At The Foot Of The Cross

The book of Galatians speaks intensively about the chains which “the Law” binds us with. The Law of the Old Testament was very strict & rugged, there is no way possible anyone could follow the Law perfectly.

Galatians 2:16b points out

“no one can be made right with God by following the law.”

and quickly follows up with verse 21b

“if the law could make us right with God, then Christ’s death would be useless.”

 

Christ’s death freed us from the Law, it gave us the grace we needed in order to be in right standing in the eyes of the Father.

Many will question, why the Law was even given if it is so strict and not life giving?

Galatians 3:19-20 answers the very question

“It was given to show that the wrong things people do are against God’s will. And it continued until the special descendant, who had been promised, came. The law was given through angels who used Moses for a mediator^[a] to give the law to people.20 But a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is only one.”

 

The Law was given to keep us all in line, but now we have a direct connection to the Father through the Spirit. The Spirit can now be our guide instead of the Law.

The Law cannot bring life, only the Spirit of God and a relationship with him can bring about everlasting life.

 

One of the perks of having a relationship with Christ is the inheritance we are now entitled to receive. Abraham was the first to receive an inheritance from God, and “all who believe as Abraham believed are blessed just as Abraham was.”

Those of us whom are in Christ are “all Children of God“. As a child, we are to receive blessings and an inheritance, the same blessings which God gave and promised to Abraham and his descendant.  

Repeatedly Paul states in Galatians whom we are in Christ. We are his Children! We are his descendants! We are those whom receive the blessings and inheritance!

Paul even goes as far as comparing us to Issac! We are to God, what Issac was to Abraham & Sarah.

 

If we could fully grasp the blessing God has allotted to us, our lives would be changed! There is a freedom that comes with the understanding of who we are in Christ. The blessings are waiting there for us, we simply have to ask and believe.

 

I want to encourage everyone to claim the blessings God has waiting for them. May we all received a deeper level of understanding about whom we are. May our eyes be opened! May the spirit of deception be removed from our lives. Command the lies of the enemy to cease! Listen intensely for the voice of the Lord, and follow him. He has blessing waiting for you.

The past  years, few years several people have asked me how to keep worms out of their fruit trees. The majority do not want the yearly expense of paying to have their trees sprayed in the spring.

My Grandmother, whom is 86, has used a natural “worm killer” in her trees every year, and seldom had a problem with worms.

To keep the Worms out of your fruit trees follow these simple steps.

Clean a couple of gallon size plastic milk jugs. Cut a large hole on the side of each one.

In each jug place:

• 1 Banana Peel
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (make sure it’s the real stuff)
• 1/2 Gallon Water

Make sure everything is mixed very well.

Place a string through the jug handle and hang in your fruit tree.

In a Medium or Dwarf tree you’ll need at least 3 jugs. In a regular size tree, place at least 4.

The bugs/worms will end up in the jug, and not in your fruit.

When the jug is full of bugs, remove and add another jug.

During the summer time I will typically add a jug anytime the old ones dry up or end up full of bugs/worms.

 

If you follow this simple recipe you will not have troubles with worms in your fruit!

The Motions by Mathew West

Encouraging everyone to give it all

Abortion truly hurts women.

I know it’s hard for the anti-life people like Planned Parenthood to admit this, but it’s true. I understand Planned Parenthood doesn’t want to jeopardize their $1,000,000,000 (yep, that Billion, 9 zeros) a year income. Especially since the American taxpayers subside Planned Parenthood to the tune of $335 Million a year. But, the fact remains, ABORTION HURTS WOMEN!

 

This past weekend my brother-in-law stopped by and chatted for a while with my husband and me. He was telling my husband how a mutual acquaintance of theirs from Iowa had an abortion a few years ago. This woman has been tormented since the day the abortion happened.

 

Since the abortion she has nightmares on a regular basis. She keeps seeing the face of her baby. She has become a “raging alcoholic” and a cocaine addict. She has trouble going into stores because anytime she sees baby clothes she zones out and cries. She will stand in front of a rack of baby clothes and just stare at them……. Knowing the clothes would have fit her baby.

 

ABORTION HURTS WOMEN!

 

Any women suffering from their abortion, I encourage them to seek healing and help. The Alpha Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has the resources available to help you heal from the trauma you have been through.

 

 

 

 

This morning I woke up a little bit earlier than normal, 1:30am. I started my morning by attacking my growing mountain of mail. I was half way through when it was time to leave for the gym. At 5am as I drove down Interstate 29 the skies were clear. You could see for miles!

Fast forward two hours, as I left the gym it was weird. On one side of the road there was a minute amount of haze, on the other side, there was fog everywhere! You could heardly see a block.

The foggy haze at 7am

I took this picture one I arrived at the shop.

