I recently finished and reviewed the book by Pamela Rosewell Moore about the last five years of Corrie Ten Boom’s life. I have revered this great heroine of the faith since I read her book THE HIDING PLACE and then watched the movie. What horrors she endured! I got so much from this latest five-star read that I want to share some quotations for you to ponder and enjoy.

Quotation #1

“…you have got to learn to see great things as great and small things as small.”

I am not suffering anything like what Corrie suffered, but her quotation is helping me not to lose hope. So, in the scheme of things, the length of time that is taking me to heal is a small thing.

Quotation #2

“Child, it is not as much what happens, but how we take it that is important. God is watching to see whether we allow the problems to defeat us, or whether we will go through them in His strength, being made stronger for the next problem and ultimately for the final end battle.”

For those of you praying for me, my prayer request is that I will not allow this temporary setback to defeat me but that I will be able to go through it with God’s strength, ready to tackle the next battle in my life.

Quotation #3

Everything that happens to us in life is training for the work we will do next.”

I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next, but I’m excited to see where the Lord is leading me during this time of struggle.

Quotation #4

“How gracious the Lord is that He does not normally reveal the future to us, but shows us the way to go one step at a time so that we learn to rely on Him from day to day.”

I heard a pastor tell me once that God only gives us the train ticket when the train is in the station. Meanwhile, we wait and depend on Him, trusting that He has our best interests at heart and He loves us. Reflecting back on it, I am fairly certain that this analogy he used was from Corrie Ten Boom and her book THE HIDING PLACE.

Quotation #5

“‘It is not so much what happens, but how we take it, that is important…'”Through the hard circumstances of the last years of her life, the Lord has shown me a paradox: The deepest fellowship with Him lies not in resisting when suffering comes our way, but in going through it resolutely with Him.”

I have not mentioned it online, but I have been having a hard time lately and ended up in the ER on Monday due to the pain I was having whenever I would swallow. After over seven hours and multiple consultations with my surgeon, as well as testing again, it was decided to send me home with medication to coat my esophagus so that I could eat. My other instruction was to schedule another appointment with my surgeon, which is tomorrow. This quotation has been a great comfort to me lately as my diet was restricted even more (again) and although I am no longer in pain, I have no idea what is going on with my digestive system that just underwent surgery. This quotation comes from Corrie before she suffered a debilitating stroke. She was determined in her heart and mind to go through it resolutely with the Lord, just as she had suffered through the Nazi concentration camp. Likewise, I am determined to go through whatever I have to go through in order to come out on the other side and hear God’s marching orders for my next task in life.

Prayers for blessings in your lives! And I hope that you will find this book, buy it and read it. It’s a treasure!

I’m sharing this post because I am happy today and I appreciate Susie at Susie’s Opinions.

Each day that I awaken is a gift from God.

I am happy that I have God’s Word to read each day.

I am happy to be alive!

I am happy to be celebrating my 46th anniversary with my husband on Saturday.

I am happy to be a grandmother of nine beautiful, happy and healthy grandchildren.

I am happy for a lovely garden planted by my loving husband for me to enjoy.

I am happy to be blessed with three wonderful children!

I am happy that I have a sweet kitty to keep me company every day.

I am happy to have a recliner to relax in each day.

I am happy to have multiple copies of God’s Word to read and study each day.

Those are the ten things that I am happy for, none in any particular order. But I want to add one more…I am happy to be meeting so many kind people online. Thank you for reading!

Anyone who wants to participate is welcome to do so. Just make sure that you leave a link to Susie’s original post. Blessings!

Every day, we wake up with choices. We can choose to sleep in or to get up early to do a devotional before we start our busy day. We can choose food that is healthy or food that looks really good but it’s not good for us. We can choose to pick a fight or to walk away from one. You get the idea. All of life is a choice. The first choice that really matters is to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. All other choices are secondary, aren’t they?

Once we have made that initial choice to serve Jesus and to put Him into the center of our lives, our other choices are affected greatly. It’s not something that happens overnight. It’s a gradual change of priorities from choosing for ourselves and choosing things that would glorify Him. It isn’t always easy to choose the things that are “above” but it is the thing that we should do since we are supposed to be looking at earthly things from a heavenly perspective. Barbara Copperthwaite wrote in her book, THE PERFECT FRIEND, “If you’re not doing something every day that you’d be proud to put on your tombstone, then you’re not living right.” Think about that. Just ponder it for about a minute. So each day, we should be sharing a smile, encouragement, hope, love, friendship. We are in this world to be Jesus’s hands, feet, and eyes. We should look at things the way Jesus would see them. We should go where Jesus would send us and use our hands to do His work once we get there. That is not to say that we should neglect our responsibilities. Jesus would be the first to say that we should work and earn and take care of our families. But what we earn should not become more important to us than what we do with that money. A tithe belongs to the Lord and if you give more, that is the offering. That is one of the important choices that we make. As you begin a new day, think about the choices that you will make this day to serve the Lord and to show Him and His grace and mercy to others. In return, you will truly know that you are “raised with Christ.” Blessings for a wonderful day!

