Dear Family and Friends,
Last night, my family watched the DVD, "Faith without Potatoes" http://www.wingcinema.com/faithlikepotatoes .Have you seen it yet? A friend of HB's, Julia Paul, had written on her FB status several weeks ago that she wanted to have "faith like potatoes," and i was intrigued by that comment. Later i learned that "Faith Like Potatoes," was a movie based on a true story of a farmer in Africa who found faith in JESUS CHRIST. "Faith Like Potatoes," is the story of this man's journey and how GOD grew his faith and his family through the many seemingly insurmountable losses they faced. When i received an email yesterday about the DVD, i really wanted to see it. I called Wal-Mart to see if they had it, not expecting them to, and the man came back on the line in a few minutes and said they had it and it was $7.50. First of all I couldn't believe they had it...O me of little faith, and second i couldn't believe they had it for $7.50. What a special blessing from the LORD! So last night, after we ate supper, and the kitchen was cleaned, we settled in to watch the movie. HB said it was a little slow at first, though i didn't think it was slow. My brain works slower than hers so that may be why it wasn't slow to me. It really had some good lessons in trusting the LORD through our trials and how HE loves to prove HIMself to those who trust HIM. After the movie was over, HB said, you'd better not write a devotion on it, and really i had no intention to, though i did really like the movie, and the encouragement it gave me to trust GOD for the impossible.
This morning as i was thinking about what to write about...GOD began to bring to my mind "Faith Like Potato" experiences HE has built into my life...the most recent being that of healing Josie! All of you who have been following her journey realize what a miracle her healing is. One thing you may not realize is that Stan's first wife, his oldest child's Mother, died just a few days after giving birth to Addie. Stan had already walked this treacherous road once and experienced the grace that only GOD can give in times like these. The doctor's did not expect Josie to live beyond the first night...giving her a 20% when she was delivered by emergency c section 2 months early due to fluid all over her little body. She improved the first few days of treatment over at Huntsville, and then hit a roadblock. Catherine voiced her concerns to me one day as i was driving her to go see Josie while she was still recovering from her c section (i don't think Catherine really had a chance to recover, GOD just healed her on the go, and strengthened her to do what a Mama does when her baby is sick, and she has three others little ones at home- she neglects herself to care for her little ones) that she didn't think Josie was improving. I kind of dismissed them thinking she would turn around soon, but she continued to get worse in the NICU in Huntsville. Finally, Catherine and Stan made the decision to transfer her to Vanderbilt to see if they could help her baby. Catherine had done her Nurse Practioner training at Vanderbilt and was very familar with the teachers and setting there. At Vanderbilt, she had hope to be consoled that Josie was not the sickest baby there, but she was, there was no one sicker, and Josie's case was life or death. Several weeks past, and Josie remained on the ventilator, several IV's, chest tubes to drain the fluid, and suddenly GOD seemed to bring healing to her little body quickly once the medicine worked to be able to plug up the holes in her lymphatic system. When Catherine first began talking of bringing Josie home we were just incredulous...many times we wondered along with Catherine and Stan if Josie would come home with them or if the LORD would choose to take her HOME with HIM in heaven. I can't say i had "Faith Like Potatoes," for Josie...i just felt called to pray for her, and knew that if it was the LORD's will to heal her HE could certainly do that. I do know of one person who had faith that Josie would be healed. Stephanie Carpenter's daughter, Claire i believe, told her Mother all along that Josie was going to be okay. That is a child's "Faith Like Potatoes," and that's the kind of faith JESUS calls us to have in HIM, child like faith, that HE can redeem us from our sins and that HE is the GOD of the Impossible. The Carpenter family have been such GOD send's to the Smith's often caring for their other little ones's while Catherine was in Nashville with Josie. A week or so ago, when the Celebration for Josie's healing was being planned, we had no idea she would be home that soon. It was just a few days before that Catherine told us they were trying to decide if she would be transferred back to Huntsville Hospital before she came home...and then all of the sudden Catherine writes and tells us that Josie is coming home:
We are about to take home our baby, the one who doctors say is just remarkable to have come of out such a critical place ...unscathed. The one who we have wept and prayed over and God answered our prayers, with the outcome we have longed for. We are about to take our premie baby home who at one time just removing her face blind or laying our hands on her over stimulated her to the point of dropping her oxygen saturation in the 60’s.... Our doctor just came in and did a run down from head to toe and said she was a very, very remarkable baby. A miracle. We agree, the Lord has healed Josie. Not man, and I think that is what he was trying to get out. Thank you Lord
" I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths…O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning…O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy...You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. Psalm 30
I hope ya'll realize in our busy lives that we have witnessed a miracle, the healing power of GOD, the answers to the cries of so many of GOD's children for Josie's life. I know my faith once again has grown leaps and bounds as I have watched my GOD do the impossible.
