?  We are so many years removed from Constantine who implemented most of this stuff for the power and promotion of Rome and the Catholic Church... that you have to look for it to find it. God says that those who seek Him and knowledge will find it... that wisdom and insight will be given to those who search for it... and He blesses you more than you can ever imagine when you do.  

We are entering a beautiful and holy week.