The PBR and HIS Love is Extravagant

"But HE said to me, MY grace-MY favor and loving-kindness and mercy-are enough for you, [that is, sufficient against any danger and to enable you to bear the trouble manfully], for MY strength and power are made perfect-fulfilled and completed and show themselves most effective-in [your]weakness. Therefore, i will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of CHRIST, the Messiah, may rest-yes, may pitch a tent [over] and dwell-upon me! II Corinthians 12:9-10 Amplified

Dear Friends

This past weekend, Johnny and John Mac took off from the restaurant on a Saturday night (which is most unusual) and our whole family had the blessing of going to the Professional Bull Riders http://www.pbrnow.com/ rodeo over in Huntsville. Hannah Beth had heard the rodeo was coming to the Civic Center a few weeks ago, and she and her Daddy made plans to go. Before i knew it, it had become a family affair and so we all loaded up and headed over to watch the Bull Riding. Above I've shared a few pictures at the rodeo...the first are my kids "clowning" around. We got settled into our seats and they were great seats close to the gate. We were surprised and so glad to find that my brother, Joe, and his wife, Marilyn were there sitting not too far away from us and enjoyed visiting with them...It was great to be with ya'll Joe and Marilyn! I don't know why i was surprised, my brother loves everything about Texas, even naming his oldest son Dallas, and many of the bull riders were from Texas. It even tugged on my 'heartstrings' with all the Texas influence...just suffice it to say we have a lot of dear family, including my brother and his family, and a lot of dear friends in Texas whom we love very much and are so dear to our hearts-we love ya'll! I don't know why the Texans would come to Alabama to ride bulls indoors:)...it just doesn't seem right, but I'm so glad they did!
As i said, our seats were close to where the bulls were coming out but we were sitting up high enough in the stands to be a safe distance away from the actual action. Johnny had encouraged me to bring my binoculars, in case we had to sit in the nose bleed section. We didn't, but they came in handy, scouting out the cowboys as we were waiting for the rodeo to start:). As i looked through the binoculars I could see a few guys getting their gear ready for their ride. They were rubbing "rosin" or pine tar (according to my husband) on the straps they used to hold on to the bull that helped them get a better grip to keep from flying off. Well, most of them did get bucked off when that bull starting bucking all over the place. When the bull rider hit the dust, there were "clowns" in the arena, to run in and get the bull away from the fallen rider. A couple of times, the "clown" got gored by the bull. These guys were putting his life out there to protect the bull rider and give him time to get back on his feet and out of the arena, where he prepared to ride again either that night, or at the next event.

Earlier this week, i was thinking about the last few weeks in my life, and how i felt kind of like i had been "bucked" off of a bull when my opportunity to share CHRIST with "my friend" came to an abrupt halt. GOD had certainly led me in the place i was walking, I kept reminding myself, and HE kept me there through HIS grace, HIS Word, and the encouragement and prayers of you, my dear friends who have helped me to "hold on" these past few months. The days following the "bucking off," GOD has been so very gracious to pour out HIS extravagant love upon me, again through HIS WORD, through HIS presence that has been so real to me in my circumstances,and through you my dear friends who have been so precious to encourage me and help me "get up out of the dust" where i felt like i had fallen. You certainly aren't "clowns" but you reminded me of how those guys were there for the bull riders to help pick me up. It hurts to fall, and get gored by a bull, I'm sure...i don't know, thankfully I've never been gored by a real bull that i remember:). GOD has been so very gracious to pick me up, and encourage me to "get back up on that bull" and ride again:)...and though i can't communicate with "my friend" as I'd like too("in acceptance lieth peace," as Elisabeth Elliot says), i can pray fervently for her that GOD will bring her to a saving knowledge of JESUS CHRIST.
Those "clowns" at the rodeo took some of the "goring" in that arena last Sat. night so those fallen riders didn't have too...i saw the "clowns" gored a couple of times, as they were getting the bull to chase them instead of the rider. OUR SAVIOR, CHRIST was beaten beyond recognition it says in Isaiah, pierced for our sins, and nailed to the CROSS to take the punishment for our sins so you and i wouldn't have to take the punishment that we deserve. The LAMB of GOD, JESUS CHRIST, was a "clown" in some people's eyes as HE walked on earth and was nailed to the cross for us. HE asks us to be "foolish" for HIM...and be willing to be crucified for HIS sake. "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But GOD chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; GOD chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. HE chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things-and the things that are not -to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before HIM," I Corinthians 1:26-29. Believe me, i have identified with feeling "foolish" very much these past several months...i can relate to these verses more than ever.
I want to thank you my dear friends for praying for me and for your encouragement after last week's email. I can honestly say, the LORD has been lifting me up through your prayers. I still have these waves of sadness that hit me...but it just reminds me to pray diligently for "my friend" that i ask you to pray for her salvation. Thank you so much, especially for your diligent prayers for her...pray with me, until GOD "brings the victory" in her life. I read these words from Charles Spurgeon this week about our friends holding us up and persevering in prayer with us:

"When Moses grew weary, his friends assisted him...It is said that Joshua never grew weary in the fighting, but Moses did grow weary in the praying. The more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it is for flesh and blood to maintain it. Let us cry, then for special strength, and may the Spirit of GOD, who helps our infirmities, as HE helped Moses, enable us like him to continue with our hands steady "until the going down of the sun." Morning and Evening, April 16.