I am 47 years old, and the thing i love about getting older is being able to string more miracles like Josie's together and realize that GOD is the GOD of the impossible. In my joy room, on my prayer table which has become a table of faith for me with reminders of "the impossible" things GOD has done for me or those i've prayed for i have a verse in a picture frame my Daddy-in-law gave me several years ago. It says, "With GOD all things are possible." Matthew 19:26. When he first gave it to me, i didn't think too much about the verse, but as GOD has led me to believe HIM for the impossible and pray for them, and I have seen HIM give me impossible desires in answers to my prayers, I realize, wow LORD, YOU'RE growing my faith to be like that of "Faith Like Potatoes.
This past week, a friend texted me and told me that Tim Greene (http://www.evangelisttimgreene.com/ was going to be preaching and singing at Austinville Church of GOD in Decatur, Sunday Aug. 8. You remember my friend Tim, the one whom many of you prayed for with me for years for Tim and his family when Tim was so very sick with mold poisoning and could not leave the beach. GOD kept Tim and his family in my heart night and day for 5 years to love them and pray for them. I never dreamed he would miraculously heal Tim May a year ago and Tim would be able to go and preach all over telling others what JESUS has done for him. He even went to England this year with his family to share the gospel of JESUS CHRIST. I don't know if you've ever been to England but it is very damp and cold and moldy even in the summer. Tim went in the winter or early spring and flew on a long plane ride on top of the mold over there. This was impossible for Tim (and me now) before GOD healed him. Tim could not leave the beach without getting sick before GOD healed him. Tim called me last summer to tell me that GOD had healed him. A few short months later, he was speaking and sharing at Greenbrier Baptist, a church right across from our restaurant. GOD knows how i had longed to see Tim and his wife,Amy and his daughter Brittany all those years he was sick, and now GOD had made that possible when HE brought Tim and Brittany to Alabama..."All things are possible with GOD." GOD had just put another potato in my bag of faith!
Today as i write is Belle Greene's birthday...that's Tim Greene's little niece. The Greene's http://www.thegreenesgospel.com/ traveled to Alabama in our area 8 times that first year i met Tim at the clinic in Dallas. Tony, Tim's brother and Taranda longed to have a baby of their own, and the doctors had told them they would never have a baby. That first Thanksgiving after we had met them, Hannah Beth and I went to see them down at Haleyville at a concert. I didn't know Taranda hardly at all, and we barely spoke at their table where they were selling tapes, but she told me that she was pregnant! Now, Belle is 6 years old today, and GOD has given them another little girl since then, Josie who is 2 and and is a little pistol! She has lungs like her Mother when she sings! Belle, celebrating her 6th birthday reminds me that my GOD is the GOD of the impossible, and gives me more "Faith Like Potatoes."
