FIREPROOF - Teaser

Earlier this year a GREAT movie came out called FIREPROOF starring Kirk Cameron.  This is one of those movies you need to have in your video collection!  I can't wait until it comes out to buy my copy and I will be the first in line.

If you want to be married, have plans to get married, are married, have been married or know someone who falls into ANY of these categories, this is a must see movie.  It will help build your ideas about marriage, strengthen you current marriage and possibly even save a failing marriage.  I pray ALL your marriages are fireproof.

Partial Birth Abortion

I am amazed at how many people, including Christians, who don't know or don't want to know the details that are involved in what doctor's are calling the partial birth abortion procedure. This is a very tasteful demonstration of a doctor showing the process of this procedure using a doll and a curtain set-up. It is very discrete and informative. I post this link because people need to understand how barbaric this procedure is in order to speak against this atrocity. There is NO reason we are conducting such an evil to a living child. We hear all about the rights of the mother, but I want to know why the innocent child in the procedure has no rights. Again, this procedure must be stopped and our current president was the only congressman to vote for the legislation to kill a child who was born alive after a botched abortion. This is just sickening in the least and tragic that we in this culture are allowing this to continue under the guise of a medical procedure.

I Am Happy - Nick Vujicic's

This is SO convicting.  I grew up hearing my mother repeating the old Jewish Proverb: "I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes -- until I met a man who had no feet."  My sister-in-law used to say, "Lord, How Can We Be Sad."  These are the sayings that come into my head as I watch this clip.  The day I am writing this blog I was struggling with "life" and then I stumbled across this clip.

Nick Vujicic has an incredible outlook on life and this is admirable when you watch the video and see all the things that he has had to deal with in life.  He is so full of living even though to look at his situation you could easily think he would think he would have no purpose, but this is SO far from the truth.

After watching this video you may want to read more about Nick.  I found this link that also has many photographs of him playing sports, studying, writing and the answers to some questions you may have.

God has given us a choice.  May we all CHOOSE to be happy!

Amazing Grace - Wintley Phipps

Solo of Amazing Grace sung by Wintley Phipps at the Inaugural Prayer Service.  He started singing the song by humming the first verse because that is what the Negro Spiritualists would do.  They would begin a song by humming.  His voice is INCREDIBLE.  It billows.  So round.  So full.  Simple beautiful.  The only down-side of this performance was the occasion for which he was singing.  I just simply could listen to him all day.  Creamy voice in such low tones.  Love it.

Amazing Grace - the Black Keys

Wintley Phipps is an incredible singer and featured soloist who shares some really inspirational information during this clip while doing a concert. The pentatonic scale is made up of only the black keys. The African slaves were known for singin in this scale chord progression. All of the black spirituals had this same melodic tone. Try it, go play the black keys on a piano and you will hear many old spirituals sung in that key. He goes on to share the orientation of the song, Amazing Grace. See the writer of the lyrics to the song Amazing Grace was John Newton and he was a slave ship captain before he came to Christ. He heard the melody to this most famous spiritual while taking peole captive as they sang in captivity in the bowels of the ship. Later in life, John Newton, penned the words to Amazing Grace to this African song he had heard years before. If you haven't seen the movie, Amazing Grace...I highly recommend it!

Fence Riders - Jimmy Needham

This a good song and I totally agree.  Sometimes people just don't get it. They don't understand where I am at but Jimmy Needham got it right in Fence Riders.  Good stuff.

Busyness

This video is an interesting look at our life of busyness from the prospective of the demons of hell and their strategy to keep us off track.  After listening to this video and reading the plan, it should make you stop and think about keeping the main thing the main thing.

He Knows My Name - Yiruma

So I posted the other day this song, He Knows My Name but then I found this version by a the pianist, Yiruma.  FABULOUS song played by an incredible pianist.  Listen to the version I posted the other day so you get the words, then listen to this version and let the words in your mind minister to you.

See, HE knows your name.  He knows your every thought.  Simply powerful.  Think about it.  I just love this song and it is made all the more special in this instrumental version.

By the way, I did some checking and Yes, Yiruma is a Christian.  I think you can hear it in the way he plays.

He Knows My Name by Tommy Walker

Back in 2005, my brother was very sick for a very long time.  He was having kidney failure and was on a respirator and those were just a few of the medical issues he was facing.  The Lord laid this song on my heart to share with him along with a series of scriptures.  See, He Knows Your Name!

The song speaks to the needs we have to be remembered.  We are NOT alone.  He is just a call away!   It is a powerful song to remind you of how much the Lord loves you.  Think about it...He KNOWS your name.

This was another version of the same song that I liked as well and couldn't decide which I liked better so I posted them both!  The first song is more the way I hear it...mellow and soft.  This version is a bit more upbeat.  Of course you can find MANY other versions of the song but those artists change the chord progression in the melody and I liked they way these two versions by Tommy Walker kept the notes.  I pray you are ministered to by this song as well.

the Woodcutter's Wisdom

Many years ago, my husband shared this tale with me.  Since then, it has been added to my little "bag of treasures" and call it one of my "nuggets" in life.  A nugget, to me, are those things that you happen across in life that change you, or speak to you and they are special.  You KNOW you will have to save "it".  It is not only for now but you know you will use it again later.

I liken these "nuggets" unto doing a puzzle.  Have you ever done a really tough puzzle?  You are looking for that ONE piece.  You look and look and you KNOW you will recognize it when you see it.  Well, maybe you find it that day, and maybe you don't but either way, when the day comes and you do find it, you KNOW it and you know EXACTLY where to put it.

See, as I stumble across things in my life and I KNOW they are important and I KNOW I need to save them, I "pick them up" and place them in my imaginary bag that holds all my "nuggets" or "treasures".  Then, one day, I draw from that bag with just the RIGHT piece needed for that day or for that situation!  I save it.  I hold it.  I keep it.  Then when needed, I apply it!

God gives me "nuggets" or these "pieces" sometimes for me, sometimes for you, sometimes ... well, I don't know yet, but I do know to hold onto them and I am certain that one day, ALL these little pieces will be assembled and it will be a beautiful Mosaic of my life.  I pray that it resembles HIM!

So, here is one of my FAVORITE "nuggets"!  I pray you are as blessed by it as I was and am!

The Woodcutter's Wisdom

by Max Lucado

WOULD YOU buy a house if you were only allowed to see one of its rooms? Would you purchase a car if you were permitted to see only its tires and a taillight? Would you pass judgement on a book after reading only one paragraph?

Nor would I.

Good judgement requires a broad picture. Not only is that true in purchasing houses, cars, and books, it’s true in evaluating life. One failure doesn’t make a person a failure; one achievement doesn’t make a person a success.

"The end of the matter is better than its beginning," (1) penned the sage.

"Be…patient in affliction," (2) echoed the apostle Paul.

"Don’t judge a phrase by one word," stated the woodcutter.
The woodcutter? Oh, you may not know him. Let me present him to you.
I met him in Brazil. He was introduced to me by a friend who knew that I needed patience. Denalyn and I were six months into a five-year stint in Brazil, and I was frustrated. My fascination with Rio de Janeiro had turned into exasperation with words. I couldn’t speak and a culture I didn’t understand.