"I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."
Psalm 139:14
(KJV)
I have the sweetest of introductions to make, dear friends!
I'll give you ONE, and only one, guess whose picture this is!!!!
Please allow me to introduce you to.... Kristen's baby boy!!
I'll tell you, each time I look at this picture, I can't keep from crying.
This sweet little guy...a pure miracle in the process being formed and created by the hands of an Almighty God...so content and oblivious to the constant struggles of his dear Mama.
I just couldn't wait to share, (with my dear niece's permission, of course), his ultrasound picture
with all of you prayer warriors!!
This is living proof that God is hearing and answering our many prayers!
(For those who may be reading for the first time, my dear niece, Kristen, is expecting a baby boy. She has a blood clot in her lung and is suffering from tachycardia and other complications.)
Kristen is now 22 weeks along in her pregnancy!
So, dear friends, she is over halfway there!!
All glory be to God.
He is SO faithful.
"Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are He who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of You."
Psalm 71:6
(ESV)
"Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name."
Isaiah 49:1
"Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Jeremiah 1;4,5
"For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb."
Psalm 139:13
"Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews."
Job 10:11
Praise our dear Lord, Baby Boy is extremely active and appears to be very healthy.
Kristen is to see a fetal specialist soon to find out more details and information regarding
the game plan for her labor and delivery.
And, this is where we surely need your continued prayers, as timing is one of the greatest concerns.
Kristen's blood thinning medication has to be changed at a precise time in order to not hurt the baby and, at the same time, to allow her to give birth while on the proper medication so her own life will not be in jeopardy.
PLEASE do continue to pray that God will see her and the baby through this,
that both Kristen and the baby will live and be in good health,
and God will send relief to the terrible symptoms she continues to struggle with.
My heart goes out to her so much.
It is never easy to know someone you love so dearly is suffering.
My family and I are most grateful to each one of you who are praying!
Your faithfulness to pray, share this request, and offer such kindness and support means more to us than we could ever hope to put into words. Thank you!!!
We are believing God for a complete Divine-intervention miracle in this situation,
and I will continue to keep you posted, as I can.
I also wanted to share some other exciting news! My sweet friend who blogs at Just A Country Girl and her family are now giving away FREE BIBLES!!!
Yes, you read that correctly!
She asked that I make an announcement here to let you know, and I was absolutely thrilled to do so!
Do you or anyone you know need a Bible?
Would you like to bless someone in your life who doesn't have a Bible of their own?
The Bibles are completely free, you do not pay anything, not even shipping!
If you would like a FREE BIBLE, click HERE to be re-directed to her site.
Then just fill out the contact form in the top right sidebar, and let her know you would like a Bible
(they even have several styles to choose from), and that's it!
I am so happy for the way God is leading my friend and her sweet family,
and I applaud them for their obedience to God's plan of sharing the Gospel with every, living creature.
Never before has there been more of a need for the precious Word of God to be read and lived out in everyday life.
I hope you or someone you know will visit her and take advantage of this amazing offer!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most things have been taken, but we still have a few things left on our FREE STUFF page,
if you would like to check it out!
Our minimizing journey continues in full swing, and, by God's grace, we are making slow, but good progress.
Thank you to all who have given some of our things new homes.
You have blessed us greatly!
There may be more things added soon, so feel free to check back anytime you'd like!
God bless you all.
"And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee:
for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee."
Psalm 9:10
(KJV)
Have you ever felt abandoned by God?
Have you ever cried out to Him from the pits of despair,
only to feel that your prayers didn't go past the ceiling?
Has His ensuing silence perplexed you and left you feeling completely alone?
Have you ever felt like He is a million miles away...
just when you need Him most?
Yesterday, dear Zach and I were in the car coming home from an appointment,
and we passed a church sign with these familiar words,
"If God no longer feels close to you, who moved?"
I pondered it a moment, then I spoke.
"Did you see that sign?
"Yeah."
I knew exactly what was going through Zach's mind.
"I don't wholeheartedly go along with that",
I replied.
Zach agreed.
He had just told me the night before that even though he has been seeking the Lord very earnestly and diligently, he hasn't "felt" God near to him lately.
I understand.
I've been there.
Many times over.
I feel like I must be the strange one as I listen to other Christians testify and talk of how, in their darkest moments,
God feels so incredibly near to them.
How He draws closer to them when they are walking through their deepest times of grief and despair.
How they experience His presence in the most astounding ways while they stand in the midst of fiery furnaces heated seven times hotter than usual. (Daniel 3:19)
I listen, and I feel no affinity, because I cannot, from personal experience, agree with the "feeling" part.
As I listen, I'll admit, what I feel is, less than.
