Monday, December 31, 2018

A New Beginning

This past Sunday David and I, along with our son Jeff and his family had the privilege of worshipping with our son Kyle and his church in Cadiz, Ky. My spirit was refreshed as I listened to Kyle's message and I was reminded again that God delights in giving His people "new beginnings."

As many of you have shared with me in the last few weeks, "2018 has been a very difficult year." I cannot remember when David and I and our family have faced so many battles, but we have also seen God's faithfulness in each and everyone. And today, December 31, 2018, as I look back over this last year I can only stand amazed at His mercy, His faithfulness, His goodness.

Lamentations 3: 21-25;
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is because of God's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.

2019 will hold many things for all of us, but this one thing I know and am assured of; God is sovereign over all His creation. That means absolutely nothing can enter our lives unless He allows it and if He allows it, it is something He can and will use for our good and His glory.

In his message Kyle encouraged us to commit to four things for 2019;
1. Read the Bible everyday.
The word of God is powerful, it is alive, it will direct us, change us, convict us, love us, help us.
2019 will be a year of much wisdom when we read and apply His word.
2. Share your faith.
We all know someone who is lost. Invite them to come to church with you. Tell them about when you were saved and then share the Roman's Road with them.
3. Grow closer to your church family.
Be faithful to each service. Reach out to those you don't usually fellowship with or know well. Commit to knowing your church.
4. Give more.
Whether it be more money, time, effort, prayer and study, love, mercy, compassion, kindness, goodness, praise, just give a little more.

Thank you so much for your love and support of the blog. I enjoy hearing from you. May 2019 be your best year ever and with love and hope I say, "Happy New Year. God bless you. God be magnified and glorified and exalted. And may this be the year that Jesus returns for His bride, His church."

Your new beginning is about to begin.

Penny


Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Is Your Mountain Moving Yet?

A mountain is a big thing. One of our favorite places to vacation in the fall is the Great Smokey Mountains. David and his family had vacationed there when he was a child, but I did not see the Smokies until we had been married for a couple years and when I saw them, I was enthralled. Their beauty and grandeur never grow old. No matter the season, no matter the weather, they are beautiful to me.

We also enjoy the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. As we stood on a ridge in West Virginia one fall afternoon we watched as a mountain was literally being moved. Mountaintop mining was slowly, but surely moving a mountain that contained one of our most valuable natural resources, coal, and in that instance Mark 11: 24 came to mind and I learned a valuable spiritual lesson in what it takes to move a mountain.

In Mark 11:20-24 Jesus teaches His disciples and us an important lesson on the power of faith. The disciples had earlier witnessed Jesus speak to a fig tree: "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter, forever."
The next day they saw the same fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter pointed to it and said to Jesus, "Master, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away." And Jesus said, "Have faith in God." Then Jesus gave this promise: if we will look at the mountains in our lives and say,
"Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea" and if we will not doubt, but believe in our heart, we shall see the mountain moved.

Many times in my life I have told a mountain to move and when it didn't immediately move, I stopped telling it to move. I had faith in God that He could and would move the mountain, I tried not to doubt, but when I saw no movement, I gave up. But over the course of the last several months I have begun praying for a mountain in my life to move and this time, I will not give up. And even though some of it is still there, it has been moving, chunk by chunk for quite a while now. It isn't as big a mountain as it once was, it didn't move immediately, but little by little my mountain is moving. Someday soon I believe I will see the rest of it "cast into the sea."

Maybe you have a mountain that is so big and seems so hopeless that you just can't believe it will ever move. Is it a mountain of debt? Is is a mountain of pain and hurt in your marriage, in a family relationship, in your church? Is it a mountain of regret over past sins and mistakes and failures? Maybe it is a mountain of disease that threatens your health or even your life. Jesus would never have told us to tell a mountain to move if it wasn't possible to move it. All He asks is that we have faith; and for me, the patience to watch it move slowly, just a little at a time, but moving just the same.
Because you see, the slower the mountain is moving, the more God is refining me, rebuking me, cleansing me, and preparing me to live the abundant life He has promised without that mountain in my way.

So today I encourage you to say to your mountain, "Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea." "Have faith in God." Don't limit God by giving up too soon. Keep praying, keep believing, don't doubt His power to move your mountain, watch daily for evidence that the mountain is moving, even if it seems to be moving ever so slow. And here is the most important thing to do while you are waiting/watching your mountain move; even when it doesn't "feel" like it's moving one little bit, say "Thank You Lord for moving my mountain." God is exalted and honored each time we thank Him in advance for answering our prayer, for moving our mountain.

Because of His promise that faith can move our mountains, I will never look at the Smokies again without thanking Him and praising Him for the mountains in my life that He moved, that He has cast into the sea. And it all begins with faith. Have faith in God.

