Elijah The Prophet

     I love the story of Elijah the prophet.  I heard it many years ago and I even named my son after the Bible account.  But being in a situation like Elijah's isn't what I wanted for myself.
     In the story of Elijah, in 1 kings 17, God sent Elijah to a woman's house.  This woman was just getting ready to prepare the last of her food for her son and herself and then they were going to prepare to die.  Elijah told the woman to fix a cake of bread for him first.  She had faith and she did as he asked.  Elijah ate, and the woman and the boy ate too.  Now, God didn't fill up the jar of flour and the jug of oil, but each day there was just enough in that jar and jug to feed the three of them.  God didn't want them to put their faith in the jar or the jug.
     I know this feeling.  My family has had to live by faith for the last 22 years.  There is never enough money to supply all our needs, but somehow we make it each month.  I would love to have an endless supply of money, who wouldn't ?  At times it is very hard but there is a peace in knowing that I am not the one in charge.
     This scripture helps me when I start counting out how many days of food we have left.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:25-27, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable then they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
     Some people are looking for a God that they can make fit into their lifestyle, that would make life so much easier.  But God wants our life style made to fit into Him.  And That is what Elijah did, he followed God the way God wanted to be followed.

Evening News

When I pick up the paper
     All the violence that I see
When I turn on the TV
     That bad news is getting to me
Just can't escape it, no
     Jesus said this is how it would be

We've got teenage parents
     Doing drugs and drinking alcohol
Living off of welfare
     Barely getting by at all
The Devil keeps lying
     He's setting them up for a fall

And that evening news
     Is singing the blues and the
Devil is roaming around
     He's cruising the Earth
And he's giving birth to sin
     And bringing people down
But we've read the book
     Ands we're going to win
Cause we've got the victory
     Over sin, in Jesus

I've been reading my Bible
     And I can't deny what I've read
I've been reading my Bible
     And I can't deny what I've read
You know the end is coming
     The proof's around it's all been said

The world is listening to
     A new age of psychic lies
Calling dial a demon
     Listening to some bad advice
And those fiery darts going to
     Hit them right between the eyes

And that evening news
     Is singing the blues and the
Devil is roaming around
     He's cruising the Earth
And he's giving birth to sin
     And bringing people down
We've read the book and
     We're going to win
Cause we've got the victory
     Over sin, in Jesus

Video

Check out the video that my husband, Mark made for me.  Its on the upper right on this page.  Thank you!  Connie

The new Job

     Change can be exciting, it can also be difficult or frightening.  My friend, Lyn, was about to start a new job.  She was excited as she told me that the new job was going to pay more than her old job.  It was a desk job, so she wouldn't have to be on her feet all day.  She also liked the idea of dressing up instead of wearing a uniform.
     I saw Lyn a few weeks after she started her new job.  I asked her how it was going.  She was really down.  She said that the new job was a lot harder then she thought it would be.  She had made a few mistakes, and she felt so bad about them, that she was ready to quit.  I asked her, "Didn't you make any mistakes when you started your old job?"  "Oh yeah lots of them," she replied.
     It's easy to get comfortable with routine things.  Even if they aren't perfect, they are familiar.  Who knows what things will be like if we make a change.  Change can look like a wonderful thing.  But in the middle of a change, it's easy to feel uneasy, inadequate and alone.
     When I was a kid there was a popular show called, "Let's make a deal."  Toward the end of the show, the big winner of the day got a chance to keep a prize that they had already won during the show, or to trade the prize to win something even better.  They got a choice of three doors to pick from; behind the right door could be something wonderful.  But if you picked the wrong door, you would find out that you now own a pig, or some joke prize.  Picking the right door would mean winning the grand prize.
     Lyn, took a job that sounded better than the job she already had.  Her mistakes made her feel like she picked the wrong door.  Becoming a Christian may feel like taking a hard new job at times, you may feel like you won a joke prize.  But sticking to it is like winning the grand prize.
     In Phillippians 3:12, Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

The Healer

     In the Bible, Jesus didn't always heal the same way every time.  In Matthew 8:5,  He told the Centurion that as he believed, it would be done.  In Matthew 8:14, and 9:24, He touched the hands.  In Matthew 8:32, He said, "Go" and the demons left the two possessed men.  In Matthew 9:2, Jesus forgave a paralytic his sins, then told him to get up and go home.  In 9:22, the woman touched the hem of His cloak and she was healed.  He touched the eyes of  blind and mute men in Matthew 9:29 after he asked them if they believed.  In Mark 8:22, Jesus spit into his hand then put his hands in the blind mans eyes.  A man that was born blind, in John 9:6, Jesus made mud out of his spit and put it onto the mans eyes.
     There is no magical pattern that will work every time, there is no routine to follow.  Jesus gave us a guide line on how to pray to the Father, but God also showed us with Moses that it is not what we do that is as important as just listening to the Lord and being obedient.  In Exodus 17, God tells Moses to strike a rock with his staff to get water, the next time that Moses wanted water, he did the same thing, but didn't get water because God told him to do something different.
     The next time you need to be healed, ask God to show you how to pray for what you need.  We want the quick answer.  One prayer and we think, okay, that's it.  But if you think about all the different illnesses, and all the different medications that there are.  What if we took pain killer for strep throat, we wouldn't get well.  And even taking antibiotics,  if we don't take them as prescribed, the illness might come back and maybe be worse.
     Just as you would listen to the doctor, listen to the Holy Spirit.  If you went into a doctors office and did all of the talking, then went home, you wouldn't have any ides what to do.  What makes us think that the long prayer will get the healing?
     We need to ask, then listen for the Holy Spirit.  And most important, we need to be obedient when we hear Gods voice.