Glory In The Highest

I'm not sure how December 1st managed to roll around so quickly this year. My house is only half-decorated for Christmas but at least all of the Fall decorations are down. I only have one string of lights on one strand of garland that isn't cooperating which is a small, but much appreciated, miracle.

I have managed to already watch some sappy Hallmark Christmas movies (Mark is a sucker for them too, believe it or not) while sipping egg nogg. And last night I downloaded Christ Tomlin's new Christmas CD, Glory In The Highest. It is sooooo good! He has turned Christmas music into pure worship as only he could. I'm listening to it right now and have goosebumps from his rendering of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - don't even get me started about My Soul Magnifies The Lord. If you buy one thing for yourself this month, get this CD!

Psalm 148:1-2

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.

Have a blessed day, everyone.

Donnie, Kleenex, and Happy Endings

I got Hannah home from our own personal Shear Genius just in time to watch my favorite childhood crush, a.k.a. Donny Osmond, perform his free style number for the Dancing With The Stars finale. I'm not a huge fan of the show, I've missed more episodes than I've seen, but oh how I loved Donny back in the day. The purple socks, the brilliant smile, the variety show on at 8pm on Fridays... I was enthralled with Marie too and just about wore her Paper Roses album right out. I even remember having a slumber party and making my girlfriends listen to every song even though they weren't that impressed.

Sidenote: I read online today that Sara Palin's recent appearance on Oprah earned the talk show its highest ratings since the Osmond Family were guests in 2007. Interesting, huh?!?

After DWTS, Find My Family came on. Has anyone else seen that show? If so, did you cry HARD through the whole thing??? Oh, my goodness. Somebody pass the Kleenex. Quick.

In tonight's episode a couple who've been married 27 years were reunited with the daughter they released for adoption 30 years ago. They'd looked for her for the past decade and the show found her - 8 miles away. At one point I had to firmly instruct Hannah to keep her eyes on the tube instead of staring at me while I bawled like a baby. I love a happy ending.

Speaking of which, the new Sandra Bullock movie, The Blind Side, is sooooo good. Come to think of it, I cried off and on through that too. Maybe I need to stick to comedies for a while. :)

Updated 11-24-09 to add: Be sure to read David Wilkerson's post for today, Lies of the Enemy. It's excellent!

The God of Restoration

I'm very, very sorry you girls have had to look at a free Bible software offer for 11 whole days! Jill came for a visit that went way too fast last week but I'm noticing that every week goes way too fast.

Yesterday was my baby boy's 20th birthday and I'm really wondering how that's even possible. Nathan's schedule is rather brutal, he works at the school he attends from 7:50am to 3:50pm and then goes to class from 4pm to 10:30pm Monday through Friday, so I have yet to see his 20 year old self.

November 17th, 1989 seems like a million years ago when I think back to it. My mom died that same day of breast cancer that had spread into her lungs. I was 22 years old at the time with a very active 17 month old Andrew in addition to Nathan and a marriage that was basically in shreds. Total anguish is how I would describe the state of my heart and mind at that time.

Two weeks ago I was in prayer with a friend and she said that Isaiah 61:3-4 are the Lord's verses to me. She knows very little about me but could not have been more correct in what the Lord has done for me.

Isaiah 61:1-4

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to
comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of
his splendor. 4They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

We've all had our own seasons of despair but if we let Him, the Lord will comfort, He will provide, He will give a crown of beauty and pour out upon us the oil of gladness and drape us in a garment of praise. there's no end to what the Lord will do in us if we let Him.

Free Bible Software!

Hey girls,

From time to time I get asked what type of references I use when studying. At this point in time I'm in the market for another bookcase (I'll probably grab a cheapie at the Wal-Mart) because my shelves runneth over and now we're surrounded by stacks of books. Anyway, that's not the point of this post.

I just stumbled onto a free, FREE!, Bible software download from WORDsearch. Disclaimer: I haven't installed this on my computer and haven't used any of their programs but I know that WORDsearch's programs are very popular. While I prefer to do most of my reading out of books instead of on a computer screen, I think everyone would benefit from a good basic Bible software program. I have BibleSoft's mac-daddy version that I got at a crazy low price after Christmas last year. It was an investment, but I know that one program will carry me through the rest of my days and I can upgrade as need be.

I have glanced through the looooong list of books (over 200) that come with WORDsearch's Bible Explorer 4.0 free, FREE! program and it looked really good. Click here to see for yourself what's included in that download. They also have a 4.0 limited edition for $14.95 and a 4.0 deluxe edition for $39.95 that Beth Moore recommends.

So there you have it. If anyone does download it, please let us know what you think.

Enjoy the sunshine!