Sunday, July 29, 2012

New Mercies



I love new beginnings--and every day we have just that with God.  And I especially love the beginnings of new weeks.  Starting fresh--His faithfulness and mercies are
overwhelming to me.

Have a great week and enjoy your new mercies!

Love, Dianne

P.S.  I am loving this new memorization system that I am using.  Hope you will give it a try.  And thanks to all of you who wrote saying that you are memorizing scripture.  It will NOT return void but will accomplish what He intends for it!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Do You Have An Extra 10 Minutes a Day?


About a month ago I started working with the guys at Renewal Ranch on scripture memorization.

We covered "Why Should I Memorize Scripture?" I used references from John Piper's site. You can access it here.

We have also studied "How to Memorize Scripture"--good interview with John Piper here. We have talked about developing a love for God's Word and how we do that.

It seems to me that the more we come to understand the depth of God's love for us and what His Word provides for us, the more we will love it--loving God's statutes, His Word, His commandments, His ordinances, His precepts will make memorization easier and more fun--that is my personal opinion.

We have covered a lot of ground in the last month but I stumbled upon a memory system that I want to share with you. 

It is called the Charlotte Mason Memorization System--everything about it appeals to me. For the first time in my life I really think I am going to be able to memorize scripture and retain it forever.

Always in the past when I would memorize scripture or passages of scripture, it was only a matter of time until I lost it--because I did not have an organized system of review.

There is a video on this website that really explains the system in such a clear way--concise, to the point, easy to understand--

So, if you have been wanting to memorize scripture but felt like you couldn't, I believe this might be helpful to you.



The site says that in 5 to 10 minutes a day, over the course of time, you can learn many, many scriptures and retain them.

I hope you will give it a try.

The guys and I had a great time making our index packets and writing our scriptures on 4 x 6 cards.  I was able to find them little packets (not boxes--and actually I think they are packets to organize grocry store coupons in).

Hopefully they will be more likely to sit around with that at the bunkhouse than to actually carry around an index card box.

I am really excited about the prospect of memorizing new scripture and retaining the old.

Sure hope someone will join me.




Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Unfailing Love

Friday, July 13, 2012

Weekend Worship in Pickensville, Alabama



We made a wrong turn not too far from Aliceville, Alabama and saw this beautiful old church off to our right.  It is in Pickens County and I'm pretty sure it was in Pickensville.  We didn't have to go back far--only a block or so.  It seemed that every time we made a wrong turn, we found an incredible old church.  How blessed can you be?

Remember when I went to North Carolina a couple of months ago?  This church is from that trip.










It didn't look like anyone was meeting at the church at this point in time but showed some signs of refurbishing--



On the outside looking in through a window--




Karen finally tried one of the doors and it was open--







This old attendance board brought back many memories--









This church is too beautiful to die--I pray that it will be revived inside and out--the souls and the physical plant--oh how I wish someone or a group would see the beauty in restoring this ole soul--




The old bell pull--




I pray that this old church will once again be filled with a group of lively worshipers who reflect God's glory and



point every one in their vicinity to the knowledge of Jesus, the One and Only True God.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Just a little update!


Looking out the chapel window at the Ranch--

Hi precious friends,
Wow!  Here I am well into retirement and the days seem to get busier and busier.  I know that cannot be but it does seem like it.

My husband and I traveled with Renewal Ranch to Tulsa, Oklahoma last weekend.  We had such a great time visiting with our son and his family who lives there.

We went in a day early to visit with them and then spent Saturday evening and Sunday with the guys from the Ranch and South Lakewood Baptist Church.

Thank you so much, Lakewood, for hosting us and being such a blessing to us.  Your hospitality was just off the charts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 We are in the middle of a master bathroom remodeling--it was a spur of the moment kind of deal so we have been in a big mess dealing with "stuff everywhere" and out of place, sheet rock dust--all that goes into a remodeling job-- We are getting down towards the end of it so I'm looking forward to getting everything back in place again.

Tonight we attended prayer meeting at the Ranch--it is such a pleasure to have the chance to work with the guys there--I never dreamed God would give my husband and me such an awesome chance for ministry in the same location in our retirement years. God is so good.

I wish you could have heard some of the requests from the guys--so touching!


All my love,
Dianne

To my prayer warrior friends--please help me pray for those listed at the bottom of the page under the page "Pray With Me."  Thank you ever so much.



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Dust of His Feet





The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
   the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
   and clouds are the dust of his feet.

from Nahum 1

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Weekend Worship at Union United Methodist Church, Dillard, Georgia



If my people who are called by my name,




will humble themselves and pray and seek my face,



and turn from their wicked ways,


then will I hear from heaven



and forgive their sin,




and heal their land.




