Just letting you know

Hey my fellow Found women!

I just wanted to let you know some things.

1. I fully intend to finish up a series I started on Matters of the Home. Not sure when I'll get to sit down and post, but, Lord willing, soon.

2. Before I do that though I really want to finish the study through the Proverbs 31 woman I started into last year at Sunny's blog, A Wife's Biblical Submission.

3. I've been occupied giving my full attention to teaching my boys, prayer, loving my man, and wrestling through some things with the Lord.

4. I'm really excited about a new book I just got to read, review and giveaway by Jill Savage- Real Moms... Real Jesus. She's given me 3 copies to giveaway and I can't wait to read it so I can do just that. I plan to do that giveaway in June. So look for it. Go over to Jill's blog and check it out.
So that's just some things brewing with me... Lots to share as the Lord leads.

I also want to thank you for your always encouraging comments and prayers. You are all such a blessing!

Have a worship-filled weekend!

May's giveaway winnner is...


Beth in NC.

Thanks for leaving all your sweet comments about your moms ladies. It really is so important for us to take time to honor our mommas :)



So glad He found me ,



Isaiah 51:3

One body

"The life of Christ in me will gravitate to the life of Christ in others." - Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life

One of the things I've found that has changed in me in the past three plus years is my longing to find other "foreigners" in this land who speak the same language of heaven Christ speaks in me. I LOOOOONNNNG for them! I realize, I'm not only not my own because Christ has bought me with His blood, and His love compels me to do what I do, but I'm also not my own because I am just one part of His body. I need the rest of the body. I long for their fellowship in Christ. I gravitate toward the life of Christ in them.

Oftentimes, when, ashamedly, I've held back from bringing up Christ in a conversation while getting to know a new person, only to find out later that they too worship my Lord and that there is a real "attraction" between us because of Him, I realize that I need to (we all need to) let our real "identity" as citizens of heaven be known in our relations to others. For there are parts of the body "out there" that are built up when we speak heaven with them. And if they are not of heaven, they may thirst for it when we let a taste of His life pour out of us.

Going to church is not just going to church for me anymore. It's a brief reminder I get each week that we are one in Christ. We are a new kingdom. We are not of this world. And though we go our separate ways and shine and salt wherever we are, we will always gravitate towards the life of Christ in others, making those who do not know Him thirst, and making those who are of Him edified.

I realize that I need to be "out there" in the world but not of it so that my "gravitation" towards Christ in others is experienced. If I'm always with other Christians there will be no gravitating and there will be no allure in the world for Christ. But I also must not always be "out there". In fact, I can't always just be "out there". It's just the way it is when you are of one body... you will always desire to come together.

Are you gravitating towards Christ in others today?


So glad He found me ,

Isaiah 51:3

Yes we're born this way



Oh my goodness! I just watched this at my friend's blog for the first time... had to share it.

This little lady knows what she's saying! She's using body language. I heard her say "momma." And that sweet daddy... laughing and listening.

Note to all our husbands/dads/brothers, etc.: We just need to you to smile and listen!


So glad He found me ,

Isaiah 51:3

He calls me what I am not as though I am

I'm re-reading "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee. HIGHLY recommend it!

Mr. Nee expounds on the foundations of our faith and how we live by faith in Christ.

It's wonderful! Oh the depths and the riches of God's gift to us in Christ... its more than we know or could ever fully live out, yet we go through this life to know Him more and to be transformed into His very image.

I ran into Mr. Nee's reference to Romans 4:17 while reading and had to stop and just chew on it for awhile.


"...God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." -Romans 4:17
This is the whole story of how we live by faith.

God, who gives life to the dead, who called Abraham a father while he was practically dead... this same God calls those things which do not exist as though they did. He calls me righteous, though I am not. He calls me spotless, though I am not. He calls me a woman of valor, though I am not. And He's not just playing make-believe. What He calls us He MAKES US! He called nearly-dead Abraham a father while he had no children and in the right time Sarah and Abraham conceived Isaac.

