Going Up Yonder

"All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord." —Earl Nightingale

If anybody ask you

Where I'm going

Where I'm going soon

I’m going up yonder

I’m going up yonder

Going up yonder

To be with my Lord.

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:28-31

Oh I can take the pain,

The heartaches that life brings,

The comforts in knowing,

I’ll soon be gone.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalms 46:1

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." Psalms 91:1-2

"Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him." Psalms 91:14-15

God gives me grace

To run this race,

‘Til I see my Savior,

I see him face to face.

"And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:27-28

I’m going up yonder

I’m going up yonder

I’m going up yonder

To be with my Lord.

I’m going up yonder

I’m going up yonder

I’m going up yonder

To be with my Lord

I know where I'm going and I know where my answers come from. Furthermore, I know I can make it for I know who holds my hand and who guides my steps on the path that I must walk for "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalms 119:105.

No Time To Sit Back

I have heard comments before like, "I've done my part. Now let someone else do theirs." Then I have heard some say, "I have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this place now let some of the new ones do their part." Others have said, "I'm getting old and tired. I can't do the things I used to do. It's time for me to sit back and relax." I wonder where we would all be today IF Jesus would have said "I did my part on Calvary. Now the rest is up to you." What a world of hurt we would be in.

I know that as time goes on and we get older some can not continue on doing some of the things they use to do physically. Their bodies begin to wear down. Maybe they can't go out and do visitation like they did when they were younger. Some can't clean the church like they did when they were spring chickens or help out doing yard work around the church because they just aren't physically able. But does that mean one just quits doing any and everything for the Lord? Do we just start sitting back and doing nothing because we are getting older? I say no! Now is not the time to stop working for the kingdom of God.

I am 54 years old and I have some physical problems. I may have been diagnosed with a brain tumor but that does not give me the option to sit back, feel sorry for myself, and do nothing for my God? NO!!! There are still souls to save. I may not be able to go door knocking like I use to but I can still witness to the cashier at the store, the waitress at the restaurant, my grandson's teacher, my doctors, and etc. I can still pray with those who are seeking God in the altar.

Maybe you can't get down physically with those praying in the altar but you can move in closer and pray earnestly and touch the throne of God for them. We can still be prayer warriors. We can still fast and pray for the needs of our brothers and sisters in the church and our pastor and his family. We can put a smile on our faces and greet visitors when they come into the house of God and make them feel welcome. We can worship and praise God during song service and bring down the Spirit of the Lord so that God can do a work in the souls of people that are in need.

We are to be an example to the younger generation. If we are just sitting back and showing no interest in the work of God, then they will soon have no interest in God's work as well. We need to instill a love and desire to do a work for God within our young people. The bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it". (Prov 22:6) We have a responsibility here to the younger generation as saints of God whether we want to admit it or not. You might say, "but they're not my children." Well, I got to looking at the scripture and it does not say train up "YOUR" child but train up "A" child and all of the children in the house of God are our responsibility. We as a whole are to be an example unto them. They are watching us. How we conduct ourselves. How we worship, pray, and live our lives unto the Lord in and out of the House of God.

I have thought about the pillars of the church that have gone on to meet the Lord and oh how I miss them. Blessed Saints of God. Wonderful men and women who truly loved God and knew how to worship and really live for God. Who were faithful to Him. True prayer warriors. They were beautiful examples to me. They taught me by EXAMPLE how to truly live for God all the way to their last breath. For that, I will forever be grateful.

I can sit here now and close my eyes and I can see Papa Dude and Sis Bert. Such a beautiful couple. Though Sis Bert had a stroke and could not walk, that did not stop her praise. I see her now with tears streaming down her face with her hand in the air worshiping our God. I see Bro. and Sis. Anders. Such beautiful spirits they had. I spent many hours in their home as a teenager. They were so good to me. Such a Godly example to a girl raised in a sinner home. Brother and Sis Atchison were another example to me of what a Christian should be. Sis. Miller, What a wonderful woman she was. Standing firm in the word of God. She was faithful to the house of God. She taught me to never lose faith in God that He will always come through for you. Pastor Wilson, MY FRIEND! What can I say about Him but that I miss him so much. He taught me a lot of valuable lessons that I shall never forget. Bro I.H. Terry is another great example in my life. Never once did they just sit back and say, "Let someone else do the work for I've done enough." They kept on working for the Lord and being an example to me and the younger generation until their very last breath.

