Well here I am......I've been wide awake since 2AM. I have been battling insomnia since last August. :-( I can't complain though because it has become a LOT less frequent since then, and the LORD has provided what i need to continue working and to make it through each day inspite of my exhaustion.
I read this today and was blessed.......
THE NEXT STEP
".......I view our spiritual journey as just taking the next step. I find that hard. I want to know the whole game plan. I want to know what roads I will be on, where they will take me, how long it will take and when it will happen. But as a follower of Christ, all I have to do is take the next step.
Some of the steps are confusing to me. They don't look as if they are leading forward, and I get frustrated and impatient. When that happens, I have to remind myself of two things: God is in control and He has promised to complete the work He began in me. He may not do that in ways that make sense to me, but I have His promise that what He began, He will finish. All I have to do is take the next step. "
Lord,
When the road ahead is dark, be my light.
When the path is rough and stony, be my guide.
When the wind is fierce and in my face,
When the world is such a barren place,
Lead me on,
Lead me on,
Lead me on,
Amen.
~Sheila Walsh ~ Gifts For Your Soul
Blog by Melody Joy King
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
Memorial Day
To say that I had a wonderful Memorial Day would be an understatement! I got to see the sunrise this morning as I listened to Meredith Andrew's songs, "You Invite Me In" and "The River," what a blessing! I got to take my dog Peyton for a two hour walk in this GORGEOUS weather! Then I had breakfast with the fam as well as some members of my "adopted" extended family ;-). After that, I was off to spend a few hours with my dear, dear friends, the O'Hara family which is ALWAYS a great time of encouragement and blessing! I am SO sad that they are moving back to Fresno, California in less than 8 weeks now! I shall have to relocate to the West Coast, at least for a while! haha. Let's see, after that I hung out with one of my dearest friends Jessi, and ate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream from Mannings! :-) YUM.....and then it was off to WIRED (My single Bible Study Group's) picnic at Kellie's house. Great day full of friends, fun and blessed fellowship! :-) :-) :-) Thank You Father!
Monday, May 26, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
GIFTS FOR YOUR SOUL - WAIT FOR GOD -
Welp, here it is, 4:30AM and I am WIDE AWAKE :-(. I decided to make use of my "extra" awake time and read and write down some thoughts from the daily devotional I am reading by Sheila Walsh. I was really blessed by what I read, and thought I might share some of it with you! It is called........
WAIT FOR GOD
"All human love bears within it the seed of betrayal; it is a failure of love........
"When Judas who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the cheif priests and elders. 'I have sinned,' he said. 'For I have betrayed innocent blood.'"
~Matthew 27:3-4
"What lay under that act of betrayal? Perhaps a deep thirst to right all wrongs now, to grasp hold of justice with his own two hands and pull it into his world.
I see Judas's life as one that spoke of impatience. I see a deep thirst for more than the life he had lived as a young man.......Deep within his soul he was thirsty for a different life, but he wasn't willing to wait for the "something more" that Christ would offer.
Even in the end, after the betrayal, Judas could not hold on. Now he stood with the rope in his hands, clenching the tool that would end his miserable life. His heart thundered in his ears, his stomach retched. What a fool he had been. His mind treated him to a picture show of a thousand memories that had brought him to this moment. He felt he had no choice but to end the life that had tipped the first domino for someone else. He could not bear to think of Jesus now. He could not bring himself to watch what he had participated in. He threw the rope over a sturdy branch.......But if he had waited three more days He would have seen Christ risen from the dead."
" When we abandon ourselves to hopelessness, we remove ourselves from Christ, our only hope.......Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God, but we try all sorts of things to still that pounding in our heads and the ache in our souls."
"There is no doubt that what Judas did was the ultimate act of betrayal, but I think of the words of Jesus on the cross: 'Father forgive them for the know not what they are doing.' I wonder if Judas was one of the people on His mind."
"Our impatience to have God move now, to act in ways that make sense to us, will drive us to take control of our lives. God is moving in ways that we cannot see or understand. This means we are left with the question, 'Do I trust Him?' We can choose to bow the knee now and ask Him to forgive us for trying to squeeze the answer we want out of heaven, or we will bow the knee later in remorse at our foolishness in thinking that we knew better than God."
"We are all thirsty in different ways, deep down in our souls. It is a thirst as ancient as the hills. But it is a thirst that can be satisfied only in Christ."
~Sheila Walsh
Lord,
Forgive us for our impatience.
In our restlessness give us peace.
In our impatience give us hope.
In our thirst for You refresh us, we pray
Amen.
WAIT FOR GOD
"All human love bears within it the seed of betrayal; it is a failure of love........
"When Judas who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the cheif priests and elders. 'I have sinned,' he said. 'For I have betrayed innocent blood.'"
~Matthew 27:3-4
"What lay under that act of betrayal? Perhaps a deep thirst to right all wrongs now, to grasp hold of justice with his own two hands and pull it into his world.
I see Judas's life as one that spoke of impatience. I see a deep thirst for more than the life he had lived as a young man.......Deep within his soul he was thirsty for a different life, but he wasn't willing to wait for the "something more" that Christ would offer.
Even in the end, after the betrayal, Judas could not hold on. Now he stood with the rope in his hands, clenching the tool that would end his miserable life. His heart thundered in his ears, his stomach retched. What a fool he had been. His mind treated him to a picture show of a thousand memories that had brought him to this moment. He felt he had no choice but to end the life that had tipped the first domino for someone else. He could not bear to think of Jesus now. He could not bring himself to watch what he had participated in. He threw the rope over a sturdy branch.......But if he had waited three more days He would have seen Christ risen from the dead."
