For such a time in my life, I praise God for the sacred echo and Living Water.  I could not ask for more! Both books remind me of the importance of our relationship with Christ Jesus.  As we pray, we would need to also listen and remain available so that His living water flows in and through us and the need to commit not only in words but in deed to relationship with our Savior.  These are must read as He leads! Lord, thanks for using Zondervan, authors, et cetera as tools in the process of providing this book available to us.

God is our vision and I pray it will remain.  I was not looking for a mate but he came knocking.  Only God knows the steps as we wait on Him.  I am grateful to the couples at church that God is using to give me wise counsels.  I pray we remain in Him as He in us.  Lord, as we trust and acknowledge You, please continue to direct our part.  You are in control of our lives—please take us as we are and transform us into man and woman after Your heart.  Time will tell with regard to our relationship type, but I thank You for this time of patience, Your hand in our lives, and the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit in all that we say and do.

Loving and praising You for the couples in addition to the one You’ve brought into my life.  In Jesus’ name, amen!

Visit Positive Post Tuesday for more! Happy Birthday Kristin!!!!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward . –Psalm 127:3

Veronica and her siblings are orphans…homeless…lacked resources…succumbed to malnutrition.  Meeting in India Veronica added to my lists of life changing events.  Veronica was 9 years old at the time I met her but was given 4 weeks to live.  She had the advanced stage of HIV infection but after her parent’s passing due to the detrimental ailment, she took custody of her siblings.  However, there came a time when she started developing opportunistic infections which led to loss of vision, severe fatigue, weight loss, and the list continues.  As young as she is, she yearned for a suitable home for her brother and sister.

Children are a heritage and praise God for He looks out not for only us adults, but them as well.  He welcomes them.  Personally, I have a heart for orphans and have only God to praise when we were led to share Him and supplies at that local orphanage.  This is exactly what Children’s HopeChest is all about, to represent God’s love by giving them the assurance that this is not the end for the best is yet to come in Christ Jesus! The kids desire to be held, fed and loved.  Today, we are fasting and I pray we will continue to remain in Christ via His word, prayer, fasting, worship,…unto eternity because there is power in the name of Jesus and His death on the cross of Calvary was not at all in vain.  Please join us as we partner together with God in prayer for it is priceless and indeed can move mountains!!

So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer. (Ezekiel 8:23) May God meet the kids worldwide and attend to their needs.  I pray He will continue to anoint them with His Holy Spirit and adorn them with His amazing grace.  So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29) May we all be changed from the inside-out.  My prayer encompasses physical in addition to spiritual healing that we would not grow weary doing good.  Be encouraged, brothers and sisters! May we continue to keep pressing on as we look to the Author and Finisher of our faith.

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 19:14

God bless you and thank you for joining us as we participate as one in Christ during this 40 Day Fast 2008 and I pray we will ever pray without ceasing as we reach out and touch someone’s life as God’s instruments!

Calm, joyful and interactive are some blossoming attributes of Melba…Toast.  Mind you, she is a crunchy toast at that! She is an amazing woman that walked into ER department due to her husband’s health.  She joked and laughed.  She also read her book to keep herself “occupied” yet she would often look over to her side to give her hubby some attention.  Melba introduced me to her “pride and joy”—what a woman as you would expect to see pictures but nope! So, meet “pride and joy”:

Disclaimer:  These are not exact pictures (courtesy of Google Images) as what she had, which were more colorful and yellow.  You may know about the true “pride and joy”…if so, please feel free to share!

Even though that was a few minutes chat, I still recall our conversation that was filled with laughter.  She blessed me with her contagious cheerful spirit and I thank God for that gift in her. 

The picture of Melba toast from wikipedia: 

Example of more information on this toast could be located here:  http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/melbatst.html

For more reads, please visit Positive Post Tuesday! Mine pictures…have to work on it for sure.  God bless.

God is good—All the time and believe me, this is real! There is never a dull moment with Him.  I pray that He will continue to be all of our vision.  I was downcast as I headed out to lunch today.  I knew better because the closer we are to the Him, the more of a target we are to the enemy…HOWEVER, as Paul shared in the book of Romans (ch.8), nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. 

So, He led me to a local park that is surrounded by different churches.  It is a very serene environment and in fact, they play instrumental hymnals at 12noon…so, that was my target time.  I got there at 12:02 and ended up hearing “Amazing—grace—how sweet the sound—that saved a wretched—like me!…” Oh how I needed to hear that because God is so very good and has been to me.  I do not deserve Him at all yet He never lets me go. 

