Thanks to our somewhat secure “jobs” here at camp (as long as we are being led to stay here by God, I can’t see us leaving, unless they KICK.US. OUT LOL), Buster and I don’t have to worry about such things as seeking employment. I get a little nervous when I think about all the employment screening companies have to do these days. My hubby , when seeking employment after he lost his job with the USPS, heard such things as…
You are over-qualified for this job!
You don’t have enough experience on this machine for this job!
Do you have a background in this field?
It was terrible!! I am so thankful God has put us here at camp and that we can served Him here and all our needs will be met because we are in His will!! If only everyone could say that!
Did you know you COULD know for sure…many don’t!! There are just a few things you need to do in order to know that!! The actual work has already been done, but you must accept what has been done!! Let me show you…
First, you must realize that God loves you. ~John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish , but have everlasting life.”Whosoever means anyone and everyone who believes!!
Secondly, you must realize that everyone is a sinner. ~Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”All means every single person!!
Thirdly, you must realize that sin has a price that must be paid. ~ Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” When you have a job, you earn a wage (money)…when you sin you earn a wage (death or separation from God in hell) .
Fourthly, you must realize that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to pay your sin debt for you. ~ Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Finally, you must pray, ask Jesus Christ to be your Saviour, and claim His promise of eternal life. ~Romans 10:9, 13 “Thas if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him form the dead, thou shalt be saved…For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you have already accepted Christ as your Saviour, Congratulations!! IF you are saved and on your way to heaven and you haven’t yet gotten into good, Bible believing, Bible preaching Church, I would do so as soon as you can and find out how you can serve those in your community.
If you have just asked Jesus Christ as you Saviour as a result of reading this , please leave me a comment so I can pray for you. You should get into a good, Bible believing, Bible preaching Church just as soon as you can and find out how you can serve those in your community. I would also suggest you talk to someone about scriptural Baptism. If you have questions about that, I can help you, just let me know!!
If you know anyone who isn’t sure they would go to heaven when they die, please share this important information with them. I know it can be a daunting task, but isn’t it worth it to be secure in where you/they will spend eternity? Because, hey , we WILL ALL have to spend eternity SOMEWHERE!! I prefer HEAVEN!!
Every year, since he went to heaven, we go and plant flowers at my sons grave site. We take “the girl” (my daughter) out of school and we go with my mother-in-law, my husbands grandma, his sister and some cousins of his and we all go down to the cemetery to plant flowers. Several other family members are buried in this same cemetery so, we visit all of the grave sites and put flowers on all of them.
We don’t visit Eli’s grave very often because it makes us sad to be there and because we know it’s only his earthly body there. He (his soul, his spirit, all that made him him) is in heaven where we will join him someday when we are done with this earthly life.
Why God chose to take my son home at the tender age of 10, I may never know, but I trust that He has a reason and that He is in control. Nothing happens in my life that doesn’t have His stamp of approval on it. Anyway, I thought I would share these photos with you …
In the first one, you can actually see all four of us!! (Eli’s picture is engraved in the stone) =)
We have faith that our son is in heaven with his Saviour, Jesus Christ…Do you know where you are going when you die?? You can!! Leave me a comment if you don’t know or to tell me why you do!!
today i write for me….not because i have a deadline or a certain meme i want to link up with, but for me. this week i haven’t joined in on the weekly memes i usually do and i did that on purpose. i needed a break, i needed to be free from my “obligations”, if you will. and before i get comments and e-mails saying i don’t have to link up every week….i know that, really i do…but today i blog because i want to, because i need to, for myself…
i find that blogging gets my thoughts out of my head where they can be dangerous and gloomy and threatening and it puts them out somewhere where i can look at them in a different way and deal with them in a healthier way….it kind of separates them from me. it probably doesn’t make sense to some, but it works for me!! =)
believe it or not, and some of you will not, and that’s OK. but, believe it or not, i have a good heart (as good as a sinful, but saved by grace, human being can have anyway). i think all people should be treated equally, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, wealth and anything else that can separate one group of people from another. that’s not to say i agree with everything a particular group does or doesn’t do, but they should be treated with respect and dignity. they should be prayed for and loved just like anyone else.
i try my very hardest to find the good in everyone, no matter how long or hard i have to look. and up until recently, i thought that everyone possessed at least some good in them. i felt that God makes people and God would never make something that didn’t have at least some redeeming value in it, right? i have recently realized that some people have taken the good God gave them and either destroyed it completely or buried it so deep that it can’t get out anymore. i have found that some people have let the devil take over their lives and given him the place that God should have had. they lie, steal, cheat, manipulate, cast blame, and just in general are not nice people. they are selfish and bitter and lash out to hurt others. and as a part of that, they don’t see this in themselves but seem to project it onto others and claim to see it in their lives. it is so very sad to me that they can’t even see that they are like this. the devil has tricked them into thinking they are right and anyone who isn’t like them is wrong or bad.
