A reminder of the Lord's love

The other day I was outside spending some time with the Lord and look what I saw!



1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us."

"If I live until tomorrow..." [Remembering God's faithfulness]

One year ago tonight...



I was lying on the emergency room bed - in intense pain, with IVs in my hand, and a fever of 103.8. My mom was sitting beside me. The infection I had been battling had become so serious. The nurses were running blood tests to see if the infection had gotten into my blood. If it had, they said things could be very critical.

As I lay there feeling as if the infection was taking over my body, for the first time in my life I truly wondered if I would make it through the night. It was an incredible thing.

The Lord was so near and real to me as I lay there... I had such peace in Him. I said to Him, “Lord, if I die in 30 minutes, I am going to see You face-to-face and that would be SO wonderful!” (I truly was so excited at this thought.) “Yet, if You are not finished with me on this earth and You want me to live to see tomorrow, I want to live every breath for You.”

(There is nothing like being faced with potentially being at the end of your life to make very clear what is important and to help you identify the areas that need to be fully given to the Lord!)

By His grace and perfect will, the Lord allowed me to live to see the next morning. I will never forget the ride home a few hours (and many medical details of which I will spare you!) later. The sun was just rising, the birds were beginning to sing... and my Creator had given me another day to breathe and live for Him. Even more precious than this, I had come to know His faithfulness, care, and presence in a new way.

So, as we celebrate Memorial Day each year, it is now a special memorial to me of God’s faithfulness!

“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.” Lamentations 3:21-24

May you have a special weekend remembering God’s faithfulness to you!!!

~

(After the night in the emergency room, I ended up in bed for about 6 weeks recovering... Through this time, the Lord taught me so many beautiful lessons that I would not trade for anything! You can watch for them in future blog posts!)

Announcing the Summer Devotions Challenge 2009!

It is with great excitement that we invite all girls and young women to take part in the 2009 Loving the Lord Girls Summer Devotions Challenge!  We know that the Lord has awesome things in store!

Summer is a wonderful time of year.  We enjoy beautiful weather, a more relaxed schedule, lots of fun activities, etc.  Yet, with all of the busyness of running from one thing to the next, irregular schedules, etc. we can sometimes become distracted from what is really important, get disillusioned, and feel discouraged.  We can so often come to the end of the summer and feel a kind of emptiness that results from getting off track in our walk with the Lord.  Just as the grass needs to be watered to keep from drying out in the bright sunlight, so our souls need constant refreshment from time with the Lord and His Word to grow and keep our priorities straight in the midst of many often pleasure oriented activities.

Now that summer is almost here, bringing with it a change of pace, it is the perfect time to begin!  So, we want to invite you to join a bunch of other young women across the country in taking part in this challenge!  We promise you that it will make your summer so much more meaningful and that you will look back at the end of your summer and be so grateful for every moment that you spent with the Lord!  The greatest rewards will be a closer walk with the Lord and knowing His Word and ways in a much better way.   

The Challenge begins June 1st.  We invite you to join us in making this the best summer yet!  

For more details, visit the "Events" section on our ministry website at www.lovingthelordministries.org! 

Hebrews 11:6,  "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

May Ministry Update - Discipleship Training Program Graduation

The Loving the Lord Discipleship Training Program Commencement Ceremony took place on May 2nd, 2009.  It was a powerful time of thanking the Lord for the deep work that He has done in this class over the past 8 months of the course.

Jeff Vest opened the ceremony and offered a word of prayer for the event.

Amy Vest shared the commencement address to the young women on "The Joy of a Life of Loving the Lord, Learning from Him, and Letting Him Shine from Your Life."

Each young woman shared a testimony of what the Lord had done in their hearts over the past months of the course.  These testimonies were dynamic, heart-felt, tear jerking, and God-glorifying.

Each father came up and prayed for his daughter.  These prayers were priceless...

The young women received their diplomas signifying their completion of the DTP course.

Together, we will all press on to know, love, and live for our Lord more each day!

1 Corinthians 2:9,  "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

What Are You Feeding On?

One morning recently, I was running around the house, getting ready to leave for something. (These have been very full days, which have not allowed much time to post on the blog!) As I was getting ready, I was quickly eating some grapes for breakfast. I was getting ready so fast that I wasn’t really paying attention to the grapes I was eating... but, I thank the Lord that I quickly looked at one right before I ate it - and it was going bad. I was so grateful to have looked at what I was eating at that moment!

It made me think of our lives... We are constantly feeding our hearts, minds, and souls on something and it is impacting our lives. Often we don’t think about what we are feeding ourselves, but it is making a big difference. Just like what we physically eat impacts our physical body, so what we “feed on” internally impacts us internally.

This includes what we:
- Think about - Read - Watch - Listen to - Etc.

We want the things that we are feeding our mind, soul, and hearts upon to be things that will nourish us and cause us to grow in our walk with the Lord - not things that will do us no good, or even damage us spiritually!

Things that will help us include:
- His Word
- His character
- What He has done in our lives
- Hymns and songs of worship
- Prayer
- Things that point us to Jesus

Let’s ask ourselves these questions today -
What am I feeding on?
What is the quality of the things I am feeding on?
What will the results of feeding on this be?
What is my goal in life?
Am I feeding on things that will help me with this goal?

Let’s feed ourselves on things that will help us towards our goal to love the Lord more!

Psalm 37:3, (NKJV) “Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”

Seeking Him Together

It has been so wonderful to see and get to meet many of you at different events over the past weeks...





Your hearts to follow and love the Lord are such a blessing...











Together, we will continue to seek to know Him more!











“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” ~ Hosea 6:3

Romans 11:33-36

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
~ Romans 11:33-36