In reading my devotional book today, I came across the story of a young man
who had been blinded at the age of 10 by an accident. The story related that he had attended
school and won varsity honors in spite of his blindness and had won a beautiful bride, though he had never seen her face.

A little before his marriage he had submitted to a course of treatment by experts and the climax came on the day of his wedding.

As the bride entered the church and approached the alter her eyes fell on a strange group. Her bridegroom, his father and the oculist who had preformed the treatments. The oculist was in the process of cutting away the last of the bandages from her bridegrooms eyes. As the bride awaited in anticipation, the last of the bandages fell away and her bridegroom turned to her. He slowly walked toward her, with a look on his face she had never seen before. Yes! He could see his bride, for the first time in their relationship they could see each other face to race. " At last!" she said. "At last!" he said. What a mere suggestion of what will actually take place in Heaven when we,the bride of Jesus, at last see our bridegroom face to face.

This reminded of something Bro. Wiggins said yesterday in his sermon, about one day seeing our Jesus face to face.

"I hear the rusteling of Angel wings, it sounds to close.
As the choir begins to sing, it's the heavenly host.
It's the wedding song I hear, as the bridegroom draws near,
and just on the other side, they're singing -Here comes the bride!"

Just think Christian friend, it could be soon. How exciting!
My heart can not imagine the thrill of excitement, or the great gratitude I will feel
when at last I see him, the one who loves me so. My heart is longing for Him.
I am a little envious of those I know, who now stand in his presence

I pray my loved ones and friends are ready. Will you not go with me?
The way is so easy.
Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth and the life..."
Please accept him today and come with me to the greatest wedding
we will ever attend.

Today has been kind of an unusual day.
To start off with. We had a wonderful day at church.
Two were saved in children's Church and a family that we
have been praying would join, joined. It was very encouraging.
It seems that is has been such a long time since something like this
has happened. Praise God, he is so good.

Yet, somewhere, underlining my joy, there is a gnawing feeling.
I know this is Satan trying to kill my joy and excitement. I prayed
for God to do something great today and he did. I know this makes
Satan mad and now he is after me. I thank the LORD that we are not
ignorant of his devices and "greater is HE that is in me than he that is
in the world." I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven that I can have
victory through Jesus my saviour.

But, my heart still has a sad place tonight. You see, I have this friend and
this friend has been going through a rough time in their personal life. This
situation has caused my friend to stop coming to church.

Now those of you who read my blog and know me, will know who my friend is.
This is not the point. If it was any other friend of mine, I would feel the same;
so please don't think I am giving this friend any special treatment. Special attention,
yes, but there are times when we all need special attention.

I just want my friend to know that we serve a God who is greater than all our circumstances.
He does not care what others think of us, he only cares about our relationship with him.
We all fail. If we are honest mose have failed over and over againg. The Bible says "for a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again..." Proverbs 24:16. (Now I am assume that this
seven times means the same as in the new testiment where Jesus says we are to forgive seventy times seven; I may be wrong, but I know I have failed God more than seventy times in my life, probably seventy times in the last month, knowing me in the last week, but HE is still coming and picking me up when ever I call out to Him. So I don't think I am wrong is assuming here).
He knows our hearts, our cares and our needs; and praise his holy name, he always has
someone who is in our corner, cheering for us.

Friend, I just want to let you know, I am in your corner praying for you and cheering you on. Guess what, so is a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).

"Where reasons are given, we don't need faith. When only darkness surrounds us, we have no means for seeing except by faith."
Elizabeth Elliot
She was the wife of Missionary Jim Elliot who was killed by the Auca Indians while
witnessing to them in Ecuador.

PS This is not just for my one friend but for all my friends who may be going through
a trial of faith at this time. I have been on that journey this past year, and even though
I am still unemployed and do not know what God has in store for me yet, I can still say
without reservation: " Although I can not see him, he is in the dark with me. He may not
say a word, or even reach out to touch me to let me know he is near, but by faith
I know his promise still stands true", "I will never leave the nor forsake thee." And He
has been reaching out and touching me through others all through my ordeal. I know He
will do the same for you.

May God bless, have a great week.

I haven't been very faithful in writing lately, but I have
been busy concentrating on other projects. So now that they
are out of the way, maybe I can be more diligent to write.

It never ceases to amaze me how God can take a small, every
day occurrence and show us a great truth through it.

