"This is GOD, our GOD forever and ever. HE will guide us forever." Psalm 48:14
"The steps of good men are directed by the LORD. He delights in each step they take. If they fall it isn't fatal, for the LORD holds them with HIS hand." Ps. 37:24
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| Third snow of the season last night! |
Bow the Knee
There are moments on our journey, following the LORD,
Where GOD illumines every step we take.
There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us,
As we try to understand each move HE makes.
When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers turn to HIM.
Chorus:
Bow the knee; trust the heart of your FATHER
when the answers goes beyond what you can see
Bow the knee, lift your eyes toward heaven and
believe the ONE who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of HIS plan,
In the presence of the KING, bow the knee.
There are days when clouds surround us and the rain begins to fall,
The cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow.
And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel;
We are tempted to believe GOD does not know.
When the storms arise, Don't forget we live by faith and not by sight.
-words and music by Chris Machen and Mike Harland
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
A few days ago, I received my old college transcripts from Tarrant Community College in Ft. Worth, Texas. I went to nursing school there back in the late 1980's after Johnny and I felt called to the foreign mission field. Johnny and i graduated the same weekend in May of 1989, he from Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, and me from TCJC as it was called back then. I was also pregnant with John Mac when i graduated, although i didn't realize it, and we were on top of the world with the blessings GOD had bestowed upon us through the completion of our studies, and the plans that lay ahead for us. Truly, GOD was blessing very step we took and illumining our path.
After graduation, we moved back home for a short time to help in the family business while Johnny waited for a church to pastor. We didn't have to wait too long, just long enough for me to finish my nursing orientation at Decatur General Hospital in Labor and Delivery, when Indian Grave Baptist Church called Johnny to be his pastor. Indian Grave was out in the country near Prattville, Al, and we loved the people and the location. John Mac was born there a few months after we moved in, the church was a loving flock, and life couldn't have been much better. Then, the LORD allowed some "plans" that we hadn't counted on.... What began as a seemingly insignificant symptom, a strange feeling in my back, would eventually lead to chronic pain first in my back and eventually migrate to all parts of my body. With two small children to care for we were forced to leave the "mission field," of Indian Grave, after two years and return to Athens where we could be closer to family and help with the children.
I must confess to you, it wasn't so easy to "Bow the Knee," and see GOD's hand leading us when we had to leave the church in the midst of my health storms. I felt lost, without a place of belonging, and very dissatisfied with what GOD was doing in our lives. This wasn't in our plans. Moving back home with a very painful and unexplainable illness, first moving in with our parents, and then to a house way out in the country far away from our families. My brother in law had recently purchased it for a rental house, so we didn't have to pay rent but it defeated the purpose of living near family to help out...they were still far away! Johnny went to work work in the restaurant business with his family and that was the last place either of us wanted to be. I felt like such a failure and though i knew somewhere in the recesses of my faith, that GOD was leading us now, just as HE was before, it was difficult for me to "Bow the knee" and "trust the heart of your FATHER when the answers goes beyond what you can see." I sure didn't understand the purpose of HIS plan that HE was asking me to "bow the knee," to and submit my will and trust HIM.
I still don't understand all the purposes of HIS plan for bringing us back home instead of letting us serve somewhere on foreign mission field or even in a church full time...and i won't on this side of heaven. But I praise HIM and I thank HIM for HIS marvelous wisdom and that HIS ways are higher than mine.
"For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY ways," declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways, and MY thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
I mentioned when i began writing that i received my transcript earlier this week from the college i received my nursing degree. One of the questions i've wondered about through the years is why did the LORD lead me to go to nursing school? Not sure the answer to that either, but i'm so glad HE did for many reasons. Through it all, the LORD has enabled me to keep my nursing license current and i'm thankful for that...it was really difficult when the kids were little and i was sick, and then when the kids were big and i was still sick and sensitive to smells, but GOD made the way for me to go to those seminars. Now you can do everything at home if you want to through online studies or reading booklets for CEU's. That's a blessing.
