i use the word "really" too much

I woke up feeling a bit icky this morning but I dragged my sleepy butt out of bed and went to work... on the way home from work I REALLY (word that I overuse) just felt horrible. My head hurt. My throat hurt. I felt flu-ey and tired. I wanted to just come home and go to bed. My prayer was, "God, don't let me get in the way of receiving a blessing".

Oh... btw... I am taking my blood pressure medicine. I'm still on all my meds but I'm about out of the anti-depressant and need to get the psych in Florida to call in a refill. But I'm taking them. Now that I have a headache and a sore throat I think the dizziness this morning was a sinus thing setting in. Self diagnosis rocks.

Anyways... I laid down on my air mattress bed and closed my eyes for five minutes. I went through the mail... it still sometimes is a bit of a Pandora's Box but the really good news (there's that word again - and another sidebar - welcome to my A.D.D-athon) (Other sidebar - my boss is A.D.D. and it cracks me up. He will randomly walk away when you're mid sentence but then catch himself and say, "I can't believe I just did that" and I laugh. There are lots of attention challenged people in my life, including me. Now where was I?) Oh... really good news is that my car payment is caught up thanks to a generous gift from a friend. God is good.

Austin came in my room and asked if we were going to church. I said I didn't think so. I laid there... and took a breath... and got up and said, "let's go to church" and we did.

My ladies bible study class on Wednesdays is just awesome. We're doing a Beth Moore study, Believing God. http://www.lifeway.com/believinggod/ Tonight our usual leader was out of town and we sort of just led ourselves. There is such a kinship among these women... really, (see, I do overuse it!) there is a kinship among all the people in this church. They truly are a family. Tonight I was sitting at a table by myself waiting for Jim and Angie to get their dinner and sit down and this really (again) sweet older lady came over and said "you are always welcome to join our family" Awwww... I thanked her and said I'd visit their table one week.

During bible study we talked about the things that are affecting our life. Remember those verses I shared yesterday? There was another woman whose life was really (ugh! I need a thesaurus!) touched by them in the same way I was. I shared some of the things that are at the top of my trouble sundae. The love and support and encouragement from those ladies was so amazing. We prayed together about things... I got some advice... and the best advice was "do nothing for 24 hours" "wait on the Lord".... I feel so much a part of this fellowship. We talked about the Sunday that was my first Sunday... the Healing Service. I was healed. My broken spirit was restored. There are times that I have to stop and breathe deep and gather my wits again but I am not broken in the way that I was before. There was someone else who felt that same healing power on that day and she shared her story. I was so glad I was there tonight. I needed to hear these things, I needed that support. The woman who prayed with me on that first Sunday, the one who knelt with me and allowed my tears to wash over her... who cried with me... she was in the class and her love and wisdom are just a beautiful, wonderful thing. I am so blessed.

You know... the truth is that we will all have troubles. I don't have all the answers, I mean... I share from an honest and humble heart with you the things that I face... you may think my life is awesome, you may think my life is crap... and it's probably a little bit of both. I can just tell you that there is a very REAL spirit in my life now... a spirit that was missing before... and I am so grateful.

Many of you have a foundation of faith already in your life. Many of you are searching. I feel like it's important for me to share what I believe and why I believe it... below is the path to righteousness that I REALLY believe in... it's taken from this website: http://theromanroad.org/. Have a great evening!


"For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." - Romans 10:13
How You Can Know God's Love
"There is a God in Heaven who loves you as you are and not as you should be."Yes... you are right... there is a God. You know that must be true. The heart of the human being longs for God, and logic demands divine existence.While everyone believes God is... most sense separation from God. We know God must be holy and good. We see ourselves as unholy and not good. We conclude that God is angry with us and we cannot know Him.Good News! This Testament of God's love is His Word to tell us that He loves us as we are. That love will save us from our sin and make us what we should be as God's children.

John 3:16"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." We hear Jesus say, "God so loved the world." God's love has no limitations. He loves "so". More than we can imagine. He loves everyone - not just some ones.

Romans 5:8 tells us that God loved us so that "when we were in our sin Christ Jesus came to die for us."

Romans 3:23"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"This verse tells us that all people have sinned. We have fallen short of God's intended purpose for us. God made us to know Him.... to receive His love and to love him in return. For love to be love... for God to be God... and for humans to be humans.... God gave us a choice. We can choose to love ourselves and turn to our selfish pursuits. That is sin. In our sin we cannot know God and His love. The result of sin is that we are lost... separated from God.

Romans 6:23"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Wages are just payment... due reward... what one has coming because of labor. The just payment for our sin is death.Death here means spiritual insensitivity. When we are still in our sin, we have no life with God. We are alive physically but dead spiritually. If we continue in that condition, we will be separated from God for all eternity.The wages of sin is death. but God's free gift is eternal life. While wages are earned, a gift is offered... no strings attached. God says He will give us eternal life - life with Him - in the place of sin's payment of death.How can God remain true to His holiness and forgive unholy sinners? Because Jesus, His Son, has paid the price for sin by His death on the cross.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God through Him." Jesus arose from the grave to conquer sin and death for all who receive Him as God's free gift. How can you receive God's free gift of love and life?

Romans 10:9-10"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." A person receives God's free gift of love and life by placing faith in Jesus Christ. To believe is simply to take God at His word. With our heart (whole believing) we believe that Jesus is God's Son who died for our sin on the cross and arose from the grave to live in us as Savior and Lord.To believe in Jesus will result in confessing that faith with one's mouth.Do you acknowledge that your are a sinner?Do you believe by faith that Jesus, God's Son, died for your sin on the cross?Will you now confess Him as your Savior and Lord?

Romans 10:13"for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." This verse says that any person who will call upon the name of Jesus, the Lord, shall be saved. To call means simply to ask in prayer. The verse does not require one to know more... do better... clean up one's life... or in any way try to add to what Jesus has done for us.Will you now call upon Jesus to save you from your sin so that you can know God's love and forgiveness? Pray like this: "Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner, and I am sorry. I need a Savior. I know I cannot save myself. I believe by faith that Jesus, your Son, died on the cross to be my Savior. I believe He arose from the grave to live as my Lord. I turn from my sin. I ask You, Lord Jesus, to forgive my sin and come into my heart. I trust you as my Savior and receive you as my Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me." When anyone calls on the Lord in this manner, that one is saved according to God's Word. If you pray a prayer of repentance and faith, you are saved. You have God's word on it.If you have prayed this prayer to receive Christ as your Lord and Savoir, why not record your decision to follow Jesus as follows. Often times, a good place to write this would be inside the cover of your bible: Believing by faith that God loves me and sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sin and arise from the grave to live in me, I, _______, do this day, ________, repent of my sin and accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. According to the promise of God in Romans 10:13, I have called upon His name and have His word for the assurance of my salvation.

Adapted from "The Covenant of God's Love" by Richard Jackson, Jackson Center for Evangelism, P.O. Box 99, Brownwood, Texas 76804, with permission. (c) 2000.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (R), Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.