Well, I hope I have good news!

After 1 1/2 years it looks like we MIGHT have sold our home. We went back and forth with the buyers and finally came to an agreement. Our home goes into escrow tomorrow morning. Can I continue to ask for your prayers this month? So many homes fall out of escrow right up to the last minute before signing. We are very hopeful but are trying to keep our hearts guarded against disappointment knowing that God’s ways are not always our own. We want to keep our hearts submitted to His will.

We found a house about an hour away from where we live and put an offer on it. We’re hoping we will hear this week that they accepted our offer. We have a 30 day escrow on this home so we need prayer that everything will move quickly with the new home so that we can move right in when our escrow closes.

This move will drop our payments BIG TIME which means that I won’t have to work part-time. I’m not sure who’s more excited about it.. me or my husband! He has hated me working. It’s the first time I’ve worked outside my home in 24 years. Even though it’s only been part-time it’s changed so much in our home and in serving in the church. Maybe someday I can share what I’ve learned.

The decision where to move was not easy.. mainly because our dear church family will be 45 minutes away.  We’ve loved living right around the corner from the church and ministering to those nearby. My husband just recently decided to move farther away because it will mean two less hours of commute time for him a day. He has been working 13-15 hours a day for the past 1 1/2 which has meant less time to serve in our church anyway. He is worn out on his days off. We still plan on traveling back to our little church where God’s Word is preached boldly and uncompromised! We know firsthand how difficult it is to find a church that is not focused on entertainment but God’s Word.  

Thank you for your prayers. It has meant so much! Please don’t stop!

Big hugs!
Georgene

My frugal tip for the day is to keep a close (possibly daily) account of what you are spending. Don’t wait for weeks or until the end of the month to see whether or not you’ve gone over your budget.

I have our checkbook on Quick Books. We purchased this program for our business years ago but I also use it for my personal checking account. It makes balancing your checkbook super easy. Every check I write I post into this program and assign it a category. This program allows me to run reports on the different categories. For instance, if I want to check what I’ve spent this month on groceries I can make a report and I’ll know exactly what I’ve spent. I can even go back and compare it to what I spent last year alone. You can also set up a budget for each category and run reports to see if you are staying within the budget. There is also a graph report shaped like a pie which shows a very clear picture of where all your money goes.

I bought the business program and it was expensive (a couple hundred dollars) but I believe Quicken is for personal use and is less costly. I think it’s well worth it’s weight in gold! (Is gold still valuable? *S*) I believe most computers also offer money programs. Just check to see if they run reports on your spending.

I find that if I don’t keep a close, weekly watch on my spending I tend to go over my budget.

And that’s my tip for the day!

You can find more frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood.

Well, here is my next post and it is not saying that we’re moving! We did receive an offer but it was not a good one. We countered and now we wait. We’re not as hopeful that we will be moving after all but the bottom line is that God knows and we’re seeking to rest in that.

Keeping a contented heart when you are wanting something different than your circumstances  can be such a snare. Discontentment distract us from keeping our eyes on Christ and finding our joy only in Him. My heart longs to see my husband out from under the strain of this workload. Yet, God continues to provide through my husband’s long hours. I must continue to rest in God’s sovereignty and trust that for TODAY I (and my husband) are exactly where God wants me!

“When we have a discontented heart, we fail to see the purposes of God. And we fail to accept the purposes of God–to see that God has a plan that He is working out, He is fulfilling. He’s wanting to show us His greatness and His power and His mercy and His love. He’s wanting to shape and mold us. He’s wanting to make us believers, true believers. He’s wanting to build our faith. But when we have a discontented heart, we reject God’s purposes. We say, in effect, “I don’t care what Your plan is. I want what I want, and I want it now.” Nancy Leigh DeMoss

His ways are so much higher than my own.  Think about that for a moment. When something, orSOMEONE, is raised high above you physically then they can see so much more than you can. God can see the beginning to the end of my own particular situation therefore He has greater (all) knowledge to direct me (not mentioning all of His other attributes working together in the decision). Yet I find myself just as a young child, demanding his way with a parent, continually wrestling with God over our circumstances. I’ve been reminded by the Lord through His Word the past several days to keep seeking those things above and not on this earth. Then, and only then, can my heart be at rest.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Col 3:2-3
NASB

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Matt 6:33-34
NASB

*~*~*

 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is an old classic that I pull out to read during trials and always find such encouragement. It’s one of my all time favorite books! It’s definitely not ‘fluff’.

