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One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we welcomed Cameron into our family!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LENA AND CAMERON

We love you and are so proud of you!

Love the dress, Lena!!  God was so good in giving you what you wanted.

SERVE WHOM OR WHAT

I was going to do a study in the Bible on the word ‘serve’ but stopped with the first verse that came up in my search list, Matthew 6:24. I began to do a study on a few of the words and this is what I found.

Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

First I looked at the word ‘serve’ in the Strong’s concordance

#1398  Part of Speech: Verb  Transliteration: douleuó

Phonetic Spelling: (dool-yoo'-o)

Short Definition: I am a slave, am subject to, obey

Definition: I am a slave, am subject to, obey, am devoted.

(figuratively) to willingly give over the prerogative to be self-governing. See 1401 (doulos).

To serve something or someone makes me subject to them or to it. I am devoted to what I’m a slave to. I no longer govern myself.

‘money’  #3126  Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine

Transliteration: mamónas

Phonetic Spelling: (mam-mo-nas')

Short Definition: riches, money, possessions

Definition: (Aramaic), riches, money, possessions, property.

126 mammōnás – a Semitic term for "the treasure a person trusts in" (J. Thayer) who is transliterated as "mammon."

Money in this verse isn’t just the cash we have it is what we trust in. It can be our possessions, what we ‘own’.

Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Now that you know what ‘serve’ and ‘money’ means in the Greek, would you say you are serving God with your whole heart? Or are you serving the cash in your pocket, your home or the games you play?

Don’t let the word ‘slave’ throw you off, ‘am devoted’ is also listed and it means – “Feeling or displaying strong affection or attachment”.

I don’t know about you but when I have a strong affection towards someone I desire to please them and therefore I ‘serve’ them.

Are you following me?

An example – I love (have a strong affection towards) my husband, therefore I desire to fix his coffee and serve it to him when he wakes every morning. I know that’s a small example but it helps make my point. I’m not doing it for selfish reasons, I truly want to ‘serve’ my husband in love and there are some awesome benefits of doing this type of serving J

If you haven’t already, you should take the time to check out all the benefits of serving our Father. They far outweigh anything cash, a home or a few games can give us in this life. In fact, the benefits are eternal.

Now on to the word ‘money’ - money, possessions, property

Often when we read this verse we think of cash, it’s a choice between God and cash, but that is not true. As you see in the Greek definition it is also possessions or property.

So now we have, are you going to serve God or cash, jewelry, games, house, food, tv and the list goes on.

We have a decision to make, what is yours? Will you serve your Creator or will you seek those things that are temporary?

Will you serve God with a devotion that just wants to lift Him up and show the world how wonderful He is? Or would you rather say you believe in God and then live like those in the world - chasing after selfish things that will break or rot away?

Have you replaced God and His power with a workshop, a prayer group, a counselor or a best friend? We need to know what God says in His Word so we do not place anything or anyone above Him. It is God who heals us, blesses us, gives us a way out when tempted, forgives us and shows us the way – the path He has for us and it’s to bring Him all the glory, honor and praise – it is to bring other people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I do not have anything against a good Bible based study, counselor, etc. What I do have a problem with is these places or people adding to or taking away from God’s Word. When it becomes a gossip, talk bad about other people, find the answer in you type of thing. Always make sure to check God’s Word against what you are being taught, don’t just take someone’s word for it. And if they talk bad about other people, encourage you to feel sorry for them instead of helping them live according to God’s Word – run!! There is power in God’s Word and in our lives when we seek Him with all our soul, heart and mind.

I say these things because I’ve been there and stayed there with no victory – sympathy did not give me victory or the strength to overcome – but those that taught/teach Truth and gave me their faith, and God’s Word to live by – then I began to have victory through Jesus Christ…..I’m moving forward.

Reverence? Respect? Really?

Ephesians 5:22-33 talks about husband and wives but I want to zero in on the last part of verse 33 – on wives because the Lord has been talking to me about respecting my husband and how that relates to my worship on Sunday’s at church.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

I use Strong’s Concordance and here’s what I found.

