HOPE in Paradise…..and the RED DOOR

We use the word HOPE in many ways in our everyday conversation. Anywhere from “I hope I can get through the day” to “I hope I don’t get caught”. But do we really understand the TRUE meaning of the word HOPE? Have you ever actually seen what HOPE looks like? Until recently, I don’t believe I have actually grasped what HOPE means, nor what it looks like.
For quite some time I have been compelled to pray for our community. Lifting us up to God that He lead us to the needs of this small town that has burst with growth over the past few years. New business’s, widened roads, schools popping up everywhere. People moving in from the North, Mid-west and Eastcoast. So much busyness coming from what used to be a sleepy little town.
Then there’s Paradise- the oldest community in Fort Mill, and what seems to be the forgotten community from many. And many who are not even aware of it’s existence.
I have been a part of a serving meals ministry for about a year now. This ministry(made up of several church’s) has been serving Paradise for five years, with food and prayer, and other needs as they arise. They serve another low income community on the other side of town as well. But Paradise was laid on my heart to serve, little did I know what God had planned. Through His lead I eventually gathered a group of Serving Hearts from my church to serve Paradise.
The first day for our church to go out, I was preparing my list of places to go within the subdivision, and the Holy Spirit laid the color red on my heart, and I shared that with the group. Again, I had no idea what God had in store for this day, but I knew He was with us. One of our servants Susan, was excited to meet a particular woman that I had spoke of, Miss Jackie.
Susan had been praying about this union.
We followed the route I had printed out,and Miss Jackie’s house was second to the last of our stops.
Jackie had been praying for God to send an angel.
As Susan jumped out of the car in front of Miss Jackie’s,
Miss Jackie came out of the door and the union was filled with praise to God and tears of joy. They new this was just the beginning of a long friendship, answered prayers, and HOPE.
We walked down to Miss Jackie’s condemned home, and there it was………..A RED DOOR! ….Glory be to God!
I cannot describe the emotion I felt, and continue to feel from the Red Door, knowing, that God led us straight to it.
That was in June of this year 2012. Through prayer and diligence, Susan has followed God’s conviction on her heart and brought together a Team to rebuild Miss Jackie’s house.
The first day I witnessed this team of Christ followers working on Miss Jackie’s house, I went home and cried from the deepest part of my soul, with thanksgiving to God for allowing me to be a part of His plan, and showing what HOPE really looked like on the faces of Miss Jackie, her family, and the neighbors who were watching this miracle take place.
Thanks and Glory be to God! He is with You+

God meets you where you are…

Have you ever had someone say to you “God meets you where you are”?

Does that make sense to you? I mean, I have heard it many times, and thought I got it.

Whether I’m filled with joy or with sorrow, on a mountain top or in a valley, God will be there. Right?

Well, yes, that is true, but He has helped me understand that there is more to that, more to Him than just His presence of being there to cry out to. Or to even rejoice with when something goes right in my life. He is with me ALL the time, every single moment of my day, whether I realize it or not.

BUT….here is what I’m really beginning to get. As I read His word, He reveals Himself to me, BY revealing myself to me.

Do you get that?

God gave us the Holy Spirit as our Helper in life.  Jesus promised this in

John 14:15-17

If you love me, keep my commandments, And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper,that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of  truth, whom the world cannot receive,because it neither sees Him, nor knows Him;but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you,

 

First and foremost the Holy Spirit will  convict us of our sins.

Now, I don’t know about you, but the word convict was never a positive word to me.  People in jail are convicts who have been tried-judged- and convicted to serve time.

That’s not me…..well, not according to this world anyway. But, according to the scripture,  I am definitely guilty, and should be convicted.

That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in, and convicts us in our heart, our mind, and our soul. (our conscience) We all have them, even though it seems like some  don’t.

For some of us, the conviction is a long process. I know it has been for me. A life long process, and continues. When you finally succumb to the reality of what is going on in your life, then, conviction becomes a positive word. At that point you are asking God to reveal your sins to you, so you can ask for forgiveness and for the strength to change for the better.  God is with us, but He doesn’t interfere until we ask Him too, as we must ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit.  For every move that the Holy Spirit makes in our lives, it is a Gift and  Every good and perfect Gift comes from God.

I have to remember that often, because the Evil one will make things look really good, and that is where discernment is needed, and the Holy Spirit will give you discernment.  My bad decisions in this life probably won’t go away completely, but they have certainly depleted, and I am thankful.

Back to the revelation that God will give you about yourself. More often than not He reveals this to me while I read His word.  I can be reading the instructions He gave to Noah on how to build an ark, and a thought comes to mind over something I may have said, or did previously that needs to be corrected, or He may  give me a pleasant memory. Whatever He chooses to reveal to me is strong enough to make me pause and say,”wow, thank You”.  THIS not only proves to me that His word is alive, but that He meets me right where I am. He knows what I need, better than I do myself.

Just so you know, I read out loud so I can concentrate on what I’m reading, and I speak out loud  while I’m typing as well.  I  discovered that I retain information better by doing this, and I don’t get distracted.

