"Greater things are still to come, greater things are still to be done here!"

Praising God that we got some rain last night after so very  very long! The burn ban around here has even been so far-reaching as to prohibit welders from doing their work because of the spark-fire threat. Our governor has lifted several restrictions for truckers hauling hay to help the ranchers and farmers because so many are having to buy hay from less draught-sticken states like ours.  The land in Oklahoma is so parched and burned and dead, there is very little hay growing. there is very little "scruff" for lives tock to forage or graze. Buying hay  from out of state is expensive, but currently necessary. Gov. Fallin  is allowing wider loads with no additional fees for 60 days. Just that lifting of a weight/size load restriction will help  and we take our help where we can get it! This part of Oklahoma has  been 26 days straight with over 100 degree temperatures and 8 more  days predicted (upwards from 104...to an official 108)  so last night's rain, even though it was slight, was so welcomed!!
AND THEN.............. our IRS  Tax Advocate called me this morning to tell me that IRS has completed their review of our tax refund file (yes all 131 pages of it) and that they have apoprved our refund to be released in full! Just in time to make the  one PAID IN FULL payment on our AC unit, instead of the frist of potentially many, very large payments!
The stitches came out of my toe on Thursday. It is healing slowly but healing. The broken bone pieces will gradually heal themselves and I guess I will feel tingly sensations along the way. Weight bearing is still painful but so is the "pull up" effort I seem to default to  to NOT be weight bearing. I'm working hard to put weight on my foot so that the toe doesn't heal with a crooked upward tilt. The nailbed is "icky" looking but not infected and not so swollen either. I wore regular shoes to church yesterday around the bandage, much to the amusement of many! I am a "high-heels" kind of girl and that flat ortho boot  I wore for two weeks needed to be Linda-history .  I am thankful !
Several months back a friend recommended a book to our prayer group. I saw it at our bookstore and without doing much research, bought it. God had a plan for me to have that book for someone else entirely!  The book is Made to Crave  Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, not Food. by Lysa TerKeurst  who is the Proverbs 31 Ministry originator. The book is amazing if you are not familiar with it. Yes, her premise is learning to seek GOD  for our sufficeincy instead of  the craving for food, but she goes so much deeper...to whatever ones' personsal "lust of the flesh" might be. It is an  EXCELLENT book! I have a dear friend who shared with me recently a desire to totally submit the craving, (yes, "craving" was the word used!) for food and to give that once and for ALL to God and see God bring victory over it. WELL........ God put this friend's face right in the middle of my spiritual vision with a prompting to give the book to my friend. I did. Last night I got an excited phone call telling me that this WAS exactly what God had been speaking and the book was EXACTLY what was needed right now!
There are other things for which we are trusting God and praising him for as well, but these two things are "biggies" and I wanted to give God the praise before I did anything else!
As I was looking for a video of "God of This City" for Sunday worship,  I discovered how the song came to be written and that it was not Chris Tomlin who wrote it as I'd thoguht but a group named Bluetree from Dublin, Ireland. They wrote the song while on a mission trip to Thailand. While  in the midst of a "Red light " district, deep in a section of brothel and sex trade businesses, God moved on their hearts that HE had great things for that city..........when they returned to Dublin, God spoke to them about that city as well. Knowing that changed my whole perception of the song , which I already liked a lot! I loved being able to share that part of the story as we sang God of This City yesterday morning as part of our worship music time. God put this song together in my mind with "Holy is the Lord God Almighty," "How Great Thou Art," and "Shine Jesus Shine" God was stirring hearts and it wa a special time!!
Are you aware of  "THE RESPONSE",  A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis ?  Gov Rick Perry has  called this a National  Solemn  Assembly and has rented the Reliant Center in Houston Texas as a central gathering place for all who would want to come there on August 6 to pray. Other churches are participating across the country simulataneously with the day of prayer and fasting in Houston which is slated for 10 AM-3 PM  A number of churches in our town are participating here and gathering at a large facility here. I would invite each of you and  challenge you to set this day aside in your churches, fellowships, Bible Study groups or Home Groups , Cell Groups. Our nation IS  in crisis for certain, on every level, but most of all in its spritual decline. I believe that God WANTS to heal our land, I believe that there ARE "greater things.... still to be done here" and I want to be a part of any effort, "organized'  or personal, to keep praying  "THY WILL BE DONE  ON EARTH AS IT  IS  IN HEAVEN.   Click here to find out more about                           The RESPONSE