May 1st Scripture Memory Verse

Hey Girls,
May 1st is upon us and this month brings graduations of all sorts; children out of school; reunions; vacations and life just kinda slowing down! Take the time to relax and get with your families and enjoy each other in the Lord....Remember though to tuck your special verse in your heart this month and meditate on it so you can stand firm again any adversity that comes your way!

Post your name, your new verse you will be memorizing and the translation you are using and be blessed!!

Love in Jesus! ♥

Kay Howell

April 15th Scripture Memory Verse

Dear girls,

Here it is April 15th and hopefully all the rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes are behind us! I trust each of you had a wonderful and blessed Resurrection Day and weekend with your families.
Remember to relax in God's love and peace and enjoy His presence as you spend time with Him and meditate on His Word.

Post your name, your new verse and the translation you are using and may God bless you
as you meditate and 'chew'.....

Love in Him,
Kay Howell

Balancing Your Life - April 8, 2009

“Think JESUS ….not Think Positive” 

     I’m grieved when believers use the worn-out phrase “I’ve got to think positive.”  There is nothing Biblical about thinking positive. Thinking positive is thinking what we think is positive, i.e. - favorable outcome in our eyes-our eyes of flesh not the Spirit. Because” God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts, as high as the heavens are from the earth are His thoughts from our thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9), this thinking positive thing just doesn’t hold scriptural H20 to me. When we find ourselves in a tough spot there is only one way to think and that is with His Spirit, which says “Lord JESUS, I don’t understand how you are going to make this for my good but I trust you and I will keep my mind on you and your promises.” I must at this point choose to “set my mind on the Spirit’ (Col 3:2) and then moment by moment “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). You can bet that Jesus has a plan to prosper you and not harm you and a plan to work this for your good if you are called to His purpose in your life. He can’t break His promises. He is faithful. That’s His nature. The positive sign (+) simply needs to have the vertical line extended downward to form a perfect cross. Our job is to lay the situation, circumstance, person, relationship, crisis, trouble, hardship, etc.  at the foot of that cross and leave it there. The worst place to pick it back up is IN THE MIND. The demonic “what ifs” begin to dance around and the thoughts are then negative, down, straight from the pit where they originated. At this point you may be giving yourself a spiritual pat on the back because you have overcome this destructive negative thought pattern but are you guilty of “positive thinking”? Yes, I said guilty of positive thinking. In situations where there is only one correct position I’m all about being positive. For example, if  in golf your ball in on the green and you are lining up the putt,  I’m all about thinking that I can make that putt no matter how difficult or long it may be. There is but one correct position the ball must land in-the cup. There is no other correction position. I played in a golf scramble years ago with a former Women’s Amateur Champion, Virginia Derby Grimes. No matter where our ball was on that green she never failed to speak out loud, “We can make this putt.”  She said that we had to think it before we could do it. Out attitudes were those of champions although the other three of us were certainly not champions but she spurred us on to thinking like champions. The results were amazing. Did we make every putt? Certainly not, but we thought that we could before the putter ever struck the ball and that was the bulk of the battle. In life’s battles I must know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has a plan and that it will be for my ultimate good and although I can’t see how this trial could possibly be working for my good right now I know that it is BECAUSE I TRUST HIM. My thinking is all focused on “thinking JESUS” not “thinking positive” which of course would be what I would muster up in my mind to be the positive outcome. Riding out a storm like this is so exciting because you haven’t a clue when it will end and what life will look like when the winds do die down. How you ride out the storms of life depend upon how much you trust your shelter. Now that’s something I can think positive about. My shelter is the best fortress around and His name is JESUS. The next time you have the tendency to “think positive” stop and “think JESUS”. His possibilities and plans are so amazing. Get in on the ride of your life. Trade your “positive thinking” in for lifetime adventure with the King of Kings.

                                                                              Ann Allen Salter

                                                                              May 3, 2008

MOPS lesson - April 7th

                                          “Do You Want Fruit, Cheese or Ice Cream?”

   This was a phrase I had to memorize in French when working at a small bed and  breakfast in Villar, Switzerland during the summer of 1979. Villar was in the French speaking part of Switzerland and I knew almost no French except for hello, goodbye, counting numbers to 8 or 10 and whatever remained in my brain from 5^th grade at Cloverdale School. My job consisted of cleaning the rooms, helping in the small kitchen, and serving the guests breakfast and dinner. The menu was set except for their choice of dessert which was fruit, cheese, or ice cream.  I had to memorize these words and of course if their response was ice cream I then had to respond with the pre-memorized, “Do you want chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry?” It was an interesting summer to say the least. As soon as I opened my very Southern mouth they realized I wasn’t from around there but they would then assume that I did speak fluent French and then they would haul off speaking who knows what. They were certainly speaking but I did not understand a thing because I obviously spoke only Southern English... Oh yes, I “knew some French”….hello, a few numbers, two pre-programmed memorized questions, and of course good-bye. I didn’t fool them for long. Because I didn’t really speak their language I couldn’t go any further in our casual relationship. If I had wanted to get to know them more I couldn’t because I couldn’t understand them. I fear that this describes the relationship  many  professing Christians have with Jesus. Oh yes, they say they know Him and love him but when ask about their prayer life they say it is weak, very weak. Well in God’s eyes our prayer life is our relationship to Jesus. That’s what makes Christianity a relationship not a religion. The person of the Holy Spirit is living in you giving you 24/7 direct access to the throne through Jesus. Oh yes, most Christians say they pray… Hello, a few pre-programmed sentences, and then a quick goodbye. Fellow believers, this is not a prayer life. This is not a vibrant relationship. Trust me, if you are His, He is always speaking to you but do you understand Him. Are you listening?  Do you know His voice or does it sound like French to you? Do you want to turn it around-do you want to have an intimate relationship with your Creator and come to the end of all your longings? He is just waiting to teach you how to speak His language and listen to His voice. It starts with a radically surrendered heart and a plunging into His Word and walking by His Spirit.  He’ll fill you up with more of Him  than you can imagine if you’ll just ask and mean it. If you can pick up the phone and order a Rosetta Stone Language learning CD and be speaking fluent French in just a few months can you even imagine what the Father can do in your life in a few quick months through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit? Start learning a new language today- the language of the Holy Spirit in you. Get into His Word so He can get His Word out of you. Don’t settle for just fruit, cheese, or ice cream when He has the whole smorgasbord awaiting His beloved. Enjoy!

   Ann Allen Salter