Have you given thanks to the Lord today for all His bountiful blessings? As we were having testimonies in church last night - one of the men stood and summed it all up with Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Isn't the Lord good? We are so prone to take His blessings and benefits for granted. He does so much for us and sometimes we forget to thank Him. We teach our children to say "thank you" . Shouldn't we practice what we preach and say thanks to our Heavenly Father for all He does for us?

Who forgiveth all thine inquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

The song writer said:

In loving-kindness Jesus came, My soul in mercy to reclaim.

And from the depths of sin and shame, through grace he lifted me.

He called me long before I heard, Before my sinful heart was stirred

And when I took Him at His word, Forgiven He lifted me.

His brow was pierced with many thorn, His hands by cruel nails were torned

When from my guilt and grief forlorn, in Love He lifted me.

Now on a higher plain I dwell, And with my soul I know 'tis well

Yet how or why... I cannot tell- He should have lifted me.

Chorus:

From sinking sand He lifted me, With tender hand He lifted me

From shades of night to plains of light, Oh praise His Name, He lifted me.

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealth with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our inquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.As far as the east is from the west: so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Others may remember what we have done in the past, but Jesus not only forgives, but He forgets. He never remembers confessed and forgiven sin.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

This is one thing I am glad the Lord does remember. We are dust! We are not perfect. We makes mistakes because we are human. But He knows that. Thank the Lord He does!

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and righteousness unto children's children. To such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion; Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Sounds like we need to take time out to just bless the Lord and thank Him for all His goodness to us. He deserves our praise. He is worthy of our praise. When we enter into prayer that is the first thing we need to do. Then we can bring our petitions to Him, knowing that He will answer acording to His pleasure. BLESS THE LORD, OH MY SOUL AND ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!

OUR GOD IS ABLE

"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 glory in the church by ChristJesus throughout all ages, worlds without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21 I read this verse and began to think on what a great God we have. We have been in camp meeting this week. In the preceding weeks I ask the Lord to come in His own sweet way and give us revival. I wanted more than just mercy drops - I wanted showers of blessing on my soul. I am thankful for the mercy drops but I needed a refueling spiritually. Last night the Lord went exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or could even think. He sent a gully washer. For you that don't know what a gully washer is let me tell you. Here in Louisiana we have a rainy season where sometimes the ditches overflow and water is everywhere for awhile. If you get out and look in the ditches you can see things floating that may have laid in the bottom of the ditch for awhile. When the rains come it brings all the trash to the top so we can see what really was there all the time. That is exactly what the Lord did this week of revival. His Presense moved in so sweetly and souls begin to get under conviction. Some that were church members realized that they had never been saved. Hypocrites? No! They thought they were saved but when the Spirit of God started searching hearts, oh my, what a difference it makes. One night in particular the Lord was there to hear our prayer and t0 lift the load of anxious care. Not just the load of sin, but Christians carry heavy loads sometimes. I'm glad we have an altar! I remember in days gone by that the altar was only for salvation. If you were a Christian and went to the altar, people would look at each other and wonder what you had done that was so bad that you needed an altar. But no so at Fundamental Baptist. The altar is always open for anyone and anything. This week souls were saved, the Christians challenged, burdens lifted. Some mentioned that they had never been in a service like that. I think sometimes we take things for granted! Our Christian liberty, our church, our pastor and so many things. But as God was so near I thanked Him for what we have at church. First we have a Pastor, Bro. Rusty Silvertooth and his wife, Mrs Ceil that care about their people. They truly have a servant's heart. They are never too busy to listen and help out all they can. He is a man of prayer. He challenges his people to pray. When we hurt- our pastor hurts. By the way, that's the way it is with the people too. When one hurts, we all hurt, when one is carrying a heavy load we all try to help. Sometimes we don't know what to say or do, but we can at least say "I love you and am praying for you." Then we have Mrs. Tammy Hardy that spends hours with the children's choir and special music. She invest hours of her time into these children. She truly has a servants heart. It is manifested as the choir sings. The children are such a blessing! What can I do for Mrs. Tammy? I can pray for her and pray for a wall of protection around our youth and boys and girls. The devil is out to get them but if we work together we can build a wall of prayer about them that not even Satan can penetrate.

We have ourAccociate Pastor, Bro. Felix Johnson and his wife, Mrs Dana. Our youth pastor, Bro Michael McAuthor and Mrs. Christi who invest in our youth. They are surely a blessing! We have the bus drivers who are so willing to get up early on Sunday and go out and run the bus route so precious boys and girls can hear the gospel and get saved. May I say that several of the bus drivers are Sunday School Teachers, also. What are they doing? Investing their time and prayers in the life's for eternity. What can I do? Keep them lifted up in prayer!

We have Sunday School Teachers and Children's Church Workers that are trying to reach some with the gospel. It seems that everyone trys to work together. I think that is the secret.

Am I saying that we have a perfect church? No, there is no such thing! But what I am trying to convey is: that in working together God blesses. I don't want to take His blessings for granted. I want to do my part, however small it may seem.

