​Remember this? http://www.thoughtprovokingmomentsblog.com/blog/draft-god-can-make-your-situation-so-unique-that

WELL, 

They said God told them you shouldn't work but they want you to give (money), come (gasoline), participate (clothing), do (money, gasoline, and clothing) as a volunteer.  Hmmm. (A lady I know used to call it 'voluntold' instead of volunteer. LOL.)

They had a negative thought, 'per the Spirit',  when you chose to not have kids, but want you to be on call (which you don't mind) during the day to help with classes, services, funerals, meetings, etc. What could they be thinking?!?  Plus, the 'Have babies but come when we call and don't bring the babies'.   

???

Ladies,

WATCH THIS VIDEO. 
https://fb.watch/oBLWcRbMyl/?mibextid=NnVzG8
#5 - Pay attention.
#4 - Trust NO ONE, not even your friends, relatives, coworkers, co-laborers. (THIS YEAR, the Lord took me back 40 yesrs ago to show me I'd been set up, by someone who I SHOULD have been able to trust, but the setup didn't work.)
#3 - Don't go alone. STAY with your buddy.
#2 - Don't go!
#1 - Give your life to Christ and ask Him to give you self-esteem, restore your God-given emotional/physical boundaries, and show you ways to have true fun.

WATCH the video again.
https://fb.watch/oBLWcRbMyl/?mibextid=NnVzG8

       God gave everything and  everybody a way to fight. Just sit there if you want to. There's a war going on for your soul, mind and body. You better fight!

https://fb.watch/owToPqGv0r/?mibextid=NnVzG8lick here to edit.

Songs God sung to me lately:

The past 2 weeks (STILL!): When the Saints Go to Worship
Last week added: Firm Foundation (He Won't Fail)
8am today (11.5.23): Hallelujah
11am today (11.5.23): I Go To The Rock (WH)
The first song is an invitation/invocation to God and a reminder/unctioning for me.
The second one is encouragement during these particular times in my life.
The third song, I think, was just a blessing that I got up and got going. I had no issues other than lack of decision-making about the things I needed to do that day.  I'm glad I got up!
The fourth song is somewhat of a conclusion: recently I literally went to God the Rock for particular circumstances.  The past several past years, I've come to know or acknowledge, the Rock was  the church. The acknowledgement of that suggests hesitation or gradual/eventual submission. Think of it this way: in nature, when we approach a rock, we know it's a rock right then.  We're not always aware that something is a rock, figuratively speaking, when we approach it.  We may hope it is. We may not care or expect it to be especially if we don't know we need that thing to be a rock. Also, some figurative Rocks (but not Jesus, though. He IS THE ROCK) are like natural rocks, meaning they are not smooth. They have large or minute jagged egdes/lips/protrusions that scratch, scrape and can cause a slipping of the feet or hands, and can sprain bones or break nails. The rock is still steady, unmoving, going nowhere, a hiding place either behind, on the side, on top, or maybe in a crack somewhere. Because a figurative Rock (church, family, friend, job) has those things, we may not see them as a Rock until we look back and understand how they've stood in our life...which goes back to the statement that the Rock had to be recognized as such before the  'acknowledgement of that suggests hesitation or eventual submission'. ​

​The body has 7 million nerves. Specific pain receptors only respond to damaging  or potentially damaging stimuli. It's a blessing to have nerves. Those nerves relay pain and work with the brain and the body to make sure the human feels the pain so they can choose a response to the pain: ignore, medicate, explore, remove or treat outer or inner damaging stimuli. Without nerves, we wouldn't realize when something is wrong, especially on the inside, and may delay or ignore tending to something that has been damaged on the outside.  Sure, we'll see about a broken leg or arm because we need it, even if we didn't have nerves to feel the pain. We might ignore a damaged fingernail or toenail if we couldn't feel the pain, especially if we could still use the finger to handle things or a toe to assist with walking and foot movement/balance.

My thoughts are on 'spiritual'/emotional nerves. We're always reminded to endure hardships, count it all joy to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ, and to expect  attacks from everybody, everywhere and in every direction. Consider if we didn't have spiritual or emotional nerves. We would still go through all those attacks and persecutions and wouldn't know to be offended or hurt, sad or joyful, praising God or even questioning God as to what to do with/about all that we go through.  Feeling, meditating on, exploring, venting about, and evaluating outcomes of persecution and attacks lead us to the ultimate (hopefully) joy, positive endurance, and encouragement to others about all that stuff that happens to us.

We should always feel both physical and spiritual/emotional pain. Pain is supposed to be felt. We may not respond the same at age 23 or 53 as we did at age 3, but we'll always feel it and hopefully get to the level that we IMMEDIATELY  take care of/learn from or dismiss the bad feelings and reactions, as if it didn't happen.   

