Heat

Happy Sabbath

God is good and I had a good week.  God kept me safe on the road.  He continues to provide for me and my family.  I went to church today without my son.  My son wanted to stay with the grandparents yesterday after he got out of school so he spent the night and will be dropped off later today. 

It was the first time I slept in my house without my son.  It was interesting.  I want my son to be around the right people and have the right influences in his life.  My parents have good hearts but I was not completely comfortable with him being in their care this Sabbath. 

I suppose he has been watching cartoons all day and eating all manner of candies and treats (my mother loves to spoil him).  I am looking forward to getting him so later tonight we can go meet with some other families and other children for a movie event that is God centered.  There is no day that we should go without the Lord. 

I didn’t see fire come from heaven and consume an offering.  I didn’t escape a plane crash at the last most critical moment.  I had a good week and I am thankful for the little things which if were not overseen by the Lord, could become big troubles.

I am thankful that my house is warm upon my return.  My heating system has been malfunctioning and I am not sure if it is the thermostat or problems with the ignition.  The furnace lights up but for some reason it cuts out after 20 or 30 seconds.  I would have the thermostat set to 70 and the furnace would not cut on and drop as low as 54 degrees (what it was this morning).  I just bought a new plant baby (Fiona, a fiddle leaf fig tree) and my plants need to stay in an environment above the 60 degree farenheight range.  I have to keep playing with the thermostat switches to get the furnace to click on and start heating, but it doesn’t reach the number I set.  I set it to 73 or 74 before I left out.  I was not sure what I would encounter when I returned but when I came back, the temp was around 68.  I’m fine with 68 and if that means I need to keep setting it high to get it to that number, I will do this.  I lack the funds to repair this among many other things. One of many things to keep in prayer. An elder reminded us that when we give the tithe, we can put the Lord to the test.  Prove me now saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a rich blessing.  I have a lot of things, financial things that I don't have answers for.  If I kept to a budget early on, I would not have debt like i have now.  I have to give back to the Lord first.  I'm looking for the Lord to come through for all the rest and so far, I m doing okay so I will praise the Lord for that. 

A while ago, I was afraid of using my wood stove because the house filled with fumes.  I watched a youtube video about someone saying a fire started in the chimney because of cresote buildup.  There were articles about toxic fumes, carbon monoxide and many other frightening things. The flue I have was open but it was burning something off of the swing grill thingie that is in the stove.  I don’t know what to call that thing so it’s a swing grill. I gathered some courage and started another fire and had no problems since.  I know I will have to get the money eventually to do a chimney sweep (or purchase the tools myself) as I am just increasing the risk of a house fire if I keep holding off on this. I have a nice fire going right now. I also am able to use regular firewood and maintain a warm fire without the need for the Duraflame products that guarantee a fire with each use. 

I am thankful I have a kerosene heater as a back up for when the power goes out.  I am thankful that my home is comfortable and a place I enjoy being in.  I hope that my son will really start to see it as home.  He calls our house by the street address.  He prefers being at my parent’s house and he calls it grandmas house because he only wants to be around grandma when he is there (he ignores pop pop most of the time, so sad). Home is where the heart is.  I need to make sure that our house is filled with love just as much as my parent’s home is.  Maybe then he will say that he wants to go home instead of : ENTER STREET ADDRESS.

I am thankful for an opportunity to lift up my Savior’s name with music at church.  I am thankful for another day to work on and build on my ministry. Ministries.  I am thankful that the Lord has a plan and purpose for me and He is not through with me yet. 

I am thankful for an opportunity to talk about God’s word with another believer at work.  This believer was a Pentecostal and it was such a joy to chat with him even if it was short.  We should be making an impact in every place the Lord puts us.  I want to see more of this happen this year in my life and not be so closed off from others.  We need to talk about and share about the goodness of the Lord.  We need to be on fire for Jesus. We need to talk about His word and encourage others to keep walking/start walking with Him. 