" When we abandon ourselves to hopelessness, we remove ourselves from Christ, our only hope.......Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God, but we try all sorts of things to still that pounding in our heads and the ache in our souls."
"There is no doubt that what Judas did was the ultimate act of betrayal, but I think of the words of Jesus on the cross: 'Father forgive them for the know not what they are doing.' I wonder if Judas was one of the people on His mind."
"Our impatience to have God move now, to act in ways that make sense to us, will drive us to take control of our lives. God is moving in ways that we cannot see or understand. This means we are left with the question, 'Do I trust Him?' We can choose to bow the knee now and ask Him to forgive us for trying to squeeze the answer we want out of heaven, or we will bow the knee later in remorse at our foolishness in thinking that we knew better than God."
"We are all thirsty in different ways, deep down in our souls. It is a thirst as ancient as the hills. But it is a thirst that can be satisfied only in Christ."
~Sheila Walsh
Lord,
Forgive us for our impatience.
In our restlessness give us peace.
In our impatience give us hope.
In our thirst for You refresh us, we pray
Amen.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
My New Favorite Verses!
Ephesians 6:19&20
"....Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should."
"....Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should."
Saturday, May 24, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
"With Hope" by SCC, in honor of his precious daughter Maria
>http://www.youtube.com
This is not at all how We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...
We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again
And never have I known Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home And now you're free, and ...
We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything God promised us is true,
so ... We wait with hope And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope We let go with hope
This is not at all how We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...
We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again
And never have I known Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home And now you're free, and ...
We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything God promised us is true,
so ... We wait with hope And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope We let go with hope
Sunday, May 4, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
Thoughts
I just started reading a book by Sheila Walsh called "Gifts For Your Soul." I am only four brief chapters in, and I have already been very blessed, challenged, convicted and encouraged. Here are some thoughts on gratitude that have really stuck with me....
"We all have losses in our lives. But if we choose to feast on them every day, they numb our souls to the good with which God has gifted us."
"You hace a choice. You can spend your life being angry at what you did not get out of life or you can count your blessings for what you have."
"We can choose to remain in a sleepy sluggish state regretting what is not, or we can become alive and fully awake to what is good and true about our lives."
"Cultivating gratitude removes us from being victims to being free to love and act as we are called to do"
"I know that life can be hard sometimes, and I encourage you to take time to grieve your losses, but do not be defined by them. Use them by the grace and strength of God as stepping stones to a deeper life, a life of peace, a life lived with a thankful heart."
"We all have losses in our lives. But if we choose to feast on them every day, they numb our souls to the good with which God has gifted us."
"You hace a choice. You can spend your life being angry at what you did not get out of life or you can count your blessings for what you have."
"We can choose to remain in a sleepy sluggish state regretting what is not, or we can become alive and fully awake to what is good and true about our lives."
"Cultivating gratitude removes us from being victims to being free to love and act as we are called to do"
"I know that life can be hard sometimes, and I encourage you to take time to grieve your losses, but do not be defined by them. Use them by the grace and strength of God as stepping stones to a deeper life, a life of peace, a life lived with a thankful heart."
Friday, May 2, 2008
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By:
Melody Joy King
Captivate Us......the prayer of my heart!
I heard this song for the first time today and it gave me goosebumps, what a beautiful prayer. I pray it blesses you as much as it did me!
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zIJR0h6BDTY&hl=en
Your face is beautiful
And Your eyes are like the stars
Your gentle hands have healing
There inside the scars
Your loving arms they draw me near
And Your smile it brings me peace
Draw me closer oh my Lord
Draw me closer Lord to Thee
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presenceFalling down
And rushing river, draw us nearer
Holy fountain consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
Your voice is powerful
And Your words are radiant bright
In Your breath and shadow
I will come close and abide
You whisper love and life divine
And Your fellowship is free
Draw me closer O my Lord
Draw me closer Lord to Thee
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presence
Falling downAnd rushing river,
Draw us nearer Holy fountain
Consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
Let everything be lost in the shadows
Of the light of Your face
Let every chain be broken from me
As I’m bound in Your grace
For Your yoke is easy,
Your burden is light
You’re full of wisdom, power and might
And every eye will see You
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presenceFalling down
And rushing river, draw us nearer
Holy fountain consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zIJR0h6BDTY&hl=en
Your face is beautiful
And Your eyes are like the stars
Your gentle hands have healing
There inside the scars
Your loving arms they draw me near
And Your smile it brings me peace
Draw me closer oh my Lord
Draw me closer Lord to Thee
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presenceFalling down
And rushing river, draw us nearer
Holy fountain consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
Your voice is powerful
And Your words are radiant bright
In Your breath and shadow
I will come close and abide
You whisper love and life divine
And Your fellowship is free
Draw me closer O my Lord
Draw me closer Lord to Thee
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presence
Falling downAnd rushing river,
Draw us nearer Holy fountain
Consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
Let everything be lost in the shadows
Of the light of Your face
Let every chain be broken from me
As I’m bound in Your grace
For Your yoke is easy,
Your burden is light
You’re full of wisdom, power and might
And every eye will see You
Captivate us, Lord Jesus
Set our eyes on You
Devastate us with Your presenceFalling down
And rushing river, draw us nearer
Holy fountain consume us with You
Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You
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