Liberated to Live

We get a devotional by Dr. Charles Stanley from Crosswalk.com. On February 12 the title was "Liberated to Live." Though I've yet to read the devotion, I have thought about the title he chose. Liberated to Live is what my Jesus Christ has done for me! You can "be alive" yet "not alive." If you live in depression, unforgiveness, bitterness, self-pity and other "suck the life out of you" traits then you are not living the life that Christ died to free you from.

I love the way The Message states Romans 8:1-7. Italics are mine.

1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. 4 And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. 5 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God! 6 Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. 7 Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.

I'm amazed at God's gift of His son to free me from myself.

Clean windows!

This is what a clean window looks like! Ben works for a professional window cleaner and decided to clean our windows. First time in 13 years they've been clean! They are double pane and he took the outside ones off and cleaned them really well. These are pictures of the boys bathroom. They usually clean it, but every once in a while I decide to give it a really good once over. See how the shower sparkles!

This is part of our backyard where I intend to do "something" with the bricks I have left over. You can see part of the kids' old sandbox in the bottom right corner. I'm going to make a raised vegetable garden with it. I even have library books on the subject!

This is the very clean fence row I mentioned weeks ago. Our neighbors put up a privacy fence on the other side of our chain link and the weeds and grass love to grow there...just out of reach...unless you are really motivated.

wrong button

Here are pictures I didn't intend to take...they're pretty good for a beginner, huh??

Strong's Number: 4166

Ephesians 4:11-13 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

When I looked up the word pastor in Strong's Concordance this is what I found...

Strong's Number: 4166
Browse Lexicon
Original Word
Word Origin
poimhvn
of uncertain affinity
Transliterated Word
TDNT Entry
Poimen
6:485,901
Phonetic Spelling
Parts of Speech
poy-mane'

Noun Masculine
Definition
a herdsman, esp. a shepherd
in the parable, he to whose care and control others have committed themselves, and whose precepts they follow
metaph.
the presiding officer, manager, director, of any assembly: so of Christ the Head of the church
of the overseers of the Christian assemblies
of kings and princes
The tasks of a Near Eastern shepherd were: - to watch for enemies trying to attack the sheep - to defend the sheep from attackers - to heal the wounded and sick sheep - to find and save lost or trapped sheep - to love them, sharing their lives and so earning their trust.

The part I want to comment on is the last entry which is in italics and bold print above. We are so blessed in our church body to have a wonderful pastor that fits that description. He loves us and shares our lives. I thought I would list some of the reasons why I love Pastor Paul...in no order of significance.

He shares his life with us.
He does not judge or condemn us.
He is always there when you need him.
He gives short messages so he doesn't lose our attention.
He teaches by example.
He lets me hide at his house when avoiding letting certain person in my house.
He didn't preach to me about how I was wrong while I was hiding in his house!
His sons are like part of my family; our kids have grown up together.
I love his wife and she is a wonderful friend.
He works hard doing things around our church building.
He listens to God.
He will be the first to tell you he's not perfect.
He encourages us in our walk with our Lord.
He laughs with us.
He laughs at himself.
He lets us have fun in church.
He reads my blog and leaves funny comments!
He's a great friend.
He helps us move furniture.
He practices what he preaches.

Now while some of these may be funny they are all true. We are blessed to have a wonderful pastor! And a wonderful church family!

Whew, glad that's over!

I survived the dreaded day. It all went well except for being dehydrated and having to wait for the doctor to get out of surgery. I was allowed in the room where Donald was waiting for his procedure since I was having one also. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not. Yes, I liked seeing Donald, but not so much the five or six foot long thing that would travel up my colon. Of course, Donald had to point that out to me with much grandeur. Being in the medical profession all these years must have made him immune to all these things. Me, not so much. I was beginning to wish I had made my escape while I had time (while I was still in the waiting room after they took him back....I even had the car keys in my purse! The only thing that stopped me was that I had survived the night before and didn't want to do it over.)


The only thing that remains are shown in the pictures. To brag a little bit I installed the hardware and downloaded the pictures after only asking Rebekah and Hannah two questions!

This is all I have left to show that I really did it. This is my arm where the IV was inserted. The one above is to show it really is my arm. The guys proudly show off their bruises from playing paint ball so I guess it's okay to show off mine. Why it would be fun to get bruised I just don't understand.

Victory at last! I was SO glad to be finished with my gallon jug of stuff. I swear they put soapsuds in there! This is kinda like my trophy sort of thing.

This is what I did at church the Wednesday night before. I was so nervous about the next day I don't remember too much of what Pastor Paul said. I drew on my napkin instead of taking notes like I usually do. Sorry, Pastor Paul; maybe I can concentrate now that it's over.

endless possibilities

I normally have quite a time coming up with titles for my blog entries. But not today. In fact, I could probably come up with several dozen...or more. Here are just a few of them.....

Drink...don't think

Love is a many splendored thing

You are going to pay for this forever

Growing old sucks

Hunger gnawing at my insides

Today's the day

Because he loves me

I think not

Intestines beware

Laugh don't cry

This too shall pass

Today is THE day. THE day I've been dreading for over a month. Really dreading. Dreading so much that when I wake up nights thinking about it I can't go back to sleep. I've wanted to just say, " No, absolutely no way; however I have enough fear of God in me and knowing He works through my authorities, that I must submit. Go down with the ship so to speak. I still don't want to do it; I'm totally freaked out about it. It's kinda like being in the ocean and not knowing how to swim. Now I've never been in the ocean, but I don't know how to swim so I can imagine how horrible it would be.

Today is "prep" day for the colonsocopy that my husband insists we must have tomorrow.
I-N-S-I-S-T-S because he loves me. He really is going to pay for this one! Our insurance will pay for it totally; all we are out is for the gallon jug of powder that you add water to and drink so that you will lose everything within you. My life will be forever changed once I start this at 4:00 this afternoon. I am all out of sorts. I want to run away. I want to EAT; I'm hungry already and I can't eat anything except what will go through a straw and jello as long as it isn't red or purple. Tomorrow I can't even have my diet coke! Totally sucks.

I can't believe that the citrus berry powder I added to the water didn't even change the color. It still looks like water~! Really, they should do something about that for those of us who don't like water. I have to drink a whole GALLON of it. A G-A-L-L-O-N as in 4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups, 128 ounces of horrible tasting stuff. Then you go through the next horrible part of getting rid of it and everything else you've consumed for the last fifty years (53 in my case).

The only good thing about is that I've evaded this for three extra years. Doctors recommend you have one at 50 years of age. My dear, wonderful husband (Donald, you ARE going to PAY!) is a radiation therapist at the cancer center and sees firsthand what colon cancer does. He really does love me and I know that. I'm not scared of the procedure itself, just the drinking of the contents of the dreaded jug sitting in my refrigerator getting chilled.

I'm trying to have a sense of humor about this, but Donald is actually doing much better in this department than I am. He has even written this on the calendar on tomorrow's date...
12 Noon
Donald and Sarah
Romantic afternoon together!

Now if you've already experienced this please don't tell me how awful it was. I do not need any horror stories right now. Wait until it's over and we can swap tales!

give it some thought

I still haven't had time/taken time to play with my camera and learn how to download the pictures I've taken. I've really been busy with a lot of things so I thought I'd at least post this bit of wisdom from an email that Cora sent me. That way you'd at least know that I'm still around!

Unforgiveness is the poison we drink hoping the other person gets sick.