Thunder storms

They are one of the greatest things that show God's might and power.  Just the way that thunder reverberates through ones body as they stay up to watch the natural phenomenon!  We had a huge thunder storm last night that shook the house and lit up the night like you couldn't imagine!  I would have been more excited about it (I LOVE thunder storms!!)  had it not been 2:30 in the morning! But God is amazing an he really knows how to show his power.

Dress for the wedding

When you dress for the wedding, if you stop on the way, you look like a fool dressed all up in your wedding outfit.  But remember, you will look wonderful once you are at the wedding!  WE as Christians look like fools on earth but but we are dressed for the wedding (Heaven) and we know where we are going.

Code Orange Revival

Go to Elevation Church website and or Elevation Network and watch the Code Orange Revival at 6:12pm week nights 4:12pm Saturday, 5:12 pm Sunday, and 3:12pm tomorrow.  This amazing revival is taking place in Charlotte North Carolina.  You will be amazed at this!  The whole thing ends Sunday night so don't miss it!

Truth and wisdom at its best!

Prayer for mercy and help

Isaiah 64:3-12

When you did awesome things which
   we did not expect,
You came down, the mountains
   quaked at Your presence.
For from days of old they have no
   heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides
   You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who
   waits for Him.
You meet him who rejoices in doing
   righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry, for we
   sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
For all of us have become like one
   who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a
   filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
   take us away.
There is no one who calls upon Your
   name,
Who arouses himself to take hold of
   You;
For You have hidden Your face from
   us
And have delivered us into the power
   of our iniquities.

But now, O Lord, Your are our
   Father,
We are the clay, and you are the potter;
And all of us are the work of Your
   hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure,
   O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Behold,look now, all of us are your
   people.
Your holy cities have become a
   wilderness,
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and beautiful house,
Where our fathers praised You,
Has been burned by fire;
And all our precious things have
   have become a ruin.
Will You restrain Yourself at these
   things, O Lord?
Will You keep silent and afflict us
   beyond measure?

Paying off, or is it Praying off?

Sometimes it seems as though you pray and pray and never get an answer back or get any kind of feed back from God.  I have felt this way for a while.  But, I realized that you don't have to here an audible "Yes, I will." or "No..." From God in order to know that He is listening and answering your prayer in a way that He sees fit.  I have been praying for a friend who is far away from me.  She needs prayer (as do we all).  But I met her when I lived in NY and I knew that God was pricking my heart and saying, "This girl needs Me and I want you to help her in my direction." well, I have had a great burden for her (as I have said in previous posts) for a long time.  I have prayed and called out to God to show me how I can talk to her in her times of need and how I can show her that God loves her and that no matter what she does that I will always want to try and help her and love her for who she is.  God has just started to show me that He is touching her life and that He is drawing her into his arms.  Sometimes I felt like my heart would break for her when her heart was breaking and I would cry when she cried, and sometimes I wondered if God was going to do anything for her.

Well, he has started to show me and has really encouraged me today!  This girls Mom called me today, crying  and thanked me for helping her daughter and just poured out her whole heart to me over the phone and it seems as though her mom is also hurting, but I just thing that God was telling me, "See Rachel, see daughter?  You had no faith in me that I would do what you had asked.  I have touched your friends lives and I will continue to do so, through your hands I will touch the lives of many."  I thank God! Thank you guys as well for praying!

Snow

There is about an inch of snow on the ground today!  The down side of this is that it is cold!  It roads are also slippery.  Not a good thing!  Now every time it snows we get worried about cars getting in accidents on the curve outside our house.  In fact last night another car took it's mirror off on our mail box.  It's a wonder that  our mail box is still standing! 

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Matthew 7: 13-14

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

Doesn't this verse make you shiver in your seat?!  I think about the many who will perish in Hell because they were not told of the narrow way or did not want to find it.  Walk the path that some before you have walked but most of all walk the path the Jesus walked.

Walking alone

Don't walk alone.  Remember that there is always someone out there that is willing to walk beside you.  Weather it be a person that is close to you or a family member, or God.  You never have to be alone.  If you are alone, it is because you haven't looked to the one who made you for help.  There may be times that you feel that even God has turned away from you...no, he's not going to do that.

