I bring you today Rabbi Curt Landry as he breaks down the importance of this season post Passover & Resurection Sunday until Shavuot/ Pentecost and why it is important for us to be mindful. There are amazing things awaiting you in this season of increased awareness.

​Watch below for the plan! ​

​Leviticus 23:15-16 NLT
The Festival of Harvest 15 “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks. 16 Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

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Count down the Omer Notes
Passover - Shavuot 49 Days
Lev 23: 15 - 16 Yeshua 40 days
During this time Balance Your Emotions
Embrace Change
R. I am seeing change
O. Self - awareness
C. Confess scripture over your weakness
K. Keep focused 
All while you
A. Gal 5: 22-23
C. Confess
T. Time claim outloud Psalm 103 
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Today I have invited Shellie to speak to us about beauty in the waiting. Here is Shellies story. 

   Many of us when everything around us seems to fall apart much like 2020. Want a hurry up and fix this quickly Jesus fix! We are all guilty of that at some time in our lives. After all we are human and we desire good things over the rocky mountain climb.  However, sometimes when we rush things we miss the beauty and growth, that takes place in the waiting. I write this from a first hand experience. I would like to share straight from my heart about a journey of waiting that still has not ended! I promise it's laced with grace, hope, and beauty.   So grab your favorite warm drink and join me while I share what God has for you to hear.
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Five years ago on March first. I checked into a local surgical center to have an arthroscopy on my  right knee for a torn meniscus tear. I had slid in a mud puddle taking the trash can to the road the day after Christmas. I did a double flip. It wasn't a pretty sight. It should have been such an easy surgery and recovery! I should have walked out not needing my crutches. That was not what happened though. About ten minutes into the procedure I aspirated stomach acid into the base of my left lung. This caused an injury to the lining of my heart as well.I would not learn that till the next day. I was rushed to the local hospital to be admitted for observation.I not only had a bum knee. Now I have chemical pneumonia and pericarditis of the heart. Pericarditis is caused when fluid or blood build between the sac around the heart and the muscle. This can lead to restriction of how the heart beats and the blood flows. I spent seven days in the hospital. Sent home way worse than I did when I arrived. I was not able to take more than ten steps due to not being able to breathe. I went from active wife, mom, pastor's wife, and children's church administrator. Completely dependent on someone helping me  do everything. Spending my time on my chase that I am writing to you from today! This went on for a little over a month and I had to be hospitalized on April seventeenth I had my first major heart surgery. This was to drain the fluid by cutting a square in the heart to drain the fluid that was keeping my heart from pumping properly. They drained what would be equivalent to three two liter drinks of fluid off my heart.  The same week I had the heart surgery I was scheduled to attend the Women Of Joy conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I attended two days after being released. God would not allow me to backout. I was blessed so very much by attending. It was there when God whispered to my heart... While Natalie Grant was singing Clean. Daddy (Father God) whispered to my heart “daughter hold on because for now my answer is no.”

I remember sitting there worshiping in my wheelchair tears streaming down my face. Telling my Daddy I would trust Him would use me for others to see Him! Five months later I would be transported from the local hospital to one of the larger hospitals in Charlotte. I would have a thoracotomy to have major heart and lungs surgery! My whole world had totally been rocked once again. I have yet to totally recover from all of this. Since along the way we found out I had SLE Lupus and it was now attacking my heart and lungs. My body was fighting to kill itself. There is something about losing all that you once knew as normal. When you spend time sitting, you have more time to focus on things we often neglect with the hustle and the bustle of  the day. I found spending the quiet early mornings with my Daddy was my favorite time of the day. I found that I couldn't wait to pick up my Bible to study the book of Psalm. David's life seemed so much like mine in many ways. I couldn't wait to see how God showed up for David next. Each battle David fought his Daddy was there and even though sometimes those answered prayers came in time and guess what it wasn't David's time it was his heavenly Daddy's time!                    I remember clearly crying because I couldn't go to church! I was too sick to be in crowds yet my heart longed for the fellowship, worship, and being fed God's Word in person.