So my question is, Are you going to continue working for the Lord no matter what? The children and young people are watching US! What kind of example are we going to be? Are we teaching them how to REALLY worship and praise God? How to work in the altars? How to witness and win souls to the Lord? How to be a real Christian? How to be about our Father's business? How to be prayer warriors? How to reach out to a lost and hurting world? Are you willing to help Train up a child in the way that he should go? Or are you going to be one who is looking for an excuse to sit on the side lines and just kick it and say "I've done my part, now let someone else do the rest." Personally, I feel our work is never done until we either go by way of the grave or we are taken out of here by the rapture. Until either one of those moments happen I say press on. Our children need Godly examples to follow. We are now to become the pillars of the church for an example unto the youth of today.

I Have Decided

"If you have not consciously made the decision to be rich, excellent, and healthy, then you have unconsciously made the decision to be poor, mediocre, and unhealthy." — Wallace D. Wattles

Wallace Wattles may have been talking about earthly goods here but today I am going to apply this to the spiritual realm. We have a choice. We can either be rich, excellent, and healthy spiritually or we can be poor, mediocre and unhealthy.

Like I said in a recent post before this, I possess a grand treasure chest. It is up to me to dip into it anytime I want to access the many treasures that lie within. Or I can choose to set this treasure chest upon the shelf and simply let it collect dust. But let it be known that when I do not partake of what lies within the treasure chest, spiritually I will become malnourished and unhealthy and mediocre in spirit.

We have the ability be so rich in our spirits. All we have to do is tap into the power of the Holy Ghost. If we could ever realize the full excellent, powerful, potential of all that lay in wait for us to really get a hold of, it would blow our minds. We would ask ourselves "Why did I wait so long to get a hold of this?"

My Father owns the cattle on a thousands hills. He will supply my every need. I am RICH in God! I am RICH in Spirit, RICH in joy, RICH in peace, RICH in happiness, RICH in the love of God! I am RICH in faith!

"O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens." Psalms 8:1

I may be sick in body but I am HEALTHY in spirit. I know my God. He is my strength and my salvation. He is my Savior and the rock that I stand on. My Lord is the joy of my soul. He is the very breath that I breathe. My God is the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. He is the Lily of my valley, my bright and morning star. He put laughter in my soul and is the song that I sing. Though I be weak yet, I am strong in Him. He is my EVERYTHING.

I have consciously made a decision and I choose to be rich, healthy, and excellent in God!

My Grandson - My Responsibility

My grandson walked into the computer room about 3 weeks ago and spotted an old bible sitting next to the computer that was his auntie Kellie's when she was a little girl. He reached over and picked it up and read the cover and said, “Holy Bible”. Then he turned to me and said, “Grandma, how come you know so much about the bible?” That question took me by surprise. I said, “Well, Caleb I guess because it is the very essence of my life and I study and read it every chance I get.” He then asked me what essence meant. So I told him that in this case that essence meant that the bible is the very spirit, the very heart, the real meaning, and the very soul of my life and without it I cannot live, that my soul would die and I would be lost.

Caleb then opened up the bible and turned to this page and read the following:

I was very excited that he was able to read this scripture on his own. He really liked the picture that went with this verse. He then asked me what it meant so I began to explain it to him. My heart was overjoyed to have my 6 year old grandson asking me questions concerning the word of God. Caleb then said that the bible has too many words and wanted to know how I could read them all. So I explained that I read a little everyday. That God has so many wonderful things to tell us and that there is no way we could read about it all in a day or a week or a month. That it takes a year or so to read about all the wonderful things he has to tell us. I told him that I have read God’s word many times and that when I have read it over and over I get something new out of it every time.

Caleb then asked me what kind of things God tells us in the bible. So I began to explain to him how God tells us that he loves us. How he is our friend and how he will provide for us and protect us. At that time all the tornados were going through many areas. So I took him to Sis Elm’s blog site and showed him how Bro Lance’s church was hit by a tornado and destroyed but how those that were in the church had gathered into a closet and how God had kept His hand on them and spared them all. I read the entire article to him and he was so amazed and said, “WOW, God does protect huh grandma?”

