Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette

Wife to The Sweetheart, Mom to the Fantastic Six, Nana to six of the cutest littles on the planet, Author, The Daniel Fast, A Devotional. UPCI ministers.

A Most Incredible Witness

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Sharing with you a mother’s true story of grief and promise.

A couple of years ago I met a wonderful lady who was blogging through her grief. Emily Pittsford and I exchanged a few emails and I was amazed at her strength and courage. Fast forward to just a week or so ago and I received another email from my friend that I had not heard from in a while. Emily has been busy. She has written a fantastic account of the death of her son and his eye-witness account of another tragedy: A Most Incredible Witness.

On September 1, 2010, Timothy Pittsford chased a man who had just hit and killed a woman in a crosswalk. Chasing a Prius in his Eclipse through the streets of San Francisco was the biggest even of his life. Little did he know that days later he would also be dead. Yet being a witness was all part of a bigger plan. As the young man who hit the woman saw Tim in his rear view mirror, God was in Tim’s.

[Tweet “Emily Pittsford invites us to follow her journey from grief to healing after suffering the loss of her son.”]

You will not want to put the book down as you follow Emily through her shock, sorrow, anger and confusion. But it is her faith in her God that will leave you inspired and encouraged.

Have you suffered loss? Have you ever had to bury a child, a husband or someone who meant the world to you? This book will bring you great comfort as you walk with someone who has been there.

A Most Incredible Witness is available here on WestBow Press and also at Amazon.com in paperback or kindle here. Please share about the book and encourage others to hang on to Jesus no matter how dark the trial!

While Emily Pittsford is a first-time author, she was born to write this book. This woman shares from the depths of her soul and she will make you feel as though you could sit down for a cup of tea with her and share your struggles. She and her husband, Bill, have been married for 36 years and are the parents of Leanne Pittsford. They live in Southern California and are active at Foothills Christian Church in El Cajon, California.

sharing with Weekend Whispers, Making your home sing, Living Proverbs 31, Modest Monday, Sharing His Beauty

Stand on His Word!

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This past week the Body of Christ lost another great warrior and gifted songwriter. Carroll McGruder brought us songs such as, Thanks, I’m Just Warming Up, From Heaven’s Point of View, Saved by Grace, I’ve Just Started Living and one of my favorites, Stand on His Word. He was the founder of The McGruder’s, a Gospel trio that also included his late wife, Priscilla, who passed away in 2010. According to The Singing News, “He made his transition peacefully in his own bed with family gathered around. His family and friends from around the world have held him and us in continuous prayer these past days. He expressed several times how he could “feel” that support…Our hope is in the witness that Carroll has left us. He received his reward, and we are resolved to go where he is.”

The McGruder’s could usher in the presence of God with their singing because they knew the King and they knew how to pray. Both of them spoke continually of the necessity of prayer and study of the Word.

We were at Because of the Times minister’s conference several years ago when Carroll McGruder told the story of coming down the hallway one night in their home looking for Priscilla. He found her in their prayer room literally standing on her Bible, in her bare feet and chenille bathrobe. He thought the medications had her confused or in his words that she had “freaked out”. He asked what he could do to help her and she replied that she was simply too weak to speak, to weak to do anything but stand on the Word of God!

I’ve thought about that story a lot this week. As Christians we know who gives us strength and where our help comes from. But when the doctor says there is nothing more that can be done, when your family is falling apart, when your boss hands you a pink slip or, as some of our Christian brothers and sisters are facing TODAY, you are threatened with your life, what do you do? What WILL you do?

The blessings in the Word come from reading and knowing the what is written! “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 ESV.

If we don’t take time to get into the Bible, 66 books literally inspired by our God, we won’t have anywhere to draw from. But when we have studied, when we have heard it preached, when we have hidden it in our hearts… then when we need it, He will bring its treasures to our remembrance. He will give exactly what we need for our present situation.

The second verse to Stand on His Word sums up the life of every Christian. There will be persecution of some sort, sometime, somewhere.

[Tweet “Like Satan came to Job, he’s going to come to you too.”]

He will accuse God and try to convince you that everything you believe is a lie.

[Tweet “But Satan is the father of lies and he knows the power of the Word for Jesus used it against him!”]

Read their conversation in the book of Luke.

If Jesus used the Word against Satan, how much more do we need to stand on it?!

When it becomes everything to you, when it is your go-to, your strength, your confidence and your reason for living, you will be a light to others of His keeping power. Stand on His Word!

I pray you are blessed by The McGruder’s singing Stand on His Word and please say a prayer for The McGruder family and their church in Missouri where he was the pastor for so many years.

Sharing with Words with Winter, Amaze Me Monday, Making your home sing, Living Proverbs 31

You were not called to be Jesus

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“…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:6 ESV.

We sing the old song,

To be like Jesus

On earth I long to be like Him

All through life’s journey

From earth to glory

I only ask, to be like Him

We are taught most of our Christian life to strive to be like the Lord and we should! The only way we can accurately represent Him is to be more like Him, to be Christ-like, to emulate His compassion, mercy and grace. We must point others to Him if we want to win this world.

But we are NOT called to BE Jesus. We are not Judge, we aren’t even the jury; we are His hands and His feet, spreading the Good News of His death, burial and resurrection. We are to remind the lost that He came to seek and to save them, to give them hope and life more abundantly.

We are not to be spiritual critics, to feel as if because we know The Way that we have the right to take over His job. If you want to drive people away then continue on that path. But if you want to bring them in, then SHOW THEM Jesus.

Don’t consume your time with worrying about the lives of others in the Church. We have a big enough job with our own selves! We are our own full-time job.

[Tweet “Policing others in the Church is not your job!”]

Nor is it mine.

“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.” 2 Thessalonians 3:6.

Look how plain the Word of God is in this situation. Keep away from people that stir up trouble.

“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.” Titus 3:10.

Again, have nothing to do with them if they cannot live according to the Word.

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19. (emphasis mine)

One who is continually splitting hairs over things that don’t matter for eternity only creates division in the Body. The Bible says to remove the plank out of your own eye if you want to see the splinter in someone else.

If we submit ourselves to God, concentrate on our own clean heart and right spirit, we will then be more apt to pray for those that are struggling instead of whispering, gossiping or continually finding fault with them.

[Tweet “Resist the need to play God and leave judgment and vengeance to Him alone.”]

Would we want anyone other than Jesus Christ to stand in judgment of our faults?

[Tweet “You were not called to be Jesus!”]

“Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:2-4.

Have the same love
Be in one spirit and purpose
No selfish ambition
No vain conceit
With humility
Consider others better than yourselves
Look to the interests of others

And if we do these things?

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness….For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ….For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:3-11 NIV.

You will never fall and will be welcomed into the eternal kingdom of Jesus.

Sharing with Sunday Stillness, Inside me Monday, Amaze Me Monday, Monday’s Musinga, Modest Monday, Living Proverbs 31, Titus 2sday, Testimony Tuesday, Titus 2 Tuesday