Power Outage

Storm coming through Sunday evening about 6:00 P.M..

First I speak to the storm,

“Peace to the storm! God send Your angles to protect us here keep us safe and our daughter wherever she is.”

I am taken by surprise with the power shutting off. Something in my spirit knows it isn’t coming on anytime soon. I ask Bart,

“Can you get the frozen milk out of the downstairs freezer and put it in the fridge?”

I have one request for God,

“God, please save our food.”

We get a call from our daughter saying she is safe but was almost hit by the marathon awning.

Bart and I go for a walk in the dark noticing the places with generators and some with emergency lights. We can see street lights down the road and the McDonald’s restaurant has power.

Not seeing any danger I put on running clothes and head out the door. It is a little freaky how dark some places are while others are lit up as normal. We know since it is spotty power outages here that we won’t be the first place receiving power.

We find candles to help us walk from room to room and I am wishing my computer had been charged to give me something to do. Reading by flashlight or candle is not easy. Thankfully my iPad is charged and I have Joyce Meyer’s podcast downloaded for days like this.

In the morning we find out we might have power about midnight so I start thinking of places to charge batteries. Driving home from an appointment I am planing to buy ice to keep the fridge cold enough but I receive a phone call from Bart saying,

“The power is back on, we don’t need ice!”

Returning home I quickly check the temperature in the fridge and freezer, everything looks good and even the ice cream is still ice cream.

“Thank You Jesus!”

I started this story on April 1 and the storm was March 30, today is April 16. The people in Northern Michigan who had the ice storm still don’t have power.

I am thankful we have power and pray for those without.

Words have Power, Prayer is Powerful so Speak Life, ask God’s Angels for Protection, and most of all PRAY TO GOD OUR FATHER WHO LOVES US! AMEN!

 

 

Return to Running

Today is day 2 of my first 30 days of running!

I know running has been one of my things for 15 years but the last 5 years especially have gone from infrequent to almost nonexistent.

My body weakened so much so that going to church for a few hours and sitting up in their chairs would take me out for a day.

HOPE FOR A NEW FUTURE

Sometime in December God gave me the Wisdom to not wait to be successful at running to exercise building muscle. His challenge began with exercise every night before bed; starting with a 1 minute plank and 12 push-ups.

The hard work of moving a ladder around to get Christmas lights down strengthened my body noticeably! My plank grew to 2 minutes  and my push-ups increased to 25! This totally shocked me!

The difference is showing up in places like going to watch a movie in the theater! Last Year I went to watch, “The Chosen” in the theater lasting 2 and 3 hours. My body could hardly make it through the movie and it took me out for many days. This year “The Chosen” has returned to the theater with out any problems!

God is so good!

I Believe the return of DAILY RUNNING starts today!

GOD IS SO VERY GOOD!

Devotion

Devotion: What is it? Does it exist today?
I noticed Charlie paying complete attention to his master who happens to be eating.

His hope is something will drop rewarding him for his attention.

He may not get a treat now but just being at the feet of his master is enough to fill Charlie with contentment.

The dictionary suggests devotion is an act of worship and prayer or an act of dedication to a cause.

When I saw Charlie so attentive today I thought of God The Father who gave His Only Son to clear the way for us to be in relationship with Him.

He gave all because He wants our love and devotion.

How often do we respond to His goodness with our love and devotion?

Jesus Already Paid

We survive Y2K, now we are set to move!

We are selling the house in Florida and buying a couple acres in Kentucky.

Surprise, all of a suddenly a pain in my tailbone shows up. Sitting and standing both become difficult!

“God, You have to do something, I need to be able to take care of this house and yard we are buying!”

“Justine, When you take your daughter to the radio station to give her offering, ask them to pray for your healing.”

Arriving at the radio station, we enter the building unsure where to go. Finding our way to the announcer we wait until she is done announcing the next song.

Getting  past the awkward moment she assumes my daughter wants to empty her purse, I mention.

 “God told me to ask you to pray for healing.”

We stand in a circle and she prays over me. Nothing happens we offer thanks and leave the building. Opening the door to the outside I question God!

“What’s up God? You told me to come here and have them pray for me, and I did! Nothing happened! What’s up?”

“Jesus already paid! You don’t have to pay!”

By the time I reach my vehicle the pain is gone!

Fifteen years earlier a thought enters my mind.

I deserve to hurt because I didn’t listen!

God doesn’t make us pay!

JESUS ALREADY PAID!

John 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

JOHN 19:30b Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Healing Exposes Creativity

Walking in the fresh snow Bart is walking faster then I am able. This gives me the ability to see the foot patterns in the fresh 4 inches of snow left by Bart and Charlie.

Later we switch to walking in the street’s tire tracks making it easier to walk.

