Count Your Blessings

Come join me today at Midweek Motivation... and remember to Count Your Blessings.

Just checkin' in/Describe Yourself

Well, I've returned from the Women's Conference I spoke at this weekend... which was awesome by the way. The theme for the retreat was "With All Your Heart" and the ladies were wonderful. I really enjoyed being with them.

I touched down at home just long enough to unpack, repack and leave for Michigan. I am speaking in Grand Rapids tonight and Kalamazoo tomorrow night for Epilepsy Advocate LIVE Events. Pray that the Lord will touch someone's heart through Spencer's story.

I have lots to share, but just a few minutes. I hope to post tonight. If not, join me tomorrow for Midweek Motivation at Writer Interrupted.

By the way... thanks to everyone who joined in for Then Sings My Soul this past Saturday. I love listening to all of your songs! One of my favorites this week was David Crowder by Tania at Faith Prints. I hear this song on the radio all the time, but this was the first time I truly listened to all the words, and the video really spoke to me. In the middle of all of my busyness, angels are singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" all the time. Oh that we would join with them.

Another that I really loved was Andrea's pick at Mommy Snacks. It was so powerful to see the words people used to describe themselves after being changed by God. We are certainly not who we once were. What two words would you use to describe yourself before and after Christ?

Blessings to you!
Amy

Then Sings My Soul Saturdays - Saving the World

I'm out of town speaking at a Women's conference this weekend, so I am posting "Then Sings My Soul" a little early. Have a great weekend!
My husband has a saying.  It is "After Jesus on the cross... all the rest is just the details." He is a big picture person. I am a detail person. We complement each other well, even though we drive each other crazy at times. 

I must say though, when it comes to this particular issue, "saving the world" I agree with him. We can argue all day long about specific points in the Bible that we won't know the real meaning of until we meet Jesus face to face in Heaven. 

But to me, everything is really all about a man dying on the cross saving the world.

This song makes me want to dance too :-)

Random Thoughts for the Day

I have several random things to share with you today. Nothing deep or profound, but maybe at least interesting.

1. Let me direct you to the new button on my side bar for Epilepsy Advocate. My friend Carol's husband Alan made it for me. If you would like to get the word out about a great support site for those living with epilepsy, please copy the code and add it to your side bar. It doesn't hurt that the adorable boy pictured is none other than my little miracle Spencer. You could also just add it to your sidebar to remind yourself to please lift him up in prayer.

2. I received an email about a new movie coming out from Sherwood Pictures and Provident Films. These are the people who made Facing The Giants from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. It is called Fireproof and is coming out this fall. Kirk Cameron will star in this film. Go here to see more info. We need to support great family friendly, faith based movies like these.

3. Go here if you would like to see the interview Spencer and I did along with Jennifer Arnold from Canine Assistants for Voice of America. You can read the article or click on listen on MP3 at the top and get to hear my lovely southern drawl. I've been told it is melodious :)

4. I've been tagged by Andrea at Mommy Snacks and by Jenifer at By His Grace to list 7 Random Facts about me and 5 interesting things including 5 things I was doing 10 years ago, 5 things on my to do list, 5 of my favorite snacks, 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire, and 5 bad habits. I promise I will do these tags before the weekend. I just need to think about them a little more. It's one of the things on my to do list... so I only have to list 4 more.

5. I have to tell you that last night I skipped the Ladie's Spring Event at my church where Esther Burroughs was the speaker and By Design was singing. My friend Deanna sings with By Design, and I had never heard Esther Burroughs before, so I was kind of bummed. But let me tell you why I skipped it. I went to dinner with Greg Grunberg and some other Epilepsy Advocates. It was really cool. And no... he didn't read my mind... at least I don't think he did. Although he did know exactly what I meant when we had a discussion about our children and epilepsy. That is kind of like reading my mind :) He and his wife are living it too (their son Jake has epilepsy) and they can totally relate.

And I am bummed that we have to wait until September to see more new Heroes episodes. But... LOST (which Grunberg was cast as the pilot when the series aired in 2004) will return tomorrow night... as will I.

