I'm back from Iraq!!!

Hello All!!

It's been a while! I'm back from my second tour in Iraq and it was yet another amazing experience. What the military has accomplished has been shocking and i'm blessed to have seen it. I can't go into great detail about the change but I can say it's a good thing. It also snowed in central Iraq which is very rare. I hope you all are doing well and I will try to make it to my subscribers sites here in teh next few days.

Take care,

Amy

Here's an update Guys.......

Faith in Jesus Christ*****update*****

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I just want take this time and ask God to touch the 32 victims who lost their lives today in Virginia as well as the injured. This is shocking and I can't begin to imagine the void their families are feeling at this moment. God, I ask you to comfort them in this time of need. Shine your grace on them and give them peace. Though they might be angry because they just don't understand, reveal yourself to them so they will know the way to cope with this grief.

Thank you Father

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I just came back from church and boy what an awesome sermon! God is amazing! He knows what I'm feeling and well before I go into that I want to share what the sermon was about. It talked about Thomas who was not with the disciples when Jesus came just after he has risen from the dead.

From the Gospel of John

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
     A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas then said: "My Lord, My God!"
     Then Jesus said to him " Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

I love this passage. I just love it. I'll be upfront in saying i've been a "doubting Tom" throughout my life. Sometimes I even have doubted if God truly exists. It scares me when that thought flows through my mind but it's happened. It honestly has happened. What's interesting is i've never did anything about it. I deny that i'm feeling that doubt or i'll accept it as something that just happens from time to time. We doubt God maybe because we never heard an answer to a prayer, lost a job or a loved one died, or because we need something physical to prove that He truly exists. So we live to maintain life. With no Hope because we believe nothing will change. We begin to lose our belief in Him. Slowly we stop praying because wow it didn't work the first time so why even bother. 
    Whats the big problem here? We don't talk to God and we don't confide in our friends because we aren't being HONEST with our doubt. Guys, God knows we are going to doubt, we aren't perfect. It's when we deny that there's anything wrong, thats whats hurting us the most.  How can God really help us? We have to be honest about our doubt in order for God to give us an honest answer. God is the light, the truth, the way. He isn't pride ful, doesn't withhold truth and isn't dishonest. But when we are dishonest with ourselves we are being dishonest to God and how can He truly reach us when we are doubting Him? We have to Believe He will answer us. That's the big picture here. Believing is seeing like in this scripture. Thomas needed to see in order to believe. Jesus knew that and thats why he came to see Thomas. He came even though the doors were lock. God will come to your house even though you've lock the doors to your heart. God will be there, Always. We just have to believe.  Whats so innocent about Thomas here is that he was honest in his doubt. Because he was honest Jesus came to Him. Jesus even said to Thomas, Now that you have seen you believe, Blessed are those who have seen and believe, but blessed are those who haven't seen but believe. That verse is for us. In order to see God's work, in order to see Jesus move in our lives we need to believe so we can see. All things are possible if we believe. So when you pray its not can Jesus or if its possible God could you....take that out. We know its possible. God is limitless. We put him in a box because that's the only way we can begin to understand him. We need to take what God has offered to us. The gift of Hope and the gift of Life.

If you are doubting, seek in Him. Lay it honestly at the cross and God will honestly answer you. I believe that with all my heart. Start believing because you will be seeing God work in you're life in ways you've never imagined.

Blessings,

Amy

Howdy!

Well I hope everyone has been doing awesome! I just finished my math final! Oh boy am I glad thats over....well I hope it is. I don't think I did too well. I also bought a new camera. Its so sweet! It's an Olympus SP550 UZ. Anyways, got any advice about manual cameras because i'm new at adjusting the shutter and apeture ( know i'm killing the spelling) but i'm really starting to enjoy photography. I should put some on here for you to look at.

Anyways, I've been reading this book by Joyce Meyer called "Me and My Big Mouth" and I have to say its pretty darn interesting. I want to share with you an excerpt from the book. I think its really important because I am a gal and well very emotional. Because of this I tend to let my emotions get to me and sometimes let it influence my decisions.  I guess there is always room for improvement!