​The first Sunday I got to attend I remember going to my closet to find something to wear. Months of wearing pj's and lounge clothes it would feel good to dress cute again. I remember picking my outfit so excited to get dressed up to find the next four outfits I chose no longer fit! I remember sitting on the floor of my closet with tears in my eyes, telling my Daddy it didn't matter if I had to wear my PJ's to church! Nothing was going to stop me from going! It wasn't about what I wore. I wasn't going to be seen. I was going to worship Him and I would choose joy in this season! It's a privilege denied to many! I didn't want something like a size to ruin that for me! That was a huge thing for me. growing up till I had my first daughter. I had struggled with an eating disorder! Now to say it's just a tag is huge for someone who has gained quite a bit of weight due to my daily medicines. My Daddy (Father God) reminded me, I am fearfully and wonderfully made in His image! He loved His creation, He was not taken back by a change in sizes.

He loved me for me His daughter and He thinks I am beautiful even when I can not see it for myself. Choosing joy in a season of pain is not always as easy as it sounds. It has to be a choice we make when we open our eyes each and every morning.

There are and will be days that make it harder to choose but again it is a choice. How we see things and try to find the good even in the hard days. A year or so back I spent 26 days in the hospital, just to be told what we already knew. However, I lost my mobility. I came home with a walker and needed a wheelchair if it was going to be a long distance walk to get there. I wasn't sure how I felt about either at first. I prayed and asked my Daddy to please not to let these things be permanent! I worked with kids and I didn't want them to be scared or worried. I already knew they were upset because I had to be out for being sick again. Instead of Him changing my situation He showed me ways to be my eccentric self with them and make them look less scary. So I wrapped feather boas around my walker and I painted the back of my wheelchair with polka dots and a flamingo. I painted I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me! I absolutely can do that and more when He is on my side and allow Him to lead each and everything I do! The kids I worked with loved it! It helped them to feel comfortable to ask questions. It gave them hope that things would get better. They prayed for me all the time. It taught them what is was like to have faith and God's timing was not always ours.

You learn who your true friends are as well when you have a life altering disease.

​It's hard for some to stick around when you can't no longer do a lot of the things you did before. God taught me through the heart breaking times of truth, that a true friend loves at all times! Not just when it's convenient for them. It's the ones who come set beside your bed and have tea with you and are okay to just hang out and talk and are not affected by the fact if you go to the American Girl store together we are going to need to take a wheelchair. Instead she makes you feel like you are still you even though you have really lost so much. That is when you are so very thankful for the true friends and not the fly by night friends. God will give you what you need, trust Him in finding that for you, when you are faced with an unmovable mountain.

There are really only two choices in our attitudes. We can choose joy, hope , bitterness, or anger. I choose joy and hope! I see things so much differently than I once in my life. Crazy thing is this is not my first devastating event in my life. However, this has been the most life changing other than the day I gave my heart to Jesus! My home is much different now. My family has been just as affected as I have been. They have chosen to be hopeful and joy filled through this season as well.

Things will never be as they were before my fall, because we have changed hearts.

• We see the beauty of an evening setting on our patio watching the rabbits and birds.
• Time sitting around the dinner table laughing and enjoying each other's company.
• We have found that the more we keep our hearts and eyes centered on Jesus, a healing and changing takes place that is like no other. It's not a physical healing. Rather a healing of the heart. It renews our hope each and everyday for what stands before us.    