 

The Holy Spirit will put thoughts in our minds to lead us, and to reveal to us who we are in Christ.  He will give us boldness and courage that we could never have on our own.

Have a daily conversation with God. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or drawn out, or big biblical words, just talk to Him, and He will meet you right where you are…

Acknowledge God from your heart, and He will lead you the rest of the Way.

John 6:44  ”No one can come to Me, unless the Father Who sent Me, draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” 

 

 

 

Left Behind…

My last post was about my brother Tony,  the physical pain he was enduring, and my pain of watching. His pain is now gone, he is in his heavenly body with our heavenly Father.

Some family members felt he was lingering on because someone wasn’t letting him go, maybe it was me. I was praying for God to heal him.

Then God made it clear in my mind that He was going to heal him, just not here on earth….sigh….so the day before he left us, my mom and I prayed over him, asking God to take him home, and He did.

...Trust Me... God just whispered in my ear while I’m writing this……

just Trust Me….I wish I could express what I am feeling now….it is good….

God IS GOOD!

My brother came to me the other night in my dream. Actually it was the end of a dream and right before I was to awake. He was there, a young man again, in a blue suit, with a peaceful grin on his face, and white all around him,  like a white room. It was a split second, then I woke up.

As soon as I got the call I went straight to his house.

Even though I knew his soul was in heaven-his body was….. left behind.

I hugged him, kissed his face, told him I loved him, and I’m not sure if I said it out loud, but the words…come tell me what it’s like, were very strong.

Maybe he heard me, or better yet, God heard me………..and even though I felt so much pain at the loss of my brother here on earth, God loves me so much that he sent him in a dream to let me know ……..it’s okay.

My brother leaves behind a wife of 30 yrs. who was his best friend, three children, a granddaughter, a brother, 2 sisters and his mother, lots of nieces, nephews, and in-laws, and friends.  All who will grieve in their own way, and who will remember and share moments about Tony.

His life made a difference, and his death made a difference.

And I know I will see him again, when I get to heaven.

Peace be to my sister-in-law Laurie….I love you, but even better..

God Loves You+

We Interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Program

I have only written three posts and then life happens, ya know, that part of life we never seem to be ready for. My brother Tony has been ill for about a year now. Well, what we thought was just a back pain from falling, turned into a fracture, turned into an infection, turned into a crushed vertebrae, turned into Cancer. He has gone from light pain meds, to physical therapy, to a chiropractic care, back to physical therapy, sleepless nights, painful days, to the point of an almost constant grunting because of the spasms in his back. Cat scans, blood tests, etc. 12 months of pain. This happening to someone who has already had double by-pass surgery 5 yrs ago, and is a diabetic. Now I have not lived with my brother all this time, I have only seen a piece of this pain. Our Sunday breakfasts at Mom’s after church. He was determined to come to breakfast  which truly amazed me at times because of the pain he was in.

It’s so difficult to watch someone in pain, and you can’t do anything to relieve it. Pray, pray, pray……was all I could do. God had laid Psalm 6 on my heart to read for my brother. I put him on the prayer list at church, I even got a prayer shawl for him. Nothing was working like I thought it should, or would. Ok, God wasn’t working like I thought He would, or should. I was trying to be brave and understanding about it. My goodness, a million things have gone through my mind. Am I not praying fervently? Do I not believe enough that our most awesome God can or will truly heal my brother? Where is my faith? What am I being prepared for? How to grieve like a christian? Am I to be calm, when I want to scream? Can I keep my cool when people say dumb things trying to be funny? 

My brother is now at home, with hospice care coming in everyday. He’s on morphine and oxicodone for pain. His children have been called home, 2 of who are serving in the military. I have fed him ice chips, and helped carry him to the bathroom. I have sat and watched him breathe, wishing I could lay my hands on him to heal him. But I hold his hand, and I pray, for God to comfort him, for  the Holy Spirit to bring him peace, and for the healing hands of Jesus to wrap around him, and though my heart aches for him, I hold the tears back so he doesn’t see me cry. He’s in and out of it due to the drugs mostly. He’s made it clear to his wife and children that he knows his time is near. So now what? We wait, we keep praying, and the world keeps turning, and people keep doing…what people do. But what am I to do? I will keep trusting God. I will keep reading His word. I will continue to welcome His presence in my life,for I cannot do this life without Him, and I will continue to praise His name……………….

Sibling Rivalry-part one

Ok…so the earth is created and all the animals, birds and every creeping thing as well. 

Adam and Eve have disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the tree of Good and Evil

(much credit going to the sly words of the serpent) Now they are punished by God to the end of days.So Adam and Eve conceived a child and named him Cain, and another, and called him Abel. Fast forwarding a few years, because God didn’t share with us the brother’s early childhood, we see the roles that they took on. 

Abel was a sheep herder,  and Cain was a tiller of the ground.(farmer?)  Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought an offering, a firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

Keep in mind  (population 4) and that’s getting ready to drop.

 God respected Abel’s offering, but NOT Cain’s. (In case your thinking that God is a meat eater and doesn’t care for vegetables) it wasn’t that at all.  God knew the hearts of Cain and Abel, and sadly Cain already had a improper heart. (AGAIN: population 4)..Cain was angry that God did not respect his offering.