It's not pretending I am what I'm not as a Christian. It's seeing that I am in Christ.

My sins are wiped away by His blood and my sin-producing factory (my flesh) died with Him at the cross. I died. I don't live anymore. Whatever I may do in my flesh is just death. But even greater than this dead woman I am is the LIVE woman I am in Christ.

Christ rose from the dead and I rose with Him, cause I am in Him. My life is hidden in Christ in God. All that is in the risen Christ is mine. And all that is in Him is not unattainable for not only am I in Christ, but Christ is in me! He lives out His very life in my soon to perish body. He makes me righteous. He makes spotless. He makes me a woman of valor. He makes me love with agape. He makes me intercede boldly. He makes me speak the truth in humility. And on and on, just as with Abraham, IN HIS PERFECT TIME, He produces in me exactly what He calls me in Christ.

It is my hope and my joy that my God calls me to the impossible, and the very fact that HE is doing the calling makes it sure that HE will also do the producing of that new-impossible life in me. I am not anything He calls me to be apart from Him who makes it so!

So I wait. I worship. I thank Him for His promise. I repent and cry out for help in my unbelief. And then I carry on listening and worshipping and praying and praising and waiting and lo and behold I see Him producing fruit in my life I am unable to bear on my own!

What a mystery, what a wonder!

It's not by sight dear ones. It's not by working hard. It's not by trying to make it happen. That only creates Ishmaels (I have a few of those). It's by believing that though we are barren spiritually, and dead to the ability to be who God calls us to be, in Christ we are all of who He calls us to be. Just in believing that, in thinking on Christ, in praising Him, in prayer to Him, in searching the word for Him, in revelation of Him, we are transformed into what we are not!

Oh Father, make us to know increasingly who we are in Christ. We want to know Christ! We want to be conformed to His image. Help us to believe that You will do it!


Isaiah 51:3

On the fear of God and the sea

ocean Pictures, Images and Photos




" 'Do you not fear Me?' says the LORD. 'Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.'... Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth. They will lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, as men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion." (Jeremiah 5:22, 6:22-23)

I've been reading through Jeremiah. Whoa! Or I should say Woe! Woe is me, for I am a woman who has feared man not God. The heartcry of the true and Living God in Jeremiah is:


Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a a salt land which is not inhabited.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yeilding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)


It is not some great wall I've built to keep the waves of sin and the enemy from overtaking me that keep them out... it is simply the Word of God. Just as it is not a mighty wall that man built which keeps the oceans from over taking the land, but simply the Word of God.

Think about that. Think about the beach. It's sand there. Flat, smooth, sand. There is nothing keeping the oceans back. There is nothing to keep the roaring waves from engulfing the coast except the word of the Unseen God who says to the oceans, "Stop there, at the pitiful little grains of sand. Stop there." He is also the God who says, "Flood! Rush in! Overtake! Drown the coast!"

In my life I must not make flesh my strength. If I do, God may say, "Flood!" just to remind me that it is not my strength which keeps back the terror of the enemy and the destruction of sin in my life, but it is simply His word.

This is why I must obey His word. It's His word that is holding back the enemy and sin from dominating me. It is not self-righteousness to obey God's word to me, it's fearing Him. It's trusting Him. It's believing He keeps the oceans back by His word.

The enemy is cruel and shows no mercy. His voice roars like the sea out there while God's word holds him back. I can hear his roars and I must rest in God's word which commands him to stay where he is. I can hear his roars and I must not depart from the LORD and begin to think because I'm doing some thing I think is good or strong or honorable in the eyes of men that I am keeping the ocean of sin and the cruel enemy. I must also not think just because I see nothing seperating me (the sand) from the enemy (the ocean) that I can do whatever I want. God's word is holding destruction back from me and so I must walk in the Word. His grace and mercy has covered my sins and drowned them in the sea. I died with Him (the Word made flesh) on the cross. It's not my flesh holding the enemy back... my flesh died with Christ. I can't just do what I want... I'm dead in Christ. The only life, the only strength I have is in His life.

