OVERS!!!!!

I remember as a child playing a game or trying to make an image in the sand or trying to build something and when it didn't turn out as we planned we would yell "OVERS" and try it again.
There are times in life when we can have 'overs' when the outcome isn't what we anticipated.

Yet there are times in life when things are final and no 'overs' are granted. Yesterday was a day I truly wished we could have overs. Someone we loved very much in a moment of despair and anger decided to take his own life. In just a split second, he's gone. In death, there are no overs. It's final. If only we could have overs, so much would be said. If we could have forseen the outcome of that day, he would still be here living today.

Yesterday, when so many hearts were broken, and a life ended on earth, the birds did not quit singing, the sun did not stop shining, and the flowers did not stop blooming. The living keep on living because God is life. Those he left behind will go on living but with a void in our life and with much sorrow for a long time. I know if he could see the outcome of his decision, he would want overs too.

I thank God that He is so merciful even when we experience the death of a loved one. Because He is life....and in our sorrow, we still experience life all around us. Children laughing, birds singing, flowers blooming and tomorrow the sun will rise again.

Once a day is gone, you will never experience that day again. But oh how I wish we could have overs for yesterday.

The Book Is Still Open For Membership

When I got married almost 35 years ago, I moved from my hometown to my husband's hometown. Although I visit my hometown quite frequently, I lost contact with so many people I used to know. Recently I joined Facebook and have been getting in contact with so many people that I knew and grew up with. It has been so exciting to see pictures of friends and family and to talk with them and get re-aquainted. To be able to type in a name and find someone I had forgotten about for years and to make contact with them and find out about their lives...what they are doing now.....how many children and grandchildren they now have.

Facebook has not only been a way to find someone I used to know, but it has been a way to express my faith in God with others and they with me. It has been a way to let some of them know how important they were in my life. One friend in particular named Karron, I was able to let her know how much I loved art class with her in Jr. High. She was a pastor's daughter and everyday when we got in art class, she would start telling us about different things in the Bible. Karron played an important part in my love for the Lord.

Facebook......it reminds me of another book that will one day soon be opened. The Book of Life! Will I be able to check this book in heaven to find family and friends to see if they made it?????

What joy I will experience when I make contact with them!!! I'll be able to sit down with them and tell them how they made a difference in my life just as I told Karron a few days ago.

Facebook....it reminds me of that Book of Life that my name is written in and because of that I will soon see Jesus face to face in person and not on a computer.

Revelation 20:12...And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

Revelation 20:15...And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Facebook.....what a wonderful way to tell all my friends and family about Jesus and about another book they need to join.. The Book Of Life!

I pray that all you that read this will have your name inscribed in the Book Of Life and someday we will get to meet each other face to face.

Little Prayer Warrior

I couldn't resist posting this one!! Abigail Hope had her first pictures taken with a photographer and she wasn't even a month old at the time of this snapshot. When I saw the picture I couldn't believe it. Her mother Brandi, my daughter-in-love, said that when the photographer got ready to snap the picture, Abigail raised her hands and put them together as if praying.

Like Feathers in the Wind

In a small Jewish village in the Ukraine, a young man became angry with the rabbi. In his anger, he shared a lie with one friend, speaking evil of the rabbi. As is typical, particularly in a small town, the one man told another, who told his wife, who told her sister, and eventually the rabbi himself heard the story. The rabbi was deeply hurt by the lies being told; but could do nothing to counter the now widespread story.

After a few weeks, the young man realized he had been wrong to be angry at the rabbi, and even more wrong to have told the story about the rabbi. With a truly repentant heart, he went to the rabbi and confessed both his anger and the lie he had told. He offered to do anything to repair the damage he had done. The rabbi offered the young man one simple task. The young man was overjoyed and gladly asked what he must do. The rabbi told him to go home and get a feather pillow, take it to the center of town on a windy day, and cut it open. Once all the feathers had been scattered by the wind, he told the young man to simply walk around and gather up each and every feather and return it to the pillow case.

The young man's countenance dropped, and he told the rabbi that such an assignment was impossible. The rabbi shook his head and told the young man that just as it was impossible to regather the feathers, so it was impossible to regather the lie he had spread. The Rabbi could and would forgive the young man, but the damage could never be completely undone.

(Whenever you speak evil of another, three people are hurt. First, the person you are speaking about is hurt. Second, you hurt yourself when you speak evil about another. You pollute your own thoughts by focusing on the evil, and you also tarnish your image, as people come to know you as one who spreads a bad report--a gossip. Third, you hurt the person you tell. You pollute their mind and their image of the other person, and you tempt them to continue the gossip train and share this same evil report with others. Remember, all three people are damaged, even if the evil report is true!)

The rabbis teach that the only time it is permissible to share an evil truth, or we might say "bad report," about someone is when not doing so will cause damage to the person you might tell.

Story taken from BRIDGES FOR PEACE Israel Teaching Letter titled GUARD YOUR TONGUE.