Now if I could just manage dinner with Matthew Fox (whom I have loved since Party of Five) I would be so happy.

Take Care of Yourself First

I'm pretty sure I have a four year old that is wise beyond her years. You may remember this post about being confident. Sometimes the comments she makes during our conversations seem to be straight from the mouth of God to my ears. Talk about God speaking to you through other people. I've decided He uses Mary Lyndsey to speak to me and teach me things quite often.

Recently , we were riding in the van to pick up Spencer from school. I was listening to the radio and Mary Lyndsey was watching a DVD. She took her headphones off and said to me,

"Mom, turn off the radio, I need to ask you something."

"What is it Mary Lyndsey?"

"Do you have to complete your own mission before you help someone else?"

"What? What movie are you watching? What mission are you are talking about?"

(You learn to never answer a question for a four year old when you don't know what the source of the question is. It just might come back to bite you.)

"I'm watching Gigi. But that's not what my question is about. I want to know if you have to help yourself before you can help someone else."

She clearly had something on her mind, but I didn't know what, so I probed further.

"What are you talking about Mary Lyndsey? Why are you asking the question?"

(Great mom trick by the way... answering a question with a question)

"When we were on the plane to Chicago and to Washington, that lady said you had to help yourself first before you could help somebody else."

Now it was clear. She was thinking about what the flight attendant had said about the oxygen masks on the plane.

"Oh yes Mary Lyndsey, if something happened on the plane and you needed oxygen, you would want to put on your own mask first and then help the person next to you put on their mask."

I didn't want to go into too much detail as she has only flown twice and discussing plane crashes and loss of cabin pressure didn't seem like a good thing to do with a four year old.

"So do you have to always help yourself first with everything?" I wasn't quite sure how to respond so I made up some answer that seemed good at the moment and satisfied her.

The more I thought on her question though, I began to feel like I got the message. We do have to take care of ourselves first before we can help or take care of others. As a mom who is busy and seems to burn my candle at both ends quite often... I burn out quickly. At those times I lose sight of my first calling. After God, it is my family. I can't take good care of them if I'm not taking good care of me. Taking good care of me requires putting on my oxygen mask first to breath in the fresh air, the breath of life I receive when I spend time with Him and in His Word.

I found this quote in an article by Mankyu Oh and found it quite interesting.

"Several years ago a Canadian missionary to Korea translated "spirit" into Korean as "the breath of God," based on John 20:22. I was very excited to see this translation, since I had been reading about ancient ideas on breath at the time. I had also noticed Ellen G. White's emphasis on breath, stressing the benefit of deep breathing for our life and health. Led to do a study of the idea of breath and breathing in the Bible, I was surprised to find how strong a motif it was-running right through Scripture.I found that breath was an essential element in the definition of humankind. More than anything else, Scripture paints the picture of human beings as "breathing" creatures. Humans began with the breathing of the Creator, with breath from God. "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).So we can think of a living being as "a living breath." Man became a living breath when he received the breath of life from God. We become weak when the breath of life in us becomes weak. We become fresh and strong when the breath of life in us becomes fresh and strong. We become spiritual, so to speak, when the breath in us becomes spiritual. Where can we go to get a fresh breath of life? The apostle Paul says in his second epistle to Timothy (3:16, 17): "All Scripture is God-breathed . . . so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." The Bible is a reservoir of God's life-giving breath. When I open the Holy Bible I imagine that I am going to the seashore of life-giving breath. I picture myself standing before an ocean of breath, and deeply inhaling the fresh breath of life from the Scriptures."

This is exactly what I am talking about. Take time to put on your oxygen mask and breathe in the Word of God. If you do this first, you won't run out of breath before you complete all of your other task and you will be able to take care of the others in your life so much better.

Punctuation

Some of you have had the quiz below on your site recently. I decided to take it to find out what it said about me... and I am a Comma.