As I sat and heard so many wonderful messages at the Ladies Conference, my heart was so uplifted. Sister Hernandez was awesome on that first night speaking on forgiveness. This is a must! If we don’t forgive you know our Father in Heaven cannot forgive us. Sis Buxton did an outstanding job on speaking about the audacity to believe in the next generation to carry on this precious, precious Gospel. Then Sis Hodges spoke on passing on a Legacy. As these ladies were speaking, my above conversation with my grandson came back to me. I thought Oh Dear God, I do have the audacity to believe in my grandson to carry on this precious Gospel. I will pass on this Legacy to him. I will teach him everything I know about you. I will teach him everything I know about your precious word. I will teach him how to forgive when someone does him wrong so that you will be able to forgive him when he does wrong. I will teach him how to live for you and how to fall in love with you. I will teach him how to serve you. I will teach him how to put you first and foremost above everyone else and everything else. I will do my best to be an example of what a Christian is to be.

You think that when your kids are grown and gone from the nest that your work is done. NOT SO! Now you have grandchildren looking your way. Our work is never done. It continues until the day we die. I must continue to be an example to my grandson and my grown children. I must continue to pass on this Legacy as long as I live.

I am so thankful that God touched my body and allowed me to attend the Ladies Conference. The devil did everything thing in his power to keep me from going. But my God came through and I was able to go. What wonderful, powerful, annointed messages did we hear. The singing was none the less. I have truly been blessed by attending the 2008 Western District Ladies Conference.

Cause Of Death

I picked the prescription bottle up to check and see what the doctor wanted me to try this time since the antibiotic I was on doesn’t seem to be killing the infection. Instantly I feel my throat begin to swell. My tongue is now swelling as well and I feel it begin to protrude out of my mouth and I know it is turning black. I can’t breathe. I begin to break out in sweats. I feel hives, huge hives breaking out all over my face and body. I see spots before my eyes. My ears are now ringing and I feel as though I am moving in slow motion. I am chocking. Someone help me. I can’t breathe. I am going down, down, down.

I shake my head from the horrible flashback and say, “WHAT IS THIS?” I asked the lady behind the counter. She told me it was my antibiotic. I told her it wasn’t my antibiotic. I proceeded to tell her that if I took Levaquin I would be dead in less than 30 minutes. I then asked her if my chart was red flagged for QUINOLONES? So she checked and said yes. I then told her, uuuhhh, this is a Quinolone and I can not take it because if I do I will have an ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION.

She immediately called over my pharmacist, and of course he apologized because they should have caught it due to the fact that my chart is red flagged. I then got on the phone and called my doctor and asked him why he was trying to put me away by giving me drugs he KNOWS I am allergic to? I then told him if he didn’t want to go to the Ladies Conference with me all he had to do was say so. He didn’t have to do me in.

Dr. T began to apologize because he said when he thinks of me he should automatically see 3 things, ALLERGIES, Asthma, Migraines. What wonderful traits to be known by :{

I told my husband I do not have to worry about dying from some horrible death like cancer, brain tumor, heart attack, stroke or etc. My cause of death will be: THE WRONG MEDICATION!!!

I do not know how many times ALL and I do mean ALL of my doctors have at one time or another tried to give me a medication that has put me in ICU due to ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION. Yes folks, I do not fear some dreaded disease. I fear MEDICATION!

I wonder if I red flag my allergies by tattooing them into the center of my forehead if then I will be safe from being given the wrong medication. You think?

Down But Not Out!

A week ago Wednesday night we had a testimony service of what God has done for us personally. Well, I stood and spoke of how God had touched my lungs and how the doctor said they sounded better than ever before. Then I told the congregation of how the doctor began to speak to me about God healing me of my brain tumor which I wrote a post on titled; “TRUSTING THE ONE TRUE LIVING GOD”.

We all know how it goes, give God some glory and praise and watch the devil throw a fit. By Friday morning I was so sick I could hardly raise my head off of my pillow. My lungs were bursting with pain. I could hard take a breath without it feeling as though my bronchial tubes were on fire. I knew I was in trouble and needed to get to the doctor and fast. I showered, MISTAKE! That nearly killed me alone. It takes a lot of oxygen to shower and when you are short of that, not a good idea, trust me.

I made it to the doctor’s office and as soon as I walked in all eyes was on me. It’s no wonder, with every breath I took it sounded like a really bad static radio going full blast. The nurse took me right back and started treatments on me to try to open up my lungs. It only took 3 treatments to get some relief. The Doctor gave me two shots that day and 4 prescriptions and told me to go home and stay in bed. I did too. Well, not in bed because I couldn’t lay flat or I would cough my head off but I was laid up in the recliner for 4 days straight. I was to sick and weak to do much of anything. As a matter of fact I am still sleeping in the recliner because I still can’t lie down.

