Today's Menu

****** SURPRISE ******

Surprised? Praise God For The New!
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness, the nourishment of the mind with his truth, the purifying of the imagination of his beauty, the opening of the heart to his love, the surrender of the will to his purpose.
Quote By: William Temple

Isaiah 43:18-22
This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies– they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say Thank you! –the coyotes and the buzzards–Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom–made to PRAISE me.
The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Psalm 117:-12
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives; God’s faithful ways are eternal. Hallelujah!
The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Psalm 75:1
We give praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Psalm 113:1
Praise the Lord! Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord! 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord now and forever. 3 Everywhere–from east to west–praise the name of the Lord.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.

AWE-GOD PRAISE EXPRESSION!
Lord we praise You. Let every military family praise You today, Lord God, as we look with Heavenly Hindsight upon our lives and see how You have made us strong! We praise You, Jesus that You are always close to us, right now, today You are our Way-Maker. We thank you that we can look back and see Your faithfulness to our United States Military. We are so grateful for Your great and powerful name, that at the mention of it, mountains move and lives change! Praise God!

Surprise! You Want Me Where? Trust God!
Some circumstances are beyond our control, and something as simple as the ringing of the phone, a card in the mail, or a knock on the door can push us off the wire. We fall into a world of worry. Someone defined worry as a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind, cutting a channel into which all other thoughts flow.
Quote By Robert J. Morgan Excerpt From The Red Sea Rules.

Psalm 40: 1-3
I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. 3 And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Psalm 77:19-20
Your path led through the Red Sea. You walked through the mighty waters. But your footprints were not seen. 20 You led your people like a flock. You led them by the hands of Moses and Aaron.
New International Reader's Version NIRV Copyright © 1996, 1998 by Biblica

Surprise! You Have A Way-Maker God!
The element of surprise in our military family lives will sometimes take us to the place where we question why would God do that in this way and why now? In our lives, there are seasons of time where we can feel we are “trapped” at the Red Sea with the Egyptians on our heels! It is really scary, not a fun place to be! BUT God is the greatest Way-Maker ever and He would not have put you at the edge of the Red Sea without a great and good purpose. We only see our SURPRISE in part, but He has the whole picture, God knows the endgame and He is trustworthy. Read Exodus 14:8-28 and you will see how it was surprisingly God who positioned the Israelites in the very place that made them feel trapped, and it was God who had an incredible plan to deliver them. Surprise! He is with our military families! Our surprise does not surprise HIM. He’s Got This!

1 Corinthians 13:11-13
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Knock Knock! God's Sovereign Will And Infinite Love Are Here!
The first couple of times God SURPRISED me with a big life change plan, I found myself face down beating on the ground like a little child would. Why God? Why are you doing this to me? I can’t see how this could ever be good? I can’t do this God? You say you won’t give us more than we can handle? This is MORE! One of the most important things I learned the first couple of times God divinely interrupted my plans, was that God’s Sovereign Will Is Never Separated From His Infinite Love. The Two Go Hand In Hand! I may have not been able to handle my surprise and it may have felt way overwhelming in the beginning, but God’s Infinite Love took me by the hand and helped me step out of my willfulness and dress in willessness! Through God’s Love, I was able to leave my “comfort zone” and experience God’s Sovereign Will, which in heavenly hindsight, always turned out better than I could have ever hoped for or imagined. When we get surprised by a u-turn in our life events, it is the temporary things we tend to want to cling to, things that truly don’t make an eternal difference and simply–significantly God’s Love does. There is not one SURPRISE that will not include the Love of God, it is a common denominator to every life experience in our Military Families! God’s Love Is Great!

Ephesians 3:17-20
May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, 18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! 20 Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]–
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

“Many military wives see themselves as victims of their husband’s career,” says Air Force wife Patty Morse. “We need to accept our circumstances from God, trusting that He unerringly knows what is best for us. We need to move from the attitude of victim to an attitude of stewardship. We need to ask, ‘God, how can I use my difficult circumstance or disability to serve You and to glorify You?’”
Excerpt Taken From Faith Deployed By Jocelyn Green

Surprised! Lean Your Attitude Into God’s Sovereign Sway!
My husband is a military contractor, I have lived in a military family and a family of community servants most of my life and have a son in law in Afghanistan right now and a son who after 12 years of service in the Marine Corps has been medically retired. I know SURPRISE! In our military families there are many things that take us by surprise; things we had not planned on that suddenly are thrown in our life path. I have learned by the different experiences not to lean on my understanding but lean into the Sovereign Sway of God, by acknowledging HIM, depending upon His understanding and trusting Him completely.

Surprised! What’s Next? Proverbs 3:5–6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways remember him. Then he will make your paths smooth and straight.

