I've been praying for a man named Ken Abrams who serves at my old church called Compass. He was diagnosed with two types of leukemia the day before Christmas and since then I've been praying my heart out for him. He was admitted to the hospital for chemo treatment on the spot and was told he would remain in the hospital for no less than 60 days. I believe with all my heart that God is using him to show others of His Miraculous Power. I believe Ken will be healed and that he was diagnosed with blood cancer to show the world of God's Healing Hand. Ken has three children, a beautiful wife and an amazing hand in ministry. I ask that you all pray for him as he is being healed by our Magnificent God!
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14
I've also been praying for a woman named Carissa Blanchard. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in several locations in her body three months ago and has seen the Miraculous One working in her to remove the cancer ever since. She is soon going into radiation treatment. She has seven children and an amazing husband. Please pray for my friend as God works in her and through her in this spiritual journey.
As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. Psalms 138:3
Cancer scares me. Anytime I hear that someone was diagnosed I start to tear up and instantly begin to pray for that person. God loves His people- all of them- and he wants nothing more than to hear us call to Him for help. So pray, God's people, pray!
If you have anything you need prayed for, please email me at: amy.livingwater@gmail.com
Thank you everyone for making 2014 a good one! This year I won't be posting as much, though. Last year was great, but the time I had spent on the computer was... disappointing. This year I want to spend more time with my family. I love blogging and I think trying to write every week was fun, but it's time to take it slow. My new goal for this year is not to post something every week, but rather twice a month and enjoy my time with my family and with my God.
I hope everyone had a wonderful year and I pray this year will be ever better! God Bless! -Amy
Today is the day before the new year begins. And my last challenge of 2014 for you is to look back at this year and smile. Remember all the good things that happened and ignore all the bad stuff. And remember, with God's Amazing Grace, your past will be left behind you.
How was your Christmas? Did anyone do Operation Christmas Child? What are some special family tradition you do with your family? Is anyone excited for the new year?
Hi there! My name is Brittney Johnson and I am just an ordinary girl in love with my Savior. I have a blog entitled: Daughter of the King Why is praying so important to you?
I believe that prayer has the power to change the unchangeable and make the impossible possible. God's word is how God speaks to us, and prayer is how we speak to God! Unfortunately I think most of us don't pray as much as it is needed. Prayer is a powerful thing!
What do you usually pray about?
My family, my own spiritual growth, friends, missionaries, any special prayer requests, and for the lost to be reached fro Christ.
Why is it so important to you to go to church every Sunday? Not only is regular church attendance biblical but it's also essential to Christian growth. Not only does the preaching convict and encourage us but it gives us an opportunity to fellowship with other believers.
When did you first become a follower of Christ?
I was saved when I was five years old. I then surrendered my life to Christ at age fourteen.
Who was it that helped you to know Christ?
My parents and Sunday School teachers
What do you do to show Jesus' love?
I try to serve him faithfully but I think that no matter how much we try to love him we will never be able to show him as much love as he has for us. His love for me is the reason I love him. I would be nothing without him. I can't brag on the love that I show for Him but about the love he shows for me.
How will you show Jesus' love in the future?
I hope to serve God with my life by being fully serving him by being a servant. Not only to him but to others also. The best way we can love others is by showing them how much Christ loves them!
So I have been planning this post for a while now... and I'm super excited!! My lovely friend, Laura (from Living and Dressing for my Savior), will be taking the lead in this series and depending on how many people I can get and how soon I can get them, this should go on for a few weeks. My goal in doing this is to show how these Christian girls keep Loving God while living in a world that hates Him.
Introducing Laura:
Hello everyone! First of all, thanks so much Amy for asking me to answer some questions for you! I really enjoy hearing from other Christian teens! I'm Laura, a teenage girl who loves fashion, reading, crocheting, sewing, spending time in the kitchen, and working on crafts! More important than any of those things though, I love my Lord and Savior! I started my blog, Living and Dressing for My Savior over a year ago. I blog about modest fashion, and my journey to grow up and become a Proverbs 31 woman! I'd love it if you would stop by and say hello!
Why is praying so important to you?
