GOD'S PROVISION

This morning I prayed that I would get a sale on a new website, and that God would help me with the process, since Christian, our son, just had a baby and is really busy. (He has been such an encouragement and a blessing to me in this area). My hubby, Al ,said he'd help me, and tonight Christian called to tell me that for today only, until midnight, if I requested a new contract with Blue Domain I will get it at half the price. He said they never have sales, but the owner made a New Year's resolution to post on their blog everyday or contracts are half price for that day.....and would you believe it, she did not post today - the same day I prayed for a "sale". How amazing is that!!! Our God is an AWESOME God who hears and answers our prayers when we pray according to His will.
On Thursday we were supposed to close on the little house on Timber Trail Lane, but we could not, because the survey that we were presented with at the closing table was not what we had seen previously (on the old survey) and thought we were purchasing. It turns out that the house is not in the middle of the acre of land, but all the way over on the edge of the property - in fact the boundary cuts right through the driveway, and the shed is on the neighboring lot owned by the seller. After much prayer and negotiating for an easement , we walked away, but since then the seller has had a change of heart and is now willing to sell us an easement of 30ft.
I thank God that our hearts are not set on purchasing the property, but God's will for us. So whatever happens we know Rom:8:28 is true and we can rest in His care for us. God knows what He's doing, and we are so thankful for friends who prayed for us in South Carolina that morning, that anything hidden that we need to know will be revealed, and brought into the light.... and that's exactly what He did! Could you imagine finding that out years later? At least now we can negotiate for more land (the easement or right of use) and nobody will be able to build or put a parking lot in with lights shining into our living room window =)
We'll let you how it turns out, but we're not worried because God's in control.... Besides He gave me a good word that "My people will live in peaceful dwelling places" and I believe He said we'll get this place. It is very peaceful indeed, with a little stream in the front.

A NEW GRANDDAUGHTER!

Our new granddaughter has arrived....Astoria Rose Sangree, to Holly and Christian (and Addie=) in Oklahoma. We are so excited! She came into the world at 2:08am this morning, a gorgeous healthy baby,weighing 7lbs. 14 oz. and both mom and baby are doing great! What a blessing from the Lord!
For those of you who want to see "fresh" pictures go to their blog
http://addieandstorie.blogspot.com/
We are planning to go to OK as soon as we can work it all out, between closing on the Timber Trail house tomorrow, Al's work schedule, rehabbing this place in time to move into in April, to then begin building this spring.
Seems like a lot? (To us too .. but we believe God has called us to it all , and what He calls us to do He equips us to do, or He will make it clear what we need to change).

ART WEBSITE

Well I'm back after some small problems with my blog, which Al helped me through (hopefully it'll be OK now)
For about a year or more I have been stuck as far as how to proceed regarding a website for my artwork. I have had a few pieces scanned to make giclee prints, but could not seem to get the website up and running. I've had one page up for quite a while now that Christian (our son in OK) did for me as an intro "with more to come soon". So sorry this has taken so long for those of you who have been checking my web page (allisonsangree.com). Well I am thrilled to say it's on the way I believe.
It seems I had to come to the place of surrender before anything could happen. I finally committed it all to the Lord, and things started happening.
First, I had been trying to get in touch with an artist for ages who gets her prints done by the printer I'm considering using. Then on Friday she calls me from Florida and really recommends this person, who incidentally handles all her printing & sales. So on Sunday we had him and his wife over to our home for dinner to work out all the particulars and it seems to be a go. He's going to handle all orders for prints, print the order, then mail it to me to sign personally, and then I will mail it to the person with a bio etc and any personal notes, upcoming shows etc. Al is really helping me, and we think this looks like it's going to work out well.
We need to get the initial website alive and running with my originals and a menu that will take you to prints when you click on it. We are working on a really good website and it should be soon. I'm really excited because it's been so long that we've been stumped as to what to do about this website and offering good quality prints on the web. It 's amazing to me what God can do when we are willing to die to a thing and give Him control. It is death first and then resurrection life. After this gets going I'll need to PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!!!!!
To God be the glory!

SHARING MY HEART...

Today I'm going to try to do something very difficult, and that is try to put into words some of what I believe the Lord is doing in my life.
At the beginning of a new year I stop to take inventory of my life, so to speak, and hear from the Lord for the coming year. I try to do this each day, but in a greater way at the beginning of the year.
To be honest, Christmas was difficult in some ways and I tried not to reflect on past Christmases, but to focus on the Lord and obeying Him.
We're creatures of habit and change is not always easy. There have been some major changes in my life in the past couple of years that have been extremely difficult for me to accept, and I have been expecting miracles from God.
As a Christian and a child of God I know that He works everything in my life for my good and His glory (see Romans 8:28 ), but when you cannot see it, and the suffering continues, I am forced to face what's inside. Although my heavenly Father has brought such comfort and healing to me, with the passing of time, it is so easy for me to become disillusioned and discouraged, or even bitter or angry with God for not changing the situation .... BUT He has given man a free will and will not violate this freedom. For years others have suffered because of the choices men have made. What an amazing God He is to give us the freedom of choice knowing the suffering this will bring to mankind, and even greater suffering to Himself. He could have created us like puppets who would do whatever we were told ,but then our love would mean nothing. Love is only love if it's given freely. The Bible tells us that all of heaven rejoices over ONE sinner who repents. He says it's worth it all.
This morning I was reading "Rees Howells Intercessor" by Norman Grubb and ended up weeping over my own desire not to suffer in this life, when Jesus suffered so much for me. He took my sins upon His cross and died for me. God gave me a vision of Calvary through one man's testimony in this book. He said "He forgot his own sufferings in the sufferings of the Savior, and as he gazed on the cross, the Master Himself said to him, 'And must I bear the cross alone, and all the world go free?' From a broken heart Reuben answered, 'No. There's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me.'
From that hour he was a new man. Instead of complaining...he began to pray for the other(s), and to the Savior he said, 'let me suffer for You. Whatever you allow me to go through, I will never complain again.'"
I thought I had settled this long ago once and for all, but there are different levels of revelation and consecration. After Reuben's testimony, Rees Howells said a couple of pages later, "The love of the Savior was revealed to me. No natural love is in the same world as His love. It was not merely that the Savior helped me outside himself; no, He took my place. I saw every other love so rough in comparison. Self was the motive of it. But I could see THAT love enduring through the countless ages of eternity. When you receive the Savior, you receive the love of God. That love flooded my being, and it has flooded my being ever since.'"
And so it is with me! God's love has flooded my being, and I have rededicated my life afresh to Him and whatever He chooses for me. This life is very short in the light of eternity. We were created for bliss in eternity with Him, and although He gives us pleasures here on earth at times, they are only glimpses and foretastes of things to come, that we, His children who are born again into His kingdom, will enjoy for all eternity.
I love this saying by John Maxwell. "If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present."This is so true and so deep ! Power to overcome and power to live courageously and fully today, knowing what's in store for us in the future for all of eternity. If we look to the pleasures of this life to fulfill us, we will be sadly disillusioned, because they never can, and never were intended to, but as foretastes of things to come, and blessings from our Father God, we are free to enjoy them thoroughly.

