God knows us by name and He desires that we call on Him by name. Debby, Diana, Kathy, Mona, and Babs have each used a method of study and have had a personal word from the Lord! AMEN ~ PSALM 67 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us— so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him. ~
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of
God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and under
standing, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:3-12 ~ "Again Jesus began to teach by the lake ~ “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Mark 1:1-20
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” ESTHER 4:14-15
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Phillipians 2:1
"With the Lord Jesus Christ nothing is impossible. No stormy passions are so strong; He can tame them. No temper is so rough and violent; He can change it. No conscience is so disturbed; He can speak peace to it and make it calm. No person ever need despair, if they will only bow down their pride, and come as a humbled sinner to Christ. Christ can do miracles upon their heart. No person ever need despair of reaching their journey's end, if they have once committed their soul to Christ's keeping.
Christ will carry them through every danger. Christ will make them conqueror over every foe.
What if our relatives oppose us? What if our neighbors laugh us to scorn? What if our place be hard? What if our temptations be great? It is all nothing, if Christ is on our side, and we are in the ship with Him. Greater is He that is for us, than all those who are against us." RC RYLE ~ The Holy Spirit abides within each believer on this side of the cross. John the Baptist was born in the spirit ~ LUKE 1:35-37 "The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” AMEN this is a PROMISE from Almighty God! As a mother worries about her child, she is not trusting God's plan and purpose for His child's life. The mother of Jesus sang this out when greeted by the leaping of John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth.
“
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for He has been mindful
of the humble state of His servant.
From now on all
generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is His Name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him,
from
generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
Ruth Bell Graham was born at Qingjiang, Kiangsu, China, as Ruth McCue Bell. Her parents, Dr. L. Nelson Bell and Virginia McCue Bell, were American medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles north of Shanghai. Ruth returned to the U.S. at the age of 17 in the fall of 1937, and enrolled at Wheaton College, outside Chicago, Illinois, where she met Graham. They married on August 13, 1943. In 1945, after a brief stint as a suburban pastor, her husband became an evangelist for Youth for Christ. The Grahams moved to Montreat near her parents where the Grahams continued to live for the rest of their married life. Despite Billy Graham being one of the world's most famous Baptists, his wife remained a Presbyterian and often taught Sunday School.
Between 1945 and 1958, Mrs. Graham gave birth to five children, whom she raised — sometimes single-handedly — while her husband was away on extended national and international evangelistic crusades. The three daughters and two sons who survive her are all actively involved in ministry, including eldest son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) founded by his father. Ruth Graham had been in frail health since suffering spinal meningitis in 1995. This was exacerbated by a degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck that began with a fall while testing a swing she made for her grandchildren in 1974 that resulted in chronic back pain for many years. During the final months of her life, Graham was bedridden and had contracted pneumonia. The day before Ruth's death,
Billy Graham released a statement through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stating, "Ruth is my soul mate and best friend, and I cannot imagine living a single day without her by my side. I am more and more in love with her today than when we first met over 65 years ago as students at Wheaton College." On Monday, June 11, at Ruth's request and subsequent to consultation with her family, she was removed from life support. On June 13, 2007, following her decline into a semi-coma, Billy Graham announced that he and his wife had decided to be buried beside each other at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ruth died at 5:05 p.m. June 14, 2007, at her home. Since the death of his wife, it has not been an easy adjustment period for Rev. Billy Graham. One month after her passing he was rushed by ambulance to a hospital. Ruth and Billy were married for 63 years. Rev. Graham's health has been fairly strong. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1990.
PSALM 63 ~ You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for You,
my whole being longs for You,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
Because You are my help,
I sing in the shadow of Your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
WE PRAISE THY HOLY NAME
Each year, according to His plan, God in His order, makes wine. He created an organism that turns soil, water and sunlight into a grape filled with juicy wine! My will is to thank God for this MIRACLE and drink up with praise on my lips! Wine is but water modified by the One who established the universe and all of nature. Today I shall experience the supernatural and surrender my will to His plan for my visit with Momma Mia in Santa Rosa! To act obediently, intellectually, volitionally, emotionally is to live according to His Spirit and trust that His best is where He leads us. 1 CORIN 9:26 "Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air."
HEBREWS 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." We sing praise as we run to You: "JUST AS I AM, without one plea, trusting that Thou blood was shed for me; waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot; though tossed about, with many a conflict and many a doubt; I am poor, wretched, blind ~ in need of a healing in my mind; JUST AS I AM, Lord wilt Thou welcome, pardon and cleanse me? Thou bid me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. To Thee I come, Whose blood can cleanse each dark spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come." AMEN
To render back "my will" in exchange for "His will" is at times a very real struggle. The world is full of deceit. If we look to our family, friends or pyscologist, we find that the truth is hidden in layers of camoflage. But God has given His Spirit, the Spirit of truth and discernment. 
As born again people, we are new creations in Christ. MARK 2:22 "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” We can trust that if we surrender our self-will, our old ways that are so inflamed and swollen with years of selfishness - and seek God's viewpoint, we will be enabled to discern between what He says and what the world says and make wise choices. As a child, I thought like a child and when asked to do someting against my will I became incensed and bitter at the thwarting request that I give in! 
The first miracle Jesus performed was to celebrate the Bride and His Bridegroom, with adequate wine to be poured out to fill the souls of a thirsty gathering of His people. God in His mercy has educated me gently in order to "break His child's will". Looking back I ascertain my rebellion, my howling, my jaw setting, as I avoided total surrender with certain limitations. Fully compensated by God with less than His best, today I choose to surrender whole heartedly to His plan! Experience His love, grace and miracle today like the joy of JOB 32:19 "inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst." Thank You Father for giving me Your Spirit of discernment. 1 Corin 2:10-14 "These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 
For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."
