"Out with the OLD and IN with the NEW!" As the saying goes.

Farewell yet another year! UN-believable!

Where has the time gone?

I would have to say that 2010 has been one of thee most emotionally challenging years I have had in my entire life....easily....and I am happy to wish it a found ado!
 I can only hope, pray and trust that 2011 will bring some what less of a tsunami of emotional and physical trials my way. If not at least that I will have learned how better to walk in the peace afforded me through Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus our Messiah).
What with all the relational challenges in my life, (in and out of the family), changes in leadership at church, at work, conquering nasty melanoma and breaking multiple bones in my body at differing times; and deaths in my immediate family,  (just to name a "few" )...I am ready for a NEW Year to begin!
"Out with the OLD and IN with  the NEW!" As the saying goes.

So whatcha' say? anyone care to join me?

I really have no idea what 2011 holds for me. It very well may be just as hard as 2010, for all I know. But I am bound and determined NOT to look back no matter what!

If there is ONE thin I know for sure. It is that the Lord loves me. HE has brought me through all of this. HE has allowed me to go through 2010.....and I made it through. The waters rose high and they did not over take me; the fire burned hot but it did not consume me. People, friends and family turned away from me, but HE, the Lord, stayed right by my side and in fact when I could go no further, HE carried me.

The Lord showed me a secret place inside the mountain.
When I cried out to Him, "Lord I can not climb this mountain! I can not!"
The Lord answered, "My precious Amy. I am not asking you to climb the mountain. Follow me inside the mountain."

That's when He shared with me about wisdom and knowledge being the true treasures of life. How they are learned through life's struggles. Then He went on to compare them to the treasures found INSIDE the mountains caves.  As the Lord spoke to me I had a vision of what He was saying.

"Although the mountain top is beautiful," the Lord said, "and most everyone sets their sights on reaching the top of the mountain, the deepest darkest part of the caves is where the most precious treasures are found. One must first find the cave then dig deep and mine into the wall of the cave to find precious rubies and sapphire and diamonds. On the wall of the cave you'll find gold dust to get to the purest gold you need to dig deep inside."

I was utterly amazed at what the Lord was showing me and telling me.....He continued by sharing with me about King David.....and all the time he spent in the caves and what he wrote in the caves; all the wisdom that came forth from his time spent INSIDE the mountain caves. The Lord also shared about Apostle Paul and his time in prison (or in a cave) and ALL the "nuggets of treasures" that came forth from his time as well and John and others as well.

This was quite a beautiful time I had with the Lord. As always ....this time seemed especially healing for me  though.

And so I look especially forward to what ever 2011 holds for me...and who ever my precious Master allows in my life.

May the Lord Bless you as well this coming New Year!!
AmyColleen


p.s. I Miss you

YES!... G-D is STILL and Always in Control!!!

This is AWESOME! This Torah-Bite (weekly teaching from Torah) actually goes hand in hand with what my Pastor from Montgomery Assembly spoke on Sunday! Awesome! Pastor Dave Sunday Dec. 12, 2010 Va-Yehi For the week of December 18, 2010 / 11 Tevet 5771 Torah: Bereshit / Genesis 47:28 - 50:26 Haftarah: 2 Melachim / 2 Kings 2:1-12  Misinformed Feelings When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. (Bereshit / Genesis 50:15-17; ESV) Just as God revealed to Joseph in dreams years before, God placed him in a position of power over his family. No one could have guessed the context in which this would occur. Second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, Joseph administered a massive food program which sustained not only Egypt during a severe famine, but also the surrounding region. Joseph's brothers had no clue that when they plotted against him they were seeking to destroy the very person God had planned to use to save them. In a way only God can do, he used Joseph's brothers' violent hatred of him as the means by which Joseph was put into a position to preserve not only their own lives, but the destiny of their whole nation. Imagine what it must have been like for the brothers to spend the rest of their lives in Egypt under the good graces of Joseph. I am sure they were well aware of how blessed they were in a material sense, having suffered through the first years of the famine. At the same time, it must have been very difficult emotionally. We know this from our passage. They had figured that Joseph was only being kind to them for their father's sake. They thought that once Jacob had died, they would be the targets of Joseph's vengeance. It is most likely that the message they sent to Joseph about Jacob's request regarding forgiving them was fabricated. But they were understandably scared of what Joseph might do to them. After all, they deserved retribution for their evil, and Joseph had it in his power to severely mistreat them. But note Joseph's response to them. He wept. Joseph was heartbroken that they thought the way they did. As we saw last week, Joseph regarded God as having the upper hand in his ordeal. He knew that God was using him to preserve his family. He had no animosity towards them, his graciousness toward his brothers was firmly rooted in his trust in God. I don't blame the brothers for not being quick to accept where Joseph was at. They certainly had not conducted their own lives this way. If the roles would have been reversed, then they may have taken advantage of their position of power and insist on retribution. They couldn't fathom that someone could forgive, accept, and love them as Joseph did. I wonder if God weeps for us much like Joseph did for his brothers. How often do we relate to God, not on the basis of reality, but from misinformed feelings? He has done everything necessary so that we could be in an intimate relationship with him. Through the Messiah he has demonstrated to us his forgiveness, acceptance, and love. It is understandable that those who refuse to turn to him in repentance and trust would feel alienated from him, but those who have been reconciled to him have no reason to fear his rejection. One reason for being uncertain about how God relates to us could be due to serious unresolved issues in our lives. Having a sense of God's disapproval when we are involved in truly wrong things is appropriate. That sense of disapproval is a sign of God's work in our lives and should drive us to get right with him. But other times we are uncertain in our relationship with God due to misinformed feelings. This comes from basing our understanding of him more on how we see ourselves and life, than on how God has revealed himself. God, like Joseph, grieves over our how we allow our feelings to misinform us. When we begin to base our understanding of God on his own revelation of himself rather than upon our misinformed feelings, we will begin to relate to him in the way he longs for us to.

Comments You can comment on this week's message online by going to the TorahBlog version.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue:" Proverbs 18:21

Who do you "really" love and what have you said to them today?

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

There is always time to make things right.....