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Expectations are High!

1 Jan

Expectations are High!.

Expectations are High!

1 Jan

Expectations are High!      

As we approach the New Year of 2015, I don’t know about you, but my expectations are really high!  I want to be even more determined to see my dreams and God’s purposes come together in my life!  Every year at this time I always take a step back and examine my year to see if I’ve done anything to make a difference, not only in my life but in those around me or those that the Lord puts in my path!  I am happy to say that 2014 feels like a milestone for me.  I really feel like I have made some headway toward the purposes of God in my life. I am also glad to say that I feel as though I’ve really shared His love with a lot of people and helped them to realize that God has a purpose for them as well!   I can only expect greater things for the year 2015!

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2For by it the elders obtained a good report.

 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

What do you want to see happen for you in 2015?  Let me encourage you to trust in the Lord and hope for those things with an expectancy that He will not fail!  If you have tried to believe for those things before and seemingly come up empty-handed, Press in and believe again!  Make a quality decision ( a decision of which there is no retreat)!  Determine that no matter what happens, that you will see great strides toward what you have hope to see!  This is truly faith and it pleases the Lord when we refuse to give up and  trust him!

As we move in to 2015, my prayer is that as I write this and you read it, that we can come into a prayer of agreement.  I would love to come into agreement with you in 2015 and believe for God to do that BIG THING!   Only you know what that big thing in your life is.  What I do know is that regardless of how big we may think it is, to God it is but a small matter and it gives Him great pleasure to show you his favor!  So right now, In the name of JESUS,  my prayer  is that the Lord will get that “Big thing” to you, or lead you to it, whatever needs to happen.  That He moves all circumstances or hindrances to the side that you will have a clear path to move in the direction that you need to move!  The Lord orders your steps and you will delight on your way!  I rejoice with you that the doors of opportunity are opening wide and that you will see BIG Things happen in your life for 2015!  I trust God to show you His favor as a shield and I declare over you that 2015 will truly be a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Amen….

I would love to hear a good report from those of you that came into the prayer of agreement with me!   As the Lord answers your prayer maybe you could share it with me as this is what encourages me to press in to bigger things in my own life!  I am excited as I know that the Lord does not disappoint and that He is ready and willing to move on our behalf!  I leave you today with this blessing from the Lord!

Numbers 6: 24 (KJV) The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

25The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

 

Happy New Year!

What a Year!

23 Dec

What a Year!.

What a Year!

23 Dec

 

What a Year 2014!

 

Christine Gilliam Hornback's Book Signings

Book Signing

Psalms 37:23( KJV) The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.

 

I had posted recently on my facebook page about how my life has been like a whirlwind lately. Especially through the year of 2014!  Simply meaning that it has been rapidly moving in circles to where I absolutely have to trust God to help me navigate through them!   I am not complaining but rather rejoicing, as I’ve labored seemingly for years to have the personal success that I am now enjoying.  If you have read any of my writings or followed my blogs then you will know that I am a Mom of two boys that I home school which is and will always be my greatest blessings and  priority.  I am also an Author, Artist and an Inspirational speaker.   I actually have four books published at the present time and am currently working on several more, however, being any of these things especially being an Author is not a golden ticket to success!  As a matter of fact, writing the books was, in my opinion, the easy part.  Marketing the books or promoting them to get the messages inside of them out to the public has proved to be the real task!   I have had so much to learn and am still learning every day.  There have been times where I’ve honestly just became overwhelmed and wanted to throw in the towel!  However, again if you’ve followed my blogs or my writings than you know that I am a very determined person!  I do not give up without throwing my most valiant effort toward that thing.   Unless GOD releases me to do something different!

