I want to know God.

I  haven't posted in a while....I don't know if I will for quite a while, I know I can spend so much time just checking my stats...LOL (and realizing they were all from me checking and/or viewing my blog....I know I could do "don't track your own page views, but my numbers go up so slowly.....I'm being honest...it's pathetic! I just spend way to much time online. No necessarily on BAD stuff per se...just wasting alot of time.....

I WANT TO KNOW GOD.

And I find myself having these dry times where I don't even want to pray or read my bible, I have to "try" to be nice to my siblings and respect my parents, it's not like it's flowing out of my because of my love for the Lord.

I've experienced being broken before God and seeing my wretched state of being who I am apart from GOD, Really seeing that truly, and knowing in the depths of my heart that my righteousness is as filthy rags, and without Christ I am nothing. I want to always be broken before the Lord and want his desires!! 

God has been so gracious and long-suffering with me, I don't deserve how many chances he's given me!

I'd appreciate your prayers for me as God puts it on your heart. I want to REALLY love God! Compared with his love for me, my love for him is nothing! I want to love him more, just become closer and only more like him every day! I really really want to be a shining light wherever I go, and never be ashamed of the gospel! Praise the Lord for those ones who have went before, conquerors IN Christ!

I love you all lots dear friends. May God give us all HIS vision, and may we ask him what our purpose is here on this world, and why God put us where he did! 

                                                     Katie Cline Elizabeth Vannoy

ps. I know this is probably a ramble and doesn't make sense in some areas....

Witnessing.....

I have pretty much found THE best book about witnessing. The bible is best, but this brings out what the bible says about this subject!

It's by Ray Comfort, those of you who have watched the documentary called "the 180 movie" know who he is:)

So he has this book he wrote with questions people have asked him, and his answers! It is called "The Blue Book On Evangelism"

I've just started reading it, but am already so "wowed" by it that I couldn't keep from sharing ;)

The funny thing is, I can read different questions in this book, and be like "ya that's totally for this person" and " she/he should read this paragraph, they need it" 

It hit me, "what about me?"

I'm not applying this to my own life, but thinking about how others should read this part and that part.

I'm not saying they shouldn't but, my attitude should be to have an open heart for what God wants to show me through it!

Ok, so here are a couple of the questions & answers  out of that book.

 

Question 7 :

Is it wise to send new converts out into the battlefield before they are grounded in the word and apologetics?

It is the best thing you can do for them. The woman at the well didn't go to a seminary before she testified of the Savior,and she brought a whole village to Him. After finding Christ, Andrew immediately told Simon Peter. The first thing Philip did was find Nathaniel and immediately tell him about the Savior (see John chapter 1) If new converts came to Christ under the sound of the Law,they know enought to go and do likewise with the lost. They will make mistakes.They may get bruised.But that is how we learned to walk in this life, and the same is true spiritually.

(that one was really an eye opener for me, I thought that I shouldn't be witnessing when I myself am a new convert really, even if I've been raised up in a Christian home)

Question 14 :

Our motive for sharing and reaching out to the lost must be the love of Jesus.If it is anything else,our motive will be exposed and we'll be ineffective.How can we be sure our hearts are in the right place before hitting the streets?

Ask God to search out our motives.However, I would add one thing. Even if your heart isn't in the right place (I'm not talking about sin, but if you are going because of a sense of guilt), you should still go. If you were rescued from a burning building by a fireman who left the firehouse because he felt guilty not coming to the fire, as far as you are concerned, his motive for rescuing you is a non-issue. He did it. That's all that matters. So don't get hung up on why you reach out to the lost, just do it, while there is still time. The quality is in the seed, not the sower.

(I've felt like that alot, and that was something that prevented me from going, like I wasn't going for the right motive, and I thought I should'n't go if I was going out of guilt because I should've before etc etc...I know I'm not explaining  what I want to say right, but  you can read it the question and answer for yourself:)

So that's only two questions....so you should really read the whole book! 

I must be struck with the reality that there are souls dying going to a place they can NEVER come back from....it's horrible that I can be so comfortable while so many around me aren't told about Jesus Christ. Not religion!

Love you guys!

 

My biggest fault....

-LAZINESS-
That is the offensive name! It seems like we all have that one thing that gets in the way of our walk with the Lord! Whether it's something you do, or have, it's all the same in a way.
Recently I really have 'wanted' to get up in the mornings before the others are up, and spend some time with the Lord before our usual family devotions.
So I set my alarm for 6:00 am. Morning comes and the alarm goes off. I wake up partially...Look at the clock, and then how dark & cold it is....."God you know I want to pray and have a quiet time reading my bible, but I really NEED this sleep....I will get up extra early tomorrow morning " and with that resolve making me feel like a "good" person, I go back to bed.
I get up about an hour later,  asking myself why I didn't get up earlier? Tomorrow I will get up early FOR SURE I tell myself.
And on and on the same routine every day!
It was on Wednesday night when we had a meeting here, that we were reading in 2 Chronicles 20 
I will put down some of the main verses(at the bottom of the page) but I'd highly recommend reading the whole chapter!
These verses are talking about how God said how he'd right for them etc. And then before they saw the dead bodies of their enemies they worshiped and Praised God! It was when they stared to sing and to praise God  that God went before them and their enemies were all killed!
It was because they had faith in God's promise, that they praised him ahead I time, they BELIEVED that he would do what he had said! I think God really wants to take him at his word!!
 Anyways last night I realized that I never had faith that God would get me out of bed in the morning, I totally was disbelieving in God that he would help me overcome the enemy in my life called "laziness" So last night I just praised and thanked the Lord for getting me up the next morning, and had faith in him , and the morning comes around, and wow God really had defeated that "lazy" spirit , I got up, and really was awake and had my quiet time in the morning feeling so much refreshed!
I must daily have that faith in him!
There is a reason the verse says "faith as a mustard seed" you don't need to work up this "big" faith, just a pinch of the real thing, and God can actually do what he wants to do! I was just like THANK YOU GOD!!! he's so amazing, I want my life to bring him Glory, although sometimes Its so easy take my eyes off of the light!

15And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.

¹⁶To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of 

Jeruel.

 ¹⁷Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be 

dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.

¹⁸And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.

¹⁹And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

 ²⁰And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.

 ²²And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.