It’s 8:30am, and the fog is all gone. Amazing how the weather can change in a few short hours. I’m not just referring to fog, but also to tornadoes, hurricanes, etc…

 

The last week has been extremely difficult. I’ve been getting attacked on all sides possible: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

 

Physically:

I’m currently taking 15mg of Prednisone each day to treat Sarcoid. The medication must be taken with food, and a few days I forgot to take them. The three days I did not take my medication I felt wonderful. I had more energy. I was able to sleep at night. I was able to focus on the tasks at hand.

At church on Sunday, I asked a doctor friend of mine about the Prednisone, and if I could stop taking the medication. It was strongly recommended I continue to take the medication. I started taking the medication again on Sunday, and have felt terrible since.

I struggle with insomnia worse than before. No matter what time I go to sleep at night, I wake up at 2am. After my 2am wake up, I am unable to fall back asleep till 5-6am. I have tried to make the best of my early start of the day. I’ve been able to read the Bible more, clean up the house, vacuum, catch up on my blog readings, even started going to the gym again (at 5:30am).

            I’m still so physically exhausted and the battle against the bulge isn’t going any better.

 

Emotionally & Mentally:

            The enemy has been on the attack, unfortuanately I must be the “person of the week”. I had an altercation with a friend Sunday morning. It took a couple hours for me to emotionally and mentally work through everything. By lunch time, I was fine with the situation and held no hard feelings against my friend. In fact, I even went out to each lunch with her after church.

It was after church the real battle started. Someone very close to me has started speaking negative words over my life. The first day or two I was strong enough to fight the fight, but my emotions are so broken down now. I don’t know how to fight anymore. This person keeps pounding me and repeating over and over “You’re an angry person”.

I’ve tried talking to the person. I’ve tried explaining how my emotions can be misread at times. What this person preserves as “anger” is actually the emotion of “pain and hurt”. Nothing I say, or do will change this person’s opinion of me. It’s a constant struggle to try and fight. To fight for whom I know I am in Christ. But, I’m not succeeding. Every day I’m told, I’m an “angry person” and I have “issues I need to deal with”. After this person beats me up, they continue on their day…. as if nothing has happened.

I’ve dealt with rejection most of my life. Since going through Cleansing Streams two years ago, I have made significant progress. I was able to come out of my shell……. In the last week I’ve retreated back into my protective shell. I don’t know what else to do. I keep calling out to Jesus for help. I keep putting one foot in front of the other, but I’m so discouraged right now. I just want to sit and cry.

 

 

Spiritually:

            The only thing that has been a bright light has been this song. When I sing this song I feel the arms of God surround me, and am reminded who I am in Christ. As soon as the song ends, the battle begins.

            I first heard this song sung by Rick Pino during a broadcast of the Florida Outpouring. It also has a special place in my heart because I love flowers. Right now I’m working on putting in a massive flower bed. Yesterday I spent approximately 5 hours planting over 100 bulbs which will produce beautiful flowers in the spring. I still have another 100 bulbs to plant on the other side of my walk way, and a new area to plant Iris’ which have been past down to me from my Grandmother.

Lord, I pray you give me the strength to continue to fight the battle I find myself in. May my heart of worship grow stronger during this time. May I come to rely more on you, and less on myself. May I always be conscience of the word I speak. May I speak words of life over my life and those around me. Take away any negative thought and mindset I have. Make me more like you.

The 2008 LifeLight Music Festival has come to a close. It was a busy three days at the Wild Water West location just outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Big thanks to everyone who attended the festival. It was wonderful to see so many people in attendance.

As a food vendor at LifeLight, thanks to all who stopped by and ate some of our yummy Kettle Corn! It was a pleasure to help make LifeLight a success.

We started prepping for LifeLight back in May. As the festival approached we increased our focus. Signs needed to be made, paperwork filed with the South Dakota Department of Health were taken care of, and the day before the festival, the real work began. We started setting up on Thursday, and finished tearing down at 2am on Monday, September 1st. During the festival we put in 16 hour work days. It was refreshing not to have any rain (or mud) to deal with this year.

Friday night was slow compared to previous years. I’m not sure if it was due to the day, or due to the bands playing on the main stage. Saturday was an extremely busy day. Michael W. Smith was a huge hit with fans of all ages. We were busy on Saturday night to the point of where, we sold out of Strawberry Smoothies and Kettle Corn. Our apologies to all. Sunday night was also busy, but we were better prepared. We started popping Kettle Corn on noon on Sunday, and with the except of a few minutes here and there, did not stop popping until 11pmish. While we did not sell out of Kettle Corn or Cotton Candy, we were sold out of Strawberry Smoothies by 10:30pmish.

Due to traffic, it would have been pointless to leave right away after Casting Crowns finished playing. We did pack up everything for our booth, and left the festival grounds shortly after 2am. It was a relief to have everything taken care of Sunday night/Monday morning so we did not have to return to finish tearing down.

We had excellent neighbors during LifeLight. Our hats go off to those with the “Indian Taco” booth next to us. You were amazing neighbors, and we hope and pray we are located next to you at next years festival.

