My weightloss journey so far -Phillipians 2:13 style

About two months ago, the woman that was praying for Tim's weight-loss started seriously praying for mine. Since then I have lost around 31 pounds. My eating habits and cravings have dramatically changed and the Lord is bringing me into full health and restoration. I am so thankful as yall who know me know that I have never been able to continue in a healthy lifestyle. Either I was depriving myself to lose weight or I was overeating and feeling helpless and did not care, but finally, I have ideas of what foods to combine to eat and maintain healthy glucose levels and thyroid balance. So thankful for precious saints like Brenda that will pray! I sure needed it! Here are my pictures thus far of what my Daddy is doing in me! 

Started at 326

14lbs down

23lbs down

27lbs down

Today at 31lbs down

5/3/16 EVER BEEN BROUGHT OUT OF LO DEBAR?

Reading in the life journal this morning and came across these scriptures that stood out to me. 

Mephibosheth was Saul's only remaining relative. Typically, the new king would typically kill off all of the old predecessors heirs to the throne to keep from uprising or revolt, but  David as a man after God's own heart and chose to show kindness and mercy instead. 

2 Samuel 9:3-4 NLT

http://bible.com/116/2sa.9.3-4.nlt

“The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.” Ziba replied, “Yes, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet.” “Where is he?” the king asked. “In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him, “at the home of Makir son of Ammiel.””

2 Samuel 9:13 NLT

http://bible.com/116/2sa.9.13.nlt

“And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table.”

So King David's Mercy rescued Mephibosheth from a place called Lo Debar. The name means place of no hearing or no pasture. Have you ever been in a place where you couldn't hear God speak? Where you didn't even know if you were walking with Him or not? A place of silence, when you really needed to hear from the Lord? A place where you felt like you couldn't walk forward? 

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth out of the mouth of God. We all need fresh, living, active Word in our lives daily. We all need to be able to sit at the Kings table and eat His food. Jesus Christ made a way for us to be able to sit at the King's table even we couldn't walk on our own he carries us to His table. We are brought from a place called "Lo Debar" where there is no pasture or no word into a place of fellowship with the Lord through his Holy Spirit. Jerusalem (where the King resided) means to send forth Shalom (Peace- wholeness, completeness or "unbrokenness"). So we are indeed brought from a place of no Word, no pasture, no relationship to a place where He sends forth His Shalom and makes us whole.

Lord, we thank you for carrying us to your table. We thank you when we deserved judgment, you gave us mercy instead. We thank you for the Almighty Grace that you've given us and we ask you to bring us to that place of true shalom. Help us to bring others to the table that they may walk in that same peace that passes all understanding.! 

4/6/16 Not Cured but Healed

As me and Mikayla were looking in my old Bible this morning. We looked at the front of this Bible where I had some notes written. These were written around 2005 or so and I came across the word that I was given that morning. It simply says 

"not every disease will be cured, but you will be healed."

Obviously, that morning it didn't fascinate me as much as it does today. I believe I am healed and it is amazing to see what God is doing in my body. I have never been able to eat the right foods AND do all the exercising at the same time with the amount of pain my body has always been in emotionally and physically without falling back on to some old addiction of some sort whether it be sex, sugar, people pleasing, seeking the "experience"of the Holy Spirit instead of relationship with Him (that's a big God vs good question to ask ourselves), or any other variety of addictive tendency. However, as most of you know my husband has been able to lose about 165 or more pounds. This has been tough for me as I have tried and tried on many occasions to do so and failed and failed on many occasions to do so. Everywhere I turned, it was ALWAYS The first thing people said to me that knew him. "Wow! Tim has lost a lot of weight ". All the while, I just didn't have the fight in me. My body was doing crazy things in my mind, my emotions, and my whole physiological make up. No matter how I tried to overcome, I seemed to be going downhill over the last few years. Prayer, reading my Bible, doing all the things I knew to do, but to no avail. My body seemed to be going down in the wrong direction. My husband's body, however, was reacting to everything he was doing. I so struggled with jealousy. I questioned God a lot. Because I know without a doubt that the only reason we are able to lose any weight or to hold off or maintain a lack of an addictive lifestyle is because the strength of the power of Christ in us. There is no other way to be healed and made whole apart from Jesus. For some reason, I still didn't seem to be walking it out. And then, a few weeks ago, the same woman that has been praying for Tim every day of his weight-loss journey, started praying for me intensely. Now I'm not just talking about popcorn prayers that we all pray here in there about different things. I am talking about the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous. Travailing prayer. Warring prayer. Definitely overcoming prayer. And those kind of prayers always work to accomplish the will of God in people's lives. That being said, the will of God for my life is to be healed and walk it out. Not cured of all disease, but healed and restored and redeemed. The symptoms I see in my body are not driving my body anymore. I still struggle often, and sometimes I still fail. BUT GOD has healed me. I am not cured but he has healed me! You ask what's the difference between healing and curing? Ahh I asked the same thing this morning when I saw that wrote in my Bible. So I thought I would Google it. I found this and it sparked my interest. Oh I know, Google is not the authority (although many of us seem to act that way whether we admit it or not because of its convenience), but this jumped at me so I will share with you as I seek further to see what he means by healing in curing. 

Excerpt from "mindbodygreen.com

The words “healing” and “curing” are used interchangeably, but their definitions could not be more different. Curing is a restoration of health, an absence of symptoms, and a remedy of disease. Healing, on the other hand, is a restoration of wholeness — not the level of wholeness before the diagnosis, but a restoration of wholeness that is new, different, and comparatively better than before the onset of disease. Healing is not the removal or cessation of symptoms, but rather an integrative process that transcends the physical and includes mental, emotional, and spiritual vitality and wellness.