I know that many of you have said that you are praying for our home to sell. So, I wanted to share our newest update. Our agent called today and said that we have an offer coming in tomorrow.

We’re praying…

… for God’s wisdom to know how to respond to the offer.

… for God’s will to be done!

… and for grace to accept His will!

Thank you for your prayers! I’m hoping that the next post will say WE’RE MOVING!

I’m continuing my study of Isaiah 40 with Nancy Leigh DeMoss and it’s such a blessing. I sent for Behold Your God using my credits in Paperbackswap. I was able to take a ‘peak’ at a copy we had at the bible bookstore and it looks very good. My view of God definitely needs to be enlarged and Isaiah 40 is a great chapter to do so. I hope it blesses you, too! Here is a link if you want to do the study:

 Behold Your God

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Now as we come to verse 12 in Isaiah 40, the prophet asks a series of rhetorical questions, and his purpose, his objective, is to help people see the greatness of God.

Yes, the Assyrians are on the march. Yes, the Babylonians are coming. Yes, there are going to be 70 years of captivity. But God is bigger and greater than all of that. God is bigger and greater than every enemy, every foe, every circumstance—everything that threatens your world this day.

He uses some fabulous word pictures here to help the Israelites and to help us realize how big is our God. Verse 12:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
   and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
   and weighed the mountains in scales
   and the hills in a balance?

What is Isaiah saying? God is the Creator, and as the Creator, He is infinitely bigger than His creation. What is huge to us is small to Him. The problems that we think loom so great—they’re nothing to the God who created this whole universe.

Look, for example: He has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. I’ve been on Google this week doing a little bit of Internet research about some of these figures, some of these pictures in Isaiah chapter 40. I wanted to find out how many gallons of water are on the face of the earth.

Now, for obvious reasons, nobody really knows the answer to that question. But one number I came up with was 340 quintillion gallons of water on the face of the earth. That’s 34 with 19 zeroes. And God holds all those gallons of water in the hollow of His hand!

He marked off the heavens with a span. What is a span? It’s the width of a hand. Now, how big are the heavens? How big is the universe? Well, one figure I read said the universe is 30 billion light years across; or, if it’s easier for you to think of it this way, 600 sextillion miles. I don’t even know how many zeroes that is. And God measures it all with one span of His hand. That’s a pretty big hand!

Now, let me ask you: If God can hold all the oceans, 340 quintillion gallons of water, in the palm of His hand, do you think He can handle your problem? Do you think He can handle my problem? If God can measure the span of the universe with the span of His hand, do you think His hand is big enough to take care of your issue and mine?

It says He puts the dust of the earth in a measure. I’ve got a little measuring cup here. You could fill this measuring cup with dirt. How many times do you think you’d have to fill it up to get all the dirt on the earth? But God has measuring cups, so to speak, that can take all the dust, all the dirt of the earth, and put it in one of His measures. That’s how big God is.

He’s weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. My little bit of Internet research told me that the earth weighs six sextillion metric tons. That would be 21 zeroes. And that earth hangs in empty space? God weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

I think of that song that we sometimes sing with children: “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” That’s the point.

And then we come to verse 13, and we see the omniscience of God, the fact that He knows everything. Not only is He strong and powerful, but He knows everything. The incredible wisdom and knowledge of God is what is in view here.

13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
   or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
   and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
   and taught him knowledge,
   and showed him the way of understanding?

The answer is, nobody has ever taught God anything. God never said, “Oops. I didn’t think about that. I forgot about that.” He doesn’t need a Cabinet to brief Him. He’s eternally self-sufficient. The infinite wisdom of God—there’s never been a question that He did not know the answer to.

I think of that verse in Romans chapter 11, verse 33: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” He’s so wise. He knows everything.

Do you think that my little problem could escape His notice, that He doesn’t know how to solve the little itsy bitsy issues in my life? You say, “They’re not itsy bitsy issues in my life; they’re big issues!” Well, it depends on your perspective. Are you looking at it from your perspective or from God’s? See God is so great, so big. If you’ll behold your God, then you’ll see that the issues in your life really are itsy bitsy at their most.

Now in verses 15-17 Isaiah points out another comparison. He’s comparing the nations of the world to God. These world powers seem so great—nations like Assyria, Babylon, Persia. You could think of nations in our world today that we think of as being great nations, nations with great military prowess, nations that are developing certain kinds of nuclear weapons. We read about this and we say, “They could blow up the whole world!”

