12.31.2010
12.30.2010
12.29.2010
Baby Will =)
My new nephew was born at 8:16 PM. His name is William "Will" Grant Turner. He was 9lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches long. He is practically perfect in every way!
Anomie
Watch the sermon "Anomie" by Rev. Paul Mooney. Absolutely awestruck by the relevance to our generation.
http://www.calvarytabindy.org/
http://www.calvarytabindy.org/
12.27.2010
His Neck Was Put In Irons..
Psalm 105:18 states, "His neck was put in irons...".
The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as a youth, and the soul's struggle against sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude. These traits make up the indispensible foundation and framework of noble character.
Never run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently, and submissively, with the assurance that it is God's way of instilling iron into your spiritual life. The entire world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies, iron tendons, and muscles of steel. But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no ay to impart iron into His people's moral nature except by letting them suffer, He allows them to suffer!
Does it seem like what is supposed to be the best years of your life are slipping away? Are you enduring oppoosition, misunderstanding, lonliness, abuse or struggling with sin? Do your afflictions seem as thick as the undergrowth of confronting someone hiking thru a jungle? Then TAKE HEART! Your time is not wasted, for God is simply putting you thru His iron regimen! Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your soul to make it strong and brave.
I was reading this from my devotional this morning, and it impacted my thoughts so much I had to share. God is fully aware of our hardships, but He is also fully aware that we need to be more than we are! He wants us to come forth pure from the fire....and that, my friend, is exactly what I plan on doing.
But you will not mind the roughness, nor the steepness of the way,
Nor the cold, unrested morning, nor the heat of the noonday;
And you will not take a turning to the left of to the right
But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night
For the road your on, leads Home.
The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as a youth, and the soul's struggle against sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude. These traits make up the indispensible foundation and framework of noble character.
Never run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently, and submissively, with the assurance that it is God's way of instilling iron into your spiritual life. The entire world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies, iron tendons, and muscles of steel. But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no ay to impart iron into His people's moral nature except by letting them suffer, He allows them to suffer!
Does it seem like what is supposed to be the best years of your life are slipping away? Are you enduring oppoosition, misunderstanding, lonliness, abuse or struggling with sin? Do your afflictions seem as thick as the undergrowth of confronting someone hiking thru a jungle? Then TAKE HEART! Your time is not wasted, for God is simply putting you thru His iron regimen! Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your soul to make it strong and brave.
I was reading this from my devotional this morning, and it impacted my thoughts so much I had to share. God is fully aware of our hardships, but He is also fully aware that we need to be more than we are! He wants us to come forth pure from the fire....and that, my friend, is exactly what I plan on doing.
But you will not mind the roughness, nor the steepness of the way,
Nor the cold, unrested morning, nor the heat of the noonday;
And you will not take a turning to the left of to the right
But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night
For the road your on, leads Home.
12.26.2010
12.25.2010
Sparkle
Goodnight, Big sky and sparkly snow.
There's a song in the air
There's a star in the sky
There's a mother's deep prayer
And a baby's low cry
And the star rains its fire
While the beautiful sing
for the manger of Bethlehem
cradles a King
There's a song in the air
There's a star in the sky
There's a mother's deep prayer
And a baby's low cry
And the star rains its fire
While the beautiful sing
for the manger of Bethlehem
cradles a King
Merry Christmas Means..
Christmas is somehow beautiful. God can bring hope and peace when they seem so far away. Let the change that Jesus Christ came to create in mankind begin in me! Christmas meant Jesus taking on the form of a man and rearranging His world to become our Savior. I want to start today....rearranging my world to give others His hope.
12.22.2010
Missions Trip!
Dear Friends and Family:
I hope that God is doing as many wonderful things in your life as He is in mine. I am happily working on my 2nd year as Kindermusik teacher. I also enjoy working in Music Ministry at the church. I have been dreaming about doing more for the world around me, and now feel like that opportunity has opened up.
I want to share with you a challenging ministry opportunity that has been presented to me. From July 22 through August 1, 2011, I have the chance to go to Japan with a group called Apostolic Youth Corps. This 10-day missions trip will be reaching out and spreading gospel to the Japanese people while getting involved with their communities.
