"GOD is in Control"

Our "angel" GOD sent us at the sewing machine. Pam helping Hannah Beth cut out my dress.
Pam and Jean, another friend that is learning to play violin,
modeling their beautiful Renassaince dresses they made.

"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

Dear Friends,
Before I get into the story this morning, I wanted to Praise the LORD that Johnny was released from the hip doctor this week! Thank you all so very much for your prayers for all of us during this time. He continues to get better each day, and GOD has amazed us at what HE has done-we know that HE answered your prayers for us. Second, I'd like to ask you to pray for our friends Charlotte Murray and her two children. Charlotte's husband, John, went to be with the LORD suddenly yesterday after going in the hospital earlier this week with what the doctors thought at first to be a bleeding ulcer, and then treated him for liver poisoning. We watched Charlotte grow up in the LORD as a single mom when we were members of Elkmont Baptist, then the LORD graciously brought John to be her husband and blessed them with a son. Our hearts are hurting for her and her children in this sudden loss. Thank you so much for remembering them in your prayers.

A few weeks ago, Hannah Beth and I had the "opportunity" to play Renaissance music once again with our string instrument group in Huntsville. I say "opportunity" because we're just not that into Renaissance music, but our music teacher lined this up and invited us to play one Saturday afternoon. I thought Hannah Beth was willing, but after I told our teacher we would play, she really struggled with going, and tried every way she could to get out of it. It wasn't that big of a deal that we be there. There were several other's playing and we weren't really needed...he wouldn't have minded if we didn't come, but there was just something in me that wanted to be there and... Hannah Beth had to be there, or I couldn't play my solo that she accompanied me on:).
That Saturday morning, as we drove along to Huntsville listening to "GOD is in Control," by Twila Paris, I told Hannah Beth, "you know, honey, to be honest, I am not that crazy about playing today, i just feel like this is what we are supposed to do." It was a beautiful Saturday, and I knew the Huntsville Canoe Club was out somewhere kayaking down some river, and my heartstrings pulled to "the call of the wild." Instead, we were dressed up in borrowed Renaissance clothes, going to some kind of " feast," to play for folks who pretended to live in Renaissance times. No wonder Hannah Beth didn't want to be there.
When we pulled up to the Knights of Columbus hall where this "feast" was taking place, Hannah Beth was slumping down in her seat, saying "Mama, you owe me for this one." There were a few folks standing outside in Gothic black pedaling Renaissance wares. Thankfully, we saw our teacher, and our friend, Pam, and that made both of us feel more at ease. Pam was dressed in a beautiful maroon Renaissance dress that she had made, and she looked so pretty.
As we went inside and got signed in, we asked our teacher where to sit. He didn't assign us any specific seats so Hannah Beth sat on one side of Pam, and I sat on the other. That was unusual for us, because most of the time, we sit beside each other. It worked out fine, though, and Pam played along on the violin between us. I could hear Hannah Beth just fine for my solo:).
While we played, this group had their feast and didn't really seem to pay much attention to us, and to be honest, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to them, except I did try to smile while we played, hoping somehow that the love of JESUS might shine through to them. They didn't appear to be a very happy bunch. It just seemed odd to me that grown folks would want to sit around in Renaissance outfits and act like they were kings and queens and knights and pretend to be whoever they were pretending to be. It might have seemed odd to them that we would want to give up our beautiful Sat. afternoon to dress up in Renaissance outfits and play early music.
After they finished eating, and we finished playing they invited us to stay and eat. Hannah Beth and I were of the same mind, and couldn't wait to get out of there, so we invited Pam to go and eat with us, and hit the road...what a blessing that turned out to be.
When we all got in the car, Pam shared with Hannah Beth and I that we were the answers to her prayers. She said she was so nervous about playing that day, and she asked GOD to help her not be. She said when we showed up that day and sat down on each side of her, that was the answer to her prayers! I was so glad she shared that with me, or I would still be wondering why we played that day...she just went on and on about how much it meant to her for GOD to answer her prayers like that, and for us to be there just for her. It meant so much to me that GOD used Hannah Beth and me unknowingly to be the answer to her prayers and for Hannah Beth to hear that we were...it sure helped get me off the hook!
As we got out of the car at Wendy's, for some more traditional food than what they were serving at the Renaissance feast, I asked Pam about the possibility of her helping Hannah Beth and I make some Renaissance dresses. I had been looking for someone for several months since our first occasion to need the dresses and thought it would serve a two fold purpose of helping Hannah Beth learn to sew, and us getting the dresses made we needed. Pam said that she would be glad to help us, and I thought, LORD you are so good. You allowed us to be the answer to Pam's prayers, and now YOU are using her to be the answer to my heart's desire. I don't remember actually praying about that desire, but GOD had sure put it in my heart, and now HE was providing the answer through this "angel" HE had sent our way named Pamela.
We had a wonderful time eating lunch that day at Wendy's, sharing how we had come to know CHRIST, and reminiscing about our school days...we both attended the same high school, and though she graduated 5 years ahead of me, I clearly remember her for her kindness to me in school when she was a cheerleader and I was just a little 8th grade nobody.
The following week after lessons, Pam met us at the fabric store, and so patiently helped us pick out everything we needed for these dresses...dresses we needed not only for any future Renaissance "gigs" but for our homeschool banquet once a year that has a middle ages theme to it. Hannah Beth picked out a beautiful burnt orange maroon material for her dress, and I picked out royal blue for mine. Pam was so kind and helpful and stayed in the store a long time with Hannah Beth getting everything together.
The past two weeks, our "angel" has been coming on Tuesday afternoons, bringing her sewing machine and supplies, and helping us get the pattern laid out and the dresses cut out. In the above pictures, is our angel "Pam" in her Renaissance dress, along with our friend Jean, who also plays violin," sporting the dresses they both made after the Renaissance "feast." The next one is Pam at the sewing machine, and the last one is her and Hannah Beth working on cutting out my dress.
We have enjoyed each other's fellowship so very much as we have worked on the dresses, and sang and played gospel songs, our first love in music, after we finish working on the dresses. The newfound friendship that GOD has given us both in answer to each other's prayers and desires is an extra special blessing from the LORD. GOD truly has given me "exceeding abundantly more than I ask or thought" when HE put the desire in my heart for someone to help us make these dresses. HE brought a CHRISTian sister, and a new friend, who has been such a blessing, encouragement and help to our lives... and she can sing harmony! Wow...does she have a beautiful singing voice and loves to sing for the LORD! Pam is blessed with so many talents and she is so humble and ever so willing to share these talents the LORD has given her to be a blessing to someone else. We both know the LORD is up to something, and we're just enjoying watching what HE is doing. Pam even sang a gospel song with us and our dear friends Jerry and Louise Todd last night at our Dulcimer group gathering. Jerry named the group, Hannah Beth and Friends..." I used to be Hannah Beth's Mom, now I am her friend:).
I wanted to share this with you this week, how kind and good and gracious that GOD is to us, HIS children. I know that these are not "big" things in the scheme of life, but it's the little ways that our heavenly FATHER meets our needs, and uses us to meet other's needs, that reveals to me how very much HE loves us. "Delight yourself in the LORD and HE will give you the desires of your heart," Psalm 37:4 has been a verse as I grow older in the LORD, I see HIM constantly fulfilling in my life and the life of HIS children." As we "delight in HIM," the LORD puts HIS desires in our hearts to accomplish HIS plans and purposes. To me, the dress issue is the smaller desire HE put in my heart to accomplish a larger purpose that HE has in mind...one of which I'm not sure. We could have bought these dresses, hired someone to make them, or continue to borrow them from our dear friends, the CHRISTians, but GOD used these desires to get us together. As we look back on all our music lessons and how HE has lined everything up for our lessons to coincide with Pam we know it's a GOD thing...it's all a GOD thing. Sometimes, GOD puts desires in our heart, and it takes a while for HIM to fulfill them, such as a few months with the dresses, but sometimes it's years. That's the more difficult place to walk, but GOD gives HIS grace to walk there too. HE teaches us patience, and all kinds of good things along the way that takes time to grow in our hearts...these things don't just spring up overnight no more than an oak tree grows to maturity overnight. What a joy it is when HE does fulfill that long time desire and we look back and see all the ways that HE has worked in accomplishing that desire HE put into our hearts.