But Isaiah says, “Behold, the nations are like a drop [in] a bucket.” Now, you think of taking a drop of water and putting it into a bucket. What difference does it make? Nothing! It’s insignificant. “The nations are like a drop [in] a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales.”

I’ve got a scale here. It’s a little kitchen scale, and I just imagine that scale getting dusty, just putting a little dust on there. What does it do to the scale? It doesn’t make any difference. It’s weightless, in effect. It’s insignificant.

Isaiah is saying, “All these nations that seem so great, they seem so powerful—they’re like a drop in a bucket. They’re just like your scale getting dusty. It doesn’t make a difference.”

15 . . . behold, [God] takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

How much is less than nothing? We can’t even picture that, can we? “Nothing” is the least we can think of. God says all those great, powerful nations, those forces in our world—in God’s accounting they are as less than nothing and emptiness. They are utterly insignificant compared to God.

Now, compared to us those nations, those powers, those people in your life may seem to be very powerful. They may seem to be very great. And if we look at the nations, if we look at the powers, if we look at evil in our world, we’ll be fearful. We’ll be terrified. But we’re looking at the wrong place. That’s why we need to behold our God, to lift our eyes and look at Him.

Lebanon, it talks about, is a fertile, wooded region north of Israel. Isaiah is saying that all the wood from all the forests of Lebanon and all of its animals, if you put them all together, they’re not sufficient to make a sacrifice that is worthy of such a great God. All those nations individually, all the nations combined—all the nations. What are they? They are as nothing before Him.

Assyria? Babylon? Russia, Iraq, Germany, the United States, North Korea? Good nations, bad nations, nations with power—what are they before God? Nothing. We think we’re so great. What is our nation? We’ve been blessed a lot by God, but what are we? Does He need us? No. Nations that pose threats throughout the history of the world, what are they? Less than nothing and emptiness. They are no threat to God.

“Well,” you say, “I’m not worried about the nations. I’m worried about my boss. It’s my husband. It’s my ex-husband. It’s this person in my life who’s so difficult.” A drop in a bucket; dust on the scales. Count it as less than nothing and emptiness. That doesn’t mean they don’t matter to God, but what it means is that, compared to God, they are all utterly insignificant.

Take all the problems, all the pressures you’re facing. I think of all the problems and the pressures that I face just as a woman in my family, in our ministry. Sometimes they seem to loom so great, but you compare them to God—they’re less than nothing and emptiness.

So again we come back to the message of this chapter: Behold your God. He is great; He is vast; He is immense; He is all-wise; He is all-powerful; He is all-knowing. He doesn’t need our advice. You can’t teach Him anything. He knows everything. He is great. Behold your God.

My husband and I have made some pretty radical changes in how we spend our money over the past few years. Yet, I still find that the ‘pull’ of this world’s system is ever a temptation. I’ll be cruising right along doing great on my budget and resisting the pull of material things and then something will come along that tempts me and I find myself diving head long into a poor purchase choice. Then, just like a diet, I’ll pick myself back up and resolve to do better next time. Just like any other bad habit that needs to be changed I’m finding that my mind must be continually renewed. My thinking must be changed. Worldly, materialistic thoughts must be replaced with godly thoughts. As Christians we are told in Ephesians 4: 22-24 to renew our minds.

Those of us who have the daily influence of the television or even magazines and shopping malls may find that we have been more influenced by the world’s standards than we realized.

The video link below was a good wake up call for me to reevaluate my priorities AGAIN. How am I spending my money? Just click on the link below and it will take you through a slide-show that is is very honest about the way most of us Americans spend our money and our time.

http://joel.mawhorter.org/priorities/priorities-intro.html

I really appreciate presentations like this one because it causes me to take a good long look at how I am spending my time and money. I find it very challenging! There is so much more that God’s Word calls us to be doing as Christians other than promoting my own (families) comfort, ease and accumulation of stuff. We are called to duties such as helping the widow and the orphan, feeding the poor and clothing the naked not to mention making disciples and using our gifts in our church.  The list goes on.

 Are my priorities… my top priorities… the same as what Scripture says they should be?

Would someone know I was a Christian by just looking at my checkbook?

Or my home?

Would they find enough evidence of  how I spend my money to convict me as a Christian?