I was a director of Women’s Ministry for many years!  It was honestly a joy and a privilege to help so many women over those years!  I found that with the Lord, that what I helped to make happen for them, He made happen for me.  I actually published two of my books during that time although I had written nearly a dozen.  I think that I thought in my mind that since I was so active in my local church doing Women’s ministry that the Lord would somehow combine the two.  I never thought in the beginning of publishing my first book that it would come down to a choice, however, when I realized that it was coming to that, I actually stopped writing for a while.  I loved Women’s Ministry and truly would not even let myself think about stepping out and doing anything different.  What I now know, is that it wasn’t trading one for the other, but that the Lord simply wanted to add to what I was doing and to promote me to a larger platform!  I bucked against God like a stubborn mule at first when I felt in my heart that I was going to release the Women’s Ministry, but one day in His sweet and calming still voice He spoke to me, “My Daughter, you will always be in Women’s Ministry because you are a women!”  Duh!… This was such a simple thing, but it became a revelation to me, so much so, that it allowed me the freedom to step out without looking back!  I dared to pursue my writing/ art career but also still do ministry which I so loved with a passion! When I say ministry, I do not necessarily mean to go to packed out church buildings and preach to multitudes, however I would do that with invitations, but, what I mean is that one on one ministry that now happens everywhere I go!  Life is absolutely exciting and full of adventure.  I never know how the Lord will use the open doors, but all I have to do is simply walk through them by faith and let Him use me once I am there!

God’s plans for me are always so much larger than my thoughts can take me. So I wrote all of this blog not to toot my own horn of obedience or successes, but rather as stated before my passion is to minister to you my readers!  I want to encourage you to trust the Lord! What He is doing for me, He will do for you!  Maybe you’ve stepped out before and felt like you were a failure.  Yes I’ve done that before as well but no attempt with GOD is a failure!  I’ve shook  myself off and simply began again!  I am hardly making a fortune, (YET) on my books or art, and my calendar is not filled for the next six months up the road, but do you know what?   I am thrilled because I have learned to let the Lord order my steps so that I can truly delight in my way! I have no doubt that He will bring me to success in every area!  I hope in the coming year, that you experience this kind of freedom that I am talking about and simply walk with the Lord and let him lead you!  I would love to hear of what the Lord is doing or has done for you in the coming months.  Please feel free to contact me!  We will rejoice together!

Happy New Year, May it be beyond your wildest imaginations

Childhood Christmas Memories!

19 Dec

Childhood Christmas Memories!.

Childhood Christmas Memories!

19 Dec
My Old Home Place on our farm in Kentucky

My Old Home Place on our farm in Kentucky

Childhood Christmas Memories!

My Childhood Home in Lewis County, Kentucky

Looking back to when I was a young girl, I can now say that growing up on a farm in Kentucky was an awesome privilege! Yes we worked very hard, but we also were able to play hard as well.  We never had lots of money, but never went without!    I had two of the most dedicated and hard-working parents and five sisters! Dad worked from sun up until sundown either on the farm or in construction building many roads in the tri-state area! Mom worked as hard if not harder at times! My mother was an awesome cook!  She could cook a meal faster than anyone I know even to this day that was mouth-watering delicious! She was also a seamstress, although she would never call herself one!  She made clothing for her daughters, our neighbors and cousins.  She also made handmade quilts and even designed curtains and bedspreads, but she would simply say that she was someone who tried to sew!  Mom could look at something and make it, her talent was amazing.   I also had wonderful Grandparents, many Aunts and Uncles, and cousins that lived close to us, so of course we visited one another’s homes often!   Life was wonderful and honestly, it was always exciting!  We could always find something to do, we were never bored!

As I reminisce my childhood, I wanted to focus on Christmas as we are presently in the wonderful Christmas Season!  As stated before we grew up on a farm where we raised tobacco, which was one of the main cash crops for Kentucky or at least the part of Kentucky where I grew up.   We not only raised or grew tobacco on our farm, but my Dad would lease other tobacco fields so that we raised huge crops every year.  It was back-breaking work because in order to grow a crop of tobacco it was practically a yearlong job.  Everyone in the family had to do their part, yes even me as I was the baby of the family!   However, at the end of the year, once the crop was sold the rewards of taking the tobacco to the warehouses to be sold were so exciting as it was usually always around Christmas time!    My Dad was a generous man, and he always paid his workers well, yes even his Daughters!  He would give every one of us girls a pretty hefty amount or at least it seemed it was for that period of time.  We were bright-eyed as he sat at the kitchen table and counted stacks of money.  We waited in anticipation to see what we would receive out of that wonderful stack!  Dad and my Mom would smile with great pleasure as he handed each of us our amount!  We beamed with joy as we reached out our hands to receive the fruits of our hard-earned labor!