Thank God for nerves - physical and spiritual/emotional. They are information carriers. 


(https://brainandspinecenterllc.com/2023/06/23/how-many-nerves-are-in-the-human-body/#:~:text=Diving%20into%20the%20world%20of,to%20a%20body's%20electrical%20wiring.)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219252/#:~:text=First%2C%20there%20are%20specific%20pain,nerves%20to%20the%20spinal%20cord.
​

The first time I went to a taping of The Family Feud in Atlanta, I was with my cousin.  I think it was her second time going. We stood in line outside, which moved fast. No problem. Occasionally the Assistant would count everyone in line. She wasn't really looking to see our actual tickets. When we got to the entrance, the Intern asked about phones and said they needed to be left in the car.  I took both our phones back to the car. She ushered my cousin into the building.  When I returned to the building, I got at the back of the line. I was the last person. No one else got in line behind me, but I wasn't worried. I was behind four ladies - tall, gorgeous, awesome outfits, together. They all looked down at me with a side-eye, rolled-eye, smirk, turned up lip. (You know how some women are.) I turned away because it didn't matter.  I wasn't going to give that 'negative attitude toward another woman' back at them. For what? It's rude. It doesn't move anyone up the line in Glory.  Anyway, I stood there hanging out in my own mind - lol.  A few minutes goes by, then the Assistant began walking down the line counting. When she was still near the top of the line, she saw me. She walked past everyone, down to me and said, "Why are you back here? I already counted you. You could have come up to the door when you got back from your car. Come on to the front of the line." She proceeded to take me past everyone to the front of the line and through the doors. As we walked past the four ladies, their snide looks changed. (My nice look didn't change. I hadn't done anything special and wasn't better than them.  I just so happened to have gotten there earlier. No big deal. Everyone had to stand in the same line. I had just been to the top of the line already and the Assistant was being nice.)  The point is, God has already counted you. Even when there are setbacks, God saw it all and waited for you to catch up, get things in order, take things back, get things you needed, etc.  God knows all who 'have a ticket' and will let all in. Also, know that for you when the time is right, God will move you to or back to the front of the line.

Moses, David, Joseph, Matthew 20, Luke 17:10 

(This is a re-write of a TPM aired for WYZE1480AM (??? 2011/2012/2013). Big Man Donald Cochran, Program Director at WYZE, often reminded me this was his favorite TPM.) 

​(Draft) So, last week I was thinking about my prayer life over my adult lifetime. 
I don't remember personal prayer as a child, other than studying Sunday School lessons every Saturday night which I consider part of prayer/meditation time, and kneeling in church for prayer during the Devotion. (In PHC, Devotion on Sundays, Wednesdays, Revivals and other meetings, consisted of an  opening song, prayer by kneeling at the altar or seat, and scripture reading). 
As an adult in the late 80s, again I prayed at church, which I attended twice weekly and some lunch hours when the Mothers had weekly Noon Day prayer. I realize I didn't kneel at that apartment because the floor was cement. Rugs. No carpet.

After moving to Cobb County, in my first apartment had carpet. Yeah.

Five years later, I moved to the second Cobb apartment where I regularly laid on the floor for 2 hours several nights per week.  Last week, I realized that I stopped doing that after having major surgery and couldn't get on the floor or my knees for several weeks, but that prayer time was replaced with I think two prayer sessions at church in Atlanta. Those were specifically for prayer (Monday and Saturday) and I taught classes (YA/Adult mixed) on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights (Youth).

After moving to the home, prayer flat on the floor back in order for a while until my evening schedule changed - church, school, business...

Many years since then, have included active, literal praying all day long depending on the circumstances, and not so much a whole lot of prayer in one segment of time during each day.

During all these years, like childhood, daily studying the Sunday School lesson during lunch breaks were included in the prayer/meditation time.

I was led to finish this blog - 11.6.2023 -  because I learned a new word today! Statio! Statio is what we did in PHC - arrive early to kneel before service. We kids would just sit on the bench. As an adult, I remember doing it in Atlanta, and of course, arriving early for Sunday School to prepare the mind to teach.  Typing that sentence just reminded me of childhood when we couldn't watch tv or read the funny papers or anything before Sunday church so we could set our minds on church.  Yum! We had a scrumptious spiritual unbringing even if we didn't realize it then.  That upbringing centered us, taught us self-discipline, and calmed us in our day-to-day living.  Wow! God is Good!

​

The Lord doesn't throw these. The Lord called/calls people by name, 100% sure of their 1) readiness or 2) not, and the Lord is willing to take the glory for the first one or the flack for the second one. 😉❤