Or would my checkbook (and home) look like every other Americans?

Are my goals for this life the same as every other American? Or am I seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness first?

Do I love the THINGS of this world? Then scripture says that the Lord of the Father does not dwell in me.

Personally, I think the facts and biblical truths found in this slide show are one of the best motivators to live frugally! So that we will have enough money left over each month to help those in need and promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ instead of promoting a lifestyle of comfort and ease for ourselves and our families

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.! 1 John 2:15

I’m doing some ‘catch up work’ today which includes light housekeeping and hopefully some bill paying later. I’ve been listening to Integrity’s Worship at Home and have been so blessed by a song called, Before the Throne of God Above. The lyrics were written by Charitie Bancroft and the melody is by Vikki Cook.  I tried finding a sample online for you to listen to but the renditions were not the same. This is the closest I could find so click on this link for Sovereign Grace Music….  The tune is the same.

Be blessed!!!

The words are awesome…

Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong, a perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is “Love,”
He ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heav’n He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me.
to look on him and pardon me.

Behold him there! the risen Lamb,
my perfect, spotless Righteousness,
the great unchangeable I AM,
the King of glory and of grace!
One with Himself I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood;
My life is hid with Christ on high,
with Christ, my Savior and my God
with Christ, my Savior and my God

Have you ever visited Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s website called Revive Our Hearts? I have the link at the bottom of this article. Just click on the name. It’s an awesome resource for Christian women. I found this prayer for women by John Piper and loved it! I hope it blesses you as much as it has me!

My earnest challenge and prayer for you is . . .

. . . That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.

. . . That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing.

. . . That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in Heaven.

. . . That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching; that meditation on biblical truth be the source of hope and faith; that you continue to grow in understanding through all the chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.

. . . That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God will be opened to you, and so the power of faith and holiness will descend upon you; that your spiritual influence may increase at home and at church and in the world.

. . . That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God which undergirds all these spiritual processes; and that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers of these things.

. . . That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific calling; that you not fritter away your time on soaps or women’s magazines or unimportant hobbies or shopping; that you redeem the time for Christ and his Kingdom.

. . . That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to God (the way Jesus and Paul and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmichael did) and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.

. . . That, if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerely support the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and holiness and prayer.

. . . That, if you have children, you accept responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord—children who hope in the triumph of God—sharing with your husband the teaching and discipline they need, and giving them the special attention they crave from you, as well as that special nurturing touch and care that you alone are fitted to give.

. . . That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home, the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world; that you not only pose the question: career or full-time homemaker?, but that you ask just as seriously: full-time career or freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom—to work for someone who tells you what to do to make his or her business prosper, or to be God’s free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God’s business prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or upward lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the faith of the family and advance the cause of Christ.

. . . That you step back and (with your husband, if you are married) plan the various forms of your life’s ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things—age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of tradeoffs. Finding God’s will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody else’s chapter or whether it has in it what only another chapter will bring.

. . . That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to people’s needs.

. . . That in all your relationships with men (not just in marriage) you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying the biblical vision of manhood and womanhood; that you develop a style and demeanor that does justice to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious leadership in relation to women—a leadership which involves elements of protection and provision and a pattern of initiative; that you think creatively and with cultural sensitivity (just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of your interaction with men.

. . . That you see the biblical guidelines for what is appropriate and inappropriate for men and women not as arbitrary constraints on freedom, but as wise and gracious prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God’s ideal of complementarity; that you not measure your potential by the few roles withheld, but by the countless roles offered; that you look to the loving God of Scripture and dream about the possibilities of your service to him. (For a detailed list of service possibilities, see the pdf titled, Opportunities for Ministry.)

Excerpted from Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism by Pastor John Piper. (Crossway Books. Used with permission.)

(Taken from Revive Our Hearts website)

I love summer time with all the fresh veggies and fruits. I’ve been trying a lot of new vegetable salad recipes lately and I’ve come up with some favorites.  They are easy to make and inexpensive. I like to make up two salads each week to keep in the fridge for snacking and meals. What I like most about the first few recipes is that they use canned veggies. I may not always have a lot of fresh veggies on hand depending on our income but I generally have canned veggies on my shelves. This is a great way to use them up.

Pea Salad

I made this one tonight and really liked it. Very crunchy! I’m thinking it would also be good with olives and avocados.