That was the best part of the week, that I had an opportunity to talk to someone about God’s word. 

I hope you had a great week as well and that you are understanding your purpose in Him and that the Lord will use you in the week to come.  May God bless you and keep you. 

Breaking In

Happy Sabbath

Lot’s of things to thank the Lord for.

Monday I came home with my son close to sunset.  I leave very early on Monday mornings so I always leave lights on, curtains drawn, and Alexa plays Christian music loudly in the kitchen.  I came home and went about my normal routine, unpacking, preparing dinner, and encouraging my son to start his home work.  Around 5:30pm or 6pm, not sure, I heard a knock at my front door and was surprised to find a police officer on the other side.  He told me that my neighbors (a lovely family that live to the right of me) experienced a burglary sometime today.  I was in utter shock and more so because when I was driving from my parent’s house after picking up my son, I looked at one house I had previously considered buying and thought it was not in a good location and not the right choice.  I came to my area and saw a suv had run off the road up on the lawn of this home and then thought again to myself that I had the perfect home.  If I had purchased the other house, anyone racing down the block would run straight up on my lawn too.  I thought to myself that my house was in such a safe spot, in the middle of a small street in a quiet neighborhood (one of which the well to do would pick out of all the neighborhoods that are available to move to in this town).  I was shocked and filled with anxiety and my heart ached for the family next door.  Throughout the night, I heard them using a drill to try to repair the damage to the front door that was kicked in during the crime.  They have two daughters, I think around 9 or 10.  They go to a Sunday church and seem to be kind and friendly people. I finished helping my son with his homework Monday night and he is given vocabulary and spelling words to write sentences on and memorize.  One of the words was printed next to an image on his sheet of a thief breaking "into" a house.  The vocabulary word was "INTO".  The timing of this home work assignment didn't help my anxiety one bit.

The next morning I went for a walk around my property and was alarmed to find that my screen door to my patio was partially pulled back.  I never leave the screen this way.  I keep the screen flush closed because I don’t want bugs especially spiders and bees getting in the space.  Some weeks back I was burning a gorgeous fire in my woodstove and for some reason smoke started to come back in the house.  The flue was open but I think there was too much cresote buildup and I ended up opening windows and the patio door to get fresh air in.  I never opened the screen door to the patio and I made sure to secure everything once the smell died down. 

I didn’t see any foot prints on the snow that remained on the grass in a small section that is in front of my bedroom and bathroom windows.  A shed would shield any thief from view if they wanted to try a break in, but I do have a neighbor behind me that usually is home during the day.  Their home is part of a cul-de-sac and other homes down there are in view as well.  If they had tried the front door, they likely would have made it in, that is if they could pick a lock (fortunately I have neighbors who are retired and home and peeking out their window as well as their little dog to watch all comings and goings. 

I thank the Lord that my neighbors were not harmed during this crime.  I pray that who ever committed the burglary is brought to justice and that no one on this street has to feel anxiety and fear for anything like this again.  I also thank the Lord that no one got into my home.  If they tried the back door, they would have to break the sliding glass and that’s too much effort.  All of my windows have window stoppers on them.  If necessary, I will go behind and reinforce them by drilling screws into the windows.  My garage door has an extra lock on the inside and my fire door in the garage also has a good lock.  I purchased a little security system for now but need to get a new dead bolt lock for the front door.

I thank the Lord that my son had his sixth birthday this week.  I bought him a drone back when Toys R Us was in last days of business and my dad bought him this psychotic stunt car (looks like a roly poly if you ask me) and he lost his mind between these two gifts and had a blast.  I celebrated his birthday in our house, decorated the kitchen, balloons all over the living room floor, glow in the dark thing-a-ma-gigs, and made him an ice cream cake and he had family around him to sing and celebrate another year of life and blessings. 