While God has opened up a door for me to develop a greater heart of compassion for His people around the world, the exciting part is that you will be able to share in this compassion in several ways. First, you can help pray for me and the AYC group. Specifically, for protection while we travel and that God will bless our efforts as we minister to the people of Japan. We will also need prayers that our financial needs will be met. At this time I need to raise $3,200, and that is quite a challenge!
Another way you can be involved is to help provide that financial support. Would you consider supporting me with a small donation? I have included a postage-paid envelope for you to use if you feel led to contribute. I will need to raise all my funds by May 1 in order to pay for airline tickets and other items. Please make checks payable to Brittanie Donaldson. Whether you feel led to contribute financially, through prayer, or both, all of your support is appreciated.
I look forward to helping lots of Japanese people meet Jesus and touching many hearts. I look forward to letting you know all about how God has worked through this team when I return.
God Bless You,
Brittanie Donaldson
I hope that God is doing as many wonderful things in your life as He is in mine. I am happily working on my 2nd year as Kindermusik teacher. I also enjoy working in Music Ministry at the church. I have been dreaming about doing more for the world around me, and now feel like that opportunity has opened up.
I want to share with you a challenging ministry opportunity that has been presented to me. From July 22 through August 1, 2011, I have the chance to go to Japan with a group called Apostolic Youth Corps. This 10-day missions trip will be reaching out and spreading gospel to the Japanese people while getting involved with their communities.
While God has opened up a door for me to develop a greater heart of compassion for His people around the world, the exciting part is that you will be able to share in this compassion in several ways. First, you can help pray for me and the AYC group. Specifically, for protection while we travel and that God will bless our efforts as we minister to the people of Japan. We will also need prayers that our financial needs will be met. At this time I need to raise $3,200, and that is quite a challenge!
Another way you can be involved is to help provide that financial support. Would you consider supporting me with a small donation? I have included a postage-paid envelope for you to use if you feel led to contribute. I will need to raise all my funds by May 1 in order to pay for airline tickets and other items. Please make checks payable to Brittanie Donaldson. Whether you feel led to contribute financially, through prayer, or both, all of your support is appreciated.
I look forward to helping lots of Japanese people meet Jesus and touching many hearts. I look forward to letting you know all about how God has worked through this team when I return.
God Bless You,
Brittanie Donaldson
12.21.2010
I honestly believe God allows difficulty to come upon us, in order to bring us closer to Himself. It will not seperate you from Jesus, but cause you to cling more closely, more carefully, to Him.
We should abandon ourselves to God more fully at these times when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us instead attach ourselves to Him, and when He plunges us into the night, where pure faith is required, may we still press on through the agonizing darkness.
We should abandon ourselves to God more fully at these times when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us instead attach ourselves to Him, and when He plunges us into the night, where pure faith is required, may we still press on through the agonizing darkness.
My Christmas Wish
I simply want my existence to be a bridge for those that need to connect to Jesus; Love to the hurting, a glimmer of hope to the less fortunate and overwhelming peace to the fearful.
12.20.2010
Letters to God
Love the soundtrack to the movie Letters to God. The song "Hope Now" is incredible.. Check it out!
Changing Anger
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/emotional_health/changing_an_angry_spirit.aspx
Faithful
I Stand in awe to think about
How you never cast me out
Even when I let you down
Your love stayed just the same
I sit in tears to talk about
The heart of fears and full of doubt
I never really kept my word
The things I promised you
But you are faithful
Never shaken
There's no shadow of turning in you
I Stand in awe to think about
The world you made with just one shout
And that same Word is ringing out
Throught the galaxy
I stand in Joy to proclaim
How you let us wear your name
Even when we are so weak
You somehow make us strong
You are steady
Never changing
Jesus help us
To be like you
12.19.2010
Blessed To Be A Blessing
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”
II Corinthians 9:8-12 (ESV)
I have been given so much. As I reflect on the Christmas season...namely gifts....I have decided I need absolutely nothing. Every NEED I have has been met. I will still get ultra excited about my gifts, but I do recognize anything would be above and beyond what I need.
