You have given me breath to sing. For this I am thankful. I can not live without you. As I walk this way, as you hold my hand, as you take me on, I know that your love is with me and it goes on and on. In this life there are many horizons that I do not know, but I wait in expectation for what is to come, and in this place I have found rest and joy and peace. This place is you. You have brought me to this place. You have prepared this place for me. Will it ever be that everyone knows this place? How will you draw them? A light is shining and it is bright and the eyes of the blind are being opened and the lame are walking and the sick are made well. Rejoice for the Lord our God is strong to save. He will deliver from the bondage of death and bring life to the ones in darkness. Have hope and look to the one who is delivering all and bringing all into His light and life. He is springing up a well of water in the dry place. Come and drink of this water. He is this water. Like a mighty river His spirit flows through and washes and works an inward cleansing, bringing deliverance and making whole the heart that was broken. His spirit dwells within the heart and rules the whole body. Step into this river and let Him wash and bring deliverance to your soul. Take no thought for saving your life. You life is not your own. Let Him flood your soul and carry you away and let you and yourself and all that you want and your will, and give it all to Him and be lost in Him. All will know and see Christ Jesus and bow down before him and worship Him, and know that He is Lord of their life. "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things in earth, and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" phil. 2:10-11. There will be a time that all will come to know Jesus as their Lord and will bow before him and fall on their knees and worship Him. He has drawn me and is drawing me closer to Himself each day. So He can work in any heart even a heart as hard as a stone. All men will come to the light and see the face of God. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.

For the Kingdom is the Lord's: and He is the governor among the nations.

All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: and none can keep his own soul alive.

A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this". Ps. 22:27:31

When I see the people around me that God has created for his pleasure. I see hearts that are made to love and to know love, the love of the Father. They will know this love though Jesus. Jesus is coming to the hearts and is healing them. He is healing the nations. He is bringing them unto himself and the light of Him. I find the best way to reach a heart that is needing him is by prayer. When He wants me to say something He will tell me. I want to be open to whatever Jesus has for me. What does He want me to do? What does He want me to say? Where does He want me to go? By His spirit He will make everything known. I will wait on the Lord and in His timing He will tell me.

Unless the Father draws him, no man can see His face, and when the Father draws him it is only by His grace. Oh Lord I pray you draw me with every breath I take and change my life forever that I may see your face.

Come and let us go unto the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God. And He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His path for the law shall go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The Weaker Vessel

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. 1 Peter 3:7

The teacup is very a fragile vessel, but used with tender care it can last a life time or more. It is also very beautiful. When sipping a tea with it, one will take much care to what they are holding in their hand than if they were drinking from a mug or cup. As women we are like this vessel, beautiful and unmarred made from the finest materials yet the most fragile. I like to picture the time when God first made woman and how beautiful her presence must have made the earth. I like to think of how it must have been for Adam after he awoke from his deep sleep to behold her in her pure beauty. Woman was taken out of man. As virgins we have a longing and hoping for the time when we can be brought back to the place where we have come from. Right now our husbands are in a deep sleep and God is bringing us to him. We are vessels and we are beautiful and God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. Some of us may be still in the mold,in the fire or being painted on, or even in the ground still in the raw form or are being used in the home or abroad. But all of us are being made into something beautiful and God has a clear vision of what we are to be. His hands have fashioned us and His work is outstandingly beautiful beyond any thing else!

While waiting, something that is good to do is, instead of getting our minds all worked up on the who, what, where, when, how and why thing and worry about how it is all going to work out in this life and what kind of man we are going to marry and if we will ever marry.

I have found that if I think about what kind of woman my husband is going to get, instead of what I am going to get. And focus on the now and where I am, and ask the Lord to work on my heart, to prepare me for what He has for me. In this I find such rest, and I no longer feel like I am wearing myself out by getting caught up and carried away in my thought life.

Right now even if there is not a man on the horizon, God is still bringing you to a man. He already knows and has it all laid out perfectly.

If everyone on the face of this earth was filled with the Holy Spirit and walking in Christ's ways, fully relying on the Lord, resting in Him, and having their eyes fixed on Him. There would be know more courtship, no more dating, no more confusing thoughts of wondering the big IF this is the right one, and fall outs of relationships that should have never been made. Everyone would be fully rested and trusting on the Lord taking one day at a time. I think as young women we can find a place of resting in Jesus in that he has everything in his hands and will work out everything in his time. Look to Him to work in your heart and mold you and make you into the image of his son. Give Him the desires of your heart and delight yourself in him and he will give you the desires of your heart. Find time to go before him in quietness and thank Him and praise Him for every thing He has done and is doing and will do in your life. Sing to him, sing praises to him. Glory in His name. Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. He has made you beautiful and He is making every thing beautiful in you life. Let Him fill you, a beautiful fragile vessel with all that He has to give. And with what He gives you give unto others and more will be given to you. That is why we are here. He has made all things beautiful!

He gave us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Jesus is beautiful!

And Jesus makes beautiful things of my life!

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Psalm 16

Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

I have no good besides You."

As for the saints who are in the earth,

They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;

I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,

Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;

You support my lot.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;

Indeed, my heritage

is beautiful to me.

I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;

Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

I have set the LORD continually before me;

Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will dwell securely.

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

You will make known to me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Picnic with Nephews...

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord

Oh how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Thy word is very pure: there fore thy servant loveth it.

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is truth

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways

Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto His name for it is pleasant.

O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever

Hello all!

I am once again so very tired. I always get on this computer very late and am not always in the mood to post! I just wanted to say hello to any of you that might be stopping by this blog.

I had a very fine day.