I thank the Lord for healing me of my sciatica.  Yes, let me get to that.  So the day after my son’s birthday, I woke up with some lower back pain and was not sure why I was feeling this way.  As the day wore on, my back became worse and when I returned to get my son, I could hardly walk and tears came from time to time.  I refused to take medicine.  I don’t want to start taking pain meds and get in the habit of taking them for everything and not really address the problem.  I also don’t want to get hooked on any pain medication.  Friday came and I was in the same amount of agonizing pain.  I went to my appointments and got through them.  I came back to my parent’s house and after reading up on Aleve, I decided to take it (I was skeptical that it would do anything).  The pain eased up and I took a second one before I went to bed. 

If I were still dealing with this, I would not have been able to bring my son home today.  He acted up in church and I ended up having to carry him out.  Yesterday, he disobeyed me and didn’t put his glasses in the place I tell him to put them whenever he is not wearing them.  He stepped on them (the ones with the transition lenses) and broke them.  I talked to him about why he needed to take care of his things and said that if my glasses were broken, I would be blind and need someone to drive me around. 

Today when he was having a tantrum, he knocked my glasses off my face.  I thank the Lord that they did not break because I didn’t have a back up pair with me and I live on the other side of town.  He scratched my hand and tried to bite me.  I set him straight with a lecture in the car and a belt at home. 

I thank the Lord for my church family.  I thank the Lord for the 10 days of prayer that just passed.  For protection from dangers unseen.  For the delivery of my charcoal grill and the kerosene heater (I expect power to go out a few times this winter so we needed it).  I thank the Lord for providing for us.  God is good, continue to give Him praise and magnify Him. 

I pray that you have a great Sabbath and new week and He continues to bless you and keep you.

RPP

Happy Sabbath

I had a good week back to work and enjoyed my week off. I had to return this week and I am thankful that the world did not fall apart for my clients and that there were no real problems I had to tackle.  

I am thankful the Lord helped me find my car alarm fob.  It fell off yesterday when I was on my way to my appointments.  I searched a parking lot, grass, the street and my suitcase of a purse (I guess you can call it a weekender?) and couldn't find it.  I need that fob because I cannot alarm my car without it.  I also could not have my car heating up in the cold mornings since I would not be able to lock the door and prevent a thief from trying it. At the end of my work day, I found that the key fob slipped underneath the seat cover that I didn't have secured properly on the drivers side seat.  

I am thankful for prevented illness.  

My son was given a cookie with egg in it and he is allergic.  He is allergic to eggs, all nuts, soy, and he has outgrown his allergy to wheat.  I’m still waiting for the day that he outgrows the egg allergy; so far it is not today. 

He ate one cookie and made his own decision to put the other two back.  I saw him biting into the first cookie and of course went into a panic because I was 99% sure there was egg or something else in it that he could not handle, but it was too late.  The people around me didn’t appear concerned and went on about their own business.  Yes, at church, this still goes on.  I took him home and gave him an hour and he did have some problems in the bathroom as a result, but thankfully did not have to go to the hospital this time like Ritas water ice and ice cream did.

Then came today.  I come downstairs to check on my son and hear that he took a bite out of a chocolate candy bar.  No one could tell me the name of the candy bar but at least someone was smart enough to take it away from him so he wouldn’t ingest any more.  I watched him during the entire Sabbath school and later during the service, he was coughing some but no harm came past that.  One person thought the candy bar was an organic chocolate bar that a teen was hiding in the room for another day.  No one could confirm if nuts were in the bar.

Then a sister gave me a scone.  I accepted it and decided not to go into why I can’t eat this or that. I’m a plant based vegetarian. I don’t eat dairy, eggs, meat, fish or gelatin.  I do eat honey and like leather products like purses and boots so that excludes me from being vegan.

Other Adventists balk at the idea of being a vegetarian full time yet every Sabbath (at least at the churches I’ve visited) we have vegetarian/vegan meals that people have no problem grubbing down. 

