Changes to the Master Bedroom

Hi All!

Hope you're all having a wonderful new year!  Winter has come roaring into Michigan and we are now living in a winter wonderland.  It's beautiful!  And cold.

And I just try to stay indoors!  lol

I'm taking advantage of being snowed-in and have been working on a new project!

Our master bedroom and bathroom are both upstairs.  I had mentioned during the summer that we were wanting to re-do our bathroom.  Well, we've made no progress at all.

Not even an estimate.

Not that we haven't tried. *sigh*  I still have hope!

But in the meantime, I decided I would like to change our bedroom.  I redecorated it a few years ago when I was transitioning out of my reds and golds but I went too 'contemporary' and not enough French Country and I haven't liked it.

I made the drapes and the dust ruffle in this room and they are going to my daughter.  She and her husband bought a house last year so she's been a great person to 'donate' to! I will repurpose the dust ruffle into a matching valance and she's planning on using these in her home school/play room.

We've also given her this rug and put another in our room since this photo.  I am hoping to find some new chairs for our bedroom and give her these since I slipcovered them to match.

 But here's the awful truth...

 We've lived in our house for twelve years now and all of our bedrooms have popcorn ceilings.

 If you look closely at these pictures, you can tell.  I'm just embarrassed to confess this.

 And I decided that before I did another thing, I was going to remove them.

If you read my other blog, Summits of Rubies, you know that I have been on a 40 day Word fast.  So when my mind starts to overflow with all the reading I'm doing, I'm scraping my ceilings!

I don't want to say it's the worst job I've ever done, but I honestly think it's the messiest!  But I have a goal.

These are my inspiration pictures.

Babs Watkins

I've bought new bedding in a neutral instead of pure white and some beautiful faux silk in 'Bluestone' to make new drapes. The color and texture is very similar to the above picture. The walls are also going to a neutral and then....

Eleanor Cummings/Cote de Texas

...my husband said we can some rustic 'boards to emphasize the slope of the ceiling.  That's the part I'm really excited about!

Cote de Texas

I've cleared about two-thirds of the ceiling and will try to get it finished tomorrow.  Then I plan on painting the ceiling and walls and sewing the drapes.  Then I need my sweet husband to help me with the boards.

So, stay tuned and stay warm!  I'll keep you updated as I go!

love and blessings~

 "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,Or loose the cords of Orion? "Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,And guide the Bear with her satellites ? "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,Or fix their rule over the earth? "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,So that an abundance of water will cover you? "Can you send forth lightnings that they may goAnd say to you, 'Here we are'? "Who has put wisdom in the innermost beingOr given understanding to the mind ? "Who can count the clouds by wisdom,Or tip the water jars of the heavens..." Job 38:31-17

Dear Anonymous

I recently received a comment from an anonymous person on my post, "He Saves, He Heals."

This is their comment - "Please do more research on this topic.  Implying someone is sick simply because of sin is not Biblical.  There are examples of Jesus not healing.  John 5 is a good example. There was a crowd at the pool but Jesus chose to only heal one and slipped away unnoticed.  Nowhere does it say or even imply Jesus healed every sick individual he came into contact with.  Plus, Jesus' healing ministry was part of prophecy fulfillment as a sign of who He was.

The issue of Job also has to dealt with.  God ALLOWED him to be sick and to suffer.  It is very clearly laid out that it was not at all because of his sin.

There are several words from the original text that translate to 'heal' in English but some refer only to spiritual healing and not physical.  This is a deeply complicated topic and simply saying someone's in has made them sick is not Biblically correct and can do more harm than good."

Dear Anonymous;

I understand that this is taught in the churches. I understand that it is very painful to see people we love sick and there are many who have faith in God who have prayed and not received healing. And so we try to explain it away and say that it's just not God's will.  Please also know that I am not answering you with a desire to prove you wrong - but a desire that we might all find the truth.

We know that sickness came into the world because of sin and we know that all of us have sinned.  It is not condemning a person to say that all of our sickness is tied to our sin.  

In the passage in John 5 that you mentioned, it does not say that Jesus only healed the one man and slipped away. It tells the story of this man and then stops. It does say that there were others at this well and does not tell of their healing.  But in so many other passages of scripture it makes it clear that Jesus healed every single person who came to Him in faith. 

Their faith was the key.

Matthew 9:2  "And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven."" 

Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven" and this healed the paralytic.  This clearly shows us a tie between our sin and sickness.  