This new life of mine requires lots of slow days that require me to slow down and hold myself accountable for how I take on each new day. The waiting showed me beauty in the littlest things. Most of all I have the best relationship I have ever had with my heavenly Daddy and that is the most important thing ever!   In closing this year has been one of our hardest. I have been in and out of the hospital. about two weeks ago I had to be taken because my breathing had gotten so bad I could hardly walk 10 steps and I would be out of breath so badly I was gasping for air. I was admitted and again transferred to a larger hospital! Two echo's of my heart showed pericardial restriction. Another major heart surgery may be inevitable. This surgery was very risky and dangerous! The recovery time would be grueling. It's a rare surgery not performed unless it is a last resort! We reached out for people to pray! The response was overwhelming the people I didn't even know lifting me up in prayers!  I know that those prayers were heard because when the cardiac MRI was ran all they found was a pericardial effusion! You are talking about a thankful girl! I was beyond happy and blessed! My Daddy had touched my heart and taken that away! I can almost tell you when! Because the night before the echo I was awake and I had been praying and I felt something in the way my heart was being change! I never thought anything of it till now. I know that was my Daddy's touch, He said yes to that request! There was still a no coming. I still came home running unusually high fevers and oxygen. The answer was still clear no for now as I sat there as they explained everything to me I feel the tears well up in my eyes.I wasn't mad or hurt. I was thankful because it could have been so much worse! Now we start again with another new for our lives. When gathered around the table with our girls, for Thanksgiving. We all agreed all though 2020 has been different but we were blessed! We are still here to celebrate each other, Jesus's Grace was so undeniably good, our family grew by two my oldest and her husband won custody of our first grandson they had been fostering for a year and she gave birth to a beautiful new baby boy! We both still have our parents and many can not say that.  We have so much to thank Him for there is no time to be anything but joyful and grateful!
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​​If you find yourself waiting in the hallway needing an answer or even healing. Praise Him in the hallway! Find joy in the process even on your hardest days! Because I promise you my friend someone is praying for what you have, believe it or not! Don't let satan sneak in and tell you lies that make you bitter. Someone is watching you I am sure of it. They are watching and listening to how you are handling what has been put in your path. What do they see? Can they see the beauty of Jesus in His child who no matter what wants others to see him through her. Or are they seeing the wordley outlook of anger and bitterness. My friend, life's too short to spend your days like that! I again would not change a thing. I have learned to live intentionally. I don't need to have makeup on to go out or have guest. My house doesn't need to be cleaned to the point it looks like a museum. Make the memories and make them count. After all there is beauty in waiting when you allow God to be the center of it all!            

​Thank you for allowing me to share the beauty in waiting!            

​  ~Prayerfully Yours~ Shellie          ​

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Thank you Shellie for sharing a message with us .

​Follow Shellie Almond Ministries online to get more on the Footsteps of Grace!

 
Once a person comes to know the redemptive gift God has offered humanity through the acceptance of Jesus as their proxy on the cross, what would a person then do next?  Of course, prayer, reading the word of God, and actually learning and desiring life application of the scriptures one reads. Why is this even important? I will share with you a thought-provoking act of obedience out of love.
 
“A spiritual application of the word of God consists to applying it to the heart in spiritually enlightening, sanctifying influences. A spiritual application of an invitation or offer the gospel consists in giving the soul a spiritual sense or relish of  the holy divine blessings offered and also the sweet and wonderful grace of the offeror , in making so gracious an offer and of his holy excellency and faithfulness to fulfill what he offers and his glorious sufficiency for it, so leading and drawing forth the heart to embrace the offer and thus giving the man evidence of his title to the thing being offered. And so a spiritual application of the promises of the scripture, for the comfort of the saints, consists in the enlightening of their minds to see the holy excellency and sweetness of the blessings promised and also the holy excellency of the promiser and his faithfulness and sufficiency, thus drawing forth their hearts to embrace the promiser ,and the thing, promised,” (The Works of President Edwards,1808, p. 156 )
 
The scripture is text written to declare the giver, who he is and what he gives.