I am always amazed as I look back at how such a small amount compared to today’s monies   went so very far!  It was always enough and then some! I was always able to buy everyone in my family something and still manage to have change left for me to put in my little change purse until I could get to our little general store down the road to buy penny candy! As a family, we had the best time going Christmas shopping as normally we only went to a big Department store in a city a couple of times a year.  We went once in the fall to buy shoes, coats, and school supplies and fabric as Mom made most of our school clothes!  Then of course, we went at Christmas time!  We had a department store that has long since gone out of business in our neck of the woods, called Harts!  We would all pile in the car for the long ride to travel across the Ohio River to Portsmouth, Ohio. It usually took about an hour and a half but for me it seemed like a longer journey! Once we arrived at Harts Department Store, we usually paired off, an older sister with a younger one and were turned loose to shop the store!  The excitement of having money to buy everyone a gift in the family was above measure!  It was even more fun as we had to try to avoid running into one another in the store to keep our gifts our secret finds!  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my family all back in that department store one more time!  It was a precious time and I was so very blessed to have been a part of such a loving family!

Good memories are such blessings from the Lord.  I try to recall the sentiments behind those wonderful memories as I want to pass on great memories to my own children for Christmas.  My hope for them is that in the future when they celebrate Christmas with my grandchildren or even great-grandchildren that they too will have touching Christmas memories that they can value and share! I hope that you will have the same!

Merry Christmas from my home which is now in Douglasville, Georgia to yours wherever you may be! May you have a wonderful joy filled Season of Celebrating and creating life long memories!

Disappointments Will Come, Then What?

11 Dec

Disappointments Will Come, Then What?.

Disappointments Will Come, Then What?

11 Dec

Disappointment Will Come, Then What?    

Have you ever put all of your time and effort into something important and it not work out the way that you expected it to? What did you do?  Did you quit, or did you square your shoulders and begin again?

I am not a quitter!  I am as stubborn as a mule and most times if something doesn’t work out, I just dig in and determine that I will get it done one way or the other! Unfortunately sometimes I am too stubborn to try new or different ways of doing things.  If I keep doing the same things, I am going to keep getting the same results!  Trust me; I’ve tested that theory enough times to know that it is true.  So I guess that is the reason that I like to “step out of the boat”, and at least try to walk on the water rather than staying in my comfort zone regretting that I didn’t even try!  If I could accomplish things by just wanting them to happen the way that I want them to, than success would have been mine long ago!  However, I have found that things always happen for a reason, yes, even things that feel like failure!   I believe the key is always being willing to learn from the experience!  Maybe if I look at the situation differently that I can see something that I could have done differently as well!

Here is something that most people do not want to hear, and honestly I don’t like to hear it either, but…. Maybe, just maybe….. the timing was completely off.  As I’ve stated I am stubborn and I consider myself proactive in my own life. I try to get things done, but I have missed God so many times because I moved way ahead of His timing or even worse I didn’t move when I was supposed to.   As you’ve probably concluded, I am not a passive personality that just waits for “whatever will be will be!”  Nope, it is my opinion that God has planned my future, but He is not going to drop everything in my lap without my participation! For instance, what if I am supposed to meet someone who could really help me to get to another level but I refuse to meet with them?   Or maybe, just maybe I am supposed to help them get what they are trying to obtain, but I refuse to move or I keep moving, when I am to remain still.  I’ve heard it said that “No man is an Island!”   We are on this planet to help one another fulfill destiny!  You may be saying, “Listen Lady I do good to mind my own business without trying to take care of the business of others!”