people who “suffer” in this way often blame it on something that happened to them in their childhood and/or a condition they have. someone molested them or beat them or hurt them in some other way. or they suffer from a mental disorder. that is a cop-out!! i can say that because i had a very tough childhood and i am also diagnosed with and documented to have bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder (among other things). my parents were separated and/or divorced either just before i was born or just after, i am not sure which but i know they were not together when i was taken from my mother at 18 months old for neglect because then i was placed in my father’s care for several years after that and was taken from him for physical and sexual abuse. from there i went to a “foster” home and the woman who took care of me there ended up adopting me. at 17 i left home after enduring years and years of physical and emotional abuse.
i am NOT in a any way shape or form saying i was a perfect child or teen(or that i am perfect now, for that matter, because i wasn’t, am not,and never will be while i am here on this earth)!!! i was naughty just like everyone else. and because of everything i went through as a child, i did have a lot of issues to deal with through counseling and therapy and such. and i did have to have therapy and medications and counseling and things like that for the “mental issues” i have. and yes, i got rude with my parents just like EVERY child does at one time or another. i didn’t do what i was told to do from time to time, just like EVERY other child does!! i lied to my parents occasionally, just like EVERY other child does (for the most part). i am ashamed to say it, but i did have a problem with stealing as a child and a teen but i have admitted it, repented and asked for forgiveness for it, which is all i can do now. BUT, considering where i came from and what i went through, it could have been a lot worse. i didn’t drink and party and and sleep around and do drugs, or any of those kinds of things. although, i did not have a good grasp on the difference between right and wrong, lies and truth, good and bad. i had been taught by example that lies were OK, that in a lot of cases bad was good and wrong was right. and i thought that the way i was brought up was normal. it was hard to keep everything straight.
then through some good relationships i slowly learned that lying is wrong and that i don’t have to lie to make and keep friends, in fact that is a good way to LOSE friends!! i learned that lesson the hard way in high school, unfortunately. but i learned it nonetheless. and i am so thankful i did, because now i have so many healthy relationships. i learned that there are people who will love me unconditionally, faults and all. that i don’t have to be perfect to be loved. i learned that everything good in my life comes from God and that He has allowed everything that has happened for a reason. i have learned that God doesn’t make mistakes and He is always in control, even though i may not always understand. i learned that with God’s help i can be different than those that hurt me, so i don’t have to repeat that cycle. i learned that i can forgive those who hurt me and not let that hurt and pain define who i am. i can CHOOSE to let my past hurt me and prevent me from doing God’s will for my life by being bitter and mad and depressed and feeling sorry for myself or i can allow God’s love and grace to wash all that away and I can live my life for Him. that is what i choose!! because being bitter and depressed and feeling sorry for myself only hurts me, it only makes my life miserable, and it gives satan reason to rejoice because i can’t effectively live my life for God if i live that way! and personally, i don’t want to give satan glory, i want to give God glory!!!
thanks for stopping by, sorry you didn’t find my “normal” posts this week about random things like weight loss and recipes, but fear not, i will likely be back in the swing of things next week!! thanks for “listening” to my ramblings. please vote on my new poll and let me know what you think…
I have been “witnessing” the same way every time since I started on my blog. Today I thought I would do something a little different. When I was 11 years old, we had an evangelist come to our Church and show us movies about the end times. You know, after Jesus comes back (which HE WILL) what happens to all those left behind. As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to have Jesus Christ as my Savior!! I wanted nothing to do with what happens after He comes back!!
How you come to Christ isn’t really as important as making sure YOU DO!!! Here are the things you need to realize in order to do just that…I could quote a bunch of scriptures from the Bible to cement the points I am making, but I’m not going to. I’m going to be short and to the point.
1. We are all sinners. Every one of us!!
2. We all deserve hell. Every one of us!!
3. God, the One who made us , loved us so much that He sent His Son to pay that hell debt for us when He died on the cross some 2,000 + years ago, because He was the only one who could!!
4. We have to accept that He is the one and only way to get to heaven. We have to believe in our hearts that only taking Jesus as our Savior can get us to heaven.
Folks, it’s just that easy!! A God who loves us as much as ours wouldn’t make something so important difficult for us to do!!! Church can’t get ya there, baptism can’t get ya there, your good works can’t get ya there, ONLY JESUS can get you to heaven!! IF you believe everything I just told you, please take a moment to repeat this sinners prayer, asking Jesus to take you to heaven some day when you die.