Show who you really are

Why stay back in the crowd?  Why blend in with the rest? Why not stand out for who you are in Christ? Why not dress differently?  Why not look different from the world?  Why not say what no one says?  Why not do things that no one does?  Why not step up to the plate?  Why not be the friend of someone that has no friends? Why not pray for those who are not prayed for?  Why not share Jesus with that person on the street?  Why not smile when no one else does?  Why not be the optimist?  Why not stay pure when everyone else is giving them selves away?  Why not follow in Christ's foot steps?  Why not save a life?  Why not heal a broken soul with the hope of the gospel?  Why not stand up for who you are?  Why not stand up for who you follow?

Jaws of Life

I was sitting in on my Moms bed chatting with her.  It was so quiet around the house.  My two brothers had gone to basket ball practice and Paige, my sister went to my Grandmas house to sew.  Dad had driven them where they needed to go.  Just me and Mom.  Sometimes it was so nice just to have almost the whole quiet house to myself.  I thought of how cold it was getting out.  Snow had been dusting the grass since early that morning.  Our first Tennessee snow!  I don't really care about the snow, as long as I stay in the house and out of it.  I occasionally looked out side to see the swirling snowflakes masking the sky.  So peaceful...

Screech...Crunch..!!!!!

"Oh my gosh, what was that?!" I looked at Mom puzzled.

"I don't know!" She hopped off her bed and headed down the hall to the front door.  I looked out the bedroom window, Desty (My horse) and the goats were all looking up towards the road.  Both of us threw on our jackets, we could see the red tail lights through the pine trees that blocked our view of the road.

"Oh, Rachel!  What if it was Dad?"  We sprinted out.  It was not Dad, thank God!  The car was straddling the ditch lengthwise.  The car had rolled over once and landed there. The windshield and many of the windows were shattered.  Two people stood outside of the car.

"Is everyone alright?!"  We asked.  The man had bumped his head on the glass, he had a few small cuts and the girl had bruised fingers.  Boy it was chilly out!

I fetched a quilt from the house and rapped it around the lady.

"Thank you."  She said.

"No biggy, are you sure your ok?"  Mom had left to call the police.  In the back of my mind I was thinking about the other cars that kept coming around the curve.  The 1st responder came, she was off duty and had her 2 children in the car.  When Mom came back I went in the house to call my Grandmother who had Paige to tell her to inform Dad when he got there that the roads were icy. (Dad had forgotten his cellphone).  I was making some coffee just in case, when I heard a thump, thud, thud, thud, and what sounded like a woman's voice screaming.  I immediately thought of Mom, standing out there.  What had the thump, thump been?  Was that a car hitting people?! I started praying that God would protect the people on our property and on the road.

Mom burst into the house, "There has been another accident!  Two people are pinned in."  She looked really worried.  My mind was racing, Pinned. Pinned? Between 2 cars?!  Are they ok....Pinned....oh, trapped in the car.  Mom ran out and I started crying out to God for strength and help.  I called my Grandmother in NY and she said she would be praying.  I felt better then.  Mom had the first accident victim lady come in to get warmed up.  We talked a little and she said that no one was dead.

By then the road for 1/8th of a mile in front of our house was flashing red and blue lights.  The second car had  slid on the ice and rolled 4-5 times.  My Mom was standing in the driveway were you would think that the car would have landed.  She said that she didn't think it was going to stop.  It had almost smashed into the 1st responders car with her 2 kids in it.  She was the one screaming that I had heard.

Slowly I walked out into the crisp night.  Blue and red filled the air.  I felt like a stranger walking through a movie scene.  The car next to the driveway was steaming and it was up on it's side.  Big ruts in the yard indicated the car smashing into the earth as it rolled.  Paramedics and people dressed like fire fighters (They probably were) stabilized the car so it wouldn't fall over while they extracted the person now inside.  I ghosted over to my mom's side.

"Sweetheart, you don't need to be out here."  She looked at me concerned.

"I'm fine.  No one is hurt?  Is that person out yet?" 

"Not yet. They are using the Jaws of Life (Powerful cutters that can crush through steel). Now please head to the house for me."  She looked at me sternly.

"Ok."

Later the 1st responder came in to wash a cut on her finger from the glass.  She said the everyone was talking and maybe had some broken ribs but not to much more.  They had gotten everyone out and were headed for the hospital.

It was about 3 hours before all the police and ambulance left.

Hands of  a Loving God had reached down last night and kept my Mom, my Dad, and Many other people from death.  I thank Him and want you to understand that without God there, there would have been a fatality and I would be left with a scar for life and another family would be left with a broken heart.

God is our life.  He is the Jaws of Life.