Happy Birthday Kath!!

Happy birthday to our beautiful Kathleen!!

We love you so much and are so so blessed by your friendship! You are such an incredible mother, sister, daughter and friend :) May the Lord bless you tremendously as you learn to seek Him first above all things and walk in His commandments.

Happy Happy Birthday sweet friend!!

Loving Kindness

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15

Death is the hardest thing for us to face. I believe in some ways it is even harder for Christians to deal with death. We know that GOD is in complete control, so He has to allow death. This is a very hard concept to grasp. But we know that Gods purposes are always perfect even though they may be hard for us to understand. It was through death, that salvation of the entire world came. Through the death of Gods only Son we are forgiven. Though Jesus’ death was gruesome and painful, and though Jesus’ family and disciples were grieved with His loss. God used Jesus’ death to save the entire world.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3

My Cousin died over seven years ago, she was seventeen and my family fell apart. My parents divorced and my extended family was split by grief. Through this terrible time in my life, I could do nothing else but cry out to the LORD. Through her death I learned the Love, Grace and Peace of God and my life has never been the same. God promised that He would love her, and I promised to follow Him. All these years later God is still using her death to bring my family to know the LORD. If anyone was to ask me, I would rather that she would be alive, but the truth is she is more alive now than she ever was on earth. God is being glorified and people are coming to know Him.

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21: 3-5

For those of us who have known a follower of Jesus who has died, we still mourn, we still experience sadness and we still ask why? But we can take comfort in the fact that we know they are in heaven and that is a precious gift that God gives us.

Prayer: LORD thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you truly give peace that passes understanding. Be with those who mourn, bring comfort and in all things be glorified. Help us to not look for answers in times of tragedy but instead look to You. Thank you Lord for the work that you are doing in my family, God please help them to know You! Amen

Missy is MARRIED!!!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. St Clair! Missy, you were a STUNNING Bride and your wedding was just absolutely GORGEOUS! The day was a dream. Your smile we could see from a mile away and it lit up the whole room! James and you are the perfect couple and I know the Lord has completely prepared your hearts for marriage. May the Lord bless your marriage in all the years to come and may you learn to always reflect His love in your marriage. We love you both SO much and are SO SO SO happy for you guys! Have a wonderful time on your honeymoon!!

PSALM 105...

God is just so powerful &faithful! Every time I open my bible it always opens to Psalm 105. Like every time, I will be using my moms bible, my grandmas, davids, mine, no matter what bible, I just open it &my eyes go to the first thing on there, Psalm 105. Its SO cool! 

I love the beginning of psalm 105 b/c I was really struggling with how am I supposed to pray? Do I ask for things, do I thank him, it just didn't seem like enough or that I was doing it right. It got to where I would just say "god I don't know what to say..." Then he started showing me psalm 105 over and over and over and over! 

It says:
"Give thanks to the LORD call on his name"- I thought, OK I can do that... So I do start giving thanks to the Lord...
"Sing to him, sing praise to him" -so I close my eyes and start singing praises to God, whatever song is on my heart.

"tell of all his wonderful acts." So I start praising God and telling him all of the wonderful things he has done, all his wonderful traits...and so on...

"Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice"- rejoice in the LORD! Give God glory! 

"Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." Continue praying and praising and meditating on this throughout my day...

These verses are literally telling me exactly how to pray! In a step by step process: 1) give thanks 2) sing praise to him 3) tell of all his wonderful acts 4) rejoice in the LORD 5)seek his face ALWAYS...

God gave me the exact words I needed to regain confidence in praying to Him. I just start out following these steps and it's just so powerful and amazing! I am not kidding when I say EVERY TIME I open my bible, it is here, and I don't have it bookmarked to naturally fall open. So today I finish reading through Psalm 105 and praying this prayer... I decide to go back to 1 Chronicles where I am and continue reading there, I start where I left off, and guess what it is...