This cross tire tracks catch my attention and I stop to take a picture.

Checking to see if cropping  the picture improves it or not? What do you think?

 

 

The screenshots at the bottom looked better on my phone. The colors pop and just look beautiful.

This game has shown me how I think color and pattern and my husband thinks numbers. Every once and a while they will have the exact same pattern only flipped and I will wonder why being upside down would be so much harder.

The answer came from Bart. He sees they increased the numbers explaining the reason it is harder.

What does all this have to do with healing? Spending most of my life protecting myself from life, all my creativity was shut down. As I am being set free from protecting myself my brain is opening up to the creativity I was born with.

GOD IS SO VERY GOOD!

Screensh
Screenshot

True Understanding of a Miracle

I heard a news article about a women who lived through a horrible accident in her young adulthood. Her life was saved but her financial life was killed because of the great amount of unpaid medical bills.

Forty years ago I had a horrible accident,

but God prepared me for it.

Eighteen months after being filled with God’s LOVE, He kept me reading Joshua 1 for six weeks. This is where God teaches Joshua to “Be Strong and Courageous” five times total.

Not only do I read this over and over but I also listen continuously to the song, “Be Strong and Courageous” by Michael W. Smith.

The end of July, my friends and I are planning to camp in Canada as part of a church retreat. Days before the camping trip, God prepares me with something else I am going to need. He uses a good friend to suggest I buy health insurance for just $25. (this is 40 years ago) It is in my price range so I agree and buy it.

The women drive in vehicles and the men drive motorcycles. The day after we arrive at camp God impressed upon me the power in a motorcycle, but instead of listen to His warning I go in my tent and write my prayer.

“I don’t care what You say, I’m going to buy a motorcycle and go cross country driving it.”

The next moment the guys suggest driving through the park on motorcycles, and all the girls join them.

As we start back to the camp, the guy I am riding with takes notice my fear and slows down.  Soon he realizes we are falling behind, and speeds up just as we approach a blind curve. He cannot stay in his lane and chooses to put the bike down. Both the bike and station wagon are totaled the driver flies 40 feet and breaks a leg and I am thrown off the motorcycle into a station wagon with a 65 mph impact.

God prepares the scene with an ambulance at the entrance of the park but the nearest hospital is an hour away, and they reject me because I am very broken.

These are the days before helicopter ambulances so it is an ambulance van driving me to Winnipeg, Manitoba. I spend 7 days in the ICU fighting to live and another week learning to walk again.

Mom says, “It is a flat $500 bill for each day which is great in the ICU but very high for a normal room.”

The price of my insurance goes up just after my accident, thankfully my friend pays to keep me covered as I fight to live.

My brother, who doesn’t want to be in the hospital, takes me outside in a wheelchair when I am out of ICU. The downtown sidewalks are very broken and my body is feeling every bounce of the lumpy sidewalk. When we go back to my room I notice a bone is moving that is not suppose to move. I am too afraid to say anything.

My physical therapist says to the doctor, “She is hurting more than expected, you need to check her broken bones again.”

The X-Ray exposes the three breaks in my pelvic bone have moved. I need my leg in traction. My parents decide to transfer me to the states so my friends can visit me. This drive is in the back of a station wagon with a milk laced with morphine in case I need pain medicine. Canada does things a bit different than the states.

I have a couple more surgeries before I get out of the hospital and my insurance pays all but $100.

A few years ago, my sister asks,” How did you pay for your accident?”

That was the first time in a long time that I have thought about it.

This week the news report brought into focus that God gave me one more miracle than I knew.

GOD IS SO GOOD!

How many miracles have you been given that you thought was good luck?

Ponder with me the possibility that God is at work to do Good in your life and mine?

Catching Up Turns

Sending a text about Happy New Year turned

to accusing  Joyce Meyer of being a cult leader.

Anger arose as I hear someone compare Joyce, who was sexually assaulted for 15 years as a child, to Warren Jeffs who sexually assaults children.

Doing my best to not take offense I ask, “What is your definition of a cult leader?”

He says, “when the followers die for the leader.”

I’m thinking he puts God in this category when God sends Elijah to a widow and tells her to feed Elijah her last meal before cooking for herself and her son. 1 Kings 17:13-16

Or when Jesus is watching people put money in the offering and He praises the widow who puts in her last two copper coins. Mark 12:41-44

I have no idea what cults have to do with Joyce Meyer who teaches people to grow up in Jesus and forgive those who abuse you Matthew 6:14, and do good to those who hurt you, Matthew 6:44.

She does have a ministry “Hand of Hope” which feeds the hungry, opens orphanages to give children safe home and food and education, saves women who have been trafficked, helps with disaster relief, brings doctors together to heal in places without doctors, digs water wells so women don’t have to walk miles for dirty dangerous water, and so much more.

