"Places Where Grace Is..." Part II

"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." Hebrews 12:15
"And great grace was upon them all." Acts 4:33


Dear Praying Friends and Family,
This past Thursday, my Mother-in-law invited me to go with her to the First United Methodist's Women's Garden Luncheon. Me at a garden luncheon...isn't that amazing? It is a great fund raiser for their Knitting Ministry, which makes baby blankets, shawls, and other items to share with those in the hospital or have new babies, and need a warm touch of GOD's love and grace. Literally, hundreds and hundreds of lives have been blessed through the grace of the "knitting ministry," in times of great trial, including Baby Josie's Mom, my dear friend Mrs. Betty Eudy when she broke her hip, and my dear friend Shirley Wenzel when she also fell and broke her hip last fall. What a sweet touch of GOD's grace, in a very trying time. I have been touched by the knitting ministry's generosity and grace to my friends. I know my friends all appreciated their knitted gifts very much. Sherri Bassham, the pastor's wife at First Methodist, and my dear loving neighbor, explained to us at the luncheon that each and every blanket, and shawl they knit is prayed over as they are being knitted with alacrity (that word's for you Betty Dean:), and before they are given away. What a loving and warm way to extend GOD's grace to those who are going through a difficult time. The luncheon itself was a blast, and was a success through the hardworking efforts of the knitting ministry at First Methodist...including my Mother-in-law's next door neighbor Hilda Waldrop who cooked all week that we might have delicious broccoli and chicken salad, peach cobbler with cool whip on top, and rolls. She also was responsible for many of the unique decorations, including the beach scene with the oil spill...which came about after she accidentally spilled some sand. Instead of cleaning it up, GOD gave her the idea to use a torn up black trash bag and make it look like an oil spill through the sand. Isn't that just like GOD...when we make a mess, HE redeems it. Thank you, Hilda for your tireless work. The guest speaker for the luncheon was Dorothy McDaniel(http://www.dorothymcdaniel.com/home.html) a florist in Birmingham for 29 years who began her business out of an old Mountain Dew cooler literally. Hers is an amazing story of GOD's grace after a broken marriage and HE redirected her life from working on her doctorate at the University of Alabama to arranging flowers. What a "Master" flower arranger she is...as her florist has done hundreds of the large weddings and functions in the Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa area, and she travels all over the United States teaching her flower arranging techniques. She took cut flowers and arranged them so in vase after vase as she told stories...making it look really easy and turning cut flowers into beautiful arrangements that bring joy and beauty to a home. Dorothy had a couple of interesting hobbies...she likes to hunt quail with her 12 guage double barrel shotgun, and fly fish when she's not arranging flowers.

As i thought about the Garden Luncheon on Thursday, and the wonderful time that it was, i thought about how it fit into what I have been thinking about the past few weeks and GOD's grace...how HE takes something and "cuts," it like those flowers, and then arranges our lives and the lives of those we love into something beautiful that brings HIM glory and gives us the desire of our hearts.


I hope you got an opportunity to read last Sunday's "Friday" email entitled "Places Where GOD's grace Is." If you didn't get the time to read it, which i understand very much, i hope that you took time to listen to the powerful song sung by Selah called, "Unredeemed." This song has really spoke to my heart as i have listened to it over and over and thought about the words..."Places where grace is...soon to be so amazing." This week, i'm putting the song at the beginning so if you don't read any farther...i want you to hear this song and think about how GOD has redeemed the broken places in your life or the lives of the people you know. "Unredeemed" sung by Selah... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZqqCSoXZtQ

"Unredeemed"
The cruelest word, the coldest heart,
the deepest wound,the endless dark,
the lonely ache, the burning tears,
the bitter night, the wasted years.
Life breaks and falls apart
but we know these are
places where grace is soon to be so amazing
They may be unfilled, they may be unrestored,
but when anything is shattered and laid before the LORD
Just watch and see it will not go unredeemed
For every choice that led to shame and all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke, and every life that gave up hope,
We live in the shadow of the fall,
the cross says these are all
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing.
It may be unfulfilled, it may be unrestored,
but when anything that shatters is laid before the LORD
just watch and see it will not be unredeemed.
He will wipe every tear...
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing.
It may be unfulfilled, it may be unrestored,
but you'll never know the miracle the FATHER has in store.
Just watch and see it will not be unredeemed.


