Welcome to Les's Blog

Good morning to you! May God bless you and give you peace. His love endures forever. Another wild Wednesday was my lot yesterday. I am so thankful for God's mercy and grace. He loves us so much that He forgives us always when we ask. Our sins become as far away as the east is from the west. He helps us when we get too busy or stressed. How awesome is that! Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD;  do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon  us, we pray, for we are all your people. Isaiah 64:9 For our offenses are many in your sight, and our   sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever  with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: Isaiah 59:12 The Bible says we all sin. We can blame it all on Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit on the Tree of Good and Evil. But it was their choice to do it and it is our choice also to sin. We know what is right and wrong when we read God's Word. And we choose to sin anyway. Shame on us. Somet

  Good morning! Praying you had a great day yesterday. I did. A great friend fixed lunch for me and two others yesterday. People don't cook for others much anymore. Family, yes, but not necessarily for friends in their home. It was a real blessing.  Continuing where we left off yesterday, there are some excuses or reasons for not having a quiet time with Jesus. I am sure that I have used one at some point in time. I don't ever want to give up my time with Jesus for anything but sometimes it is unavoidable.  Here are some common problems encountered along the way: I know I ought to have time with Jesus, but I don't want to.        Ask the Holy spirit to give you a desire. I don't feel like it today.                                                              Do it anyway and admit to Him that you don't feel like it. Ask Him to improve your feelings. My mind wanders.                                                                     Ask the Holy Spir

Good morning on this fine day! Yesterday I was talking about having a quiet time with the Lord. Maybe you call it your devotions, or your Bible reading, or such. But I hope you have that time with Jesus every day. It really makes a difference in my day. Be joyful always;   pray continually;   give  thanks in all circumstances, for this is  God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time   of your favor; in your great love, O God ,  answer me with your sure salvation. Psalm 69:13 So, I mentioned reading God's Word, praying, and meditating yesterday. To meditate is: to engage in contemplation or reflection, to focus one's thoughts on: reflect or ponder over, to plan or project in the mind.  How do we get started with our quiet time with Jesus?  Well, self-discipline is a start. Just do it and keep on doing it. Set aside time in advance, how much time, etc. Plan ahead, go to bed early, so y

  Good morning to you! How are you today? I pray well. This is a new day. Anything that made you anxious yesterday? You can start over today. This is a new day dawning. I think that is from a song. Maybe I am crazy!  Do you ever feel like that? I find myself doing and saying crazy things sometimes. Unfortunately, when you do those things, then people think you are crazy and don't believe what you say when you are not crazy. Have you ever felt that way? I do. But maybe that is just me. Maybe stress does it to you. Maybe not enough sleep. Maybe not eating healthy. Maybe falling away from God does it. " Be still , and know that I am God;..." Psalm 46:10a Do you have a quiet time with God every day? I do. When I worked, I got up at 5:00 every day for 12 years in order not to miss my quiet time with Jesus. I don't think that I ever missed a day. I am not bragging, I am just telling you, you can do it. If I can, you can. It defin

  Good morning on this Sabbath Day! You, Oh God, are so marvelous! How great thou art! I almost forgot to write this blog this morning. I was fixing my smoothie for breakfast and God reminded me that I hadn't written it. Forgive me, Lord! Sunday mornings are always different. I need to jump out of bed and get moving and as I get older it is harder to do that. I don't want to say I am lazy but maybe I am. I don't want to be. I have always been one who gets up and gets moving early but have to be somewhere. Now, I normally don't have to be somewhere. So, I have gotten used to moving slower in the morning. Some days my husband will call after lunch and say that he thought I was going somewhere and I haven't even left yet. But why move early if I don't have to. As long as we do the things of God, the rest really doesn't matter. I do spend time with God in the morning reading and studying His Word, talking to Him. Not always singing to Him but