I first found Joyce Meyer in the late 90’s when she taught me to forgive my dad who kidnapped and trafficked me.

Then I learn from Joyce to bring my worries to God instead of getting on the phone and calling every person I know, to release my stress. Not only did this knowledge help with friendships but it also gives me peace of mind.

I no longer have thoughts

constantly

running  through my mind!

God says in 1 Corinthians 9:14 that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel, and Galatians 6:6 says let the one who is taught the Word share all good things with the one who teaches.

THANKFULL, I  am a partner of Joyce Meyer Ministries for over 25 years, JOYFULLY I start to volunteering at her conferences after God heals my broken spine and gives me nerves to gain muscle.

Aside from Being filled with God’s LOVE, meeting my husband, adopting our daughter, and Mom rescuing me: FINDING JOYCE MEYER on TV CONTINUES TO MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT IN MY DAILY LIVING.

GOD IS SO VERY GOOD!

From Selfish to Generous

A selfish soul transforms into a generous person!

One day, while working the 2nd shift at The Pony Soldier motel I order a pizza. It happens to be a day I’m training a new person. I do not allow the person have any of MY PIZZA! I NEED to bring the extra home to feed my husband.

I have no compassion for the person working with me who has not eaten all day.

This makes me cringe realizing how selfish or self protecting I am. Why I am not able feel the other person’s pain? Is my pain so large not to see others?

Other places selfishness shows up is when my husband wanted to give to church, I disagreed with him even though I am the strong Christian, praying and studying my Bible daily.

As a kid I spend $.25 for a Bazooka bubble gum and allow myself about a half to an inch to chew of the foot long gum. I need to save it in case I might not be able to buy it again.

When friends asked for a piece of gum, I give them exactly what I give myself and they call me stingy.

How does God breaks this fear of not enough?

A few years after my failure to share, we adopt our daughter and move across the country for employment. While Bart works out of the house, a neighbor sets me up to babysit a baby for $80 a week. Another neighbor asks me to let their dogs out every day for $25 a week.

One day while doing dishes I hear someone on the radio speak about tithing. My brain thinks that is $8 of my $80 of my food money! I cannot give away my food money!

That day, God takes away my babysitting job.

I catch on quickly and start putting away $2.50 from the money I am still making from dog sitting.

Soon, a mother wants me to watch her child who happens to be my daughter’s age of 3.5 years old.  This mother doesn’t appreciate the $80 I am charging, she bumps it up to $90! Later, she calls back and bumps it up to $100 a week.

God gives enough money to tithe 10% and sill have $10 more than before!

Not only does God do this wonderful thing, but He gives me back the baby so I am earning $180 every week plus the dog money.

Lesson learned!

GOD IS GOOD!

The Promise of a Penny

Trust God and fear not!

Suddenly, I notice a new bill in my email. This monthly bill of $5.00 doesn’t sound big, but when counting food money it will pay for a gallon of milk or a carton of eggs.

Doing my best to not worry, I ask God for help and head out to a doctor’s appointment.

Leaving, I take the elevator and grab the bar when it moves. Suddenly, I see is something falling like paper sticker flipping over and over as it falls to the ground.

Bending over I see a penny!

God sends a penny our of thin air to tell me, “I have it! Don’t worry things are going to work out!”

God is so Very Good.

 

Let It Be DONE as You Believe

The Israelite’s in the desert feared death when God spoke.

They passed up knowing God and depended on Moses, leading them to drop God for the gods of the neighbors as soon as Joshua died.

It took them being shipped off for 70 years to Babylon to seriously seek God and the Law.

When Jesus shows up He tries to help them grow in their faith and often He says, “Let it be as you believe.” Matthew 8:13; Luke 8:48 says, “it was your faith that healed you.”

Jesus fills me with Holy Spirit when I ask for what my new friends have. I see they have more than I do. He fills me with LOVE, JOY, and the desire to devour the Bible daily.

The church we left started to teach that much of scripture was made up. They lost the belief in the POWER of GOD .

Life changes when we Believe in power of God, His Word, Holy Spirit, and The Name of Jesus!

Matthew 10:8 says heal the sick raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you receive freely give.

Mark 16:17 says, these signs will accompany those who have believed; In My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

DO YOU BELIEVE THESE VERSES APPLY TODAY?

I believe The Word of God is True and has Power to protect and change lives!

Try stepping out of your comfort zone and pray for someone with a need in the moment.

God Blesses us Because He LOVES US!

He also wants us to help other people find healing in Jesus.

God Bless you with the Joy of The LORD throughout your day! Amen.