1 Chronicles 7:14

So my friend, if you are one of God's people, it looks as if it is up to us to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from our wicked ways, then God will come and forgive us and heal our land.  What a wonderful promise from God!



Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Lighthouse

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Surely, your Word searches me out when I am in troubled waters.

Your divine beacon shines through the fog of my disgrace

to give my spirit new hope, new joy, new life.

Your Word, Jesus Christ, is a strong and mighty tower,

a lighthouse that stands strong, steady, and sure amidst turbulent waters.

Your voice floats over the waves of my being,

giving strength as it travels until in mighty crescendos

it cascades over the polluted sands of my sinful soul,

cleansing each stain in its wake,

and speaking peace and calm to a troubled sea of thoughts, angsts, and emotions.

I turn and walk towards the sunset leaving each empty shell of remorse

on His shore of forgetfulness.
___________________________________________

Photograph-the Oregon coastline 2001

_____________________________________________________________


 The seas have lifted up, LORD, 
   the seas have lifted up their voice; 

   the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. 

Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, 
   mightier than the breakers of the sea— 
   the LORD on high is mighty.

an edited repost from past pages

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

No Less Days


Isn't it interesting how sometimes we want time to slow down, to halt, to beckon us back and forth to the same moment--and other times we want time to fly, to say sayonara to this moment and hello to the next as fast as we can--the Sunday morning sermon that God surely meant for someone else--the waiting room while appointment is pending--the college class with the oh so boring lecturer for an instructor--

Today I am pondering: How can I slow down, how can I wait upon God?

As I sit and think about this, I wonder, "Lord, how do I wait upon you?--what do I do to ensure that I am conserving time for you to show yourself to me, time for me to commune with you, time for us to be together?"

Yes, there is always the morning time--time that I need, time that is heavy with desire for your validation upon my day, time that has become a lifeline for me. "But more than that, Lord, I want more than that. How do I wait upon you? Show me Lord. Please show me Lord. How do I wait for you?"

I think about the years that have passed so swiftly and my mind is pregnant with the weight of wanting to make every moment that I have left count--count, counting?

-----Anxious thoughts meander to an old classic hymn, Amazing Grace, and to last stanza--"When we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing Your praise than when we first begun." How long would I have to carry that thought before the full significance is birthed in my being?

For now I will relax and live this life you have given me. Will start my day with you--preparing old jar of clay to pour out mixture of divine love and mercy whenever and wherever you lead.

In the meantime, I will stay my mind upon You. Yes, I think that is what it means--slow down and wait for You. Not that I change my activities so much, but change my thinking.

I remember one of my favorite scriptures--Isaiah 56:3--Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

I will go about my daily chores, routines, hobbies, and volunteering with my mind stayed upon You--KNOWING that one day I will never have to be concerned about running out of time.


One day when hello and goodbye, now and then, yesterday, today, and tomorrow will have no distinction--


a repost from past pages

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Explosive Joy to You!

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This photo I took several years ago was featured on Pioneer Woman's blog a couple of years ago under the photography section. Click here to view it there.

After my husband had helped a neighbor get some mulch, she brought us dinner and this bowl was one that she used. The next morning before returning the dishes, I used them as props for a July 4th picture for my blog. I thought the dark blue and stars on the bowl would be a perfect complement to the red apples.

I'm so glad P-Dub liked it.

Happy 4th of July!

John 15:9-11


“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Billy’s Story

From time to time since starting this blog, I have thought of sharing the story of Billy. For various reasons I have chosen not to until today.

This morning I breathed a prayer that God would give me something to share with you today. Later, tending to some chores, I walked out to the garage and noticed some boxes up on a high shelf and decided to go through at least one today.

How coincidental?? I came upon the box that had the notes and story about Billy in it. This is my humble attempt to share this incredible story with you.


...............Once upon a time, well, actually in the early nineties I was teaching fourth grade in a public school. This school was in the heart of the projects and was a "tough" school to teach at. I had myriad experiences there that looking back upon are almost beyond comprehension.

However, I loved those kids with a passion and they were some of the sweetest, most gifted children I have ever taught. We had all religions and races at our school. The common denominator was economic impoverishment. 

I will give you a sketchy background. One of the sweetest kids I ever taught was shot and killed along with his mom and her two sisters by the mom's boyfriend a few years after I taught him.

One of my fourth grader's nieces (who was in kindergarten) died of carbon monoxide poisoning on the way to see her father who was in prison at the time. Heartbreaking! She had gone to sleep on the floor of the back seat area and carbon monoxide seeped through the holes in the flooring of the car. I watched as her father walked by her casket in shackles.

Her classroom was right next door to mine. One day she walked by and was crying. She had come in late and went to the cafeteria for breakfast and they told her that they had already quit serving. Have you ever seen a chicken on a junebug? She had some breakfast that day even though it was only a few crackers.

