Colosians 3:1 - 4 in the Message Bible

Col 3:1 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides.
Col 3:2 Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Col 3:3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life.
Col 3:4 When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too--the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

prayer chat time change starting next week

Starting next week I will be hosting the prayer chat at 5:00 pm EST,4:00pm CST, 3:00pm MST,2:00pm PST on Monday to Friday. This time change will make it easier for me to get my mail and recuperate afterwards before the chat.

Romans 4:16 -21 from the message Bible

Rom 4:16 This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father--that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.
Rom 4:17 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.
Rom 4:18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"
Rom 4:19 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up.
Rom 4:20 He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God,
Rom 4:21 sure that God would make good on what he had said.

Psalm 42 1-5 from the message bible

Psalm 42

A psalm of the sons of Korah

1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;
I want to drink God,
deep draughts of God.
I'm thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, "Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God's presence?"
I'm on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
people knock at my door,
Pestering,
"Where is this God of yours?"

4 These are the things I go over and over,
emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
right out in front,
Leading them all,
eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
celebrating, all of us, God's feast!

5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I'll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He's my God.

Update on Liz

I'm emailing this from my cell phone; we'll see how well this works.

Thanks so much for your prayers. I have not become anywhere near as sick as my son was -- I've just been a little achey and a little more tired than usual. Praise God!

I am especially grateful because life has been busier than usual. One of my cats, Pepper, hurt his knee badly yesterday and is likely to need surgery for it. I had to take him to the emergency vet yesterday. He is in a lot of pain. We don't know how he got hurt; he probably jumped off something and landed badly. The vet tells me it's a classic football injury!

At the moment, I'm sitting outside the assisted living facility while my husband is checking my father-in-law in. My fil just flew up to Virginia to live near us. He's not doing great but about as well as can be expected after falling and breaking his hip three weeks ago. I'm sitting here instead of helping because I don't want to spread germs in there. Please pray my fil does not get the flu. I'm sure he had a flu shot, but I don't know if the shot covers the strain my son and I have. I avoided touching him except briefly with freshly washed hands.

Thanks again for praying! God bless.

Continue to pray for liz

Liz is not in the chat room again today she is recuperating from a flu bug. Her son and hubby aren't doing to well either.
We would also appreciate your prayers for the chat room and for God's Guidance and wisdom as we go about improving this chat room and adding to its capabilities.
Regular chats resume on Monday be there or be square.(no comments from the peanut gallery, I already know I am square peg trying to fit into a round hole but God ain't finished sanding the edges off haven't ya heard me bellowing all winter hehe Poor God has enough sanding on me alone to build some powerful muscles there LOL, but thats ok I know He loves me and thats all that counts right ;-} .

When God GivesTests by Greg Laurie

I don't know about you, but I have never liked the word "test." When I was in school, I was the guy who didn't study for the test. I somehow thought that I would suddenly know the material when they passed out the exam. I think I failed my driving test three times. Suffice to say, I didn't like tests.

Did you know that God gives tests too? He wants to see if we have learned what He has been teaching us. He rarely, if ever, announces them ahead of time. They just come. It might be a set of circumstances or a situation you will face, to see if you are really learning the material. God will test us to see if we are actually learning, growing, and advancing. He wants us to grow up.

During their time with Jesus, the disciples had reached a point in their spiritual lives when it was time to grow up. They had been following the Lord for awhile. They had seen the miracles He performed. They had heard His teachings. Now it was time to see if their faith had grown.

By now, the crowds that followed Jesus were getting big. They were being dazzled by miracles. One day, as they listened to Him and watched His miracles, their stomachs began to growl. Even though Jesus knew these people were basically fickle and were following Him for the wrong reasons, He felt compassion for them (see Matthew 14:14).

If I knew what Jesus had known about this crowd, I probably wouldn't have fed them. After all, this same group would turn away from Him in a short period of time. But the Lord cared. He loved them.

