REAL LIFE

Sometimes what we want to do and what we do, gets covered up by "real life".  I have been away for a few weeks now and I miss my connection in this "world".  However, there is a reason.  My work has been very hectic and my heart has been really heavy for a co-worker whose daughter is in a life threatening health situation. She has recently had a baby and she now has MRSA. It is still touch & go. So all of my extra energy has been given to prayer and support for this one in my life.  It is especially near to my heart because this young woman is my youngest daughters age (35).  To think that my Glenda or Penny could be in a situation like this just overwhelms me at times. But then I remember our great God, Jehovah- Rapha, our  Healer. I go to Him and find the comfort and energy I need to not only fill in for her mother at work, but stay the course in prayer.  So to all of Lanita'sLegacy followers please be patient.  I will return and after all, that's what legacys are made of --REAL LIFE....you have my heart...

THEN IT HAPPENED

These are the first 3 words from II Samuel 11:2 (NKJV).  As I have been preparing this week for my
Sunday School lesson on David and Bathsheba these words caught my heart and I've had a hard time getting past them.

So I want to share them with you all and maybe then I can move on the the real lesson.
However, these words are probably the "real" lesson for me individually.  When something
jumps out at you... it's usually what the Lord wants you to see.

This phrase is used 3 times in some form in the 11th chapter of II Samuel
 so that's a good indication that it is important.

In David's case he had just come home from many successful battles and life was good.
The only problem he was not where he was supposed to be.  You see the springtime was when kings went to war and David chose to stay home.
                                                 THEN IT HAPPENED!!
Things are great, all is well.  It's all good.  Life can't get any better.
                                                  THEN IT HAPPENED!!
If you know the story, you know that "IT" was David's gross sin with Bathsheba that
ultimately led to the breaking of 4 of the 10 commandments and this by the greatest king
Israel ever had... and "a man after God's own heart".

           But this is not the way THEN IT HAPPENED always is.  It could be that life is
as bad as we think it could possibly get.  Kids are driving us crazy to the point that we might
be even considering our sanity in even wanting them in the first place;
 or maybe you 're wondering whether the house note will be paid this month,
 or if it's really going to be beans & rice forever; or maybe your health is failing
or your marriage seems to be over.  Hang on THEN IT HAPPENED could be just around
the next dawn.

Something happened to change everything.  This is the way it was with David. His willful sin changed everything forever.  Forgiven yes, praise God yes, but the consequences lasted the rest of his life.

But God also changes our bad times too--just because He can & because He wills.  Have you ever had that experience?  You thought that life would never be any better and
                                                     THEN IT HAPPENED???
Night was turned into glorious day and everything changes? It might be that all that changes is
your attitude or perspective, but nevertheless life is abundant instead of redundantly unbarable.

I'd like to hear your    THEN IT HAPPENED  whether good or bad.
Because you see I happen to believe that we've all got some good & bad
                                   THEN IT HAPPENED-S
We must encourage each other and sharing our life experiences will do just that.

GOOD INTENTIONS OR GOD'S INTENTIONS

Just a short note tonight about our good intentions that might be:

                             Noble-----Logical------Uplifting----God Honoring---

But not God's Intentions or Purpose for our Life

In II Samuel  7 David wanted to build a Temple for God so he tells Nathan the prophet what he wants to do.  Nathan says:  "Sure go for it because I know God is with you"

The only problem is neither one had asked God about this God Honoring Project.

God makes it be known this is not for David to do, but his son Solomon.  So David
had to give up this dream.  For you see David's dream was too small. God had somthing much BIGGER and more important as His purpose for David's life.
                       God was going to build David a house (a dynasty)

In II Samuel 7 we find the Davidic Covenant... Which basically is God promising that there
will always be a decendant of David on the throne - FOREVER.
                    This is the "House" or lineage our Savior came from. Now David had the means. He could have said: "No, I'm gonna do this thing because in my eyes it's the right thing to do...And besides I need to build my legacy at this point"..(This is what a lot of our nation's leaders are doing instead of helping the country...oops, my politics are showing) He would have missed the great blessing God had for him and for us.
                                            
Have you ever had to give up on a dream because you realized that it was not
                                          GOD'S INTENTION for you to do it?????
How did you respond?  Check out how David responded... He sat before the
                                          Presence of the Lord and asked "Who am I"???

