Shout To The Lord ~ Lauren Talley & The Talley Trio

It's a good thing...

This morning, with still the news of the bear in my mind, I went for my run. I would continually pray about God's will, if I should go or not because honestly, I was scared. I kept telling myself that I needed to have faith that He would take care of me like He's done thus far.
I went, and made it to the edge of where the forest starts and saw on my right side a trail in the long grass, where "something" had walked and entered into the wooded area. I kept running and tried to have faith but my fear was greater. I turned around and decided to run not jog and get MJ, our dog. This way, I might not run (jog) as far as usual (5km) but I would get a good stiff run. I got MJ and headed back on the road.
MJ was excited! She ran! Ya, not jogged but ran. I ran with her and once we got to the wooded area, just a little past where I had turned around, she wanted to go in the ditch. I didn't want to wrestle about it so we turned around knowing that she needs time to get trained to go running with me.
We ran back and every time a car came she would sit on the side of the road. There were 3 cars on separate occasions... much training needed needless to say.
So we got home, out of breath, and sweating! I was disappointed that I did not have enough faith to do my whole run but I did the best I could, still got a workout and so did MJ.
As for what the Lord showed me in His word, in Joel 2:13, I read, "Rend your heart, and not your garments". It reminded me of a scripture in Proverbs 15:8, "The sacrifice of the wicked [is] an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright [is] his delight." We tend to over complicate things sometimes.
I am a "To Do List" person and because I like ordering my day that way, I tend to do that in my everyday walk with the Lord sometimes. I become more mechanical if you will. I go through my routine, and although I am spending time with God daily and keeping my mind on Him, as most as my flesh is focused for those moments, I can sometimes just go through the motions.
God wants us to just simplify things. Like the two men who went to prayer. One had a long eloquent prayer and the other just prayed with the sincerity of his heart. That's all God wants from us. He would rather we soften our heart toward Him and love Him sincerely, than do all these amazing things, but they be done with a hard and cold heart.
You know though, this is harder than the latter. Doing can be sometimes easier than taking the time to be right before God and have a soft, malleable heart.
As my day goes forward, I'll be thinking about my lack of faith but also that having a sincere relationship with God is truly the most rewarding and needed thing. God knows that I am afraid and that I am a weak human being who fears a torturous death.
Today was a stepping stone and Monday will be another one, maybe I'll run further (I am not sure where the bear came out).
God is merciful and He just wants our hearts to be sincere towards Him and our life be dependant on Him. It's hard sometimes but He is longsuffering and patient. Ahhh... to be more like Him. Selah.

I feel like David, minus the battle.

This morning was one like no other. It started at 5:34am when the Lord allowed the cats to wake me up by chasing each other across my bed, pouncing over my husband and me. I saw the time, so got up, grabbed my running clothes and went downstairs to get ready for my run. I filled the dog and cats bowls with water and food, turned the computer on to see the temperature, got dressed, put on my running shoes, my jacket and mp3 player and was off. I felt as though I was leaving a few minutes earlier than normally yet the cars I would see towards the end of my run were passing at the beginning of my run... hmmm that was strange. An oncoming car pulled over not too far from me, in the wooded area of my run. They stopped, turned their headlights off, on, off and on again. I was ready to turn around when they started up again and passed me. I kept running until I got to the 2.5km mark then headed back home. I was almost home when a little red car stopped. The man driving the car rolled down his window. I kept running at a slower pace and took my headphones out. He began to say in English then saw that he knew me so continued in French, "Hi! You'll want to be careful because we just saw a big black bear crossing the road behind you." He pointed towards the direction we both came from. I was surprised but not alarmed, which might of made him nervous. He said a second time to be really careful when I go running because it was a big black bear that crossed just after I passed. Since I started running in the fall, I prayed that God would protect me and He has shown himself faithful. I came home and told my husband that, "God must not be finished with me because He just protected me from a bear." So today, although the devil is on my heals it seems, I will praise God for allowing me to know that once more He protected me. That's why, I feel like David minus the battle.

Let It Change You

I am sure that I'm not the only one who has desired something in life and wanted it bad enough that I justified it and went for it. *GASP!*
Today, as I was about to start reading Hosea chapter 11, my eye was pulled to a scripture I read yesterday and was underlined. The words my eyes saw was "Trust thy way". I decided to read that verse again and like Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." it pierced my heart and convicted me to reminded me of the wickedness of my heart and to guard it deligently. Hosea 10:13, "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men."
Let me explain...
"Ye have plowed wickedness" You have something specific you desire to have or want to experience. It can be something "godly" but if it is not in God's will and you still desire it, it is contrary to Him therefore wicked.
"ye reaped iniquity" plowing your way to get what you want, against God's blessing or allowance to have or be it will only reap iniquity. It will only draw you further from Christ, hardening your heart and sirring you conscience.
"you have eaten the fruit of lies" what won your heart to pursue this desire is a lie from the devil. Like Eve, we can be so easily deceived.
"because thou didst trust in thy way" WHY??? "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart". We did not trust God's will for our life. Sometimes, when we don't understand God's decisions for our life, we make the mistake of analysing the situation and trying to change it or chase the desires or our heart instead of trusting God.
"in the multitude of thy mighty men." We often justify pursuing something by comparing it to the world. Saying things like, "this is not a wicked thing", "I know of godly people who have this", "God could do so much more with me if..." or "everyone has or does this these days". The "mighty" men, and women, of this world allow themselves any indulgence that might not be absolute wickedness but if the Lord does not want this or these things in our life, we must trust Him to know what's best for our life. He wants us to have life abundant and wants to prosper us but it's not always in the ways that we think. If the Lord sees this as a good thing for us and a way to draw more people to Him, He will bring it into our life, if He hasn't.... it is not the right thing for right now. Trusting God is hard sometimes; not because He has not given us reason to trust Him, He is trustworthy. We lack trust because we are weak and not filled with His Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are Joy, Love, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Meekness and Faith. These are evident in our life when we trust God with our life.
May we not only trust God with the eternity of our souls but for the journey here on earth. Try not to change your situation, but let your situation change you, more like Him.