This morning, my housekeeper and i were talking about her recent journey with her foot. If you remember i asked you to pray for Mrs. Kelley who was bitten by a brown recluse spider earlier this year and then developed staff infection in it. The doctor's told her she would probably loose part of her foot, or at least some of her toes. This morning, as she showed me her foot that was almost healed, we thanked GOD for HIS healing and once again, the GOD of the impossible, put another "potato" in my bag of faith. An aside here, Mrs. Kelly, who doesn't have insurance, told me how good the hospital had treated them. She was afraid that since they didn't have insurance she would not get good care. That fear was unfounded, and she told me how good of care she received...i know our medical system has problems, but its still the most compassionate and best in the world! Mrs. Kelly is trusting the LORD to help them to make the payments the hospital is working with them on...as HE has given her "Faith Like Potatoes." She was in the hospital for over 2 weeks and then returned each day for 4 weeks to have her foot repacked and treated. She said they only charged her $10.00 each time she went back...what a blessing, and evidence of GOD's provision for her life.
In a few weeks, my daughter will be packing her car and ours and we will leave her at the University of Mobile. Not looking forward to that day, August 20, but the GOD who delivered her from death as an infant with a hemagioma growing across her windpipe, will give grace to help this Mama and Daddy let go, and let HIM grow her and mature her at a conservative CHRISTian college. I always wanted my kids to have the opportunity to go to a CHRISTian college, but it seemed impossible since they weren't any nearby and Johnny and I didn't want our kids going far away to school. The GOD of the impossible had to change all three of our hearts, including hers, to make her want to be in Mobile. GOD has provided a generous scholarship for her and we will be depending on HIM to provide the means to meet her needs at this private school that really wasn't in our plans when we signed the kids up with the P.A.C.T. program to pay for their college at a public college when they were little. The GOD of the impossible had other plans for her though, and thankfully, the P.A.C.T plan will transfer over and can be used at the University of Mobile. GOD is giving us "Faith Like Potatoes," to know that HE is going to make the way for her and for us...as she begins her new life in Mobile in a few short weeks.
The LORD brings many things to my mind things HE has done in our lives, and the lives of those we love. It's not always been what we desired at the time, and we sometimes forget that HIS ways are higher than ours. Little by little, potato by potato, HE continually teaches us that HE is SOVEREIGN, HE loves us so very much and HE is the GOD of the impossible. GOD is for us, through all the circumstances, through all the sufferings that HE brings into our live to perfect us like the Captain of our Salvation, JESUS CHRIST was perfected through HIS sufferings.
GOD continues to minister to my heart and give me insight into HIS restoration and redemption of us through that little saying of Audrey Hepburn's i've used the past couple of weeks:
"People even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed, never throw out anyone."
GOD wants each and every one of us to have "Faith Like Potatoes," not only for our lives but for our family members, friends, those in our neighborhoods, those we work with and go to school with. When things are shattered and broken, HE wants us to have "Faith Like Potatoes," to believe that HE is the GOD of the impossible and that HE is the one who restores , renews, revives, reclaims, and redeems us. HE paid the price for our soul at Calvary with HIS SON's blood. For all who receive this free gift from GOD, HE spends the rest of our lives, restoring us, renewing us, and making us like our LORD JESUS CHRIST .
When i was in high school, my Daddy bought a 1966 Mustang from a classmate of mine that had been sitting outside in the weather for years. It was a mess you could say, but my Daddy could see through the weathered and battered car, to a car that would make a good car for his daughter to drive back and forth to school. Daddy had already restored two Mustangs before mine, one for my brother Ralph and one for my sister Jill, so this wasn't the first time...Daddy knew what he was doing. What was once a piece of junk and not worth much of anything except to the one who looked beyond the rusty, dirty car, torn seats, and blown out tires, was now restored and renewed and so very valuable, to me. My Daddy paid for the car, $200.00, redeeming it, but he used his time, sweat, and energy to restore and renew that car for something that i could drive. I am still very proud and thankful for today. I wish we still had it.
Our heavenly FATHER knows what HE is doing in our lives...the GOD of the impossible sees beyond anger and pride and rebellion and all the yucky sin in our lives. HE brings us to the end of ourselves and humbles us and draws us to HIMself when we are broken and at our "wit's end." Then HE transforms that man or woman who comes to HIM in faith through JESUS, literally rescues us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of HIS marvelous light, and gives us a new heart, with new and right desires, and puts a new spirit in us.