Resurrection Thoughts

I was reading Ginger's post today at http://onemomsheart.blogspot.com/ . Just a simple post sign reading 'Jesus is Risen' then underneath was Luke 24:5-6. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen."

I have a window next to my computer and was looking out the window thinking about this scripture. Outside I see dead grass with green grass coming in here and there. I see flowers coming up through what was not long ago a dead looking yard. I see what was dead looking trees with green leaves coming out from them.

Our nature is to look with anticipation at what once looked dead for new life. We do seek the living among what once looked dead. We have hope every year that life will spring forth once again in the spring just as Jesus sprung forth in the spring from life to death to life again.

Isn't it amazing at God's timing for His resurrection. Not in the winter, summer, or fall, but in the spring when the plants are being resurrected. When birds are coming back to inhabit our area they not long ago fled from.

In the spring there is an aroma in the air of the flowers and trees blooming. There is singing of many birds. There is hope being manifested everywhere and we can experience it with all our senses.... sight, sound, smell, touch, singing. That was God's plan all along. For us to 'experience' the resurrection of Jesus with our all. At a time when hope is being manifested all around us. It was in His plan from the beginning of time and not just a happenstance.

Yes, I believe that God has put it in our nature to seek the living among the dead knowing of that hope of resurrection that will come soon in the things around us. And because of what is happening around us.....He has put in all of us to know that there is a God and NO ONE will be able to say they didn't know.

I pray for each of you that read this for 'life' to spring forth in what looked dead........your health, finances, relationships, whatever it may be that you need right now. Look for that Resurrection Power in your situation that looks dead to come to life as you watch that grass turn green and the flowers appear again.

Blessings during this Season of Resurrection Power!!!

HOPE HAS ARRIVED!!!

Abigail Hope arrived March 31st and weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. She is my son Jeramy's first child and my second grandchild. She was born on my daughter's birthday. I posted about God's appointed Seasons in my previous post and this is just an example with Abigail being born on Amanda's birthday.

I had gone down to the flower shop at the hospital to look around and couldn't believe what I found. The exact planter that was sent to me in the hospital twenty eight years before when I had my daughter. It was a pink train engine with flowers. I told the lady checking me out that this same planter had been sent to me 28 years ago when I had my daughter (in a different city) and I was sending it to my daughter-in-love and son who had just had their first daughter. (I was so excited, I forgot to take a picture of the planter.)

My daughter Amanda Gayle, her daughter Allison (who happened to be born on her great-great grandfathers birthday) and Abigail.

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES........was a previous post about my grand-daughter Allison asking Jesus for a baby sister. As I said, my daughter was not going to have another child because of all the complications she had during her pregnancy with Allison. Well....... Jesus heard that prayer and Amanda will be having her second child in August. She was told it would be a boy and we are having to explain to Allison that Jesus wants her to have a brother not a sister.

She is half way to her due date and is doing well Praise the Lord!!!! She is seeing a High-Risk Dr. and they are keeping a close eye on her.

The Lord is tripling our grand-children in one year. I feel like Isaac when he sowed and reaped in the same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. I'm very over-welmed right now!!!

Appointed Seasons

Monday March 29-2010
Since starting a Home Bible Study a year ago, the biggest topics have been 'God's Appointed Times'. As I look back over my life, I can see that God has had 'Appointed Times' for me and I'm sure that He has had 'Appointed Times' for everyone but not everyone has realized them.

One of those 'appointed times' has been my birthday in March. Many years ago, my sister gave me this doll for my birthday. Her name was Sister Faith and she was carrying a scroll that said 'Amazing Grace' which is my favorite old song and 'The Old Rugged Cross'. What my sister doesn't know is how that doll has impacted my life and blessed me over the years. That is why my blog is called Sister.Faith.

As I look back over the years at my birthdays, I came to realize that it isn't just a time to celebrate when I was born, but a time to celebrate 'Appointments with God'. One of those 'appointments' was a name 'Sister Faith' that would be used years later. Last year it was the birth of a Bible Study, and this year it was the birth of a Prayer Shawl Ministry. There were many other 'appointments' that I have remembered that always happened around my birthday.

Coincidence????? I don't believe in coincidences!!!!!!

God has blessed me with so many 'Good Friends'. I'm a little late on posting but here are pics on my birthday March 6th. These are gifts from the Bible Study Group. We call ourselves 'Third Day Sisters' because we meet on Tuesday the 3rd day. And the 3rd day was double blessed during the time of creation. It was the only day that God said "It was good" twice.



And the beautiful cake my birth sister Norma bought me.

It made it even more special since she was the one that gave me the doll years ago called Sister Faith.

Tonight at sunset begins the first appointed time on the Hebrew Calendar that God set to meet with Him. It is Passover! (Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23) Next Sunday, we as Christians will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the best appointed time in all history and in our own personal lives!!!