So He took five barley loaves and two fish, multiplied them, and fed the people. They were stuffed. They decided to follow Jesus wherever He went. After all, He was the walking bread truck. But when Jesus saw that the people wanted to take Him by force and make Him their king, He wanted nothing to do with it. He slipped away by Himself to a mountain to pray.

Meanwhile, the disciples waited for Jesus at the Sea of Galilee. It was getting dark, and there was still no sign of Him. So they got into a boat and headed toward Capernaum. Although they may have lost sight of Jesus, He never lost sight of them. It was simply test time for the disciples.

The wind started blowing. The sea was getting rough. As they rowed against the storm, they spotted Jesus. He came walking on the water, headed toward them. They freaked out. They didn't know what to make of it.

Matthew's Gospel gives us a very important detail. It says that Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night, which is the last part of the evening, just before dawn (see Matthew 14:25). This means that they probably had been rowing for nine hours. Maybe they thought Jesus had forgotten about them. But He had not forgotten. He was going to come in His time.

It is a reminder to us that God's delays are not necessarily His denials. Just because God doesn't answer our prayers as quickly as we want Him to, it does not mean that He will never answer them. As surely as God has His will, He has His timing.

The Bible says, "He makes all things beautiful in His time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV). And He does. As soon as Jesus stepped into the disciples' boat, they found themselves at their destination. He saw them through the storm.

Sometimes, we go through storms in life. Sometimes, God will allow certain situations in our lives to test our faith. It is really easy to say that you trust God until you get a call from your doctor with some bad news, or until that person you are in love with breaks up with you, or until your job comes to an end. These are tests.

When you are going through hardship or difficulty, sometimes it may seem as if God has forgotten about you, that He is too busy. But God always has time for you. He loves you. God is fully aware of what you are experiencing.

Will you still trust Him even when things don't go your way—even when life doesn't unfold the way that you hoped it would? Will you trust God to see you through the storm? Will you pass the test?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have Pastor Greg's devotions blessed you? Write to let him know!
Greg@harvest.org

Want to read more from Greg Laurie? Be sure to check out his weekly columns at World Net Daily. Click here to read his latest article.

Copyright ©2008 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

PRAY FOR LIZ PLEASE

It takes a lot for liz to give in and take a day off and so I know she is really sick. She thinks it may be the flu but if you all would hold her in your prayers before the Lord and help her to get back on her feet I for one would greatly appreciate it. I know she has been burning herself out this past while and needs some extra oomph.
Heavenly Father I lift up Liz to you ask that You lay Your healing hand on her and not only heal her of this bug that has got her but help her to sleep and wake up refreshed and full of energy and vitality and full of Your glory. In Jesus Precious name I thank You for all You will do for her. Amen and Amen \o/

Honest its not poltergiest but

I'M BACK hehe
After being down for about 2 weeks with no internet I almost went insane but the good Lord took pity on me and held up the storms long enough for the techs to catch up to the growing list of disasters that befell us this month. We apparantly even lost a tower last Monday so all the techs were out fixing that back up and therefore the list of ppl that had internet outages for various reasons was put on hold again. We also had to wait in between the various storms that kept plagueing us which was adding to the list of ppl without internet. But God gave me a gift for my um (ok guys don't choke on this I really was a good girl *looks up* ok I didn't scream just grumbled *tries really hard to look innocent and sweet*), my internet speed has been increased and my daughter gets a bonus on the bill next month and everything has been updated so I am good for awhile barring unforseen storms that is. (is this where I cross my fingers and toes). Mind you I also managed to get an awful lot of stuff done while I was offline so that was a good thing too.
I am resuming my hosting of my prayer chat and I want to take this opportunity of thanking Liz for looking after it for me and for being so worried about me. I am so thankful to be back amongst my dear friends and can't tell you how much I worried and prayed for you all and missed you so very much.... yes even all the pie fight,hugs, roses, etc etc from apple and ter on facebook. LOL. It is so wonderful to be back so ya'all drop in and say hi this afternoon and if your so inclined stick around and have a word with the Lord while your at it. I'll be in the chat room at 4:30 EST For my ultimate favourite thing to do, talk to the BIG BOSS my ABBA.

