My Worst Enemy

Who’s my Enemy?

A lot of times we think that because someone is mean to us that makes them our enemy. Maybe a teacher is being unfair, or gave you a bad grade. Maybe your parent came down hard on you for doing something or accused you wrongly. Maybe your spouse said something hurtful or wasn’t as nice as he/she could have been. Does that make them our enemy?

I made a Facebook announcement that my Hubby had accidentally deleted something on our computer that was needed to make my blog writing program work… “It was an accident. I mean, he didn’t intentionally do that to keep me from blogging… right?” This is just the beginning of a thought process that leads straight to me making him, my one true love, an enemy in my mind.

Why am I telling you this? Because it is so easy to forget who our real enemy is. This morning I was reading in Psalm 119 (quickly becoming my favorite passage) and I was struck by this verse:

“Thou through the commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.”

Psalm 119:98

“For they are ever with me.” triggered this thought in my journal - “Often my enemies are my own thoughts and fleshly actions. I need to learn God’s Word, to keep it with me, so I will then learn to recognize the true enemy and fight him instead of those I love.” After writing this I remembered something I had read a while back in a book titled “A Worthy Model – God’s Pattern for Women” by Wendy Burks

“It is when I am not walking in the Spirit, having God’s power on my life, that Satan is able to bring the battle right into my home and deceive me into thinking that my husband is the enemy or my children are the enemy; when in reality, HE IS THE ENEMY!”

The point is that the sooner I figure out who my real enemy is and stop attacking the people around me the better off I’ll be, not to mention those being attacked!

Kenny worked tirelessly into the wee hours of the morning to get the problem on our computer fixed. This included backing up all the files on our computer, deleting everything and re-downloading windows7 along with my writing program to get it working again. “He does love me!”

Remember who your worst enemy is.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow to continue the Living Unashamed mini series. Hope you’ll come back to check it out!

Kenny’s Salvation Testimony

I wanted to share a little more about Kenny and I here on the blog and a major part of what makes us who we are is the fact that we are both Christians. I asked Kenny to write out his personal, salvation testimony for me to post on here, so this is Kenny, my guest blogger for today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I was Born and raised in a Christian home.  At the age of seven, me and my family rode bicycles to a fourth of July fireworks celebration.  on the return trip, late at night and after dark, I began to get frightened at all the noises I heard and things I saw.  I spoke with my mother when we got home, because I was scared about where I would be if I died.  During the invitation the following Sunday I went with my mom and talked with my SS teacher about how I could receive Christ.  It was on that day that I knew I was a sinner and if I would have passed into eternity that I would have spent it apart from Jesus Christ.  So that day, in child-like faith, I put my faith in Christ.  I believed that He came to earth to die for me, was buried and rose again on the third day. The best way I knew how I asked Jesus to come into my heart, to forgive me of my sin and to save my soul.  Rom. 10:9-13

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Through the years, mostly because of my age, I have doubted whether I was truly saved.  The one thing that really confirmed in my mind that I have received Christ is an event that happened to me at the age of 16.  On that day I was going out with my dad to help him finish a roof and I fell asleep at the wheel and rolled the truck.  No one was hurt at all and that in itself is a miracle.  Needless to say something like that makes a person think and I thought of how close I came to dying that day.  I know that God has a special plan for my life or I would not be here today.  But I knew that day that if I had died that I would be in heaven right now.  I would just ask if our places were switched and you had died in that accident would you be able to say the same thing.”

So what about Kenny’s question? Would you know where you were going to spend eternity? If your answer to these questions is no, you don’t know where your going or maybe you just not sure, please feel free to contact me. I would love to show you how you can be 100% sure that your going to Heaven.

Thankful Friday – The Proverbs 31 Woman

I know its not Thursday but the internet at work was down so I couldn’t send it out. But I hope you get a blessing from it no matter what day its on :)

I was looking online for some new ideas of what I could do for my personal devotions, I like to have a guide or a book to follow to keep me on track, and I stumbled across Revive Our Hearts – The Counter Cultural Woman. I had seen this series before and thought it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try.

Before I go on I have to say that I don’t particularly like that fact that she uses every version of the Bible under the blue moon but I do appreciate her heart for God and that she really wants to help encourage women to live a Godly, Christ-honoring life.

For my Bible reading I’m taking the 31 day challenge to read Proverbs 31 every day. Its been really neat to see the things I’ve found in my own reading of this passage but what I want to share with you all is what Nancy, Revive Our Heart’s speaker, had to say.

