Welcome to Les's Blog

Good morning to you! Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen. Psalm 89:52 I wanted to start out today giving the Lord glory first. Because without Him, we are nothing. At least I am. God is my all in all, my everything. I probably don't always give Him the idea that I feel that way all the time. But I mean to. I want to thank Him and tell of Him to everyone. And as I said I don't do a very good job at it. But I try. Now today I have lots to do. I pray the Lord will be with us and help us all with the things that we have to do. Although maybe some of those things are not on the Lord's agenda, but they are on mine. I want to please Him so much, but I am a sinner saved by grace. I thank Him so much for that.  The "sinner saved by grace" phrase is used a lot. But I just read an article online about the fact that it is an unbiblical phrase.  I will give you the link for the full reading if you wish but I will share it in quicker. http://wor...

Good morning! How are you this fine day? I pray that all is well. Have you ever got on to a website that posts little short videos with animals doing funny things or such? I watched a couple this morning. One of them was a dog, large dog, swinging in a baby swing at the park. The owner had put the dog in the swing and said that the dog loved to swing for about a half hour. It was so sweet. He just kept pushing him and he would go back and forth. And the dog loved it. Sometimes little simple things just touch your heart. The fact the the owner would actually push the dog for half an hour is amazing to me. Even though I really like animals, I just don't have time to do those sorts of things. Maybe I am not patient enough. Who knows? I am sure God knows.  God knows every little detail of our lives. He doesn't miss a thing, good or bad. We can hide nothing from God. Remember He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. What do those mean? (I am learning as I do t...

Florida Beach, not  sure when or  where I took it! But I love it!   Good morning! Did you have a blessed day yesterday? I did. I went to watercolor class. I always enjoy that. It is a time to just relax and forget about my everyday chores and duties. We just need to do that every once in a while. I hope you take the time to do that, to read or write or relax anyway that you can. We all need to do that occasionally in order to avoid burn out. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and  possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to  accept his lot and be happy in his  work--this is a gift of God. Ecclesiastes 5:19 God gave us life. He gives us each day. He gives us jobs and possessions. God gives us the ability to be happy and enjoy life. Everything good comes from God. Do we realize that? He gives us everything. Do we deserve it? Probably not. But these things are gifts from God. Blessings.  ...

Callaway Gardens Good morning to you!   This is the day the Lord has made.   We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24  Are you rejoicing and glad in this new day? The beautiful flowers, the blue sky, the white fluffy clouds, the green grass and trees, and the warm air make me want to shout to the Lord. The grass withers and the  flowers fall, but the word  of our God endures forever.” Isaiah 40:8 Soon enough the flowers and grass will die, the leaves will fall, and the air will be cold. And then will we be rejoicing and glad in it?  I hope and pray that we will be. Especially because these things happen. The tides change. The seasons change. We change. But the Word of God endures forever. God never changes.  Jesus Christ is the same yester- day and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8  And since Jesus never changes, we can count on Him to be our all in all, our salvation, our promise keeper, our ever...

Good morning to you on  this fine Monday morning! I pray that you had a great weekend. I sure did. God is a wonderful and awesome God. He is not just good but He is great. We must never forget that.  We say that God is good all the time. And all the time God is good. And it is so true. But I heard a preacher say yesterday, that saying God is good doesn't really do Him justice because He is so much greater than good. For the Lord your God is God of gods  and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty,  and the awesome God, who is not  partial and takes no bribe. Deuteronomy 10:17 Yours, Lord , is the greatness and the power      and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,      for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord , is the kingdom;      you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11 I am amazed at the awesomeness of God. And I am amazed at the am...

Good morning on this great and beautiful Sabbath Day! I found this story from a woman named Sue Tornai. I wanted to share it with you. It really made me think about when times are tough, do I think only about my circumstances and forget God and others, or do I remember God and others first?  Finding Joy by Upper Room Administrator on Friday, August 23, 2013 The words of Nehemiah 8:10, “Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength,” have led me through tough times in my life. Rather than grieve through my darkest hours—the loss of a loved one, ill health or unemployment, I have relied on my joy in the Lord to brighten the way. The Sunday following my mom’s funeral, I showed up to teach my third grade Sunday school class. The coordinator said, “Oh Sue, you don’t have to do this.” Tears spilled down my cheeks. “This is where I want to be,” I said, “with my friends—discussing God’s faithfulness.” I taught the class and experie...

