Boojoyful

The chase. This is lengthy. Maybe tomorrow's will be short. No clue why the font colors came out like they have. Praise and Thanksgiving brighten any situation. All the pastors from our various campuses were on a bus to VA Beach to attend the SBCV convention. I asked my husband if they sang together along the way. He laughed at me and said, “Like 100 bottles of beer on the wall?” I said, “No, like praise songs in the stand still traffic on I81.”  He simply said, “No.” My reply, “Well, if it was a bus load of women we would have been singing praise and that traffic would have moved or at least the time would have flown by.”  He said, “Probably so.”😂     Praise works, so why do we forget to do it? Since March we have been working on purchasing a car that seats 7 so we can haul more grandchildren around. It will hopefully be our forever car for the rest of our lives. My husband’s 2005 Ford Pick up and my 2010 car have served us well. Two weeks ago we finally found what I had been sea

We have 5 acres of leaves here at Shiloh. You may be thinking, "Who blows the leaves in their woods." Well, we do because that where our scripture trails are. My husband heads out around 4:30 AM every morning before work to knock some of this out.  We don't know how long he can continue this, but for now we say, "Hallelujah for what the Lord has provided here at Shiloh and the strength he has given Deke to persevere."   For now, Shiloh is where we will serve the Lord in gladness. Hallelujah! The   Lord   is my strength   and my defense  he has become my salvation. He is my God,   and I will praise him,  my father’s God, and I will exalt   him. Exodus 15:2 The Song “Hallelujah Even Now” Lydia Laird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc-WPCQs6RI

Leaf people. I had the best time helping a couple grands create leaf people! Hallelujah means "praise the Lord," which I love to do!  It's interesting that hallelujah  is only found in the book of Revelation in the New Testament. It is used four times in chapter 19. After this I head what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God."  Revelation 19:1 One commentary said, " The Lord reserved this proclamation of praise for the climatic stage of his program for humanity." Well, it is an amazing word! A Google commentary states: " The word   hallel ujah first appeared in the book of Psalms in the Old Testament,  a combination of two Hebrew words "hallel" meaning praise and "Jah" meaning God.   But it's in Christianity that hallelujah or the Latinized "alleluia" became best known as a word of great emotional energy ." Today, si

Do you think there will be cotton fields in heaven?   We pass these fields on our way to our son's home in VA Beach. I always want to get out and pick some, but there are big gullies along the edges to keep people out. Satan and his minions are hard at work pouring out their powers of darkness to create barriers to keep us out of  heaven and to also keep us from effective ministry assigned to us by God here on earth.  Years ago, I started recognizing the work of the enemy and calling these attempts to keep us from relationship with Jesus, "Devil darts."  They are going to come.  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 You may heard my exclamation when I don't know how to respond to someone in an overwhelming situation, "Life is a lot. A lot of joy and a l

Our oldest son on a snowy walk feeling perfectly loved by God in the beauty of His creation. God lavishes his love upon us.  Lavish   was a middle of the night word for me. When I looked it up in the verb form the definition was " bestow  something in generous or extravagant   quantities." Oh, my! That is God's love for sure... generous and extravagant . “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!..“ 1 John 3:1 Read over these lyrics from the song "Perfectly Loved" by Rachel Lampa and Toby Mac. "Ooh , even when you were runnin' Even when you were hidin' Never been a moment that you were not perfectly loved Whеn you barely believеd it  When your eyes couldn't see it Every single moment, you've always been perfectly loved In the hands of the Infinite  As the wounds of the world became His See the kindness Heaven has for you a nd how He's always been drawing you in

In a blink of an eye these crawling, empty the trashcan and pull down the toilet paper days will be gone.    I've told y'all before, I hear God so well in the shower. My thoughts drifted to the beautiful day my husband and I were going to have together, a day off, hopefully doing some "leaf peeping," although he doesn't know this.  He peeps a lot of leaves on our five acres.  It was 11 AM and he'd already been called to the hospital to see two people and I received a call from a very dear long time friend that her husband was going to have serious surgery tomorrow. I knew my husband would want to see this man.  Then the text rang and a church member's mother had died along with the hope of our day together, but Hallelujah anyway. Then the thought came...We are going to miss the prime leaf peeping....but we will not miss being ready if Jesus returns. When was the last time you said to someone..."Hurry, you are going to miss ...."? Often when there

