It's On!

Today we are doing battle.

There are a lot of you dealing with spiritual corruption, division and lies. Today, in the name of Jesus, we will pray against that.

Philippians 4:6 instructs us to, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us to, "Pray continually."

Praying down lies and spiritual corruption. Praying up God's wisdom, strength and armor. I'll be dropping specific scripture prompts throughout the day. You can do this!

Begin with Matthew 6:33, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

In this battle, we must first understand that this is not about us. This is about God and His glory. His church and His people. If you are joining this battle because you are feeling wronged or irritated about a way that you have been treated, stop. Refocus. Seek first the kingdom of God. This is not about you. Angry on behalf of God? Okay. Hunker down.

In battle, we must arm ourselves.

On to Ephesians 6:10-20, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Praying for a clear conscience...

1 peter 3:16-17, "Keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Praying that those who would speak up for righteousness will have the boldness of Nathan and the hearers of their words will have the heart of David...

II Samuel 12:1-13, "The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

'Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.'

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, 'As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.'

Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Don't fret because of evildoers, but continue to commit your way to the Lord...

Psalm 37:5-6, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Liars, be aware - the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world...

II Corinthians 10:1-6, "By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete."

We will forgive as Christ has forgiven us...

II Corinthians 2:5-11, "If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. "

Warning against rejecting wisdom...

Proverbs 1:20-33, "Wisdom shouts in the street,
She lifts her voice in the square;
At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
“How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?
“Turn to my reproof,
Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
“Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD.
“They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.
“For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
But he who listens to me shall live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Matthew 18:19 tells us there is power in numbers, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

"Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labor is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom folly, grant, I beseech thee, that in all my undertakings thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from me: but that I may promote thy glory, and the salvation of both myself and of others." - Samuel Johnson 1709-84

Here I Am ~ Epic Post

"This will be a daily Hamper Scamper post."

HA!

How about ANY post AT ALL??
Just call me underachiever and let's all move on. Shall we? I have been doing fairly well keeping up with the chores, and my family has been good about helping too. Things are starting to feel more normal around the house and a lot has happened since I last posted.

*TMI warning*

My Dad came for a lovely visit and we all spent many days in heated and mostly good-natured battle at various card, board and Wii games. He took my son fishing and even caught some catfish. Thankfully the farm where they caught the fish did all the fish preparation and they brought home only the fillets. Then my Dad taught us how to cook and eat the fish. I tried a bite, decided that it tasted like this fish ate dirt and that was enough for me. This is a picture of my Dad from his visit. As you can see he is a camera hog. Really loves having his picture taken.

I managed to get to Worship Team and Choir rehearsals at FUMC(and my Dad went too!) and am back on track finally (at least for now) serving both services and loving it.