Why does this song mean so much to me? Because I have lived long enough now to look back in wonder at the ways GOD has redeemed my broken life over and over and over from sin, through the blood of HIS precious Son, from being a sick wife and mother trying to raise her family, and our life's calling as foreign missionaries being crushed through my sickness... these are"places where grace is soon to be so amazing."
When i was very sick, and my children were 2 years and 6 months, I can remember lying in the floor of our rental house we moved into after we left the pastorate. We actually didn't have to pay rent, my brother in law let us stay there for free (more of GOD's grace). I had pain literally all over my body, and GOD led me to read a book by Elisabeth Elliot called A Path Through Suffering." The message of the book is about what the words to the song, "Unredeemed," says..."When anything is shattered is laid before the LORD just watch and see, it will not be unredeemed." Elisabeth Elliot challenged me through the pages of the book, to offer up to the LORD my brokenness and that HE would be faithful to redeem it. As a young Mom...with not a whole lot of experience with suffering up until that time, all i could do, was believe in faith what GOD was trying to teach me through this older woman...to offer up to HIM, my shattered life, for HIM to do with it what HE would. Believe me, this proud woman was broken...in my health, in my spirit, and GOD gave me the grace to trust HIM minute by minute through the pain that engulfed our lives...my sickness, HB almost dying, loosing our identity of being the pastor and his wife...moving back home when we wanted to live away...GOD stripped us and it hurt.

But the amazing thing is....GOD did drop buckets load of HIS grace upon us. There were two little girls that lived down the street from us who loved to come and play with my kids and helped to care for them. April McMullins, a girl from our FBC family came two or three nights a week when Johnny was at work to help with the children and make bottles, give baths, etc. Our church family brought meals to help out. In November of 1992, after being so very sick, GOD led me through a friend at church, to a doctor in Birmingham who gave me great relief from my health issues for about 3 years. That was such a blessing...then i had four more very difficult years after our house was sprayed for insects. In 1999 GOD led me to Dallas, Texas for more help when i was about at the point i couldn't walk, and was a basket case, mentally. GOD used Dr. William Rea to help me a great deal those first few years, and then he ran out of answers for me. Just as i was about ready to go elsewhere to look for answers, GOD led me to the hardest working, patient, gifted doctor i have ever met. For four long years she has worked with me ever so patiently, ever so diligently, to correct the myriad of problems in my body. "Places where grace is...soon to be so amazing." When she left the clinic suddenly last year, GOD amazingly in HIS divine plan, allowed me to be out in Dallas right at that time. HE used the termites in our house to get me out there the day she left the clinic...amazing to me, and how very grateful i am to HIM for those termites. The termite bait in our house that made me sick and i needed to get away from, was "GOD's grace," to get me to Dallas and see my beloved doctor. It had been two years since i had seen her last, as she does most of my care through email, and phone appts. Now, she not only continues to help me, but GOD is using her to help my husband also with some health issues he is having..."places where grace is...soon to be so amazing." How very thankful i am for her and for all grace GOD has poured out upon us through our journey.

A couple of weeks ago when i was cutting the grass with my new Honda pushmower my dear husband got me for Mother's Day (we do have a riding lawnmower, i just prefer to push and what an indescribable blessing it is to me to be able to cut our yard again after all these years of sickness..."Places where grace is...soon to be so amazing!) I was looking out over all the clover in the yard. It's like the LORD spoke to me and said, "That clover is like the grace that i give you to go through this journey called life." It's there, it's all over the place...you just have to look for it. Well, i thought about that and it's true...GOD's grace is all over the place in our lives if we will but look for it...Hebrews tells us to "look diligently" for HIS grace so we don't miss it.
I have to be honest there are parts of me that wish that clover wasn't there so the yard would look all uniform and green like some of our neighbors. I even put out some corn meal gluten a few weeks ago to kill the weeds including the clover. As soon as i did I was grief stricken and i thought, "I've killed the "grace" in my yard!" Thankfully, i didn't, the clover is still alive and well, interspersed throughout our front yard:). We can "kill the grace in our lives and miss HIS grace by grumbling and complaining about our circumstances and other people. Being ungrateful and not "looking diligently" for GOD's hand in our circumstances causes us to miss HIS grace in our lives and the lives of those around us.
Being thankful in everything that happens to us and believing that it is GOD's will for us to be in the place HE has us, no matter how very painful, is one of the keys to GOD opening our eyes us to HIS marvelous grace.

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS concerning you." I Thess. 5:17

And just as being grateful opens our hearts to seeing GOD's grace, being ungrateful and grumbling and complaining, produces a spirit of bitterness in us, and not only do we "miss GOD's grace," but we defile those around us.

