The Lord is My Light | Joel Case | Live at Home (+playlist)

I invite you to soak.
I invite you to open the word and let it wash you.
Wash the stress of being a mom, wife, employee, father, husband, away.
I invite you to hear God
I invite you to receive the FREE GIFT of the Holy Spirit

I once heard a testimony, that this person poured an extra cup of coffee for Jesus each morning. Not that He would actually drink it, but as an invitation.


"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1Peter 5:6-7)

He cares, He cares, He cares...
We can't do it all....
Humble ourselves....Lord Take This....

and soak...

motherhood

when I think about this day, like all women I can't help but think about my mom.

Laurel Evangeline Fortune, is truly a gift from the Lord for me...

She has raised 10 kids, in the North of Canada, Whitehorse Yukon
She was a Pastor's daughter and a Pastor's wife
She balanced the home while Dad worked to provide for us,
many times doing two separate jobs at once

I don't have bad memories of my childhood, even with all of us to care for I remember..
Mom, caring for my friends, our church family, our family friends, and even taking in people in need of a loving family.

I remember Mom, wholeheartedly loving and serving her Heavenly Father and teaching us to do the same.

One day when I was (probably grudgingly) vaccumming the couch, I  found a list and on it was all the names of us kids and notes beside each name. When I asked my Mom, she said it was her prayer list. I later found out that before she started each day with all of us, she would start each day with God.

Mom is the woman I look up too, the woman I hope to emulate. Mom's favorite words are "Yes!" and "Obey!" They have become mine as well.

Thank you Mom, for all that you are, for being obedient to the Lord and teaching and encouraging me to do the same.

Do you need to be encouraged to say "Yes!"? I encourage you to get your hands on a copy of Rhinestone Jesus #Yesinmymess by Kristen Welch.
This lady has read my heart.
Trust Jesus, Say Yes, and take the ride of your Life.....you won't regret it.

Outside of me....

Today I am sore, today and last night my body hurts. With little to no voice, constant headaches, back aches, everything aches.... I am choosing to look outside of myself.

It is easy to sit and mope, to complain, to find reasons to not clean, mother and be a good steward of this home.

Today it is easy instead to hide in myself, play games on my iPad, put off needs of my children, and the call to SURRENDER my needs and wants to Christ. It is easy to spend no time thinking of HIM. 

easy.....but life draining....

instead today I am going to choose CHRIST, not myself...

Today I am going to enjoy the giggles, laughter, and color that the girls bring to my life

Today I am going to worship through the aches, through the sore throat... 

Today I am going to hear Christ, surrender me, and focus on HIM.

Through the housework, and the lunch times, through the happy kids and the whiny moments, the color of my home, through the rain clouds outside, through the storm clouds that threaten to hide Christ from my own heart.

Today I am going to prepare my heart for all Christ has for me....

Today I leave on a ladies retreat and Satan doesn't want a victory this weekend for Christ...

There is much a battle going on over here, and I do suspect in the hearts and minds of the ladies getting ready to attend this weekend....

So today we say "NO!" To ourselves

Today we say "YES!" To God's plan for our families, our hearts and our spirits and HIS GLORY!!

No voice mama

Today is day three of no voice. My throat is so sore, and I find out that with out a voice being a Mom is difficult at best. It is harder to address behaviors, break up fights, tell them how beautiful they are, help with meals, it is hard to function. 

This makes me think of the church...

As the church we have three resources of our Heavenly Father that we can access...

Father, Son, Holy Spirit

what a gift we have! 

Not only do we have the God the Father, our creator, our Beginning and End, Yahweh, Alpha and Omega...

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  

"He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."(Psalms 103:8-12)

But we also have the GIFT, the expression of His Great and Powerful love, his Son. God gave us His son. Not to just save us from Hell, not to only ensure us of our entrance into Heaven. Do you have a Son? I do....Samuel is a most precious gift to me, he is giving, loving, affectionate, passionate, my first-born, my gift from God. 

Can you imagine saying "Son, I love you, I walked with you from the beginning of everything and now I am sending you to fulfill the Scriptures, you know what I need you to do. I am asking you to surrender yourself for our people and for our glory, to allow yourself to be tortured, cursed, beaten, and then I am going to turn my back to you, when you most need me, I will turn from you, because of the filth that is upon you I cannot be around you.

This is thee ultimate act of love... And we have this gift! The gift died, but then was resurrected with the hope and the Glory of new life, LIFE OUTSIDE OF DEATH, LIFE OUTSIDE OF SIN, LIFE OUTSIDE OF MYSELF

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:24-25)

Not only do we have a Father God that loves us to cleanse us of any wrong, but He also gave his Son for his to cement it. His only Son. What amazing gifts we have received.

" Because He was full of Grace and Truth, from HIM we all received one gift after another." (John1:16)

Unfortunately Christians like to stop here.

Unfortunately  as Christians there is a lack of knowledge/pursuit of the third gift...

How do we function without number three

How do we move, grow, and know The Lord deeper without the THIRD PART OF GOD

God  is NOT COMPLETE without the HOLY SPIRIT
           like a mom with no voice....no ability to influence and guide, to comfort, to encourage


do we know God, do we know Christ.... do we know them through our heads, do we have all the knowledge and yet not understand his love for us, his intense love?

do you know you are BELOVED, TREASURED, DESIRED, WANTED, PURSUED?

You have met God, you have met Christ, have you met THE HOLY SPIRIT
Have you encountered the wholeness of GOD

"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."(Luke 24:46-49)

"But the Helper, the HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."(John 14:26)

Oh Helper, help me that I may see you, that I may always be in remembrance of all Christ has taught me, that I may be clothed in the power from on high....

"So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the COMFORT of the HOLY SPIRIT, it MULTIPLIED" (Acts 9:31)

Oh Holy Spirit work in me, so that I may know the comfort of you, so that we will see the church multiplied.

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because GOD'S LOVE HAS BEEN POURED INTO OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT who has been given to us." (Rom 5:2-5)



oh Holy Spirit, fill us up afresh, baptize us anew, that we would now the fullness of your love for us, that we may further your name, your glory, that we might have the joy that can only come from you....