Today she was giving an over view of the Virtuous Woman. Yes, she sews, she cooks, she has her own business but the heart throb behind all of her “works” is her love for God and her desire to please Him above all others. I really had to question myself about the motives I have for doing things.

Am I wanting glory and honor for God or for myself?

(ouch) This was a real burn as I thought “Are the things I do so that Kenny will be proud and praise his new wifey? or because I want to please God whether Kenny, and others, notice or not?”

Going back to the Virtuous Woman, she received her husband and children’s praise at the end of the chapter but how much better to receive the praise of our heavenly Father for work well done that brought honor to His name.

Thankful Thursday – Conviction and God’s Word

Do you ever wish you could sing really well, or preach, or teach Sunday School and Children’s church? Or on the other hand do you wish sometimes that you didn’t do those things? I know this is an odd way to start a blog post but I must confess I’ve been desiring to serve the Lord like so-and-so does and thinking “why can’t I do….. like this person.” “why do I have to do this when I could be doing that?” All of these things stemmed from not being satisfied with where God has me, happy with what He has me doing.

God, ever so faithfully, brought these verses to my mind the other day as I was contemplating my dis-contentment.

1 Corinthians 12

1. Now concerning Spiritual gifts, bretheren, I would not have you ignorant.

8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9. To another Faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

12. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body…

15. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16. And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand,  have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

22. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem more feeble, are necessary:

28. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

29. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?  are all workers of miricles?

30. Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

I know I’ve skipped over some verses here in an effort to shorten this post and give you an idea of where I’m going with this. My point is that God used these verses in my life this week to say “Hey, I don’t have you doing such and such because I need you to do this” What I do in my service for God is not more or less important than what someone else is doing, it is right in God’s will, where I need to be! I continued reading:

31. But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

1 Corinthians 13

1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2. And though I have te gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

8. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I don’t know how I ever missed that these two chapters “just fit” together but I realized, more importantly, that whatever I do in the service of the Lord, if its not done with love, “it profiteth me nothing.”  I hope I got across my thoughts clearly today and that this was at least a little help/encouragement to someone else.

Thankful Thursday - Church Family

Last night at church Kenny asked for prayer about my car situation and mentioned that I needed to find a replacement vehicle a.s.a.p. My parents have been taking me to and from work and graciously letting me borrow their car to run errands and go to church.

Well after the service, Adam, one of the men in our church came to me and asked if I wanted to borrow his wife’s car until I found another vehicle. (his wife, Ms. Joy, just had back surgery and won’t be driving for several weeks, pray for her recovery if you think about it, I’m sure she would appreciate that!) I was in shock…. Kenny said he felt like reaching over and closing my mouth when Adam asked if I wanted to borrow their car. :)

If I’m not able to find a car this weekend, I think we’re going to work something out for me to pick up the Tahoe from the Harmon’s on Sunday.

Romans 8:26 – Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us…

This is something I’ve been praying a lot here recently, I didn’t expect the Harmon’s to offer their car for me to use but I am definitely glad for it because it gives me more time to car shop and I am thankful because it was something that God did. I didn’t ask for it or expect it, God laid it on their hearts and that makes it even more special to me!

Thanksgiving...On Monday

Ok, I know its not Thursday but I believe that we should be thankful all the time.

I Chronicles 16:8 Give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.

I Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To make a longing a story short my Dad thinks my car threw a rod. Now for all the ladies out there who, like me, don’t know what that means, it costs a lot to get it fixed! Anyways I’ll be honest and say that I’ve been a little bummed about it, not knowing what to do, should I try to get it fixed or put the money into a buying a different car? If I go for a different car, how much can I afford to spend? You know how it goes, a million and one questions are going through my mind.

The thankful part: I was reading some of the blogs I’m following this morning and came across Mrs. Lockhart’s blog A Home is a House Full of Love and read Monday's Manna. She did a little piece about following God’s leading. It just got me thinking about these verses in Psalms:

Psalms 139:1-10,14 –

1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

5. Thou has beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

9. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

14. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

I’m so glad that I am a Christian and that my Heavenly Father doesn’t forget about me, He knows where I am, He knows my problems, and verse 10 says that his hand will lead me and his right hand will hold me.

My 50th Blog Post

I just thought you all should know that I finally made it to 50 Posts! I am just going to be writing about random things today: Things I’m thankful for, favorite quotes, verses, and random thoughts. I hope you enjoy!