Dear Jesus,
I am a sinner deserving hell. I know you died on the cross, paying my hell debt for me. Please take me to heaven some day when I die. I believe you are my one and only way to get there. Thank you saving me from hell…. Amen
Now, let me clarify, saying this prayer does not get you to heaven, believing it in your heart is what gets you to heaven!! If you have already accepted Christ as your Savior, congratulations!! If you have not or know someone who has not, please take a moment to read this or read it to that someone.
I have been “witnessing” the same way every time since I started on my blog. Today I thought I would do something a little different. When I was 11 years old, we had an evangelist come to our Church and show us movies about the end times. You know, after Jesus comes back (which HE WILL) what happens to all those left behind. As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to have Jesus Christ as my Savior!! I wanted nothing to do with what happens after He comes back!!
How you come to Christ isn’t really as important as making sure YOU DO!!! Here are the things you need to realize in order to do just that…I could quote a bunch of scriptures from the Bible to cement the points I am making, but I’m not going to. I’m going to be short and to the point.
1. We are all sinners. Every one of us!!
2. We all deserve hell. Every one of us!!
3. God, the One who made us , loved us so much that He sent His Son to pay that hell debt for us when He died on the cross some 2,000 + years ago, because He was the only one who could!!
4. We have to accept that He is the one and only way to get to heaven. We have to believe in our hearts that only taking Jesus as our Saviorcan get us to heaven.
Folks, it’s just that easy!! A God who loves us as much as ours wouldn’t make something so important difficult for us to do!!! Church can’t get ya there, baptism can’t get ya there, your good works can’t get ya there, ONLY JESUS can get you to heaven!! IF you believe everything I just told you, please take a moment to repeat this sinners prayer, asking Jesus to take you to heaven some day when you die.
Dear Jesus,
I am a sinner deserving hell. I know you died on the cross, paying my hell debt for me. Please take me to heaven some day when I die. I believe you are my one and only way to get there. Thank you saving me from hell…. Amen
Now, let me clarify, saying this prayer does not get you to heaven, believing it in your heart is what gets you to heaven!! If you have already accepted Christ as your Savior, congratulations!! If you have not or know someone who has not, please take a moment to read this or read it to that someone.
After hearing what I did yesterday, I need to get this off my chest. I am sorry if this offends anyone, that is not my intention, but if I don’t get this out of my head and off my heart, it will continue to plague me with anger and hurt and depression. This is to all the bullies out there that think that they can just push people around and make fun of people and dog other people for whatever reason they do it. Are you trying to make yourself look good? Ease your own pain? Just make someone else miserable?? It isn’t necessary and it’s very destructive!!! God says we are to love others, build them up and help them along the way, not hate those that are a little different, tear each other down, and be a stumbling block!!
There was a young boy in our Church youth group. A funny but quiet boy. A shy boy. A boy with a ton of potential to do great things for the Lord. A boy who, when overwhelmed by them, took the problems in his life and turned them inward toward himself. A boy who was preyed upon by those around him. They saw his strengths and weaknesses and instead of focusing on his strengths and building him up with those, they chose to focus on his weaknesses and magnify them. They saw that he was different and instead of embracing his uniqueness and encouraging him in his endeavors, they tore him down and made him feel bad for it.
To those of you who bullied this shy, quiet, potential- filled, young man~ WHAT HAPPENED IS NOT YOUR FAULT. He made the choice he made, not you, BUT that being said, YOU SHOULD FEEL VERY ASHAMED!! Did you pick on him because he was a Christian? Because he wore glasses? Because he didn’t swear, smoke and do immoral things? Why did you feel the need to bully him? To make him feel unworthy to be your friend or to just be a normal kid enjoying his first year of high school??? WHY??
I think this hits a nerve with me because I too, was bullied in school. I was teased because I am adopted. I was teased because I wear glasses. I was teased because I was different. What’s wrong with being different?? If everyone was the same, do you know how boring that would be? Our differences are what make us unique and special, they should be celebrated, not picked on and ridiculed!! People felt like they could push me around and make me feel inferior because I was different.
This message is for all those out there still going through their personal pain and hurt…
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING DIFFERENT!!! God made each and everyone of us and God doesn’t make mistakes!! He is perfect and knows everything and He fearfully and wonderfully made you, the Bible says so!! So, the next time someone picks on you, tell them that you hope they find Jesus and that you hope He will save them and lift them up so that they don’t have to knock others down to lift themselves up!!!!
I have been “witnessing” the same way every time since I started on my blog. Today I thought I would do something a little different. When I was 11 years old, we had an evangelist come to our Church and show us movies about the end times. You know, after Jesus comes back (which HE WILL) what happens to all those left behind. As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to have Jesus Christ as my Savior!! I wanted nothing to do with what happens after He comes back!!
