I Wonder........................

Wonderful Service yesterday at church!!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I Wonder. Why Do I Exist?

by Jeff Matteson ......Listen on Posterous

Sermon 2012-05-06

calvarysermons.posterous.com

God Bless you all!

.::Tam::.

Satan's lies..................

Oh my............ Satan is good at what he does!
Just when you think you are strong.. and know the truth and believe God and your loved ones .... here comes Satan to just smash all of that!
You come to a point that you are so physically and emotionally exhausted that you believe the lies!
Oh and it hurts!   You're frustrated.... you cant fight him off.. you cant find the truth.... so now you fall deeper into the lies believing you're weak and worthless!  

Women today are bombarded with more and more lies from Satan. There is almost an epidemic of "soul-sickness" and it is not just among women in the world but also among those of us in church. Why? Because Satan wants us in bondage. He wants both you and me not to live freely but rather to live under a cloud of personal guilt and condemnation. He doesn't want us to enjoy the grace and love of God so he whispers lies to us.

One lie that Satan whispers to women is "If you take that mask off, people will not like you." He leads us to believe that if others see our uglies then they won't like us. I have noticed more and more that women want to see who other women really are. In other words, don't play like you have it all together when I am floundering around like a fish out of water.   I have put on a mask of happiness, when really I struggle with depression at times. I have put on a mask of being outgoing when really I struggle with the fear of rejection and loneliness...even in a crowd. I know that these mask are doing nothing for me except keeping me in the crippling bondage that Satan desires for me.... but like I said... he is good at what he does... and know when the best time is to strike.
Not only is the mask hindering me but it is very possibly hindering another lady from experience the grace and mercy of God.
Another lie Satan tells women is "you are not worth anything." Have you heard it? I sure have, especially when I am seeking to do that which God has called me.
Personally, Satan knows when to play "You are not worth anything" card on me. When I am trying to tend to my family...(you're not a good mom or wife)....getting things done for school event (noone is going to notice that) ... when I think I'm doing something good ..(thats dumb)... he whispers it in my ear. When I am seeking God's direction for myself or family...(God doesnt have time for that)....he is there whispering it in my ear. Even when I sit down to write a blog post..(noone reads this and you're not doing anyone any good)... he's whispering it in my ear. Whether through his own whispers or the use of others, Satan tries to make us feel less worthy. As we listen to Satan's lies we grant others the opportunity to determine our worth. He knows that many times our worth is in direct relation with what others have said about us. Instead of letting others define us we need to reflect on what is true. I am a child of God's and a treasured possession.
You see.... we may all know in our hearts that we are the most precious wonderful thing to God and a blessing to our loved ones and friends.............. but Satan messes with our heads!  Thats a place where the lies easy to get to us!

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  Ephesians 6:11

God Bless you my dear  friends!
Stand tall and stand strong! 
God loves you and so do I!!!

♥.::Tam::.

Prayers Please..................

Today was biopsy #2 for this round of chemo for Ken.
Please keep him in your prayers that the results come back clean and he is indeed still in remission so that he can move forward on to transplant!

Thank you everyone!
God Bless you all
♥.::Tam::.

Is it wrong for me to pray for myself?

  Should I only petition God for the needs of others?
The answer, of course, is “Absolutely not!”  God wants you to bring your own hurts, sorrows, needs and joys to Him.  Even though He knows all that is going on in your life, and He can predict all that you will say even before you come to Him.  He longs for you to come into His presence.  He waits for you to acknowledge your dependence on Him so that He can have the joy of answering your prayer and showing Himself strong.  Psalm 50:15 says, Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

The Lord’s Prayer is the model Christ gave us for praying (Matthew 6:9-13).  Here He tells us to pray for our needs: Give us this day our daily bread.  He directs us to seek God’s forgiveness for our own wrong doings: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  He instructs us to seek His direction and protection for our lives: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  And He tells us to ask it all for the good of His kingdom and the greatness of His glory: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Heavenly Father, how sweet to know that I can enter into Your holy presence not only to pray for others, but I can come with my own bundle of concerns and cares.  Thank You for the assurance that You are always there for me, too.  How I praise You! - Amen

Love you all

God Bless

.::Tam::.

My husband loves me!

