Day 113

Isn't it strange that one day you can feel amazing and the next you feel like crap?  I believe it is the enemy of our souls doing everything to keep us from winning the battle.  If you then turn it around, it probably is the LORD OF ALL CREATION, doing everything to keep us from winning the battle.  HE seems to do the best work in me when I am at my lowest.  I just gave myself a new belief system.  Interesting......Reading Galatians 2:20-21:
^"20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.^[e] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
So today is Memorial Day, remembering all those men and women who sacrificed their lives so that we can be free.  This is a whole sermon just in this sentence!  Do we really remember the sacrifice of Jesus so that we can be free?  Memorial Day should be for this also.  My husband & I went to Egypt and Israel a couple of years ago and I loved the muslim call to prayer times.  What a great thing to do....stop what you are doing, get on your knees and pray.  I did.  Do we remember our lives before GOD set us free?  I remember how miserable I was, life was but a shadow of what it was supposed to be.
I am ready to start talking again about full life.....what does my full life look like?  I can say I am scared to lay all the garbage down, who am I without it?  Here are my scriptures for today....so astounded once again!

“I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?” - Psalm 56:4
 Col 2:8-10 ⁸ Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers^[a] of this world, rather than from Christ. ⁹ For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.^{[b] 10} So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 
Eph 3:18-20
  ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
 ²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Fullness of life is starting with how much GOD loves us. Look at verse 18....can we ever know what that really means?  Then to be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from GOD! HE has it all in HIS power.  We just need to trust HIM with all of ourselves.  I'm tired of trying to please everyone else before I try to please THE ALMIGHTY ONE. 

 so, day 113.......got some important things accomplished, had an amazing treatment from Trish, made some killer broth to start a fast, rest of life????? praying on hands and knees for HIS power!!!

If this is your day one, remember to pray to the ONE who will lift you to the heavenlies so you can breathe.  I pray for you and believe.
Loving you and having faith, Jules

Day 112

I know I should be writing more but finding the time right now has been difficult.  Lots going on though, seems I get to keep on with all my treatments and trying to figure out why my body has decided to go awol on me.  I know this is all emotional garbage that GOD is moving out, so it becomes scary, not only emotionally but physically as well.  I am finally starting to cry,  REAL BIG DEAL! for me....my poor best friend got the worst of it and was probably the only one I know that could take it.  Aren't we so blessed as women to have our girlfriends?  I hope your men understand the girlfriend thing.....we make each other better women, don't you think?
So today is all about letting go, forgiving myself, and letting the hurt finally heal.  The smokescreen was needed to hide the pain and now that it is gone, I get to see the real truths about my rest of life.  My readings today are great reminders for me to honor GOD by honoring my body.  Taking care of this earthly vessel is sometimes so mundane and I hate taking the time to do it, but I have to keep looking at where I am because of that very thought.  Here is 1 COR 6:19-20
¹⁹You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. ²⁰God paid a great price for you.          


What a privilege it is to know that HE is doing all this for my good and HIS glory.  I saw a picture in my head of my past life the other day...there was this pile of ashes and I was rising up out of it and the ashes were the all the days I smoked and just burned away.  I am so thankful I have quit.  And again, here is another scripture from today:  LUKE 1:37 "Nothing, you see, is impossible with God."  HE is the only way I can get through all this!
So I am looking back through the last 112 days and seeing the hand of GOD woven throughout this process.  Now I can see the lessons, (sometimes hard, sometimes easy) are showing me how GOD wants me to be.  I feel pretty fragile still but that is to be expected.  If you are in the process of quitting right now, don't give up.  It just gets better and better.  There is this spot in the 3 month area where you believe you are done......you think you can have one, why not? what will it hurt? you just did 100 days!  LIES LIES LIES!!! I almost gave in.  I was with a friend for a week and she is a smoker, could have easily gotten one from her, then I heard the "VOICE" and prayed.  Thought went away and knew I had dodged a bullet.
Check this out....it is from the NLT version- 1 PETER 5:8   "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour."


So, day 112.............was at peace for the first time in 2 weeks, ate well, drank lots of water, heard GOD all day.........rest of life????? LIVING with fullness!
If this is your day one, give it over to the ALMIGHTY ONE, HE can see you through it all.  Believe in HIS power not your own.  HE loves you so much!
Lovingly and in prayer, Jules

Day...don't really care

I can't believe I haven't posted since April 4th.  Don't even know what day it is now.  That is a good thing!  It has been such a busy couple of months and I have been gone ALOT!  So much going on and life is moving so fast I keep forgetting to breathe.  I would love to go back to those first 30 days where I was taking such good care of myself and really focusing on me.....brief moments well spent.
I do know I need to keep writing.....I have loved the time spent writing and have missed it so much!  Look at today's reading in Biblegateway.com:
Zephaniah 3:17  "Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he'll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs." 
 I was laughing so hard when I read this because really???  Could this have been a more appropriate scripture?  I think HE has missed it too!  What an awesome GOD!! we serve.

So lets catch up....have been seeing alot of changes in the way I think, finally am able to focus on a project (that took almost the whole 90 days),have made some great new friends, starting to really believe that I am a non smoker....feels so good to be this non smoking person. I am realizing how much I kept people at arms length for fear they would smell smoke on me.  I like being close to people now.  I used being a germaphobe as my reason but I know now that was a lie.  I am also trying to figure out what is going on with my body, it doesn't want to function properly.  I know it is GOD keeping me on my knees.  Started riding bikes, and yes it is a big deal!, haven't gained or lost any weight, eating is still messed up but I think my metabolism is starting to work.  I actually have started to feel hunger pangs which I never have had.  Our bodies are amazing things....and of course they would be cuz look who created them!  The naturopath I am seeing has told me I am one of those people that my body was probably constantly rejecting the smoke and was having to rewrite the functions.  Sounds weird, yet makes sense because of the way it is detoxing.  Can't find the reasons for the blood pressure or the edema so am believing that the body is deleting the sequences it had to write in order to function...yea, that's it!! LOL!  (Self diagnoser) What else...getting lots of spa treatments, made my yoga room fantastic, redid the office area, and generally am able to get anything done.  Life is getting full!!!

Here is another one of my readings for today:  This is from the Message
Phllipians 3:12-14:  ^"I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. "
HE is so cool...............how can I not bow before THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE? 

So, today is really day 99, and all I can think is wow.  I had to go back and count but I am astounded I have made it this far.  So if today is your day 1, hang on, the ride is wild so let GOD, MASTER OF ALL YOU ARE, be in control.  HE will guide you where you need to go. 
I am praying for you all again, remember how much GOD loves you.  It's important.  Jules