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| Kid's playing in snow on CHRISTmas Day. |
A few months ago a little seed was planted in my heart by a friend that maybe i could use my nursing to do some consulting in the field the LORD has had me "majoring" in the past 20 years, that of environmental illness. I prayed the LORD would take the thoughts away if it wasn't from HIM, but if it was to lead me and guide me and show me the way. Well, HE hasn't taken the thoughts away, in fact it seems to be mushrooming of sorts with GOD giving me the opportunity to teach a class at our church about things that are making us sick in our environment and ways to protect ourselves. The LORD continues to bring people in my path to help along this line. At the suggestion of my husband and doctor, i'm exploring the possibility of continuing my nursing education. When Johnny first suggested to me to go further with my nursing, my first response was "No." I had no interest in doing that whatsoever. Besides, with my sensitivities, sitting in a classroom, or doing clinicals in a hospital isn't something i could do for long periods at a time. After my doctor suggested i might go back, i was in my joy room where i have my quiet time each day and just felt like the LORD was saying to me, "I want you to surrender to this if this is MY will for you." I don't know if it is or not, but I "bowed the knee," in my heart, and surrendered right then and there to the "possibility" of going back to school. Now, Johnny doesn't remember mentioning it to me about going back to school :).
I called UAH, our local university, just to inquire about the possibility of going back, and at UAH you do most of the courses online (well, that's one way of not having to sit in a smelly classroom) and if i did ever consider the nurse practitioner degree, i can do my clinicals where i choose...hummm, that sounded appealing. Then there's this little thing called money....my friend Wanda called me earlier in the week to tell me she read about scholarships for women over 40 going back to school...i checked up on it, and i definitely qualify. While i was checking on line i saw a bunch of other places to apply for scholarships for women like me.
In the meantime...i continue to pray, continue to seek GOD's wisdom, not just about going back to school, but the possibility of doing some kind of environmental nursing/consulting. I spoke with my doctor here today, and she was very encouraging and supportive. Much more so than i would have thought unless the LORD was opening the doors for me to walk in a path HE has for me.
Amazing the verses and ways the LORD has spoken to me this week through my quiet times with HIM:
I am reading the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis during my Quiet Times each morning. This story has encouraged me so much on my journey as Joseph had a lot of years he couldn't understand why GOD was allowing him to go through so much suffering. His story of serving the LORD right where GOD had him, encourages me so much. GOD had him in prison for many long years when he was falsely accused of sexual advances by Potiphar's wife. Joseph waited patiently on GOD to deliver him and GOD did making Joseph second in command in all of Egypt. GOD used Joseph to deliver his own family as well as countless others in times of famine. His story has been such a great encouragement and inspiration to me through the years as i wrestled with the path GOD had led me down at times, often feeling very much a prisoner of my own body...waiting for the LORD to deliver me.
This morning in "Streams in the Desert," it referred to Joseph and the way GOD works in and through our lives.
God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful bough...by a well, whose branches run over the wall" (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. --The Heavenly Life
Think of your own life, are not those you go to in trouble those who have suffered the most? I mentioned last week about the three doctors GOD has used to help me the most in this past of environmental illness and suffering have been those who have suffered the most with environmental illness themselves. GOD broke them to make them even greater Physicians than they would have been if they had been left whole so that they might be a fruitful bough and bring healing to folks like me who couldn't find the answers in regular traditional medicine. The things that i have been so faithfully taught from these doctors and their staffs that have so patiently worked with me, are burning in my heart to share with others. GOD took me to Dallas broken in health 11 years ago. Is HE returning my health now to be a medical missionary amongst my own people? I don't know the answer to that, but i'm searching to see if this is what the LORD has for me and for those GOD wants to help through the things i have learned and continue to. I wondered in the wilderness for many, many years, and i know what's it's like to feel hopeless except for knowing "all things work together for good," day after day...praying that GOD will help you make it through another day, waking up in the morning and knowing you were facing the whole day ahead of you in some type of discomfort and or pain. It is this "brokeness," that builds compassion in us to reach out to others who are struggling.
In my devo from Streams this morning, i was reminded of how GOD uses sorrow and suffering to change us and to make us a "fruitful bough" to others.
"Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better"(Eccles. 7:3). When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly. Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows. We may suppose a class of indolent people living at the base of a great mountain range, who had never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains; and some day, when a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the valley, like the convolutions of a monster shell, and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and unexplored recesses of a region so near by, and yet so little known. So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected. God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful bough--by a well, whose branches run over the wall" (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. --The Heavenly Life The dark brown mould's upturned By the sharp-pointed plow; And I've a lesson learned. My life is but a field, Stretched out beneath God's sky, Some harvest rich to yield. Where grows the golden grain? Where faith? Where sympathy? In a furrow cut by pain. --Afaltbie D. Babcock Every person and every nation must take lessons in God's school of adversity. "We can say, 'Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the stars.' In the same way we can say, 'Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort.' The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had subsided, broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank which the waters had washed bare. 'It looks like gold,' he said. It was gold. The flood which had beggared him made him rich. So it is ofttimes in life." --H. C. Trumbull
Last week, i promised i would try to get you the words to "Changed," the song i used in last Friday's email. It really touched my heart singing it in choir. Indeed GOD changes each one of us from the inside out when we come to HIM in faith and repentance, and continues to change us throughout our lives through spending time in HIS WORD, and our circumstances HE "engineers for us." Sometimes we would not choose the circumstances GOD chooses to change us, but HE asks us to wait and trust HIM. I pray that you will be blessed by this song as much as i have been and worship our great GOD WHO loves us so much "HE gave HIS only SON that whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 |
"Changed," by Tom Fettke
"Many times my heart has questioned, the reason I was living for,
The pleasures of this world were leaving me, wanting more, something more.