Surprised! The First Thing To Do Is Fully Face God!
Remember God, fully face HIM when the lengthened deployments and sudden base moves happen, these are just a couple of military surprises that make change unavoidable, and we need God, we need to cling to HIM in a vital-vertical relationship to get the help we need to adjust our attitudes and have a smooth transition. We deal with the element of surprise and change on a daily basis in a military family, as nothing stays the same and the "hurry up and wait" military format plays out in the seasons of our life, creating a circle of Military life described by surprise, adjustment and change. Therefore, we learn to cling to God and dig our roots deeply in His Kingdom, where our future and hope is unchanging!

Surprised! Draw On Your Heavenly Hindsight!
Our military family lives are not our own, we often say: “We are owned by the government.” We go where we are sent, we do what we are commanded, we live lives of sacrifice for the freedom of others and we live it bound by a code of honor, excellence and courage. Everything was going so well at Ft. Benning and we were in Military Ministry and God was moving in our lives. I had finally settled down and accepted that I lived in Georgia and that is very difficult for a Florida Gator Fan. LOL! And surprise, we are getting moved to Ft. Bragg! It was hard to take at first, it made absolutely no sense! But, I knew from my experiences of the past, all the heavenly hindsight that pointed to God’s faithfulness, that God does not divinely interrupt our lives for no reason, He has a good purpose. So, I began to pack and look for somewhere to live in North Carolina, not happy about it but trusting and believing we were on the way to another Great God Adventure.

Surprise! God Has Purposefully Allowed It!
Surprise! We are moving for six months, I have to take a training course! Surprise! I got a promotion we are moving to another base in another state! Surprise! I am being deployed for nine months overseas. Surprise! I have been assigned to a different job at a different base in a different state. Surprise sometimes feels like a great adventure and sometimes it feels like a difficult transition. Whatever it feels like for sure the truth is that God has placed you in a life season that will bookend and another season will begin. For some reason, a purpose known only by HIM, He has allowed this SURPRISE! The same God who brought you to the moment of surprise is the same God who will make a way for you to “grow through” it successfully and with joy!

A Sudden Surprise And You Have Been Divinely Interrupted By God! Suddenly! Surprise! God Has Divinely Interrupted Your Nice Comfortable Life With A Change That Totally Disrupts Your Comfort Zone! This happens a lot in Military Families! We can trust God as He abruptly bookends the season of life we are in because it is bookended by His Sovereign Will and on our life shelf He has put a new open ended bookend named Infinite Love. Whatever has come your way, all that you feel about it, all the transition that will take place, all your hopes and everything about this surprise, AWE-GOD holds in His Hands. Surprise! His purposes are in play to put together all the pieces of this puzzle until it is finished and you look back in heavenly hindsight, very grateful that you let go, let HIM work and trusted HIM.

Sovereign By Chris Tomlin

God has a time for everything, a perfect schedule. He is never too soon, never too late. The when of His will is as important as the what and the how.
Quote By:Richard C. Halverson

The Red Sea may roll before us; the desert may entrap us; the enemy may press at our heels. The past may seem implausible and the future impossible, but God works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way of escape for His weary, but waiting children.
Robert J. Morgan Excerpt From The Red Sea Rules.

SURPRISE! Luke 1:28-38 A Virgin Conceives
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name, Mary. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her: Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you. 29-33 She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called ‘Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever–no end, ever, to his kingdom.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.” 35 The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. 36-38 “And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.” And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. 6 In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Now that is a life-changing surprise and I am sure that none of us have ever dealt with that kind of surprise, yet we probably have been thoroughly shaken at some of our life surprises that the Military Life can bring. We can’t really relate to what Mary must have gone through but we can learn something very valuable about Life SURPRISES. God has the plan already and nothing is impossible with God. So the next time you are surprised, try to keep the open hearted attitude that Mary had and be ready to do whatever it is God is calling you to do.
Quote By:Quote By KimberlyMac

1 Corinthians 10:13
You are tempted in the same way all other human beings are. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted any more than you can take. But when you are tempted, God will give you a way out so that you can stand up under it.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV) Copyright © 1996, 1998 by Biblica

When a situation suddenly hits your military family and it derails you emotionally, and God does not give you understanding, you are never able to wrap your mind around it, but you are able to “grow through” by the grace and strength of God, you have “heavenly hindsight”!

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, 2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of of God.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

                         Fear not, little flock,
                         Whatever your lot;
                         He enters all rooms,
                         “The doors being shut,”
                         He never forsakes,
                         He never is gone,
                         So count on His presence
                         In darkness and dawn.
                           Only Believe By Daniel Reader

Side Dishes Available With This Meal

This meal is served with all the side dishes that complement it's fine cusine! The side dishes are on the bar to your right. Click on the name of the available side dish! Make sure you go to Pray It Up! Pray For our Military Families Listed There And Add Your Military Family Too. Hope you enjoy your selections! The side dishes available today are:

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To Encourage, Pray For And Mentor Military Families
Click On The Footer “Share Your Thoughts”
And It Will Take You To This Group. Enjoy!