When GOD Stirs Our Nest

"Hear my cry, O GOD; attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth i will cry to YOU,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For YOU have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in YOUR tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shadow of YOUR wings." Selah
Psalm 61:1-4

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for praying for Johnny and his surgery on his hand this week. His surgery went very well, and he returned to work a couple of days later. Thank you for praying for me and our "termite turmoil." I am still out in the camper, but the house is better, I am getting back into my routine, everyone is pitching in to help and it's a real blessing to have a "Pumpkin Shell" to stay in:).

Peter, Peter Pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her,
Put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well ." -nursery rhyme my Mom used to read to me

A couple of more prayer requests is i'm going to start an antibiotic today and they are pretty rough on this gal who has difficulty detoxing chemicals...those persistent parasites are still there, and i sure would appreciate your prayers for me. Our kids are traveling today with their grandmother and our niece to Alaska...as a graduation gift to my niece...what an awesome gift from my dear in-laws. Please remember them as they travel... Thank you so much!



A few weeks ago when i was sitting in our den at our computer, when an army of insects flew across the room from the door facing near where i was sitting...i never dreamed the "stirring" these termites, as John Mac and Hannah Beth later identified them, would cause to my "nest." Many of you have been on my journey with me these past few weeks as i had the opportunity to drive out to Texas to see my doctor and do allergy skin testing-something i've been wanting to do for months...GOD was so gracious to give me the desire of my heart through these termites... I am reminded of the words to the great old hymn "Praise to the LORD, the Almighty." "Hast thou not seen how thy desires have been granted in what HE ordaineth?" This is a lesson the LORD continues to teach me over and over, as HE teaches me to "See HIM in everything, including termites," and termite bait that doesn't like me so well. I had a "come apart" with my husband and kids when the termite bait made me extremely irritable. As i mentioned above, my body doesn't detox chemicals so well, and they build up in me. I have a difficult time not "exploding," like a volcano when that happens. I am so thankful for my LORD and my family's forgiveness over and over and over.

As i write from my Mom and Dad's camper this week in our basketball court area, it is raining, and the rain on the window pain makes a soothing sound. Last Wednesday, after arriving home from Texas the night before, I slept in the car, to keep from going in the house where the bait was still in the den. My dear Dad was at my house early the next morning with their camper so i could have a "home, away from home." How thankful i am for Mom and Dad's love and generosity and to be able to stay in their camper...we have had two campers in the past that i have not been able to stay in due to the chemicals in them so i am really thankful...one night i slept in the car in 15 degree weather in Pigeon Forge because i couldn't tolerate the camper...that was in my younger days:). I helped my Dad set up the camper in the pouring rain with tornado siren warnings going off...the rain was not too soothing to me then. As i cleaned out the camper after my Dad left, wiping dust off the walls, and vacuuming, and doing general cleaning, i was having a real good pity party for myself, and felt like crying as the rain had poured earlier in the day. I didn't like the fact that the bait was still in the house, and i was having to stay outside, and the dust in the camper was making me feel bad on top of feeling totally unorganized. I wanted to get back in the house and start getting my "nest" back in order from having been gone for two and a half weeks, but i was afraid to because of how the termite bait had made me feel "drugged," and very irritable before i went to Texas. I did stay in the house a while later that evening and the next day, i paid for it.
After i got the camper cleaned out, i wasn't feeling too hot, but managed to get my belongings settled in, and have a semblance of order to my life. John Mac helped me get my sleeping bag and bedding washed so i could sleep on it...it had gotten some chemicals on it from another place i had stayed while i was away...a souvenir from Texas that i was glad to wash away. Our family went out to a Mexican restaurant that night (sure did make me miss that good Mexican restaurant David and Rhonda took me to in Burleson), and even though i was feeling pretty irritable, it was really good to be able to eat together with my family again...really good. We've had the blessing of grilling out this week, and enjoying several meals out on our deck...something i love to do.

