I'm Sharing This Because............

I really had second thoughts about sharing this but decided to because of you (you know who you are) and your faithful prayers in supporting my husband and me and Renewal Ranch.

I decided that those of you who know me well know that this is not a pat on our backs........this comes in spite of all our weaknesses and shortcomings--pure grace from God.

I wanted you to feel the love and gratitude also from one of these precious men.  Thank you so much for your faithfulness.

Always loving you,
Dianne
2011-the Year of Beyond

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name goes all the glory
for your unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1
                

Lord, truly you have blessed us beyond our wildest imaginations for 2011--to You I give all the praise and glory.

Tempetuous, like the angry, rolling sea
Sometimes my spirit boils up--
Someone rescue me.

Over the horizon
I feel a calm and normal me

If only I could get there
From this strangling death be free.

Lighthouse--oh come and rescue me--

Oh God, you are my lighthouse,
Jesus, you are my lifeboat,
Holy Spirit, you are my lifeline.

Rescue me--rescue me from myself.


When I quit talking and listened these were the words that came to my spirit:

"You are my servant, 

I have chosen you

and not rejected you. 

So do not fear,

for I am with you,

Do not be dismayed

For I am your God.

I will strengthen you

and help you,

I will uphold you

with my right hand."

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. John 15:16a

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" Matt 14:31

I think one of the great benefits of reading His scriptures every day is portrayed above. Seemingly, I was helpless, drowning, but when I called for help, the scripture that I had read over the years came back to my spirit and rescued me. I am not patting myself on the back for reading the scripture. I can't even take credit for realizing that I am helpless, hopeless, a total wreck without Him. He is even responsible for showing me that. I am giving credit to my God who says His Word will NOT return void.

So is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

Loving you,
Dianne
2011-the Year of Beyond

a repost from past pages

Photo:  Carmel, California  1996

The Mind Unshaken

Yesterday when I was in the grocery store at the meat counter in the very back, without warning the whole store went black.

Immediately, panic tried to set in. I just finished reading Daniel Woolley's book, Unshaken, Rising From the Ruins of Haiti's Hotel Montana and it seemed as if his whole book flashed in front of my mind--what stood out was how important it is not to panic and, of course, God's faithfulness.

After reading all he experienced and especially the darkest times of being buried alive under six stories of the Hotel Montana and singing praises to God a good portion of those two and a half days--all of this made its way instantly through my mind-- and almost immediately I felt a peace, a calm, the antithesis of panic--

Also during this blackout, I was already starting to formulate in my mind a plan of how I could get to the front of the store the safest way.

What was interesting was the mass exodus as soon as the lights came back on--about a second, maybe not that long, later--yes, I am not joking--the store was totally black a second or less.  However, I suppose many thought that the lights would probably go out again because a couple minutes later, the loudspeaker was calling for all help to the front.

I don't know whether everyone just happened to get to the checkout line at the same time or whether they were thinking about the people of Japan or the fault line here in Arkansas that has produced its own earthquakes lately--in fact, we had some yesterday in Greenbrier--small ones--3.3 was the largest I think--Greenbrier is about an hour's drive from here-

Another day, another time, I might have done the same but I continued on with my grocery shopping in perfect peace.  And I know it was nothing of my doing, it was only because my mind was stayed on God and His incredible grace and peace.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

I guess there are a couple of things I can glean from this experience--

the first being that our minds are created so magnificently that in one second, we can have myriad thoughts--thoughts so precise that they can be related later--

and secondly, just how wonderful God's peace is and how totally palpable it was to me today--

The title of Woolley's book, Unshaken, refers to the faithfulness and love of God--our minds will be shaken at times--shaken to the point we think we might lose it all--it is only in His steadfastness, His utter unshakability that we have any hope at any time of our lives, no matter how steady the ground under our feet or how much light is available.

So, today, right at this moment, I ask Him to shake me--to rid me of the things that need to be shaken loose so all that remains is what He can use for His glory.

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,  for our “God is a consuming fire.”  Hebrews 12:26-28

Consume all that is not pleasing to You, O Lord.


Loving you,
Dianne
2011-the Year of Beyond

Just SMH

If you have done much cyber messaging over the last several years, you know the shortcuts such as LOL--short for laughing out loud.

Every once in a while, one of these would appear that I did not know the meaning to--some I could almost figure out and didn't want to know the meaning. Others really got my curiosity up though.

One of those I kept seeing on many of my former students' Facebook pages was SMH.  I didn't have a clue what it meant but was too cool to ask.   This is where my old standby--the urban dictionary--comes in real handy--yes, at just a cyber touch, I knew that it was short for--shaking my head!

They use this mostly when they think someone is acting a fool and words will not convey a strong enough meaning for how they are feeling about it.   It can also be used when you witness something that you stand in awe of and words will not adequately describe how great it is.  Mostly they use it as the first meaning.

What is amazing to me is how almost every expression we have, if you dig deep enough, had its origin in God's Word.

So this morning when I read Psalm 22:6-8, I could just imagine the sarcasm with which these people looked upon David and slung their hurtful words--

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

I am choosing to use the second meaning today as I look out my dining room window at God's little yellow jasmine trumpets blooming in mass all over the pergola--I just stand here SMH!

Hope you can use the second meaning and have something really wonderful to "shake your head at" today, my friend.

Loving you,
Dianne
2011-the Year of Beyond

Walking in White

This devotional by Oswald Chambers came to my mind this morning and I wanted to share it with you.

Do You Walk In White? "Buried with Him . . . that . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4 No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral" - the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," - a death that has only one resurrection - a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life, it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him. Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying - "baptized into His death." Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance - "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God." "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.  ~~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

I will never forget the first time I truly read or "got" this devotional of his--the magnitude of it all was overwhelming but over time it seems that I trudge through the graveyard picking up the cobwebs of that old life and trying to put it back together.

My prayer today is that I might truly learn what it is to be baptized into Jesus' death--to die to myself once again thereby opening the doors to true newness of life.

Always loving you,
Dianne
2011-the Year of Beyond