(respect)    to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience

Then I went to the dictionary.

definition of reverence - Regard or treat with deep respect.

Definition of respect - A feeling of deep admiration for someone

Definition of admiration - Respect and warm approval

So ladies, we are to treat our husbands with deep respect have a feeling (and I believe show the feeling) of deep admiration. Our men stand taller when we do this and I know I get a benefit of being the woman on his arm, the one he likes to show off, the one he loves coming home to.

Now let me ask you, when you talk to a coworker, a person at church, even to yourself…..what do you say about your husband? Do you complain that he isn’t listening to God, that he doesn’t take the trash out, that he is stupid or lazy? Do you realize you are speaking death into your husband’s life as well as your marriage? Do you speak to your husband this way? Do you tear him down, play Holy Ghost, Jr?

In this context, I found Colossians 3:22 and the word ‘slaves’ very interesting because of the reverence slaves (believers) are supposed to have for Christ.

Colossians 3:22 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

Greek for slaves -  sadoúlos ("bond-slave") is used with the highest dignity in the NT – namely, of believers who willingly live under Christ's authority as His devoted followers.

That would be us, those that have accepted the Lord as our Savior. What are ‘slaves’ to do? ‘reverence the Lord’!

So let me ask you, when you go to church and shout out ‘Amen’ or nudge your husband in the side because you think he needs to ‘get’ what the preacher said or you just basically close yourself off because you just know it’s your husband that has the problem……do you see where I’m going?

If we are to ‘respect – reverence’ our husbands and we are to ‘reverence’ God, yet we are walking a day here and there disrespecting our husband,  do you think that reflects on God? Do you think the full power of God will fall on you as you worship? You have unbelief, un-forgiveness, and maybe even anger at your spouse. I wonder if we only see half of what God wants to do because we are not walking as ‘one’ with our spouse?

One more Scripture and then I’ll close.

I always thought I Peter 3:1 meant husbands that were not saved, well check this out!

I Peter 3:1

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;

Ladies, look what ‘obey not’ means in the Greek!

Obey not -  Greek meaning –   are disobedient, rebel

Then look at ‘conversation’!

Conversation – greek meaning –   behavior, manner of life

It may be an unsaved rebel of a husband OR it could be a saved but disobedient husband, one that ‘you’ feel isn’t doing it right. And even if he isn’t doing it ‘right’, it is commanded by God, that your behavior, your manner of life (which includes what you speak as well as your attitude) will win them over.

On Sunday there were two things that happened and I believe one was a lesson, an encouragement and the other one was a correction.

First, we are fostering a dog and we’ve only had him a few days. My husband was leaving for work and I had just prayed over him. Well, he opens the door to leave and out goes the dog, man is he fast – down the road he goes and out the door I go screaming his name running after him until I see he is way down the road by now. I turn and look at my husband and my flesh wanted to scream at him and blame him for not being careful. But I heard the Lord speak to me and the Spirit took over and I kept my mouth shut (that is a miracle from years ago, just ask my husband….okay maybe months ago) but anyway, I knew it was not his fault that I could have had a leash on the dog before opening the door, etc. So I stopped and said a short but to the point prayer and thanked God for His faithfulness. I kissed my husband bye, told him I loved him, went in picked up my keys and a leash, and proceeded to drive down the street. God answered my prayer, the dog had turned around and heading back to our home, so about ¼ of a block down he had stopped. I got out of the car, sat on the side of the road and called to him. He came running to me, let me put the leash on him, jumped in the car and off we went. If I would have let my mouth and flesh scream earlier and had not prayed, it could have been awful. I’m so thankful I did not mess up my husband’s day and with that, my day was awesome too.