I’m going to do a different kind of post today. I want it be interactive. So, before you read too much, I want you to prepare to type or write, whatever you are comfortable doing. Now, I’m going to pause for a minute while you write a list of the things that have happened to you in your lifetime. Go ahead. Do it, please. My list will follow below.

Sickly childhood with some emotional abuse

College and college debt

Met my future spouse on a bus and married him eight months later

Harry left for SC and I continued to teach in VA in order to fulfill my contract

I was pregnant and alone and scared

Moved to SC, the first of 25 moves with the military

One move was to Maine and I really disliked living there

Bought a house and moved to PA

No job for me in PA, so moved to MD

Life threatened by a student in MD

Moved to VA, where I taught until I retired

Got my first grandchild in 2002 and now have nine

One grandchild passed away in the womb in 2015

Retired in 2017

Four surgeries, including knee, sinuses, parathyroids and recently a paraesophageal hernia

Now, take that list that you have written and reflect on how God was with you in everything. Because whether we are aware or not, God has always been there and will always be there. Nothing happened in my life and nothing will happen that God doesn’t know about. I used to listen to Andrae Crouch a lot and I was delighted to find the following video on YouTube. It is from a Billy Graham rally “back in the day” but if you listen to the whole thing, I am certain that you will be blessed. He starts with his testimony of how he got started as a musician and then he sings a song that I haven’t thought about in many years, but God brought it to my mind this morning, very early.

“Through It All” by Andrae Crouch

May you have a blessed day and remember to count your blessings because God has been with you through everything and He is walking with you into whatever the future may hold!

I remember having a mom who used to grab me by both arms and shake me until my teeth rattled. At that point, no matter what she wanted me to say to be agreeable, I was going to try to appease her. Nowadays, what she did would be considered child abuse, but for me, it was just a part of my growing up because I was rebellious. I didn’t always think before I spoke to my mom so I often found myself on her bad side. These days, I will not be shaken from my belief that God is for me, and nothing is going to happen to me today that God doesn’t know about and is in control of.

Are you one of those people who kind of waffles in your beliefs? One day, you are on fire for God and the next, you mumble that yeah, you just might believe the Bible. I am here to tell you that the way to true dedication to the Lord is to stand up for Him, no matter who may oppose you. There is a whole world of people dying out there without the Lord and you may be the only Christian that they ever see to tell them about Him. About four decades ago, my baby brother called me and told me that he had no car and no way to get to work. He wanted my help–any help my husband and I could offer. At the time, my husband and I had two cars. Neither of them was worth much, but we weren’t using them both because I was a stay-at-home mom at the time. So Jamie came to visit us and picked up the car. We signed over the title and registration, selling it to him for one dollar so that everything would be legal. During his visit, my husband and I sat down and talked to him about our faith. We got to talk to him about salvation and he ended up praying the sinner’s prayer and accepting Jesus as His Savior. He still talks about that night to this day, referring to the time that we gave to him in more ways than one, eternal life being the most important. He is now a fire chief in a town in Florida and continues to go to church and serve the Lord, alongside his wife of several decades. The moral of the story is not just to share the Gospel, it is also to give to others what you have to give. And don’t be afraid to share your faith with family members. I know…no one is usually more difficult to reach than those who knew you before you were saved and those who have seen your life afterwards. Maybe the change wasn’t as radical as they have expected and you have disappointed them in your so-called walk with the Lord. Nevertheless, you should not be shaken in your resolve to share. They may really need you to reach out with the truth of the Gospel so their lives can be changed, too. Don’t be shaken!

God revealed to me 46 years ago the pathway to eternal life. I rejoice in His presence! Moreover, His presence is always present with me. I was sound asleep on that operating table three weeks ago, but God was wide awake and right there with me. I am confident that He made sure that everything went well, and I am healing and feeling better every day. God is with me, through my trials and through my victories. Why would I want to deny this life and this happiness it brings to those I love and with whom I have spent a lot of my life? Answer: I don’t want to deny it, so I have to stand up for my beliefs and declare that I will not be shaken. I will not be deterred from moving forward on this road to salvation, bringing along with me as many as possible. Unlike when my mother shook me and I changed my tune quickly, I’m not changing my tune these days. I will sing it from the rooftops and where ever else God sends me. God is present. God loves you. God sent His Son to die for you and wants you to accept that truth and to live with Him forever. Amen. May it be so in my family and in yours! Blessings for a peaceful evening and one in which you are not shaken!

