Welcome to Les's Blog

Good morning to you! Hope that all is well with you on this gorgeous sunshiny day that the Lord has made. God is so awesome. His mercies are new every morning. His love knows no bounds. It is of the Lord 's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 But I am praising God for all He is doing and all He has done. The boys and I went to church yesterday. It was family day so I could where jeans. It is a good thing since that was all I had. God even cares about the small things.  I took the boys to their church to see Frozen last night. It was movie night which they have every now and then maybe even once a month.  But anyway it was a great movie. There might have been three hundred people there so it wasn't just kids. They have free popcorn, drinks and candy for all. What a ministry to the community!  So praise God all you can and live for Him. I am t...

Good morning on this blessed Sunday! I pray that you are having a wonderful weekend. I sure am. I am taking care of my grandsons while Mom and Dad are still at the hospital with the new beautiful grandson, a gift from God. So, I won't say much because I need to get two little guys ready for church service at 8:30. Just remember that Jesus loves you and that He will never leave you or forsake you. He is always with you and loves you unconditionally. You don't have to clean yourself up to come to Him. He wants you as you are. So, have a blessed day and if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, today is the day! Lesbear

 I am ready for these! These are my  friends flowers from last year. Good morning! Praise the Lord! I have great news! We have a new grandson. 2:42 this morning! So, we are leaving in a few! Please pray for our safe travel and continued health for baby and mom. I will be back tonight. Remember to praise the Lord at all times! 1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Exodus 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.    Deuteronomy 32:3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD.  Oh, praise the greatness of our God! Have a great day! Lesbear

I just loved this sunrise last June. Looking forward to it  again this June as a new day dawns in Lake Junaluska, NC. Good morning to you on this Friday! The last day of the week. Are you ready for the weekend? Do you have great plans? I am not sure what we will do. It depends on whether it is going to rain on Saturday or not. It is supposed to rain all day. It is hard to work outside like that. Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day  dawning. When people live to be very old,  let them rejoice in every day of life. Ecclesiastes 11:7-8a  A new day will dawn on us from above  because our God is loving and merciful.  Luke 1:78 So, how about that. When things are not good, not great, maybe even a little lousy, then we can look at it from a new day.  Here is the song and video:  http://youtu.be/8eGrDfUGbeY When my kids were little and going through a time crying a lot or whatever, my mom used to say, "J...

Good morning! Blessings to you! When I started this blog at the end of October in 2012, the whole object was to tell you what God is doing in my life, that it might encourage you. And I pray that it has. I am going to actually repost what I posted that very first blog.  Use it as a reminder that we all go through stuff. And also let it encourage you as it has me just reading it again. And God can do so much in our lives and He will answer prayer, which He has. He can give us a new beginning. Some time we need to go back to the beginning so that we can see where God has brought us. So, here it is. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Tuesday October 30, 2012 Well, how do you start your blog? First of all, I want you to know that I have been praying for God to somehow use me ever since I resigned from my job in May. I have felt lonely, lost, unworthy and many things since then. A lot happened at that time. My Dad and Step mom, moved to another state after...

  Good morning on this fine Wednesday that the Lord has made! I pray that all is well with you. I was reading my devotion this morning about encountering God. In verb form encounter means: unexpectedly experience or be faced with (something difficult or hostile). In the noun form: an unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something. Now I don't think that having a relationship with Jesus is difficult or hostile but an unexpected experience can certainly happen. Just like in my devotion the woman was face to face with a hummingbird. What perfection God has made! She experienced that in a hummingbird and thought of God in His perfect creation.  I also wouldn't call meeting with God a casual meeting. I mean you can come to Him as you are. Casual means relaxed and unconcerned . We need to be relaxed when we come to God. I certainly wouldn't want to feel like every time I came to God I needed to be tense or nervous. People wouldn't come to God if they...

Good morning to you! What a blessed and beautiful day! My husband told me that the forecast was for some snow this morning and then again this afternoon. Well, it was 45* earlier and the sky is as blue as can be with not a cloud on the horizon. I know that clouds can blow in fast but they haven't yet. So, let's enjoy the sun while it lasts. Although the forecasters are known to make mistakes, sometimes more often than not. Oh, well, none of us are perfect! But Jesus is. Is the Son shining in your life? I want Him to shine every moment of every day in my life. And since I am very, very far from perfect that doesn't always happen. My prayers, hopes, and dreams are that I will all the time but I fail deeply. Lord, forgive me! Actually He is shining in me, I just don't show it a lot. Am I hiding His light under a bushel? I guess I am.  I am going to try to do better at letting His light shine in me. Letting God's light shine may be talking about His Tr...

  Good morning to you! Blessed are ye! I know that the Lord has blessed you. And I know that the Lord has blessed me. How can we not know that? He has given us everything we have including redemption through Jesus Christ and salvation, also through Jesus Christ. Now if we don't know that or don't have Jesus living inside of us, it is time. Don't let another day go by without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will be in heaven with Jesus for eternity when our days here on earth are over. God gave us everything we have and everything He had on the cross. By His death and resurrection we have eternal life. We can live in these bodies we have on earth but when our days on earth are over then He gives us glorious bodies to live in heaven. But while here on earth we can take care of the bodies we have. We can get into shape and look our best all the time. Of course, we may already be in shape. But maybe we just don't take care of ourselves. Bu...

