I Need Jesus

Do you have days where all seems to go awry? My day was a little bit like that. I woke up early to have my bible study time. Waking up early has never been natural for me. Lately, however, I have been waking up at 5:30 am to begin my day. When all of my children wake up, then the organized chaos begins! I'm learning I like my early mornings by myself. However, this morning two of my kiddos woke up at 6:30. Just as my breakfast had finished cooking and I was about to sit down with my cup of coffee and my bible. (Those are 2 things that get me out of bed in the morning... coffee & my bible. Anybody else feel that way?) I informed them that I would get their breakfast, but they had to sit quietly at the table to eat and then they could go play in another room, because this morning... I need Jesus!

Boy did I ever need Jesus this morning! After I finished my bible time, then I got a text from a sweet friend & church member. Please pray. Along with a picture...  this sweet little girl (a family member to this friend) is having open heart surgery today. A sweet little baby that was possibly all of 1 month old... if my guess is a correct estimation from her picture.

So, I prayed for that sweet girl. Her doctors. Her parents.

I went to our homeschool co-op classes this morning. A lady shares, please pray. A family friend was 21 weeks pregnant and they had to take her baby yesterday. The baby has a 20% chance of life.

My heart broke. I prayed for that sweet little girl. Her doctors. Her parents. That no matter what... God would get the glory.

Later this evening, one of my best friends texted me. Please pray. I am 22 weeks pregnant and got bad news today about my baby girl. My heart is aching and I feel like my life has been changed forever as I know it. 

So, amidst tears I prayed for that baby girl. Her momma, my best friend & her husband. For the doctors. For the new life they will forever face.

Three baby girls who are so loved and cherished by our Heavenly Father. By our Maker, the Strong Creator, Elohim. Who created these beautiful girls with His tear filled, loving, & holy hands... knew this very day they would need lots of prayers.

First baby girl ended up not having surgery today. I'm sure there's a blessing & a hardship received with that very news. I'm sure her day of surgery will come soon and while she waits... I will continue to lift her up to our mighty God, our El Shaddai.

Second baby girl went home to be with Jesus. We don't know if her parents know Jesus, but I pray they do... or will come to. I have never experienced the loss of a child to the extent this mother is experiencing today. I know One who has though and it's my prayer that He will send the Holy Spirit to comfort this family and give them peace as they've never experienced before. For He is Jehovah Shammah. 

Third baby girl will continue to be bathed in my prayers (and that of others) until her birth day when the extent of her medical issues will be seen in their full fruition. Until then, she is held at the bosom of Adonai and her parents, my friends, put their full faith & trust in Him. Knowing that God can heal her at any time, if He so chooses! He is Jehovah Rapha.

So today, yes, I needed Jesus!! I needed Jesus, El Olam, to fill me up so that He could overflow me and I could have enough of Him to spill out and love on these people who came to me seeking prayer.  That's what my time with Jesus does for me. Fills me up. Spills over into every aspect of my life. I want to be so full of Jesus that He just oozes from me!! I am so thankful for my time with Him this morning. So tomorrow I shall do the same. Wake up at 5:30. Grab my bible & a cup of coffee... and I will be on my way to another day to serve those around me however I can. Whether it's through prayer or encouragement... God will guide me. But whatever lays in wait for me... one thing is for sure. I won't be able to do any of it without Jesus.

My Bible & Me

I am not a very sentimental person. I have a few cards that my husband gave me especially when we were dating and first married, but aside from that I am not a card keeper. I like to read them and I may hang on to them for a few days, but eventually they make their way into the trash can. I also don't keep all of my children's artwork. *gasp.* I have a few things from each of them that is special, but normally I will take a picture of it and in the trash it goes. With the exception of pictures, I am sort of obsessed with pictures, I am just not very sentimental... and that's okay!

However, I have to tell you one thing I am very sentimental about. My bible. It has been well used and well loved. We got my bible the same month we were married. So it is 12 years old. I got it in commemoration of my new name as a married woman. I was so excited to have my new married name engraved on the front! It has been underlined, highlighted, noted throughout, and cried on. It has been used well for the last 13 years. I have even put it in my will to my daughter, because that's how much I cherish it. Here shows you just how well it's been used.

