Thankfulness-me giving thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

It's not about the turkey, the parade, or football...it's about looking back at all you have and remembering to thank the Lord for it all.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.-James 1:17

I want to just tell what I am thankful for this year...
My family

• my daddy...love him so much! He has worked hard for us always. I am thankful I have a daddy who is saved, and called to preach! thankful for all the times he has fixed my car. thankful for a great talk we had a few weeks ago. i am glad he cares about me and my moma and brothers and sister.
• my moma, she is my best friend and I am so thankful I have a real mom. Just because you have children doesn't mean you are a mom...a mom is someone who bends over backwards to please her family. mine is a true mother! My moma has sacrificed so much for us! I never realized how much until this past mothers day. She stayed at home (and still does) to take care and raise us. I can recall many nights her and my daddy stayed up with me when I was afraid to sleep. She took care of us when we were sick. I am very thankful for the bond we have. thankful for all her and my daddy have done for me in my life. thankful they have both taught of about Jesus! <3
• Josh and Caleb- so thankful for my little brothers, josh is, my "twin" lol. thankful for all the memories we got to share growing up. thankful for all the times I got to watch them play baseball and basketball!
• Manda, thankful for my little roommate! She has grown up so fast. i sure love her and her dramatic self!! thankful God gave me that little sister I longed to have as a little girl. Life sure would be boring without her in our family ;)
• Tobi- He is our faithful little dog! We got him when I was in 6th grade. He has grown up with us and I am so happy God gave us such a sweet dog. We got him from the pound...I got to name him. I remember the day we went and when I first saw him, i knew he was the one <3 He ran off a few years ago and we searched and searched for him eveywhere but never found him. One friday afternoon when Josh and I got off the bus, moma n daddy weren't home so we had to stay in the yard. I went to the end of the yard and knelt down in prayer and prayed that God would bring Tobi home...a few minutes later the van pulled in the driveway and guess who leaped out of the van door...Tobi!!! He had gotten caught in a dog trap and was supposed to be put to sleep just 3 days later (on monday). I thank the Lord he saved him from being put to sleep and brought him back to our family. It's amazing how much a little animal can mean so much!
• Home- thankful for the house I have grown up in. It might not be the most fanciest or newest but I love it and am thankful for all the memories I have here! I get to live with my favorite people :))
• also thankful for my grandma louise, aunt joann, gramme, pops, grandma joy, papa jimmy, papa grady, grandma pat, aunt Kelly, uncle Steve, aunt Jill, aunt Cher, uncle josh, and my cousins, Josh, gunnar, lucas, Deanna, Daniel, Taylor, Justin and lil miss Kourtney!! won't get to see any of them today but we are together in our hearts! Especially miss my great grandma louise right now! It has been over 2 and a half yrs since she died. we always spent thankgiving with her in NC. Oh how i wish I could see her and have a piece of her homemade cheesecake she made every yr!!

My faith

• My savior--> thankful most of all for him! So thankful he died for me so i could live.
• My salvation. soooo thankful HE saw fit to want me, deal with me, and saved me on May 10, 2009. I don't deserve it cannot believe how he can love someone like me, but I am so happy he does!! I love him so much and I am so glad i have him!!!!!!
• My KING JAMES BIBLE...don't know what i would do without it!! thankful I have the true breath of God to read, get comfort from and learn more about the Lord! thankful for how he has strengthened my faith here lately!
• Prayer- i am so glad he loves to hear me and hears me everytime i call!
• My church...Cannon Mountain Baptist Church. So grateful to be a member here.
• My pastor. he preaches the truth and loves us. I am thankful for that! also thankful for his family! love them all!!
• My church family. love them ALL! so glad God made church families, bc we all need each other so much. this world is so messed up. glad we have each other to stand with!

My Freedom

• thankful for live in the greatest country of all! United States of America!
• thankful I can go to school, church and live how i please.
• thankful for all the many soldiers who are away from their family today in a far away country fighting for us!
• I am proud to wear red, white and blue.
• thankful for the heritage of our country! she sure is not what she used to be but i still love this country. We used to be a Godly nation, we no longer are but we still are the greatest in the world.

My friends

• I don't have many but the few i do are truly iron friends
• first of all my best friend Shay...the Lord let us become friends this yr. I prayed for a long time that God would give me a good christian friend and he did! We don't get to talk much but I know I can always count on her to pray for me when I ask. we always have the best times together
• Gwinn- She goes to my church! she is such a fun person and i love hangout with her!
• Gerry and Savannah- they go to my school! they are christians and I love them to death! I went my first day of class thinking I would be the loner and not have any friends...but God put them in my classes. thank the Lord! DK what i would do without them to suffer through school with lol.
• Kelsey-she goes to my church! love my kelsey! She is such a sweet girl and has the biggest smile :)
• Mrs. Janelle- she is my pastors wife. She is someone i look up to so much! She truly loves the Lord and it shows in all areas of her life
• Mrs. Brenda- I help in her Sunday School class, she is the sweetest lady!
• thankful for my GLAM girls, Michaela, Brianna, Alyssa, Abi, Kelsey, Cassidy, tiffani, manda, Jessica
• my camp friends- thankful for all the amazing people I got to know at camp!
• love them all, thanks Lord for my friends! this isn;t all of my friends but these are the colse ones :)

My food

• thankful for all the food God has given me and my family!
• we have never went hungry!
• thankful for all the times I have opened the frig and seen it completely full!!!

God has been so good to me! I am so blessed! this is only a drop in the bucket of all he has done for me. Happy thanksgiving yall!!

Faith your fears

Yes, I did mean to title this, "Faith your fears." Stop trying to face your fears alone and faith your fears...

I have been struggling like I never have before with fear. Yall have no idea how much the devil has tried to make me give up on this blog! I have had "writers block" because of it for months and it has been driving me crazy!! But I don't want to give up and let the devil win so here I am trying my best to write something worth reading. ;)
So here it is,

FEAR

My preacher's definition of fear:

F-false

E-evidence

A-appearing

R-real

I realized a few weeks ago at the Women of the Well Conference that fear can actually be a good thing. Fear of the right things is okay. God made fear and everything God makes is good. I won't texted and drive because I am afraid of getting into an accident. I won't touch a burning stove because I am afraid of getting burnt. But the devil has his kind of fear and God has his. The devils best tool is fear. It is his power and he sure is good at using it! Fear from the devil is a lie. He knows what to say to make us fear. Unresolved fear will turn to doubt and unresolved doubt can turn to unbelief. I know this is true.

The devil says God is nowhere to be found. God doesn't love you. You will never amount to anything. God doesn't really care. God didn't really save you. You are the same person you were before you "got saved." You listen to these lies long enough and you will begin to believe them. For months I have felt alone, lost, and totally not like myself. I have listened to his lies and I started believe them. I let fear take control. I let the devil feed my lies and control me through them.

But when I would feel overwhelmed I would run to my Bible and pray that the Lord would help me but while i read I would think in my head, "this isn't going to help." And just being honest, it didn't help. Didn't help one bit. I'll explain why in a bit. When fear has filled your heart you will be useless to God. Doubt is never from God and of course unbelief isn't either. God continously says in his word to believe. Believe. Somehow I had stopped believing the truth and started believing the lies Satan whispered to me constantly. I wondered why the Word wasn't helping me. I wondered why church wasn't helping me. But Sunday night I found out why. Fear is the opposite of faith. If you let fear in, it fills the area where faith ought to be. My preacher says, "fear or faith will drive you." Fear comes in and faith leaves; but I am thankful it works the other way around too...faith comes in and fear will have to leave! Faith says stand strong, fear says run away!

FAITH

Faith is the most powerful thing on earth. Faith, true faith that is, comes only from above. The lost have no idea what faith is, they think they do but they don't. If you have faith you can do anything, but if you have fear you can do nothing. When your faith is weak, you are weak. Faith leads to hope. Hope leads to confidence.

I am the kind of girl that when I lose sight of Jesus, i lose sight of me. I don't know who I am without HIM. He completes me. I need him in order to be able to faith my fears! Without him I cannot make it.

Don't lose faith because...You can't be saved without faith. You can't please him without faith. You can't live unless you are living by faith. Faith is how we KNOW Jesus is the Savior. Your fears will always win without faith.
You can faith your fears because "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."(1 John 4:4)

The Lord showed me why I wasn't getting help when I asked. I did have enough faith to ask for help but I didn't have enough faith to believe or receive what he gave me. I had listened to the Devils lies so much that even the Bible wasn't helping me. Don't get me wrong..i never thought that the Bible wasn't true, i just felt like it wasn't working and it wasn't helping me. Preacher Shem preached a few messages at the beginning of this year about strongholds. It was the first time I had ever really heard about spiritual warfare. I learned from it, that the mind is the devil's playground. He can get in our head and if he gets in, it is pretty scarey! When you let fear win the strongholds (lies) of the devil get stronger. Only faith can pull them down. you can believe your fears or you can believe your faith. The Bible says to believe God no matter what. That is hard to do especially if you are not spending time in the word and praying. The Bible is our food and if you don't eat you will be weak. Believe God is near and you will feel him near. Believe what the Bible says..not what Satan whispers. The only way Satan can win is if he can make you believe the lies.

So we all have a choice to make. 1. Believe the truth (Jesus-he is the way, the truth, and the life)
2. Believe the lie (Satan).
The two are the total opposite. Jesus never lies but all satan does is lie and deceive the world. Jesus is humble, Satan is haughty. Jesus is life while Satan is death. Choose to believe the truth. Choose you this day whom ye will serve...(Josh 24:15).