 1 Chronicles 16:7

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make know among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always...." 

WORD FOR WORD the exact same verses as in psalm 105!!! God is clearly showing me that these words and praises are so important! Everywhere I turn I see them! Wow! I am just so blown away by God's faithfulness! Thank you Lord for showing me this again and again and teaching me how to praise you! I love you and praise you! Amen! 

PLEASE OPEN PSALM 105 RIGHT NOW AND READ! IT IS SO POWERFUL!!! Love you all, Megs

Made Complete

"When a child of God looks into the Word of God, she sees the Son of God and is changed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God" - Anonymous

Loved this quote and wanted to share it with you girls!

xoxo - Natalie

Worship Music: www.Comeandlive.com

If you are a music loving, worship obsessed person like me you would be stoked to know about

www.comeandlive.com

It is a website full of TONS of free worship music. All different kinds and newer bands and artists. You can download all their music for free. :) You can also donate, but it is available for free.

I pray you guys are blessed by this and pass it to others so that everyone can have some new great worship music!!

xoxo -Natalie

Miqweh Yisrael the God of Hope

God has totally been pressing into me that He is the God of Hope. In Him we find rest and we know that tomorrow will bring new mercies. He lead me to this scripture yesterday that blew my mind and I wanted to share to encourage you guys:

Lamentations 3:21-26

" Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we

are not consumed,

for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself. "the LORD is my portion.

therefore I will wait for Him.

The Lord is good to those whose hope is

in Him, to the one who seeks Him;

it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the LORD. "

I love the part where it says we are NOT CONSUMED because His compassions never fail. He is a God of HOPE and He will never walk away and above that promises to always carry us through.

I pray Lord that we would trust in your unfailing love and be reminded that we will not be consumed by the worries of this life or this world because you are a God of Hope. You never fail and there is nothing that is too big for you to handle. May your Spirit invade as we seek your first in all things knowing that you bring life and hope to us when we draw near to you. Thank you for being our God, who knows our hearts and who carries our yoke. You are SO faithful and SO good to us God. We dont deserve your love. We trust in you Miqweh Yisrael knowing you are the God of Hope.

Love you girls,

Natalie

Shining Hands

This excerpt is taken from “Voices of the Faithful” a book about Christians all over the world.

This story is about a man named Omar and how he came to faith. It is amazing to read how God is appearing to people in dreams and visions all over the world. God is bigger and more powerful than we can even imagine.

“Omar, who burned his sister’s bible only to dream that shining hands reclaimed it from the fire. When he woke, he found the bible lying unharmed atop the ashes.”

Prayer: Lord I pray that you will continue to reveal yourself to men and women around the world. Lord we pray for revival. I pray that missionaries all around the world would not grow weary from reaching the lost. Lord send out more of your disciples to this lost and dying world. Amen

PRAISE THE LORD!

I have been reading through the Psalms lately and God has been showing me how much he desires our praises! There is something so beautiful about devoting time to just praising God because it takes the focus off of us and off of the nitty gritty day in and day out tasks and hardships of life. I may be going through a horrible time but if I just stop and PRAISE THE LORD, I am filled with more peace than if I were to beg him for peace. Think of how much we LOVE getting compliments from each other. When someone tells us you look beautiful, or I love your heart, or you are so good at encouraging...fill in the blank...it brightens our day! Our LORD is soooo much more deserving and worthy of being praised and adored! Listen to these Psalms...

Psalm 148

"Praise the LORD

Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above.

praise him, all his angels, praise him all his heavenly hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon, praise him all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the LORD for he commanded and they were created.

He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.

Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the LORD."

Psalm 150

"Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the strings and flute,

praise him with the strings and flute,

praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with the resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD."

WOW!!! If ever there was doubt in my mind that we are to Praise the LORD, it is gone after reading just TWO psalms. They are all filled with words of praise to our God! So beautiful! Praise the Lord! Amen!

Love Megs