After that I always looked for her coming down the hall. One day she told me that she liked my suht. She couldn't say "sh" and couldn't say "r's" so that is how she told me she liked my shirt. She wormed her way a little deeper into my heart that day.

One day I found a knife in a locker after a large sum of money had been stolen. I never carried cash with me but our son who had just graduated from college was living with us and had paid me some partial rent the night before.

I didn't find the money but I found the knife, seemingly hidden "just so" (safely tucked ever so straight inside a folder) so that it could be used at an opportune time--that was my supposition-- Who knows why the knife was there? But it was in the locker of one of two kids who had been at each other's throats all year.

I will always feel that God saved someone from getting badly hurt that day. I hope I am wrong. I was teaching fifth grade at this particular time and some of these kids were twelve and thirteen years old, with mustaches!

So now that you have a little idea of what this school and its experiences afforded me, I would like to share with you the story of Billy.

Billy had come to me with many reports from teachers of excessive talking and behavioral problems in the classroom. None of which I usually paid any attention to--but at first he was known to cause a few problems for me, none of which were really all that bad--mostly just "little boy" pranks and stuff. He did have a history of being in the principal's office quite often though.

During the year that I had him, the Gideons gave every child in our school a small New Testament and also placed some full Bibles in our library and gave each teacher a Bible. I laid mine on top of my desk and kept it there at the expense of hearing from other teachers, "You are going to get fired." It was odd to me that some of the teachers did not know what the law did and did not say about separation of church and state.

Noticing that there were quite a few of the bigger Bibles left over and just setting in a box in the library, I asked the principal if I could take the rest of the Bibles to my classroom for DEAR (Drop Everything and Read).

This was a thirty minute section of time right after noon recess that gave the children a chance to calm down, cool off and do the best thing for building good readers, READ, on or BELOW their grade level, just for fun and enjoyment--builds a love of reading. Once a child falls in love with reading, they can't be stopped. But that is another soapbox for another day.

After a few weeks of having these Bibles in my room, the children discovered them and I had a group of three or four girls who always read the Bible. After a while, they started calling themselves "The King's Kids." And after a while they asked me if I could post an assigned reading for them out of the Bible each day so that each member of the group could read the same passage.

I told them that I could not assign specific readings but I could suggest a "voluntary reading." So one particular day I wrote "voluntary scripture reading" on the chalkboard and gave them a passage. I am not sure but I think it was from one of the Psalms.

Even at that point in time, I knew I was chancing getting someone riled up about separation of church and state and had to make a decision if I was willing to go to jail or to lose my job for the gospel of Christ.

I try to abide by all of the laws of our land but when the law of our land and the law of God conflict, I choose to obey God.

The girls in the "club" got their Bibles and proceeded to turn to the reading. However, I did not notice at the time that their "club" also included one little "troublemaker" boy.

Now, you don't really know me but I have rules and certain of my rules were absolutely not broken for ANY reason other than throwing up or blood. One of those was this: There will be no talking PERIOD during DEAR. The kids respected this because they loved to read and they did not want to lose this precious time.

But that day, I saw a little arm raised and a hand waving. In Billy's quest to find the Psalms, he had ended up in Revelation. In exasperation, I finally said, "Yes, Billy, what do you want?"

"What is the Lamb's Book of Life?"

"Oh, wow! Now just how do I answer that and keep my job," was going through my mind. I knew that when it came down to the nitty gritty, I would do whatever possible to make this known to the child but I was also aware that I had a young lady from a local Christian university as a student intern who could not get fired.

I said, "Celestial, will you please tell Billy what the Lamb's Book of Life is?" She proceeded to explain this to him.

A few minutes later, arm up, hand waving again.

Not quite as exasperatedly, "Yes, Billy, what do you need?

"How do you get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life?"

Once again I said, "Celestial, will you tell Billy how you get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

Celestial referred him to Romans 10:9,10. My heart smiled.

After another few minutes, I noticed that Billy was squatted down in a corner of the back room and reaching back in my mind to his history instead of recent happenings, I said with an aggravated tone in my voice, "Billy, what in the world are you doing?"

Let me just say, I am not proud of the "tone" in my voice or even the way I asked it.  In fact, I am ashamed.

He replied, "I'm asking Jesus to come in my heart so I can have my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

After a big lump in my throat had dissolved and a few tears wiped away, I'm sure I went on to teach the rest of the day--I have no recollection of the hours between noon and three. But here is what I remember about the remainder of the day after school was out.

A few weeks prior to this day, Billy had asked me to come to the "projects" where he lived to see his garden. One of our thrusts, as a school trying so hard to get greater parental involvement in the school and student's life, was through "home visits," so this was not foreign to me. I kept intending to visit Billy's garden after school but kept putting it off.