So God said to Cain, why are you angry? If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin is waiting for you, but you should rule over it.  God clearly tells Cain to get a grip on his anger or he will do something that he will regret, for Satan loves to get a hold of an angry person. 

Have you ever noticed that when you are out of control angry you say and do things you regret?

Cain finds his way out to the field to talk to Abel, I’m sure a huffin and a puffin, probably spewing out 

accusations, name calling, (you sheep lovin wool vest wearin snake you!) fists waiving in the air, then out of rage Cain kills Abel. (population 3) 

Than Cain goes about his business and God calls on him. Cain? Where is Abel your brother? (please note that if God is asking you a question such as this, it’s not because He doesn’t know the answer, He is giving you a chance to fess up) 

But as we all have done, we say I don’t know, am I supposed to keep track of my brother? Which is basically what Cain said – to God…and God so fatherly states What have you done? Your brother is dead and you are cursed until your end day. (sounds like a permanent “time-out” to me) 

Cain now knows he will walk the earth as a vagabond without God, so he pleads with God that he is afraid he will be killed, so God being the loving Father that He is, puts a mark on Cain and says that anyone who tries to kill Cain will have vengeance upon him seven-fold. 

Cain wandered- and Eve bore another son named Seth. (population 4)

until next time………..the Blessings of Christ be upon you+

Genesis 101 and then some..

I title this Genesis 101 only for the fact that anyone who knows anything at all about any part of the bible knows that Genesis is the first book, and it talks about the earth being created, Adam and Eve, that Eve ate the apple and Cain killed Able. Oh, and the phrase “Let there be light” was invented. Although I was somewhat familiar with other characters such as Noah and the Ark, Abraham , Isaac and Jacob, (because you can’t say the name Abraham without saying Isaac and Jacob) I really didn’t know their stories, didn’t think I needed to, and didn’t realize they were ALL in the book of Genesis.

This book is not nearly as difficult to read as one might think. I think a lot of us get to the genealogy part, who begat who, and call it quits.  If it’s your first attempt to read Genesis, it’s ok to skip the “begats”,if it will keep you reading further into this amazing book. You will eventually want to go back and read them, because they really bring together the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak, or at least give you a Aha moment.  Plus it gives you some kind of perspective on how many hundreds of years it took for these events to take place. No matter how much you think you don’t understand, keep in mind, God will help you see what you need to see.

So don’t get discouraged.

If you like “reality shows” then you will LOVE the stories in Genesis.

God created the heavens and the earth, and then He said? Yep, here it is, “Let there be light” and there was light. Please note I am paraphrasing due to the fact I’m not going to write the scripture for you, just want to make some points about our awesome and mighty God. He spoke the earth into existence, but He breathed life into man,Genesis 2:7

Moving on. (Note: you will see the phrase “right off the rip” used by me quite often.)

Right off the rip- Eve listened to the “serpent”,aka; devil, Satan, Lucifer, bad guy, destroyer, evil one,liar, so on and so forth,

and ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil that God clearly said, do not touch (my words of course).

for those of you who think Adam was not involved, he was standing right next to Eve. Genesis 3:6  Interesting how their first instinct was to hide when they did something wrong.(of course they also realized they were naked) Wouldn’t that be our first instinct as well.

Next the blame game- It was Eve’s fault Adam says, no it wasn’t it was that Serpents fault, Eve says.

Can you picture it? Looking up to your Father, pointing fingers at everyone else, I didn’t do it, she did it, he did it.

I can’t help but chuckle. (even though the next turn of events has caused us all great pain in so many ways) and the Fall of Man was born.

I’ll  stop here……and begin with the story of Cain and Able next time.

Until then…..may you be filled with the Spirit+ in Christ Jesus’ name.

 

 

 

In the Beginning….

I’m on a journey of Truth and relationship with my holy Creator, my heavenly Father, and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

this Truth I’m seeking, this relationship I’m longing for, is written in the Holy Bible, and I want it, but I HAVE to READ it!

Want to take the journey with me? 

Over the past ten years of my Christian walk, stumble, fall, up again, down again life, I have listened to many styles of preachers, evangelists, friends, talk shows, radio shows, read books, did bible studies,listened to tapes, so on and so forth, etc..etc… these were all full of information, and have certainly helped lead me to where I am at this moment, more hungry for God!  The ONE thing I didn’t manage to do was to actually READ His word from beginning to end. BUT…..that is where I am now. 

I happen to be a slow learner looking for a quick fix in life. I wait for the movie to come out. I cut corners anyway I can to save time, and get the result immediately. I think I’m beginning to catch on now, life doesn’t work well that way, and I’m exhausted from having to go back and figure out what key ingredient I skipped, what instruction did I flip past to get to the next level? 

I’m ready now to read the instructions word for word, to savor them in my mind, my heart, and soul. Knowing that God is perfect in every way, and will lead me to the life which He had planned for me since the beginning. He knows me better than I know myself, and I have only recently become aware of that. I thank Him for His patience, and His mercy for me. 

Are you ready?

My next post will begin with a journey thru Genesis.