How you come to Christ isn’t really as important as making sure YOU DO!!! Here are the things you need to realize in order to do just that…I could quote a bunch of scriptures from the Bible to cement the points I am making, but I’m not going to. I’m going to be short and to the point.
1. We are all sinners. Every one of us!!
2. We all deserve hell. Every one of us!!
3. God, the One who made us , loved us so much that He sent His Son to pay that hell debt for us when He died on the cross some 2,000 + years ago, because He was the only one who could!!
4. We have to accept that He is the one and only way to get to heaven. We have to believe in our hearts that only taking Jesus as our Savior can get us to heaven.
Folks, it’s just that easy!! A God who loves us as much as ours wouldn’t make something so important difficult for us to do!!! Church can’t get ya there, baptism can’t get ya there, your good works can’t get ya there, ONLY JESUS can get you to heaven!! IF you believe everything I just told you, please take a moment to repeat this sinners prayer, asking Jesus to take you to heaven some day when you die.
Dear Jesus,
I am a sinner deserving hell. I know you died on the cross, paying my hell debt for me. Please take me to heaven some day when I die. I believe you are my one and only way to get there. Thank you saving me from hell…. Amen
Now, let me clarify, saying this prayer does not get you to heaven, believing it in your heart is what gets you to heaven!! If you have already accepted Christ as your Savior, congratulations!! If you have not or know someone who has not, please take a moment to read this or read it to that someone.
Before Buster and I decided to do God’s will for us and move out to Fort Faith Camp, we had never taken a real vacation, nope, not one, in 15+ years. Since we decided to follow our hearts and do what we feel is God’s plan for us, we have been on 2 vacations, yes, I said 2!! Nothing like Outer Banks beach rentals, but vacations, nonetheless. One was a camping trip, SO MUCH FUN!!! and the other was a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. Both were with the other full-time couple here at camp and their family. What a gift to be able to have fun serving the Lord together and then have “no-work” fun time together too!! Thanks Jim and Marie, we love you!!
Do you ever feel like just throwing a big ol ‘ temper tantrum when you don’t get your own way?? This is how I have been feeling for the last few days. Ever since I found out we are going to miss our Churches marriage retreat this year. Something we haven’t missed in almost 10 years. 10 years people!!! That’s a long time to be involved with something, ya know??
We have Pastor’s group coming in to use the camp for a retreat that Friday night through Saturday. Probably close to the same exact hours as the marriage retreat. When I first found out I was really mad. Then I went to being sad. I’m not sure exactly where I am at with it right at the moment. I go back and forth between being OK with it and being sad.
The reason, I think, for this is because when Buster and I first started attending our Church, our marriage was almost at an end. Literally. We had all but come out and said “I’m done” to each other. The spring after we started attending FBC, we went on a marriage retreat with the Church. It wasn’t our Churches retreat, it was Preacher’s son-in-law’s Churches retreat that our Church got invited to. That retreat SAVED our marriage.
Since then our Church has started our own annual marriage retreat. And Buster and I have attended every one of them. Not because our marriage is in peril anymore, but so it doesn’t become so!! Marriage is hard work and you have to put a lot of effort into it sometimes. Sometimes it is easy and others, not so much!!!
So, anyway, so I can stop rambling, I will get to my point. I was looking forward to going to the retreat this year and now I will not be able to go.
**Throws herself on the floor and screams**
**Yells at the top of her lungs,”It’s not fair”**
**Stomps her feet in disapproval**
OK, now that I’m done throwing a temper tantrum I will remind myself and you that we don’t always get what we want. Sometimes God has other plans. Even when we don’t understand why, we have to realize God is still in control and knows what is best. And even if I have to miss this retreat, I am going to be thankful God has brought me to camp and given me this GREAT opportunity to serve Him and others!! I wouldn’t change being here for anything!! God has been so good to me and my family and I thank Him for it!!
My friends call me Jo...I am a thirty-something wife to Buster. He is the second-best thing that ever happened to me. The first was my salvation at 11 years old. I am a mother of three. Pumpkin_Seed is 13 (going on 25 lol). She is beautiful, opinionated, head-strong, smart and loves God. My son, Lil' Buster went to heaven when he was 10 (car accident in 2004). He was all boy but adorable, tender-hearted and loved God. And one sweet baby we never got to meet is waiting for us in heaven with Lil' Buster.
A few words to describe me: Christian. Bipolar. Passionate. Determined. Thankful. I am so thankful for my Father up above who leads and guides me through this sin-sick world. I am just trying to live a life pleasing to Him. My blog is a mix of the inner most workings of my Bipolar mind, recipes, random stuff and a few reviews thrown in.