1. This is my Nephew Austin and my niece Mikaela.
2. The number one thing I am thankful for is my salvation but after that it is that I was able to grow up in a godly environment with Parents and Grandparents who encouraged me to serve the Lord with my life.
3. I have always wanted to work with teenagers in some way, I guess its a good thing that God brought me a Youth Pastor to marry.
4.  I dislike working in the church nursery, at the same time, my favorite age group for Sunday School is the 2~3 class. Some people think this is strange.
5.  If its going to be cold it should snow and if its not going to snow it should be 78~80 degrees, is that too much to ask?
6. My two best friends… pondering something important I’m sure!
7. Psalm 57:7 – My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
8. I have developed road rage since dating Kenny. Let me explain, southern drivers do things like stopping at yield signs, or pulling into a parking space that is on the opposite side of the road. I never paid attention to these things until Kenny pointed them out. Now I find myself yelling through the windshield at the idiot in front of me!
9. Peach is the best flavor for a sucker or slushy.
10. When Kenny and I first met we didn’t like each other at all! I thought he was hot on himself and he says that I was a spoiled teenager.
11. My Grandparents along with my mom, on the left and my aunt, on the right. It was my Grandparents 60 something wedding anniversary! (I do know the exact amount of years they’ve been married, I just can’t post it because they just don’t want anyone to know how old they are!)
12. Pastor Camp did a series on Ruth several years ago, after he read Ruth 1:17~18 he made the statement that those two verses would make great marriage vows. Ever since then I’ve wanted to say them to the man I was going to marry in my vows to him.
13. Romans 8:39 – Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
14. I love my job as a barber. When Dad had his hot dog stand he would ask people if they could figure out what I did for a living, I don't think anyone ever guessed right.
15. In my job, I run into people from all over the place, Ireland, London, Cuba, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida. Its quite an education!
16. My brother Stephen, I think he’s adopted. 
17. Bowl cuts look cute on little boys but when your 27 with one its not cute anymore. At the same time, Mohawks and mullets never look good on anyone!
18. Why is it we drive on a Parkway and park on a Driveway?
19. I don’t have a favorite color, only favorite patterns – polka~dots and certain plaids.
20. The name of my blog, “Life in the Big City,” is just a sarcastic way of saying that I live in a small town that tries to do big things. Sometimes they succeed: Hot Nights and Cool Rides is one of the largest car shows in the Southeast; however, sometimes they fail: Dairy Goat Festival and Parade…. what is that?!?!?!?
21. Kenny and Austin playing “Twister.”
22. Vanilla scented candles and a rainy day go hand in hand.
23. Random facts, quotes, and corny jokes are the greatest!
24. Esther is my favorite book of the Bible. God’s name is never mentioned but you can see Him working throughout the story. That idea reminds me of unsaved people, they may not have God in their life yet but you can see Him working so don’t give up!
25. “God grant me the serenity to accept the people I can not change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know its me.” ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr

I hope you got some enjoyment out of my ramblings for today. Maybe I’ll have something exciting to post later this week.

Thankful Thursdays – The Real Christmas Story

 

A lot of times you hear about families reading Luke 2 from the Bible for Christmas; the story of Christ’s birth. But the story doesn’t stop there! I am Thankful today that Christ came to earth to die for the sins of mankind, more specifically for me!

 

When I was 12 I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. It was the best decision I ever made. God loved us so much that He sent his son, Jesus, to come to earth as a baby (Luke 2). He did this with the single purpose of dying on the cross of Calvary for our sins. This was a gift that Christ gave willingly to each one of us, all we need to do is accept it, just like a Christmas present.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this Thankful Thursday.

Accept Christ’s gift of salvation today and enjoy

“the real reason for the season!”

Thankful Thursday

Is it really Thursday already!?!?!? This past week has flown by! Today I am Thankful for bad days.  BAD DAYS??? you might say; yes, bad days.

Today has just been one of those days, nothing really major wrong, just a bad day. God is always faithful to bring to my memory a verse of encouragement on days like this and today is no different. I’ve been thinking of :

2 Corinthians 12:9   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I’m not dealing with any kind of physical ailment like Paul was in this passage of scripture but it is always a comforting thought that God remembers that I’m human and I struggle with the day to day life of living in a sin filled world. He is always faithful to give me the grace I need so that His strength will be made perfect in my weak, human life. So that I hopefully will be grateful for the trials so that Christ can be seen in me.

Thankful Thursday

This week I want to say that I am Thankful for:

GoOfY fRiEnDs!

I have a couple people that I have very fond memories with and today I’d like to take a moment to thank the Lord for each one of you!