I Corinthians 3: 6 (KJV) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

I have had to realize that what I am and even what I do is because I’m a laborer together with God!   I am a firm believer that if I do what I know to do, even when I am out of God’s timing that He will still use it and help me gain the courage to pick myself up when I feel like I have failed miserably!  I personally think that the Father loves it when I am trying my best to fulfill my destiny!  Like a good Daddy, when I fall, he is always there to pick me up! If I will ask Him, He will show me His wisdom to help me be successful the next time.  Yes, disappointments will come, then what? Do I stay there and wallow in discouragement and self-pity! Nope, I can get back up! I have a race to run and a finish line to cross!  It is my prayer that as I race through my life that I will encourage others to continue running until they see their finish line as well!

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

3 Dec

Decorating the Christmas Tree!.

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

3 Dec

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

Blustery Winter!

  1.     Start with a live Christmas tree and think about the tree that was used to crucify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
  2.     Notice the trees wonderful fresh fragrance and aroma.  Think about his precious anointing and presence in your life.
  3.     Place the tree in its stand and water it well to keep it nourished.  This is what the blood does for us.   If we stay saturated in his blood we are always nourished and refreshed.  We will never fade or fall back.
  4.     As you wrap the tree in bright lights think about his power in your life and what you can do in him and what it was like in your life before you knew about his power.  How many times did we struggle in ourselves to try to be “good” or to try to break free from chains that kept us bound?  Thank God now all we have to do is rely on his power through the Holy Spirit and let him be God in us. He sets us free and places us in good standing with him.
  5.     Now as you take the time to examine the branches, think about the Lords loving arms around you.  How many times has he picked you up and loved on you?  His arms are always outstretched like the beautiful branches of the tree.  As the tree’s branches hold treasured ornaments so does the Lord’s loving arms, for he counts us as a precious ornament that he himself has fashioned.
  6.     Next, bring out the heirloom bulbs.  These are usually ornaments that are safely tucked back into their boxes each year and when brought out you reminisce all of the past years that they were used.  These ornaments are ornaments of grace.  As you look back over your life and reminisce where you started, hopefully you can see how far the Lord has brought you and cry “GRACE!”  God’s enabling ability on your inability to do what you could not do yourself.  It was his wonderful unmerited favor that opened doors of safety for you and closed other doors that could have meant you harm.
  7.     Then of course there are those very special personal ornaments that you treasure.  These ornaments are the testimonies of what the Lord has delivered you from and what he has delivered you to.  Everyone of us have these special ornaments in our lives and only you and I can tell what God has done for us and do it justice.  These ornaments stand out on the tree and attract attention and so do the testimonies of the saints, after all we overcome by them.  Hopefully every year we add more and more of these personal ornaments or treasures on the tree. 8.
  8.     Now it is time for the garland which is God’s mercy.  We have all sinned and fallen short of his Glory, but thank the Lord you or I did not get what we deserved.  Instead as the accuser bellows “Guilty!”  We have a wonderful Savior that we have been hidden in who resounds the word “Mercy, Mercy!” all over heaven.  We deserved his justice but have obtained his loving mercy!  His mercies are renewed every morning which tells me that we cannot exhaust his glorious supply.
  9.     For the final decoration let’s place the beautiful shining star on the very top of the tree. The shining star represents God’s word or direction.  His word should always be at the very forefront of our thinking.  How do we do anything without first knowing what direction to start? His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The star pointed to Jesus and showed the Kings of the East where he was, and so does the star of his word.  As you read through the pages every line and every passage points to Jesus, for the word is Jesus.  He is the bright and morning star!
  10. After the tree is decorated we place beautifully gift wrapped packages underneath.  So are the Fruits of the Spirit beautifully wrapped in a wonderful package.  These fruits operate in our lives to help us win others to Jesus.  The Fruits of the Spirit also are given for our benefit and when yielded to, will help us to live the abundant life that through Jesus was made available to us.  Just as all of the beautifully gift wrapped packages have wonderful things inside, we also possess wonderful treasures inside placed there by the Lord himself.  Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving!
  11. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!