Last night the Lord send a gully washer. He came and washed some eyes with tears to overflowing that they might see. Some saw themselves as they really were. Lost and on their way to hell. The saints were blessed and encouraged to stay in the battle. We are fighting a real devil! But thank God - we can be overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony. There is a work to do. I read a story on How The work can be done. One evening years ago in the province of Alberta, Canada, a young father and mother and their small boy went out for a stroll near by a wheat field. As they wandered through the waving grain, each thought the other held the hand of their little boy. Suddenly they realized the boy was not with them! They called loudly but there was no answer. Becoming more disturbed, they hunted frantically but without success. Finally the father went to the nearby village and organized a search party. For two days they went without sleep, and then someone suggested they all hold hands surrounding the entire wheat field, thus leaving not one single square foot uncovered in the last effort. Following this plan, holding hands, they advanced on the field and soon came across the body of the child. A hush spread over them as they realized they were too late -- the child was dead. As the group stood there with bowed heads someone whispered, "If only we had joined hands before it was too late." It is not too late for us to join hands. The job of rescuing lost sheep around the world is too big for us. (May I say the job of rescuing lost sheep in Livingston Parish is too big for us.) But if we join hands, with God's help, we can do a much better job. I care not who gets the credit; but I do care that we do our best in rescuing the perishing. I'm glad the Lord will bless when we pray! That is the area in my life that the Lord dealt with this week. I will do my best to be faithful. Souls are depending on our prayers! Our children and grandchildren are depending on our prayers. Lord, help us to be faithful! Help us never to forget that Our God is able in every situation of our life. We serve a Great BIG WONDERFUL GOD! May we join hands and pray for the impossible. He is a God of impossibilities! He proved that in our 2008 camp meeting. The theme was REACHING THE NEXT GENERATION. They are depending on us! He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

MY PRAYER

Several years ago as I was meditating and reading the Bible in Philippians 3 - I read the passage in verse 10 that says "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Just a few verses before Paul , in verse 8 said, " Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

I started thinking and meditating on these scripture and thinking about those that had given their lives for the sake of the gospel. If you have ever read Foxes Book of Martyr's you will read of some who were willing to suffer and give their lives for the cause of Christ.

I went to prayer with my Bible as I like to do and as I prayed God's Presense was very near.

I remember praying, "Lord, I really do want to know You and the power of Your ressurection and the fellowship of Your suffering. I want to be made more like You." I don't think we will ever know what Jesus went through for us. Not even in our wildest imagination can we really know what He suffered for us. Nor what those that went before us suffered to preserve the "Old Paths" that we might have a heritage. I thank God for a Godly heritage!

Neither did I know what I was praying. God sometimes takes you at your word. It was not long until things began to happen in our life that I did not understand. We lost my husbands' father, six months later we lost my Dad, then six weeks later we lost my Husband's Mother. Seem all the Godly influence in our life was be taken one by one. I felt void! Other things happened that I wont go into - but we felt we were in the fire. This went on for several years. Then God began to deal with us about leaving the denomination we were in. It took awhile, for that was all we had ever known. But finally, circumstances came about that we knew we had to take a stand.

We did, and lost all our friends of 40 years. Friends we had as teenagers no longer wanted anything to do with us. I won't go into all that happened, but I can say the way got mighty dark.

In my distress I penned these words and called it My Prayer.

MY PRAYER

Lord, I need strength -- I feel all strength is gone.

I cannot feel your nearness and I am so alone.

So many things have come to seemingly pierce my heart,

But Love above, You promised that You would never depart.

I need sunshine, also. It seems there's so many clouds.

My life has been darkened by what comes near to doubt.

It seems I'm in the shadows and it is almost night.

But, Father Dear, I know You will eventually make the darkness light.

Another thing I need, Dear Lord, is just a restful peace.

A healing balm for all the pain would give me such relief.

All around the storms beat high with such a fierceful blow.

But I'm confident when the storm is o'er - perfect peace I'll know.

So, Father, do what you must do--Whatever You see best,

To help me reach that Home above where there is perfect rest.

For I know You'll not send me more than I can bear.

With each storm You'll guide me through, for You are always there.

So lead me, Lord, from day to day as feelings come and go.

Please hear my prayer and help me face each storm as you deem so. (Amen)

I was reading through some of my writings and came across this poem and what lead up to it.

It blessed my heart to know that He will never lead us without His eye being right on us. He knew what we were going through. As in so many of your lives I'm sure you can testify that in the darkness hours of your life is when you drew closer to Him. My husband and I found in those hours, also, that we were drawn closer to each other.

No, I don't like the test and trials that come but I know I am not alone. God has blessed us tremendously and can I say that He has given us brand new friends and a church family that cares. He has blessed us beyond measure. I thank Him for that.

I still cannot say that I know what the Lord went through for us, but I do know that I still want to be more like Him. The little chorus goes:

I want more of Jesus - more and more and more.

I want more of Jesus , more than I had before,

I want more of Jesus so rich, so full, so free.

I want more of Jesus - so I'll give me more of me."