Good morning on this Sabbath Day! I pray that you are having a great weekend. I spent most of the day yesterday finding and organizing all of 2013's receipts and paperwork so that we can get our taxes done in a few weeks. It is a daunting task every year. I am not near done but at least I am closer than I was the day before. And I praise the Lord for that. Oh, Lord, how I love thee! For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.… Psalm 18:1-2 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' Mark 12:20 This is what I am trying to do, love the Lord...

Good morning to you on this blessed and wonderful Saturday! I found out at the podiatrist Thursday that I have Plantar Faciitis in my left foot. I have been limping for a couple of months with pain in my heel so she recommended a shoe store where they fit your foot with athletic shoes. So, I did and I also got a special sock for that one foot, which cost a fortune.  As long as my foot gets better and thanks be to God my foot seems to be better already a little bit. To me this shows how much God loves us. Do we truly believe that God loves us just as much in the little things as He does in the great big things? He does care about our cares no matter what and wants us to live for Him. One thing that I was thinking about is that everything we care about God cares about as I said. I have always been a little down on myself about raising my children. My children are wonderful and I love them so much and we are so proud of them but I don't think I gave all that I could. I ga...

I actually had this blog all ready this morning and had to go out of town and didn't get it posted so here it is. Good morning! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Yesterday Spring started. Now I know it wasn't a full day but it was close enough. The sun was so bright and the sky was so blue. It wasn't that warm but it will get there. I believe it will be warmer today. Praise the Lord as I said! I would like to share a devotion from yesterday that I thought was really good. A New Calling Read Philippians 2:12-18 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. - Philippians 2:12 (NRSV) Shortly after celebrating my 75th birthday, I sensed a calling from God to become involved in an ecumenical prison ministry called Kairos. With significant reluctance — but with prayer — I eventually responded to the prodding of God’s Spirit and am now involved in ministry with three different correctional facilities. What a...

Good morning! Yesterday was a great day for me. How about you? It didn't rain. It wasn't as cold as it has been lately. I didn't get too upset with the traffic. We had leftover corn and fishsticks. We had a great lesson with the kids. The sky didn't fall. The acorn didn't fall on Henny Penny's head.  Oh my, why did I think of Chicken Little from before I was born. Although I am sure that I saw the 1943 from when I was a kid. Silly isn't it? I think that I get a little silly when I am tired. My grandsons do that also. I started this last night since I had a doctor's appt. this morning.  The word silly isn't in the Bible. But the words happy and glad are. So, here are a few scriptures that share that feeling. He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me; I'll  always be happy and never have trouble." Psalm 10:6 But may the righteous be glad and rejoice  before God; may they be happy and joyful. Psalm 68: ...

  Good morning to you! Bless you on this fine day God has given us! Have you ever heard of the Jelly Bean Prayer and Poem. I never had and I don't know how I all of a sudden I heard of it this year, but I did and I am using it.  My husband and I have a lesson and feed the kids of the neighborhood at our church every Wednesday night at five. Actually I do the lesson and I help him with the food because he starts cooking it before I get there.   Anyway, I found this jelly bean prayer and decided we would study it all through the season of Lent. So, we have been and I am going to share it with you. It may seem juvenile but the message is not. And I am having fun with it and I hope that the kids like it also. Of course, they will get the jelly beans at Easter and I also give them one when they answer a question during the lesson. And we know that they like that. So, here it is along with the poem which has a few extra jelly beans mixed in that I am not usin...

  Good morning! It is again a cold, drippy, droopy day but the Lord has made it and we should rejoice and be glad in it! So, I will. How about you? Just maybe the first day of Spring will be bright and sunny and gorgeous and the forecast says it will be. We will see if God changes it! Hopefully you are having a blessed day thus far since it is a gift of God. And He gives great gifts. May God fill you with His love and peace as you seek Him today.  My Sunday School lesson homework that I am working on was about the crucifixion last Sunday. This coming Sunday is about the resurrection. And just a few weeks ago we saw the movie The Son of God . So, seeing it all happen in the movie and then studying it really brings it all to life. It kind of puts it in picture form. In your mind's eye you can see it happening as you study it. And wow it is so heart wrenching to see and feel what Jesus went through. We will never truly know or feel it but we can get closer to i...

  Good morning! I am a little late this morning. I went to my son's yesterday to attend my daughter-in-law's baby shower. In just a couple of weeks we will be grandparents again and they will be parents to a new baby boy. We can't wait to meet him. This will be their third and last baby and boy.  Anyway, I left there this morning when they left for work and school. And I got home a little bit ago. I am ready for a nap. I slept good on my air mattress but I was cold all night. I had set my duffel bag on the heater vent. And if you have ever slept on an air mattress you know that the air inside can get very cold unless you have 10 blankets under you. And I had only 6 thin layers under me. This scripture always comes to me when I think of babies and children, and in this case my grandchildren. Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a real blessing. Psalm 127:3 When a woman is about to give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come...

Good morning! Isn't God great? Yes, He is. He speaks through His Word. He is always there for us. He also speaks to us in our spirit. When we are down and out, we need to encourage ourselves. How do we do that? We pray to Him. We spend time in His Word. We don't lock Him out. We are to obey Him. And that is asking Him to meet our needs and He will. But naturally we need to do our part.  Put our focus on Him. And when we talk to Him it should not be just us doing the talking. We need to be still and be a good listener also. Let God talk to you. As I said He will speak to you through His Word as well as through our spirit, but He also can speak to us through others.  When you hear that sermon today, let Him speak to you. Listen to Him! Don't sit there in church and be thinking about what you are going to eat for lunch or what you are going to do tomorrow. Put your focus on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.  Deuteronomy 4:29 "But from ther...