I need to get this out

before I forget it all! It's been so busy and crazy, and insane, and yet... well... lets start with this shall we?

Deuteronomy 31:8
The Lord himself goes before youa nd will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged!

God is so amazing. In so many ways He constantly shows me how He's laid my life out ahead of me, and regardless of the enemy's desire's for my life... how He protects and shelters me from the storm, even while I'm in the boat! LOL

So lets see, you all know how the car situation turned out - I was able to get a fantastic car, for an unbelieveable price, and I was paid more for my old car than I paid for it... Well - here's for round two ok?

When I got the insurance money, I really felt that I needed to tithe on that money. It seemed right because it was income to me, and all I've been taught about income is that it all needs to be tithed back to the Lord. There are many different opinions on this - and they are very personal to each, so I wont' debate, but I will say this - if I'm wrong, can I possibly suffer because I gave TOO MUCH back to God? Nope! So anyway - in addition to my tithe, I felt it a good idea to sow into a friends new home. I didn't have much to sow, but I figured I'd give what I had... and be obedient to what I felt I needed to do. So I did give some cash away in addition to my tithe.

Fast forward to Tuesday night (yeap poor Tye's Birthday - which he did have a good one) and Tye and I drive out to Niagara Falls immediately after work for his hockey game. Read: Directly after work, which means I never went home. So when we do finally get home, it's FREEZING in the house! I go to the thermostat, and it's reading 50 degrees. Holy cow that's not good. Go to the basement and sure enough the furnace is trying to kick on, but it's not going anywhere. (I found out later that the motor had seized up) So I truck on down to the office to borrow some space heaters until the Furnace guy can come out in the morning. Thank God he's a friend and fellow believer. He moves us to the top of the list, and will be there first thing.

On to the next issue - I go home from the office w/3 space heaters, figuring one for each floor of the house, at least to keep the chill out - heck it's going to be 10 degrees out and i don't want anything freezing and busting. I literally plug the first one in, and can see electrical current running behind the plug - YIKES - unplug the space heater - and 30 seconds later the electricity goes out. You're not kidding! Ok great. So now it's cold, and we're in the dark, and it's getting late.

Grab a flashlight and go to the breaker box figuring I tripped something.... Well I turn every single breaker off, and then on again, but nothing helps the lights. *sigh* something is really wrong. I put the heater in the basement and call my friend Jim, who's an electrician. I explain the problem and while I'm talking to him he says it's probably better that I don't use the heaters if they caused that much problem after I unplugged one of them. (You're kidding right? It's 50 degrees and falling fast).

I go over to the basement heater that I had plugged in maybe 10 minutes prior and oh dear - the plug is HOT. It's not supposed to be HOT! Greaaaaaaaat. Unplug that and shut the breaker off to that part of the house.

Well the long and the short of it is this - we went to Applebees! yeah, well what are you going to do? We have to eat right? And Tye - well it's his birthday for goodness sakes... I brought my bible and meditated on some really good verses about being more than a conquerer, God having a plan for my life and really just reminded myself about my position as a believer, and what being 'sanctified' means to the believer.

When we came home we went to bed. It was cold yes, but it was just 9 hrs we had to deal with it really. My friend the repair man came over in the morning and fixed our furnace. Here's the praise God. I really didn't know how I was going to pay for it - it was 30 days out of warranty and cost me almost $300. Well remember back to that seed I sowed last week after I got the insurance money? When I was writing that check - God had already prepared me a way to pay for that furnace repair.

A week ago I filed my taxes and it was not supposed to be deposited to my account until Monday, but it was deposited yesterday, the same day I needed to pay the furnace repair. Also - a friend of mine heard about my troubles and gave me a check for $200 towards the furnace repair! Yes! My heart is leaping for joy. I am so excited.

So my furnace is fixed, and I'm looking for someone to help fix the electrical. It's a serious issue -someone came to fix it last night - but it's bigger than their knowledge. basically the outlets are working, and the light switches are showing power but the actual lights are NOT turning on...

But you know what? God has already shown himself faithful to provide for my needs in this circumstance - and I know that he will do the same for the electrical issue! God is not going to let me down and I'm thrilled to have more testimony in this!