That being established, I have seen that everything God pours thru me; finances, talent, posessions, annointing, favor....Every one is part of what I can invest BACK into the Kingdom of God. If I view myself as a vessel thru which God truly flows, I will be able to use each situation in my life to be a blessing.
I truly believe He blesses me because I see the importance of blessing others. I am merely a vessel for Him to flow thru. That's my purpose.
II Corinthians 9:8-12 (ESV)
I have been given so much. As I reflect on the Christmas season...namely gifts....I have decided I need absolutely nothing. Every NEED I have has been met. I will still get ultra excited about my gifts, but I do recognize anything would be above and beyond what I need.
That being established, I have seen that everything God pours thru me; finances, talent, posessions, annointing, favor....Every one is part of what I can invest BACK into the Kingdom of God. If I view myself as a vessel thru which God truly flows, I will be able to use each situation in my life to be a blessing.
I truly believe He blesses me because I see the importance of blessing others. I am merely a vessel for Him to flow thru. That's my purpose.
12.18.2010
Dare To Be Alone
Dare to Be Alone
"Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32).
It need not be said that to carry out conviction into action is a costly sacrifice. It may make necessary renunciations and separations which leave one to feel a strange sense both of deprivation and loneliness. But he who will fly, as an eagle does, into the higher levels where cloudless day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must be content to live a comparatively lonely life.
No bird is so solitary as the eagle. Eagles never fly in flocks; one, or at most two, ever being seen at once. But the life that is lived unto God, however it forfeits human companionships, knows Divine fellowship.
God seeks eagle-men. No man ever comes into a realization of the best things of God, who does not, upon the Godward side of his life, learn to walk alone with God. We find Abraham alone in Horeb upon the heights, but Lot, dwelling in Sodom. Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt must go forty years into the desert alone with God. Paul, who was filled with Greek learning and had also sat at the feet of Gamaliel, must go into Arabia and learn the desert life with God. Let God isolate us. I do not mean the isolation of a monastery. In this isolating experience He develops an independence of faith and life so that the soul needs no longer the constant help, prayer, faith or attention of his neighbor. Such assistance and inspiration from the other members are necessary and have their place in the Christian's development, but there comes a time when they act as a direct hindrance to the individual's faith and welfare. God knows how to change the circumstances in order to give us an isolating experience. We yield to God and He takes us through something, and when it is over, those about us, who are no less loved than before, are no longer depended upon. We realize that He has wrought some things in us, and that the wings of our souls have learned to beat the upper air.
We must dare to be alone. Jacob must be left alone if the Angel of God is to whisper in his ear the mystic name of Shiloh; Daniel must be left alone if he is to see celestial visions; John must be banished to Patmos if he is deeply to take and firmly to keep "the print of heaven."
He trod the wine-press alone. Are we prepared for a "splendid isolation" rather than fail Him?
Streams in the Desert
"Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32).
It need not be said that to carry out conviction into action is a costly sacrifice. It may make necessary renunciations and separations which leave one to feel a strange sense both of deprivation and loneliness. But he who will fly, as an eagle does, into the higher levels where cloudless day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must be content to live a comparatively lonely life.
No bird is so solitary as the eagle. Eagles never fly in flocks; one, or at most two, ever being seen at once. But the life that is lived unto God, however it forfeits human companionships, knows Divine fellowship.
God seeks eagle-men. No man ever comes into a realization of the best things of God, who does not, upon the Godward side of his life, learn to walk alone with God. We find Abraham alone in Horeb upon the heights, but Lot, dwelling in Sodom. Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt must go forty years into the desert alone with God. Paul, who was filled with Greek learning and had also sat at the feet of Gamaliel, must go into Arabia and learn the desert life with God. Let God isolate us. I do not mean the isolation of a monastery. In this isolating experience He develops an independence of faith and life so that the soul needs no longer the constant help, prayer, faith or attention of his neighbor. Such assistance and inspiration from the other members are necessary and have their place in the Christian's development, but there comes a time when they act as a direct hindrance to the individual's faith and welfare. God knows how to change the circumstances in order to give us an isolating experience. We yield to God and He takes us through something, and when it is over, those about us, who are no less loved than before, are no longer depended upon. We realize that He has wrought some things in us, and that the wings of our souls have learned to beat the upper air.
