Put on Your Armor!

Read at least the first paragraph attached to the John Phillips link below. I heard Dr David Jeremiah quote this, and I had to look it up. Great picture of the spiritual battle we are in! Let's put on our armor Christian Warriors (Ephesians 6:10-18)! 

John Phillips http://books.google.com/books?id=1hY-olhOFgMC&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&ots=grABGQgfjD&dq=john+phillips+and+our+enemies+are+not+people&output=html_text

Menu Plan!

I'm starting to menu plan again! A great time and money saver!


Weekly Dinner Menu: 


Monday: Steak with corn and broccoli cheddar pasta (adding fresh broccoli to Knorr Broccoli cheddar pasta)


Tuesday: Corn Flake Chkn with baked potatoes

http://www.weekly-dinner-ideas.com/baked-chicken-recipes.html


Wed: Lasagna with Italian Bread and Salad

http://menus4moms.com/pdf/sample_busy_mom.pdf


Thurs: Crock Pot Orange Chkn with rice and sesame green beans

http://menus4moms.com/pdf/sample_busy_mom.pdf


Friday: White Chkn Enchiladas with chips, salsa, beans and rice

http://menus4moms.com/pdf/sample_busy_mom.pdf


Sat and Sun: Hubby cooks!

Not Home Yet!

Although I desire to keep my eyes fixed on eternity, all too often, my vision is cutoff at what this world has to offer. Our souls, our inner persons, will never be satisfied by anything available in this life. The Lord says He has placed eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Boy, do I ever struggle with this! We are not home yet! This gives me great motivation and hope to make the most of this fleeting life!

I want to make a difference each and every day! 

I know I fail miserably at this. However, I will keep getting up, no matter how many times I fall down. 

I know He can bring glory from ashes. 

I am reading the One Year Chronological Bible via YouVersion. I just read in Exodus how Moses didn't believe he had what it took to do God's work. Yet God still chose to use Moses, and miracles happened!

God made each one of us. He doesn't only use gifts and talents to glorify Him. He uses our failures and handicaps too. Yes, He desires each one of us to Glorify Him!

If I compare myself to the world's standards, I will only get discouraged and become useless. I must rely on God for my worth! He gives me courage to do things I never would believe I could on my own!

Mother Theresa is one of those people who is well known because of her reliance on God to give her great courage! Because she first loved God, His love flowed through her, and she did amazing things! 

If we seek after God's heart, and let Him guide us, we will do amazing things too!

Let God write the story of your life!


Here are some quote-able quotes by Mother Theresa. May it encourage and inspire you!


Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
Mother Teresa

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
Mother Teresa

Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.
Mother Teresa

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
Mother Teresa

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.
Mother Teresa

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
Mother Teresa

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Mother Teresa

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Mother Teresa

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Teresa

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.
Mother Teresa

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
Mother Teresa

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
Mother Teresa

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.
Mother Teresa

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
Mother Teresa

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.
Mother Teresa

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
Mother Teresa

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.
Mother Teresa

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.
Mother Teresa

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.
Mother Teresa

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.
Mother Teresa

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Mother Teresa

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
Mother Teresa

Peace begins with a smile.
Mother Teresa

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Mother Teresa

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.
Mother Teresa

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.
Mother Teresa

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
Mother Teresa

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.
Mother Teresa

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.
Mother Teresa

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.
Mother Teresa

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Mother Teresa

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.
Mother Teresa

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Mother Teresa

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
Mother Teresa

Read more:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa_2.html#ixzz1kamLjGuq

Supplementing Your Sundays

As a Christ follower, Sundays aren't the only day I should seek to learn about Him. In fact, if you are really after God's own heart, you can't settle for just Sundays! The desire to know Him more grows as you truly seek Him! It is so crucial for our Christian walk to spend time reading the Bible, supplementing additional teachings through watching sermons, studying devotionals and other books, and in **prayer.