As i reflect on the events of the past several weeks, and the turmoil and blessings that those termites have caused in not just my life, but my whole family- "when Mama's not happy, no one is happy," I stand amazed at the awesome, loving hand of my heavenly FATHER who orchestrates all things...even termite things. I tried to do my homework and make a right decision about what to treat the termites with to avoid happening what happened. I consulted with my doctor and patient educator at the clinic for a safer alternative...There were just some "twists" in there as GOD would have it, to accomplish HIS plans and purposes, and to "stir up my nest." Reflecting back, we could have done things differently like using Timbor (boric acid) only in the house, and baits outside...but GOD had a plan, and although it's been painful to me and my family at times, this was HIS way of working...the cross was painful to JESUS and we are called to follow in HIS steps..."If any man would come after ME, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23
"GOD is the Master Engineer, HE allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly-"By my GOD i have leaped over a wall." GOD will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of HIS. Peter says-"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives GOD the chance to manifest HIMself in your mortal flesh."
-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for HIS Highest, May 15

Carolyn Gorman, the patient educator at the EHCD, has written a book called Less Toxic Alternatives you can purchase from the AEHF (www.aehf.com) by calling 1-800 -428-2343. This book is a culmination of her 20 plus years of working with patients who are environmentally ill and is packed with all kinds of safer alternatives to harsh chemicals we are around and use everyday...it is worth far, far more than what you pay for it. The 10th Edition of it will be coming out in July...you may want to wait and purchase the updated copy.


As i write this morning i think of my dear loved ones, from California, to Texas, to North Carolina, and here in Alabama whose "nests" have been stirred by the LORD in recent weeks and months...friends and family that i dearly love who are going through some of the greatest "stirrings" of their lives...much bigger things than termites in their house. One friend i ask you a while back to pray for her as her husband left her and her son, and now that she's finished homeschooling him, she has many decisions to face as she looks for a job, and decides where to live, and goes through the awfulness of a divorce that she never ever dreamed would be happening to her or her family. Another friend was just terminated from his church as pastor.

I shared with you how my doctor's world was turned upside down as her job ended at the clinic just as i arrived out there a few weeks ago. She found her "nest" stirred and upset all of the sudden. GOD is making a way for her through all of this and she is consulting from her office in Richardson. If any of you have "hit a wall" with your health issues, or know someone who has, you can set up a phone consult with her for a second opinion. Her office number is 972-234-4776. She also has her own supplement company, Texas Insitute of Integrative Medicine which carries the highest quality of supplements. You can order those by calling the same number. A quick correction here, i mentioned a couple of weeks ago a plaque she has in her office, "Ancora Impora," a quote by Michelangelo that means, "I am still learning." I said i thought it was Latin...well, i am still learning, it is Italian:).

I have asked for prayer for my dear friends Greg and Wanda Adams. Greg's cancer has reoccurred and they went for a second opinion this week. He will began treatments soon. This is an unexpected and not so welcome stirring of their "nest." Last year, at this time, my sis's job end suddenly for her...and she had a very good paying job, though very stressful. GOD in HIS divine love and sovereignty had other plans for her, and within 3 months, she was married, and she and her new husband, moved to Florida and now back to Alabama...but what a sweet year she has had getting to know her new husband, time she wouldn't have had if she had still been in the "rat race" of the other job she had had for the past three years.

GOD sure does have a way of "stirring our nests," and sometimes, often times, it is very painful, and very inconvenient, and just upsets all of our best laid plans. I have often referred to when i got sick when Johnny was pastoring in Billingsley, and our "nest" was stirred big time. We moved back home in a storm, me, with two little ones that i wasn't able to take care of very well. It took me a long time to get over that...feeling like a failure, and accepting that this was GOD's plan for us...how could being in the restaurant business be GOD's plan for us instead of Johnny being a pastor? Well, for one thing, i needed humbling, and i felt like we were too good to be in that business, though my in-laws had worked hard in it to help us out while Johnny was in seminary, and pastored a small church. Many years later I learned that the pesticides in the house we were living in at the church was making me sick, and probably contributed to the growth in Hannah Beth's throat where she almost died at 2 months, and then, 5 months. GOD used that "stirring of our nest" to deliver our family from further health perils. I don't know all the reason's HE stirred our nest, but i know that HE did...and this is where HE has chosen for us to live for the past 17 years.

