Passing on HIS Abounding Love

"...I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you." Jeremiah 31:3

Dear Friends,

Last week, in my writing, i began a new chapter in my emails, fiction...changing a few names and facts. Not intentionally, and i didn't change the names to protect the innocent. I changed them because i am a "special needs" child...i keep telling ya'll i have trouble thinking and it really showed up last week. "Robin" Mobley in real life is Karen Mobley, i've only known her for close to 10 years, and she has 11 kids instead of 12. Her new daughter-in-law is named Kristina instead of Christine, and the wedding was on Monte Sano mountain instead of Monsanto (the chemical company my Dad used to work for). So apart from the grammatical errors i also made, not out of the ordinary, i wanted to set the record straight....thank you, Karen for having a great sense of humor with all my goof ups.

Now the truth is last week, I didn't feel well for various and sundry reasons... i was just struggling more than ordinary. In addition to some other things going on, my doctor told me i still have parasites. I wasn't really surprised since i began recently to have trouble concentrating like i did before i went through the treatment this summer to kill the parasites. That was during the time i was writing about "My Common Life" ... i could barely get off the couch for a while due to the medicine making me so sick and was feeling really sorry for myself. For whatever reason, last week was a real valley for me. I felt discouraged, depressed, and defeated at times...

During the middle of the week, when i was really feeling weak and discouraged, the LORD began to ease some unexpected plans in our minds that unknowingly to our family was going to change the course of our weekend and bless our socks off. One of Hannah Beth's friends invited her to a bonfire their family was having for their high school homeschool families...in Mobile. Hannah Beth jokingly asked me, and i said i didn't really care if her Daddy didn't, knowing he would never consider it. Low and behold when she asked him, he considered it. Honestly, i was not feeling well enough to protest...GOD has HIS way of helping me to go along with HIS plans. After I talked with HB's friend's Mom the next day and found out the details... our family, all 4 of us, made the decision to leave Saturday morning and drive down to Mobile for a bonfire that evening. Sounds crazy right? You bet it does, and it did to us too. But, I've gone down the road long enough to know the LORD doesn't always work in the "norm." In fact, usually HE chooses the opposite. HE reminded me over and over through Scripture, "the mind of man plans HIS ways and the LORD directs HIS steps." Pr. 16:9, and Jeremiah 10:23: "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." When the LORD is leading your paths...you do some crazy things, that you don't understand at times, much less those around us.

We were all aware that this "spur of the moment" trip was a "GOD thing" and very much out of the realm of our usual method of operating...i know HB and i take spur of the moment trips, and even with John Mac, and occasionally with Dad. But this trip was even more than normal out of the ordinary for several reasons...it was the weekend, and we were all available..."spur of the moment." We had plans, i always have plans, even if it's to rest...but i had planned to go door to door campaigning for Wayne Parker in the morning, Heather Evan's wedding in the afternoon, and maybe kayaking that evening...which i haven't done in a long time it seems. But GOD rerouted our plans and redirected our steps...which HE is mighty good at doing. Leaving the restaurant on the weekend is not standard operating procedure for my husband and son when they are often short-handed. Neither is it standard operating procedure to take our daughter to see a friend who is a boy... and we didn't know their family all that well, though we were blessed to spend some time with them in North Carolina in August(see picture above, another amazing trip i wrote about, "Camp Meeting Time, Aug. 8,2008) and Gulf Shores in May. It's just not like us to drive 6 hours to a bonfire.