Pray request for Dave (rrdave)

Please pray for rrdave. He is having a lot of pain in his left leg because he has degenerative bone disease and signs of avascular necrosis above his knee (that means that area of bone is not getting enough oxygen and could die). He had an mri yesterday to diagnose it and is going to another doc next week to confirm the diagnosis. He also has a lot of pain in his leg and cannot walk much. He is likely facing surgery for this.

Drug interaction site

Most of you know, I probably take fewer drugs than anyone else in the room! (I get to deal with cpap machine instead.) And so I don't know as much about prescription drugs as many of you do, but I came upon a site some of you might find helpful. Medscape now has a Drug Interaction Checker. You can tell it up to 20 different drugs (over the counter as well as prescription), and it looks up interactions after entering each new drug.

As always, check with your doctor about any concerns you might have.

Roger Bennet: Seasons

I want to share with you an amazing blog posting I came across a while back. It is written by a man named Roger Bennett who died nearly a year ago after a many year battle with leukemia. Most of us do not face illnesses that are likely to kill as any time soon, but he talks about a lot of things that are familiar to us -- trusting God thru seasons of our lives. Here is an excerpt:

Here's where the trouble starts. Christians sometimes are the worst prepared people for set backs. That's the opposite of what God wants for us. I'm not telling you something I've heard, I'm telling you something I've lived. I was in remission 3 1/2 years and began to think that I would never have to deal with cancer again. But just around the corner, the relapse was waiting to ambush my body and spirit. The storm was fierce. I was weak and full of fear. But through some great wisdom shared with me I found an eternal truth. One word...seasons.

Ecclesiastes tells us one of the greatest truths of all time...to everything in life there is a season. A time to laugh, cry, celebrate, and mourn etc.... the wisdom my friend shared was this: Rejoice in this season of remission, rejoice in the humor of life...laugh as much as you can even if it's at yourself. Rejoice in seasons of rejoicing, but keep in mind the other truth, there will be seasons of mourning, seasons of tears, seasons when you feel that you are failing at everything, or nobody cares.

Read more...

This is his last post to his blog. His wife continues his blog to this day. They both sign off, "in His grip" -- which is a wonderful place to be.

Chat room safety and private messaging

• Like most moderated chatrooms, administrators have access to transcripts of room history, including private messages. While some may be unaware of this and feel uncomfortable, it is common practice in many chatrooms in order to maintain safety in the room.
• With access to transcripts, folks who are harassed by other room members are able to have their problems directly addressed with proof of the offending comments.
• Those issues will be addressed and if necessary the person banned from the chat room.
• The transcripts are a precaution take for the safety of everyone. If you do not know someone well DO NOT give private information in private chat. As you get to know someone and feel comfortable, fairly anonymous email addresses can be set up or people can use IM.
• Information will be kept confidential unless there is a need to disclose for legal reasons.
• Transcripts are only available to room administrators and read with discretion. If you have problems with another roomie that you cannot resolve on your own, please bring it to the attention of an admin with the date and time of the problem.

Interesting meditation videos on God Tube

I found these meditation videos on GodTube ... one for morning and one for evening. They are by a gal who does Christian meditation CD's that I like a lot. I'm finding I watch these over and over and feel much more energized! If you have a few minutes take a look and maybe post a comment about what you think about them!

Deni's chats canceled for a while

Deni (QuietSoul51) needs to cancel her chats for a month or two. Most of you know why! If you don't, you could skim this blog and get a pretty good idea. Her husband's illness combined with her parents' ongoing needs and her grandchildren's -- and her own illnesses -- are making it difficult to carve out times she can always be in the room here.

She does plan to resume chats when she is able -- and she will be coming to the room when she can. Keep praying for her! She is a great blessing to me and the room.