Stephany!!!!!! I have to write about her in pick because its her favorite color. I came to Maranatha Baptist Church in 1998 and Stephany was one of the first friends that I made there. I can’t say that we were extremely close until we started going to church together at Glory Baptist Church in SC about 4 years ago. I guess being stuck in the car for a one hour ride every Sunday makes that happen! Stephy always has a smile on her face and a contagious laugh. I’m looking forward to seeing her graduate from ABC in May.

 Wesley!!! I think his favorite color is green…don’t kill me if its not :) Wes came to ABC in the Fall semester of my Sophomore year. I don’t know exactly how it worked but we ended up in alot of the same classes together and developed a love/hate relationship. I didn’t like him when he hadn’t studied and wanted me to give him an overview of what was supposed to be on the test that day. I loved him when I was the one who didn’t study and he had the answers… and Dove chocolate :) It wasn’t until Wes returned to school and the three of us(Stephy, me and Wes) went to church together that we developed a great friendship. I think the thing that made us so close was that Wes and I were going through some of the same troubles at the same time and it was nice, when I was having a rough day, to have someone who knew what was going on and encouraged me to keep going and follow God. I’ll be seeing him in CO in December and I can’t wait!

Kristen!!! Its funny now but when Kristen and I first met we didn’t like each other :S I thought she was spoiled and she thought I was stuck on myself…or something like that. I don’t remember how it happened but we ended up best friends. Kristen is one of those people who tells it like it is. She also was ALWAYS good for a laugh! Whether its her fascination with taking pictures of herself or her zany sense of humor you always have a good time with Kristen. I love her like my rusted blonde-headed step sister :) She is going to be in my wedding next June, this picture was taken at David’s Bridal when we were picking out bridesmaids dresses.

Amanda!!! She rolls her eyes every time I tell this story but its very key to our “unique” relationship. My first day, working at Plaza Barbershop, I was with Amanda and Christy… Amanda was telling Christy about how when she was sleeping the night before she got so mad at her husband Chris that she got up and went to sleep on the couch and that she could envision herself “stabbing him in the neck with a screwdriver.”  Since then I’ve realized that Chris and Amanda have one of the best marriage relationships of anyone I know… She just says out loud the things that most people only think. Don’t let the blonde hair color fool you, Amanda is very intelligent “in things that don’t matter,” as she likes to put it. If you want to know anything about diseases, Stephen King, or African Stiletto Spiders Amanda is the one to ask! She has three beautiful children and is such a great friend. She is also going to be in the wedding :)

I have a lot of different friends that I could add to this list such as the people from our S.C. church, Glory, or members of my family, but when I think of close friends these are the people that usually come to mind.

 Proverbs 18:24  ~ A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly:

and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

 

Blessings from God’s Word

What I’d like to share today was from Mrs. Judy’s Sunday-school lesson yesterday.

I’ve been teaching 2-3 year olds for about 3 years now so it has been surprising to see how much I missed hearing from God’s Word from an older, more experienced, lady who can add her own life’s experiences to what she is teaching. It was a real blessing yesterday and I hope I can share adequately what it was that God gave me out of this.

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16, 23-24

1  O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2   Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3   Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4   For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
5   Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
6   Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

1. God Knows Me. vs.1-6

13   For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14   I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15   My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16   Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

2. God Made Me. vs 13-16

~Mrs. Judy talked about the word reins meaning the innermost part of a person, basically the organs. She then passed around a book showing all of the stages of pregnancy. So we could all see how God formed us. She pointed specifically to a picture of the baby at about 4 weeks, did you know that the heart has already formed at such an early stage? We are fearfully and wonderfully made!

~She talked about verse 15 and “the lowest part of the earth” meaning the woman’s womb. Even though the woman may not know that she is expecting yet God does from the moment we are conceived. He knows all about us “My substance was not hid from thee."

I thought of Andrea Hamilton during Sunday School and the little baby picture she has on her blog showing how her baby is growing and developing. That little baby even though he isn’t born yet is still a person in God’s sight and He knows everything about him already.

23   Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24   And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

3. Davids Prayer. vs. 23-24

This is a familiar part of scripture to most people, David wanted God to see every aspect of his life and lead him in the way he should go. Mrs Judy just asked each of us if we could honestly pray this prayer about our lives or if there were things in the way that we wouldn’t want God to see(which He does anyways as seen earlier). Its not an easy thing to pray that prayer and be willing to remove those “wicked ways.” I’m so glad that God, even though he sees all of our downfalls and failures He also loves us enough to show grace and mercy and gently tries to lead us “in the way everlasting.”

Well I don’t feel like I’ve done a good job at sharing this but hopefully you were able to see something from this Psalm in a different light than before. If you have anything to add about this or just  comment I’d love to hear what you have to say about this Psalm.