Thankful Thursday

....... It is so late and I cannot sleep...... many things on my mind and as I watch the news every evening (Fox News, to which I am addicted) I so understand that the America that we knew as little girls is passing away in front of our eyes....... So today I am Thankful for:

A Grandmother that taught me that life is precious and each day is such a gift from God...... She taught me that age is just a number and to be bored is almost a sin against God....... I am thankful that I have no understanding of bored....

I am thankful that when I just cannot see past the cares of this day His eyes have already seen my tomorrow...........

I am thankful that His word is truth and no amount of facts can erase the word that abides in my heart and no amount of political correctness can sway me from the foundation that He has laid in my life.........

I am thankful that by the witness of two or three His will is made known in my life and just this past week He has spoken into my spirit man instruction for the coming days in my life.

I am thankful that when I am so tired, He holds the pillow where I can lay my head..........

I am thankful for my soul mate named Dennis, he is my most amazing gift from the Father God that I must thank Him for each day........ There are not words to share with you the miracle that my Father God performed that day in April when He gave me Dennis...........

I am thankful that even when I watch creation groan around me waiting for the day of redemption, I know that He draweth nigh! Luk 21:28
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Rom 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Rom 8:23
And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.

The Dr's Appointment

I just want to bring you up to date on my Dr's appointment on Tuesday. Here is what I understand.

........ The disc that is bulging to the back on the MRI film is not bulging as far on the Mylogram and the CT Scan. The Dr was wonderful.... This is the first time I have seen him....... He is the big dog....... The surgeon. The CT Scan shows trouble in L4 and L5 which is causing my back and leg pain........ He stood and explained to me and Dennis exactly what we could do and what we could opt to do.......... To make a long story short......... He does not know why my toes are numb as the CT does not show enough damage to cause my toes to go numb. However he also said that he does not make a decision based upon an MRI or CT scan but on the patient. I so appreciated that statement.

Several months ago I had seen a neurosurgeon for a nerve test and it showed nerve damage in the right leg and some in the left..... Very minimal but damage ........ Dr Low stated that anytime the neurosurgeon sends someone with nerve damage it gets his attention regardless of the CT scan... There are instances that sometimes there is more damage that they cannot see on the tests... Thus he offered me to make a decision if I wanted to have surgery now or go home and see if it stays the same or if it gets worse. He cannot explain the pain in my legs from the tests but did not deny that there might be something going on that he cannot see......

The lower back pain is from the L4 and L5 bulge......... Down the back of my legs is most likely the sciatic nerve pressure.........

He had another lady as myself just last month where the test did not show much damage and there was no nerve damage but she insisted that they fix her back, once in surgery they found more damage than the test showed........ sooooooooo Dennis and I talked and decided that we would come home and walk and exercise and see what happens in the next few months. The Dr stated that if I came back in a few months just unable to handle the pain that he would not require more tests......... Very very nice man and very compassionate...

He also said that I could go about my life as before and if it hurt my back not to do it........ hahahah Good advise, but there is nothing that I can do to cause this to cripple me unless I do something foolish....... sooooooooooo I am back to my life and my garden and the things that I love to do and see how things go. I am pretty

tough but know my limitations. He did take a blood test for an arthritis panel to see if I have the beginnings of Rheumatoid Arthritis....... I have decided not to have that.......... I will have the results tomorrow....... He is saying that could cause my leg pain and the numbness......... but....... I do not accept that........

Soooooooooo that is the jest of that.......No surgery for now and that is my decision and Dennis agrees......... I will stay on my diet (I have lost 16 lbs so far) and walk and exercise and see how things go......... I am encouraged! I am thankful that the disk has reduced in size since the MRI........ Whether it was the disk getting better or the test looking at a different angle.......... It is God........

Thus.......... I am up and around and ready to try and get some things finished. And enjoy my summer without tiptoeing around afraid of hurting my back..... Dennis and I are going to schedule a few days away and take some R & R....... We have not gotten away since October of last year........ I think it is time we took some time for us, don't you think?

NOW...............

I am reading a book that if you have not seen or heard of it you need to!!!!!!! It is called "The Shack"

I have laughed and cried ......... You must read this book......... I have read many many books but this one will touch your spirit man in a way that no other book in a long times has done......... Find it in your book store, read it and then pass it one...... I am going to read mine again and then Dennis is going to read it and then I am going to give it away here on my blog...........

Love you gals!

Life............ Ain't It Good

Just got home from the ER ....Mom fell and busted her head this morning at 5:00 am......... so I have not yet had time to post on my Dr appointment......... I will do that sometime today or tonight........ I am going to take a nap..................

