“He who does not sow with his heart…”

“I want to preach a sermon. . .” – NARA – 514567 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“He who does not sow with his heart in his study will never reap a harvest for God. The closet is the heart’s study. We will learn more about how to preach and what to preach there than we can learn in our libraries. ‘Jesus wept’ is the shortest and biggest verse in the Bible. It is he who goes forth weeping (not preaching good sermons), bearing precious seed, who shall come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:6)” ~ E.M. Bounds (1835-1913), Power Through Prayer.

Hey, ya’ll! I regret not being able to post more blogs here lately, but the past month or so my sleep became nearly non-existent. For new readers, sleep is my nightly struggle and low energy my daily struggle. If you did not read my last post, “What I learned In June”, I tried everything to get sleep, even purchased a new memory foam mattress. Still it did not help much but to relieve my back pain issues so I went through 8 new pillows before I settled on a cheap $4 pillow from Kmart. That seems to be helping. I’m getting some better sleep. I wish I could post more, but I must work with what energy I got. The past month I did more sleeping than anything else. By God’s grace, I will keep up posting at least every few weeks, as the Lord gives me the energy. May the Lord be with you and draw you ever closer to Him! Blessings!! 🙂

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What I Learned In June

It is time to assess what I learned this past month. I must say, it has been a very difficult month.  Some joy sprinkled in the days of June along with the challenges. So, without further ado, here’s my list of five lessons for the month of June:

1. A good mattress is essential for good sleep. I’ve watched a lot of those mattress commercials for either the Sleep Number bed or Tempera-pedic. The actors talk about how much better they slept after they got their new mattress. Before their new purchase, they had aches and pains and sleepless nights. In May, I couldn’t relate. After June, I can relate. I slept terrible this past month. I struggle with sleep a lot to begin with because of health issues, but this June I think I walked with my eyes closed the whole month. So I bought me a new mattress despite the fact I make little money. Writing big checks almost give me a heart attack, but I did it. My body feels better, sort of. Now, my new problem: find a new pillow to replace the flattened pillow I’ve been using for 5 years.
2. I don’t like being small. I am small, petite, if you please, and always have been. Why do I not like being small? I feel insignificant. I felt my significance fading when I started losing a massive amount of weight due to health issues years ago. I went from being 110 lbs to 79 lbs. There are many other things that make me feel small, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how Jesus came into the world as small and lived as small. He didn’t seek fame but he got it because of his work among the people. He was born as an infant in an obscure stable with only a few people there to celebrate his birth. Small is where we are in this great big world, under a great big God. I can embrace my smallness and in turn, embrace a BIG God. Amen?
   

   Sunset. Photo credits to Bec at Flickr.

3. Abraham was called out by God. Sounds like a lesson from children’s church, eh? Think about it. The past few weeks we’ve been Abraham at church and the promise God gave him. The first thing that struck me like lightening is that God called an idolater out of an idolatrous country. You think Abraham knew God back in the Ur of Chaldean? Oh no. He probably lived his life like the others in his country, worshiping everything but the Creator until God showed up. A God initiated relationship turned into a God initiated covenant. God came to Abraham. God reached out to Abraham, a sinner. I recently heard this quote, “All other religions is man searching for God. In Christianity, you have God searching for man.” How beautiful?! How merciful and gracious and loving for God to reach down to the lowest depths to a sinner such as I and initiate a relationship.
4. Bok choy and egg plant and yellow squash are good combinations for a stir fry. Who knew? I’ve never heard of bok choy til a year ago. I found a recipe for stir fry and tried it out this past Friday. Can I just say, yum-o!! It turned out delish (delicious) and I plan to make that again soon!
5. A little ginger goes a long way. In my culinary adventures, I’ve discovered this truth while making sesame ginger chicken. The recipe called for 1 tablespoon of grated ginger. I don’t have grated ginger, but ground ginger I do, so I used that instead. Did I use a tablespoon of it? Not quite, but close and–whoa! Was it spicy!! My mouth was on fire and my nose running. Lesson learned: Only a teaspoon of ground ginger is needed.

You can probably guess what will be part of July’s lessons. Anybody guessing it has to do with a new pillow? 🙂 Hope everyone has a great July. Keep pressing into Jesus!