Like God must deal with everyone else a whole lot differently and more intimately than He deals with me.
Coming from someone who has been a Christian for right around 40 years,
this may surprise you and please don't judge me too harshly, but, the truth is, I don't feel God in the hard places.
I desperately struggle to hear His voice.
There are no sensations of warmth or a noticeable being pulled in closer to Him or blatant, visible signs that He is with me.
To tell you the truth, when I am in the throes of deep trial,
I usually can't sense God at all.
I reach for Him, and it feels like He is nowhere to be found.
It feels like He has taken a few steps back, away from me, and that He has said,
"Go ahead. You're on your own."
Now, I know, based on His Holy Word, this is definitely not what happens, in reality.
After all, right before His ascension, Jesus said,
"...lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
Matthew 28:20
But, if I am completely transparent with you,
complete abandonment is what it feels like to me.
I wonder if Job felt like this when he wrote,
"Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat!
Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him:
On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him..."
Job 23:3,8-9
I think of Jesus and how He cried from the cross,
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted,
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Mark 15:34
Have you ever felt like crying those words?
I'll be completely transparent and tell you the truth...from the bottom of my heart.
there have been moments that I have. More than once Several times.
There isn't time nor space to tell of them all, but two of those times were the moments, days, weeks, months, even years, following the death of both of my parents.
The circumstances surrounding their individual deaths were very different,
but my feelings of being God-forsaken were very much the same.
When Dad died in June of 2000, I was 11 1/2 weeks along in my pregnancy with Zach.
After many years of infertility struggles,
I was finally expecting the miracle baby for whom Kevin and I had longed and prayed.
Though Dad had several step-grandchildren, he had no biological grandchildren of his own.
I will never forget the tears of joy Dad cried when Kevin and I told him and Mom that we were going to have a baby.
He was SO happy.
Then, just a few weeks later, tragedy struck.
Dad had a massive heart attack, was hospitalized, and never returned back home.
To say I was shocked doesn't come close to expressing what it felt like.
I was devastated beyond words.
I could not believe Dad was really gone.
How could God justify taking him?
Especially then?
It felt so unfair to me....to Dad.
He would never live to see his one and only biological grandson.
I just couldn't find any sense in it at all,
other than to know that my dear Dad's many-years-long battle with physical suffering was finally over.
The months that followed contained some of the most bittersweet days of my life.
My feelings would soar, as I dreamed of holding the precious baby God was finally sending to us, and, just as quickly, they would plummet to the pits of despair as I felt I could not bear to go on without Dad.
I prayed so hard.
I sought after God.
Begged Him to help me through.
Granted, He did.
I am still here.
Still standing.
Still trusting Him with all my heart.
But, I'll tell you the truth, while it was happening, I did not feel His presence.
It felt like a deep, aching vacuum...completely devoid of the comfort of God.
It's odd how a lot of that span of time is erased from my memory now,
but Kevin speaks of how I cried myself to sleep every, single night.
It was the most hopeless-hopeful rollercoaster I've ever experienced.
Such conflicting emotions, and, through it all, a struggle to sense the presence of God.
Fast forward to April of 2012, immediately after the death of my dear mother.
Zach was 11 years old then and very attached to his Nana.
We had all prayed and begged God to heal her...to bring her through.
One. More. Time.
God's will was to end her suffering and take her home to be with Him...and Dad.
We finally accepted it as being His will, but did I feel God?
I was too consumed with grief to feel anything else.
To be honest, I think I was numb to anything other than sorrow.
I was in a very dark place for a very long time.
I felt void of hope.
Void of the blessing of God's presence.
Just void.
So, if I feel like God forsakes me every time I am hit with the hard trials,
you may ask, why do I keep serving Him?
What keeps me pressing on, if it feels like He abandons me when it matters most?
It is because I have learned that fact and feelings are worlds apart.
I have found that I cannot base anything that has to do with my relationship with God
upon feelings.
Not one thing.
Feelings are the most fickle things in the world.
Feelings are not reliable.
Feelings are not indicative of what is true.
They fluctuate with the ebb and flow of life's ups and downs.
This Christian walk is not a walk that is built upon feelings, but 100% upon faith.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight..."
2 Corinthians 5:7
Not one of us has ever seen God.
None of us were there to see Jesus being born into this world as God in the flesh.
Who among us can say that we were eyewitnesses to His horrifying crucifixion,
or that we were one in the number who saw Him after He resurrected from the dead?
I keep serving God, even though I feel abandoned in the hard places, because He has proven my feelings wrong time after time after time.
He has shown me repeatedly that I cannot afford to place my faith in my feelings.
That He IS there with me...always.
That He has been the 4th Man in the fire every, single time my little family of 3 has walked through the raging fiery furnace.