I know that many of my readers are parents and will identify with the question in my title because it is very common for small travelers to ask this question multiple times, especially on a long trip. I know that when my children would repeatedly ask me this question, eventually I would get irritated and tell them that I would let them know when we were close, but they should not ask me the question again. Now that I’m an adult, I find myself asking the same question, but mine is directed to God. It’s not that I’m eager to depart the earth and my mortal body. I’m just eager to get to the resting part of my life. Sometimes I get tired of the daily struggle.

It is quite obvious that I am not at that final resting place, and I am really working on resting in His peace here on earth. After all, when Jesus ascended, one of the things He left us as our inheritance while we are still on earth is His peace.

So, when I am struggling with the burdens of this life, I remember that Jesus speaks peace to my heart and soul. When there are conflicts within the family, my whole body tenses, my heart beats faster and I wait for the final shoe to drop. Meanwhile, I try to pray for God’s peace to be in the situation and resolve the conflict. There are a lot of conflicts in our family, some of them because of our very conservative beliefs and the very liberal thoughts of our two sons. Nevertheless, God is the God of the Universe and He can give me peace even during the back and forth debates. One of the things God has spoken to my heart to do is not to be so quick to post memes that are deliberately provocative. He also told me not to argue with my sons online. I state my belief and withdraw. Therein I find peace. I know that God is with me no matter what the conflict may be and that He will see me through to the other side. I am thankful that I am retired and no longer have to face daily conflicts at work. I don’t think that anyone who has not been a teacher in recent years could possibly understand how demanding parents have become and how lazy some students have become, all of which caused constant strife with me as a teacher because I never lowered my standards or allowed the parents to dictate how I would run my classroom. The conflicts were even more apparent the last year before I retired because the administration was not very supportive of my disciplinary habits. I was kind of sad to leave my colleagues behind, but the peace I felt in leaving the conflict behind was amazing!

I know that this is what a long for, and so I ask the question of the Lord. “Are we there yet?” The difference between my question and when my children asked it is that the Lord has a ready answer in His word. When I get there, I will be imperishable, glorious, powerful and have a spiritual body. So, really, I don’t need to ask the question any more and neither do you. “How long, O Lord?” This has become my new question. How long before all of this wickedness that I see and that hurts my heart will go away and only righteousness, goodness and purity will be present? I ask the question and God usually brings to my mind someone in my family or a friend who still needs to acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. He reminds me that I don’t want them to be lost forever, for all eternity. He is in control of how long my journey lasts as well as yours. I am on this earth until He calls me home. So, I don’t want to be impatient. I want to be busy until he gets here and in my busy-ness, I want to have peace, knowing that He is right there helping me to get through whatever comes my way. He can help you, too. He can answer your cries for help, also. I hope that you will learn the lesson that I am learning, just to trust Him, with His peace in your heart, and know that all things will work out in the end. Blessings.

He Is With You by Mandisa

This book has multiple purposes for which it can be used. It may be used by an individual to improve their walk with the Lord. It may be used in a group study of self-discipline, like in a study group or Sunday school. I think the latter use is the best one because there is so much meat that Elliot addresses in her book about self-discipline that many will need the support and encouragement of others in order to make the changes that she suggests. Her suggestions are not radical; they are all Biblically based and very practical. However, those who have been living without self-discipline will find many of the topics challenging as well as thought-provoking. I found the chapter about time and feelings to be the most challenging for me, but also the ones that seem to be calling to be to “get it together” in my life. I can’t say that reading the book was enjoyable, but it was a trip down a road that every Christian needs to take, one of learning to surrender completely to our Lord.

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Revell. I was not required to write an honest review. The opinion expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

This book is available now from your local or online bookseller.

Karen Cleveland has knocked it out of the park again, keeping me reading until late in the night to find out how the issues in her latest thriller are resolved. Stephanie Maddox is a mother and an FBI agent in internal affairs. Her whole life is upset when she is told that her son is suspected of being part of a terrorist group about to launch an attack in the U.S. Steph is determined to prove that what is suspected about Zachary is not true and that the whole thing is a plot by her enemies. The book is a wild ride, following Steph on her quest to prove the innocence of her son and to trap the evil doers before they can create more mayhem. The fact that Russians are involved makes the story more compelling since the Russians and their interference in our elections has been front and center in the recent elections. Cleveland takes that news story to greater heights and pens a scary story of their influence in the government and the law enforcement agencies. There are a lot of characters, but the main ones are memorable and so evil that you don’t care if something bad happens to them. I was so drawn into the story that I was practically a cheering squad for Steph by the end of the book. The conclusion is explosive and unexpected, just as in her previous novel NEED TO KNOW. The author’s knowledge of the FBI and CIA make her book believable and awe-inspiring. This book makes Karen Cleveland a force to be reckoned with in the genre of thriller!

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

This book will be available on May 28, 2019 but you can preorder it today! Note that the author is a former CIA agent so that fact makes the book very realistic!