MONUMENTAL a movie "experience"

(Posted by Lane)

Today, my love (Lorna) and I are going to take part in an event that is going to be the first of its kind that I know of. We are going to see a movie "experience" starring Kirk Cameron. I am not sure what to call it other than an experience.

It is called MONUMENTAL:In Search of America's National Treasure (link is to the official website).

From what I understand, it is a live event starring Kirk who is going to give a tour of monuments giving the true spiritual history of them. In addition - there will be a live concert along with interviews. He is going to be examining America's history.

We saw on facebook, that all over the country this is being sold out...from cities in CA to WI down to FL through OK to OH into NY down into TX and so forth. It is estimated that thousands all over the country are taking part. It will be fun, interesting and I believe a powerful night being among others who are Christians and God - Fearers. I am expecting not just a fun time on our date but an experience that will not soon be forgotten.

I do pray that this time stirs the hearts of the people all over America back towards the one true God and into a fellowship with Him through His son Jesus. Also, that the Holy Spirit moves like a mighty rushing wind bringing comfort and teaching that in America, God is God no matter what!

Don't be afraid!

     I was reading in "Fearless", a book by Max Lucado, this morning and a sentence jumped out at me and I felt I needed to share it here. "When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god."
     We are living in a time that the media's main news items always try to stir fear in our hearts. If they don't cause enough fear by informing us of the debt of our nation and the approaching financial collapse, then they bring in stories of foreign wars. Yes, all of these things are serious, but news stories these days don't attempt to just inform us, they attempt to slant our views or to stir up sympathies or "fears". (In high school I took a journalism course and truly felt the reporters job was to inform, not to create biases and create fear in people, but that's material for a different blog entry.)
     We are very willing subjects for this fear mentality, we seem to encourage fear in our own lives as well. If we can't be fearful enough in our own lives we amplify things by spending too much, we max out our credit cards, borrow more money and then go out to dinner to complain to each other of our "poverty state" (but we deserve it, right?) pushing us towards our own financial ruin. Next we wait until the last possible minute to leave to arrive at our destinations, causing us to drive too fast, having near wrecks and swearing at others that get in our way that may cause us to be late! Like it's their fault, nevermind that we could of left 10 or 15 minutes earlier but it definitely raises our adrenaline levels.
     So with the questions of will we have enough money?, will we be late for work?, will we get in trouble for our tardiness? will we get cancer from those cigarettes? will we destroy our health from eating too much sugar? fats? carbs? caffeine? non-organic? on and on the fear manufacturers go! And don't forget the terrorists, the illegal aliens, the national debt, the elections(we HAVE to get the right man in office! can't God use the wrong man?), where to park the money we don't have so it's safe from the falling stock market effects, rising crime, you name your fear. Maybe it's that your golf game will never be as good as it was 20 years ago?
     Then if our real lives aren't enough to produce your fear of choice, we have entertainment! If you go to a movie theater to try to find some entertainment, the current movie posters are all horrific stories of murder, savageness and betrayal. The few shows of uplifting moral tales are good money makers but for some reason the Hollywood crowd seems to prefer to produce stories that cater to the god of fear that we've crowned in our lives.
     I'm not saying that we shouldn't be informed of dangerous weather heading our way and take steps to protect our families or the things that God has blessed us with and I'm not saying that we shouldn't use wisdom in our food selections and exercise programs and I'm not saying that we shouldn't be concerned with who wins the next election for president of our nation. It is our duty to be informed, to campaign for our chosen candidate, if need be and to go place our votes.  I'm saying that as Jesus was able to calm the storm in Matthew 8:23-28 He is able to work with whoever is in office. He is able to calm ANY storm be it weather or political. In being informed and taking wise steps in our lives we should not let fear take root or be crowned as king in our lives. I for one don't want to be called a woman of "little faith"! I will work to protect my heart from fear and root out any that are harbored in my heart or spirit.