WALKING IN THE LIGHT - AT painting for Sean

I painted this for Sean from a photo that he took of the Appalachian Trail, but he was not able to take it with him, so we hopefully will take it with all his other belongings in Feb.
He wanted a souvenir of his 2000 + mile hike, and I did this for him as a surprise. (The flash whites out areas - sorry). It's such an amazing shot of the sun streaming in lighting up his path at dawn. There are so many analogies for him in this one picture! We marvel at God's leading and direction for his life - as soon as he got back he was offered the job as an attorney in California. I am reminded of the verse that says "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" Psalm 37:23

WE ARE MOVING!

We took Sean to the airport a little while ago, and he should be in the air by now. His dad and I are sad to see him leave, but we really enjoyed his visit, and hope to be seeing him very soon again. We're happy for him and he has our blessing, even though we'll miss him loads.This holiday season has been such a busy time for us. We're so sorry that we have not sent any Christmas cards this year, but thank you for all the lovely cards we received - what a blessing to have such a wonderful family and such good friends .We sold our home after living here for almost 10 yrs, and bought land ( 1.3 acres) on which we hope to build this spring. We got just the right buyers ( three divorced sisters ) who are going to live together. They seem to really care about each other, and we hope it works out for their sake. We got more than our asking price the first week we put it on the market ourselves. Then another great blessing is that we are able to stay here until April 30th, at which time we will move into a cute little three bedroom ranch/bungalow that we are in the process of purchasing. We should be able to close on that around the 25th of this month, spend some time fixing it up a little, and then begin building on the land. The little house and the land are very close to each other, which is another great blessing from the Lord. Isn't God amazing?Well. as you can see we are going to be entering into a new and very busy season, but we believe an exciting one as well. I hope to be able to keep you all posted with pics as well .Today we had hoped to take down our Christmas decorations, but it did not happen! I think I need our little decorator, our 6yr old grandson Owen ,to help me again. This little ball of energy and enthusiasm came to help me to put up the decorations in the first place, or I might not have gotten to it this year. What a joy they are to us! If it was not for Owen we would not have done all the entertaining we did over Christmas - who would believe a little 6yr old could bring such joy and blessing to so many! They all do in their own way, from little Addie asking me over the phone "Grammom hold you?" to Megan giving us a kiss "to dream on", and our big boys Tim and Andrew with their enthusiasm for life. We sure love and are enjoying our grandchildren!

A New Day Dawning

On Sunday I did something I never did before . I was asked to paint during the worship part of the service in church. At first I have to admit I thought "worship art" was pretty strange never having seen anything done like that in a service before, but Sunday's service changed my mind.

I thought how much good could a painting ( that takes only 45 minutes to paint) do to inspire others during the service. (I usually take hours to paint a painting). Well, after praying about it, by faith believing God would do something special, I went out and bought a large canvas (24x30" - it's a big church!),

Well, I used the largest brush I had, and painted, stopping at times to worship. I finished just as the music ended, signed my name and sat down. (I posted pics above, but you can see the flash - sorry!)

I was amazed at what I saw! The cloud formations, and even the rocks drew you into the focal point which of course is the sun . Close up it looked like a bit of a mess - like our lives may look to us - but from afar , - from God's perspective ,it's an entirely different thing. He's making something beautiful out of our lives.! All those rocks and hard places, dark clouds in our lives, make a most interesting composition and the painting would be nothing special without them. So with our lives, those who are His, He's creating a masterpiece ( or shall I say the Master's piece =), regardless of what we see. Following the Light we can maneuver past the rocks and not get "hung-up."I like what Rocky said in his new movie, Rocky Balboa. He said something like this: It's not how hard you can punch that counts, but how many punches you can take and still keep moving forward .

The other amazing thing to me was that the word or the message given to the church by the guest speaker afterwards was about "A New Day Dawning". He said the painting was about the message he had for the church and proceeded to give it in reference to the painting. "The time is right to launch - couldn't navigate before in the night because there are rocks".

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and that morning I felt God confirmed to me what I was to paint, as well as prepared us for the message, by "painting" the sky with the most beautiful sunrise (and waking me up to see it =)

The painting will hang in the church lobby I believe, but plans are being made to make prints available to those who want.

Hopefully from now on I won't doubt that God can and wants to use all the gifts that He's given to us to bless others and glorify Himself, even through a 45 minute painting =)