..."Now thanks be unto GOD WHO always leads us forth to triumph with the ANOINTED ONE, and WHO diffuses by us the fragrance of the knowledge of HIM in every place."
2 Corinthians 2:14
Dear Friends,
Wow...how 'bout that Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators-National College Football Champions for the 2nd time in three years! In case you're like me and live "under a rock," part of the time (I'm not so hot at keeping up with current events it seems), Tim is the junior quarterback at the University of Florida, and won the Heisman Trophy last year. Last Thursday night, they played the Oklahoma Sooners for the National Championship, and man, was it a great game. I really enjoyed watching these two teams, very evenly matched, battling it out for the rights to be the best football team in all of college football. All throughout the game were references to Tim Tebow and what a young man of character he was, and how he was born in the Philippines to missionaries. There were enough references that made me really more curious about who this powerhouse of a football player was... and as you women know, we women, like the "real life" story's about folks. I knew Tim was a CHRISTian from what little I have watched him before, and heard our friends, the Radcliffe's, who are Gator fans, talk about him. I was excited when the Gators won and when Tim was interviewed after the game and had his helmet off, I was so impressed with his black stuff under his eyes bearing the witness of John 3:16. My husband said, " Are you just now noticing that?" Yeah.. i was, I'm not the most observant person in the world, and i was so impressed with his bold witness for CHRIST...his courage inspired me to be more of a bold witness for my LORD and SAVIOR. I wasn't disappointed when Tim was handed the microphone during an interview after the game when they were presented with the championship trophy and he gave the glory to his LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST...yep, think I've become a Gator fan till Tim Tebow graduates!
I looked up Tim on the internet earlier this week and was interested in reading some about "his story."..and that of his family. In fact I've included the website below for you to read yourself and be blessed by what GOD is doing through this young man and his family. I read in a couple of different places that when Tim was a baby his Mother contracted amoebic dysentery, and several doctors encouraged her to get an abortion because of the strong drugs she would have to take to kill the amoeba, and she was very sick and dehydrated. GOD gave Tim's parents the courage and strength not to do what the doctor's suggested, but they prayed and trusted GOD for this little one, the baby of 5 children. GOD knew the plan He had for this young man and though satan is not all knowing like GOD, he sure seemed like he was doing his best to destroy this young man before HE could be used by CHRIST in the way that he is being used- to bring glory to GOD through the platform of football. GOD, as HE always does, won the victory...and what seemed like a life destined for utter defeat before this little one left his Mother's womb, was turned into triumph for our LORD JESUS CHRIST..."Now thanks be unto GOD WHO always leads us forth to triumph with the ANOINTED ONE, and WHO diffuses by us the fragrance of the knowledge of HIM in every place." 2 Corinthians 2:14. Wow, when you watch Tim, and start reading about his parent's and his family's life, you know that CHRIST is using them to share the fragrance of the knowledge of CHRIST in every place including the "platform of the football arena."
One of the things that I read about Tim is that his priorities in life are 1) JESUS CHRIST 2) His family 3) His education and 4) Football. It's pretty clear that when you examine this young man's life that he glories, not in accomplishments in football, but in HIS LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. His Mom and Dad have prayed for him and raised him up in the nurture of a loving CHRISTian family, but only GOD could give Tim a new heart and put HIS HOLY SPIRIT inside of him to be as passionate about CHRIST that he is...you just can't teach that or fake that...it has to come from CHRIST and a living and personal relationship with JESUS CHRIST. Jeremiah 9:23,24 reminds me of what GOD says we should glory in...that we understand and know HIM instead of glorying in our wisdom, our might, or our riches. It all comes from GOD whatever we have to glory in...the talents that HE gives us are all from HIM, and HE provides the resources to develop those talents and HE is the one who blesses us with strength and riches. "Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this that he understands and knows ME, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
What a refreshing story is Tim Tebow and his family in this day and time of self glory every where we turn. What an inspiring story! I hope you'll take time to read this little clip about him and his family, and watch the video of his mission trip to the Philippine's last year...and like me, you just may become a Gator fan since Tim's sticking around for his senior year instead of going pro. http://beyondtheultimate.org/athletes/Tim-Tebow.aspx?gclid=CMPF8K3VjpgCFRKAxgodjj05Og
I didn't really mean to have a second part when i wrote that last week about "We All Have a Story..." but throughout the course of this week, I've been continuing to think about the stories that GOD writes in and through all of our lives. The things that seem to be most adverse, difficult, unfriendly and unfavorable are the very things HE is using to write the chapters that bring HIM the most glory, us the most good, and that HE uses to encourage and strengthen others hearts and lead them to a saving relationship in JESUS CHRIST.