The second thing is something I’m working on and I admit with great difficulty.  The Lord asked me, while I was mindlessly watching a show, is it honoring, and are you respecting your husband when you have an area that needs cleaned up and it’s still a mess when your husband gets home?  Ouch. It’s not like some BIG project, it’s a small stack of papers on the floor I’ve been meaning to go through or maybe a sink of dishes and you know what it is in your home. There are times I will tell my husband I will do this and that but when he comes home I have spent too much time watching Netflix or being on Facebook or just being lazy. Now there is nothing wrong with any of those things, in moderation. But when it’s 9 hours later and I did not get those one or two things accomplished – not good.  So that is what the Lord has been speaking to me and I’m happy to say those papers are not on the floor they are now filed away or in the trash where they belong! Now about those dishes !!!!!  Oh wait, I had to get this blog finished….right??!!

Marriage Questions What Do You Have to Say?

I'm curious. I have some questions. If you have questions not on my list, please leave them in the comments.
I would love to hear from men and women.

Marriage is very important to me and I love that my husband has always said 'hand in hand to heaven' before it was in the movie 'The Notebook'
We have had our share of problems----and I will blog about them later but for now I just want you to know we have been married 26 years, together 29 and it just keeps getting better.

 Here are my questions.

1. Have you ever attended a marriage seminar and if Yes, which one and what was one thing your received from it?
2. How long have you been married? 
3. Do you pray together?

4. Do you take time to talk to each other, daily and not just the hi and bye conversation?

5. When do you feel most loved? What is it your spouse does that says 'I love you'?

6. Who handles the finances?

7. How often do you have arguments and what are they over?

8.   Do you attend church regularly?

9.   Do you have individual prayer, studying and listening to God time?

10. Do you and your spouse have time in the Word together?

You can have a marriage made in heaven and love growing old together! God has done amazing things in me and I'm more in love with my husband today than when we first met. 

so I think my last questions is ..........Do you hug, laugh, kiss and tell each other 'I love you' daily?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.

Life or Death?

For the longest time I chose death and didn't even realize I was doing it !!!

Do You Need Healing in Your Finance, Body, Mind or Relationships?

Don't miss this - live worship, awesome teachings and a powerful move of God!
NOVEMBER 2, 3 and 4, 2011
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY  starts at 7pm
Come as you are!

317-786-5460 for more information  Special rate at local motel for those traveling.

A Blessed and Wonderful Day

On October 2nd, our daughter, Lena Hammes, married Cameron Stephenson.

Welcome to the family, son!!

Both of our daughters are married now but it seems like only yesterday my husband an I held them in our arms as little babies. When I would watch them sleep and pray over them.

I'm grateful to God for all the memories. We had a wonderful time growing up together  lol

They taught me alot as a stay at home - homeschooling mom.

And their excitement as they waited for their daddy to get home from work - they knew when he

pulled in the drive and would run to the door yelling....daddy daddy!!

Our daughters Lena and Amanda will forever hold our hearts!

Lena and Cameron Stephenson 

October 2, 2011

Husband/Wife Dance  -  Tangled up in You by Staind

Daughter/Father Dance  -  Butterfly Kisses - Bob Carlisle

and she surprised me with a song she use to sing to me 

Daughter/Mother Dance - Just for You

We both cried

here it is!

The Power of the Tongue

The power of the tongue – words can damage the soul

They may not have touched me in their flesh but they beat me with their words – who you ask – that doesn’t matter, what matters is I have victory and that is the path I choose to stay on.

I thought I had gotten released from the hurt deep inside from verbal abuse, from being told I won’t amount to anything, can’t do anything right, you must stay thin or your man will leave, enjoy life now because once you grow old blah blah blah

Unfortunately, not knowing who I was in God, I believed and accepted these things into my life.

There were all kinds of people that took advantage of this and more abuse came. I thought I deserved it until I met God and He has shown me through His word and through my husband just how special and loved I am. That I am who God says I am and no longer have to believe the lies of other hurting people.

With that said, for several days now I have felt angry and hurt not knowing why. So I began to pray and darn it if my husband didn’t notice something was wrong and it irritated him and yep we had a spat but these are few and far between and we know it’s not going to bring up the D word!! We know because of who we are in Christ and that we want to love and honor God and we are committed to each other,  we will defeat the enemy this time too!

