He said that the presence of God is the most important thing. That where the presence of God dwells, our problems will take care of themselves. If we are in financial ruin, we need the presence of God to help us deal with it and straighten it out. If we are sick, we need the presence of God in our lives. Whatever trials we have, nothing is too difficult for God, and it is His presence we should be seeking.
He made a really good point when he said that our president doesn't need to be hearing from us about abortion and this and that...but that we need to invite/allow the presence of God to dwell in our lives and overflow into the world around us, and that our president needs to hear about/see the presence of God in our lives before we will see change. That all our striving and talking and complaining profits little, but that the presence of God is so powerful.
And where the presence of God is, there is blessing. And there is peace. And there is freedom.
So instead of striving and searching and trying so hard to "be" all that we think we should be...we need to start seeking God and seeking His presence and ask Him to fill our hearts and our homes with His presence!
I listened to a sermon by Joel Osteen the other day about how we should always be growing and seeking to improve in some area of our lives.
This is so true. And it is so important to realize this and keep it in the forefront of our minds.
When we don't grow and don't seek to learn knew things or develop our abilities or expand our skills (and most importantly, grow in knowledge of the Lord), we become stagnant and our lives become boring and meaningless.
Have you ever seen someone who has no interest in improving their life? They usually have no vision and can't find much purpose for their life. They usually end up bored and miserable with life, just stagnating in the same spot their whole life.
But people who are always reading/studying and trying to improve theirself/their skills and grow closer to the Lord are usually vibrant, full of life, and interesting. They enjoy life, because they find things they are interested in and learn as much as they can.
And of course we should always be looking to grow closer to the Lord, and to grow spiritually and as an individual. We all have things we can improve on in our lives, and areas we can do better in, and if we seek the Lord, He will help us to grow and change, by His grace.
Walt Mills is preaching a revival at our church this week. (For those who may not know who he is - he is a singer/evangelist. He has put out quite a few CDs, and he used to have a show on TBN. His wife told me they are going to be on the Church Channel soon.)
Honestly, I never knew he was a preacher - I only knew he was a singer and had seen him on TBN a time or two and heard some of his songs in church.
Anyway, turns out he is a pretty good preacher.
Last night he preached a sermon on forgiveness that was really good. One good point he made was that often we "think" we've forgiven someone, but really we've just buried and repressed all those feelings, and when the person's name is brought up all of our anger and bitterness comes spewing out. 
But we really need to seek true forgiveness and work past those feelings. If we don't the Bible says that God will not forgive us. 
("Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions." Mark 11:25-26) Yeesh! That's pretty scary. Especially when I think about some of the feelings I have had toward certain people in my past.
Anyway, it was a really good and timely message about forgiveness. He did a great job of preaching it, and it is something we all need a reminder of once in a while. 
I'm looking forward to tonight's message. We also are going to get to see some very sweet people that we used to go to church with, who we have missed very much. 
Hopefully DD will get a good nap so she can handle the late church service. (She normally goes to bed between 7:30 and 8, so a service starting at 7 is a little late for her.)
We had a guest speaker at church yesterday. She is from Russia. We heard her at a ladies retreat one year, and she was awesome! She has come to our church every December for the last three years. The first year she came was the first day we took Tessa to church. I guess Tessa was just over a week old at that time. 
The speaker, her name is Sister Bullock, has such a wonderful testimony, and she is such a sweet woman. She grew up in Russia during a very oppressive time, and she had prayed to marry an American man. Well, God answered her prayers, and she married a wonderful man who brought her back to the States to live. She tells how she was so amazed the first time she walked into a grocery store and saw all the food. She thought it was a warehouse. In Russia it was so hard to even get a loaf of bread at time. She said the choices we have in eggs alone is overwhelming! She talks about being so very thankful for all the blessings and abundance that we have in America. She has a very thankful heart. It is such a blessing to listen to her speak.
I needed to hear her sermon yesterday, as it brought me back to reality with my attitude. I haven't been as thankful here lately as I used to be. I also need to stop complaining and being negative. This is a big weakness for me at times.
But God is so good, and I'm so thankful that He loves me enough to gently chasten me, rather than condemning me, which is what I really deserve.
Well, this has been my first blog post. I can't believe I finally started a blog. 
I will probably mostly use this to post neat things my DD is doing, or to keep track of fun events in our lives. Hopefully I'll do a good job of keeping up with my blog.
That's all for now!