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, your friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I'd say this little quiz is fairly accurate... only I don't know what it says about a question mark, so I don't know if I get along best with them. If you are a question mark, please let me know so that we can see if we get along :)

Now even though this quiz says I am a comma, I sometimes feel more like an ellipsis. What, some of you may ask, is an ellipsis? It's OK to admit it if you don't know. I didn't know what it was until my friend Carol who has been graciously editing some of my writing referred to it. I didn't tell her (although now she knows if she is reading this) but I didn't know what she was referring to the first time she told me "I took the ellipsis out because you didn't need it."

I guess I didn't pay that much attention in English class. I didn't know the "official" name for those three little dots. I had to go look it up. Oh... now I get it. If you have read any of my writing... you will find... I am quite fond of the ellipsis. When I looked it up... this is what I found... and this.

Well, apparently I use it quite often. I've decided the reason is because I am quite frequently

omitting something

having an unfinished thought

or trailing off...

I most often use it because I am pausing. Usually to clean up a mess, referee a fight, answer the phone and doorbell at the same time or multi tasking a variety of other things.

And if you all do know what an ellipsis is and I am the only idiot in the blogosphere that didn't... don't tell me. Let me remain blissfully unaware.

I hope I have inspired you today... at least that's what the "blog things" quiz tells me I excel in.

Pictures from Chicago

Just wanted to share some pictures from our Chicago trip this past week. For those of you who have been asking... we will hopefully receive our dog this summer in July. We have to attend a two week training camp at Canine Assistants. We are really excited!


The dog in the pictures is Carly. She belongs to one of the trainers. They have several dogs that travel for their publicity events. We will meet the dog that will be selected for us when we attend training. They match the dogs with you based on personality.

Here is a link to one of the articles that was published. I hope to have a video link from the press conference up soon. We are still so overwhelmed and grateful for this news.

Thank you to those who have continued to lift Spencer up in prayer. We have been almost 4 weeks without a seizure!

I'll be back later!

Amy

How would you introduce Christ?

This morning in Sunday School, my teacher played this clip! I absolutely love it. 

In a day when people go crazy in football stadiums, concerts and movie premiers... shouldn't we get even more excited about introducing and praising our Lord and Savior. And shouldn't we all be longing with much anticipation for His second coming!

Blessings to you today!

Amy

Then Sings My Soul Saturday... I Am

I am so overwhelmed and in awe when I stop to consider who God is and what he does for us every second of every day... what He has done throughout all of time. Our finite mind cannot wrap itself around an infinite God.

He is everything. Everything I have ever needed and everything I will ever need. He has known me since before I was born. He has been present in every event that has transpired throughout my life. He will be present in every event that is yet to come.

This song speaks to that...

"I Am" by Nichole Nordeman

To check out other information about the "I Am's" of God... visit here.

Here I Am!

Looking for me?? I'm at Writer Interrupted today! Click on the link above to join me!  Can you be two places at once? I can! I'm at Writer Interrupted, but I'm also still in Chicago!  Everything went great.  I won't be home until late tonight.  Give me some time to recover, and I'll tell you all about it.  
Sweet Blessings,Amy

God Is Good

Oh friends... what a great week this is! I have several pieces of exciting news to share with you!

All of you bloggy friends know how you can meet someone in the blosgosphere and feel like you already know them. You just connect and know that person has a heart after Jesus. Well, I have a friend I met through blogging who I feel just that way about.

Her name is Kimberly, or you might know her as kmom3 at A Planting of the Lord. I had never met Kimberly in person... until last night. We had a great "girl-friends" night last night.

My friend Carol from Sheep to the Right, and I went down to SC to my old church, Edwards Road Baptist, in Greenville. We attended their Ladie's First Choice event which featured Carol Kent as the speaker. I had invited Kimberly to join us and to my pleasure... she did.

It was so great to put a face with her name. She was an absolute joy to meet. And.. her sweet, sweet spirit that comes through in her writing on her blog is so evident in her personality. She was a true joy and blessing. (And she even brought gifts :-) I was honored and excited to get to spend some time with her.