Being that it is a hot afternoon, I was praying for shade, but continued to walk, found myself at the swing and did that for a while as I hummed (not even sure what the tune was as it was all in the spirit).  I departed the swing, noticed I still had some time—ended up being led to a shade…I found myself singing, audibly, “…meet us (me) here—Lord—We (I) are (am) few but we (I) are (am) strong—when You surround—us…”  Indeed, just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, He surrounded me and is always with me. 

He led me to cry out to Him—don’t ask me what we shared for He alone knows.  I praise God for His grace, peace, mercy, faithfulness, and love.  I was led to encourage a child of His and was blessed by it because that was divinely set.  I love being and remaining in the arms of love.  I pray He will meet you wherever you are even in these perilous times.  I pray we will keep looking to our Saviour and not to this world of hopelessness because He is our I AM as believers in Jesus Christ who believe He came to this world, died, rose, and will be coming again for His bride!!

In Christ Jesus.  Carol is an amazing woman and so is her other half.  I found out she was not feeling well yesterday, but was amazed and thankful to God for even though I prayed for her, she was led to pray for the church.  You see, we usually serve on “Monday Nights,” so she prayed for revival and for people to be drawn to Christ.  Well, that is exactly what happened as God continued to move through music by theHouse and word through Garid Beeler.  He even used us and I love the way He works! So, praise God for Carol Rodriguez and I pray God’s healing upon her in addition to anyone else who may be ill.  I pray God’s will because Father knows best! Lord, thanks for my sister and friend…I believe in You. 

For more, check out Positive Post Tuesday!

You walked into the prayer room, disgruntled

But in need of a Savior

You not only found Him, He knew you and

You made Him yours

You walked into my life, uncertain

But remained unswerving

You not only called me a friend, but sister and

You eased me into your company

We walked into the His arms of Love, captivated

Not by the worldly systems but by His agape love

He not only welcomed us, Daddy embraced us and

Made our hearts His home

We are His and He is ours

Isaiah 55:12

“For you shall go out with joy,

And be led out with peace;

The mountains and the hills

Shall break forth into singing

     before you,

And all the trees of the field shall

     clap their hands.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God in your

     midst,

The Mighty One, will save;

He will rejoice over you with

     gladness,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over  you with

     singing.”

1 Corinthians 2:9

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of

     man

The things which God has

     prepared for those who love

     Him.”

I know, I know, it is not Tuesday.  However, you know what, I have my family to thank.  This family ranges from blood family to church fam.  I have been sick since Sunday right after midnight.  Even then, I headed to Kaiser to volunteer at the ER as usual and I had a blast! God is good.  Guess what though, right after I arrived home through the commute, I was very fatigued and slept until about 10pm—I had to force myself up in order to finish my assignments that were due that night.  I also emailed my boss just so he was aware that I was experiencing flu like symptoms.  With God’s help, I struggled—He was my strength and saw me through as I took quizzes, wrote papers, and submitted my assignments.  The next day, I went to work.  My boss was very supportive of me taking care…so I left by 11am.  Since I had to wait for my brothers due to school, I headed to church. 

I prayed with the intercessory prayer ladies, ended up serving as usual during the evening service.  It was all God because with chills, muscle aches, high fever, and other enchiladas, I could not have made it without Him and the prayers stemming from the family.  So, without much ado, and even though I stayed in bed yesterday, I am back to work—feeling much better and thankful to God for this day and this very moment and medium He gives me.  May I/we praise Him not only when all is going as we wish, but even in our darkest hour because He is good.  A friend divinely sent this verse to me and it blessed me…Psalm 12:5…so, feel free to check it out! Thank God for you all and for being the Lover of my soul.

Oh, and for more posts, check out http://brodyharper.com, seriously, you will be blessed!!!!!

This book was God-sent for such a time as this both personally and professionally.  I see God’s hand in my life and in this world.  I pray He would continue to MOVE in our hearts and lives.  May we make our hearts His home as we rest in surrender in His arms of love.  

Thank you, Dr. Carson, for truly “…loving your fellow man, caring for your neighbor, and living a life of service by developing your God-given talents to the point that you become invaluable to the people around you.”  You are His instrument and I enjoyed reading the book.  He used it to feed and encourage me and I sincerely pray that He would use it to impact people’s lives worldwide. He has blessed us with brains and as you have shared with us, I pray we would use it wisely and effectively. 