However, this day, I decided I better go see Billy's garden and talk to his parents to tell them of what had happened in the classroom that day.

Billy rode the bus so I actually beat him to his apartment. His mother was at work but his father was home.  I proceeded to fill him in on the details of what had transpired. He was fine with it and even acted glad. Whew!!

After a short while, Billy came bounding in, "Did you see my garden yet? Did you see my garden yet?"

I told him no I hadn't but we would go see it now. As we were walking out the door, his father said, "Well, I think I will go with you, I haven't seen it either."

Billy's apartment was on the exterior of a rectangular shaped complex. We walked all the way to the opposite end of his dwelling and through an opening into the interior.

As we walked and looked in the distance, we saw a little old lady working in the inner courtyard. Billy yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hi, Angie." And as we walked toward her, I kept seeing these precious little plots of ground, dug up, turned over and freshly planted. In each little sectioned off plot were cardboard signs that read

Susie's garden, Johnny's garden, Tony's garden, Tameka's garden, and finally Billy's garden. And there scribbled in the handwriting of a precious lamb of God were the names..............

Lettuce, peas, cucumbers, squash, collard greens. 

I heard Billy's father's soft voice behind me say, "I sure will be glad when those collard greens come up."

All of a sudden I knew there was someone in Billy's life who was planting more than garden seeds.

Angie was single, a former missionary to Singapore, had retired, moved back to America and chosen to make her dwelling among the less fortunate, where through serving and ministering she would have a ready platform for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And did she ever have a platform.

After talking to Angie I found that there was a small group of guys around Billy's age living in his apartment complex who had just started meeting every Thursday afternoon for a couple of hours. They had dubbed themselves "The Young Preacher's Society." They would study the Bible with Angie, go home, spend the week studying by themselves and take turns on Thursday afternoons presenting a short sermonette.

I joined Angie in this ministry and we met with these precious young men for a couple of years until they were middle-schoolers and beyond. What an awesome privilege. Angie cooked for them every Thursday afternoon for several years and that is only the tip of the iceberg of her ministry to them.

I don't remember exactly how but the Gideons found out about Billy's story and asked us to speak at one of their meetings. The men were so inspired and touched by Billy's story and the part that "their Bibles" had played in his salvation. One of the men asked, "Could we start an 'Old Preacher's Society?'"

Eighteen years later I have lost track of Billy, I still see Angie when I return to this city.  Angie is the reason I am an artist today. She taught me watercolor and a little batik.

She is an incredible artist especially in the area of batik. She had a one-woman showing of her batik when she lived in Ohio. She is in her upper eighties and has an apartment on the second floor. She is amazing. I love her so.

Recently I was going through some papers and came across the certificate where I was declared a "godparent" to Billy at his baptism into Angie's Episcopal church.

So much has happened in that eighteen years, Billy moving on to middle school, me changing locations of teaching, then retiring, then moving to another state--I am sorry to say that through the years as I changed journals and made new prayer lists, somehow I had forgotten about Billy and my responsibility to him as a "godparent."

So today -- renewed prayer for Billy, even though that is not his real name, God knows who he is, and won't you please whisper a prayer for "Billy" today?

Do you have any "Billys" in your life? People whom you once prayed diligently for but somehow have ended up on the back burner or worse--totally out of mind?

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you--several weeks after Billy's salvation, my principal remarked, "Why haven't I seen Billy in my office lately?"

Yes, to wide-eyed amazement, I told her. And if I could read minds or swear (neither of which I do), I'd swear I heard her say, "Praise You, Sweet Jesus!"

Loving you dear friends,
Dianne

P.S.   A good portion of July will be dedicated to "reposts from past pages"--I want to put a book together (maybe to give to my children for Christmas--who knows, just yet) and I want to have all of my own personal favorite posts close together so the book will be able to create.

Hopefully, my new readers will enjoy the stories or glean some bit of spiritual inspiration.

To my long time readers, thank you for bearing with me through this.  

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Thank You!





In my last post I asked you to pray for our family reunion and the circumstances surrounding it--i.e. extremely high temperatures, people with health problems that the heat exacerbates. 
 Thank you so much. We had a wonderful reunion which turned in to a surprise birthday party for my husband who turned 70 on Friday the 29th. 
He is the tall guy in the pink shirt and I am right in front of him. 
We had a breeze and some clouds by the afternoon. It was hot but we were fairly comfortable most of the day in a pavilion with lots of fans. 
Once again I can never say thank you enough to those who prayed for us.
Love,




Would you like to share your thoughts or your heart with me? My contact information is listed in the upper right of the sidebar. Please feel free to email me.

I love hearing from you and cherish the friendships I have made through blogging.

© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted


PHOTO CREDIT-my niece, Mika Beth Edwards, an incredible photographer--here is a link to her site.