Oh let me walk in such fear in my stay here. There is a sea of sin and an ocean of cruel enemies ready and willing to overtake me if the God who holds them back says, "Okay." He is a patient God. He is a merciful God. He is the God who laid down His life for me. So let me not test Him. Let me not trample His grace underfoot. Let me say, "You are good and You are all that is keeping destruction from me, therefore I will trust in You and in Your instructions to me. Let the enemy roar. Let him threaten, for You who died for me have held him back."


Isaiah 51:3

My declaration TODAY!

I'm taking my sons by the hand and I am deciding to follow YOU Jesus today! Lead me!

So glad He found me ,

Isaiah 51:3

Thinking on motherhood

Mothers Day Pictures, Images and Photos


Mother's day approaches and I find myself prayerfully desiring to magnify Christ with my motherhood, and to finish the work He's given me to do in bringing up my sons in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I also find myself thanking God for the mother He gave me and noticing women and mothers all around me, praying that they would find their worth in Christ and thereby truly fulfill their call to nurse and train others up in His ways. And I find myself rejoicing in the beauty of adoption as I get to see my God set the fatherless in the family of my sister and her husband and watch as He makes a barren woman the happy mother of children.

Mothering is a reflection of our great God and when we walk in the grace of Christ's life working in and through us, our mothering becomes a monument built up for the glory of God.

If you are a mom, God has given you a house to build for Him.

Oh how I'm preaching to myself here!

It's not an unnoticed work when its done unto the Lord. He sees. He cares. He gently leads. Just as He gave Leah and Rachel the ministry of building the house of Israel for Him, by giving their lives to raising 12 sons, He has given you and me the ministry of building a home that reflects His glory by giving our lives to raising our kids in His ways. That's not just telling them His ways (though it is that too), but raising them IN His ways.

He's given us the ministry of bringing up children IN an environment of HIS ways. That means we must be dying to self and following Christ daily. It means we give them a home where they hear prayer and praise, wisdom and kindness from our lips and our actions. It means they see us respecting their father (whether we're married or divorced). It means they see us reaching out to others in Jesus' name, loving His word and trusting in His promise of new life.

We have such a great calling! It's great and it's by the grace of God that we get to partake of some of His story as moms!

Lately the Spirit has been speaking these things to me:

1. Don't try to extract the poison, the flesh, the "tares" from them, just pour the good, the pure milk, the clean water of God's word into them. This means I must stop fretting over every evidence of the sinful, fleshly nature I see in them, trying to pull out every weed and drop of poison, but rather I must faithfully water them with the word and bring them up in a life of God's good ways. This doesn't mean I don't discipline them, it just means I don't tailor a heavy yoke of trying to strain out every bit of flesh I see, rather I let God's law (God's word) be their teacher and boundaries. Nor does this mean that I don't care about the sinful, fleshly tendencies I see in them. It just means I cast all those cares upon the Lord, intercede for them, and trust in God's promise which is stronger than their nature.

2. Building healthy children begins with a friendship with their father. This means that just as my sons were physically born because I united myself with my husband (in the intimate bond of friendship God made for husband's and wives to enjoy), just as it was the tool through which God brought two new lives into this world, it is the tool through which He builds up healthy lives in them. And in spirit, as I intimately bond with Christ in prayer and praise, new life is in me and I am able to build up, not suck the life out of, my husband and children. More important than any specific teaching or action is that I am satisfied in Christ, that I do all I do as unto Him, and that display love and respect to my husband before my kids.

