With what shall I come before the Lord

“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ~Micah 6:6

This year I want to come before the Lord with everything…’Heart With all your Soul. With all your Mind With all your Strength”

I think I am getting better and feel like I am beginning with a fresh start on many levels…So…I am going to try to record my efforts here.

With all my strength…

Starting today I am going room by room and starting my spring cleaning…sorting, cleaning, and donating…every drawer, every closet, every corner…I am too ashamed to show before pictures but hope to be able to show after pictures. I have been severely lacking in my household duties…in many of my duties. Each Wed. I will try to post an update of my progress.

Starting with the worst room of the house -my sewing room -better known as the junk room. lol I remember as a child we were allowed to have one drawer of misc items…how we ended up with a house full of misc items I will never know. With some elbow grease and lots of determination I hope to fix that…

wish me luck

my poker face

Working with the public and on a blog for several years has taught me something about myself…I have a handicap of sorts….I have an awful poker face!

I used to think that having a poker face was only useful when playing the game poker…lol silly, I know…shows you what I know…or don’t know.

Well it seems that a poker face is needed every day…

Like…
at church…’how are you?” – activate poker face ‘fine, thanks’
at work….’you are an idiot’ – activate poker face ‘ thank you, have a nice day.”

you get the idea…I didn’t…lol took me so long to learn the lesson…or is it a game? I still don’t know. Maybe I haven’t learned the lesson/game after all…do I really want to? not so much.

God tells us to let our yeses by yes and our nos be no…right? does that mean the same for our expressions? dunno…

I am not a good liar…never have been…give myself away every time…besides that my memory is not good enough to keep up with all the twists and turns lies create…lol you should see me trying to read a mystery novel…have to take notes to keep up. lol

Got me into a lot of trouble at work. My poker face deficiency would give away what I was thinking every time…if I was board, it would show, annoyed it would show, amused -yep, there it was shining brightly across my face….Nothing fans the flames of an angry customer faster than a giggle from the person they are yelling at and trying to intimidate…it struck me as funny and I could not for the life of me engage that poker face…thought he was going to hit me, I really did…

I started thinking I should try to put on a poker face…that is what professional, respectable people do, how they act, right? so … I figured out how to get that poker face…a mask…that will work, right? wrong…I lost myself behind it…not a good thing when you already struggle with liking yourself…made me like myself even less…and as it turned out was just a lie in disguise.

I was starting to believe their thoughts of me…that I was not good at what I did…but you know what? They are wrong! I am good at what I do…and do it the best I know how. I brought a lot- A LOT- to them…where ever God has me at the time I always do my best…and it is good.

I am not a proud, boastful person by nature…but this I am sure of…I succeeded at my job…I was there just over 3 years and I know without a doubt that I made positive impacts on everyone I interacted with and that they will be hard pressed to replace me. I am proud of what I accomplished there.

Now on to my next adventure!

Prayer Requests 11/14/11

The Power of Persevering Prayer.
….all the mysteries of the prayer world the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked, time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand. It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. When, after persevering pleading, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh, and it has all the appearance of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When once faith has taken its stand on God’s word and the Name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek God’s will and honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay. It knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed. It knows that just as water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full force, so there must often be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full, when the answer comes. It knows that just as the peasant farmer has to take his ten thousand steps to sow his tens of thousands seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for often repeated persevering prayer, all working out some desired blessing. It knows for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who perseveres to the end. It knows that it has to do, not with human thoughts or possibilities, but with the word of the living God. And so, even as Abraham through so many years “who against hope believed in hope” (Romans 4:18), and then “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:12)

….

The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the corresponding dispositions: patience and faith, waiting and anticipating, are the secret of his perseverance. By faith in the promise of God, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him. Faith takes and holds the answer in the promise as an unseen spiritual possession, rejoices in it, and praises for it. But there is a difference between the faith that thus holds the word and knows that it has the answer and the clearer, fuller, riper faith that obtains the promise as a present experience. It is in persevering, not unbelieving, but confident and praising prayer, that the soul grows up into that full union with its Lord in which it can enter upon the possession of the blessing in Him. There may be in these around us, there may be in that great system of being of which we are part, there may be in God’s government, things that have to be put right through our prayer before the answer can fully come: the faith that has, according to the command, believed that it has received, can allow God to take His time; it knows it has prevailed and must prevail. In quiet, persistent, and determined perseverance it continues in prayer and thanksgiving until the blessing comes. And so we see combined what at first sight appears contradictory–the faith that rejoices in the answer of the unseen God as a present possession and the patience that cries day and night until it be revealed. The quickness of God’s patience is met by the triumphant but patient faith of His waiting child…..