We must dare to be alone. Jacob must be left alone if the Angel of God is to whisper in his ear the mystic name of Shiloh; Daniel must be left alone if he is to see celestial visions; John must be banished to Patmos if he is deeply to take and firmly to keep "the print of heaven."
He trod the wine-press alone. Are we prepared for a "splendid isolation" rather than fail Him?
Streams in the Desert
12.17.2010
Significance
How we decide to answer the two questions, "Who am I?" and "Why do I exist?" is a choice between two time lines: one that's on average eighty years long and one that lasts forever.
Am I trying to win an earthly prize?
Am I pursuing spiritual significance or self-gratification?
Am I disillusioned with materialism or lust for the world?
Have I been looking for significance in inappropriate ways?
Am I a talker or a doer?
Am I searching Scripture regularly to discover God's purpose for my life?
Am I a convenience Christian or a Biblical Christian?
Do I do what I do for any other reason than love for Jesus Christ?
Am I trying to win an earthly prize?
Am I pursuing spiritual significance or self-gratification?
Am I disillusioned with materialism or lust for the world?
Have I been looking for significance in inappropriate ways?
Am I a talker or a doer?
Am I searching Scripture regularly to discover God's purpose for my life?
Am I a convenience Christian or a Biblical Christian?
Do I do what I do for any other reason than love for Jesus Christ?
12.16.2010
You Came
I have always thought of Christmas as a sentimental time; decorations, giving and receiving love and happy songs. But somehow this year I feel a completely different emotion. Christmas, this year, has become the anniversary of my Hope. My Salvation.
I get it now. I see it. If Jesus Christ had never come, my life wouldn't actually even be life. I am overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus came down from heaven because He saw our sin and knew we couldn't save ourselves. We were hopeless without him. He humbly became like me, so that I might be saved from a tortured eternity.
I feel this genuine sense of God's intense love for me. He loves me! So much that He couldn't stay away!
So now, Christmas means I have received Love and I have received salvation, and I am forever grateful.
YOU CAME
Before You came we were stranded in the dark
Bearing wounded hearts without hope
Desperate and in need, sinking low
We cried for help 'cause we could not save ourselves
You heard, You saw, You knew, and You felt it all
You wept when You watched us fall
And You could not stay away
And You came
And when you came, You were every hope fulfilled
All that's good revealed, love divine
And when You came, You were fellowship restored
You fed us with Your Word, Bread of Life
When we were crushed underneath the weight of living
And I am overwhelmed, and I am overcome
I am breathless in Your presence
I am humbled by Your love
And I am overwhelmed, and I am overcome
I am breathless in Your presence
I am humbled by Your love
You could not stay away
And You came
You came
12.15.2010
Rev. Lee Stoneking
I would highly recommend that you listen to this to better understand the Apostlic doctrine of uncut hair, make-up.. If you seek understanding, check it.
Part 1. Click title.
Part 1. Click title.
12.14.2010
God's Promises
Christ will never leave us. (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)
He will abundantly provide for our needs (Phillipians 4:19)
We will be in heaven with Him. (John 14:1-3)
We will reign with Him. (II Timothy 2:12)
We will be persecuted. ( John 1:18-21)
He will strengthen us. (Isaiah 40:29)
He will give us peace. (John 14:27)
He will accomplish His purposes. (I Thessalonians 5:24)
He will enable us to give generously. (II Corinthians 9:6-11)
- Excerpt from Search for Significance
He will abundantly provide for our needs (Phillipians 4:19)
We will be in heaven with Him. (John 14:1-3)
We will reign with Him. (II Timothy 2:12)
We will be persecuted. ( John 1:18-21)
He will strengthen us. (Isaiah 40:29)
He will give us peace. (John 14:27)
He will accomplish His purposes. (I Thessalonians 5:24)
He will enable us to give generously. (II Corinthians 9:6-11)
- Excerpt from Search for Significance
12.08.2010
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