God desires that we be surrendered to his Purpose and not our Plans...Even if we have to
let go of a dream.
          Now I know this is hard, because I've had a few dreams I've had to let go of, but I have found that

Ephesians 3:20 is exactly correct.

"... He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us..."                


Oh that we would be surrender our Good Intentions 
for God's Intentions..  I would love to hear some of your surrendered dreams and how you
responded.  

BIRTHDAY BASH BLESSING

(Birthday Boy in Yellow)

Today is my oldest brother's birthday.  So yesterday I hosted a birthday dinner in his honor.

                                             He is 60 + 1

And even though the thought to do this didn't "hit" me until Tuesday, all but one of his family members were able to attend.  My kids & grandkids of course were not here because of distance & church obligations :(     but his were here, and after all it was his party.

As I was cleaning & and cooking for the late afternoon event I thought: "It feels like I'm cooking a Thanksgiving Dinner"----- Little did I know that before the day was over that would be exactly what it was---a Thanksgiving in July- legacy- making- day..

Now I am the oldest of three siblings.....


                           I am 60 + 2 (and proud of it)


First I must give credit to my precious sister -in- law for keeping us together after our parents died.  Thank you, Sis for teaching me-- I think I've finally got it now... For you see, besides the Lord, your family is the most important thing on this earth. Stay as close & connected as miles will allow & heh--today with so many technological ways to communicate, miles are only a small problem.
                                  
           We shared our intimate sorrows & and joys,
                       we reminisced about childhood pranks,
         we posthumously thanked our parents for our "raising",
                       the guys played washers in the back yard
       the gals played dolls--with the real live 9 mo. old doll (granddaughter) in the cool house
We picked, played, and sang some of the old hymns of the faith.                                                                                                                                      

Yes we did all of those things we used to do years ago before we got so techno-advanced.  I guess the only thing that we didn't do of yester-year was sit on the front porch and watch the cars go by and wonder: "where are they going so late in the evening"?... LOL !! What a blessing; but the thanksgiving part came at the end of the evening when my brother said:

"YOU KNOW SIS, IT'S ONLY AFTER IT ALL FELL APART THAT WE ARE FINALLY GETTING IT TOGETHER"


I do not have to go into all of the implications in his life that brought about that statement for some of you to understand exactly what he's talking about.  Most of us have been there.  But it takes courage to say it out loud, especially to your sister, and more especially to your God.

So if you feel that your life has fallen apart or if you are praying for someone whose life has fallen apart..

                            REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDINGLY GLAD...because God has got you, got them where He can put it back together again His Way.... which is the only way it will work..

No Thanksgiving day in November has been more joyous or more blessed than July 31st 2010 at my brothers 61st Birthday Bash.  I've only been praying for this day 45 years.  So dear ones, whatever you're praying for  ---- DON'T QUIT!!!

God has us all in the palm of His hands and

  "He makes all things beautiful in His time." Ecc. 3:11

HURRICANES

Well, Bonnie is making noise so I thought I would speak to you about hurricanes for a moment.  Through them I have learned that

       Perspective is Positively Paramount!!

I live in deep East Texas so I did not think I would ever know that much about this part of God's weather.                                                  
                                                                   Hurricane IKE

literally threw a tree into my bederoom and

                                                

Hurricane RITA 

was not that nice either.

It took us 9 months to recover from IKE and the only good we got out of RITA was after my daughter & two children fled Houston to my house and suffered through the worst hurricane they had ever experienced; we had a few- tree- falling- days bonding with them.

So my only history before these is that we would watch the track of a hurricane on TV and if it was tracking toward Florida or New Orleans we would sigh a sigh of relief and feel safe.
                                                            
                                     BUT I DO NOT FEEL THAT WAY ANYMORE!


 Why, you ask?  Perspective, remember? That same daughter and her precious ministry family have moved....  You guessed it!! :)                      
                                                              

 !!! NEW ORLEANS!!!

