Making Room for Praise........

Psalm 67

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us, Selah

that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.

Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.

God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Tuesday and Wednesday were hard days; full of worry, and finding myself unable to rise above my seemingly rotten circumstances. I kept asking - well, if I am to be completely honest here - demanding - that the Lord answer me and tell me how He was going to work out my circumstances. For the parents out there, visualize a four year old stomping her feet and demanding that she wants it NOW! That was me.

Very gently, the Holy Spirit directed me to a scripture that instructs us to praise the Lord, to PRAISE Him! To be filled with JOY and to SING His PRAISE, this for ALL peoples! One little word in the midst of this scripture stood out like a banner waving; a banner high above the clouds and noise of our circumstances! This one word gave me the direction I so desperately needed. In verse 6, it begins with the word "then". The Holy Spirit prompted me that I needed to Praise Him, then the answers would come! I had no idea what was about to happen.

I got up on Thursday morning, fully energized and began to tackle the rest of the boxes that took up my family room. This room had become a "dump-all" of sorts. I turned on some praise music, cranked up the volume and went to it. Before I knew it, I had not only cleaned the whole room, but sensing the overwhelming presence of the Lord, I began to dance freely and in complete worship to my Lord. Once the music stopped the Lord began to give me direction. He asked me to do something, to lay down my pride and to ask for help. I struggled with this, but in humility I did. In a matter of an hour, my new church family had me in contact with someone to fix my truck, and also reached out to get me into a life group to help me with finding people to connect with and befriend. They wrapped a loving blanket around my shoulders; a spiritual blanket with the warmth and comfort of the Lord, one of belonging and unity. I didn't realize how much I needed this. Still the best was yet to come.

Today, the Lord put together a chance meeting that has begun what I believe to be the relentless pursuit of the prodigal son. I cannot add anymore than that for the privacy of those involved. But I can say that this meeting will yield its harvest, a soul named John - saved and delivered; completely set free to serve and worship his King!

A miracle happened today, and it is only a start to the great things our great King is going to do in this city!

Now, tonight I realized that as I was cleaning, I was actually making room for praise; clearing out the clutter to make way for it. It came, and has begun to yield it's harvest!

After the storm.......

By popular demand (OK, Julie wanted to know), here is an accounting of how Steve and I survived our first Tropical Storm:

Just fine. No rain, no tornadoes, no horrible wind with debris flying through the cement blocks of our home, no sleeping and cooking in my closet.

Seriously, the storm went completely around us! We were expecting a direct hit (I live close to water), but as time went on, Fay decided to go northeast, then north and now she is supposed to hit Florida again to the northwest! It's like there was a big shield around the Tampa Bay area! Very cool, I might add!

I feel terrible for the ones it did hit though, lots of flooding and power outages. I for one can not fathom living down here without air conditioning!!!! I know, prissy michelle.

Still pretty much stranded at home due to no vehicle. I am asking for a miracle, would you pray for us in this? We live kinda far out so getting groceries, etc., will be a challenge. My Lord provides according to His riches and glory, not according to my need! Amen :)

A word in due season..........

Start With What You Have
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

That is where you are! Go ahead and start with what you have - you surely cannot start with what you do not have. Plant your feet, steady your thoughts, make the decision. It is time to begin.

You have actually come to a time of the Lord’s favor and He has called for your strength! The Lord has called for an end to the past season in which something other than His best for you has worked, usurping the reality He intended. Obediently, you have pressed with your faith—praying and believing His Word to be final authority in the situation.

Start with what you have and stand firmly in that which you know God has spoken to your heart. Write all that He has said, and is saying, then start with the outline you’ve written. The Lord has come onto the scene. The predicted end of the challenge, including the sting of it, is at hand… the Lord’s hand is stretched out on your behalf!

“The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!" (Psalm 118:15, 16 NKJV)

Amen.

Kay's a'comin......

This morning I was awakened by an email from my brother, Mike, regarding the tropical storm (at present)Kay. He gave lots of good advice and instructions on preparing the house.