I literally have notes from nearly every sermon I've heard over the last 13 years. Most pages are marked up like the ones you see here. The back of my bible is literally falling apart. Pages are slipping out, the binding is broken, and you can see threads where pages were once sewn. So yes, not even duct tape could fix this! 

I planned to get it rebound and resewn. However, the thought of being without it for 6-8 weeks was quite a long time for me. I kept telling my husband I didn't know how I would go without it for that long. I have another bible I like to read from for leisure read and I have a bible app on my phone, but it just wasn't the same. 

When I searched online and priced how much it was going to be to have this done, then I had some definite sticker shock! The cheapest I found was $130. Yikes! With tears in my eyes I told my sweet man that I couldn't spend that much when I knew I could get a new bible for so much less than that. He was kind to me and told me I have the option of always keeping this bible to refer back to my notes and highlights. Which, as silly as it sounds... I hadn't even thought of that as being an option. 

So, I decided I would get a new bible. When I was previously going to have my other bible rebound, then I had decided I would get it rebound in purple leather, because purple is my favorite color. So, on the way to the bookstore I had my mind made up for a purple leather women's study bible in NIV translation. My previous bible was a women's bible and I really liked that! 

We got to the bookstore. I went straight to the bibles and looked for every purple bible I could find. Color is of utmost importance, don't you think? I pulled out 7 bibles and was nearly on the verge of dropping them when I found a table. I called for the Hubs to come over (he is somewhat of a bible scholar) and I said, "I found all these bibles in purple or teal. I'll settle for teal. Now, I did decide to check some other translations though. Which one is best for me?" He laughed at my decision making according to color, immediately picked out 2 (incase you're wondering... one was purple and one was teal) and said, "Go with one of these."  I asked him, " Don't you atleast need to thumb through all of these? Check out all of my options and help me weigh the pros and cons of each?" He said, "Nope. I can tell you right now these two are what you want and what you need. So it's your choice." Okay... hmm... Well, I am not so great at deciding things like this. So I put up the other 5 bibles and gathered up the two he recommended and I sat down and began comparing passages, notes, study references, and the pros and cons of what I liked or didn't like about each bible.

The choices he gave me weren't women's bibles and neither of them were NIV. They were both HCBS study bibles. I am teaching two groups of women now. One in our community and another group of women in our church. The more I dig into God's word, then the more I long for it and the more I read, then the more I savor it. He really suggested a study bible for me. I have been getting more and more into reading commentaries and comparing scriptures and passages, so I knew he was right that I would enjoy a study bible. I decided on the biggest one, but not too big. It needed to fit into my purse! Don't worry, I have a big purse!  I got the purple one too! 

I do have my name engraved, but blurred it out for the picture

I am excited for the new studies this will help me with. I love the colorful maps, the timelines for each book of the bible, the references, the commentary, and the ease of reading that HCBS translation offers me. As I've begun a new chapter of teaching and studying God's word even more diligently over the last year, then I think this is a perfect time to get a new bible. A new season for me. This one is leather too, so it will hopefully hold up better than the bonded leather I had in my previous bible!

My new HCBS Study Bible

Yes, this bible wasn't cheap either, but it wasn't as much as the binding, sewing, and s&h would've been for my previous bible. The best blessing for me was I shared with the lady at the bookstore that I hadn't bought a new bible in 13 years. I told her how my other one was torn and falling apart so I had to buy a new one, but I was sad about that. I told her that even new bibles are more expensive than I expected. She was so kind and gave me 20% off of my new bible. (I love a good deal, and this thrilled me to death!)

Anyways, I just want to share with you my new bible buying experience. My other bible walked with me through lots of hardships and heartaches. Family matters, ended friendships, marital conflicts, and difficult parenting days. I think this bible is my new redemption bible. I look forward to what it will walk with me through. I am hopeful that it will be my bible that walks with me through the new journey of teaching the Lord has me on. Only God knows and wherever He leads, then I am ready to follow... new bible in tow!