These past week, our Bright Lights (www.brightlights.info) group at church met, where our older girls are discipling the younger girls. One of the stories in the lesson was about a young girl, that a missionary had the privilege of leading to JESUS as her LORD and SAVIOR. The little girl was a slave to a cruel master, and she longed with all her heart for him to know CHRIST. One day he became so angry with her that he beat her so severely that she died. The missionary went to see the little girl as she was dying, and the little girl expressed her desire for her master to know JESUS as she did. After the little girl died, the missionary and the other children and families at the church began praying fervently for this little girl's master to come to JESUS. One day, the hard hearted master came to the missionary, all broken inside, and asked the missionary how to receive CHRIST as HIS LORD and SAVIOR and he did! That little story really encouraged me, as it was a true story. The little girl was so concerned not for her life for she was going to be with JESUS, but she had such a burden for her master to be saved. The fervent prayers of the believers in the church were answered by GOD to save that man's soul. This story really encouraged me that GOD does hear and answer our prayers.
I know i have asked so many of you to pray for "my friend's" salvation, and i ask you to keep on praying for her. I told you before, i don't think I've ever been burdened so by someone's soul, and only GOD can put that "extravagant" love and compassion in your heart for someone...especially someone you don't know that well. This week the LORD has laid on my heart some verse's to claim and stand on about prayer and about asking HIM for "my friend's" salvation....i know they sure have encouraged me to pray more fervently, not only about her salvation, but other's whom GOD has laid on my heart to be saved, as well as other areas GOD leads me to pray for.
James 5:16-19 says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man just like us.. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins."

You know, i did get "bucked off' a couple of weeks ago, when "my friend" had enough of me sharing CHRIST with her and my life, and it hurt, it hurt real bad. In all honesty, the things the devil has "gored" me the most about are my weaknesses that i have thought if I hadn't of emailed her so much, i would still be able to communicate with her now. But CHRIST has been so intimate and encouraged me so tenderly, even in my Bible reading this morning, that HE is in control of all the events of our lives, just as how JESUS was not killed before it was HIS time to be crucified. Herod tried to kill JESUS as a child, the people in the synagogue wanted to kill HIM, and even tried to throw him off a cliff, (Luke 4:29) but until it was time in the fullness of GOD, they could not touch him or harm HIM. I don't think "my friend" wanted to kill me:)...she has been most gracious and patient with me with me, but there may be coming that time for all of us that that is a price we may have to pay for sharing our faith in CHRIST. There was a time for me to enjoy the blessing of sharing my faith in CHRIST with her, and then a time to stop. Now GOD is saying to me, this is the time now to continue praying for her and "Be still and know that I am GOD," Psalm 46:10. Also, "Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD." Exodus 14:13.
GOD also reminded me yesterday of how HIS "love is extravagant," and though i made mistakes along the way of trying to be a friend to this person in perhaps my over zealousness , GOD's "love is extravagant with us..." and HE loves us "exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think..." I have been comforted by thinking upon how much GOD loves to lavish HIS love upon us, and i was trying to be a vessel of HIS love to this person. I am so comforted that "HIS power is made strong in our weakness." The reading for April 17, today, Springs in the Valley shares this about GOD's extravagant love:

" ...GOD never does anything small. When HE makes an ocean HE makes it so deep that no man can fathom it. When HE makes a mountain HE makes it so large that no one can measure it. When HE makes flowers, HE scatters multiplied millions of them where there is no one to admire them but HIMself. When HE makes grace, HE makes it without sides or bottom and leaves the top off. Instead of giving salvation with a medicine dropper, HE pours it forth like a river. When GOD sets out to do a thing for us, HE does it with a prodigality of love-prompted abundance that fairly staggers one who reckons things by the coldly calculating standards of earth."

I can assure you GOD put a "ocean load" full of love in my heart for "my friend", and it was hard to hold back...i think she might have been drowning in it, and had to come up for air:)...if i were in her shoes, i would have probably had to come up for air long before she did in all honesty. It's just GOD's amazing grace that she held on as long as she did:).