A day of chores and laundry all came to a stop when these beautiful flowers arrived!
A man that can sweep you away with such a show of love from a hospital room is definitely a keeper!
I love you Ken!
Thank you for my flowers!

hugs...love & blessings

.::Tam::.

*** one spoiled wife ***

Great Score at District....

Congratulations!!! You kids did GREAT!
On a scale of 1-5 .... 1 being best and 5 ....not so good.... Our awesome choir...(which my son is in) scored a 2!  How cool is that!   
I'm really proud of you all!



God Bless
.::Tam::.

Thank God for good friends.............

So our riding mower is acting up.... and although we have a push mower... 4 acres is alot to push mow!
I mention to a friend that I need to get my yard mowed and that evening after dinner... her husband shows up with his riding mower in the back of his truck and mowed my whole yard.   It was 10pm before he left... he turned on his head light to his mower and just kept going.

This is the lovely yard the boys and I found this morning!
THANK YOU PHIL!     This makes Ken happy!  :)

hug... love & blessings to you all
.::Tam::.

Praise God..............

Ken's biopsy came back clean!  
He is in Remission!
Now we wait for his immune system to come back..... have another clean biopsy and he's on to transplant!

Thank you God!
Thank you all for your love and prayers!
hugs to all
.::Tam::.

What is the power of prayer?

I suppose there are many answers to this question. Here's one... or so.

I believe that the power of prayer is first felt inside of us. It's a sense of God's assent, somewhat like someone answering our phone call when the phone has been ringing for a long time and we're wondering if maybe we should just hang up and try again another time. Then a voice answers and simply says, "I'm here. I'm listening to you." Communication has been established!

God has assented to our calling. God has assented to be in relationship with us. God has assented to us—to you, to me, to who we are and who we hope to be. But why? you might ask. And why now? Because that is God's deepest desire and what God has been hoping for all along. I believe that we experience the power of God when we sense God's assent to our seeking and even realize that God has been reaching out for us all along.

The power of prayer is the power that comes to us when we realize that God can be our point of reference in the midst of all the confusions of our daily lives, the steadfastness of God rather than the incomplete, fragile inconsistencies of ourselves. It's the power that comes when we're able to be centered, anchored in a belief and rooted in a Truth, which is stronger and deeper than the day-to-day truths we struggle with.

I think this may have been what the apostle Paul had experienced when he wrote to the people of Ephesus about God's desire for us "that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of people, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles." (Ephesians 4:14) In prayer our hearts and minds can be focused on the eternal truths of God and not the changing, fickle truths of human knowledge and human nature.

The power of prayer is the constant renewal of perspective. Prayer opens our eyes. It extends our horizons. It sheds light into the darkness of our fears and our sorrows, our hopes and joys, our shame and our pride. It gives us new ways of seeing life and relationships, of understanding work and the cost of growing.

The power of prayer is real and palpable. You can feel it and know it and depend on it. It comes to us as a gift, but we need to do our part as well. God calls us to pray and through our prayer, God empowers us and gives us strength.



hugs...love & blessings to you all
.::Tam::.

More Prayers Needed.....................

Ken has been dealing with a low fever the last week and a half. Today it has spiked to 101.7*
Please say a prayer for him! Fevers mean infection of some sort... infections are bad for Ken!

Thank you!
God Bless
.::Tam::.

Prayer request..........

Ken is having a bone marrow biopsy done today.................. please pray it comes back CLEAN!
Thank you!!!

love to all
.::Tam::.

Spring Music Concert............

As I was loading this picture.............it hit me.......... this is my youngest last Elementary music concert............. :'( OMGosh........... he'll be in Jr High next year. What in the world is going on? He cant be that old yet!!! *sigh*

The concert was awesome! Those 6th graders can sing! :)

Hold your children, love your family and friends, forgive your enemies and treasure every moment God has given you!

God bless you all
.::Tam::.

A needed day with my mom and daughter..........

After dropping the boys off at school................... I met up with my mom and my daughter for a few hours of "us" time! I love those few little hours with them! Although neither of them live far from me... our lives are so busy that we don't get enough time to see each other.... so planned days like this are perfect! And goodness knows.... just those few hours can help one get through the rest of the week!

We started our day out by getting manicures and/or pedicures. A nice little time of pampering!!!


Then off to Olive Garden for a nice lunch! We can make a lunch on their salad and bread sticks alone! :) It was yummy and fun!