Mom is fine and is home with three staples in her head............... CT scan showed normal and thus they let her come home................

Life............ ain't it good!

Hugs

It Is Just A Thought.......

A Revelation

2Cr 10:3
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

2Cr 10:4
(For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

2Cr 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

After I came out from the CT scan on Thursday I was in such pain that all I wanted to do was jump up and run..... Not really knowing where to but just do something. I had to stay at a 35 degree angle for 4 hours and I was, at that time thinking that I was not going to be able to do that. I had a sweet nurse name Suzanne and she was very sympathetic , she kept telling me that in one hour she could give me a bit of food and a pain pill, but that I had to wait one hour. OK, I can do this............. We had a wall mounted TV in the room and so I told my DH to turn it on and put it on anything, just turn it up so that it would take my mind to another place and off of the pain in my back.

You know, God is always right there.

There is never a situation that He is not right there. So flat on my back in a tiny little sterile room He in sitting on the edge of my bed ready to revel to me some scriptures that I have read all of my christian life. I have posted those Scripture above.

My sweet DH turned the TV on and the very first thing was CNN........... Nope, not news, I don't need that so just find something else. The very next channel was some little gal preaching! I think the channel was TBN but not sure. I had never seen her before but she caught my attention. She was preaching to women in a prison somewhere and the setting was very plain and the cameras were not the high dollar things you usually see on TV but preach she did.

After a few minutes I discovered that she was once an inmate there and she had gotten a 60 year sentence but somehow miraculously she was paroled in 12. She was preaching on how to escape the prison of the mind. How to live while behind bars but be free to love and worship God.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

It was powerful. I have read those scriptures all my christian life but Thursday morning around 11:am those scriptures went from knowledge in my mind to understanding in my heart. How does God do that? How does He take something that we know and turn it into something that we understand in the spirit? It happens too few times in my life and I long for it to happen more but when it does happen it is a monumental event for me.

She went on to teach about how to distinguish between the voice that is your thoughts, the voice that is the enemy, and the voice of God. For the sake of time and to keep this post down to few words I will not even try to relate that to you.

Our minds, the battlefield. Our minds where we win or we loose. Our minds, where decisions and actions begin. Our minds.

I know that, but listening to her speak that day to those women in prison telling them that they can be free by the simple (I use that word only as an adjective to describe) act of capturing their thoughts. There is nothing simple about it. She was talking to ladies behind bars, but there are multitude's of people living in prison today without bars.

We have the weapons, we have them! We needlessly struggle through situations in our lives when right before us are the weapons needed to be free. We overlook them, ignore them, brush them aside as thought they are empty words on lifeless paper.

We have the authority and the weapon to free ourselves from prisons of fear and hate and worry and jealousy and envy and strife....... Shall I go on.......... In the simple act (there is that word again, I need to find another adjective) of capturing our thoughts, and giving them over to the obedience of Christ will free our minds, and in that freedom, in that sheer act of obedience to the word our minds are transformed, and in that transformation we are able to PROVE what is good and acceptable and PERFECT will of God.

Now............. This is an act of our will.......... Thoughts come , they will always come, but what we do with them will free us or imprison us......... I have lived in prison far too long in some situations in my life.. I began applying this principle the minute I heard this woman speak. Right then I had a Revelation of the scripture and I am applying it to my life.

I hear what my mind hears and I judge that thought right then, and as the scripture instructs me, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Bring your thoughts into the obedience of Christ!

That is powerful..... That is a tool, a weapon. That will free you from the onslaught of the devil.

It will bring to obedience every thought that rises up against the promises of God.

Don't fret, don't worry, do not fear, do not linger on the thoughts that haunt you or engulf you or paralyze you. Do not imagine vain things that are not of God. Do not camp out in thoughts of having naught. Give those over to the power of the one that saved us......... Fill your hearts and MINDS with the knowledge of Christ and then when our own foolish thoughts or the voice of the enemy come..................... Capture them and place them into captivity.

Please take the time to read through the scriptures below.. They are speaking of a mind renewed in Christ, a mind that is bringing all things into obedience to Christ.

Live Free!!!!!!!!

and.................. about the pain in my back...................

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2Pe 1:5¶ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After a few minutes of hearing the word spoken and preached, my mind left the pain in my back and before I knew it that sweet little nurse brought me in a ham sandwich and a pain pill with a cold bottle of Dr Pepper......... Life is Good.......

I went off into a sound sleep and slept there for two hours or more....... I did not hear the rest of that gals story but God had visited me for just a few moments and brough with Him a Revelation of His word..... and it took my mind off of my pain......

He is a good God don't you think?