Matthew 9:22  "But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." At once the woman was made well." 

Matthew 9:29  "Then He touched their eyes, saying, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." 

Matthew 15:28  "Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once. "

Matthew 13:58  "He did not do many miracles there because of a lack of their faith."

And in John 20:30 we are told, "The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs which are not recorded in this book."  The Bible says over and over again that 'Jesus healed them all.'  He healed EVERY SINGLE PERSON that came to Him in faith.

Anonymous, you stated that " Jesus' healing ministry was part of prophecy fulfillment as a sign of who He was. "  Yes, it was.  

Jesus was/is God, who laid down His divinity and came to the earth as a man. He was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, as an example to us of how we should live after being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Romans Chapter 8, makes it clear that He was the first son and we are also children of God, just like He was.

Not only is it God's will that we be healed but God desires above all things that we walk in good health! "Beloved I desire above all things that you be in good health and prosper, even as your soul prospers." (III John 2) 

God not only wants us to walk in good health, He wants us to heal others, in His Name.

"And (Jesus) said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelief shall be condemned.  These signs will accompany those who believe; in My name they will cast out demons, they speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."  Mark 16:15.

And in John 14:12, Jesus tells us, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father."

The story of Job supports my belief.  The Bible tells us that Job was a righteous man.  He believed in God and was serving God.  His faith in God was credited to Him as righteousness.  

But in Job 3:25, Job states, "The thing I fear has come upon me."  Job's sin was fear. Sin opens the door in our lives for the enemy's attack.  God's law has to permit the enemy to attack us if there is sin in our lives. We could argue then that it is God's will for us to suffer but I think the heart of God is shown more when He restores everything to Job in double portion.  

But we now live in a more perfect covenant because of the blood of Jesus! Jesus paid the price for our sin. When He died on the cross He restored us to right relationship with Our Father God so that we might become 'sons of God.' And He bore our guilt and shame and our sickness on the cross so that we might be healed.  Salvation and healing mean the same thing.  You mentioned soul-healing.  Read III John 2 again.  Our physical healing is directly related to our soul healing.

When the enemy comes before God and wants to attack us, Jesus steps up and declares, "This one's mine! This one is covered in the Blood and MY righteousness and it is therefore illegal for you to attack them."  Once we get a revelation of this, we can fight back.  We can use our faith and the Sword of the Word to defeat the enemy.

My purpose in writing about healing is never to do "more harm than good."  My purpose is that we would realize the tie between sin and sickness and repent of sin. I have sin in my life. And the first thing I do when I become sick is seek God to find out why. Then I repent.  

I got very discouraged a couple of months ago and I got sick and could not get well. I had congestion, a sore throat and an ear ache that lasted for about 6 weeks. I knew, by the Holy Spirit, that it was tied to my discouragement but I did not know how to come out of it. I repented and cried out to God.

The next day a friend invited me to a weekend women's conference in another town. We went. Long story short, at that conference, God touched me in a mighty way and healed my discouragement. When the conference was over, I was also physically healed. And even more that that, I was completely refreshed and filled with new hope.

My sin was discouragement; a lack of faith and hope in God.  There could have been others there that did not receive the same touch of God. Our faith and need for God cause Him to act in our behalf.

Anonymous, I would encourage you to listen to the teachings at ibethel.org.  Bill Johnson's church in Redding, CA has been experiencing miracles and healings for many years now. Their sister ministry, IRIS Global, experiences miracles on a regular basis and when I found out about them about 10 years ago, had raised over 70 people from the dead. I'm sure the number is higher now.  

I listened to a teaching of Heidi Baker, the leader of Iris Global, several years ago.  She asked the group of African pastors she was speaking to, "How many of them had raised someone from the dead?" and every one of them raised their hand.  

Here in the United States, we have put our trust in money, insurance, doctors and our own knowledge. We are not desperate for God. We have not been in the position of having nothing but our faith in God to trust in. We have become luke warm.  And God tells us in Revelation that He will spit us out.

We get to choose. 

My hope is that you will seek GOD.  Not church.  Not someone else.  But GOD. My hope is that you will cry out to God for truth and earnestly seek Him.  He is a rewarder to those who seek Him.

love and blessings~

photo credit jonasclark.com

Goals for the New Year and Perseverance

photo credit pqhobbit.wordpress

Happy New Year! 


I am unreasonably excited over this new year which is not my usual attitude. 