(**Which I feel very strongly is the most important. For that is how we quiet ourselves enough to feel His presence. Without prayer, our walk with Christ is very distant. We can never "know" his heart without seeking to really know Him through Prayer.)

To supplement my weekly Church's sermons, I've lately really enjoyed Perry Stone's Manna Fest series, which I originally found on television, but have since been watching online.

Perry's Voice of Evangelism Website is @ http://www.voe.org/. On the left side of the page there is a link to the weekly Manna Fest video, check it out! You are sure to learn more about our Lord through Perry's teachings on His Word!

I also have watched a couple sermon series from Mars Hill Church with our couples small group in the past: The Peasant Princess and Spiritual Warfare. Both have been extremely insightful! Here is a link to most of the sermons, which also have notes you can print off: http://marshill.com/media/sermons

My favorite devotional is My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. His devotionals challenge me in my walk with God. No matter how many times I've read the same devotional through the years, I always gain new understanding and wisdom! Here is the link: http://utmost.org/

I love this quote next to Oswals's devotional today: 


"The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;…  The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

I have also been reading a devotional, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young via an android app. Below is a copy of an entry from November 13, which I particularly appreciated:

“I am Christ in you, the hope of Glory. The One who walks beside you, holding you by your hand, is the same One who lives within you. This is a deep, unfathomable mystery. You and I are intertwined in an intimacy involving every fiber of your being. The Light of My Presence shines within you, as well as upon you. I am in you, and you are in Me; therefore, nothing in heaven or on earth can separate you from Me!

As you sit quietly in My Presence, your awareness of My Life within you is heightened. This produces the Joy of the Lord, which is your strength. I, the God of hope, fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in Me, so that you may bubble over with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 1:27; Isaiah 42:6; Nehemiah 8:10; Romans 15:13”

Matters of Opinion: Hallowing Halloween (directly linked from Christianity Today)

Below is a link to a great article regarding a Christian world view of Halloween.

Matters of Opinion: Hallowing Halloween | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

HE is with me...

I haven't been blogging much lately. I won't go into detail about the ups and downs of my life recently, but I will say that I have had a case of "bunchiness". My grandmother has said that it seems things in life happen in bunches. I very much agree with that right now. I have been pulled in what feels like a million different directions. I recently came to the place where I was so fatigued that I didn't even know what to pray. I remembered this passage from Romans 8:18-30 and felt encouraged because I know Jesus is always with me. 

18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

 22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

 26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

 29-30God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

Thankfully, God subtly and sweetly reminds me that He is always with me. I feel His peace and joy in my soul despite any tribulation I go through. I pray that no matter where you are today, that you too reach out to God and feel His presence in your life.

The Lord's Prayer

Matthew 6:9-13

 In this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

    

 Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

    

 Give us this day our daily bread.

    

 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

    

 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory for ever. Amen.

   

Healthy Living Challenge: Wk 6!

We are now almost complete with the last week of my 6 Week Healthy Living Challenge! Please check out the link if you are viewing this for the first time!

Before you read below, I challenge you to watch this message given by one of my pastors at church, Troy Kennedy. It's a great message about making Jesus the center of every aspect of our lives- including our physical health! Check it out @ http://www.westsidefamilychurch.com/recentmessages.html, then click on Cow Tipping: Supersize Me!

Since week 6 is almost complete, I am going to incorporate a review of both weeks 5 and 6, and then further summarize the past 6 weeks and give some goals for the future!

Week 5 Recap:

I did cardio only 2 days, which was my old school Tae Bo workout videos ;)

Also, I did go on a couple fast-paced walks, but no jogging for me. 

I have been using my free weights for some upper body strength training.
I ate salad for lunch 3 out of the 7 days, and tried to make healthy choices the other days.

Meatless  Day- Accomplished :)

Week 6 Recap:

I  have done 3 workout videos this week including Hip Hop Abs, Dancing with the Stars Latin Cardio Dance, and today I have done Crunch's Fat Burning Yoga Workout. I have also continued doing upper and lower body strength training with free weights and walking lunges, calf raises and wall squats. 