Well, the LORD knew it wasn't just a "bonfire" we were going to, and what special blessings HE had in store for us to use the Hembree family to be such a blessing to our family. We had a few tense moments on the way...my family didn't seem to worried when i threatened to write about our "flair-ups" , cause they figured i'd get the names wrong and no one would know who i was talking about anyway. We had a safe trip down, and after getting a little lost, and having a little heated discussion over the GPS, the LORD brought us to the beautiful Hembree home. We pulled through the brick gate, and drove up the driveway to their beautiful home and the huge oak trees in the back yard that some must have been over 100 years old. The Hembree's came out to greet us, and seemed thrilled that we were there. Linda, the Mom, was busy making last minute preparations, and she introduced me to her Mom who had the same quiet and gentle spirit that Linda does. We walked outside to the backyard, to help get the games ready and there was those beautiful old oak trees, one that just invited you to climb it. I wasn't very much help with the games, but she made me feel useful anyway, and it wasn't long before the other guests started arriving bringing all kinds of wonderful smelling dishes for supper that night. After a while, Linda, and a few of the parents got the " Golden Corn Olympics" going for the kids and they enjoyed competing in sack races, wagon races, obstacle course and other event, while the other adults stood and sat around visiting and watching the kids compete. The group was very friendly and we were amazed to find that one of the couples there was a business partner to our next door neighbor, here in Athens. While the games were going on...i decided to take a walk around the beautiful pond, there was two of them actually, and they were so pretty. The sun was beginning to set up over the hill, and i walked beside the pond, up the hill and along the fence row, just feeling the urge to spend some time to get alone and pray for a few minutes. I watched the pink sky and sun gradually lowering, and as i walked along, I saw a huge garden spider and it's intricately spun web which was huge, attached to a tree and the fence. I took a bunch of pictures but couldn't quiet capture the beauty of the web or spider on our camera with it getting dark...

By the time i got back, it was time to eat, and i was good and ready...there was all kinds of chili, cheese dip, hot dogs to cook over the fire, cobbler's, apple, strawberry, peach and blackberry, chips, and drinks. We had plenty to eat and it was delicious! After we ate, we adults sat around the bonfire, and it was getting pretty cool by then, Mr. Hembree took the younger kids on a hayride through his fields, and the older kids played capture the flag. Later on he took the older kids on a hayride, and wouldn't you know they didn't have room for us adults to ride:). As the evening got later, we helped clean up, and went inside and visited with the Hembree's for a while, Emily, the Hembree's sweet daughter, Hannah Beth, and some of the older kids were out taking a walk through the woods. Linda gave me a tour of their beautiful home and played her baby grand piano for me. She's plays beautifully and plays for their church, and would you believe she loves southern gospel music too...amazing isn't it? Jacob, their youngest son and I took turns playing his electric drum set...man did it sound good. We finally made our way to the family room upstairs and the Dad's and John Mac were enjoying the big screen TV. It wasn't too long before Johnny said it was time to go and Josh their son, lead us to the Hampton Inn we were staying at that the Hembrees had help make arrangements for us to stay. They had invited us to stay with them...but we didn't want to impose on them more than we already had.

The Hampton Inn was really nice, but i chose my car suite over it to sleep. After sitting around the bonfire, i needed a place i could air out for a while. I hope you don't feel sorry for me sleeping in my car... though i don't like leaving my family, i have come to love that quiet place of refuge after a busy day that my body can rest and i can be alone with my LORD. As GOD's abounding love would have it, a security guard walked by right as i went out to get in the car after taking a shower, and i asked him to keep a watch on me cause i'd be sleeping in my car. Guess he thought that was kind of strange when you're paying for a room, but oh well, i'm thankful the LORD provided him to watch over me and i didn't feel scared at all and slept really good.

The next morning, when i got up, i was fighting discouragement again. I know the smoke had something to do with that, and i was thinking about those parasites in my body, and some other things that were tempting to overwhelm me. The LORD encouraged my heart and reminded me that HE was going to use those parasites for good somehow, and not to try to figure out what i was worrying about...it wouldn't seem like a "mountain" after the smoke cleared out of my system. But right now, while it did seem like a "mountain," my thorn was causing me to run to my FATHER in my weakness, and HIS love was so comforting to me...my weaknesses are the very thing that GOD uses to draw me closer to HIM, causing my heart to run to HIM so often. I praise HIM for that, and for "working all things together for good to them that love GOD (Rom. 8:28). After i had my time with JESUS, i was encouraged through the warmth of HIS love, even though i still didn't feel too hot. After getting the troops up, we enjoyed the delicious breakfast buffet down in the lobby, in shifts. I ate first, then Hannah Beth, and before i left Hannah Beth, John Mac came, and stayed with Hannah Beth, and i took Johnny his food back to the room. We all managed to get ready for church, eat and get our bags packed and loaded back in the car before Josh, their son, came to get us and lead us to church to go with the Hembree's. That morning they were starting a revival at their church and what a great message the preacher preached about the kind of heart that GOD can use...a tender heart, a humble heart, a broken heart, and obedient heart, based on II Kings 22:19 and the example of King Josiah. The message really spoke to all of us and later on i heard some apologies going on in our family. I am so thankful the LORD had used HIS word to soften our hearts and make us more tender, humble, broken and obedient. Believe me, we are a work in progress...and haven't arrived, but HE loves us and is still working on us. The choir also did a great job, and i enjoyed watching my friend,Linda play the piano and what a gift she has. We sang a praise song during the service called "On Mountains High," that really spoke to my heart about Praising the LORD "On Mountains High and in the Valleys low..." You can hear that beautiful song here by clicking on:


http://www.thefathershouseworshipcenter.org/OnMountainsHigh.html
I thought that's what i want my heart to do, not just praise HIM "On Mountains High" but also" in valleys low i'll do the same." I sure haven't arrived at that yet, but i know my FATHER is helping me to learn to do that... HE is helping my heart to learn to run to find HIM...in the good times and the bad, to praise HIM when my heart was wants to give way to discouragement, and to remember how very much HE loves me all the time...as Charles Spurgeon shares in his evening devotion for Oct. 21:

"Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?"
--Luke 24:38

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" The Lord cares for all things, and the meanest creatures share in His universal providence, but His particular providence is over His saints. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him." "Precious shall their blood be in His sight." "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose." Let the fact that, while He is the Saviour of all men, He is specially the Saviour of them that believe, cheer and comfort you. You are His peculiar care; His regal treasure which He guards as the apple of His eye; His vineyard over which He watches day and night. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered."

Let the thought of His special love to you be a spiritual pain-killer, a dear quietus to your woe: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." God says that as much to you as to any saint of old. "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."

We lose much consolation by the habit of reading His promises for the whole church, instead of taking them directly home to ourselves. Believer, grasp the divine word with a personal, appropriating faith. Think that you hear Jesus say, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Think you see Him walking on the waters of thy trouble, for He is there, and He is saying, "Fear not, it is I; be not afraid." Oh, those sweet words of Christ! May the Holy Ghost make you feel them as spoken to you; forget others for awhile--accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you, and say, "Jesus whispers consolation; I cannot refuse it; I will sit under His shadow with great delight."


After church, the Hembree's took us down by the bay, near the U.S.S. Alabama battleship, to eat at a really scrumptious seafood restaurant. We had some crab claws and some other type of cheesy appetizer, and then we enjoyed our meals, my being a delicious, mostly broiled seafood platter. I had to have my oysters fried though, i don't care for them slimy. We had a great time visiting and talking, and Linda and i found out we both love to hike, and ride bicycles. We even talked about the possibility of meeting them in the mountains in December and going hiking together. She's really ambitious and would like to hike along the Appalachian Trail, just overnight...but i don't know about that. I love the woods, yes i do, but i can assure you they don't love me.. I do better taking them in small dosages:). I don't know if we'll get to do that with them or not, but we'd love to if the LORD has that blessing for us. After going back to their home and sitting outside on their beautiful back porch and listening to the kids play their guitars, Linda and i took a walk around their beautiful lake, prayed for each other, and enjoyed our last few minutes talking. Then it was time to return home...our home in Athens. Our trip home was much more peaceful and relaxing than the trip down. John Mac and Hannah Beth drove all the way, Johnny slept some, and i enjoyed playing my mandolin softly in the back seat...GOD had just dumped a "dumpload truck" of HIS love upon us, and we were still amazed at how HE led us down there and loved on us so much.
The LORD has blessed the Hembree family with a beautiful home and place to live, but more importantly HE has blessed them with HIMSELF and their lives, their home and property are filled with HIS presence, HIS love, and HIS peace. The Hembree's are so gracious to share their lives and home and use them to be a channel of GOD's abounding love to others including our family.
What a special blessing and time of refreshing this trip was to all of us and i still marvel at the love GOD lavished upon our family this weekend through the Hembree's, their church family, their homeschool group, and the beautiful surroundings that we were blessed to be a part of. The LORD reminded me on the way home how last week and weekend is a picture of our lives over and over...we're going to have valleys, and mountain top experiences, and through it all HE lavishes HIS love upon us.


