Do Not Despair

Isaiah 61

The Year of the LORD’s Favor

¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,^a]">[a]
² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor. ⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.


All of us come to a crossroad in our lives maybe it is a time in the past, or something you are currently battling where you look back and think thoughts like: man I really blew it, I am marked, I will never be used of God again, His grace is enough for some people but I am the one that missed the mark where grace is concerned. Life is flat out hard and can be nasty at times. Sin can just heap up and make us feel as if we are damaged goods if we don't view our past/present sins in light of the cross. Yes if we look at our ability to be good or forgive and etc we are doomed left to our self. We have to put our hope in the cross. The fact that while our sin may have deep and lasting repercussions that God truly took our sins and hurled them into the depths of the sea. He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and took our blemishes, our sins, and nailed them to the cross. If you live in the evangelical world that I live in this can become so cliche. I just know though that someone like myself needs to place their confidence in this, "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6)

When you are tempted to give into the lie that the Lord is done with you or that you can't be used you have got to settle that with the enemy or he will continue to shoot those fiery arrows at the place where you should be putting up your shield of faith to extinguish those arrows. Your hope and confidence has to be on God and His ability to forgive and restore not how you feel or what you have done. Yes learn from your past sin and failure but do not let it turn to despair. In Christ we have hope and with Him is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption. I love (and I do not want to take this out of context in anyway but Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 61) that the Lord will take those who have truly grieved and mourned over their sins and bring us to a place of restoration where He gives us a new place to stand and puts a new song in our hearts and bestows on you and I a crown of beauty instead of ashes. You may feel like life's circumstances and failures have just burned down around you leaving only ashes that you heap on yourself in mourning and you feel covered by the stench and everyone including you can smell it but the LORD puts a crown on your head, gives you the oil of gladness instead of mourning and adorns your precious self with a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. If we still have breath the Lord still has purpose for us. Can we miss our callings...yes. Lets take the bull by the horns and believe God until we breathe our last breath. Lets choose to believe in our merciful Lord and may He give us the courage to stand on the Rock of His word and let whatever grievous things in the past teach us that His word was true all along and may it lead us to a greater fear and reverence and deep love for the Lord. Let's use what we have learned to turn back and strengthen the brethren. Whatever we do let's not give into despair. He knows the plans He has for us, plans for hope and a future.

If I could yell it from a mega phone to the weary person that needs to hear it I would know this... (Hebrews 12:11-13)¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³ “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Believe God for His redemption. He is enough for you and me. Whatever discipline we have received may have not been pleasant but painful...but let's not let it go to waste. Let it produce a harvest of righteousness and peace.

Don't give up and don't give in.

The Lord loves you and longs for you to come to Him so He can have compassion on you. You are precious in His sight.

HERE is a devo that my friend made sure I read yesterday. It is so good. I hope it speaks to you!

Morgan discussing why she hates st patricks day

This is my child discussing why she hates st. patricks day. I use the term hate loosely because of course she doesn't know what it is but it is hilarious because we sometimes use Bon Qui Qui phrases around here and she says I will punch you if you pinch me on this holiday. We are not mean spirited so please just get the humor! haha excuse my chuckling!

Ace ventura morgan style

Morgan repeating a scene in Ace Ventura...she has NEVER seen the movie I just taught this to her. hahahaha

iPod Touch 4th Generation Won't Sync

I was having problems getting my iTouch to sync. First, I prayed about it because I have no clue what to do and have messed with it before and did not want to take it to the apple store. So, I went through some settings and figured out that I had apparently uninstalled Bonjour Windows. I reinstalled it and restarted my computer and it worked! Hope it helps anyone who has the same problem.

Update on Joanne

Here is the latest update on Joanne for those of you who have been praying. Also, I included a link on my blog to her site if you are interested in keeping up and praying.