I read a devotion earlier this week in Springs in the Valley that caused me to reflect on "GOD stirring our nest." I pray these words will bring comfort to your heart as they did mine, when our "nest" is stirred, as mine has been these past couple of months:

"As an eagle stirreth up her nest." Deuteronomy 32:11

GOD, like the eagle, stirs our nest. Yesterday it was the place for us; today there is a new plan. He wrecks the nest, although HE knows it is dear to us; perhaps, because it is dear to us. HE loves us too well not to spoil our meager contentment. Let not our minds, therefore, dwell on second causes. It is HIS doing! Do not let us blame the thorn that pierces us.
Though the destruction of the nest may seem wanton, and almost certainly come at an hour when I do not expect it; though the things happen that I least anticipate-let me guard my heart and be not forgetful of GOD's care, lest I miss the meaning of the wreckage of my hopes. HE has something better for me. GOD will not spoil our nest, and leave us without a nest, if a nest is best for us." HIS seemingly cruelty is love; therefore, let us always sit light with the things of time.
The eaglet says, "Teach me to fly!" The saints often sit idly wishing that they were like to their LORD. Neither is likely to recognize that the prayer is heard when the nest toppled over!
The breaking up of a nest an act of GOD's benevolence? What a startling thought!
Yet, here is an old writer who makes it a subject or praise; blesses GOD for it; declares it to be the first step of my education! I can understand praising HIM for HIS gifts to body and soul; but I lose my breath in surprise when I am asked to make the first stanza of my hymn the adoration of HIS mercy in loosing the ties of Home!
Nay, my soul, it is to strengthen these ties that my FATHER breaks up the nest; not to get rid of home, but to teach thee to fly! Travel with thy TEACHER and thou shalt learn that
The Home is wider than any nest!
He would have thee learn of the many mansions of which they nest is only one. He would tell thee of a brotherhood in CHRIST, which includes, yet transcends, thy household fires. HE would tell thee of the family altar, which makes thee brother to the outcast, sister to the friendless-in kinship to all.

Thy Father hath given thee wings in the breaking of thy ties!

The storm that shook thy nest taught thee to fly!
"GOD spreads broad wings;
And by HIS lifting, holy grace,
We find a wider, fairer place,
The freedom of untrammeled space;
Where clearer vision shows us things
The nest-view never brings.'
The wing-life is characterized by comprehensiveness. High soaring gives wide seeing!
-Dr. Jowett.


As i think about these words, i just erased and will have to retype them:), i am reminded of my heavenly FATHER's everlasting love to me through my dear earthly Daddy that HE has given me...HE used my Daddy to show HIS love to me, and provided a place for me to stay when HE "stirred up my nest." HE used my husband to work hard to provide the money for me to be able to go and have my skin testing done and pay for my doctor, and other friends to provide a place for me to stay and the Irby's to refresh me with HIS love last weekend. He's used my kids to help me get things in order around the house this week when i have felt overwhelmed. Our heavenly FATHER does stir our nest, but how HE provides HIS grace often times through HIS children to show us HIS love and mercy to get through the difficult days. How thankful i am for the love HE shows me through you to pray for me and encourage me and provide my needs in CHRIST JESUS. As Jacob says in Genesis 33:11, "God hath dealt graciously with me, and...I have [all things, more than] enough." In the May 14th writing for My Utmost for HIS Highest, Oswald Chambers writes;

"Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the SON of GOD is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the SON of GOD. It is one thing to choose the disagreeable, and another thing to go into the disagreeable by GOD's engineering. If GOD puts you there, HE is amply sufficient."

My heavenly FATHER also has used this time to build further compassion in me for those who are going through struggles in their own lives. I told my doctor recently that i was having trouble "feeling" things again since i've been off my allergy shots and around this termite bait. Since i got home, my "feelings," in some ways have returned, and going through this "stirring" in my own life, causes me to think on others who have had their "nests stirred by GOD." It prompts me to pray for them and reach out to them in CHRIST's love. There is nothing like going through suffering in our own lives to build compassion in our hearts for others...thank you, LORD, i don't want a cold, stone heart that doesn't feel others pain and joy.
GOD has been "stirring the nest " of our country very much in recent months...our home, America, the "land of the free, the home of the brave....land that i love." I am so thankful for the verse in Proverbs that reminds us that: "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, he directs it like a watercourse wherever HE wishes." Proverbs 21:1. Isn't that a comfort to know, in these intense days of "change," going on in our country and our world, that GOD is in control of our President's heart? If we read the Bible, we will understand that all these "stirrings" must take place before JESUS returns for HIS bride, the Church, and the tribulation takes place...and then JESUS comes back, defeats HIS enemies, and defeats Satan once and for all...we win, the end has already been written!
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the HOLY CITY, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from GOD, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of GOD is with men, and HE will live with them. They will be HIS people, and GOD HIMself will be with them and be their GOD. He will wipe away every tear...and death shall be no more, neither...mourning..., for the former things have passed away." Rev. 21:1-4

