Deborah

So far so good. My husband came out of surgery just fine.

Thanks, guys! I appreciate your prayers!

Many of you have been so patient with me through these past 19 months since my husband's injury. This Tuesday he's scheduled to have yet another surgery on his foot so could I ask you to pray for us once again?

My stepmom 's last tests say THE CANCER IS COMPLETELY GONE!!!!!!!

Hey congratulations on getting your drivers' license and for your high marks in school! Thanks too for the prayers! I know we all appreciate them very much!

When I was a young girl, I had a lot of ear infections. By the time my parents got me to an ear specialist, I had almost permanently lost my hearing--had they waited another 2 weeks, the doctor said, I would have been deaf. I've always thought this was the enemy trying to steal my musical ability away from me because I've been composing music since I was about 5 years old. Mia helped me understand a recurring dream I had back in those days: /t10223-bear-and-parents-invalidation Anyway, for the last several months I have been having ear pain. I am not one to run to the doctor, but last Friday when I was in church and a prophet asked if anyone had ear pain I was like this getting to the altar The prophet and his wife prayed for me and the Holy Spirit was very near. I felt a burning sensation in my ear and the stabbing pain I had was gone. Well the next day, the pain came back. I was very upset. Today a doctor looked into my ears with an otoscope and she said, "These are the shiniest ear drums I have ever seen!" She said I had no sign of infection. Now when a person has had a lot of ear infections, the ear drum becomes dull and doesn't reflect light. Considering all the ear infections I've had in my life, I should have a very dull eardrum but ptl, I don't!!!!!! The pain was probably just from some ear wax that's built up and from the enemy trying to steal my healing away from me! So I'm praising God for touching my ears!!! For making my ear drums so shiny it looks like I've never had an infection!!!

Thanks to all who have been praying for my husband. Just today the infectious disease doctor told my husband the culture from my husband's wound on his foot shows NO SIGN of the non-contagious bacteria that's been lurking for MONTHS!!!!! This bacteria survived 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics as well as very, very expensive oral antibiotics. The doctors are still stumped why the bacteria showed up in the first place--we thought it might have come from our water supply, but after changing our water supply source, the bacteria was still present. The wound is finally almost completely filled in and healed, more than a year after it appeared.

Boy, those appraisals can take forever and that can be so nerve wracking! I pray all goes smoothly and you'll have peace through the whole transaction.

Sorry to hear that, Mark. Those little animals have such a way of coming into our hearts with their unconditional love.

This pesky ulcer on my husband's foot was almost healed--it had filled in from the bottom and all the doctors who saw it this May agreed it was almost healed, despite the fact it was still growing funky bacteria according to their cultures. THEN this last Tuesday the doctor told us he wants to do surgery on it yet AGAIN because of the drainage it's having!!!!!! The surgery is tomorrow. On a positive note, I catch my husband reading the Word pretty much every night now and I can tell his heart is softening.

Hey Cholette! I have been playing piano and composing music all my life and have played in many churches and crusades large and small, so I have a little experience in this area. Let me encourage you to step into this calling. I'm proud of you for even considering it, and yes, I will pray for you as the Lord leads me. I hope it's okay to share with you my two cents about music ministry: 1. It's vital. I was reading in Psalms where David says "Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle" (Ps 144:1) and I realized my piano playing was warfare! 2. Because it's warfare, the enemy will try to discourage you. He'll play on your insecurities, he'll take sensitive, artistic people on the praise team and cause hurts--it's par for the course. 3. Psalms does say we are to play skillfully, but as I'm sure you know God does look at our hearts when we worship Him. If you're not playing every musical phrase perfectly, but you've practiced and you're doing the best you can, then that has to be good enough. I've seen talented, musical people beaten down by perfectionists. I know one time I was playing at a Bible convention and my fingers were so cold. they could hardly move! I butchered part of a song and I was sooooo embarassed! But you know what? That song really ministered to a lot of people (who came up to me afterward) anyway, probably more than had I played it perfectly. 4. When you first began to play in a church, you're likely to get lots of pats on the back, but after awhile people do tend to take you for granted. This is how we turn from people pleasing to God pleasing. And people in the congregation can say some hurtful things. One may say you play too fast, another may say you play too slow all in the same day! 5. See again point 1. This ministry is crucial. Someone once said a song lasts longer than a sermon in the memory and I think this is often true. A lady recently told me she was having a rough day and one of my songs came into her mind and encouraged her! This is no little matter!!!! So I hope I haven't scared you off! Keep practicing, do your best and the Lord will do the rest!!!!--Debbie, off her pulpit now, practicing what she's preaching