"Do everything without grumbling and complaining that you may be blameless and pure children of GOD without fault in a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars in the universe." Phil. 2:14,15

"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." Hebrews 12:15

Yesterday, our family attended the funeral of my Mother-in-law's dear friend Pat Martin, who died earlier this week after suffering with cancer. They had a wonderful friendship which began in the 5th grade as gradeschool children, and paused this week, temporarily,after Pat developed pneumonia and died suddenly. Pat had been struggling with cancer for many months and undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. I had to go out of the church during the service because of the paint fumes inside. They must have painted the white railings and pews recently at First Methodist because the church had a strong paint smell and everything looked shiny white. I eased outside while the pastor was speaking and sat on the steps in the warm sunshine. It sure did feel good. I got out my little Bible Promise Book for Women that i carry with me just about everywhere i go and on a card inside i had written these words down a few weeks ago, that really spoke to me about what i'm trying to share with you today. The words are from the great CHRISTian allegory, Hinds Feet on High Places," by Hannah Hurnard:


"Humble yourself, and you will find that LOVE is spreading a carpet of flowers beneath your feet."


As i thought about that "carpet of clover," in my yard,I began to understand more about GOD's grace in a way i hadn't before. As i read Phil. 2:3-11, i realized another key to experiencing GOD's grace in our lives is humbling ourselves. And i have to admit, i have had absolutely no success in my life when i try to do it myself...the LORD has always had to "help" me be humble and HE graciously does that through my life circumstances...which i often want to kick and scream at first instead of being thankful. JESUS gave us the supreme example of humbling ourselves when HE left HIS home in heaven and came to die on the cross of Calvary for your sins and mine. The apostle Paul writes about this in Philippians 2:3-11:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of CHRIST JESUS: Who being in the very nature GOD, did not consider equality with GOD something to be grasped, but made HIMself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, HE humbled HIMself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore GOD exalted HIM to the highest place and gave HIM the name that is above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD to the glory of GOD the FATHER."

The story of Elisabeth Elliot's husband getting killed along with four other missionaries in 1956 illustrates the kind of humility that CHRIST had to lay down HIS life for us. Those men and their wives knew what they were risking and were willing to lay down their lives that these savage Indians might come to know CHRIST. They were trying to make friends with them when they were attacked and killed by spears on the beach. GOD's grace was upon the lives of those missionary wives and GOD was faithful to redeem the broken places by bringing salvation to the Auca Indians, including each man who killed the missionaries and inspiring hundreds and thousands through their story to serve the LORD JESUS on the mission field. I think if Elisabeth Elliot and the other missionary wives had "missed the grace of GOD," and became bitter when their husbands were killed by the Auca Indians what a different ending this story which continues and will for all eternity would have.
What about our lives...what story is GOD weaving through our lives for all eternity? Is GOD's grace having HIS way freely through us as we are thankful, and humbling ourselves and forgiving others when they trespass against us? Or are we missing the grace of GOD by grumbling and complaining and not forgiving those who have offended us? I confess I have struggled with this in some areas in recent weeks. I don't want to "kill the grace," GOD has put in my yard, by unforgiveness and grumbling and complaining about HIS ways in my life. I want HIM as my Master to be able to arrange the "cut"flowers in my life in the beautiful way that HE desires to bring much glory and honor to HIM...but i know that requires a humble and gentle spirit that usually on comes through suffering. Pray for me as i pray for you that we will abide in our LORD JESUS CHRIST and that in the cracked and broken places of our lives we will "look diligently," for HIS grace. Pray that HIS love and grace will fill us and flow through us to reach those around us with the love and salvation of our LORD JESUS to those around us... to be "places where GOD's grace is...is soon to be so amazing..."
"Unredeemed..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZqqCSoXZtQ

"Now unto HIM that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Ephesians 3:20

"We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of GOD. This is an expression of breathless expectation. When we are rightly related to GOD, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy." Oswald Chambers.

With all HIS love,
mitzi




Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our friend Tony Greene whose body is trying to reject the kidney he received from his wife Taranda last August.
Yesterday's Update on Tony from Taranda's FB page: Tony has taken 2 of the 6 treatments they are giving him to reverse the rejection. He just returned from having a port placed in his neck for the treatments to go directly to the kidney. Praying for positive comments. I believe in praying specifically, so I'm asking you all to pray with me that the meds will work. I know God is able & faithful in all things.





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"In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside."

"AND WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD." ROMANS 8:28