I also got to see one of my best real life friends Janet from Living Oak Ministries. I wish all of you could meet Janet in person. She is one of the funniest, most talented, seeking after Christ people I know. She holds me accountable and encourages me in so many ways. I always treasure the time we get to spend together, which is limited now since we both moved in opposite directions. Make sure you keep your eye out for her because she is about to complete her first CD project and it is going to be wonderful. I fully expect to hear her on the radio soon :-)

And Carol and I got to spend some great time visiting in the car on the way to SC and back. We actually got to have conversations that were not interrupted by two 4 year olds little girls in the back seat. Carol is tons of fun to be with and is always looking to see the hand of the Lord in everything. We had such great conversations about what God is doing in our lives right now. It's so great to have friends you can talk to who love the Lord as much as you do.

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

I also got to visit with a lot of my old friends from ERBC, whom I miss and love dearly... and I got to see my sister and mother in love Judy and Liz. BTW... today is Liz's Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ!! I miss them and love them very much, and it was great to see and fellowship with them too.

I am so blessed to have godly friends and family!

As if all this wonderful girlfriend time wasn't enough... we got to hear Carol Kent Speak. She is incredible. If you have never heard her testimony, I encourage you go buy her books "When I Lay My Isaac Down" and "A New Kind of Normal." They are both wonderful. And she and her husband Gene were so nice. They stayed until almost 10pm, making sure to sign everyone's books and taking time to speak to each person individually. They poured out hope and love on everyone there.

Wow... just when you think God is so good and you couldn't imagine Him doing more for you, He goes and "blows your socks off" again, as my friend Carol would say.

Yes... I have even more exciting news to share!

If you have been reading my posts for very long... you may remember this post about one of Spencer's seizures. In this post, I talked about deciding to apply for a seizure response dog and leaving the rest in God's hands.

Well... we did apply. And we prayed. And we got a phone call a few days later. And guess what?!

If you can't read this... it says... On April 16, Spencer is getting a new best friend!

God is so good! He always meets us right at our point of need. I can hardly contain my excitement. We are flying to Chicago today for a press conference tomorrow about Spencer being selected to receive a seizure response dog from UCB and Canine Assistants.

We will actually receive our dog hopefully this summer when we attend a two week training camp. I will post more details soon. Just know that whatever your need is... take it to Jesus. He is sure to meet it.

Now that I have told you all about my friends and Spencer's new friend... I'm off. I've got to catch a flight. I will try to post more tomorrow but if I don't get to post, be sure to visit me at Writer Interrupted tomorrow for Midweek Motivation.

Sweet Blessings to you!

Amy

Then Sings My Soul Saturday... God Speaking

Do you ever wonder if God is speaking to you? How do you know it's Him? How do you distinguish His voice from the other voices you hear? Can you tell the difference between the voice of the accuser and the voice of the Father?

A few years ago, I took the study Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. If you have never taken it, I highly recommend it. In this study, Blackaby says God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, his purposes and his ways.

Then about a year ago, I took the study God Speaks to Me by Priscilla Shirer. This study, like Experiencing God, was life changing. It finally helped me to understand God has a message specifically for me. I just need to listen. Sometimes it is hard to know when God is speaking to us. We all get so busy in day to day life, we sometimes can't hear Him. Or if we think we do hear Him, we second guess it and wonder if it is really Him.

Priscilla has a follow-up study called Discerning the Voice of God. In it she talks about how to know God's voice. She answers the question "How can I really hear God speaking to me personally?" here in her frequently asked questions on her website. This study is also excellent.

Just today, I was listening to the radio and there was an advertisement for John Eldridge's new book "Walking With God." I haven't purchased it yet, but he has a website up with video classes for the book. I started watching them today, and they seem great so far. Here is the link if you are interested. In this book, he talks about knowing the voice of God and understanding how he speaks to you through everyday circumstances.

John 10:27 says "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

Mandisa talks about some of the ways God may be speaking to us in this song. Listen to the words carefully. It is a beautiful.



God has a message for you. He is speaking to you. Are you listening?

Welcome Spring

I'm away for a few days... not from home, but from the computer. I'm Spring Cleaning! I have to pull myself away from email and blogging to clean up.

In case you are in the mood to clean too, here is a clip with some good websites.