I have eaten salad 3 out of the past 6 days (I still have 1 more day left ;) I have eaten healthy at lunch with the exception Wednesday when I ate chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy... compliments of my hospital's cafeteria (they really do serve tasty food... my very favorite is their tomato bisque soup!)

Meatless Day: Accomplished :)

Again, as I have shared in weeks prior, here are some resources for healthy salad recipes:

Fit Watch: Free E-Book Salad Recipes




Eating Well: Healthy Salad Recipes




All Recipes: Healthy Salads




Reader's Digest: Fresh Salad Recipes




Medicine Net: Salad Recipes




Woman's Day: Healthy Hearty Salads




Good Housekeeping: Healthy Salads




About Salads: Easy Healthy Salad Recipes




Epicurious: Main Course Salads




Savvy Vegetarian: Salad Recipes




Food Network: Salad Recipe Collection




Other helpful links: 




Meatless Mondays: "Why Meatless?




Target Heart Rate Calculator: target level




Why you should exercise and other info: Web MD Cardio, CDC Exercise, ACSM, and AHA

Overview of the past 6 weeks, and future plans: 

During the past 6 weeks I have been intentional about eating healthier and exercising more.  Although I am not perfect, I have succeeded to some degree. 

I have been reminded that to accomplish a goal, we must be intentional about it. Whether in our internal or external, our spiritual, physical, or emotional lives, we must be disciplined to move forward. We can't expect things to change on their own. 

The past 6 weeks has been a growing process for me. I've recognized my faults, such as time management and procrastinating,  and am still working on them. I tend to get discouraged and be somewhat unmotivated at times. However, I've found that when I focus my eyes on Jesus, seeking HIM and His Will, HE becomes my motivation, and with HIM I know I can do anything! HE is better motivation than anything this life has to offer!

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who [a]infuses inner strength into me; I am [b]self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].  (Philippians 4:13)

But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well. (Matthew 6:33)

So, as I move forward, I am going to focus on being healthy holistically. I always need my relationship with Jesus to be first and foremost, at the center of my wheel. As I do this, every other aspect of my life becomes balanced! Everything else pales in comparison to His beauty! As I live my life, I pray it is a reflection of Him. I have a lot of work to do, but if I take each day one at a time with Him as my guide, I am well equipped for any challenge! My prayer for you is the same too!

Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, (1 Corinthians 6:19 AMP)

“ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:29-30)

So, lets continue and create more good habits that will carry on into the rest of our lives. Make every aspect of our lives glorify HIM! To start, we need to spend time with HIM. I personally shoot for at least 15 minutes a day of quiet time with God... whether it be in the morning, during my girls' quiet time, or after everyone else has gone to bed for the night. God desires relationship, not religion.  Read God’s word, and study it through a good devotional or Bible study, talk to God through prayer.

We are in an age where life is busier, and technology is more prominent in trying to accommodate by making things faster and easier to access. I find a lot of what I do through technology, whether it be on my phone or computer. Here are some of my personal favorite “God Time” web-pages.  (FYI: I am suggesting them, but not promoting them over any other resource):

www.biblegateway.com (look up scripture and compare different versions of God’s Word)

http://westsidefamilychurch.com/recentmessages.html  (You can watch, listen and read notes from a library of recent teachings)

www.rbc.org (my personal favorite devotional is on here: My Utmost for His Highest)

www.crosswalk.com (this one also has links to other great resources)

www.girlfriendsingod.com (with my church's lead teaching pastor's wife Mary Southerland)

www.everydaytruth66.blogspot.com (by my fellow church member Lori Fairchild)

www.kyria.com (for women- chosen in Christ, called to influence)

www.gospel.com (a community of online ministries)

http://www.backtothebible.org/index.php/Bible-Studies-and-Devotions.html  

ANY OTHER GREAT CHRISTIAN RESOURCES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW!

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!