First of all, thanks for calling me "Debbie!" Anyway, I've heard this (above) verse referred to often by people who dress like gangsters, get tattoos and other such alarming trends--it says man looks on the outer appearance, but God looks at the heart. Yes, God looks at the heart, true, but MAN looks at the outer appearance. MAN is who we are to witness to and if our outer appearance is alarming, it's really hard to look beyond that. I know of a man who went to a job interview in a lime green suit. He didn't get the job, but he did get hired by another company and made that company millions of dollars. The person who interviewed him initially said he could not get beyond the lime green suit, no matter how hard he tried. I was watching a documentary of a famous singer not long ago and a line from it keeps haunting me. It says, "people hear what they see." For that job interviewer, a brilliant potential employee was what he lost, but what if eternal salvation was what he lost? What if the person in the lime green suit had been witnessing to him and he had rejected the message because of the packaging of the witnesser? Yes, God does look at the heart, but man looks at the outward appearance and if that tattoo is part of that outward appearance, it could affect how or even if people hear us.

This is why I could never get a tattoo: 1. People I've spoken to who have gotten a tattoo say they did it because they felt rebellious. Rebellion is a favorite tool of satan. My hairdresser gets a new tattoo every year (she proudly shows them to me and I try really hard not to be judgmental) and she has told me they are addicting. 2. Worldly people get tattoos and I am to be separated from the world. I know people take passages such as Leviticus 19 and say, "Well, if I follow everything in this chapter, then I should eat only kosher food, never trim my beard..." Yet the whole reason for these rules in the first place was God wanted His people to act and look differently from pagans. 3. Many employers will not hire someone if he/she has even one tattoo. 4. Tattoos are permanent and just because I like some design now does not mean I'll like it 20 years from now. If I'm married 20 years from now and my body belongs to my husband, what am I going to do if he doesn't like my tattoo? 5. Tattoo removal is painful and expensive. Is getting a tattoo in the first place much less having one removed being a good steward of the money God has lent us? 6. I know people say getting a cross or some other religious symbol tattooed is God-glorifying, but from what I've seen is that it draws attention to self, not God. That said, I know this is one of those gray areas of scripture and if a person has fought this out in the trenches with the Lord and has peace about getting a tattoo, then great. I know it took me 42 years before I felt at peace about getting my ears pierced for the first time, but that's another subject..... Deborah, on her thinking chair

My step mom is about halfway through radiation and she's doing great! When I saw her Tuesday, she had quit wearing a wig because her hair is growing back. She and my dad are able to stay just across the street from the hospital so they don't have a 90-minute commute each day; for that I'm thankful! She's even found the energy to start a vegetable garden before she started her treatments!

Owen, you know we wouldn't tease you so much on this site if we didn't love you, right?

Owen, don't you want to be a buff soldier for the Lord? Snacks might do this to you.

Cholette--The words "foreign soil" showed up in one of my dreams and I was wondering if you had any thoughts: /t16447-us-canada-border#90737

General asked me to tell you you could lie on the floor, relax and do 200 of these then get up do 400 of these and then 500 of these and then maybe you'll get a snack

You know General Dreamster might make you do a bunch of pushupsor something for being AWOL so long!!!

Hey Owen!!!! Nice to see you back online here!

See this lady? She smuggled children out of Nazi concentration camps. PM me if you want more information about her; her story is very amazing. This woman is beautiful!!!!!

Last night my best friend was telling me she was looking in the mirror the other day, noticing all her wrinkles and thinking how she has lost outer beauty. I was like because I think my friend is very beautiful. This morning this is what the Lord showed me: 1. A person can have outer beauty but not inner beauty, 2. but if a person has inner beauty he or she will also have outer beauty. I asked the Lord how this can be and He brought me to Isaiah 61:3 where it says the Lord gives us beauty for ashes. True, we do become less and less Hollywood-like as we grow older, but look at people you know who have great inner beauty. Look into their eyes. Yes, their beauty can't help but come out of their every pore. Dear one, if the enemy has been beating you up, telling you you aren't beautiful tell him he is a liar!!!!!!!!!!You are beautiful to God and that truly is all that matters.