I went back to the doctor this morning because I had another bad breathing attack. I had finished the antibiotics he had given me and knew I needed more. When I walked in of course I got the royal treatment again. By the way I have bronchitis and a sinus infection. Doctor’s biggest concern here is to keep the bronchitis from turning into bronchial pneumonia. He also told me I am dropping weight to fast and we don’t know why. In the last 5 days I lost 4 ½ pounds alone.

I told him I have a Ladies Conference to go to next week and I am going if I have to go on a hospital gurney hooked up to IV’s and him as my attending physician. So either he can join hands with the Chief of staff upstairs and work a miracle and get me well or pack his bags because we are going to Ladies Conference.

So doc wrote me up more prescriptions and said my lungs were really a mess but that’s OK. God has healed me of this before and He will do it again. This is just a minor set back. The devil is mad so that makes me glad. Come hell or high waters I will be at that conference in Jesus Name! I just feel like something good is about to happen, I just feel like something good is on its way. I may be down but I am not out! So satan, throw your little fits, throw out your stumbling blocks, I will not be discouraged. This too shall pass!

My God is more than enough. He supplies all of my needs.

He is my El Shaddai, He always looks out for me.

So why should I worry bout the highs and the lows

The ups and the downs, when by my faith I know

My God is more than enough

More than enough

More than enough

Finding Time

My grandson asked me a few weeks back what the word "Ditto" meant. So I tried to break it down to "his" level so he would understand and explained it like this: "Well Caleb, if someone tells you that they love you and you love them, then instead of saying I love you too, you can simply say Ditto. If someone says I'm cold and you are cold too, you can say Ditto instead of saying I'm cold too. Or if someone says I'm hungry and" then Caleb says, "Oh I get it. Then if I'm hungry I can say Ditto instead of saying I'm hungry too cause it means the same thing." I said "You got it." He replied, "Cool!"

Well, the other day I was trying to clean house and do laundry and so forth and it just seemed that Caleb was messing up as soon as I was cleaning up. I would tell him to please stay out of stuff. It seemed as though it would go in one ear and out the other. He was so hyper. I told him if he didn't sit down and read a book or color and stay out of stuff he was going to bed. He replied with "I'm not tired." Next thing I knew he had stuff strung out all over the living room again. I said, "Caleb Anthony Wollard, you are getting on my last nerve!" He simply replied, "DITTO" At first I was stuned at his reply, then I nearly fell in the floor with laughter. How can you be mad after that? He then looked at me with his big brown eyes and said "Grandma why can't you clean house later and just play a game with me for a little bit?" Well, I just wrapped my arms around him and told him how much I loved him and of course we sat down and played games. I simply set the housework aside for a while. Wouldn't you have done the same thing? He melted my heart that day. Such child like love. Sure did me good.

I realized then that all he wanted was my attention. That while he was making one mess after another, all he wanted was for me to stop what I was doing and give him a few moments of my time. That is all he was asking for. But I was to busy to realize that he needed me. That he needed to know that I cared and wanted to be with him and that he was important to me and special enough to spend time with.

When our children are acting up maybe we need to stop and ask ourselves are they simply asking for a few moments of our time? What will it hurt to take time out of our busy schedule to stop and give them 30 minutes? We need to spend quality time to play a game or read books, tell stories, or whatever to let them know just how speacial they are to us.

Then I began to ponder today on how many times has God tried to get my attention when I have been busy going about my day. Have I been encumbered about with so many things that I have not heard His voice when He has tried to get my attention? Has He wanted to spend time with me and I have been to busy for Him? Have there been times that the Lord has had to put things in my way that has MESSED my day up trying to get my attention so that I would stop and turn to Him and spend time with Him? How many times have I tried to clean things up only to have them MESSED up again because the Lord is trying to get my attention? Do my actions say, "Lord you are getting on my last nerve? and He is responding with "DITTO" and then simply ask in that still small voice, "Why can't you do what you are doing later and just spend time with me for a few moments?"

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10: 38-42

Lord I am asking you to help me to be like Mary and not Martha. I don't only want to receive you into my home but I want to be found sitting at your feet and not cumbered about with so many things that I do not have time for you. I want to choose that good part which shall never be taken away from me.