We've Topped 1,000!

I told myself I’d post a new entry when my profile views topped 1000. Well, it’s time! I can hardly believe there have been 1000+ views in the time my blog has been up. What’s it been? A little over a year? Whatever the case, it’s certainly time for an update.

We’re all settled in our new home in Cleveland. It’s been a really HOT summer. We’ve had a lot less rain than normal, so we hear. And I would believe it, judging by the water level in the pond out front. But the past 3 or 4 weeks we’ve got some good rains. The past couple of days we’ve had some serious rain/thunder storms. I’ve had to close down the computer and quit working on the WMB Cookbook every afternoon this week. Ah, yes, the WMB Cookbook. Boy, has that turned into a chore! I don’t know if it’s been all that much work or if I’m just taking it hard. I do know that it’s taking a lot more time than I originally anticipated. But the Assembly is fast approaching and I’ve got to rush to get it done so we can have it available for purchase. Sister Bishop is counting on me. –Which brings me to the next subject, the General Assembly. There’s much anticipation for this upcoming event. As Brother Smith and I have traveled to State Conventions and Camps we’re detecting a lot of excitement over this year’s Assembly. Everywhere we go the people are looking forward to it and already sending up lots of prayers for God’s will to be done. That’s all that any of us desire—God’s will. We are often assured that folks are remembering to pray that God will give Brother Smith a heart after God’s heart. We appreciate the prayers so much! The harder the devil fights, the more grace God gives to withstand the darts. We’re determined to keep the armor of God in tact—our loins girt about with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, wearing gospel-of-peace shoes, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit and above all, the shield of faith. This past year has been quite a journey of faith. When I think about what all was happening in our lives a year ago today—the horrible fear that accompanied the possibility of our lives being completely torn to pieces and the uncertainty of our future—and I see how the Lord has delivered us from the raging threats and terrorism, I’m overwhelmed with gratefulness for the Lord’s protecting hand. We determined to trust in the Lord to be our Deliverer, our Attorney, our Defense and our Legal Counsel and He didn’t let us down. We’ve had daily counseling sessions with the Lord throughout the year and He’s never led us wrong. If we listen to Him, He guides us safely along the path. There have been repeated attacks from the enemy along the way but the armor of God has protected us. We’ve surrendered our will to the Lord over and over again and given Him our hurts to heal, and asked Him to see that no root of bitterness is left inside our hearts where only He can see. We pray for those who despise us and wish us harm and ask the Lord to deliver them. God has been SOOOO faithful! We know we’re not worthy to fill the position we’re in and don’t understand why we’re here, but one thing’s for sure—the Lord completely convinced me on Sunday of last year’s Assembly that this is God’s will. Nobody can convince me otherwise. I may not understand it, nobody else may understand it, but I KNOW this is God’s will and He performed miracles in order to cause it to happen. Since I KNOW this is God’s will for our lives, I’m endeavoring to cheerfully bloom where I’m planted. We didn’t get here by mistake. God put a lot of work into this, and I want to give my very best effort back to Him. I want to daily surrender my will, my pride, my passion, my wants and desires, my ALL to Him and to serve The Church of God. Here am I, Lord, use me.

854 views!

I can hardly believe it! 854 profile views on my blog. It's probably the same 4 or 5 people looking around, seeing if I've posted anything new or not. The answer most often is, NOT!

It's late April now. We're all moved in our new house in Cleveland. All the boxes are unpacked. I haven't done any painting or wallpapering yet. From the looks of our upcoming schedule I won't be doing much, if any, of that until either late summer or fall. Maybe winter?

God has been SO GOOD to us and we're humbly grateful for His hand of protection and provision. I've been so blessed to have attended 5 Ladies' Retreats since the Assembly. Each one was wonderful and I was enriched by attending. Sister Bishop and I have become quite a team and has been with me at each Retreat. She's got a great sense of humor and we always laugh a LOT, all the while enjoying the wonderful blessings of the Lord. How great is that? Meanwhile, my husband has traveled to Mexico twice for Conventions, as well as to Honduras and Argentina to teach in the BTI-sponsored LPD classes. He brought back lots of great pictures and testimonies of the moving of the Holy Ghost during the classes and services. That man of mine who HATES to fly has done quite a lot of it this year. :)

Once again I want to thank those of you who are praying for us and for The Church of God. I've never been more thankful for the precious Word of God than I have in the past year. It truly has been the LIVING WORD and my faithful Guide. Just today I was checking out all the scriptures in the Bible that have the word "trust" in them. What a blessing it was! In closing I'll leave you with the very center verse of the whole Bible. If we really lived our life with this firmly implanted in our hearts and minds we'd save ourselves a lot of heartache and sorrow: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man" (Psa. 118:8).