Anyway, anxiety/dizziness/lack of confidence began to creep it’s way back in – big flag for me because it’s been years!

As I prayed and the Lord began to show me things I now see that there is still a very deep hurt in me that has never been healed, never really released it’s just been covered over as I keep a smile on my face. One of my deepest hurts in our youngest daughter walking away from her family and this brings up those old lies that I thought had been put to rest.

God has healed me of so many things and they have been in stages because if He shows me everything at once He knows I could not handle it. Therefore, I’m grateful for the times of rest before we begin another cleansing, which gives me another testimony and hopefully helps someone else as it helps me.

So here I go on a journey of letting go of hurtful words that most people have no idea wounded me. And that I never should have allowed to get so deep inside me, to open up that wound again. So there is no pointing of my finger because I’ve heard it said when you point one finger forward the other 3 are pointing back at you. And I believe if we take this attitude with our brothers and sisters in Christ we will see a great advancement in His kingdom. The gossip and backbiting would stop and we would all truly work together to do what He has called us to do. We may have different personalities, likes and dislikes, different levels on our spiritual walk BUT we have a common goal…..opps I got off on another topic J maybe I’ll do one on working together in the church, what I have, what I am learning!

So whether it’s an unbeliever or a believer that speak unkind words I must remember it is not an attack on me. We all have bad days, things that have happened to us that open wounds that have not healed completely – I need to remember this could be happening to them as well. They could have  received bad news, something I did or said could have triggered a bad memory in them,  you never know what is going on.

If I know God’s Word and can pray it, speak it and forgive then that wound is going to heal, completely and that is what I want!

So I will remember Psalm 31:19-21

Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere, and worship You, goodness which You have wrought for those who trust and take refuge in You before the sons of men! In the secret place of Your presence You hide them from the plots of men; You keep them secretly in Your pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord! For He has shown me His marvelous loving favor when I was beset as in a besieged city.

And

Psalm 32:7

You are a hiding place for me; You, Lord, preserve me from trouble, You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

I was reading a book and this really jumped out at me, ‘Whether we talk to ourselves or others, speaking evil or negative words that do not agree with God’s Word can create bondage. Words that others speak about us or write against us – if we agree with them – keep us in bondage!’  From A Woman’s Guide to Breaking Bondages

Proverbs 12:18

There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

The words we speak can be a blessing or a curse, we can bring healing or hurt in the words we speak- whether to the person or behind their backs.

Proverbs 18:21a

¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue

I could go on and on but will close with

Isaiah 54:17

But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.

And a prayer from the above mentioned book.

Lord Jesus, You knew rejection, abandonment, pain and betrayal by those close to you. So you can identify with my hurts and wounds. Yet, Lord, as you hung on that cross, bleeding and dying from wounds you didn’t deserve, You actually asked Your Father to forgive Your offenders. Lord, please help me to forgive each person who has abused, rejected, or cursed me. Right now I honestly don’t feel some of them deserve forgiveness. But because I want my relationship with You to be right, I choose to forgive and set myself free. (help me love them as you love them – I added this). Lord, I ask you to heal my painful memories. Help me to anticipate with joy what you have in store for my life, now that I’m on the road to healing. Your Word says you complete the work you start. Thank you that you will finish my healing, and that you will never leave me nor forsake me. Amen

A Marriage Journey

My husband and I are thinking about doing a video together on our marriage adventures. If we were to put several together, what would you like to hear us share?

I can tell you we've been through our share of frustrations, control, anger, tears and confusion. Even now we have something very hurtful going on in our family, but God is amazing even through this. Now 26 years later (together for 29 years), we are so very blessed with an amazing marriage. It has and will continue to withstand all the world throws at us.

We have thought about sharing our adventure of praying together. What a disaster that was in the beginning, but God even used that! We had someone about fall out of their chair when my husband shared a portion of his prayer in our 'early' days.

So with that said, please share my blog with others and leave some ideas.
Thank you!

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Mark 10:7-9