The reason prayer is so important, is because it is talking to God. All strong relationships require good communication. For instance, if you never ever talked to your friend, how good of friends would you be? What if you only talked on certain occasions, maybe once or twice a year? It wouldn't be a strong friendship. Now think about your best friend. How often do you talk to him/her? I talk to my best friend everyday. It is a rare occasion when we don't know every little thing that is happening in each other's lives! That wouldn't happen if I never talked to her! It is the same with prayer. God wants to hear from you. If I only pray every once in a great while, how am I going to have a strong relationship with Him? Another reason praying is so important to me is because that is what the Bible says to do. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 puts it simply : Pray without ceasing.
What do you usually pray about?
My prayers typically begin with thanks. I have so much to give thanks for! I also confess my sins. I pray that He will help me to fight the temptation that I'm faced with. Then, as James 5:16 says, I pray for others. So many people ask me to pray for them, and I honestly do! I pray many different ways at different times of the day. I honestly believe there is no right way to pray. Something that has really helping me (and others that I've shared this with) is something I learned from one of the Duggar's books. Whenever faced with a situation where I'm being tempted, I have a list of people that have asked for prayers or those who I know need salvation. I quickly pray for each of them because who is tempting me? Satan. And what does Satan despise? Prayer. So when I pray, the Devil flees.
Why is it so important to you to go to church every Sunday?
Hebrews 10:25 (along with many other verses) talks about the importance of going to church. When you are at a church that truly challenges you and teaches the truth unequivocally, you will grow and thrive in that environment! Going to church is about fellow-shipping with other Christians and learning more about God. I know that I need that time every week to prepare and challenge me for the other 6 days!
When did you first become a follower of Christ?
I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was four years old! My mom was reading my sister and I our daily devotionals, and both of us began to ask lots of questions. I remember her smiling as she asked us "Do you want to ask God to come in your heart tonight?" and both of us nodding and saying we did! She prayed with each of us individually and that night, both of us became Christians! My mother remembers the exact date and we celebrate our "spiritual birthday" every year!
Who was it that helped you to know Christ?
I have been blessed to grow up in a Christian home. As I said before, my mother was the one who prayed with my sister and me to accept Christ, but my father has also been a wonderful role model. He would read and reenact Bible stories to all of us kids by using our favorite stuffed animals as the characters! Others that have helped me to know Christ better have been my Bible study teachers! They were so full of love and patience with me and the other kids, and taught me so many things!
What do you do to show Jesus' love?
Wow, this is a hard question! The first verse that popped into my head was 1 Corinthians 10:31. "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." I believe that applies to showing God's love as well! Everything I do should show God's love. I know I make many mistakes along the way, but that is my ultimate goal- bring glory and honor to God, and share the love that Christ has given me!
How will you show Jesus' love in the future?
Like I just said, I want to show God's love through everything I do. So I will continue to do the same in the years to come as I strive to do today!
Shortly after finding the other 'people', I started to be like them. Well, in a way. I didn't care about others as I did before. Though I stopped the transaction not long after discovering this.
Anyways, so becoming like this, unfortunately, was a nightmare of mine. I don't want to hurt people, I want to choose to Love.
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
I want to help others who are going though what I went through. And I want to do this with Love. I feel that if I don't help others who are going through the same thing I did then, then what was the point of that experience?
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
God wants us to reach out and help those who are hurting the same way we have. Even if they are our enemies. God wants us to choose Love. "I am bankrupt without love." (1 Corinthians 13:7)
There are people in this world that I would consider my enemy, based on how they've treated me in the past. I've let go of the grudges I held against them, forgave them for the (mental) hurt they caused me, of course though the thought still stings. My (mental) wounds still bleed from time-to-time, due to different memories of the moment that have been triggered.
Not long after I forgave this person did I find another people like her. And another, and another, and so on. It kind of made me paranoid. I've noticed, though, that its more out of habit for them to do this rather than choice. I'm sure that she regrets talking to me that way just as much as I wish it never happened. Which is quite often the case.
The weirdest this is though, I'm related to someone like her.
It was a little creepy.
And without moving closer to my family I would have never known she was like that. And if it weren't for the first person hurting me in that way, I would have ruined the relationship between me and my aunt. See what God did there? Yep, he's a smart one. Very tricky. Never would have guessed it at the time.
But now that I know, I'm thankful that God put her in my life. Just when I thought it was all over, turns out, it was only the beginning.