That He has stayed there as long as we did.
That He didn't walk out one moment before us.
I keep serving Him because He has let me stand on the mountain time after time and look back over the valley He just brought me through and shown me how, in my darkest moments,
even though I couldn't feel Him...couldn't find Him...anywhere...
I keep serving Him because He has brought me through so many times, dear friends, and in the aftermath, He has allowed me to experience the "nevertheless afterward" that follows each and every trial.
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
Hebrews 12:11 (emphasis added)
There is always, always a "nevertheless afterward".
There is a beginning and an end to every, single trial we face in this life.
It is in the "nevertheless afterward" that we see visible evidence of what God was doing all along.
It manifests in our lives by way of peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Even though we haven't felt His presence during the trial,
the indelible footprint of His having been there is left behind.
During the times we feel abandoned, there are changes being made, to and in us, that will not be made evident,
until afterwards.
And, that, my friend, is the living proof that we were never alone. We never walk out of a trial the same way we walked into it.
God is there, in the shadows,
working on our character, proving whether or not we will keep our faith, even when we cannot feel.
He is there.
All along.
Even when we cannot see Him.
Even when we can't feel Him.
It is in those moments of feeling totally abandoned that He is standing close by,
testing our faith.
What good is faith if it is never tested?
How do you know it works, if it is never tried?
If you keep reading the story of Job, his very next words, after uttering the ones about not being able to find God in his trials, were these,
"But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
Job 23:10
Job knew God well enough to know that there would come a "nevertheless afterward" to his trial.
He knew that something was going on inside of him that would be manifest and become evident later on.
When you are in the depths of trial, and you cannot feel or sense God,
it is then that you must trust.
That He does all things well.
That He is near you, even though it feels like He has turned His back on you and walked away.
That you cannot go by feelings, you must walk forward by faith.
That you have to rely upon what you know to be truth, otherwise you will fall for satan's lies.
That you are not alone, regardless how forsaken you feel.
There is a reason for the trials He permits in our lives, though we cannot see those reasons during the worst of times.
"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
I Peter 4:12,13
The dear Lord is trying to perfect us.
To fit us for Heaven, where all is holy and righteous and good.
To make us better vessels for future use.
To prove that He is faithful even when it doesn't feel like it.
Something occurred to me the other day that I have never thought of before.
When the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the raging, fiery furnace because they refused to bow to any god other than the one, true God Jehovah,
something amazing happened.
As the king who doled out their punishment watched them from outside the furnace,
he saw, not three men walking around, but four.
He said the fourth man looked like the Son of God.
I personally believe the fourth man WAS the Son of God.
The king saw Him in the furnace with the three Hebrew children,
but, this is the thing that hit me the other day for the first time,
did the three Hebrew children know the Lord was with them in that furnace?
Did they see Him?
Did they sense His presence?
Did they feel Him near?
Or, did they feel abandoned and God-forsaken?
The Bible does not tell us that the three Hebrew children were conversing with Him,
and we are given no indication that they even realized He was there.
But, the king, and you and I, we all know He was there.
The king's words are living proof recorded in the Word of God.
Sometimes, when we are in the midst of a heated, fiery trial,
even though we can't see, feel, or hear God, those who are looking on see a different view.
It is easier to make sense of a perplexing situation if you are not the one living it.
Whether or not they knew He was with them during their awful ordeal,
as the three Hebrew children walked out of that furnace,
there was visible proof that a 4th Man had been present in the fire, right along with them.
They walked out different than they walked in.
You see, when they were thrown into the fire, they were firmly tied. (Daniel 3:23)
Then something amazing happened!
"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
Daniel 3:24,25
No longer were they bound; they were loose!
The purpose the fire had served was to burn off their binding ropes.
Even though we may feel abandoned by God while walking through the hardest parts of our lives,
the 4th Man is always in the fire with us, and He is working for our good,
oftentimes setting us free from the things that bind us.
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Emphasis added)
Hebrews 13:20,21
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28
I do not know what you are going through, my friend,
but wherever you find yourself today, know this.
God is with you.
He has not abandoned you.
You will survive this, because He is walking close by your side.
All of this...every, single thing you are going through...
the good, the bad, the joy, the pain....
is working together for your good.
Be encouraged and know that He is with you always!
There is lots of ribbon, lace, flowers, stencils, etc., there waiting to find a new home! (UPDATE: Ribbon, stencils, and several other things are gone, but we still have some things left!)
Hurry on over, and take a look!
Do you like baseball?
There is an autographed 8x10 Ryan Klesko picture in a frame!!
We also added some more books, and we will be adding other small items, Lord willing, as we continue to work through our minimizing process.
