I'm so happy our "Lovely Ladies of the Lord" were finally able to meet again today...after a long summer apart. Here we are, standing in front of the JOY sign on the stage of the church...and we were truly filled with the JOY of the Lord.
Even the cute little doggy "Pumkin" seemed to be filled with joy!
We sang happy songs like "Turn Your Radio On"..."It Is No Secret What God Can Do", "My Savior First of All", "I Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My heart", and "This Little Light of Mine"...
We talked about letting our light shine before the world...(Matthew 5:14-16)...and never to let the cares of this world keep us from shining for Jesus. We also talked about becoming victorious over having an unforgiving spirit...over blaming others for our circumstances in life...and choosing JOY over sorrow...giving THANKS in all things...I must give credit to our friend Deb over at Breathing in Grace, for her post this morning entitled "Victim or Victor". If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do HERE, because it actually became the outline for a good portion of our Bible lesson today with our fellowship group. Deb, I can't thank you enough for posting that this morning. As I shared it with our ladies it helped them to open up and share some of their own struggles with unforgiveness and placing blame on others rather than looking to the Lord for His victory over sin and darkness.
God truly used this lesson (which was based on the Bible Study guide "Fight Back With Joy" by Margaret Feinberg) and brought joy and blessing to us as we surrendered our struggles to the Lord in prayer.
Ladies and friends here in blogland...we are here to serve God and encourage one another in our individual walks with the Lord. This is a place where we can shine for Jesus in a dark world...by sharing our faith and the ways God is teaching and blessing us each day. I am so grateful to Him for each of you...because you have encouraged me in so many ways. So I want to say thank you for letting your lights shine out there!! You have brought JOY to my heart!! And when we share with others here in our own local communities what God is teaching us...we spread that Light and Joy throughout the world.
God bless you all...and thank you for being such special friends!!
Oh, Ms. Pam, this makes my heart so happy. I'm so glad that God prompted me to share that portion of the lesson and you and your ladies were able to glean from it, too. Each day we are to write down three of what she calls Joy bombs and this will certainly be one of mine for today! 💜
ReplyDeleteYay for "Joy bombs"!!! I love that idea...positive "bombs" of Joy that explode in our hearts and bring smiles to our faces and souls. Your faithfulness to share what the Lord is teaching you is also teaching me and others...like ripples in a pond going out through the world!!! Joy bombs indeed!!! Praise God!
DeleteI like Debbie's "joy bombs" because that says it all!! Sisters in Christ lift each other up all the time! We are so blessed!
ReplyDeleteYes we are!!! It is exciting to me to see how the Lord links our hearts together here...we are one big family in the Lord...and this gives God glory and joy!!
DeleteOh great you got to meet and share your love for the Lord. Love the "Joy bombs" too. You have encouraged me this morning and I sure needed this, Pamela!
ReplyDeletePraise God!! Love it when we all "meet" here and find the Joy of the Lord as our strength for the day...and for life! I pray your day is filled with the Joy that passes all understanding. Amen.
DeletePamela, I love how you let your light shine here in blog land, and that you encourage me to choose joy over sorrow. I agree, thus my "happy room". You asked on my current blog post about my new floor; it is vinyl floating floor so it needs no glue, the pieces snap together, and it floats on top of existing floor. So no removal of existing floor needed. You might need existing doors removed and cut smaller so they open and close on the new slightly higher floor. That is no big deal, the flooring contractor did that. As you could see, the vinyl floor looks like wood.
ReplyDeleteI love that. That is what we did in our kitchen/dining room last year after a leaking dishwasher ruined our laminate floor. Laminate is not a good choice for a kitchen, but is what came with the house. The vinyl planks are wonderful and I love mine. Much less DUST in the house too...esp. in the dining room where we did have carpet. I want to redo my bedroom with this also in the future. It currently has a commercial grade carpet that I hate.
DeleteI love your happy room. God bless you dear friend. I love to see how God is working in your life and heart each new day.
I always feel the light of Jesus shining through your words, Pamela! You are a joyful blessing to me, my friend.
ReplyDeleteLove and blessings!
Oh THANK YOU Martha!! YOU are a joyful blessing to me as well. I do wish there was a big room somewhere that we could all actually come together and hug!!!!!!
DeleteWhat a joyful post! Glad that you blog because you share the best stuff with us!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Annie. You are a blessing to me in so many ways. I always feel at peace when I visit with you at your lovely cottage by the sea.
DeleteHow wonderful it is to see a group of friends like this! :)
ReplyDelete“We also talked about becoming victorious over having an unforgiving spirit...”
So SO important. Woo....working on that one myself.
Bless you, Pamela!
Sandi
Thank you, Sandi. Yes, the "unforgiving spirit" can creep up on us so insidiously...without our even recognizing it at times. We also prayed the Lord's Prayer...a reminder that as we ask the Lord to "forgive us our trespasses...as WE forgive those who trespass against us"...If we expect God to forgive us, we must be willing to forgive others. This is a hard lesson to learn, and I often have to go back and relearn it!!! Bless you too, sweet friend.
DeleteThank you for sharing about your Lovely Ladies of the Lord meeting. I enjoyed Debbie's post about joy. Several of my friends need a dose of God's joy. The enemy is stirring up havoc on all sides. Thank you for this uplifting post.
ReplyDeletePam, What a wonderful post! I'm sorry to be reading it so late. Thank you for letting your light shine here and in your community.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!