WOW!!!!! This wasn't even a Christian website that I know of. BUT GOD stirred my spirit up when I read it. Because I know that In Him,  I am a "new creation". I am not the same person I was yesterday and tomorrow I will not be the same person I am today. He is making me new and alive from death flowing continual resurrection power working in me and through me. As I surrender to the process, I am healed. The disease might not be cured, and I might still see symptoms, but God has healed me. I am made better than I was before the disease touched my body. I'm so thankful for this journey! Ask any cancer survivor whether they would take $1 million for their cancer journey victory and I would almost be willing to say that most of them believe their lives are better having went through the battle and had victory. They may not have been "cured", but they have been "healed". Now I'm not saying, that if they had the choice to have never went through cancer they would have chosen cancer for thenselves or anyone else for that matter. That would be crazy and not lining up to the will of God, but having had to go through cancer, they see their lives as better now! It truly amazes me how the struggles and difficulties of our lives bring us greater victory. I am thankful that my mindset is changing. And I see the difficulties now, my mind is starting to believe that that is just a greater victory that Jesus says for me. Thank you Lord that we are being healed and not just cured! 

Today I pray for everyone that might be reading this that we would see our Healer and walk our healing and not just pray for a cure. That no matter the symptoms, we believe that we are healed. I am thankful for the healing and thankful for being a new creation and I pray that each and every reader would continually become new. That they daily down to themselves and are resurrected in Christ. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you and may his face always shine upon you!

One month into my healing (before and after photo- 20 lbs down 

MY BEFORE PHOTO 2/29/16

AFTER PHOTO 3/24/16

12-3/15- IN HIM we live and move and have our being.

I get to work the other day after being gone for a few days and my plant looks like this

I have had this happen to my plant on a few occasions. What happens is that my plant doesn't get enough water and it causes the adverse effect of the plant looking to be lifeless. Usually, if I fill it with water, it will bounce back within a few hours of receiving water. This time, however, it had went without water for a couple days longer due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  I filled it with water, and it didn't seem to affect it much that first day. 

It looked like it was getting the water, but it could not pull it self back up. Several of the leaves were still very weak. It seemed to be hopeless to just put water in the plant in just leave it there. It barely moved the first day. Sherry believed it would come up again but I mist say I thought I killed my Peace Lilly. But, the second day it look like this!

I had a little more hope by the second day that it might come back as it now looked like it was at least able to fight. It had received enough of the water into its root system and was able to strengthen itself. The water had to get deep enough into the root system for it to give the plants enough strength. 

The Lord reminded me that this is how we are when we don't spend time with him in relationship. He is the LIVING WATER. We will have seasons in our lives when we might be tempted to think we can do without his nourishment for our soul.  When we don't get enough water, we become wilted and weak, inable to support our own strength. We look to Jesus, get filled, filled, and filled again and receiving strength each time. The longer we go without receiving the living water deep down into our root system, the harder it is and the more time it takes to regain strength and bounce back with resurrection life. The best way to avoid this happening is to maintain a steady flow of his living water into our souls into not allow ourselves to stay too dry for too long. The enemy loves to find dry places where he can cause damage in the hopes of destroying us permanently. BUT GOD is greater than his schemes and sends a message in a precious flower that just needed a little pick me up of living water. 

Here is what my plant looked like on the third day:

Praise God! She took a beating. She is losing some leaves. She will never be the same as she was before her dry spell.The excessive amounts of water have turned her leaves different colors and in some ways she is more beautiful now than she was before. Such is our lives!! IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING (Acts 17:28)

Do you have LOVE? Have you Been Loved?

This morning, the Lord had me reading Romans chapter 3 and for screens in chapter 13. Romans chapter 3 got me thinking along the lines of we are not justified by the works we do but by the faith in Jesus that we have. We know in Scripture the Lord tells us faith only works through love (Galations 5).if a true saving faith of Jesus Christ brings us to a deeper love for Him and for others, then we must be continually growing in love or we are just like a clinking symbol.  However, we must be careful not to believe that we are full of love just because we are doing good works for everybody around us. Love is the motive of your actions,  not necessarily the actions themselves. In first Corinthians chapter 13 we are told that even though we give all our goods to the poor and give our bodies to be burned as a sacrifice if we have not love is useless.May the motives of our heart always be to love and to have mercy and forgiveness and to grow up into the fullness of who God has created us to be. 

To whom much is forgiven, the same loves much! What have you been forgiven of? 

Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant Matthew 18:23-35

23 "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.24 "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.25 "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.26 "The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'27 "Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.28 "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'29 "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet[fn] and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'[fn]30 "And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.31 "So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.32 "Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.33 'Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'34 "And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."[fn]

If we are not walking in love, we will see the father as a harsh and stern debt collector. However, when we realize how much we have been forgiven of, we have a mercy on like no other.  I don't know about you but I am walking through so many things that need to be forgiven at times that I don't want to take a chance and hold somebody else's debt to me against them. 

Daddy,

Help us to know when we have strayed in this area. Lead us by your Holy Spirit into all the ways of your love for people. Help us to speak truth in love with the motive of seeing the captive set free not of the captives being punished for their mistakes. Help love grow inside of each of us so that we be mature and complete lacking nothing.help us to be your hands and feet today.

If there are any that are reading this today that have never felt your love or never experienced your mercy or forgiveness for them, I pray today that as they are reading that they will feel your love and know that you are a good father that you are not a harsh debt collector and that you are wanting to pour out your mercy to all people so that none should perish but all should come to repentance and have everlasting life in Jesus name, Amen

4/22/15 I don't want to be a Pharisee

3/10/15 FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS