Choices

There was a movie out a few years ago "Freaky Friday" with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan, and there was a clip in it where the mom, Jamie Lee is letting her daughter, Lindsey (not sure the character's names in the movie because I actually haven't seen the movie, just this clip), out for school and the mom yells out the car door, "MAKE GOOD CHOICES!"  I always thought that clip was so funny and it reminded me of Mordecai.  Do you think he might be yelling this at the gate to Esther as Hathak retreats from telling him Esther's request for all the Jews in Susa to fast?  Make good choices Esther!

Make good choices girls!  Melissa!  Have a baby on Wednesday if not before (she's scheduled for a c-section this Wednesday)!  Happy New Year!  Don't make promises you can't keep, but try real hard to be the better you God wants you to be in 2009!

Love you!

Day FAST . . . er . . . FIVE!

Sometimes I like to read The Message version as well as the NIV . . . 

Psalm 119: 89-96 (The Message)

What you say goes, God, 
      and stays, as permanent as the heavens. 
   Your truth never goes out of fashion; 
      it's as up-to-date as the earth when the sun comes up. 
   Your Word and truth are dependable as ever; 
      that's what you ordered—you set the earth going. 
   If your revelation hadn't delighted me so, 
      I would have given up when the hard times came. 
   But I'll never forget the advice you gave me; 
      you saved my life with those wise words. 
   Save me! I'm all yours. 
      I look high and low for your words of wisdom. 
   The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me, 
      but I'm only concerned with your plans for me. 
   I see the limits to everything human, 
      but the horizons can't contain your commands!

So, Esther calls the Jews, Mordecai, herself, and her attendants to fast and pray for her during a time when her people would normally be chowing down (just like we are getting ready to do)!  She needs God's strength, wisdom, and courage so she can decide to go before the king without being summoned and if she makes it past the part where she gets to approach the king, let her not be killed.  This is her deciding moment.  What would happen if she didn't go before the king, and she succumbed to the fear/satan?  Would there be someone else able to save the Jews? "For such a time as this" indeed!

OK, does Beth Moore know me?  Because this particular SCC song is one of my all time favorites!  Here it is . . . AGAIN!!!

Too Many Coincidences

Did you notice that there are too many coincidences for Esther to be the queen at this time for her to NOT be a major player in this story?  Vashti was dethroned.  Hadassah was chosen out of all those others.  Esther was Jewish and made Queen of Persia during THIS time.  And why ELSE would she have a book in the Bible named after her?  It has to be God!  

We, sisters, have also been chosen for "such a time as this" for what ever reason whether to affect this life time our children's or some other child's, we are here for a reason.  "In him we were also chosen,^[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,"  Ephesians 1:11  That thought amazes me!  Think about it!  Seriously, just stop and think.

You Are Gonna Laugh

Well, I am not known for my cooking. This is my attempt at cake balls. I think I used the wrong chocolate to melt (ya think?). They tasted alright - I mean, how can you go wrong with red velvet cake, mixed with cream cheese frosting, coated with chocolate? Nicci and her friend added the sprinkles. So, am I banned from bringing cake balls to any future events? They sure are good, but after about two of them I am done. I think I need someone to come up with a tasty recipe for salad balls.

The Dilemma of Destiny

OK, girls I am behind!  However, I have great plans to catch up quickly, but then this snow/ice day came and, well, now all of my kids are home and I need to feed, clean up after, entertain, corral, feed some more, organize, and try to exhaust four kids (I think it's going to be me that is going to be exhausted after this day, though, wanna bet?).  

I did just finish watching the session three download on my computer.  It was pretty easy to figure out and watch.  The quality was not great, but I'm sure if I asked my very computer savvy husband to fix that he would've been able to figure that out, however, he's not home.  Video quality doesn't bother me too much, as long as I can pretty much see, I'm not too worried about crispness.  It actually was very convenient to do it this way, but I missed you guys terribly!  Was that not one of the cutest outfits she was wearing?!  I thought that was so cute.  That is a suit I think I could wear, but I would need long sleeves.

For me, there were a couple of things that were eye openers.  When she was talking about how people can be in the middle of a personal crisis when they are also in the midst of a corporate crisis.  And, how when God is calling them to the corporate crisis there's something big going on in their personal lives and you are thinking "I am in crisis here!"  Beth says "you are sitting pretty for a revelation."  The other statement she made was about the veil and how God never hangs a veil without a reason.  I'm not sure I could re-explain that one and do it justice, but it was so cool how it tied in with our last Beth Moore study about the tabernacle and how the veil to the Holy of Holies ripped from top to bottom.  

Well, I better get cracking on this.  I have a lot of material to cover to get caught up and ready for tomorrow night.  Don't forget your ornament that reminds you of Esther!  

He's Deep In Love with You

Incorrigible Chicas

So, how has your week been since we last met?  I am guessing you might have come across some mean girls, right?  I have!  One thing I noticed is that mean girls in my adult life are definitely not like the ones I encountered when I was in high school which is what I expected.  It actually took me a minute to realize that I was encountering mean girls because they have become, well, I guess sneakier!   The high school mean girls made fun of my frizzy hair and crooked teeth, or sometimes made up rumors behind my back - what happened to the good ole days?!

Have you ever had a person in your life that you had to be extra cautious around?  I have several people in my life (that I can't extract, if you catch my drift, and, no, it's not any of you, my precious sisters!) that feel like I am trying to balance a boulder on my shoulder - constantly trying to keep that giant rock from falling off the front or the back, by watching every single word I say, every thing I type, even every emotion that I feel when I am around them, beads of sweat dripping from my dainty brow as I grab the phone, or sweaty palms as I type and email, and I haven't even touched on the guilt!  OH!  The GUILT!  I think the guilt is straight from the pits!  Being around them is so much work, it's extremely exhausting!  I think it's no coincidence that the times that they make me feel this way the most is around the holidays when I talk to and see these people most often.  Wouldn't satan just love to destroy our relationship during the time when we celebrate our precious Savior's birth?  

Now, these people are precious to me, they really are, and I LOVE them, I really do!  They'd do anything for me and I would NOT want to eliminate them from my life.  I've become pretty good at keeping them at arms length sometimes, though . . . . 

So, sisters, what are your mean girls like?

Are You Too Busy?

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep the Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can’t gain that relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day! “How shall we do this?” shouted his angels. “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered. “Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days per week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children.

As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work~ Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.

Fill the coffee table with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billbooards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of skinny beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what’s important, and they’ll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!

Even in their recreation , let them be excessive. Have them return from recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming wekk. Don’t let them go out in nature to reflect on God’s wonders. Send them to the amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy!

When they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work! It was quite a convention. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy, and to rush here and there. I guess the question is: has the devil been successful at his scheme?

You be the judge!

This message was sent to you by someone who cares.

B – Being

U – Under

S – Satan’s

Y - Yoke

- Author Unknown

(Janet P. says she wrote it, but I think she's lying.  Anyway, I'm too busy to find the real author!  Tee hee!)

As You Go About Your Day

Hey Girls,

As you are out and about tomorrow please keep Amy M. in your thoughts and prayers.  The services for her father are tomorrow at St. James.

We are thinking of you Amy.  Bless you!

Your Esther Girls

Prayer Requests for the Week of 12-2-08

Prayer requests
1) Amy and her family for the loss of her dad.
2) Keri and Roger ~ Business issues and discouragement and depression 
3) Stephanie's dad and Lindsey's grandpa Eldon ~ his heart stopped and they have been told to 
expect brain damage from oxygen deprivation. But we know that our God is Huge! And powerful! 
Pray for healing, a wonderful miracle and for strength for the family
4) Debbie - strength, emotional physical and spiritual.  Provision, protection and favor.
5) Dylan and Trena - His big court date is Tuesday the 9th. Pray for favor and mercy and grace
6) Linda, Lori and Janet C. - healing from migraine headaches!
7) Elicia - her new job. selling and buying a new house. her family.

Merry Christmas - My Dear Sister's Living on a Hill

Busy

There is an email out there somewhere, and if anyone finds it please forward it and I will post the whole thing on here. But the main point of it is this:

If the devil can't make you be bad, he'll make you be busy.


That rings so true for me at Christmas time especially. When I'm worried about stuff, and I let things keep me busy, and I say yes to this thing or that thing, I remember that phrase. I'm gonna try not to let him catch me being busy.



One of my favorites . . . I'm a big song lyrics girl . . . breathe it in and breathe it out!

Notes for the Viewer Guide

Well, I had it all typed up and was ready to post it . . . the viewer guide notes for session two. Then it occurred to me that I might be doing something illegal! AAAHHHH!!!! So, I deleted it. I got chicken. I just didn't feel right about putting all that out there on the big-O world wide web. Anyway, if you want to watch the session for tonight you can go to www.lifeway.com/women I think it's about $5 to watch a session. Don't get discouraged if you have had to miss a night or two. I really don't think it would be too hard to get caught up and it would be soo very worth it!

We were so close to having cake balls again tonight. A certain person who's name starts with a T and ends with a y and is related to our fearless facilitator said, "I made cake balls!" What she meant was that she made them FOR HERSELF AND HER DAUGHTER, she didn't make them for our group. I told her she couldn't speak the rest of the night, but she proceeds to describe the ones she made . . . red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting coated in white chocolate! I don't even remember the other one she said she made. After I heard that she made cake balls, that she didn't bring any, and that one of the two kinds she made was red velvet I blocked her voice from my head. Someone better get on the stick and bring cake balls to our meetings EVERY time from here on out. The nerve of that T girl. "I made cake balls!" As Ethan would say, "You're not my friend!" Just kidding T_a_y! I love you like, like, well, like a chick who showed up at my door with red velvet cake balls for no reason at all!

Not Home Yet

Words to songs 'speak to me' the Bible 'speaks to me' some other things 'speak to me' but these two have to do with this blog post :). We 

were driving back from Houston, my normally perfect baby Carlie was NOT being so great despite everything we tried, the other three were 

being wonderful but occasionally would holler for me. It just seemed that I was being bombarded from all directions, not able to do my Bible 

Study or have a thought to myself. It was getting dark out, and since Lyndal can't drive while I have my light on I decided to watch some videos

and the rest of "Napoleon Dynamite" on my computer. One of the last videos I watched just as Carlie had finally fallen asleep after literally 5 hours

of listening to her giggle, squeal, cry, beg/grunt for something, giggle, squeal, cry, beg/grunt for something was "Not Home Yet" by Steven 

Curtis Chapman. I was so comforted by the words that we are not home yet. No matter how far we drive physically here on this earth

with or without screaming babies, we won't be home. I don't mean that to sound disappointing at all, I was rather comforted by that thought.

That my REAL home is with my Heavenly Father. So, as I was texting my sister to tell her we were almost home, I stopped myself and texted that

we were almost to the house, because I won't be home until I'm with my Heavenly Father.

Here are some of the words from the song:

I know there'll be a moment
I know there'll be a place
Where we will see our Saviour
And fall in His embrace
So let us not grow weary
Or too content to stay
'Cause we are not home yet
Not home yet
So let us journey on

We are not Home yet
We are not Home yet
Keep on looking ahead
Let your heart not forget
We are not home yet
Not home yet

PRAYER REQUESTS 11-25-08

Here are the prayer requests that were lifted up this evening . . . 

Debbie (Susan and Janet's friend) - still recovering from what was thought to be a heart attack (it wasn't) and going through a yucky divorce

Carla (Susan and Janet's friend) - healing from losing her boyfriend (not sure I know the rest of this prayer request, I think I missed part of this one, please fill me in)

Pray for family dynamics and traveling during the holidays.

Janet C. and Lori - chronic headaches, both have started new medications, need relief and answers

Elicia - tonight was her last night with us as she starts her new job in Dallas, pray for a smooth transition, easy move, easy adjustments, doors to open, finances to be in place for houses selling and buying, the Lord to receive the overwhelming feeling Elicia has at this new job which is more demanding, peace in her family during this time of David and the kids living in Tulsa and Elicia living in Dallas coming home on the weekends, PEACE

Dylan - got a job at Rib Crib PRAISE!, pray for mercy at upcoming court dates

Janet's grandma Elizabeth - she's in a nursing home in Vinita following some health issues, pray that she has a good Thanksgiving despite the fact that she won't be with her wonderful family, pray for continued healing and strength

College kids traveling home, then returning to school and preparing for finals

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF!

Janet knows me too well and it is FREAKIN scary!  She knew that if she mentioned something about something online that I would jump on it and not leave it alone!  So, here I am on a Tuesday night right after I get home from her house working on our new blog!  WOO HOO!  Now, what is going to be on this thing you ask?  Lots of stuff.  Prayer requests.  Notes from the study.  Maybe recipes from someone who might've brought something especially yummy (hint hint cake balls, cough cough cake balls).  A schedule of who is to bring what for the next time.  And anything else anyone wants to share.  The only thing is that I am not sure if anyone else will be able to actually post an entry, only me, the moderator.  So, if you want something on here just email me and I will get to it ASAP.  (Like if you want to know the name of that stand-up comedian we were talking about at dinner (Anjela Johnson) but can't remember) just email me and I will post it to the blog and we will find answers.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I want your input on this!!!  Feel free to email me ANY time with suggestions or questions or type a comment after an entry directly on the blog.  This is EVERYONE'S blog, not just mine!  I'm not a mean girl!  I was the one in high school who would find people to beat up the mean girls for me (seriously, this upper class girl was being mean to me and I had my other upper class friend threaten her and I never had trouble with THAT mean girl again).  So, anyway, feel free to post, comment, email me, email Janet whatever.