Matthew 8:23-27 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He *said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

     In his book Max Lucado shares that Jesus' most common command emerges from the "fear not" genre. The Gospels list some 125 Christ-issued imperatives. Of these 21 urge us to "not be afraid" or "not fear" or "have courage" or "take heart" or "be of good cheer". The second most common command, to love God and neighbor, appears on only eight occasions..... The one statement he made more than any other was this: don't be afraid."
    

What Is Your Definition Of Idolatry?

     I'm reading my way through the New Testament. I started with the Book of  John and have worked my way to Thessalonians. I wanted to share something from Colossians though. The verse that caught my attention is 3:5-7.
     This verse shows a different meaning for "idolatry" than I would have given if someone asked me my understanding. After considering it now though, I think I understand. If we are giving way to "immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and greed" we are letting ourselves take precedence before God. We become the "IDOL" that we're practicing idolatry with!     As Christians we do entertain a certain amount of freedom and grace, but to abuse God's grace and think we are free to continue following our own desires ahead of His puts us in disobedience to our Lord and sets us up to incur His wrath. May it never be!

Colossians 3:5-7 "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them."

News from Hummingbird Lake~March 23, 2012

     We attended a meeting at Christ Triumphant Church last night and received a message of "Breakthrough". Of course, being humans we're always happy to think of breakthroughs, that means we're moving ahead, right? Lane and I received the message and consider it as we do most messages. An important part of the message was that to have breakthrough we need to 1.) Hear God and 2.) Obey God's word, then we receive the breakthrough.
     Pastor Allen was bringing the word and he stressed a part of the process was to close old doors before new doors could be opened. In order to close the old doors we need to know that there is nothing in our past that we're holding onto, anything unforgiven or hurts that may cause a bitterness. We went through a physical step of going to a door, forgiving and blessing anything or anyone that may be in our past holding us back and then progressing to the next door and opening it through faith for the breakthrough we are looking for (physical healing, financial, personal, business, whatever area we are needing breakthrough in). Lane and I weren't aware of anything we were holding onto from the past, but sometimes our hearts can be deceptive so we went through the process, releasing everything to God, blessing everyone that may have hurt us in the past. We feel that we're really on the path that God has set for us, and moving along it as is His will.
     Whenever we leave a meeting we usually discuss what we heard and what spoke to us. After this meeting, we both agreed that we are where the Lord wants us currently. There seems to be doors opening for us and I'll create a separate post for that, but we feel that we have closed all of the old doors and are simply in a "holding pattern" until the time that God chooses to open the next door. Of course we get antsy sometimes and want the door opening in our timing, but what a mistake that would be! It brings to mind the idea of a butterfly that is brought out of it's cocoon too soon and it's wings are too weak to fly, how sad that would be. So, no, we'll wait right here between the closed door and the one yet to open and let our wings gain strength!

Conference at Christ Triumphant Church
with Kevin & Kathy Basconi
founders of King of Glory MinistriesInternational

New Food Habits~

I started a diet and have been having good success with it and along with losing weight, I'm feeling better. I told a loved one about this and wanted to break it down so it didn't seem overwhelming. I sent it to them in an email but then realized that I should use it for my blog too. So here it is, info about my eating habit?(not just a diet, because I plan to try to stay on this eating style). Also though, I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. I'm just a woman saying this is what is working for me~