1. God is love. 1 John 4:16 (NJKV) God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Consider, the root word of ahava is "ahav." The term ahav in Hebrew means, "to give." True ahava, true love, is more concerned about giving than receiving. ... Consider that the Hebrew word "ahava" is not an emotion but an action. (Google Dictionary)
2. The very nature of God, the God that is pure love, is to give to you.  No one else has the right to say they are love.
3. That love never stops and it is impossible because according to Revelation 22:13 (NKJV) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” So, God is everything in time and outside of time. No one else has the authority to say they are the beginning and the end.
4. I would think one would trust the God of all creation and what he has to say. Psalm 103:2-3 (NKJV) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. But God continues to bless us, and forgive us, and heal us, and restore us, and renew us, and deliver us. Did you see that. Forget not his benefits? Why would you not want to remember his benefits or how to obtain them?
5. To desire understanding of the gift you have been given it will require to read and not only read the scripture but obediently live and apply it daily. John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.  This love is an ongoing circulation never ending. Once you accepted his son the only thing, he desires back from you is love for he is love, and that love comes from the grateful obedience of the heart to follow his commands.

 
Spiritual application is truly obedience that flows in a cycle of never-ending love between you and God. Because if you have said yes to His gift of salvation and that very love is now living inside of your heart, I could assume the God of love who made you in his image. (So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 ( NKJV))  has given you his desires of you in his Word and if you love God back freely, why would you not apply what you read. In doing so you are giving back love to the creator of love, love. He is a great Father who promises and lavishes his benefits now and forever more in the life to come.
 
 
 

God's timing is always perfect. He sees our deepest heart aches and problems and knows the solutions before we do. But so many times we think in the natural and that if something happens beyond our control we will let the brain take over, and not even realize it. Trying to frantically in the natural to figure out a solution, rather than first seeking (in step one) the one who already sees the problem and knows  what you need.

We recently got hit again with life. My husband lost his job due to reasons beyond his control. We had been down this road before and the uncertainty and shock can consume you if left to it's own. But this time instead of panicking while still numb from shock I felt we should run away. Literally get in the car and just run somewhere with Jesus. I had tucked a few dollars away just for an emergency like this because we had been there before. This time we knew we must approach it differently. Mental health is so important and I knew if we did not do something different asap my husband might fall again into a deep depression. So off to the beach we went. 

Of course with my husband being from the coast of Rhode Island and an ex cruise director I knew hearing waves would be soothing. It was! It helped him so much. He surprised me one afternoon and started reading to me a page in Our Daily Bread. I had no idea he was reading it at all. He read a verse out of 1 Kings 17:6 NIV the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook. This was God's way of taking care of the Prophet Elijah daily as he camped where God told him too.  So that really spoke to my heart and I journaled it declaring that as our first sign of hope. 

A little while later as my husband walked the beach alone this time, I stayed behind to spend some alone time with the Lord. I just felt to get up and go stand at the balcony and watch the waves. I saw my husband looking up at the fourth floor balcony but as I waved down to him a couple of sea gulls flew by but beside them was one lone raven. It was almost as if it flew by in slow motion looking at me. I was shocked. I had not seen a raven the whole time I was there and I spend a lot of time looking at the nature around me. 

My husband did not fully understand my excitement later when I told him of it. I said, " It was a sign from God he is going to take care of our needs because he even used ravens to take care of Elijah! Why not us! I think it was a God wink. Well my husband did not see the raven so it did not mean a lot he wanted to see something himself but he did not say although I knew. 

Later the next day as we where leaving the island we pulled over to get a snack before we left the island. As we got out of the car he was so excited saying , "Susan look, look!" I look over next to me on the bush only inches from me is a raven, sitting just staring at us. I walked up nearer to it and said, "did God send you?" Most of the time if I have ever seen a raven or any type of bird in my life if you try to approach it , it will flee. This one did not. I said, thank you bird for obeying God and coming to give us a message of hope. 

We are only two weeks post that day and we are still talking about those two raven sightings after we read that verse. It was the hope we needed at just the right times.