Though it hurt to be "bucked off", hit the dust, and get the breath knocked out of me, I wouldn't trade being in the "arena" of the LORD using me to help share CHRIST with someone who has wandered from the truth for anything. I want GOD to use me, i don't want to be sitting up in the stands watching others, i want the LORD to use me. As i shared last week out of II Corinthians 2:5, "For just as the sufferings of CHRIST flow over into our lives, so also through CHRIST our comfort overflows." GOD's love, HIS comfort, HIS consolation has been so precious and real to me these past several weeks, and intensified even more in the past couple of weeks and i praise HIM and thank HIM for HIS extravagant love to me and to her. It amazes me that HE didn't need me to share HIM with her, but HE wanted me to go to her...what a privilege and HE went with me in my weakness with HIS power. HE is not finished working in "my friend's" life or mine, and i ask you to continue to pray fervently with me for her salvation until HE "brings the victory" and pray for my wisdom in this relationship. I was reminded in my reading this morning in Streams in the Desert that it takes GOD time to answer prayer, just as it does for HIM to grow an oak tree. I don't like being patient i've found:), but in Words of Comfort and Cheer I read, "He has attained to an imminent degree of CHRISTian grace who knows how to wait..." Waiting patiently is not one of my strong suits, i confess.

"Your Love is Extravagant" sung by Casting Crowns, is a song that has comforted me this week as i was once again, having regrets about the way i handled some things. I am amazed at how HE lavishes HIS love upon us and how intimate HIS dear and precious friendship is to each one of us whom HE has called to be HIS child. I have been so conscious of that love recently as HE has picked me up out of the dust. Some of the words are... "YOUR love is extravagant, YOUR friendship, it is intimate...Spread wide in the arms of Christ there's a love that covers sin. No greater love have I ever known; YOU considered me a friend."

But there is another song that "Casting Crowns" sings that has been on my heart and Ipod throughout this whole process of trying to reach out to this person for the past few months called ,"In Me." It really describes how i have felt about taking a risk to reach out to her and i felt compelled that i could do nothing else. I am privileged as you are, to be a "soldier of the LORD." HE doesn't need us to go for HIM, but HE wants us to go. I love the words, "How refreshing to know YOU don't need me, how amazing to find that YOU want me, So I'll stand on YOUR truth and I'll fight with YOUR strength, Until YOU bring the victory, by the power of CHRIST of me." HE promises to go with us in HIS power, in HIS strength, promising that HE is strong in our weaknesses. When i start kicking myself for my weaknesses that i think might have messed things up, CHRIST lavishes HIS love upon me, and says , "MY power is made perfect in your weakness." Truly HIS "love is extragravant," allowing me as Paul to " gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of CHRIST, the Messiah, may rest-yes, may pitch a tent [over] and dwell-upon me! II Corinthians 12:9-10."

With all HIS love,
mitzi


In Me by Casting Crowns
If you ask me to leap
Out of my boat on the crashing waves
If You ask me to go
Preach to the lost world that Jesus saves
I’ll go, but I cannot go alone
Cause I know I’m nothing on my own
But the power of Christ in me makes me strong
Makes me strong

Cause when I’m weak, You make me strong
When I’m blind, You shine Your light on me
Cause I’ll never get by living on my own ability
How refreshing to know You don’t need me
How amazing to find that you want me
So I’ll stand on Your truth, and I’ll fight with Your strength
Until You bring the victory, by the power of Christ in me

If You ask me to run
And carry Your light into a foreign land
If You ask me to fight
Deliver Your people from satan’s hand

To reach out with Your hands
To learn through Your eyes
To love with the love of a savior
To feel with Your heart
And to think with Your mind
I’d give my last breath for Your glory



"Should we not, therefore, account it an honor and a privilege when the Captain of our salvation assigns us a difficult post, since HE can, and does inspire HIS soldiers which no earthly commander can with wisdom, courage, and strength suitable to their situation." Springs in the Valley, April 14




Praise the LORD for answering a huge prayer i have asked you to be praying for my doctor in Texas. The head of the Texas Medical Board has resigned and is leaving the practice of medicine. Apparently this person was the most adamant against Dr. Rea and his practice (www.ehcd.com) which has been such a help to thousands of patients who couldn't find help anywhere else. GOD is so gracious to "allow" this development...this is definitely an answer to prayer! Thank you so much for your prayers for him...i don't know if the battle has been won, but this is definitely a major victory.
Also, please remember a friend of ours from church, Marco Chubb who has been in the hospital all week with heart issues. Marco's wife died three years ago, leaving him with 5 kids to raise...GOD's grace is sufficient, and i sure appreciate your remembering the Chubb family this week.