Despised and rejected.

My world has been turned upside down. I have been chewed up and spit out. Taken advantage of. But somehow I am able to understand that our Lord was aquainted with our sorrows and greif. He knows my pain. There is healing is his blood.

How will I move on? I know not...but He does.

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

Okay. So I guess you could say I'm walking through a valley right now...but I'm not walking alone. I have the Lord, and I have all of you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. A lady recently left me with some food for thought after a long conversation. She said, "You know, Joey, the Lord gives us three answers to our prayers: YES, NO and NOT NOW!" Well, I guess I'm in the "not now" phase. I don't know where my life is going, but I'm daily walking in faith and in the hope I have in Christ alone.

Christ certainly is our foothold. All other foundations crumble, fall and fail us, BUT He will never leave us nor forsake us. I wasn't aware of my personal shortcomings and idols until the Lord caused my favorite thing to fall. At first I latched on and tried to solve problems on my own, constantly throwing ropes into the ravine to where I was losing everything. Then, the Lord revealed to me that He is in control; I have no need to worry, but only TRUST. I'm not losing everything, in fact, I have everything I need.

At first Satan allowed me to believe a lie, but the truth has set me free. He still attacks me and I daily fight. "A great warrior, doesn't become a great warrior without a good fight." I will not fear, what can man do unto me? Simply seek truth and do the right thing.

"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

My dear friend Nan recently got me some lilies. She said, they remind us of the resurrection!

Women of Faith.

I have never fully understood the role of the wife. I do now. Pray for your husband. Pray for strength. Pray for peace. Let your requests me made known to God.

Nerds

So you all know that I love to play card games...right? Well tonight I supposedly learned a new game called Nerds. But it's just like Dutch Splits or a version of Speed. So my thought is perhaps there are only a few card games but hundreds of names associated with each. Why is that? Is it region of country (and since I've lived all over that would explain my diversity if you will?). Or is it generational? Any thoughts...

Like a cloud.

Last nights devotion from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening:

Our sins are like a cloud. Clouds are of many shapes and colors, so are our sins. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the landscape beneath, so do our sins hide the light of Jehovah's face from us and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when collected so that their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers, but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. O black clouds of sin, how can there be fair weather in our souls while you remain?

Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy -- "swept away." God Himself appears upon the scene, and in divine benignity, instead of manifesting His anger, reveals His grace: He at once and forever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by erasing it from existence once for all.

Putting this into practice, let's obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND, "return to Me." O Lord, restore us!

We live in such a wicked world where we must daily guard our hearts and run to the foot of the cross. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Together let's engage in living out our faith through love, prayer, hospitality and exercising our spiritual gifts.

"An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

Missing you all, Joey:)