I have gained a much greater understanding of what's going on in light of Bible prophecy by going to websites likewww.olivetreeviews.org, www.raptureready.com, www.gty.org, www.worldviewtimes.com or subscribing to the email list of Bible Prophecy today at bibleprophecytoday@gmail.com to help me better "Understand the Times." These prophecies being fulfilled only remind me that my FATHER is in control, HE had it written in HIS "Love Letter" to us thousands of years ago, and we are living in an exciting time to see these things coming to pass. HE loves us, we are HIS bride, that HE purchased by HIS own blood, and HE will take us through whatever happens.

These things that are going on about us today, are merely ushering the way for our LORD to set up HIS earthly kingdom one day and those who have trusted in JESUS CHRIST as their LORD and SAVIOR will rule and reign with HIM here on earth. I'm not sure what these "stirrings" in my nest now are preparing me for then, but it will be great to serve my KING and not have to worry about brain fog, or allergic reactions to anything...all this stuff is temporary. GOD is using these "momentary afflictions" to prepare us to rule and reign with HIM. "For i consider that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is going to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18 "If we suffer with HIM, we will reign with HIM." 2 Tim. 2:12. GOD has a way of weaning us from our earthly homes, and setting our eyes on HIM, and our eternal HOME...these "stirrings in the nest" of our country and our world may very well be GOD's way of accomplishing that for us. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the SON of MAN has nowhere to lay HIS head." Matthew 8:20. "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:14.

In my doctor's office in Richardson, Texas, Dr. Henry has a large picture of Noah's Ark hanging on her wall. As i stood and looked at that picture recently, i thought of the Ark of Salvation that we have in JESUS CHRIST to take us through any flood, however high the waters may come. The ark is a picture of our salvation in CHRIST from sin, "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON that whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life," John 3:16, and also from the trials and tribulations that we experience here on earth. "JESUS said in John 16:33, "These things i have spoken unto you, that in ME ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." From termite bait that drives me from my home, to loosing our jobs, loved ones, whatever we may hold dear including our country, JESUS is our ROCK and our REFUGE, our strong TOWER and SALVATION...even when we can't "feel" HIM like i haven't recently... "But when HE saw the wind, HE was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "LORD, save me." JESUS immediately reached out HIS hand and took hold of HIM, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" I sure have been there lately, doubting that GOD knows what's best for me, and then HE comes crashing through to remind me that HE loves me and brings peace to my heart in the midst of the storm.


Sleeping in my car earlier in the week(i've been sleeping in it a lot recently), i woke up during the middle of the night to see a beautiful full moon. Dark clouds were moving across it...they were moving, not staying:), just as dark clouds move across our paths, and work together for our good for those who love the LORD...Romans 8:28. As i watched the moon shining from behind the clouds, the Greene's www.thegreenesgospel.com) were singing on the CD player, "When GOD Has Another Plan," from their "Far Down the Road" CD. Taranda does a beautiful job singing this song...about accepting when GOD has another plan for us than the one we thought. May the LORD use the words to this song to strengthen and encourage your heart as it does mine when HE "stirs our nest" and asks us to walk with HIM in faith to a better place..."Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6.

With all HIS love,
mitzi


"When GOD Has Another Plan" by Amy Keffer-Shellem/Daryl Williams

Forsaken by his brothers, didn't fit the scene,
Being made a slave, was not what Joseph dreamed
The coat of many colors was stained with blood and lies
But from this divine appointment, a ruler would arise.

Chorus:
When GOD has another plan, walk on and just say yes
When GOD has another plan, be assured that HE knows best.
When all your dreams are shattered, rest in HIS sufficient grace
We don't have to understand, when GOD has another plan

Alone and broken hearted, questions fill your mind
Changes can be hard that come by GOD's design
But if you could see tomorrow, with a view from heaven's throne
Every unexpected struggle, has led you closer HOME


The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving FATHER; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the throne, and to look down from the glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed." Selected, from Streams in the Desert, May 13


"Perhaps strength doesn't reside in having never been broken...
but in the courage required to grow strong in the broken places."