So no longer do we look to see if it's tracking to East Tx, but to New Orleans. So, what's your point you ask?    Just this. Whether your hurricane is a physical weather event or just the storms of L-I-F-E  

sickness,
               job loss
                            financial woes,
                                                    relationship wrecks,
                                                                                    depression,
                                                                                                      your weight, whatever---

Put them all in the right Perspective.  IKE has passed and I got a beautiful library out of that wrecked room, RITA has passed and a dangerous tree that I had wanted removed is gone.  BONNIE will pass too.  So will all the other "hurricanes" of our lives, but if we don't keep the right perspective we will miss the blessing from these sorrows.

There is also another life lesson.  Don't think just because you & yours are safe that there are not people in a pending storm.  God's Word tells us in Philippians 2:4: "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.".  Pray for one another..Encourage one another.  We have no idea what is lurking out in the sea of this world gone crazy, but we can all help one another if we keep the right perspective.

The first time we went to New Orleans to see our daughter one of the first things she showed me was her hurricane preparedness box. You know water, batteries canned goods, etc. Well, LIFE hurricane riders know to have a hurricane preparedness box too.  This is what it must contain:

At least one Bible,
                              several prayer warriors,
                                                                at least one trust applicator,
                                                                                                          and oh yeah,

  ONE VERY BIG GOD!! 

       (however my God will not fit in a Box)

Love all ya'll in the eye of the storm where ever you are and whatever it's name is.

Power of Prayer

Just want to remind all of you out there that there is :                             


POWER
               
          in                            
                       PRAYER
                   
My Sunday School lesson was on this very subject and it was taken from I Samuel 22-23. Awesome words on how David prayed and God answered!  Period!  Done Deal!  Not always what he wanted to hear; but clear, specific, and no doubts it was from the LORD God.


Yea, yea, Grandmother we know this.   But don't forget to do it!   I knew I was going to have a rough week at work last week, so I rallied a prayer group to pray. I asked my Sunday School class of 8-10 ladies ( all over 65) and my 2 daughters.   

                                                                      Well, sure enough it was as rough as we anticipated; but around Wednesday everybody, even me, said:  "Why is everything going so much smoother than we thought?"  I just grinned :)  


                                                           Because well... I didn't want to speak too soon and embarrass the Lord.  LOL!  Silly me. The Lord can take care of Himself thank you very much.  You guessed it.  The rest of the week was great as well and I eventually told all my co-workers my battle strategy for the week.  


My point:  DON'T FORGET TO PRAY. I know some of you think, yea, I've tried that before and there's a cold silent wall..  Don't quit!!  You might not understand now, but God hears.  Some days it's like it was in I Samuel 22-23.  You ask-- He answers. Many ask: Why pray?? 


Because my sweet sisters it works, He commanded us to and there is :


POWER
              in
                 PRAYER

SEND THE LIGHT

We had a commissioning service tonight at church for several groups, young & old that are going on mission trips this summer.  

The countries are Eucador Japan, China, and Egypt.  

A small church from a small town in Texas sending out that many to spread the gospel!! Wow!! The ages ranged from 16-58.  Some have been on mission before, but for some, it is the first time.  

One person in particular that is the reason for my post is Carla.  I first met Carla when she was in the 7th grade and I was her Sunday School teacher.  She has had some rough roads in her life one of which was that her mother was murdered when Carla was just a teenager. She grew up,married and has grown children now.   She plays the keyboard in our church orchestra and has been very faithful.  Now tonight to see her giving her vacation to go on a mission trip just really inspires me. 

It is also very encouraging that as you get older you do not just quit.  

This is a very brave endeavor for a 50 something.  

The other thing that inspires me is that I have lived long enough to see those children that I have taught and watched grow up continue to give their lives for the eternal.  Now I know that she is not going to Egypt because of anything that I did in her life; but to have the blessing of getting to see this is just more than this  grandmother can believe the Lord would let me do!!   

 How great is our God!! I ask you to pray with me for these and all of those around the world that are giving of themselves to spread the gospel.  

This reminds me of one of my favorite verses : 

Deut.6:7 "You shall teach them(God's Word) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up." 

That just about covers it. We are to teach the next generation God's ways or guess what?? There will not be a next generation of God followers.  

Let us be busy about that so that there will always be a Godly legacy..