 

Lord, I believe but help my unbelief

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.-Mark 9:24

I feel like this man at times, I do believe but I need Him to help me believe more! Peter is another person who believed but needed help with his unbelief. Peter believed but lost faith and began to sink. He took his eyes of the Savior and saw the sea. (Matthew 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?) He doubted because he let his faith get weak. I do commend him for being the only one brave enough to step off the boat and walk towards Jesus on the water. Atleast he had enough faith to take that first step. Who else on Earth can say they walked on water?? no one! But he lost focus and began to worry but Jesus caught him and saved him from sinking! I am glad when our faith is barely there HE will lift us back up and remind us that he will always be there and never let us down! I was looking at the word "always" the other night at church. Always to me means all the time, always...but I saw it a little different. Always=all ways. No matter the way he is always there. No matter the storm he is always there! All the ways there are to go, Jesus is always there :)) This is where I am now...I am choosing to believe but I need him to help me with my unbelief. The devil will still tell you lies, just remember he is a liar. Faith your fears!!

We must put up our shield of faith.--> Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.-Ephesians 6:16   Without faith the darts will hit you and harm you.

Here are a few faith verses:
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
-believing "I can" is your faith. "Christ" is your faith.
-In my Bible I have written, "strengthen: to put power in." Faith is your power.
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith...

2 Corinthians 1:24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

*ALL verses are from the KING JAMES BIBLE.*

The word fear is in the Bible 385 times! Faith is only mentioned 231 times. The phrase, "Fear not" is in the bible 63 times. I looked these up. Pretty interesting.

Faith your fears! You can't win without Jesus! Don't listen to the lies of the devil!

-megan :)

thankful days 2-12 :)

i am so behind...I did put these on the appropriate days but thats on FB lol im just behind on here!
thankful day 2: thanks Lord, for the beautiful colored leaves!! i love fall and its pretty colors. Saw some very gorgeous trees while we traveled to Hendersonville, NC :)

thankful day 3: thankful for the great time I had at the Women of the Well Conference. The Lord gave me the help I needed and i am thankful he did!

thankful day 4: thankful for the great day at church and for my awesome pastor,Shem Durham...Nov 4th was his 40th birthday!!! thankful he cares for his members and preaches the truth to us and above all follows God!

thankful day 5: thankful for prayer! i am so glad no matter where i am, i can call on his name <3

thankful day 6: Freedom to vote! even though who i voted for did not win, i am still grateful that i
had a say and I view counts :) i was hoping to get a new president but God knows best!!

thankful day 7:thankful for wednesday night church! I can get refueled and hear from the Lord

thankful day 8: so thankful for the promises in the word!! they never change, that i love!

thankful day 9:  thankful for a nice warm bed to sleep in at night. many people around the world have no where to lay their head. I am blessed!!

thankful day 10: thankful for the great fall festival we had at church:) So thankful for my {scripture journal}!! it has helped me so much more than I could've ever imagined! it is full of my fav verses and i am so happy I made one! ♥

thankful day 11: i am thankful for my shoes!lol. as I looked in my closet yest morning i was getting annoyed becaused I couldn't find the pair I wanted and it made me think of all the people who don't even have one pair of shoes. HE's always met all my needs :)

thankful day 12: today I am most thankful for my education and the chance i have been given to go to college! can't wait til i am a CDA :)))

here is a pic of my thankful journal I have written in each day this month...the yellow leaf was actually from our thankful tree we did last year. I incorporated it into my journal this year lol

I have been thinking about the amazing time I had at junior camp in july...I sure miss it and all the sweet girls I was priveledged to get to know! I love how God is...you go to help someone else and you get helped yourself ♥ it seems like they helped me alot more than I helped them :)

 

My sister and i put my christmas tree up last night after we got home from church :)) I am soo excited about CHRISTmas 2012!! this pic is horrible but oh well lol

 

 



i totally wish I didn't have writers block :// i just don't know what to say

thankful day 1 + it's ThUrSdAy:))

I wrote a few posts ago that i would be writing what i am thankful for each day in the month of novemeber...so here is day one. I love november because it is a great time to look back and recall how good God is. in november, remember your many blessings :) prob won't get to write tomorrow bc i wont be able to get on a computer, so I'll catch up saturday. please pray for us as we travel to hendersonville NC for the Women at the Well conference. i have been looking forward to it for weeks!! I sure need help from the Lord, praying he will give me what I need this weekend.
Day 1
Today I am thankful God is still in control. At times I don't understand things and I wonder what he is doing. Nonetheless he is still in control and nothing happens unless he allows it. He does know best even if it makes no sense to me. He will get me through whatever I may face because he is the one who made all and controls all :))

awkward.
-when you are at church and you miss the hymn number, so you look in the back of the book to find the page number...the song is "kneel at the cross" and you are looking in the N's hahaha.
-having an impression tray stuck on your bottom teeth, and noone can get it out. everytime someone yanks it feels like your braces are going to be ripped off ://
-riding the elevator with one other person (I hate this!)
-when you can't park straight to save your life

awesome.
-Fall Break! no school until next wednesday :)))
-missing class tomorrow because you are going to Women at the Well conference in Hendersonville, NC
-those special verses God shows you in his word that are just what you need right when you need it>