~Andrew Murray

finding my way – 9/7/11

Been a bit lost over the past couple of years. I just kind of lost it when mom died. I withdrew from almost everyone and everything…and basically shut down.

Here I am now…standing in the middle of ‘God knows where’ wondering, “Now what?”

Now what…

The things I know for certain are…well, they are a good place to start to get a good footing on the path, so to speak. Kind of like gathering up your backpack of supplies for a day of hiking. Things that I know for certain are…God loves me, I love God, I love my husband, I love my daughter, they love me…

The things that I don’t know…they are kind of like those rabbit trails you see along the way…sometimes they lead to something good…other times they are dead ends…and once in a while…you end up in hot water…So…the things I don’t know for certain are things that scare me, confuse me and sometimes anger me. I want to have clarity in all areas of my life and thought processes…I did not know however, that it would be so exhausting to get there.

Prayer and Fasting 9/6/11

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,

according to the power at work within us,

to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,

forever and ever.

Amen

~Ephesians 3:14-21

Please let me know if you have a prayer need.  You can leave your request here or email me at dust.shaker@gmail.com

Is your lamp full of oil?

Matthew 25:1-13 tells us the story of the virgins -5 were ready with oil in their lamps.

I came home from work tonight (this morning) to a dark house. The power was out in the whole neighborhood. Buster had candles aglow on the kitchen table. In the living room he had an oil lamp lit. It was so romantic. Ok, well it would have been if he were not upset at the electric being out. lol

Are we ready to serve Jesus? Is our lamp full? or is it sitting on a shelf in the back of the basement behind an empty paint can collecting dust and webs? Is our walk deliberate or are we just coasting though?

One very important way that we can assist our Bridegroom for the marriage feast is to pray for others.

Andrew Murray says, ” As the members of His body, as a holy priesthood, we shall take part in His priestly work of pleading and prevailing with God for men. Yes, let us joyfully say, ignorant and weak though we are, Lord, teach us to pray.”

prayer requests 3/17/11

“”The hand of The Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by The Spirit of The Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley;”

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.

Many of us are in the valley now. It feels as if we are alone. It feels endless. I feels awful.

The reality is not those things at all. It is not endless. We are not alone. He is with us. He is sustaining us. He will see us though. He promises us that.

Lifting you in love and prayer.
your sister
dusty

Prayer requests 7/2010

Captain Kevin -experiencing a lot of pain the last few days, especially in my joints and low back. Also, having frequent spells of vertigo (dizziness). Trouble sleeping at night, not because I’m not sleepy, but because I just can’t get comfortable. I see my rheumatologist again in about 3 weeks.

BrianD – work stresses

Esther/Matt – new ministry to the wounded

Glenn – mother’s failing health,

Glenn – caring for his mother

London – employment

Jeff Stewart – grieving the loss of his beloved Karen

jlo – grieving the loss of her dixie

Linnea – spiritual attacks

Nene – employment

Nene – rheumatoid arthritis

Sarah – headaches

Sarah – mother’s health

Sarah – son diagnosed with migraines

Sister Christian – husband’s employment

Sister Christian – renovation of church in France

SisterD – spiritual battle

Prayer Requests 6/2010

BrianD – work stresses

Captain Kevin – health

Esther/Matt – new ministry to the wounded

Glenn – mother’s failing health,

Glenn – caring for his mother

Jeff Stewart – grieving the loss of his beloved Karen

jlo – grieving the loss of her dixie

Linnea -  spiritual attacks

Michael – health

Michael -employment

Nene – employment

Nene – rheumatoid arthritis

Sarah – headaches, health

Sarah – mother’s failing health,

Sarah – youngest son having migraines

Sister Christian – husband’s employment

Sister Christian – renovation of church in France

SisterD – spiritual battle

Steve Hopkins – possible kidney cancer, awaiting results of Biopsy

Proverbs 31:18-24

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.  ~Proverbs 31:18-24

~

Ladies,

I would like to learn from you.

Would you mind sharing with us some of the things you enjoy doing. Things that help you relax. Things that help you save money or time for you and your families.  What kinds for hobbies do you enjoy ? What skills would you like to pass on to your sons and daughters?