Hey Everyone! I am sorry I haven't posted yet this week, I have been working on a post all week, but due to lots of school and midterms, I have been slacking. I will post that soon, thank you for your patience.
One of these days we're going to fall. The acting game will be over and our secrets will be revealed. Dread will follow and humiliation and shame will be the result. Our life is like broken glass and will feel like it's being stepped on and crushed ten-thousand times deeper into a pot of doom, boiled by someone worse than any fairy tale witch. The Devil himself will finally show and the truth will be revealed. All doom will be known, and it will be to late for anyone to be saved unless already saved.
So find God before the choice is out of your hands.
A variety of routes exist that will take you from anonymity to being noteworthy. Most will travel by way of exceptional achievements in business or politics or sport or entertainment. In my case, the route was a little different. It selected me, rather than I choose it.
12 years ago I was very much minding my own business in the world. I was an architect in a little town in Ireland. I was never destined to one day be asked to write a blog for Careers in Government.
I had never been ill. I had run 6 marathons.
Then, out of the blue, I began to get headaches.
Over two days at my local hospital a suspected routine sinus infection dramatically transformed into one of the worst Head & Neck cancer tumours ever seen. My consultant told me I was the second worse case he had ever seen. The worst case was dead in a month. Very few hospitals in the world, he told me, could offer any hope to a case like mine.
The end of my life just appeared right in front of me. I simply had weeks to live.
Eventually, impressed by my fighting spirit, Professor Simon Rogers and his team in Liverpool decided to offer me a chance. But even there, they didn’t believe I would make it. They wouldn’t tell me that so they told me I had a 5% chance. The problem with serious Head & Neck cancer is the complex treatment required will generally put you in the grave before the cancer gets to. If I was still alive after surgery I was likely to be without my sight, my speech, my hearing, my mobility, my brain function or any combination of all five.
Survival was all that was on the horizon. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.
None of that mattered then. I just wanted to be alive. If I was alive I was winning, and cancer was losing.
I underwent a huge 12 hour operation. They told me it was as big as surgery comes. It was followed by 7 weeks of radical chemo-radiotherapy but in between I got meningitis and a deep vein thrombosis. Both of these nearly killed me by themselves. By the end of 2002 I simply had no business still being alive, but somehow, I was.
All of that was 12 years ago. My amazing survival has now been outdone by my even more incredible recovery. I am working, talking, running and functioning again just as I did before. Apart from my eyepatch, it is almost as if I never had cancer. My consultants are simply amazed. Through their great work I have become one of the greatest cancer survivors of all time.
From nowhere, I have become noteworthy.
In 2012, on the tenth anniversary, I wanted closure to the amazing survival and recovery element of this story. To achieve this I ran my first marathon, post-cancer and I wrote a book. I wrote the book, not just for cancer patients but for anybody who has a mountain to climb.
I have become the living proof that nothing is for certain. I have been given a second life and with it comes an opportunity to encourage and inspire.
I have now had responses to this story from all over the world. The greatest say “I was giving up, until I read your story”. When I speak in public I like to offer not just inspiration, but perspective too. I remind everybody that the lost account can be replaced, the crashed car can be repaired, even the prison sentence can be served. I ask them to watch the news again only this time swop roles with the man in the war zone who comes home to find his wife and four children blown up or the woman who finds her entire village washed away by a tsunami.
They are the real heroes.
The longer I live the more I believe very little really matters. It won’t matter where you lived, who you knew or what you had. What will matter is what you did. When my time does come I want to be able to say this amazing story came to me and I did not, not do something with it. I tried to use it to show everybody of how lucky we really are. To demonstrate how easily we forget what it truly means to be alive and well.
I have been given a chance to live again so that I can die better.
- See more at: http://www.careersingovernment.com/tools/gov-talk/about-gov/public-sector-trends/gift-life/#sthash.WA2dhnX4.dpuf
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After I read this story I felt more encouraged to keep fighting the battles God has given us. Like my previous post said, I've been spiritually exhausted and I just wanted to give up. My relationship with God didn't feel close anymore and so this was very encouraging for me.
I want to share a song by Jamie Grace called Fighter, this story reminded me of it, so here it is: Enjoy!