I must confess that after going over our family "hurricane survival plan" last night with Steve I was feeling somewhat anxious. So I did what any normal warm blooded person would do; I called my mother!! HAHA It was good to hear her quiet reassurances. I confessed my concern over being stuck here as my car is no longer running, my lack of emergency supplies, etc, etc. Once I had that all out of my system, not only did I feel better, but I realized (ok for the 100th time!) that the Lord didn't bring us down here to abandon us and let us die pitifully in a hurricane! We are called, blessed and highly favored! AND I have a terrific walk in closet that we can bunk down in quite comfortably if need be! Yep, the boy, the 2 dogs and myself. Steve is insisting that his XBox 360 comes too. We'll see about that.

Anyway, all the details will be taken care of by my Lord. I am reminded of a dream I had about a horrible storm that I was in the middle of. I was on an assignment for Him when I got caught outside in a horrible storm. I was in it, didn't have time for shelter as the storm came upon me, so I huddled up to a white pillar and looked up into the middle of a cyclone and realized that even though the storm was raging all around me, there was perfect peace right there next to the pillar. The pillar represented the Lord, and you better believe that He and I are tight! So, we will ride this one out in the presence of our Lord, in a walk in closet!!!

Peace.

The Land Rover Chronicles....

I have a heavy heart today. Cannot find a mechanic nearby who can work on my Land Rover. The car is driveable, as long as I put power steering fluid in it everytime the engine is cool, but I don't think it is wise to do so until I get the power steering fixed. Found a part online for $250.00, better than over $600.00 that I have seen around...trick is, I have no idea how to do this. Gonna look online tonight to find a book with directions and a list of tools.

Truth is, I don't have a choice in the matter. I don't like it, but what else am I gonna do? In a perfect world, cars would work, gas prices would be lower, I would have a job, abortion would be illegal, New Orleans would have been helped much sooner, no one would go hungry, waa, waa waa....but alas, it's not.

So, I am gonna quit whining and crying and get on with it. Please pray that I don't do more harm than good....or that the Lord leads me to someone who is mechanically inclined. Peace.

Walking the course set before me.....

Today was another awesome day in Riverview, Florida. It was a hot one for sure, but we are getting used to it more each day. Steve has been home for a week now, and he got to go to our new church this morning. He loved the worship, it was awesome today! He has an audition with the worship leader on Thursday evening to be a part of the worship team! How exciting is that??? We also had a meeting with the Youth Pastor, and he and Steve hit it off right away.

I also met the leaders of the prayer ministry, and I will be talking with them this week about being a part of the prayer team. Seems we are settling in quite nicely. It's amazing that I will have a question, or a doubt in my mind, and the Lord will wake me up in the middle of the night to talk to Him about it, and He sends the answer the very next day. I love my Lord so much....words cannot express how thankful I am.

Overall, it was a very good day today. I am walking the course set before me. No turning back. That doesn't exist for me anymore. Thank You, Lord.

And yet another confirmation......

There we were, the new congregation at Baylife Riverview. Everything was set up, the crew was fed and happy; we settled into our seats and awaited the Pastor's message via video. He came on and brought us to these scriptures:

"I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:3-6

Pastor Mark was exhorting all of us, and wanted us to know that he had been praying for us for several years; from the moment the Lord laid it upon his heart to start Baylife Riverview. "You are the answer to my prayers" he specifically said to us that morning.

What Pastor Mark didn't know was that in March, a girl in Grove City, Ohio was crying her eyes out every time she came to her church. Nothing could stop the tears, and the response she got from the Lord was that she was grieving, that she needed to do it then, because there wouldn't be time to do it when she got to where He was taking her.

During a Wednesday night service this past March, the presence of the Lord was heavy, and someone had a word for us; he said, "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field" When I heard that word, I began to sob uncontrollably because in that moment the Lord spoke to my heart, "Michelle, you are the answer to someone's prayer." I realized in that moment that this was much bigger than my just moving to just live in someone's house for 3 years.

To hear those words from my new pastor blew me away. Those words have given me the strength to face each new challenge. I am here; I have purpose; and I am a worker in the great harvest field of our Lord!