3. Whatever you want for your children, you have to be first. I think that's self-explanatory. Specifically the Spirit is leading me to lead my kids into a life of fearing God not man by conquering my own tendency to fear man. And the sure-fire way to destroy the fear of man is to preach and serve Christ. So I am praying for and looking for ways to, in my children's presence, preach Christ and serve Christ to their peers and the people I encounter in a day. One of the ways that I've begun to do this is by visiting my son at lunchtime at his school and giving thanks to God with him and his friends. He's so afraid of what his friends will think of him because he doesn't see them pray, but I pray that seeing me pray in the midst of them, without fear, will blaze a trail of confidence in God (fearing God) rather than a false confidence in man.

4. Teaching them will draw others to Christ. Jesus pointed out that He was here to feed His children (referring to Israel, specifically His 12) and when the gentiles came to receive from Him, He said things like, "Why should I give the food meant for the children to the dogs?" He wasn't being mean. He was doing the work His Father gave Him to do rather than the work that men wanted Him to do. But in doing so He wasn't merciless to those outside of the house of Israel. In fact in His commitment to teach His 12, using every encounter to set them examples and speak words that would lead and guide them, He often involved Gentiles who were saved while Christ taught His twelve through them.

I long for the people around me to know Christ, the people "out there", yet I feel restrained and powerless to reach them. God has a work for me to do even though I see a lot of work "out there" that I could do. Yet, even so, God is powerful, and in doing the work of teaching my sons His ways and setting examples for them to follow, I get to reach out to the "others" in my life. It's requiring prayer and a sensitivity to His Spirit, and a willingness to submit to His will and turn from my plans when they may not be His.


5. Keep fighting for your kids in prayer... God is! For the past several weeks I've been meeting with two other women in my area for a Moms In Touch International (MITI) meeting once a week. We get together and we pray for about an hour for our kids, they're friends, and their schools. It's awesome!

Last night, on the way to the store, I caught a piece of a speaker speaking to a conference of MITI. He talked about how his mom (the founder of MITI) faithfully clung to God's word and never let God forget about her son though he strayed from the Lord. My heart was so touched. My sons are only 6 and 4 and yet I already feel them slipping from my grasp. So then, rather than trying to cling to them, I must cling to God's word and lift them up in my hands to God, and not grow weary in interceding for them.

The speaker gave this scripture and I know it's for me to take in praying for my kids in the power of God:

...the Lord your God Himself fights for you... Deuteronomy 3:22


Lately I've grown weary, overwhelmed with what I see circumstancially, and what I know about my sinful nature. I've been hearing the accusations of the enemy, and the condemnation he throws my way, and I've cowered in weeping. But the Spirit has been a faithful friend to lift my head and remind me of the way to overcome my accuser and to help me remember the promise of God's word which is more true than what I see.

May the Lord continue to help me in my weakness, to help each of us in our desire to build up a home that brings Him glory, and to intercede for our children without loosing heart.

Happy Mother's Day mom and all you moms!

Related:

Here's that wonderful "Invisible Woman" video. I never get tired of watching it! :)



And here's the link to the message from Ty Nichols, Fern Nichols ( the founder of MITI) son.

Also, here's a link to the Moms In Touch International site.



Isaiah 51:3

VIP Note to self

Remember this Sheila:

1. The blood of Jesus is enough! Yes I've sinned, and continue to live in this flesh. When Satan reminds me of my sinful nature (past present and future), just agree and remind him that Jesus died for my sins.


"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your
forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19



"Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." Romans 4:7-8


2. My testimony is that God loved and saved me WHILE I WAS A SINNER AND AN ENEMY! If He loved me and saved me then, I believe it and I'll walk in it. I didn't earn it then and I can't earn it now! "Just as I have received Christ, so will I walk in Him!"


3. Don't love your life, even unto death. Don't keep analyzing yourself. Take up your cross. Live your life for the sake of others knowing Christ, and follow Jesus.

This is what happens in heaven, and this is what should happen in you Sheila if you want heaven in your heart, if you want "On earth as it is in heaven."

-from Revelation 12:11






Isaiah 51:3

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