Off to get the boys from school! Need to get home ... eat and rush to baseball practice!

Have a great evening everyone!

God Bless

.::Tam::.

What a day................

We first say good-bye to Melvin........... The boys sure do hate seeing him leave........ but they know he needs to.... and are so proud of him! They will wait patiently for the next time he can get away to come home! Good-bye son.............. we love you......... stay safe!

Then a trip to Best Buy to get Patrick a new computer............... *whew* found one for a good price!

Over to the hospital to visit Ken. He got Patrick's computer all registered and set up for him!

Home for baseball practice for David. Had to cut his practice short so we could get Patrick to his practice a few towns away.

Finally home to bake cookies. Michael had to create a cookie and make them himself for a class assignment. So .... 9:00pm at night... Michael and I are making cookies. I supervised and directed a bit... but Michael did it all himself.

Here they are baking in the oven.....



and here they are all cooled and iced....ready to be boxed up for class! He was able to make 5 extra cookies from the batch that we all got to taste! YUM! Great job Michael!
He calls these................. Cinnamon Bun Cookies!

Okay........................time to go rest.

God Bless to all!

.::Tam::.

Happy Easter................

Of all of God's gifts
Easter shows us our fate
Forgiven we will rise
And pass through Heaven's gate

This Easter remember
The sacrifice of a Son
And through His resurrection
Eternal life we have won

This Easter I pray
That the love of God
Is resurrected
Reborn, renewed
Inside your heart
God Bless You!

love you all

.::Tam::.

Home for Easter....................

My Navy boy came home for Easter! His dad will be so surprised!! I didnt tell Ken he was home ... So his Easter gift is his son home for the weekend! :)


"Non Sibi Sed Patriae!"
(Not for self, but for country)


hugs...love & blessings
.::Tam::.

Last day of chemo.................

for Ken.................. now we just sit and wait for his body to recover and his blood numbers to be right and two biopsies to come back clean.... and we're on to transplant!

*whew*

Thank you all for your continued prayers!!

they are very much appreciated!!!!

love to all!

God Bless

.::Tam::.

It may be delayed, but it's not denied....

...Do not fear, from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. Daniel 10:12

We all have goals, dreams, and visions in life. We pray about them and try to hold fast to them, because with faith in Jesus we know they will come to pass. And, when they do, it is the most wonderful feeling. A dream becoming reality, a prayer answered, and our faith in God strengthened even more.

But there are times the enemy will cloud the vision that God gives us. He may not be able to read your mind, but he can hear your words. He sees your actions (and reactions) and knows your "buttons". He knows just what buttons to push, and when to push them to get your mind off the vision. He would like nothing better than to steal our dreams. But he can't steal our dreams, unless we let him. This is why it's so important for us to hold fast our confession of faith. It's so important be diligent in our faith. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8)

Disappointment can open a door for the enemy to slip in and "steal, kill and destroy" (John 10:10), our hopes and dreams. There is a song entitled "When God is Silent", that I truly love. It talks about how when God is silent He is giving us more time to pray. If you're praying and praying and praying for something and it just hasn't arrived yet, keep praying! Pray until something happens. Then pray some more.

There are times when we pray to God for an answer, and it seems that all hope is gone. There is no need to spend time worrying, just fall down on your needs again and again. Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in the Garden, the night before He gave His life for us (Matthew 26:44, Luke 22:41-44), and the Lord sent the angels to minister unto Him to give Him the strength He needed to make it to the cross. If you believe God is working all things out to your benefit, you have to believe His timing is part of that. He wouldn't have given His only Son if He wasn't going to keep His promise to us.

I want to encourage you today, not to be disappointed at what appears to be a lack of results in prayer. We have no idea what the Lord is doing on our behalf to answer our prayers. We cannot see it, but rest assured His is working it out. What He requires from us is faith to believe that the Word of God is true. Just because you FEEL the answer isn't coming, do not let the enemy make you BELIEVE your prayer has been denied. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus, and keep praying in faith, remembering to thank Him and praise Him for all He has done. Remember: GOD IS FAITHFUL!


hugs...love and blessings
.::Tam::.

Easter is almost here........

God Bless you all!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us through this with all you love... prayers and donations!

Love,

.::Tam::.