  Good morning on this very nippy day! It was supposed to be in the high 20's last night. How cold and refreshing! I pray that you had an awesome day yesterday. Got up late this morning and it took me 45 minutes to put a crock pot of stew together. I bought a cheaper cut of meat instead of stew meat and I probably made a mistake but it should still taste great. It just may not look at pretty as it should. The meat is almost shredded. Ugh! I just want to praise the Lord today in this blog! I try to do that at least once per week. Sometimes it is more. But it should be always. Do we praise the Lord always? In every situation? Think about it. The LORD is my strength and  my song; he has become my  salvation. He is my God,  and I will praise him, my  father's God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15:2 When you have eaten and are  satisfied, praise the LORD   your God for the good  land he has given you. Deuteronomy 8:10 I will procla

  Good morning on this blessed and cold Friday! But the sun and the Son will shine on us! Praise the Lord! He is great and He is mighty. Oh, praise His Holy Name. I love you Lord and I have a great prayer request for my awesome readers. We know a young girl and her husband (a youth pastor) who have gone to Africa to bring home a very smart, funny and loving little 4 year old boy to adopt. They have been there to bring him home for 3 weeks already. The deadline on their visas runs out in 2 weeks and they are not on the list to exit the country at least with the darling little boy in their arms.  Please pray for God's will to be done, for them to get on the list and exit the country, and bring the little child with them. I know that God's timing is perfect and He can put their name on the list. They are getting a little weary and concerned about this. The other day she got very sick from eating something and actually was in the emergency room there scared to death

Good morning on this blessed and cool day! It is cool this morning and it will be freezing the next couple of mornings. By freezing I mean 32* or less. Should we praise the Lord? Always, no matter what the circumstances. My mind is whirling today. We talked about dates and times and goings-on for the next three months at several activities that I am involved in and I didn't write down anything. Now I am panicking that I will forget something while I am trying to remember what I need to write down. Does that make sense? Probably not. I just don't want to lose it or have a panic attack or be totally stressed or have my heart race uncontrollably. And it is starting and the holidays aren't even here yet. Help me Lord! As we think about and plan for the next few months, let's be still and know that He is God. " Be still , and know that I am God; I  will be exalted among the nations,  I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Good morning to you! I pray that all is well with you. That your day yesterday was full of love and blessings. And if your day wasn't the best then I pray that today will be much better. For me today will be a very busy day. I have a training class all day and then rush home and dinner at church which is almost 30 minutes away. It is all a blessing but even more is my husband made a crock pot full of beans and took it to the church with him this morning. So, I don't have to think about it. He is a good man! I put cornbread ingredients in the bread machine with the timer so it will be ready and hot when I get home. Thinking ahead really helps a lot. And I will stop at the store on the way to church and buy some slaw. It is not the best thing but that is the best thing I can do. As I said planning ahead helps. So, are you planning ahead in your walk with Jesus? Are you ready when God decides to split the skies and we get taken to glory to live with Jesus for

Good day to you! What a beautiful day that the Lord made yesterday! It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Fall is definitely here. Last night we had a meeting and when we came outside afterwards I could smell fall. It probably was a combination of the dry air and some fireplace smoke and maybe a few pumpkins, mums and dried corn stalks but it still smelled like what fall smells like. In a week or so we have a few Trunk or Treats around and maybe some fall festivals. Time just marches on, doesn't it? And things happen for a reason. God's timing is perfect. Spending time with God is most important for our lives. Who knows, perhaps you have come to the  kingdom for such a time as this."  Esther 4:14b There is a time for everything,      and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2       a time to be born and a time to die,      a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3       a time to kill and a time to heal,      a time to tear down and a ti

Good morning, afternoon, evening or night! When do you read this blog? I don't even know. I suppose that some of you read it whenever you can and that may not necessarily be in the morning. But just know that whenever you do get a chance to read this, I really do appreciate it. And I am going to say it again--God is good all the time-All the time God is good! He is such a great and awesome God and I praise His Holy Name. We had a great Homecoming yesterday at our church. Many people came and the worship was great. A man in the church played the drums with the piano player which he hasn't done since we have been there. We had the band "Just Us" worship with us in music. The choir sang which just started back and doesn't sing every week. A person led the choir from another church. We don't have a choir director. He was great! The food was like a banquet with Jesus. We met some people we hadn't met. The children sang. A child did a solo. It was a