Something Strange Happened Today...I Welcome Your Input

I have to apologize. I haven't been blogging lately and I have no excuse. I just didn't feel that I had much to say. I realize that I may loose many followers that way but when you can't write, or even think for that matter, what are you to do? Several times I came on here but every time I tried to write, I had either nothing to say or too much to say. I don't know if any of you can relate cuz I'm kind of a misfit and do things quite differently than most, or at least I feel that I do.

I don't have a topic today. All I want to do is tell you what happened this morning. I'll throw it out there and see if any of you have any ideas.

Each morning I try to read my Bible. There is no certain order that I do it. Sometimes I'll read something that I'd been hearing about in church or sometimes I'll just open it up and start reading the titles and see if anything looks particularly interesting. Lately I've been reading in 1st Kings. It gets pretty interesting just to see how the Lord intervened back then in some of the battles and how He communicated with His people. I often wonder what it would be like to just hear Him speak, boldly and clearly, without any question about what He wants me to do. It would be so much easier wouldn't it? Especially in situations like what I'm about to tell you about.

I was reading this morning and I was at the top of the page reading about how a prophet came to Ahab, king of Israel and told him that the Lord was going to give into his hands a vast army' "..then you will know that I am the Lord". Well, as I'm reading along, trying to understand and see where this was all going, I saw out of the side of my line of vision or corner of my eye, a line of words down the page that was all highlighted in green. But when I looked down the page at that area, it wasn't highlighted. I felt pretty strange, figured I was imagining it so I then went back up to where I had been and started reading again. And again, out of my direct line of vision, kind of out of the corner of my eye, the same sentence or maybe I should say a couple lines of words, were highlighted in green. This kept happening but each time I'd stop reading and look down the page at the area that had appeared to be highlighted, it wasn't highlighted anymore. Okay, now I'm wondering what is going on. Am I imagining this every time? No, I couldn't be. It was too clear. Well, I'm a firm believer that when we read our Bibles we can't just read one scripture to get the full understanding. We need to at least read what is before and after a particular scripture to get a good understanding of what it is all saying. So instead of stopping what I was reading and going to the area that had appeared to be highlighted, I kept reading on until I got to that area. I don't even want to admit this....but then when I did read the words, they didn't make much sense. I read it again and again and I couldn't figure out what God may be trying to say to me. The scripture is 1st Kings, Chapter 20, verse 23, but the highlighted words started in the middle of the verse, ..."But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they."

I have never had this happen before so I can't figure out what this all means. It happened for a reason so I won't just dismiss it. It has to mean something! I'm not sure how to find out what this is about but I've been seeking God on it since it happened. I read it to my husband and he has no idea either what it can mean.

As I said before I try to read the Bible every day. I feel strongly that if we are to know God's voice we need to know Him first. The only way to do that, that I know of, is to seek Him continuously, read His word and pray for understanding and a closer relationship with Him. That I've done over and over and over and I will continue until He comes because I want nothing more than to be so close to Him that there is no mistaking His voice.

Now,..I'm asking those of you who know the Lord and His word if you would please take a look at this verse and what it is saying before and after this verse to see what you think this could be saying to me. I realize that without knowing me or my life and what is going on with me, it may be difficult to determine this. But, I'm going to ask anyway. Any ideas you may have are welcome and will be considered. I know many of you are very good at interpreting the Bible so I'm praying that I get some good ideas from you. In fact, if you feel that you want to respond in private, feel free to email me about your thoughts on this. My email address is blbrown@ridge-runner.com.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have about this. Thanks and God Bless you all.

There Are No Forks in God's Road.

Hi ALL!~ That is if I have anyone reading these anymore. I haven't been on much lately and I don't have any excuses either! Imagine that! I guess you could say I've been 'in a rut'. Let your imagination go wild there.

Several things have taken up my time lately. I've been trying to find a hobby, you know, something to eat up the time I waste, to allow God to use me in whatever way He sees fit. Since I was a kid I loved drawing, and I was ok at it, but when life took over I had put that all aside and really haven't visited it much during my busy years of raising kids and working. Because I want God to be the author of all that I do I prayed about it. I really felt led to get back to drawing but I had this great idea to even add to it by getting into wood carving as well. That's something that has always peeked my interest through the years. Isn't it awesome how some of those carvings tend to almost jump out at you and come alive? That's the kind that I want to be able to do.(Ya, don't we all?!)

So I ran with the idea. I researched it, like with everything, until I beat the subject to death. I wrote to a few carvers to get their words of wisdom and even got one that was willing to take me under his wing for awhile. I was so excited to start! Then I went and got myself all the 'beginners' tools and it took me a week just to find the right kind of wood. Thinking I was the smart one I grabbed a piece of red oak that was laying out by the wood stove instead of ensuring that I had something soft to start with. I just figured that once I learned how to carve with that, everything else would be like butter, right? HA.....what a mistake there! All I did was frustrate myself as well as the carver that was TRYING to teach me something. Lesson learned. We are NEVER as smart as our teachers. Next, I needed sharp tools. Since sharp tools are the ideal way to go when your taking delicate cuts out of wood, I needed to learn how to do my own. It took me another week just to get all the materials together for that, plus add a few days of trying my hand at it. It didn't go real smooth. I won't get into the gory details but luckily I still have 10 fingers left. I'm here to tell you, no matter how smart you think you are, it's never as easy as it looks and it's always a good idea to have a First Aid kit handy! So here I sit...I have a teacher, sharp tools, soft wood, and a pattern BUT I'm too frustrated and sore to give it a try! I won't tell that to my teacher though because I'm just too darned embarrassed.

All of this started with me wanting to do whatever God had planned for me. Since I tossed the 'artist' in me aside, I thought maybe God had plans for something in that area long ago but I had taken another path back then. And now when He reminded me of the talent he had given me from the start, I go and take the fork in the road AGAIN!

Isn't that just what we humans do? And we're so good at it too! God picks the plan for us. He steers us down the road we are to take, but we think we're so much smarter so we take another path, add our brilliant ideas and end up with bloody fingers. I won't totally give up on the carving idea but instead of jumping ahead of myself and obviously GOD, I'm thinking I will go dig out that old sketch pad and a pencil or two and see where that takes me. Then .....well, I'm not sure but I'll get back to ya!