I took a nice walk today and went up to the bench in the wooded hills that overlooks the beautiful manistee river, the hills and caberfae peaks and beyond. I brought my knitting and got some done on the sock I am working on.

When I am up there I feel free and everything feels just right.

I can talk and sing my thoughts out to my Maker and He speaks His word to my heart. I feel close to God out there. I really can understand the meaning of these words:

Psalm 121

¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. ⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. ⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. ⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Our help comes from the Lord. This is what I am finding out. I can look to so many other things in this life to find fulfillment. But I can only find it in Christ alone. He is my only hope. I will stand in Him. All the things of this world have grown dim to my eyes. I can only see Jesus. I have desires in my heart. I want to be a wife and I want to walk with a man in this life and I want to share it with the one chosen for me. All these things are of this earth but they are a picture of the spiritual and heavenly things of God. If God is calling me and bringing me to a earthly man. I want to joyfully go with the flow. This life in Christ is like a river. I have stepped into this river and I am going where it is taking me. There are many bends and turns and I cannot see beyond where I am. In faith I have plunged my self into His life. I am carried away by His Love and washed,cleansed and purified. I can remember very clearly when He called me by name and filled me with His spirit. I was laying in my bed and crying out to Jesus and asking Him how I could be filled with with His spirit. He spoke and said: "You must believe. God above gives you the holy spirit. But you must believe that He is able and He is faithful and He will give you His holy spirit. You must believe." I told Him that I believed that He would give me His holy spirit. And right then and there He filled me. I felt like a fire and a cleansing went thought my whole soul. I felt so free and clean. Being filled with the spirit is not just a one time thing that happens and we can't just go on our way and think "Ok, I am free in Christ" No, it is a daily continual filling and being filled with the spirit. We must ask Jesus to come and continually daily fill us with His Holy spirit. Without His spirit we cannot live. We need to be alive and growing and active in Him. A continual walking and living in spirit and truth. I want His spirit to rule over my whole being. My thoughts, words, motives, attitude, eyes, ears, feet, hands, my will, my life. I give it all to Him. My mind can wander and wonder, what and when and where and how and who. But when my mind is stayed on Him I find perfect peace. This is where I want to stay.

In Him and Him alone-

I got some new sandals the other day when me and my sisters went out to town. I really like them!

I am hoping to do some picture posts soon about my weeks here.

But for now I will bid you all Good-night!

Looking forward to comments! :)

Psalm 30

¹I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

²O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

³O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

⁴Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

⁵For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

⁶And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

⁷LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.

⁸I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.

⁹What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

¹⁰Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.

¹¹Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

¹²To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

stuff I did today...

I made a batch of muffins for tomorrow's breakfast

made soup for dinner

Baked bread

Here is how the kitchen looks after a week of working in it.

Compare with the pictures I posted HERE

I put a hubbard squash and some ribs in the clay oven to slow cook over night. So... that takes care of tomorrow's meal. I did do dishes today even though it looks like I did not. There are just somedays when I can do them up really fast and other days when the pile just never seems to go away! I am really getting a longing to have a time when I can make a meal for just two people. I am content where I am right now. But sometimes the longing is really there. I don't think it is at all bad to have thoughts like this. Some might say that you should have your heart set on what is right now and not to wish for what is to come. But I think it is alright to dream. And give these desires to the Lord. And delight our selves in Him. And if we delight our selves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our hearts. God is bringing me to this place of resting in Him. He will give me the desires of my heart.

...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

1 Corinthians 2: 9-12

I want to be fill with His Spirit. Daily alive and growing in the strength of the Lord! Don't you?

Let's press on toward the Goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I hope you all have a good night

I am tired, so I am off to bed.

He gave us today, and I am thankful

I worked on some pants that I started sewing yesterday, I cut them out about two years ago. I was not sure if they would still fit Nathanael. I am not much of a seamstress but when I do sew it is a lot of fun. I have one problem though, I start something and I do not finnish it until a long time. For an example, there is an unfinished dress upstairs waiting to be sewn and worn. I really want to get it done. I'll probably get it down one of these days and sew it up.

It took a while for me to figure out how I could sew the inner side seams, They would just not line up! I thought that if I could not get things to work out, they would have had to be worn like this!

Could this be called a pair of skants? (Sk-skirt, ants-pants)

I was able to make them go together. One leg is a little on the twisted side, but Nathanael says they fit very nicely. And I am glad he can wear them this way rather than that other way! :)

I am thinking of putting some belt loops on. It is a little loose on top.

For dinner I made a pot roast. It tasted really good. The spices I put in were cumin and mint. A good combo with Lamb. Remember this if you ever are wondering what to season lamb with.

~This picture was taken before the roast was all cooked~

Yesterday I took a long walk and ended up on a high wooded hill. There the view was so beautiful! I am going to go back there with a camera to get a picture of it.

Here's something that brought comfort to my heart this evening

^{Romans 8: 35-39}

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Another thing that encouraged me today I was chatting with a good friend and sister. I was telling her: "I can get so many desires in my heart and get overwelmed by it all.I want to go to other lands but then I wonder when and how I will ever get there. I want to be married and have a Godly husband. I wonder when It is all going to happen. I get discuraged because I feel like I am getting older and nothing is happening!"

she said: "I know how you feel. God gives grace, but it also helps to remember that Jesus was 30 before his ministry started."

That was so uplifting to my heart! The word of the Lord spoken to my heart through my sister brought cheer to my heart and It has brought me to a higher place in Him. I don't want to worry over the future. It is all in His hands and He knows the best for me. He has willed for me to live on this earth. He has given me breath, and with it I will praise Him!