The Plan I Have For You

This wasn't the message I started more than a week ago to share with you.  I wanted to tell you about a special song God had placed in my life.  Although singing solo has always made me shake down to my toes, I bought the track for this particular song quite some time ago and was preparing to sing.  Not to long afterwards, I had my first ear surgery, and the changes in my hearing forced me to quit singing. A few weeks ago I was cleaning and found the CD, and my husband caught me singing through.  The message of the song is so powerful in my life.  Sunday night I will be sharing with my church.  While I have retrained my ears to finally be somewhat comfortable with a group, this will be my first time singing alone in more than three years. I've worked hard to overcome the lack of confidence I face trying to sing with ears that don't always catch what they should.  This week, I've fought a harder battle:  the vioce of ...

"And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:61, 62) The Easter sermon contained the message I've been needing to hear.  It was the story of Peter. We all know Peter as the one who denied Christ three times.  One of Christ's chosen ones...and he openly denied his relationship at a critical time, after giving his word to Jesus he would never do so. I know Peter had tremendous guilt, and he wept bitterly over his mistake.  I needed to be reminded he went on to lead thousands to Christ after this memorable event.  Take a look at the eloquent message from Acts 2. A couple of weeks ago, a conversation included "I thought you were a better person than that" and some other words that made me feel pretty low.  Whether it was truth or not is beside the point.  It hurt because not only did ...

This is one of the toughest posts I have been called to write.  Admittedly, it has taken more than a month for the words to come together to share.  It bears an issue with which I really struggle, and I know there are others here who deal with the same things.  I have heard too many of them around me lately. After praying for how to share, I was blessed with a testimony of Rhett Walker, lead singer of the contemporary Christian Group The Rhett Walker Band.  Rhett was a preacher's child who led a life of rebellion during his teen years and fathered a child.   He discussed the destructive behavior I call " self beating ."  You know the feeling, that nagging, second guessing of yourself, That voice reminding you often of the things that could have been better or should have been better.  " Oh if only I had," or "if only I hadn't. "  Satan is so wonderful to remind us of our imperfections and use it to keep us down. Don't you find it so much...