Blog #1013

Most of us evaluate ourselves on the basis of our feelings, rather than on what God has to say. The problem with that though, is that our feelings change. From one moment to the next our feelings are subject to all the different circumstances in our lives and we can change our feelings in a heartbeat. We never know what's going to suddenly come up and test our faith.

Maybe today is just "one of those days." Ever have one of those days when the car's battery is dead, the kids missed the school bus, you're late for work and you aren't even dressed yet; the boss is expecting you early, the landlord's on the phone, and you know you meant to send that check a week ago? Days when absolutely nothing goes right? It can be difficult, during times like these, to think of ourselves with "sober judgment" (Rom 12:3). But we must always be mindful of the undeniable fact that Satan would like nothing more than to get our minds as far away from the Lord, as quickly as possible. And he will do everything in his power to keep us there. He will use our circumstances to keep our focus off the Lord Jesus and on our problems. He loves to get us to "say a few words" rather than to stay in the word.

Scripture calls believers a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation," it tells us that we are "belonging to God," and that one of our purposes is to "declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness and into his wonderful light" (1Peter 2:9). Yet without His help it is often impossible to escape the "darkness" of our circumstances. As believers, we are empowered by God's Holy Spirit to overcome disheartening and aggravating situations and circumstances and to resist Satan's manipulative tactics. Satan is truly our enemy in every respect. He wants nothing so much as to see us fall and watch us fail.

When we find our circumstances and situations unbearable we must remember that we've been bought; the Lord Jesus Christ purchased us at a price (1Cor 6:20). Then we can wake up each morning in the full knowledge that we are valuable to our heavenly Father. We must trust in God's Word and not our feelings, and we can allow the Holy Spirit to change our self-perceptions if necessary. He will show us who we truly are ... God's very own children.

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I was up this morning an hour before my alarm was set to go off. Pepper barked and woke me up and I thought it was about time for my alarm to sound so I just turned it off and got up. About 15 minutes later I realized how early I'd gotten up. Oh well, it's given me the chance to type my blog so it won't be late because I have to go get my hair cut this morning. This is pretty neat getting it done this early.

Another beautiful day here, just like yesterday. It actually got up into the low 80s yesterday afternoon. A little high for this time of year. I think my tree in the back yard has finished dropping its leaves so just one more raking and it should be done for the year. They're not deep out there as it is but it just looks messy. It will look a lot better raked one final time and then I won't have to worry about it for another year. I love it when the air is crystal clear and Hogback mountain is so defined and deep green. By afternoon the haze will set in and it will just appear as a large gray hump off in the distance, like a beached whale. The haze is probably just fog up from the valley. By mid or late afternoon the fog has lifted enough in the valley to interfere with our view up here.

I went to PraiseMoves last night but I was the only one who showed up so Jenn and I just sat around and visited for about 15 mins and then we packed up and headed home. It was okay with me because I wasn't much in the mood anyway. But since I can't pay her for the class, I just couldn't insist she stay just for me, so I insisted we just home. But we had the chance to have a nice visit and we learned a little about each other. He husband has kind of lost his interest in going to church, just like Michael. But Michael said he'd go with me as soon as football is over and I'm going to do my best to make him keep the promise. Without nagging, of course. You can't nag someone into the kingdom of God even though we sometimes try, or at least want to.

Mario is up here being his usual obnoxious self. Climbing all over me and my computer. What a pest he is! But he's lovable in spite of himself. It's just a good thing for him I love his no-good hide!! Pretty is up on my desk too. Let's see one computer and monitor, a lamp, various office tools, three framed photographs, a printer and two cats. Oh yeah, there's lots of room up here for me to work!

Evelyn asked me to give my testimony on Monday at our next small group. I said I would but now I'm getting cold feet. That was 20 years ago. The testimony I gave to her all those long years ago is totally forgotten. She keeps talking about how good it was and all I can do is give her a rather blank stare. Well, guess all I can do is give it the way I remember it now. It may end up being different than what I gave back then but it'll have to suffice because that's the best I will be able to do. I wrote out my testimony once when Pastor Rick wanted me to give it at the Chapel up in Arnold but I've long since lost it. [Mario has just slithered into my lap which doesn't do much for my ability to type!]

I guess I should finish this up and get around and get ready to go get my hair cut. I don't have any news to write about anyway. Boring day after boring day I seem to have nothing to relate when it comes to write about what's going on in my life. I have errands to run today when I go out. I have an Rx at the pharmacy to pick up, we need bread from the store, I need to put gas in the car, and I'll go by the Post Office while I'm out too and that pretty well will do it for the day. I've been thinking about Esther and Roy a lot lately. Guess it's because we see a lot of each other. They're in the same small group with me, we see each other on Sunday mornings and we all go to the celebration service on Sunday night. I just think they're a very sweet couple and they're fun to talk to. I ask God to just bless them today at whatever they have to do. May they stay in the word and continue to enjoy each other's company the way I do.

Evelyn and Jordan are under the hammer to get some old buildings demolished on some property they own. It's his grandparents' homestead somewhere and they've been given a deadline to get it down and it sounds like it's an impossible deadline and the demolition will end up costing them a lot of money so I'm just hoping that everything will fall into place and they'll find the right demolition people at the right cost to get it done quickly. Ray hasn't made it to the last two small group meetings and I'm hoping he's okay. He just lost his mother to cancer about a month or so ago and shared with us that he kind of felt like he killed her because she died right after he had given her an injection of morphine. Isn't it horrible the way we torture ourselves? So I just pray for healing for him.

http://skatemama.blogspot.com/ is still writing about their vacation they took last month. What a great time they had!!! If you want to feel like you've taken a vacation too, just visit her site and read all her blogs. They had a great time!

Well I'm out of things to write about so I guess I'll spell check this and get it posted. Tomorrow's Friday already. Where did the week go??? Until tomorrow ...