I had my girly appointment with the girl who would be my favorite doctor if she were, say, my podiatrist. Sadly, she is my specialty Gynecologist and so she therefore, by default, cannot be my favorite. She asked me if there was any change and I said no. She allowed me to tell her excitedly how through the telling to you all of my gynecological history I came upon the realization about the catheter installation possibly being related to my current ailment and she grinned at me and gave me that look that people give me when they see my zeal and are afraid if they don't make nice, a limb of mine might fly off or something. I am so excited and I say, "So....I think if we just cauterize the thing or something like that and get it over with, then I can go on my merry way ~ happily ever after." She became a little less shiny in my eyes when she replied, "I would like you to go see the specialist." He is a gynecologist with urological background (or something like that) we'll call him my urogyno just for fun. She says he'll probably want to take a look inside the bladder with a camera. *jumping off the highest point of the Grand Canyon in my imagination* That, my friends, is called a Cystoscopy. It is a nasty business; humiliating, embarrassing, disgusting, uncomfortable, humbling, and strangely fascinating ~ that you have to be awake and un-numbed for. I tried to defend my personal space by pointing out that my Urologist had already done this procedure and that I could personally vouch for the interior of my bladder being in tip-top, working condition. I saw it after all. On the TV. In.real.time. She said, "Yes, I know. But Dr. Urogyno will want to see for himself."
I know that a good doctor will want to see my history and read what all the other invaders doctors have tried, tested, poked, prodded and postulated and then will want to do these things for his/her own self. And it truly is my prayer that he is a competent doctor who will have the diagnosis AND the solution right there in his Urogyno brain. But secretly, in a little corner of my tender little heart, I want him to say, "I know from reading your file that you need to take this one little pill. One time. It will heal the tip of your crazy little Urethra. It will not make you gain weight. In fact, it will make you lose weight. All of the extra you have, but not one pound more. Losing that weight will cause your breasts to once again be perky, yet voluptuous, and not one bit saggy. And also, it will make it so you never have to have another well-woman exam again in your life. Cause after all, you have no cervix and no uterus."
But that's just me.
I asked her if she could please prescribe me something to help me sleep and she agreed. Also, she made me have the whole pelvic, breast exam. And as a parting gift gave me the order to schedule my first, baseline Mammogram. Oh the absolute rapture. Maybe I can get it the day before or the day after seeing Dr. Urogyno just so I can have a fun-packed week. Perhaps I will start some sort of count ~ how many strangers can touch parts of me that I tell all my children never to let strangers touch! Okay ~ maybe nobody would be interested in that. At least nobody I really want to associate with. She told me that she had called and tried to put in the referral but was told by TriCare that I have to go to my Primary Care Manager to get the referral approved. That usually means being 'seen' by a doctor, in other words ~ examined ~ so that they can say, "Yes indeed, she should go see the specialist for an exam." But God stepped in and provided mercy for me and I was able to get the referral approved through mere begging phone calls. Hallelujah! Perhaps this week I will get the letter and I can make my appointment. Did I mention that I have to drive 3 hours one way to go see Dr. Urogyno?

So, the renovations to the east wing are mostly done. What we're working on now is finish work. Last sanding, one more coat, trim and the like. I can start posting pictures for you now if you'd like ~ or you can wait until it is completely finished. You just let me know your preference. I am really loving the change I must say. When we completely complete the east wing renovations, we will begin on the west end of the house which includes the master bedroom. We are still trying to figure out if we can improve the bathrooms without actually adding on to the house. (We hate roofing! ~ to prove it, I'll show you a picture of my misery roofing this house....)


What else has been going on? The price of gas and plane tickets! Geez. GGG and I have decided that this year we will be road tripping to Chicas of Faith. It's about 1400 miles. I can't understand why everyone I discuss this with gets that 'oh geez! her limb is going to fly off' look. We have an unfair disadvantage as the worship leaders; we travel with our instruments. You have to pay for your luggage people. So, we automatically have TWO suitcases to pay for. GGG showed off in one of her recent posts about how she bought a new backpacker. The hater. However, nothing compares to your full-size, rich sounding, favorite guitar. Just nothing. We will be driving through some absolutely beautiful country in the midst of my favorite season. Plus, if we can actually pull it off without turning me into a complete lunatic(traveling beats me down) - we will get extra days of fellowship together. (I mean - the Cali girls all get to travel together, why shouldn't we?) And maybe, if she brings her backpacker too - we can rehearse in the car on the way to PA. I have already put in the request to my husband to trick out my little trailer to carry our luggage, and also to make improvements to my sound system to make my minivan bumpin'.

My brother is still very ill and still very much in need of your prayers for his salvation. He has been in the hospital for a week and says he nearly had to have his arm amputated due to an infection associated with his dialysis. He is lonely and frightened and lacks control over what is going on with him. He needs a Savior. As we all do.

I apologize to you that I have not only not been commenting on your posts, I have barely so much as lurked. I promise you that I do think of you daily. I am still going crazy, although as I said before, things are improving, and I really am doing the best I can. School starts again in a couple of weeks and we will be back into a regular routine. More progress. Praise the Lord.

My Brother

This is my 37 year old brother. He is very ill. His kidneys have failed requiring him dialysis 3 times each week. He is not a candidate for transplant. Your prayers for his salvation would be intensely prized.