You know i have written a lot about my sickness in these emails, because, well, it's a BIG part of my story. Not the chapters I would have chosen to include in my story...I would much rather have gloried in my "might" a few years ago and the accomplishments GOD has blessed to give in my life. But it's through my story of sickness that GOD has chosen to make me weak, that "CHRIST's power might rest upon me," II Cor. 12:10. For the past 10 years GOD has poured out HIS grace upon me through the doctors and staff in Dallas, Texas at the Environmental Health Clinic-(www.ehcd.com) where HE is slowly but surely restoring my health...and then there's heaven:). I had been sick 9 years prior to that time going from doctor to doctor trying to find answers. Praise the LORD for HIS goodness in helping me through our dear doctors, who have suffered with the similar struggles their patients are going through. One day while we sitting in the allergy testing room, waiting our turn to get "stuck," one of the patients said, "You know, Dr. Rea says we should look at our sickness as a gift." And i thought, wow, has he been reading Elisabeth Elliot? That's the same thing she says about suffering, and as I've walked down the road a few years , with a chronic thorn in the flesh, i realize that it has indeed been a gift. I read a devotion from Streams in the Desert while i was out there the very first time, and though it wasn't the right date, it was January 11, and i was there from Easter till the end of May, it was the right devotion for exactly where the LORD JESUS had faithfully led me. The words said,
"Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou are sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the GREAT PHYSICIAN, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy GOD wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless GOD for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness.-selected
Well, 10 years down the road, GOD seems to have used my story to help encourage others who are walking along the same path that HE has led me. HE has used my doctors' story's, who suffer with similar type issues, to encourage me and bring help and healing to the patients that HE brings there from literally all over the world. And he has definitely used my fellow patient's, many of you who have become dear friends, to teach me and encourage me along this path. My chapters of "sickness" are not the chapters I would have chosen to write in my story, this sickness i have wrestled with for most of my adult life now, but this is where God has taught me so many lessons of faith, humility, trust, and blessed me with an education that some of the finest medical schools in the land couldn't compare with...just wish i could remember it all:).
Last week, i shared that a dear friend of mine has recently been experiencing a chapter of her story that she never dreamed would be included...that of her husband committing adultery. Please continue to remember this dear family in your prayers. Another friend of mine experienced a similar trial in her marriage several years ago, and GOD brought her and her family through that difficult time "more than conquerors. " This friend was only too willing to reach out to my other friend and be a source of strength and encouragement to her and give her hope that GOD can heal her marriage just as HE has hers, and share with her the valuable lessons she learned in CHRIST as she went through that difficult time...lessons such as hope, unfailing love, perserving prayer, forgiveness and seeing her husband come to know CHRIST and repent of his ways.
Often times, i would say most of the time, our greatest conflicts in life, are the greatest chapters in our stories...those conflicts that leave us wailing on the floor before our Creator, stripped of all our self sufficiency and casting ourselves utterly on HIM for HIS mercy to be poured out upon us. Romans 8:37 says, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through HIM that loved us..." In all these things we are more than conquerors." What were these things...they are tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, and death, as it shares in Romans 8:35. That about covers all the bases...and not only are we "more than conquerors" but as Streams in the Desert shares, this is more than victory, this is a triumph so complete that we have not only escaped defeat and destruction, but we have destroyed our enemies and won a spoil so rich and valuable that we can thank GOD the battle ever came. How can we be "more than conquerors"? We can get out of the conflict a spiritual discipline that will greatly strengthen our faith and establish our spiritual character...our spiritual conflicts are among our choices blessings, and our great adversary is used to train us for his ultimate defeat...so it is possible for us in our spiritual life through the victorious grace of GOD to turn to account the things that seem most unfriendly and unfavorable, and to be able to say continually, "These things that were against me have happened to the furtherance of the gospel."
