Friday, February 12, 2010

13 "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
14 Let all your things be done with charity."
1 Corinthians 16:13-14

In everything we do for the Lord, we are to have courage and be brave, but also, we are to have love in our hearts.
In Christ,
Joe

Friday, February 12, 2010
4 "And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together."

1 Samuel 17:4-10
"Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. "
1 Samuel 17:45
It seems I've heard one the first steps in successfully defeating an enemy, is to learn all you can about him. How he works and what makes him tick. With this scripture, we our given some details describing Goliath. He is a huge man and heavily armed. He seems to be cocky and challenges the "armies of Israel" to choose a man to fight with Him. We, as Christians, those are willing to fight him, are that man, "little David" and we too, are armed with much prayer and the power of God, if we claim it.
Most people probably consider our giant to be sin. In a way it is. But, sin is everywhere and too many don't care. Therefore the real sin, is 'indifference'.
"We Need A Greater Consciousness of Our Responsibility" Our greatest sin as a nation is the sin of complacency. Smugness is the forerunner of indifference, and indifference is the predecessor of national deterioration. As the old saying goes, "A chain is no stronger than it's weakest link." It can be truthfully stated that America is no stronger than her weakest citizen. This truth puts a tremendous responsibility upon everyone of of us, especially "Christian" Americans.
excerpt from "America's Greatest Need", by B.R. Lakin

Our giant is, "indifference'. What is sad is this is our giant among Christians and non Christians alike. I have been hearing a tremendous amount of talk about prayer and the power behind it. I encourage you, along with myself, let's go to our prayer closets, and with our humble, broken and burdened hearts, lets ask God for our first stone, that He might speak to our hearts first for the times we should have been a witness or a better witness for Him. Then let us ask Him to speak to the many hearts of those we live near, shop with, our children go to school with, and last, the one's we go to church with. There was a time, the church was the place a Christian could always go, to get filled up so we could go again. Not necessarily so anymore. This is where a lot of the attitude of indifference has developed. Now, if someone stands for what is right in their own place of worship, they are often laughed at by fellow church members. We must pray for our churches, the members, and the spiritual leaders, that their hearts will be burdened again for what is right and what is wrong.
We must go to our prayer closets, meet with God in a powerful way, then go out into the world
armed with His Spirit and a power only He can provide. We may still lose a battle or two, but with
God on our side, what progress we make, will make a difference somewhere with someone............
AND THAT'S REALLY WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT, ANYWAY

In Christ,
Stephanie

Are Our Hearts Ready To Take Down Goliath?

Friday, February 11th, 2010

"The United States of America was conceived in the hearts of God fearing, freedom-loving men across the sea. The labor pains were so severe that some thought she would be stillborn and succumb to terrible suffering. Baby America's proud father stood over her cradle and said, "We will name her republic since she belongs to the people." No sooner had the labor pains subsided and baby America cried her first signs of life, when a giant came stalking out of Europe with fire in his eyes and anger in his heart. The giant argued that America was not a republic after all, but rather an apostate(somebody who renounces belief). He contended she had no right to live, and an immediate attempt was made upon her young life. Miracle of miracles, the baby climbed out of her cradle, stated her position and slew the giant, as David did Goliath."
This is the first paragraph of a sermon, "Don't Hang the Black Crepe on America Yet....SHE IS NOT DEAD!" preached by Kenny Mc Comas

I pray God has spoken to our hearts and broke and burdened us, so we may now be ready to accept our first stone. As we patiently wait for God to give us our first piece of ammunition, let's
take a look at the broken and burden hearts our founding fathers possessed, as they were willing to 'lose' all, so others might 'gain' all.
First, could we find it easy to joke about being hung because we were determined to have
"freedom and justice for all". The gallows was a favorite subject of humor at the signing.
Benjamin Franklin said: "Indeed, we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Then there was heavyweight Benjamin Harrison of Virginia who told Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, "With me it will all be over in a minute. But you, you'll be dancing on air an hour after I'm gone."
William Ellery of Rhode Island stationed himself in a position so he could watch the face and hands of each signer as he came to the table. He reported that some signed quickly while others
stretched out the historic moment dramatically. There were 56 men to sign the Declaration, but at no one time could he spot a single expression of fear.
Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island was past 60 yrs old and his hand shook while he signed the Declaration. Hopkins snapped, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."
excerpt from "Established 1776!" by Melvin Munn, Life Line Commentator