Update

According to the number of views to my profile, there's been a lot of lookie-loo's visiting here. I know some are genuinely concerned about me, others are just curious and some are looking for ammunition. Whatever the case, for the sake of those who are concerned and praying for our welfare I'll give a quick update.
First of all, I send sincere thanks and gratitude to those of you out there who have been and continue to pray for my husband, me and our family. Without giving any credit to the enemy and his agents for the attacks they've waged against us, I give ALL CREDIT, praise, glory and honor to the Lord in heaven who has defended us and delivered us from evil. God has been so faithful and we continue to trust Him to be our Physician, Lawyer, Deliverer and King. It's my desire to be faithful till my dying day; indeed, till my very last breath.
We've sold our home in Virginia and have moved all of our belongings to the new place in Cleveland. At the time of this writing the furniture has been in Cleveland for 2 weeks, during which we have been away from home about half that time. Yet I have been able to get about 4 rooms completed and more than half of the boxes emptied. The house has got some great Hide-and-Seek places for the grandkids and we look forward to their visits as soon as possible. There's a pond in front of the house that Brother Smith caught something out of last week. I don't know what kind of fish it was. Being a westerner, I only know what it was not--a trout. I look forward to getting all unpacked and preparing for lots of houseguests. I'm already getting booked up for BTI and the Assembly. :-) I suppose that's the thing I will probably enjoy the most living in Cleveland--the opportunity to share hospitality with Church of God folks. As soon as I get the house in shape we have a list of people we want to have over for dinner to thank them for all their support and assistance during these past 8 months of upheaval in our lives. Right now it's such a relief to have the Virginia house finished and sold, and to have our travel trailer parked outside our Tennessee house. I don't feel so scattered now.
I'm so grateful to the Lord for what He's doing in TCOG and the sweet spirit that has moved in this last year. I've seen more love and compassion the past several months than I ever have in my lifetime of being in the Church. There's a growing desire amongst our people to surrender more and more to the Lord; to put aside self and our wants and desires and to please God whatever the cost. It will be worth it all someday soon. AMEN!

P.S. - Thanks, Danny, for your prayers. Turtle Lake seems like a few lifetimes ago!

God is Still in Control

Well, since I noticed today that there have been 644 views to my profile, I thought I should post SOMETHING for people to read. Hmmmm. What can I say?

I had the most marvelous 50th birthday any woman could ever ask for. My life was all joy and contentment. We were happily living in Virginia, which is BEAUTIFUL and filled with sweet, loving people--even the UNSAVED ones! LOL! Just a few short weeks later that contented life was turned upside down, inside out. I assume anyone who would come here and read this blog would know the reason. But, in the event there is someone who does not know; our General Overseer of The Church of God unexpectedly retired. A mandatory Presbytery Meeting was called for early June. My husband was selected to serve as Interim General Overseer until the General Assembly. I've read the transcript and listened to the tapes and I'm fully convinced in my heart and mind that God performed several little "circumstances" and events and that it was definitely God who dictated the outcome of that meeting.

Since that time my husband and I have NEVER faced such threats, evil spirits, hatred and vengeance in our lives. The enemy sure wasn't happy about the outcome. (Neither were we, to tell the truth!) My current favorite Biblical passage is Ephesians 4:29-32: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." I can testify that, although there have been many attempts by the enemy to destroy us, God is FAITHFUL, He is TRUE, He is our Deliverer, our Defender and our Victory! The Word of God has never been so dear to me as it has the past few months. God has spoken to me directly from the Word of God over and over again. He has performed miracle after miracle. He is SO GOOD!!!

My desire is to be faithful till death. I just want to please the Lord, whatever that takes. My favorite song for many years has been "I Will Not Offer Anything That Costs Me Nothing." It seems the Lord is calling for a huge sacrifice on our part, but like the songs says, "And if I'm called into sacrifice, it will be worthy of my Christ." Our sacrifice is nothing compared to the sacrifice our Lord offered for you and me. We're fully aware that we're unworthy to be in the position we've been put in. We know we have nothing in ourselves to offer. But after wrestling with the Lord for a very long time we're committed to just submitting to what we've been called to do and to "place before Him nothing less than [our] very best." Therefore, we will be selling our home in Virginia and moving to Cleveland, Tennessee. I'm trusting the Lord is preparing a place there for us and when the time is right He'll lead us to that perfect place. He knows what is best for us. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:5,6).