"Man wants to think his own thoughts, but God desires to use the  mind of man to think His thoughts through.  Man wants what he desires, but eventually his desires are changed into God's, if he submits himself to the Holy Spirit.  Man lives a great deal by his feelings, which seem to be the believer's number one enemy. Feelings can be trained to come under the leadership of the Spirit, but this is a process that requires time and diligence (patience and most importantly faith in Jesus Christ).  The mouth gives expression to either the flesh or the spirit. It can be used to verbalize God's Word or it can be a vehicle to express the enemy's work."                                                       
                                                                            ~Joyce Meyer

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can salt spring produce fresh water."

James 3: 9-12

We must persistently stay close to what God wants us to desire and not what we want and desire. Eventually like this part of the book states, we will slowly start desiring what God wants more and more.  So in my case I should probably take a step back when i'm frustrated with a coworker and about to send a nasty email. A short walk and chat with God, those feelings of bitterness and anger will be gone and slowly the reactions I tend to repeat will slowly be the reactions God wants us to have. Instead of bitterness, and holding on to pride and grudges, we become the compassionate, forgiving friend, spouse, coworker that God wants us to be. Plus, people will see the change as well and we become example God wants us to be to spread the Good News and Hope of Jesus Christ. Woo Hoo!!

Thought that was cool.

On another note I just want to say how blessed I am to be an American. I know sometimes I take for granted how much it means to me because i'm in the Air Force, but really I have so many freedoms that so many don't have. Families who are murdered because they become christians, or a child loses his arm because he was caught reading a bible. Just reading the bible. I just praise God for giving me this freedom and more importantly I ask God to give me the desire and understanding on how vital this freedom is because one day we might lose the freedom. A big loss to us but still we will have the most important gift that no one can take away. They can take away our churches, our Bibles, our lives but they can never take away our relationship with the Holy Trinity.

God, Thanks for loving me that much.

Blessings,

Amy

Wow, I just got back from church today and yes a big Wow. God has been working in my life so much this week. I know I haven't had much alone time with him and well today I felt kind of guilty about that. Wasted a whole day doing nothing so I went to church feeling that way. I put some tunes in my car and felt God preparing my heart for the message. It was awesome. Like my own worship service.

Anyways, I was reading a blog today and it touched upon struggling with singleness. I've been dealing with this for the past few months and its been hard. Several friends are engaged. Other people are getting promotions at work. Just everything hit me at once and i've been struggling, alot.

So I go to church and the topic was Do Not Indulge in the Desires of your Neighbor or Friend. I couldn't believe it. I knew I was doing this. Looking at what my friends were doing and wanting what they had. And the result of this was turning to other desires that weren't of God. Instead of allowing to indulge in God's desires I was trying to indulge the desires of my "self." It blew me away. Other desires can be anything like Lust, Gutteny, you get the picture. In this case I think i've been having issues about my weight and well I turn to that desire which I guess has comforted me when I should have been turning to Jesus and putting my problems at the foot of the Cross. I think alot of people might deal with this. Maybe not eating for comfort but other things like Lust, Gambling, drinking, caffine, anything. Its when it turns our focus from God in order to feel comforted thus, denying the permission of the Holy Sprit to ingrave God's desires in our hearts.

" When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."                                                                                                           

 -James 1:13  

So the question is this: Do we control our desires or do we let our desires control us? If we compare our selves to what the "world" wants us to be we have just accepted what the flesh wants. Instead, in my case I need to not feel GUILTY but allow God to examine my heart, and let the Holy Spirit give me the desires of God's will and not My will. Its huge. It's a struggle but everyday i'm a new creation in Christ and I will fall. I know that. God knows that and God still loves me. Thats why i'm so thankful that Jesus is my Savior and that He's real today! Not last year, not 50 yrs ago. He's real now and always will be.

So I guess what I'm realizing is that instead of trying to figure things out myself, I should just let go, and LET GOD take care of things and when i'm confused or need direction I should look to the Good Book for insight. I've always turned to someone else or a blog, or myself for answers when God has provided us his Son, and The Bible, the two greatest forms of Hope I've come to know.

"Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in You."  

 -Psalm 25:20-21                                              

Blessings,

Amy