Since posting yesterdays blog, I have humbly entered my prayer closet with a new approach and humbly entered His Holy Presence with new desire in my heart. I begin with, "I am only who I am and what I am, but for whatever I can and will be worth to you, use me as you will.
With in seconds, His spirit became so real, it was amazing. I have never felt His presence over me that peaceful and powerful before.
With this experience, I believe He is telling me, if 'WE' are ready to get serious with serving Him on 'HIS' terms, 'HE' is ready to begin touching our hearts and healing our land. In other
words, HE IS MORE THAN READY TO GIVE US ALL THE STONES WE NEED FOR OUR SLING AND HELP US PUT GOLIATH(the devil) IN HIS PLACE, PERFORM MIRACLES IN HEARTS AND HOMES, AND SEND A SPIRITUAL REVIVAL ACROSS OUR NATION.
Have you entered your prayer closet with a new approach and into the Lords Holy Presence with new desire? With a humble heart, have you surrendered your self/family to His service? As a lowly servant, have you willfully made available your heart and life and made known to Him your acceptance for what ever mission He may have costumed design for you? Has He made His presence known to you in a way that you 'KNOW HE IS REAL'? Have you felt His Spirit so strong, that you feel He must be getting ready to reveal Himself, in a most astounding way, to those who love Him?
Out the men mentioned above, have you chose someones heart you will attempt to adopt as your own?

In Christ,
Stephanie

TODAY'S YOUR BIRTHDAY

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little sis,

JENNIFER MILLER,

in Murfressboro, Tennessee.

I'm thinking of you today,

although we're miles away.

Hope You Have A Good One !

We Must Have the Heart of our Founding Fathers

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
To make sure there is an easy adjustment from our first blog address to our new one, for a limited time, we will have this blog active and a new one now active with the new address. Remember, to reach our new one, just an "a" to the beginning of "smile" and you will be there.

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

With our last blog, I talked about going into our prayer closets and into the Holy presence of our precious Heavenly Father, with a whole new approach. With this new approach, I think we should take a long close look at the attitudes our founding fathers had when they dared to sign their names to Declaration of Independence. Not only did they stand to lose great lose of personal wealth, but the loss of family and their own lives were at stake as well. They did not care. Freedom and liberty to worship God in their own way was their priority and they were determined to have it no matter the cost.
Our verse for the day says, "ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."
For many, going back to the old paths, especially with their spiritual life, it is not a popular option. They believe going back to the old paths means being too old fashioned and out of date. Therefore they don't want an old fashion church, with old fashion singing, with an old fashion preacher preaching old fashion sermons from his old fashion Bible. But I believe the paths our
founding fathers followed and the ones our verse speaks of are one in the same. These paths
were the paths that pleased God. These men were strongly convicted that obeying God and
allowing His Word to be the instruction manual for living their daily lives, where the key to God blessing them, their families and allowing their nation to grow and prosper. What so many do not
want to acknowledge is..................THEY WERE RIGHT ....................................................................
I personally see nothing wrong with "new this" or an "updated that". But, if it means changing
our old paths WE MUST BE VERY VERY CAREFUL.
As we step into our prayer closets each day, remember we are little David seeking from God,
the stones we need, to take down Goliath. Let us begin by humbly asking God to give us a broken heart for our families and our nation. Until we are truly broken and burdened, our prayers will have no power. Then, let us ask God to give us a heart like that of our founding
fathers. Let us ask God for a heart that wants to serve Him regardless of what possessions
or friends we might lose in the process.
If we have found ourselves satisfied and taking part with any of the "new and updated", let us, with an honest heart, seek God for His approval. If we cannot find it, let us ask God to please give us a heart for the old paths, that we may serve Him as He would have us to.
As I said earlier, there are many, who have chose to welcome the new and gladly do away with the old. However, if we are to even begin making progress with reclaiming America's Christian foundation in hopes of a rebirth of a Christian nation, we "MUST" start with each individual Christian who is willing to turn back to the old paths. If we can do this, I believe it is just the beginning of miracles the Lord is ready to bless our nation with.