As I was walking through their pasture that evening of the bonfire , i looked down upon that huge roaring fire that Don Hembree had worked really hard to build, getting stumps out of the woods earlier in the week to make it burn better. The song we used to sing in our Methodist youth group UMYF, came to my mind..."Pass it On." As I watched the sparks flying upwards from the bonfire, i thought about the line from the song, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going...and soon all those around can warm up in it's glowing. That's how it is with GOD's love once we've experience it, You spread HIS love to everyone you want to pass it on." As the night grew cooler down on the "Hembree Plantation," we did indeed scoot up to the warm fire and it sure felt good. And it sure does feel good to "scoot up" to the warmth of GOD's love, and just feel and experience HIS love all around us. And we experience HIS love so much through our brother's and sister's love in CHRIST for us..."by this will all men know that you are MY disciples if you love one another," John 13:34.

And you know, when GOD puts HIS love in our hearts, we do want to share it with those around us. HIS love compels us to love others..."I wish for you my friend this happiness that I've found," it says in the third verse of "Pass It On." HE puts a desire in us to love on those who don't know CHRIST, or those who may know CHRIST but may not be "scooted up to warmth of HIS FIRE." GOD uses us to be "sparks" of HIS abounding love to those around us whose hearts are cold, and don't know the warmth of GOD's love. As the song says, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going" and even the smallest acts of GOD's love to someone else, may ignite a fire in their hearts that draws them to CHRIST HIMSELF. Then there are other times, when it takes perhaps many years of persevering prayer, tears, faith, and love, to bring a person to the warmth of GOD's love for them. Whichever way GOD chooses to use us to bring others to HIM, HE uses us most in our weaknesses..."MY grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses that CHRIST's power may rest on me." (II Cor.12:9-10) How very thankful i am for that promise...what abounding love HE has for us!


The Hembree family are truly an example of passing on GOD's love- they invited us down to share GOD's abounding with us, and invited us to stay with them. When we declined, they found us a motel room, called and gave us the info, and when it was full, they called the motel, and made a way for us to get a room. They shared their food, their wonderful fellowship, their beautiful home, their time, their homeschool group, their church family, and just passed on GOD's abounding love to us all weekend.

Thank you, my dear friends and family, so much for being GOD's abounding love to me and my family, and passing on HIS wonderful love to us. You strengthen us, encourage you and help us to have faith that GOD loves us, as you share your lives with us and we see how GOD is loving on you and through your family. GOD is loving on each of us everyday, and HE loves HIS children "special"...through our Mountain Highs and Valley Lows, through our friends, our families, the circumstances HE directs our steps and lives to be a part of, even parasites... we just have to look around and see how GOD is loving on us through what we're going through. Each of you mean something special to me, your life ministers to me and encourages me and helps me in a way that no one else's life can...GOD has shed abroad HIS love in your heart, to "Pass It On" in a unique way that no one else can...i thank GOD for using the Hembree's this weekend to pass on HIS love to us, ...and i thank HIM today for using you in my life to pass HIS love on every time i get an email from you, or hear from you, or you're praying for us, or whatever GOD leads you to do to show HIS love to us through you. Thank you so much for passing on His abounding love to me and my family... we love you and thank GOD for you!

With all HIS love,
mitzi
Pass It On- by Kurt Kaiser

"It only takes a spark to get a fire going
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing
That's how it is with GOD's love
Once you've experience it
You spread His love to everyone
You want to pass it on.

What a wondrous time is spring
When all the trees are budding
The birds begin to sing the flowers start their blooming
That's how it is with GOD's love
Once you've experienced it
You want to sing It's fresh like spring
You want to pass it on.

I wish for you my friend this happiness that I've found
You can depend on HIM, It matters not where you're bound
I'll shout it from the mountain top I want my world to know
The LORD of love has come to me, I want to pass it on.