Indeed, GOD does "govern in the affairs of men," even down to guiding our footsteps to play at a Renaissance feast on a beautiful Sat. afternoon to be the answer to HIS child's cry...and HE provided that someone to be the answer to our heart's desire to help us make some dresses we had hoped to make since last September. It does increase my faith in my FATHER, in the bigger issues that I struggle with, that if HE is interested and makes the effort to meet our needs and wants in the little areas of life that concern our hearts, how much more faithful is HE in the areas that are more important to us and to HIM? The Scripture that I've used many times comes to my mind, "If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly FATHER give good gifts to those who ask HIM," Matthew 7:11. GOD invites us to ask HIM, and to ask generously, because HE loves to lavish HIS love upon our hearts and in our lives because we are HIS children. "Behold what manner of love the FATHER has given unto us, that we should be called the children of GOD." Romans 8:32 says, " HE who did not spare HIS own SON, but delivered HIM up for us all, how will HE not also with HIM freely give us all things?"
Yes, my faith is increased, as I see how GOD orchestrated the events of that day a few weeks ago to answer the heart's desires of HIS children. As Hannah Beth and I drove along listening to "GOD is in Control," that morning, I am reminded once again, that truly GOD does ordain the footsteps of HIS children, even when we don't realize what HE is up to. The line in the chorus, "GOD is in control, we will choose to remember and never be shaken," reminds me that when I do "choose to remember" He is in control, it helps my heart to not give way to fear, impatience, or whatever else shakes me. As you already know, I'm not always victorious in remembering:) but when I do, I truly do have HIS peace.
My sister shared Proverbs 3:5-6 with me several years ago while I was a student at the University of Montevallo and it has become one of my life verses. It helps me remember "GOD is in control" when I wonder what in the world HE is up to: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge HIM, and HE will direct thy paths"...including those paths that lead to a "Renaissance" feast on a beautiful Saturday afternoon!

With all HIS love,
mitzi

"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that GOD governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without HIS notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without HIS aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the LORD build the House they labour in vain that build it." I firmly believe this." -Benjamin Franklin




GOD is in Control by Twila Paris

This is no time for fear This is a time for faith and determination

Don't lose the vision here Carried away by emotion

Hold on to all that you hide in your heart

There is one thing that has always been true

It holds the world together

God is in control

We believe that His children will not be forsaken

God is in control

We will choose to remember and never be shaken

There is no power above or beside Him, we know

God is in control, oh God is in control

History marches on

There is a bottom line drawn across the ages

Culture can make its plan

Oh, but the line never changes

No matter how the deception may fly

There is one thing that has always been true

It will be true forever

He has never let you down

Why start to worry now?

He is still the Lord of all we see

And He is still the loving Father

Watching over you and me

watching over you...watching over me..

watching over every things..watching over you..

watching over me..every little sparrow..every little things...