Folks, this is a must read!! It is edifying and at the same time, there is a sense of true fellowship as we hold fast our confession per Hebrews 10:19-25.  Even though we may not know where we are going, God is good…I pray we would take each step by faith and not by sight in obedience (Hebrews 11:8).  I am encouraged reading this book–both personally and professionally–and pray, Lord willing, you will be too!

Excerpt from page 233:  “Dostoevsky was right.  Without faith and values by which to weigh the answers of our B/WAs, there is no way to conduct a valid or meaningful risk analysis.  For if there is no right or wrong, there can be no best or worst.  That’s a risk none of us should be willing to take.”

Thank you and God bless.

Hi! I love how the Lord works and I cannot stress how crucial it is for us to begin ALL that we do, think, say, etc with Him leading.  As I headed to the library to work on my class assignment submissions that are due tonight by 10pm, I did not know how to tackle the discourse but knew better to rely on Him to carry me through as always–through rain or shine–and He did! I pray His word will not return void as I am ever thankful to Him for placing me at a school that gives people opportunity to touch base with our spiritual side of living.  Although I posted this for my Religion and ethics course, I am a taking a step of faith to post because His Spirit bears witness with mine (Romans 8:16)…May God continue to go before you:

A faith-based influence on ethical decision-making is dependent on individual.  I perceive my faith have aided me in streamlining my decisions and do understand that everyone’s belief system may defer even within similar classification or strata.  Thus, consensus matters and there are times to be cautious because I cannot tell people to drink or not to drink and drive for example or even the controversial issue of to abort or not to abort, or the probable need for blood during surgery, but there is a limit in which I am not willing to compromise when it comes down to defaming the One I belief in and I will briefly illustrate my faith-based influences and how it is helping me in my environment.  You see, with each day and shall I even note, moment, I am realizing that the more biblical or other forms of knowledge I acquire, the less I know and the more questions I have.  I am going to be blatant that I am under construction and do not know/understand all. 

I thank God, the God of the Bible for who I am today and the continuous transformation into His poiema (Ephesians 2:10).  This is not meant to make me self righteous or anything of that nature because I am aware and confess (Romans 10:9) that I fall short (Romans 3:23) and realize that by His strips, I am healed (Isaiah 53:5).  However no matter how imperfect (Romans 3:10) I am, He has saved me by His grace (Ephesians 2:8 ) through love (Romans 5:8), has made me into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and have promised (and yes, He keeps His promises—2 Peter 3:9) me eternal life (Romans 6:23), called me His friend (John 15:15).  I thank God for the gift of salvation for my reason for living is not dependent on what I do, but on the priceless act He has demonstrated on my behalf.  He could have condemned me for my sins but chose otherwise—rather, He reached out to me and all (Romans 8, Romans 10:13). 

Just as He did not force Himself into my life, neither will I impose my faith (Hebrews 11) on anyone whether at home, workplace or public at large.  However, having offered my life to Him, putting Him first (Matthew 6:33) in deed not only in words is my desire.  Therefore, He is my life and not part of my life.  I do realize earth is diverse and beliefs are heterogeneous.  (Romans 12:9-13)I will respect, love and serve wherever I am led, but pray not to compromise the sole purpose of why I do what I do on momentarily basis because it is so very easy to give up when life is difficult, and confusing when not standing on a firm foundation.  As I mature chronologically and spiritually, I pray to remain steadfast not befuddled by all the discourses that surround me. 

Everyone have their opinion, thus I choose to rest on the ultimate vista by not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16) but being set apart by the way I live (Romans 1:32) by His strength (Philippians 4:13).  Again, if Jesus does not force people to Himself but gives invitation and anyone is more than welcome to RSVP, who am I to shove scriptures down people’s throats? This may sound outlandish but it is real, when in love we talk about the one we love and hope to stay in love.  Similarly, I am in love with God and hence desire to share Him.  I understand that I have to be sensitive because say if I keep blabbing about the man or in this case Man I love, and no one wants to listen, I pray to apply wisdom and not fill your ears or page with information on my love life—do keep in mind though for His word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11).  Yet, we have the option to listen or walk away.  I share because He is my life and my heart is His home—that is my choice—I understand yours may differ not only in Public Health arena but overall.