Blessings,
Penny

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Jehovah Shalom: God of my Peace

My younger grandchildren love the tv show Peppa Pig. And one of the songs Peppa and her family sing is: Peace and harmony. Peace and harmony. And as a family of 16 David and I enjoy those times when we all get together here at our house and there is "peace and harmony." But....in a large family with grandchildren, ministries, strong wills, lots of opinions, lots of noise, lots of advice flowing freely, well, you know what I mean. David and I pray that peace and harmony will always co-exist in our home.

The Jewish word for peace is Shalom. I love that Hebrew word and I love to hear it spoken. When the Jews prayed for peace they would address God as Jehovah Shalom: God of my peace. Maybe today you are experiencing a lack of peace about something in your life. Maybe it is in your marriage. Maybe one of your kids is doing something or....not doing something that causes you to feel a lack of peace. Maybe your job isn't going so well or maybe your health or finances has robbed you of that peaceful feeling in your heart and you find yourself actually dreading the day. Well ladies, the same God of peace that the Hebrews called out to in their times of stress and trouble is the same Jehovah Shalom that you and I can call upon to make things right in our life and restore our peace.

In Ephesians 2:14 Paul reminded the Ephesians and us that Jesus is our peace. No matter what is going on around me, when I speak the name of Jesus in my heart, or if possible, aloud, I begin to sense His peace and His presence. His name calms me as nothing else can: it is my shelter in the storm, the place I run to when I am afraid, confused, stressed. In Isaiah 9:6 He is called the Prince of Peace and He preached "the gospel of peace." The four gospels are filled with peace and reconciliation because Jesus came to bring peace between us and God and it is His peace that reconciles people to Himself.

So ladies, the next time the stresses and pressures of your life steal your peace, pray Ephesians 2:14 back to God: Jesus you are my peace; You are Jehovah Shalom. Jesus, give me your peace today.

Peace and harmony are only One word away: Jesus.

Penny

Friday, May 18, 2018

The Greatest Good, The Deepest Hurt

One hundred years ago today, May 18, 1918, my paternal grandmother passed away due to complications of childbirth. My Dad was one month shy of his third birthday. My grandfather was a good man who had married later in life to a young woman who was the love of his life. In rural areas of Kentucky in the early 1900's jobs were scarce and he moved his family often as jobs became available. But the day he buried his beloved wife, his moving days were over because you see, he could not leave her in that church cemetary, all alone. He stayed close by, visited her grave often, and never married again. He and his two little boys began attending the church that sits right beside her grave, and eventually began sweeping the floors, building the fire, filling the water bucket, locking or unlocking the doors, simply put, his new home away from his home became the church beside her grave.

In time, he became a Christian, a very respected man in the church and the community and his youngest son, my Dad, married a local preacher's daughter and they began serving together in that country church. My parents were married 70 years, had 10 children, never lived anywhere else but in this same small community and as of today, exactly one hundred years later, I'd like to share with you what God has done with that great loss, that great sacrifice.

7 of their descendants are ordained Baptist preachers.
One of their sons-in- law is a Baptist preacher and my sister is a preacher's wife.
There are deacons, Sunday School teachers, musicians, song writers, published authors, and a group of gifted and talented believers who would not be here today if that beloved wife and mother had not lost her life, if she was not buried in that cemetary beside Nelson Creek Baptist Church.

It was a tragic loss, it was heartbreaking and a loss that my Dad never forgot. And only Heaven will reveal the multitude of stories that are yet to be told and written because God had a plan much bigger than our finite minds could understand.

Today, you may have experienced a tragic loss that makes no sense, that cannot be explained. There is no way my grandfather could have comprehended what God would do with his loss, but in heaven today he can say, "It was worth it all."

God has a plan, and when you become discouraged by circumstances you cannot control, by things that hurt so deeply you feel you will not live through it, press into the God Who loves you beyond measure and remember this: God views our lives with eternity in mind, He uses the most unlikely of people, the most difficult, heartbreaking of circumstances to accomplish His sovereign plan, and He will always bring the greatest good from the deepest hurts.

Penny

Monday, January 22, 2018

Impossible With Men, Possible With God

A new year is an exciting time. It means a new beginning, an opportunity to make some things right and start some things over. A new year means a renewed hope and renewed vision for God's plans for us.

David and I faced several challenges in 2017 and I am sure you and your family did as well. It is not a stretch to say that we even felt that some of those challenges were impossible and a couple of them have found their way into this new year. A new year and a new beginning don't always mean the old stuff goes away.

At the beginning of a new year I choose a verse of scripture that I call "my life verse for the year." It is always a promise that I commit to memory and when I need to be reminded that God can be trusted to keep His word, I let that verse saturate my thinking and my focus. This year my verse is Luke 18:27;
Jesus said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

In my journal I have written some things that I feel are "impossible". I am sorry to say it is a long list and I know it is a list that will grow with the new year. But each time I see God turn the impossible into possible, I will thank Him, praise Him, and mark that impossibility off my list because you see...... I am choosing to believe God for the impossible.

As you begin a new year, I encourage you claim a promise and in faith, believe that God is more than able to keep His promise, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Penny