Today is house cleaning day. I have been vacuuming, same as
every other week. My dog, Arwen, is for some unknown reason,
deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. Now, I can't understand
this because I am the one doing the vacuuming and I have never
tried to suck her up in the vacuum cleaner and I have never ran
her over with it. So the problem is not the vacuumer. (i.e. me)

The problem is Arwen and her finite mind. You see, a dogs mind
is not as infinite as a humans. I am not saying they are not smart.
They just do not have the God given ability to reason the way that
humans do.

You see, she does not understand that the one controlling the vacuum
is the one who loves her more than anyone else, and the vacuum can
not harm her or even come close to her, unless I direct it to.

Our Heavenly Father, is the one in control of the circumstances that
surround us; and no matter how threatening they may be, they can not
touch us or even come close to us, unless He allows it.
What a blessing and peace this give me.

Lord help me to remember that noting can come my way unless you
allow it. Help me to remember that you moved upon the heart of
the Psalmist to write "My times are in thy hand:..." Ps. 31:15.

Have a great and peaceful day.

Today I would like to talk about my friend Rachel. Miss Rach as we call her.
Right now she is it the hospital. She has been in great pain since last Saturday
when she was admitted. She is doing better today, but please be in prayer for her.

Anyway, Rachel is a very special person to me and my family. She has been a constant
help to us this year. If you have read any of my other blog posting then you know that I
have been without a job for almost 9 months(goodness I could have had a baby by now ! HA)
There were several times that we we did not know what we were going to have for
supper and Rachel would call as say "I fixed supper for y'all." I just wounder if she had any
idea that God was using her right at that moment.

Rachel has loaned her precious daughter Meg to our family too. She is like a daughter to
me and a granddaughter to my parents.

Now not to get to personal, but at times these two seem to have an inferiority complex. I know this because I suffer from this also. Yesterday my friend was feeling that she was a burden. But didn't Jesus say we are to bear one another's burdens. It reminded me of a song that is not a Christian song, but it certainly has a great message. "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother, as on we go, His welfare is my concern..." well, today I just wanted them, and those of you reading, to know that they are two very special people. I thank God each day for them. Rachel has also
loaned her husband Jimmy and her dear son Josh to us for family too.

SO if I haven't said it today, Rach, I love you, appreciate you and you are special!

Love
Beck and family

Well, up one day and down the next.
I just received some bad news. The job that I applied for and was hoping to
get, went to someone else.
It seems like the disappointments keep coming.
I know we are not to question why, but I have to ask. What's going on?
Sometimes I just need to see, right now, where God is leading me.

I get angry because I look at the news and see articles like-- Miley trades
in her Porsche because she did not like it. She didn't have to buy it, her mom
gave it to her. And poor baby, it wasn't good enough for her.

Wonder how she would feel if all her fans stoped buying her CD's and she lost
everything she had. Including her car.

I have been out of work for 8 months, and I did lose my car. I can't pay my bills
and the stress has been overwhelming.

But in my heart I know I have only lost temporary things. All my heavenly
possessions are still in tact. But that does not mean it does not hurt. My heart
is very burdened, and I am still human so I do feel anger. At the moment I am feeling some
despair. Where do I look next?

The sad part of this story is not that it is mine, but that it pertains to thousand of
Americans at this point in history.
Our government is so concerned about stem cell research, space exploration, fighting for the rights for women to kill innocent babies, (who by the way did not ask to be conceived, but because of the inability of their mothers to control the sexual desires, are being murdered by the thousands)gun control and other secondary issues, that they have lost sight of
what really makes this country work and survive. The average, every day person on the
street. The one who is not a celebrity, does not get interviewed by the press, never gets to
participate in the numerous polls the media seems to be taking.

If the leaders of our country would just stop, set down, shut up and ask God, ( for once)
what He wants for this country, and then follow the instructions that He gives them; then
we would begin to see thing turn around for the good.

What ever happened to seeking the best for your neighbor instead of all you can get for
your self. That is the first thing we did. We forgot the golden rule. After that, every thing else
went down hill. No prayer or Bible reading in schools. Now we have to teach our children how to protect themselves, sexually and physically.

If some one had just told the bleeding heart liberals to love their neighbors as much as they
loved the causes, we would not be in such a mess.