Of course if you are really in need of help with cleaning, there is always Flylady.

I'll be back tomorrow for Then Sings My Soul Saturday!

Have a great weekend.

Amy

10 Minute Tuesday - A Day Late

Faithful Chick had 10 Minute Tuesdays up yesterday and I thought about her verse all day. I just never got around to posting on it. So here I am... a day late.  But that's better than never :)

Psalm 139:1-4

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; 

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

First, let me say these verses have brought me great comfort at times and great distress at others. Comfort because I don't have to explain myself to God. When I feel like no one in the world understands me... I know He does, even better than I understand myself. I can just "be" in His presence and not have to use words to describe how I am feeling to Him. When I am too tired to even try to explain, I know He "gets it." He remembers things I have forgotten and has forgotten things I can't stop remembering. He knows things about me I don't know yet. And it all fits together in His perfect plan for me. 

It brings distress at times because I cannot hide. I cannot pretend. I cannot control how He sees me. That is scary. Don't we all want to control how others "see" us. We think "if they really knew everything about me... there's no way they would love me." But God (Aren't those great words - but God) But God sees everything and knows everything... and He loves us anyway.

I also love that "The Lord" in these verses is in all capital letters. This denotes the name Yahwey.  Look at what LORD in all caps means:

"The most common and the most important name for God in the Old Testament is a name that in our English versions never even gets translated. Whenever you see the word LORD in all capital letters, you know that the name Yahwey is behind it. The Jews came to regard this word with such reverence that they would never take it upon their lips, lest they inadvertently take the name in vain. So whenever they came to this name in their reading they pronounced the word "adonai" which means "my lord." The English versions have basically followed the same pattern. They translate the proper name Yahwey with the word LORD in all caps. This is not a very satisfactory thing to do, because the English word LORD does not communicate to our ears a proper name like John or Michael. But Yahwey is God's proper name in Hebrew. The importance of it can be seen in the sheer frequency of its use. It occurs 6828 times in the Old Testament. That's more than three times as often as the simple word for "God." What this shows is that God aims to be known not as a generic deity, but as a specific Person with a name that carries his unique character and mission."

(This information came from a message from John Piper in 1984 at Bethlehem Baptist Church.)

I'm no Bible scholar, but I think that when David uses the proper name for the LORD here, he is not only showing reverence, but that he knows His name. His proper name. He doesn't just know "of him" like I might know "of" some celebrity, but he KNOWS him - personally.

God knows us personally. Everything about us. He wants us to know Him personally too. We won't know everything about Him on this side of Heaven, but we can seek to know Him more each day. And one day, we will see Him as He is, face to face.

 

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

He knows us... inside and out. It reminds me of this song.

My son Spencer has a phrase he often says when he is praying. It is "Lord we love you and you know that."  I think it is a great phrase. The Lord does know if we love Him or not. He knows how much we truly love him. He knows if we truly long to know Him more and to love Him more. And he promises that if we seek to know Him more... we will.

Proverbs 18:17  

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

Jeremiah 29:13  

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Acts 26:17-27 

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 

If God cares so much for us that He sent His son to die for us, and if He knows EVERYTHING about us, then shouldn't we seek to know Him more too?

What If God's People Prayed?

OK... I'm not going to get up on my soap box about Oprah again... but maybe Casting Crowns was on to something when they recorded this song. Mark Hall may have a new chapter to write in his book Life Stories.



"What if the family turned to Jesus, stopped asking Oprah what to do?"

Pictures from DC/Still Reveling in Our Freedom

Me, Spencer, and Mary Lyndsey in front of the Capitol Building.
Me, Spencer and Mary Lyndsey in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Spencer and Mary Lyndsey under the Cherry Trees. The Jefferson Memorial is in the background across the Potomac Basin.
Mary Lyndsey in front of the Reflection Pool looking at the ducks. The Washington Monument is in the background. This was taken from in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Me and Spencer at the National Epilepsy Walk.
The fam in front of the Jefferson Memorial. We had a private tour around Washington and the tour guide took this picture for us.
This was taken at the FDR Memorial. The Cherry Blossom trees were in full bloom while we were there. They were gorgeous.