He Meets Our Needs

1 Kings 17: ² Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”





Since my blog has been so pathetic as of late, I feel updates are in order! This pic of Morgan cracks me up! She loves VBS (vacation bible school) and this years theme as far as baptists go is "The Big Apple". She is already a tad high maintenance and she has requested that I take her to Hollywood and New York for certain birthdays. When she saw this attire at Lifeway she about fell out because she really thought for VBS this year that she was headed to New York! Love her!
I can't even begin to articulate the depth of my love for this precious one. The joy and blessing she brings to our hearts can't even be measured. One thing about her momma is that I loved, LOVED, LOVED me some VBS. I grew up in a small little town and I mapped out just about every VBS in town and had my mom or dad drop me and my sisters off. They always took us and I am sure with 5 kids in my family that the break was welcomed.
I remember eating those cheap vanilla cookies, the kind with cream in the middle, and drinking fruit punch and making crafts. Those times at VBS were so fun. I helped lead it at my church 2 years ago and I am not knocking it but it is so planned out with activities that the kids in my opinion don't have time to breathe or think about what they are doing before they are on to the next thing. I thought about how scheduled and programmed we are and was reminded of how simple yet fun it was for me to go to those little tiny country churches and learn about Jesus.


Next, is this little precious one Blair. I realize that I may have two people that read this that are not on my facebook and do not know that I am pregnant. Here is the latest shot of baby Blair. I feel a little nuts for starting over after 6 years because that is what we will be doing. However, we knew good and well with my horrible pregnancies that we could not try to have another child until Morgan was in school since I have to do the whole bed rest thing. I am excited and terrified! I can't imagine there being any more love in my heart to go around or parenting another child since it is such a HUGE responsibility. I know the Lord will show up on my behalf and in my weakness.

On another note...I am so sick right now with the flu. I have not felt this bad in a while. It always makes me thankful for my health when I feel this way. I am one that CAN NOT sleep with fever so here I am.

I don't know what my deal is lately but I have been reading a lot of commentaries when I study the bible and the more I read the more I realize how much I have to learn. So, it has held me back in a way because I don't want to go writing about something in the Word that is just mere opinion on my part. Yet I realize that I still have to keep sharing and pray that my words fall to the ground if they are not in line with the Word of God. So lately I have just felt a little more desperate for Jesus than usual. I need Him so much and I desperately long to live in His presence. Tonight I felt as if I were Elijah (figuratively speaking) in 1 Kings 17 were he was ordered to go and hide by the Brook of Kerith. We know that Elijah faced depression of discouragement or maybe he was just flat worn out and the Lord told him what to do and attended to his physical needs. Don't for a second miss the miraculous in this passage. The Lord orders Ravens to feed Elijah! Can you just imagine? Instead of the pizza guy showing up at the door some birds show up to bring him "bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening". Here he is hiding out yet he is not for one second hidden from the Lord. The one who commands the wind and the waves commanded the ravens on Elijah's behalf.

HE KNOWS OUR NEED.

There have been many times in my life where I just seem to be exhausting myself yet not with a lot of purpose and the Lord is like enough Jenny...and I am then made to lie down in green pastures. The Lord leads His own by still waters. Elijah was hiding and drinking by a brook which is a small stream. He needed some time where there was no turbulence, a time where God could tend to his real physical need for rest. If you look down a few verses in this passage you will see there was a time for him to recoup and then a time for him to get back up and stand on his two feet so the Lord allowed the brook he was drinking from to dry up.

So what got me thinking about this? Morgan brought me a bible study workbook and she got one for her as well. I had already done this one multiple times but she said, "mom, let's do Daniel again...it's my favorite." She is so funny because of course she is 5 1/2 and has not actually done Daniel. ha! Yet, in such a real way I knew that the LORD used her as my own little raven to bring my what I so desperately needed in the Word. He used her to feed me with some manna from heaven. Some meat and bread!

In all things the LORD knows the way that I take and I am so thankful that He is our portion in the land of the living. He is what we long for, what we need. I pray that if you are weary or broken in spirit that you will take time out to let the Lord tend to your needs and the real issues of your heart. We are so wonderfully complex and He knows us better than we know ourselves. Let us entrust ourselves to the One who is faithful and to The Answer to our deepest needs.