I am more than sure there will be people reading this who will really get mad.
Hey, I have freedom of speech, too.

I do not hate the people I have been talking about, I have great concern for them. Where did
our generation go wrong? Our nation is on a down hill slide, and I know God is the answer we
need. Not stimulus packages. I challenge the leaders of our country. Have you thought about God today? Do you know where you are going when you pass from this life? IF YOUR ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS ARE NO, THAN I SUGGEST YOU FIND A KING JAMES BIBLE, PICK IT UP AND TURN TO JOHN 3:16. THEN TAKE A LOOK AT THE BOOK OF ROMANS. IT WILL GIVE YOU THE ANSWERS YOU NEED; FOR YOURSELVES AND FOR THE COUNTRY THAT SO MANY OF US LOVE SO MUCH.

INSTEAD ON LEARNING EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW IN KINDERGARTEN, I LEARNED EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW IN SUNDAY SCHOOL. THANKS MOM AND DAD FOR TAKING ME THERE.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND TURN HER AROUND.

Well as you can see, I am a little behind in posting on my blog. Please remember this is all new to me.
The big news on my friends blogs today, was the awsom time we had at church last night. Each one giving an account of their personal experience. So I would like to relay to you my testimony.
Yesterday was the first Sunday for my new Sunday School class. I was very excited all week, waiting for the big day to arrive. I had studied all week and felt I was ready so bless the socks off the ladies in my class. Well, needless to say, I was so nervous I could hardly think stright. When I looked at my notes, the were just words on paper. Nothing seemed to make sence to me. I could not remember what I was wanting to say.
When class ended, I felt empty and awful. The excitement was gone and the doubts began to roll in. I felt an over whelming sensation of wanting to burst into tears. Our pastor, Bro. Wiggings brought as really great message, but still I felt empty.
When we arrived home I told my mother, something was wrong, I just did not fill right. Instead of feeling blessed I felt burdened.
My mom awoke from her nap not feeling well. She was complaining of some pain in her chest and in her left jaw. That really concerned me. As we sat on my bed talking, she began to settle down and to tell me how stressful she has been feeling. Our financial situation has been very bad since I lost my job back in May, and my Dad's physical health has not allowed him, since January of last year, to do some of the odd jobs that have always supplimented our income since his retirement. So she and I both have been feeling the pressure of the mounting stress. I told her that when we got to church that during the invitation we would go down and pray about our situation.
Now comes the awsom part! Our pastor stood up to give his sermon, but indstead of starting to preach, he said he felt God was leading him to have everyone who had a special burden to come down to the alter and for him and others to pray for them.
No one but God knew what had passed between my mom and I. There are other who have been having great trouble in our church too. One man who has not been paid for the last couple of week, an family very near to me that have a son who is a drug addict, one whose husband and children will not come to church with her. Member after member who have over whelming burdens.
What a blessing to have a pastor who will listen to God and follow the leading of his Holy Spirit.
It was a great service. How good to have people who can put aside their personal feelings and share each others burdens.
I pray that God will keep me close to Him and remind me each day that there are so many praying for me and my family. I also pray that he will remind me that there are others who have greater burdens than ours, and for me to lift them up to Him each day.
"Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Amen. Ephesians 3:20 -21.

This is a new experience for me. I have a blog! Oh, my! I have officially (and finally) entered the 21st century. As usual I'm a little late. But running late is one of my strongpoints. It use to be a weakness, but as I grow older it happens more and more often.

I have entered that wonderful and wonderous time of life they call Middle Life. Is that like Middle Earth; somewhere out there where we know not. I find I am changing, growing becomming another woman. ( I am changing my hair color, growing wider and becomming my mother). I find thing shifting all the time, every time I look in the mirrow.

Seriously, I have a great life and would not change it for another. I have a family, friends and a wonderful Savior who love me and always come to the rescue. I am finding that as I age and my body grows weaker, that I have a new found srtength. A strength that comes from within and with experience.

Instead of me going to people for advice and encouragement, I find them coming to me. I pray that God will give me an understanding heart and the wisdom to be a good mentor.

Each day is a new experience, and I find my eyes glancing upward and longing for a freedom I have never know, yet have always known. My saviour stands ready to call me any day and I will spread my wings and embrace that freedom. What a wonderful thing to look forward to.

Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of a eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. I Corinthians 15: 51-53

Yea! Pray I see you there.