"And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart. And I will put my SPIRIT in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command." Ezekiel 36:24-27
This is what our FATHER does when HE redeems us and restores us to what we were before we were born into sin. HE spends the rest of our lives continuing HIS work in us and making us a vessel that HE can use to shine HIS light through and bring those who aren't restored to the ONE who redeems and restores and renew and revives.
A poem that means a great deal to me, and has really encouraged me when GOD was allowing a whole lot of physical suffering in my life, is called, "When GOD Wants to Drill a Man." GOD was lovingly working on me, restoring me, though i couldn't see it, and all i wanted was to be out of my suffering.
When God Wants to Drill a Man
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
As i was thinking about Baby Josie this week, and the Miracle that GOD has brought about in her life GOD brought the song to my mind, "Miracle in Me," that the Greene's http://www.thegreenesgospel.com/ sing so beautifully. GOD has done a "Miracle In Me," for Josie, to bring physical healing to her little life. He's done a miracle in Tim Greene's life, in the Greene's sending them Belle and Josie, in HB's life opening the doors for her to go to the University of Mobile, Mrs. Kelley and in my life as HE continues to restore my health. But more important than the physical restoration HE does for us, much more important, is the "spiritual" restoration HE offers each of us in a personal and intimate relationship with HIM. HE longs to restore us to oneness with HIM as we surrender our hearts to HIM. I pray that you will do that today if you've never ask JESUS to be the LORD of your life. Watch this "Miracle in Me," video of the Tony, Kim Greene Hopper, and Tim singing way back in 1987. What a blessing this dear family of GOD has been to so many, including me, as they have had "Faith Like Potatoes," to sing the praises of GOD for over 30 years and through many, many difficult blows the LORD has allowed in their lives... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8lQe5EL-XA
I love you, dear ones, thank you for sharing time with me this week. I pray that GOD will use this testimony for you to help you search your own heart and life, and see the places HE has given you "Faith Like Potatoes." Tell others what GOD has done for you...that what this email is about week after week, just telling others what our GOD of the Impossible has done for me and my family and loved ones. That's what the Greene's do as they travel all over singing and telling others what GOD has done for them. That's what Josie's Mom has been doing through her updates...telling what GOD has done for them. One of Catherine's last post from the hospital tells of her Mother's heart who wanted to hope, and have "Faith Like Potatoes,but was afraid to as she watched other Mom's and Dad's bring their babies and leave. She writes:
We have seen so many moms and dads move into rooms, stay a few days or a week or so, then bring their car seat and just up and leave with their baby. i can't believe it's our time!! Thank You Lord!
July 9 at 9:26pm
Praise the LORD, in HIS graciousness, HE brought them out when it was their time. In the midst of their suffering, we have grown in our faith, as we have watched them walk through this trial with grace and the strength of the LORD.
If it's not your time yet, Hold On, and wait expectantly and patiently. " Our HUSBANDMEN wants us to have "Faith Like Potatoes, " and wait patiently for the harvest. Our GOD of the Impossible will restore, redeem, revive, renew in HIS time. "And therefore will the LORD wait, that HE may be gracious unto you, and therefore will HE be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a GOD of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for HIM." Isaiah 30:18
With all HIS love,
mitzi
P.S. The Greene's, the Hopper's, and Gold City will be at the Cullman Civic Center, Oct 8, 2010...save the date. Contact me for ticket information. Pray that GOD would make it possible for Tim to be there and sing with his brother Tony and his sister Kim, who sings with the Hopper's. Kim married married into the Hopper family many years ago. It would be awesome to hear them sing, "Miracle in Me," together again...perhaps he will, if we have "Faith like Potatoes."
"If GOD wants to do something wonderful, HE begans with a difficulty and when HE wants to do something really wonderful, HE begans with an impossibility." Rev. Charles Inwood
"Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe." St. Augustine
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to HIM must believe that HE exists and that HE rewards those who earnestly seek HIM." Hebrews 11:6
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