 

Overall, we had an wonderful time at LifeLight, and hope to see everyone again next year.

This past week I have been spending 12+ hour at the Sioux Empire Fair in the Expo building. We have a booth I have been taking care of. As I have observed those walking around I notice very few people wearing a “vote NO on 11″ stickers or buttons.

Those who are wear “vote NO” stickers typically fall into two very distinct categories:

1.  They are young kids….. 14 and under….. who are wearing both a Dykstra and a Johnson sticker (whom are running against each other for US Senate). Many times they are wearing a “Yes on 11″ sticker as well.
2. The second category is women over the age of 40 (and possibly over the age of 50). I have yet to see a man over 30 wearing a “vote No” sticker.

 

I am baffled as to why it is predominately those from my parents generation who support abortion?

 

I will admit I have seen a few young people (ages 20-30) wearing “vote NO” stickers, but they either paid staff or volunteers for the Campaign for UNhealthy Families…..

 

Planned Parenthood does have a booth at the Fair…. I’m wondering…. If I approached them and asked for help getting pregnant and carrying my pregnancy to term, what would their response be? After all, they do call themselves “Planned” Parenthood…….

Approximately 4 weeks ago my ankles suddenly began retaining fluid. Not just any fluid but lymphatic fluid. Nothing had changed in my diet, nothing had changed in life. I tried all the usual remedies for helping my poor feet. At first I assumed I had sprained my ankles, so I used ice packs…. which did not help. I tried using heat…. didn’t help either. I tried new insoles for my shoes…. big mistake. The insoles only made my feet hurt worse. I tried elevating my feet… still didn’t help any. My ankles and feet were the same size when I woke up in the morning, as they were in the evening….. something was seriously wrong. I had also developed a dry hacking cough.

After a week of swollen ankles I sought out the help of the medical field. I went to see my Primary Care Physician (PCP). After looking at my ankles he determined I must have thyroid issues, especially due to the family history of thyroid issues. They drew blood to run tests and would call me with the results the next day. The test results came back negative for any thyroid conditions…. the diagnosis was to take 3 ibuprofen 3 times a day……. I doubted ibuprofen was the answer to the problem.

I consulted others in the medical profession who also had their doubts about the ibuprofen remedy. I stopped taking the ibuprofen shortly there after. Especially after noticing the warning on the bottle advising against pregnant and breast feeding mothers from taking the medication.

My condition continued to deteriorate for the next two weeks. With each passing day my feet were becoming more enlarged from the fluid retention. It became so bad I was no longer able to wear my tennis shoes…. eventually my sandals were unable to fit on my feet. My women’s size 8 1/2 feet were so large I could only fit into a men’s size 12 flip flop…. even then the straps cut into the top of my feet causing pain. Around the same time the swelling was moving up my legs toward my knees. My knees became sore and I was unable to bend them without excruciating pain.

At the three week mark I sought the help of an Internal Medicine Doctor. Dr. Behrend initially thought based on the edema in my legs and ankles I had a heart condition. Post Partum Mycopathy was the diagnosis, but in order to know for sure he scheduled an Echo cardiogram for the next day. The dry cough was still a mystery, a chest x-ray was taken to get a better look at the lungs.

Shortly after the echo cardiogram was completed I received a call from the doctors office with the results of the chest x-ray. The x-ray revealed “enlarged” lymph nodes between my lungs. On the x-ray the heart was not enlarged, and looked normal. Due to the enlarged lymph nodes a CT scan was scheduled, and more blood work was ordered. 

I had the CT scan and it confirmed what the chest x-ray had already shown. There were enlarged lymph nodes between my lungs. The doctor diagnosed me with Sarcoidosis. Sarcoidosis is an autoimmune disease which happens when immune cells produce antibodies that attack your own body’s cells. It results in inflammation of different tissues and organs in the body. In my case it appears in the lymph nodes.

After being diagnosed with Sarcoidosis the doctor prescribed a steroid, Prednisone, to reduce the swelling in the lymph nodes. He said it would also allow the lymph nodes to recover and drain the fluid that had built up in my legs.

There was a concern that it could also be Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. In order to 100% rule out lymphoma, a biopsy would need to take place. The best place to remove a portion of the lymph node was do have a medianstinoscopy. With the medianstinoscopy they placed an incision at the top of my breast bone, and went down along side the windpipe and removed a lymph node. The surgery was performed the next day. The surgery went very well, but my body did not like the anesthesia. After being woken up I proceed to throw up….. twice……

After being in the hospital for 8 hours, I was finally allowed to go home. I’m recovering nicely. The incision rarely hurts, but where they put the 3 IVs in…. that’s another story. I have enormous bruises on both hand and wrists.

I see a pulmonologist on Monday to do a breath test and consult with the doctor.

 

Right now the incision is starting to itch…. which means it must be healing.

Good night all…..