  We were hosting a time of praise and prayer at our home and there was a possibility one of the guests would want to play our piano.  True confession, it had been 12 years since I'd had our piano tuned.  Recognizing the need, I was hesitant to call the piano tuner knowing we had neglected this care for so long.   My husband and I tend to do the same thing with medical check ups.  One time visiting the eye doctor, whom I adore, she said, "Hmm. It looks like you haven't been here in 3 years." Yikes, so much for yearly check ups.  Mr. Opperknockety (my husband's name for the piano tuner, saying "Opperknockety only tunes once"..haha) graciously squeezed me in.  Y'all the top of the piano wouldn't even open. He tugged a little harder and up it came.  I slithered out of the room to let him work.  An hour later he told me he was finished.  After he left I sat down to play.  Here's the worst part.  The piano was dusty and the keys were filthy.  They

The smile says it all and in his on field interview he gave God the glory! Mason led the Titans to a win over the Patriots on Sunday. Hallelujah! While a QB can run the ball himself, the majority of the time it's another player who receives the ball, either through a pass or a hand off.   In parenting and grand parenting the children in our care need to receive a lot of care. Bathing, changing, dressing, feeding, and training. Train up a child in the way he should go;  even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 When it comes to all that we have received from God, it's difficult for our minds to grasp the outpouring. We are blessed to receive God's love.                                                                                John 4:7–12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made mani

Simply take 16 minutes today to sing to Jesus and get things in perspective. Nothing compares to Jesus. The Songs What a Beautiful Name - Mix - Lauren Daigle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-gyMcvLDD4

 Y'all, of course the sweetest fellowship we have is with Jesus, but God also knew in our humanness we'd need some encouragement that has flesh on it. . ..that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ . 1 John 1:3  Recently I was speaking with a woman who was visiting our church. I had a point I wanted to make, but in this climate I didn't want to be offensive, so I  began by saying, "Are you really into Jesus?"  From our initial conversation I was 80% certain she was. " There is no joy like the joy of knowing one another in the Lord Jesus Christ.... Fellowship means, “to hold things in common”; those of us who have experienced the saving grace of God have much in common. We have become partakers of the divine nature; not only do we have fellowship with God, but we must also have fellowship with one another. We have the same new nature,

Women gathered at Shiloh for prayer and praise with the harp. A precious woman in my church connect group has just been diagnosed with colon cancer.  She came to the house for a time of praise and prayer and walked up to me with enthusiasm and said, "I have a verse!"  A verse God had given her to cling to!  " Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,  ' I am the light of the world. Whoever   follows me will not   walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” John 8:12 Cancer is certainly a darkness, but God's Word tells us in John 1:5 that the Jesus, the light of the world has overcome the dark and continues to do so. The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness had never put it out. In the beginning God said,   “Let there be light.” Genesis 1:3 He tells his people... And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level g

  My husband came home from work and found me on the bedroom floor. He quickly said, "Are you stuck?"  Laughingly, I said, "No, I'm doing stretches for the sciatica I'm dealing with, but that phrase has me stopping to pray for people today who are feeling spiritually stuck." Have you ever said, "Hello, God, are you there?" How do you clear the clutter that keeps you from hearing God? We can lose our focus when we put our faith in caring for material things...either taking care of them or caring that we might have more. Get alone, put on praise music, open your Bible and be still and quiet.  Can you speak in agreement with these verses which help us become unstuck spiritually. But I have calmed and quieted my soul , like a weaned child with its mother.  Psalm 131:2 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you , because he trusts in you.    Isaiah 26:3 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation . Psalm 62:1 For