I am thankful for the sermon I heard today. Less than 10% read their Bibles every day.  Even fewer study the word of God every day or even in a month. But we call ourselves Christians and say we are committed to Him.  I know I am guilty of not studying as I should.  I am challenged to read more and for longer and I want to take up that challenge this year, starting today.  If we have a health message that we are sharing with others, we ourselves ought to be applying that message to our own lives.  We need to read daily and connect with the Lord on a deeper level if we are calling ourselves Christians. 

I challenge you to give more of your time to the Lord.  Ten minutes at least and lets work on increasing that number.  Reading, praying, praising,  RPP.   

May you have a blessed week and stay encouraged. 

Lamps

Happy Sabbath

Happy New Year

I’m happy to be alive and to be blessed with a great first week and first Sabbath for 2019. 

My testimony for this first week of this new year is that the Lord is putting me around people who are serious about Him. People who are walking in His truth.  He is also encouraging me in my walk with Him and I must say I am much more encouraged than I was a week ago.  A week ago, I had it made up in my mind to stay home.  I’m glad I didn’t today. 

I went from one prayer ministry to another to strengthen myself and I see that the enemy doesn’t want us to pray.  So I am going to continue. 

I know I posted some information about a prayer ministry last week but I encourage you to pray about it yourselves whether it is something you should partake of.  There are different things that occurred this week and I am talking to God about, not yet ready to reveal those but I will at the appointed time.

I thank the Lord that I am being held accountable and being more honest in my day to day life.  I had a busy January 1^st, like none other before.  I usually have my phone off for January 1^st but instead, I decided to get on a prayer call with people in my area and Florida and I must say it was a true blessing.  Not only did that happen, I spoke with several other people throughout the day and enjoyed talking to them via call or text. 

I am thankful for the Lord’s plan for me.  I am thankful that He has a plan for my son, my parents, for everyone of us.  Let’s not scrap His plans.  Let us not throw His will away this year.  God is good. 

I came to church to worship today and I am glad I had the opportunity to do just that.  Yes, my son wandered around the church.  Yes he ate a cookie that likely has egg in it and he is allergic to egg and may have to go to the hospital (he said his stomach is bothering him but I will pray and give it time), but it was a beautiful day nonetheless. 

The message today was by a sweet sister of mine who called it The Maze.  The israelies could have been in the promised land in less than eleven days journey but due to their lack of faith in the Lord, they ended up running around in a maze for 40 years.  They saw the promised land and despite all that God did to bring them out of Egypt, parting the waters of the red sea, turning those very same waters to blood in the sight of pharaoh, the first born, the water from the rock, the manna from heaven, and all the ways God provided for them, they didn’t trust Him and wanted to send men in to search out the land and come back with a report.  Even with the report of the land being a good land and seeing that the Lord is behind them, they decided not to go in.  I don’t want to be hardheaded like those people.  I don’t want to wander through a maze not knowing which direction to go in when Jesus can guide me straight where I need to be in seconds.  I have to examine my life for my hangups and get past them.  I have to trust in the Lord. 

This year, funds are tight, short in some ways.  I have abandoned my health durng 2018 and expect consequences this year.  I have battles to fight at work for my clients when I return next week and I need to get back into the swing of things.  I have to open my mouth and spread the gospel. I want this year to be God driven.  I want my heart to be about the things of the Lord and not selfish and silly as I have been.  I want to see my family come to Jesus.  I want to see a change with people I interact with at work.  I want to be used by the Lord at church and in all other settings I can find myself in. 

I want to have an experience with God every day and talk about it every week.  I want others to be encouraged to do the same and for our joy in the Lord to be increased. 

We have work to do.  That is my new years resolution and I hope it is the same for you.

May your year be blessed and may we be willing daily for the Lord and not look back. 

Happy Sabbath!

TRIM YOUR LAMPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4V5IiXWNjk&feature=youtu.be