My eyes are open with expectancy as we wait on God and see how he provides. Meanwhile every provision we see I say there is another raven provision! I want to share with you the first one. Bible Gate Grid Bloggers sent me a new Artisan Collection Bible to review. It came at just the right time just to bring me hope just like God used the ravens. This Bible is a type I have always wanted but never got. it is a New International Version with journal space on each page! 

Of course the first verse I had to journal and highlight to test it out was the verse from that day that began my quest for verses and promises of God that we could claim and proclaim and hang onto in these trying times. It brought me such joy. God knows the desires of our hearts and he knows I have been wanting a Bible just like this! 
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This Bible is stunning in every way. I love marble and this has a marble look to it. I love the gold accents here or there. Every time I hold this Bible it evokes joy not just because it is the word of God but also it was a raven provisional to make me smile and it was even in the color I wanted as well. God knows the desires of our heart even when we do not pray to him about it.
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He cares about every single detail. 

Here are somethings I am enjoying about this Bible so far.

• I have enjoyed NIV as one of my favorite translations since I was first saved. It was the first translation that helped me understand the word of God because when I would read the King James Version as a new christian I was left with a lot of confusion.  
• I love the wide margins.
• The pages with golden edges are delightful.
• The words of Jesus mighty Yeshua are in red.
• Comes with two ribbon bookmarks inside.
• The outside is solid and sturdy yet beautiful in it's pink marble appeal. 
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I am so grateful for God's word in any form be in print or digital. If you would like to get this Bible yourself ( they offer various colors) visit the Bible Gate Way Store.

Or you can study God's word for free in any translation at BibeGateWay.com it is my most favorite Bible resource site when I do not carry my Bible with me. 
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I thank God for his God winks of hope to us. 

Today I was sitting and waiting on the Lord. He gave me a word for me and for you today. I was daring to venture on the thoughts that I am not good enough to be a writer, speaker and anything else he calls me to do. He said to me "I specialize in taking the ordinary and using them for extraordinary things."  The Lords words gripped me and made me feel so welcomed to do things for him rather than being left out feeling less than. This word is for you who are reading this today too! 

Here are some examples of this truth in God's word. 

1. Jesus was born in an ordinary manger. Luke 2:1-20
2. Jesus uses five loaves of bread and five fish to feed 5000. John 6:1-14
3. Jesus turned ordinary water into wine. John 2: 1-11
4. Jesus looked ordinary. Isaiah 53:2
5. He made simple Ester a Queen. Ester 2
6. He used a gentile prostitute named Rahab to save his men And become part of the lineage of Jesus. Joshua 2
7. God used two elderly people to birth a new nation, a new covenant and promises for all Gods people forever more to come. Genesis 17

 
There are many more examples all in the Bible. Just look and you will see that using what we think is ordinary is indeed God's specialty. And if you think about it nothing God made is ordinary in my book. Never feel you are not good enough. God loves to make himself strong in our weakness. If you feel you do not measure up guess what you do not on your own in this fallen world but he does and that is what it is all about. 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Need more encouragement? Need a boost? These short inspirational supernatural stories are free in Amazon Prime and only .99 cents for non members. 
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Today I asked the Lord what was on his heart. He said Royalty, his children are royalty. Think about that for a moment.  The word will speak for itself. 

Isaiah 62:3 (NKJV)  You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God.


​1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

​Ezekiel 16:13 (NKJV)​ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty.

​1 Peter 2:5  (NKJV)  you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.​


​Ephesians 4:24 (NKJV)  and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
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2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.


​Revelation 5:10 (NKJV) And have made [a]us kings[b] and priests to our God;
And [c]we shall reign on the earth.”


​Revelation 1:6 (NKJV) and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 
 

Jesus mighty Yeshua is indeed King of all. He made us to be seated in Heavenly places with him.

Ephesians 2:4-10(NKJV) 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

If you do not believe me I challenge you to take that up with God this very day. Sit quietly for a bit today and wait and listen without distraction. Ask him are you royal? Ask him how he feels about you.  

Need more encouragement? Need a boost? 
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