Most years I think, "It's just another day," but this year I'm really feeling a change in the air and I am full of hope...





...hope to see some things I've been praying for come into fruition!
...hope to see some things I've wanted to change in my own life happen!
...hope to see God show Himself in a big way in the area where we live!

I've been getting together with my prayer partners on Mondays and praying and we have been SO blessed! We have been touching God. God has been touching us.  We've been having 'church!'

We've been receiving insights from the Holy Spirit and words of knowledge as we've prayed and have been so encouraged to pray these Words over our loved ones. We have become very excited over praying together and I believe it's been the catalyst for all the other good things.  

As 2015 came to an end, we each made a goal list - spiritual goals, personal health goals, family goals, home improvement goals, financial goals - and shared them each other and prayed over them. We met with our husbands to make these goal lists. And we have each been delighted that our husbands were very excited over this! We are going to update each other as we go into the new year.  

One of my goals was to do a 40 day Word fast again.  And someone said, "Let's start now!"  I honestly hesitated. And then I realized that I could put it off forever and just never do it again. Because very honestly, I've thought about doing it again for years. And maybe I need to do it permanently.

So on Monday, we started our 40 day Word fast. No television, no secular books, no secular radio, no news, no Facebook except messages, etc.  Nothing but the Word of God and things that teach about God.  None of us needed to do much about our iphones - I never usually know where mine is! lol

This is the morning of day three and I want to tell you that I can honestly feel the difference. Ephesians 2:2 makes reference to Satan as the Prince of the power of the air.  I've often wondered what that means. But I want to say that there's a lot of scientific evidence that the electrical waves in our world, that we're exposed to so much, have a negative effect on our health and brain.

I don't know about that but I want to say that taking the television out of my life has caused my brain to 'quiet.'  I feel like the buzzing is gone. I'm always careful not to watch any occult, violence or immorality on television but I also want to confess that I've been a fan of some shows that I knew I shouldn't watch. Very honestly, there's really not much on TV that does not promote immorality and violence and the worst, demonic activity.  

And I want to take all of that out of my life.  But I even think it's more than that. I heard a wonderful man named Henry Gruver speak a few years ago and he said something that I really witnessed to.  He said that there are demonic spirits attached to television shows and even commercials that have assignments to attach themselves to us.  

I always knew that things like Harry Potter, The Twilight Series and such had a demonic assignment but he also told us that all the Pokeman characters were actually oriental gods!  It makes so much sense when you see children and ADULTS become crazed over some of these things that there's something going on!  I pay attention whenever there's something that sweeps our world.

But now I'm thinking that even if you only watched Christian television that the actual TV affects you negatively; changes the electrical impulses in your brain, causes you not to be able to hear God clearly. I want to hear God clearly.  I want to be in His Presence continually.  I need His Wisdom for every minute of my life.  I want to be His voice on this earth and I can't do that if I'm not continually in intercourse with Him.

Luke 18:8b keeps coming to my mind. "... when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"  

Are we as Christians really any different than others?  When people meet you, is it quickly apparent that you're a believer in Christ.  If they visited our homes, would they notice the difference?  Some Christians believe that healing and miracles and the gifts are not for today.  I know that they are and we are not manifesting the Holy Spirit because of the impurity in our lives.

I can say that I am different in a lot of ways. But I don't just want to be slightly different.  I want Smith Wigglesworth different!  I want to impact the world around me for Christ.  I don't want to fit in.  I want to be Jesus-peculiar! 

I have received a Word from the Lord that I will lay hands on the sick and they will be healed, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will rise to life.  I will heal mental illness and ADHD and autism and I want to see that Word come to pass!  I have experienced this in my walk with Christ but I want more - so much more! Mary, the mother of Jesus, said, "Let it be done to me accordingly to your Word."  We have a choice to make; to yield ourselves totally to His will or to just keep living our lives in mediocrity.  I don't want to do that anymore.

So in the next 37 days, I am praying to be radically cleansed, radically changed, radically transformed!  

God said two things to me for this new year:  Radical obedience and a pure heart.  Those are my primary goals for 2016!

I saw some bloggers choose a 'word' for this year.  Mine is PERSEVERANCE! I think it's going to take some perseverance to reach my goals.  The new year's joke is that we always start the new year with goals and we quit around January 12th.  I am blessed to have some prayer partners, and you!, to keep me accountable!

love and blessings for a glorious 2016~