My food list is meats:
**smoked turkey sliced at the deli, there are two kinds,
   one has MSG and the other
   doesn't, so I buy 1 pound without MSG, thin sliced
   (but not shaved) and separated in two bags, each
   with 1/2 pounds. last time I was there I also bought
**1/2 pound of sliced roast beef.
**eggs, cooked anyway~omelets work for dinner with bacon
   I keep some boiled in the fridge for times I get hungry
   and not enough time to fix something
**cheese, pretty much any kind, I mostly use cottage cheese
   string cheese(another quick rescue from hunger) and cheddar
**soup, (stewed tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli,
   green beans, mushrooms, Worcester sauce, onions,
   garlic, basil, salt and black powder, or your choice of
   spices) You can add beef(or your choice of meat) to
   this soup if you want or eat it plain. Lane has crackers
   with it, but I skip those(carbs!).
**Stevia for the sweetener(I even had some cottage cheese and
   sprinkled cocoa powder and stevia over it and called it a
   chocolate cheese cake~
I can also have pretty much any kind of meat, so we have a lot of bacon to go with the eggs.
     The smoked turkey I use for omelets or just warmed and with the eggs and some cheese sprinkled over it.. I also use it with a leaf of lettuce, washed and smeared with mayo, then lay the turkey in it and roll it up like a burrito. I've been using the beef for a roll too, I smear it with mayo, and put some Colby slivers in it and roll it up, pretty yummy. I bet it would be tasty with some herbs laid in with the cheese too. I'm finding that cauliflower is a good substitute when I want something crunchy or to replace potatoes in the soup. I usually liked potatoes to give it "body" but the cauliflower does that too.
     From what I've read fruit isn't really encouraged on a low carb diet, but I've been eating an orange every morning too, first I get up, have my coffee(I switched to decaf) with half and half and stevia, then when it's about gone I have an orange, then about an hour or less later I fix my eggs and bacon(unless I'm not really hungry yet) then mid day I have a bowl of soup, then mid afternoon some cheese or turkey or something on the list, then for dinner i like having the soup(last night I had egg drop soup). If i get to feeling like I want something sweet the crystal light pomegranate mix seems to take care of it. I think I've lost 9 pounds now! I guess my body finally kicked over to burning fat instead of being dependent on carbs. The first week or more was kind of tough, my body was not accepting the fact that it wasn't receiving ANY carbs! I was pretty tired, lethargic and foggy, of course, quitting caffeine contributed to this too.
     I've found some low carb recipes using coconut flour to bake with, when I can find some of it I'm going to give that a try too.

I'm writing all of this to encourage you! There are a lot of words, but it's really simple once you understand the things to include and the things to exclude. The main things to exclude are flour, potatoes and sugar, of course there are others, like carrots, bananas, beans(except green beans for some reason?), lunch meats, because of the chemicals in them(preservatives, etc) but if you get rid of the main culprits you'll start feeling better

What do you think? Maybe relevant? Malachi 3:7-12

Malachi 3:7-12
New Century Version (NCV)
7 Since the time of your ancestors, you have disobeyed my rules and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord All-Powerful.
"But you ask, 'How can we return?'
8 "Should a person rob God? But you are robbing me.
"You ask, 'How have we robbed you?'
"You have robbed me in your offerings and the tenth of your crops.9 So a curse is on you, because the whole nation has robbed me.10 Bring to the storehouse a full tenth of what you earn so there will be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord All-Powerful. "I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out all the blessings you need.11 I will stop the insects so they won't eat your crops. The grapes won't fall from your vines before they are ready to pick," says the Lord All-Powerful.12 "All the nations will call you blessed, because you will have a pleasant country," says the Lord All-Powerful.

     It's not just money that God is expecting from us, it's part of our lives. If we are wise, we will give Him ALL of our lives, all we are and all we have~

Open Heaven

     Lane and I listened to a short 10 minute sermon recently by Bill Johnson. The message I received from it has already started changing parts of my prayers, as I start praying I take time to recognize the open heaven over me and I thank God for it. Next I give my love and adoration to the Lord which flies straight to Him through the open heaven, no obstacles! Then I receive the glory that falls upon my shoulders and the grace He places in my heart. Just the simple fact of recognizing the open heaven over myself let's me recognize how close God is! It all sounds so simple and makes me wonder why I didn't have this understanding before, but my spirit has received it in a whole new way that gives me a wonder and a joy, what a great and loving God/Father we have! Here is a link if you would like to hear the message~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quqJaA2TPS4&feature=share