Streams goes on to say,"...it has been commonly thought that protected ease is the most favorable condition of life, whereas all the noblest and strongest lives prove on the contrary that the endurance of hardship is the making of the men, and the factor that distinguishes between existence and vigorous vitality. Hardship makes character." Streams in the Desert, Jan. 13
I've written a lot here about being "more than conquerors through HIM that loved us," and JESUS CHRIST is the key to our trials crushing us or making us "more than conquerors. " The starting place is a personal relationship with HIM who loves us so much HE gave HIS life on the cross that we might have everlasting life... "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON. Whoever puts his trust in GOD's SON will not be lost but will have life that lasts forever." John 3:16(New Life Version)
My dear friends, the Greenes, www.thegreenesgospel.com , whom i met their brother Tim at the clinic in Texas several years ago while he was being treated for mold poisoning, have a tremendous story of their own. For the past 30 years they have traveled all over this country telling and singing what JESUS CHRIST has done for them in the good times and the very, very hard times, and what CHRIST has done for all of us on the Cross of Calvary. Their lives are like mine and yours full of the grace and mercies of GOD...HE has blessed their socks off in the midst of the most severe suffering...and I've heard them share many times, "they live what they sing." I do love this dear family who is so transparent and shares their victories, their joys, and their sorrows, and sings the gospel of our glorious LORD and SAVIOR week end and week out. This coming Sunday night they will be in our area in Florence, Al at the Underwood Baptist Church at 6:00 p.m. Been listening to a song over and over this week,the Greene's sing that shares why we can be "more than conquerors through him that loved us..." it's all because of the blood of JESUS CHRIST. Tony who is a master story teller, and will have you laughing one minute and crying the next, shares the story that one morning he was going to eat breakfast out at Bojangles there in Boone, NC where they were living at the time, and he found a cassette tape in his mailbox. The cassette was wrapped in a brown paper wrapper with a rubber band around it. Tony shares he didn't think much of it, they were always getting songs people wanted them to sing...but this song, sent to him by a little old lady was written by her daughter i believe, has proven to be one of their most powerful and requested songs throughout their singing careers...a song that has touched my heart over and over as I listened to it through the years-"The Blood Covered it All."
"The Blood Covered It All" by Lucy Hemingway
Have you ever tried to measure one sin
Seeking forgiveness when your heart knows within
Our GOD will not judge us on how big or how small
He just looks for Calvary's blood to cover it all.
Oh the blood, the blood covered it all,
Love has no boundaries, sins debt's paid in full.
JESUS knew in the beginning that man would surely fall
But I'm glad my SAVIOR's precious blood covered it all
Just try to imagine how this miracle took place
Love beyond measure its GOD's amazing grace
Sometimes when I get weary, I might stumble and fall,
But just one drop of HIS precious blood covered it all.
As i close, i wanted to give you another chance to watch the video i shared last week called "Cardboard Testimonies." I've watched this video over and over and it blesses my socks off every time i watch it and think of what my great GOD has done in each of these lives...lives i don't have a clue who they are, but the same GOD who reached down and saved me and loves me and is writing my story is the same one who is doing miracles in their lives. If you didn't get a chance to watch it last week, or just want to be blessed again by our great GOD and HIS lovingkindness and tender mercies...here it is:
http://www.rhchurch.org/pages/cardboard-testimonies/
As i have thought about my own cardboard testimony this week i thought it might go something like this:
Gloried in athletics, academic, spiritual achievements... broken in health.
Now i..."Glory in my weaknesses that CHRIST's power may rest on me."
I'm sorry, i can't write anything short, is seems,...even my "Cardboard Testimony." But we all have a story, a story like Tim Tebow, that GOD wants us to tell to "spread the fragrance of the knowledge of HIM" through our lives in every place. Tell the story that GOD has given you and watch GOD use it to bring glory to HIMself, encourage others, and draw them to our dear LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.
With all HIS love,
Mitzi
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