I promised a few pictures from our trip to DC so here they are. I want to write more about all the details, but we are on our way out the door to have a picnic at the park. ML is on Spring Break this week. I hope to get back to post again later today.

I know I posted a song on Freedom for TSMS Saturday, but I am still reveling over the freedom we have in Christ. This song speaks to me to my heart about freedom too. The pictures in this video are beautiful.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. Romans 8:1-3

Don't be deceived/My two cents worth on Oprah

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpents's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough...


For such men are false prophets, deceitful workman, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. 2 Corinthians 11: 3-15




Ok... so I've read several sites recently and received several emails about Oprah, and I have to tell you that I am just plain mad. And at the same time I am sad. Sad that she is so deluded and that she is confusing so many people. I'm sure many of you have already seen this video:






Did you know that in addition to Oprah doing webcast classes on Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth on her book club, that Marianne Williamson's A Course in Miracles is also being offered on her XM Satellite radio show? The only miracles I am interested in are the ones that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Holy One, the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty God my maker performs. And the only new earth I am interested in is the one that God himself will create as He says in Isaiah 65:17 "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."


Oprah has been deceived. And now she is deceiving and leading others astray. But before we are so quick to judge... let's not forget how easily we can be deceived too.


God's Word says that Satan himself masquerades as an Angel of Light. We sometimes have difficulty discerning between the true Light of the World and the fake light that Satan tries to trick us with. This is why it is so important to know the Truth. Not just part of the Truth... all of the Truth. Satan will take parts of the Word and twist them to suit his purposes and he wants you to do the same. Don't fall for his tricks. Know and be able to distinguish the voice of the Father from the voice of the accuser.


Colossians 2:6-8 says "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosphies, which depend on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."


The notes in the NIV Life Application Bible on these verses say: "Paul uses the illustration of our being rooted in Christ. Just as plants draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, so we draw our life-giving strength from Christ. The more we draw our strength from Him, the less we will be fooled by those who falsely claim to have life's answers. Paul writes against any philosophy of life based only on human ideas and experiences. Paul himself was a gifted philosopher, so he is not condemning philosophy. He is condemning teaching that credits humanity, not Christ, with being the answer to life's problems. That approach becomes a false religion. There are many man-made approaches to life's problems that totally disregard God. To resist heresy you must use your mind, keep your eyes on Christ and study God's Word."


It certainly seems to me that Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson fall into the category of preaching false religions that credit humanity as the answer to life's problems. People who are not rooted in Christ will fall for their false claims.


In my Angela Thomas study this week she focuses on weak-willed women. The passage of scripture she highlights is 2 Timothy 3:1-9. It says: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth - men of depraved minds, who as far as faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone."


As Angela Thomas says in her study... we can all be weak-willed women at times. We must stay in God's Word rooted in Him so we are not deceived. We as Christians should pray for ourselves to be strengthened in our faith and we should pray for those who are lost. We should not attack Oprah and Friends but pray for them.


I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men. 1 Timothy 2:1-6

Then Sings My Soul Saturday - I'm Free

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

This week as we have toured around Washington DC, I couldn't help but be reminded of freedom over and over again. All of the monuments and memorials that pay tribute to those who died for our freedom as Americans are so moving. However, when I think of the One who died for my freedom above all, it so makes my soul want to sing... and it makes me want dance!

Remember to not let yourselves be shackled again. It is for freedom that He has set us free.

This Little Light of Mine/Just Checkin' In

We are back home safely!!! We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to post all about my trip but alas, it is very late and I am very tired and I am leaving tomorrow once again to go to my cousin's baby shower. I still have to unpack and repack!

I have lots to write about but the one thing I couldn't pass up tonight was saying how totally excited I was to hear The Clark Brothers on American Idol tonight. I was so happy that they sang "This Little Light of Mine"!!! And when they broke out the "If you need a healing... tell Him what you want." I loved it.  Jesus was in the house on American Idol tonight.

Will post more soon.

Blessings to you,

Amy