In the Light of Things

In the olden days, people had light during the day with the sun,and by fire at night with candles or paraffin lamps, but at night it was too dim to do much work. In modern times, we have light anytime we want, enough of it to function during the night as in the day. I wonder if the comparison of both is symbolic to the lack of acknowledgement of our God. What I mean is; the fact that people in the "olden days" depended on God to light their way physically, being able to function and do work; providing for their families. There was a dependency on God and acknowledgement that they needed His creation of light for everyday life; a humbleness, a reverence. Today, we are self sufficient. We have used the intelligence that God gave us to create our own light, like Israel, in the Old Testament, who created their own gods. We don't need to depend on God for His creation to help us provide for our families. We do what we want, when we want to get what we want. We are no longer dependant on Him for physical light and how symbolic it is in the spiritual sense; we no longer depend on Him for spiritual light for we have convinced ourselves that we are self sufficient and we don't need His creations, His sacrifice, His forgiveness, His mercy and especially His grace. How pathetic we have become, preferring our own light to His.

The Love of God.

Everyday, reading God's word, He shows me something new. Sometimes it is just a small simple thing, and sometimes it's revolutionary for me.
I was reading Hosea 3:1 "Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine." The previous chapter spoke of the adulterous woman who seeks out her lovers for satisfaction and to meet her needs, instead of her husband. This is us as we seek for the things of this world to satisfy us and meet our needs instead of staying or turning to God for His provision and love. In chapter 3 verse 1, the Lord pressed on my heart that when we love people who show us no affection, respect, friendship, kindness etc. and we continue to love them with God's love, He allows us to experience, gain knowledge and understanding of His love for us.
After I read verse one of this chapter, I sat dumbfounded by this. It's not always easy to be the Christian we need to be, even more, the wife and mother we need to be. Unconditional love is something, husbands, wives and parents face daily even hourly. Having to make a conscious decision to love someone even when they might not return anything but the cold shoulder, disobedience, disrespect or even hate. It takes the kind of love that only God can give, which we need to be in fellowship with Him, so that we might be a conduit of this love to others.
It never ceases to amaze me that God is continually seeking ways to draw us closer to Him.
We are so undeserving of His love, grace, mercy and truth.
I love you Lord. xo

Much too funny to pass up!

As you most likely know, our third child, Jacob, was born missing his right leg, hip and the right side of his pelvis. The photo is of his artificial leg but he had just broken it; twisting it at the knee. In other words, it would be like your hip facing west and your knee and toes facing east. His socket, the part that holds the leg to his body, is not there because he tore his artificial leg off of his socket.
He's now 7 years old and sometimes he comes out with the funniest or the most surprising comments about himself. One day, we were at the doctor's office for my blood work results and for my shoulder pain. The doctor brought in "Oscar" which is a funny name because "Os" in french means bone and the sound of "Car" in french sounds the same as the french word "corps" which means body...LOL funny eh? Anyway... The doctor brought it in and right away Jacob says, "Hey! I'm missing this one, this one and these ones, but I have an extra one of these!" (that being the rib bone) The doctor was taken back by the amount of information he knew about his "deficiency" and the seemingly peaceful acceptance with it. I laughed inside because it was just not a typical conversation for a 7 year old boy with his doctor. Today was very similar. In his English, he had a passage he needed to read and it was about the bones in our body. It said that we have 206 bones in our body. Jacob said, "I have 207 bones in my body." I asked why he said that and he responded that he had an extra rib so that would make 207 bones. I then said, "Well, you are also missing the bones of one leg and a foot so you would have to subtract that from 207." This is not your typical conversation, don't you think? LOL We went online to find out how many bones were in the foot and how many in the leg; 26 in the foot and 4 in the leg. When we subtracted 30 from 207, it gave us 177 bones that Jacob has in his body. He thought that was ok. Then he says, with a perturbed voice "HEY! That means I have less bones than you guys!" I couldn't help but bite my lip and say "DUH! You only have one leg, of course you have less bones than us!" LOL I laughed so hard when he said, "Oh yeah.... I forgot.... " Kids say the most amazing things.