In Christ,

Stephanie

Do We Have A Prayer Closet?

DON'T FORGET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TOMORROW OUR BLOG ADDRESS CHANGES TO:

www.asmilefromthecountry.blogspot.com


Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly".
Matt. 6:6

Up til now, I've considered myself to have a faithful prayer life. Early, every morning, before the sun is up and anyone in my house is up and about, it is my time for reading my Bible and praying. ( The picture with this blog is not my place to pray and read my bible, but, to me it is inviting. I realize it may look a little too feminine for some of our readers depending on who you are)
When I begin praying, I start by praying for myself. I have much room for improvement so I begin talking with God about areas in my life I sometimes feel are hopeless for me to change. Instead of worrying about these areas, I give them to the Lord and progress on in prayer. I then begin to pray for my family, my church family, and then others. I try to always lift our nation up to Him as she desperately needs His healing touch. I try to always be careful to thank Him for my prayers He has answered and is going to answer. Of course there is much more I could mention, but, you get the idea. I always feel His presence with me, and I know He is listening.
But, I am beginning to sense Him speaking to my heart about this. For those who are ready
to get down to business and get God's attention for our nation...........
"I BELIEVE GOD IS READY TO HEAR US"
I personally feel, I am no one of significance. Only a small crowd of people know I exist. I have never boarded an airplane to fly anywhere. I only occasionally leave my county
(to go to a neighboring county) for different purposes, and I rarely leave my state. Because we home school, I occasionally have reason to talk to others in different states. But that is the extent of it. I get very nervous(I'm getting better) when speaking in front of a crowd. Most of the time,
when I have peoples attention, I don't know how to handle it and often feel ridiculous.
So what makes me think I, as a Christian, can make a difference among so many in a nation, who want to deny there is a one true living God. I have one answer.
IT'S A MATTER OF THE HEART AND GOD KNOWS MY HEART!
Furthermore, I believe where my Bible says, in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "if we will humble ourselves and pray, He will heal our land", and Philippians 4:13- "I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me" and Matt. 19:26 & Mark 10:27 that state- "with God all things are possible"
and last, Matt. 17:20, Jesus said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. " With God on our side, we can't lose. Satan may want us to feel any efforts are in vain, but, its only because with God's help, we are and can make a difference and he wants to stop us. We must put on the "whole armor of God"(Eph. 6:10-19) and declare war on Satan.
I do not claim to know everything as far as what we must do, and how we must do it. In fact it would be quite the opposite. But, as Christians, I believe if we ban together, set a goal, seek God for courage and confidence, take a first step in faith, little by little, we can make a difference.
Regardless of who we are or who we are not and what we know or don't know, we will all have
different roles and therefore do different jobs. Remember, He doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Each of us must simply be willing to say, "here I'm I Lord, what do you want me to do?"
Do you have a place you can call your prayer closet? A place you can talk to the Lord one on one with little to no interruption? I encourage you to be sure to have one, and begin taking on a whole new approach, attitude, state of heart and mind, as we enter into our prayer closets and into His Holy presence. Let us mean "new" business with God as we seek His will for our lives.
We are little David against Goliath. We must pick up our sling and ask the Lord to begin giving us some very special stones.

In Christ,
Stephanie

IMPORTANT NOTICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE REMEMBER:

BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10th, WE WILL BE ADDING AN "a" TO THE
BEGINNING OF OUR BLOG ADDRESS.
IT WILL BE:

www.asmilefromthecountry.blogspot.com

We see there are several who are logging on to our blog. We are thrilled to have you visit us.

Please be sure to check out Joes Bible question for the day.
It's fun when we learn this way.