k. gonna start this thing up. thought about it. got a little time on my hands now. so here goes.

one of the first most powerful influences on my life was a wonderful lady by the name of ann kiemel-anderson. ann wrote books called "it's incredible!", "i'm running to win" and "i love the word impossible." she would say things like, "cause me and Jesus are out to change the world. you watch. you wait. you'll see. we can." my kind of attitude. the reason i reference her is because i like the way she always wrote in lower case with the exception of words referring to Jesus or God. i have always liked that style. kinda the bigness of God and the littleness of me...but always in a context that if we allow Him to, His bigness will swallow our smallness and He will be glorified and people's lives will be changed for good.

last saturday, the day after i found myself no longer employed, i was having my quiet time on the back porch. first confession: i am not good at set aside quiet time. i am bad to "catch God on the run" so to speak. but i digress....i was reading in romans 5 because that was the reference for the upper room devotional for the day--btw, upper room devotional is changing my devotional problem. i was reading out of The Message and here's how it reads: "there's more to come: we continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. in alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged." well that alone got me really excited. that was PLENTY! but then i read further and like to fell out my chair so overwhelmed was i by God's direct words to me.

gotta set it up for you first, tho. at my precious little church (east tallassee united methodist) we are studying in kings on wednesday nites. just the wednesday nite before, we read about the prophet's widow in ii kings 4. she had a debt she couldn't pay and her kids were about to be sold into slavery to pay the debt. she called for elisha. he told her to bring out all the vessels in the house which she did. one by one, they were all filled with oil poured from the one vessel. now there's lots there that will preach. oil. symbol of the Holy Spirit, God's anointing, etc. anyway. the point is, as long as there was an empty vessel, there was oil to fill it. the family and their neighbors finally ran out of vessels and the oil stopped flowing. they looked, but couldn't find anymore vessels. they sold the oil, paid off the debt and no one had to be a slave....everyone is still free. that too will preach.

so come back to romans 5 with me. repeat verse 4 and now 5: "in expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. quite the contrary--we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!" woohoo!! the understanding? as long as you bring an empty vessel to HIM, (this means you!) HE will fill it....

now. as tracy and sharon would say--chew on that a while.

God's best to you....can't wait to see where this goes.