This was at Callaway Gardens. Good morning on this fine Saturday! I pray that you had a great week. It has been a good week for us. The last few weeks have been great. I was able to spend some time working on our family tree on ancestry.com. My husband's brother is a member and got our tree started several years ago. He not only did his family but my family, my daughter-in-law's family and several other family arms. I love this stuff. I just wish I had more time to spend at it. My grandfather's mother's family on my mom's side was part of the settlers who settled part of the Santa Barbara beach area in California. Now isn't that cool? It is to me. My maternal grandfather passed away right before I graduated from high school. I miss him to this day. He was such a great man. I loved him so much. Maybe I felt it more because I was the first grandchild, I don't know. He was just such a special man to me. I wish that I had s...

  Good morning! I was sitting there on the computer last night and it just hit me that I never posted my blog yesterday. Oh my! I am so embarrassed. I had such a busy day and had to leave fairly early in the morning, well, I guess 10:30 isn't really that early, but for me it is. This morning I have to leave at 9 AM. I will do better at posting this.  I am telling you, some days I think if my head wasn't attached I would forget it. Leave it to me. But God is with me and is very great and awesome and He won't let me forget my head. Maybe some other things that don't really matter, but not my head.  Maybe I need to pray more. Focus on Jesus more. Do everything more. Ask God Whatever you ask in my name, this I   will do, that the Father may be  glorified in the Son. If you ask me   anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:13-14  Pray in Faith Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for  the elder...

Good morning to you! I have been trying to take more time everyday to spend with Jesus. I don't always spend as much time as I like but I have been doing it more often than not. I usually spend an hour and a half or more, sometimes two. But that includes writing this blog. When I was working I got up at five am to be with Jesus. But now that I am not working a 9-5 job I don't get up as early at all but still before 7:30 most of the time.  I am just saying, what is more important-Jesus or sleep? It would seem that sleep is more important. We all get tired in our stressful and busy world. And we are all different and I know that some people would rather spend time with Jesus in the evening. That is okay. But for me I feel like my day starts out so much better when my time with Him is in the morning. And it ends up better also. Not that all my days are perfect. That is far from the truth. But I try my best.  Now if we are going somewhere in the morning I will get ...

Good morning on this blessed day! Actually all our days are blessed not just this day. Let's just count our blessings! And He said, “My Presence will go  with you, and I will give you rest.”  Exodus 33: 14 I have been sharing with you about God's presence from a sermon by Adrian Rogers. So, I will continue with the second and last advantage of His presence. "We Must Practice His Presence How can you make this real in your life? How can you take this from the realm of theory and let it transform your life? Consciously think about His presence. You need to stop several times a day and just get quiet. The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Read and meditate on this psalm over and over again. Have a quiet time with God where you look into His face. Tell yourself that God is present. Carry on a constant conversation with God. The psalmist is talking to God, not about God. He’s having a conversati...

Good morning this fine day! Honor and majesty are [found] in His presence;  strength and joy are [found] in His sanctuary.  1 Chronicles 16: 27 AMP Yesterday I was talking about God's presence and about how He never leaves us and is always with us. How close depends on our relationship with Him. Remember Christianity is not a religion but a relationship and it is with Jesus Christ.  We pick up with Adrian Rogers from yesterday. His question was: "What advantages are there to being in God’s presence?" The first advantage is this:     "There’s Power in His Presence When you are discouraged, His presence will see you through. When you are in darkness, it is not darkness to God. When things don’t make sense and you can’t understand anything; just recognize that God is present. While you can’t see through that darkness, He can. When you learn how to apply the presence of the Lord, God will become a bright, living reality to ...