Then YOU gave me life's true meaning Not caring where my life had been;
YOU reached out to me with YOUR mercy, And I will never, never look back again.
Chorus:
"I've been changed by YOUR glory, I've changed by YOUR mercy,
I've been change by YOUR marvelous grace;
I've been changed cause YOU love me, I've been changed' cause YOU want me,
I've been changed by the power of YOUR name. I will never be the same, I've been changed.
Now tell me where, where would I be without YOU? And tell me what kind of future would I have,
If you had not come to my rescue, And given me just one more chance?
I am so thankful for the "Change" CHRIST has brought to me and you through HIS death and resurrection. HE continued to speak to my heart about the "changes" HE makes in our lives through these powerful words:
"JESUS came to do radical heart surgery-to cleanse and transform us from the inside out by the power of HIS death and resurrection." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"We were buried therefore with HIM by baptism into death, in order that, just as CHRIST was raised from the dead by the glory of the FATHER, we too might walk in newness of life." Rom. 6:4
"As we linger in GOD's presence, we are transformed into HIS likeness." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the LORD who is the SPIRIT." 2 Cor. 3:18
"GOD doesn't want us to masquerade. He wants us to be metamorphosed -to be transformed from the inside out into the likeness of the LORD JESUS." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"Beloved, we are GOD's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when HE appears we shall be like HIM, because we shall see HIM as HE is." 1 John 3:2
This week in choir practice we sang the song, "Bow the Knee." Right away, as the LORD touched my heart with these words, i felt led to share this beautiful song with you and encourage your heart. As CHRIST "changes," us, HE is continually teaching us to "Bow the Knee," and surrender to HIS LORDship in our lives...to trust HIM, moment by moment with our todays that sometimes seems so jumbled up, and our tomorrows that without HIM seem so fearful and uncertain. HE loves us so very much, and HE knows what it means to "Bow the Knee." He left HIS glorious home in heaven to come to earth to live in poverty, be persecuted, and die on the cross for your sins and mine. HE submitted to HIS FATHER's will that we might have eternal life. We are called to follow in HIS steps that others might have life through our death to self. Because of HIS surrender to the cross, you and I have victory over sin and death, and the power to "Bow the Knee." HE is the ONE WHO is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No man comes to the FATHER except through HIM," John 14:6. Our KING requires us to "Bow the Knee," in complete surrender to HIM...not because HE is a ruthless dictator, but because HE loves us and knows what is for our good, others good and HIS glory. HE asks each one of to trust HIM and "Bow the Knee." This is a different video of "Bow the Knee," from the first one...it is very powerful also.
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| Celebrating GOD's goodness in our lives...John Mac graduating from college and Hannah Beth's 19th Birthday...thank you, JESUS, "GREAT is YOUR FAITHFULNESS." |
The HOLY SPIRIT has quietly spoken to my heart about "Bowing the Knee," this week in my Quiet Time. I thought it was amazing in my Daily Bible reading this morning was a verse with the exact phrase "Bow the Knee," referring to Joseph's sudden rise to power from prison and the people "Bowing the Knee," to Joseph. Genesis 41:43. Joseph is a type of CHRIST in the Old Testament, and this is a picture of us, "Bowing our Knee," to JESUS, our KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDs. It's coming at me from all directions to submit myself to the LORD, through my husband, through HIS WORD, through circumstances to "Bow the Knee." Please pray for me as i seek GOD's will about this "seed" in my heart. I don't want to go back to school, and I may not need to...i've been in "school" a long time and continue to be...the school of suffering. But if HE has that for me, i want to "Bow the Knee." Please pray for our family as we continue to seek the LORD for direction in several different areas in our lives...pray that we will "Bow the Knee," to HIS will for us...not just outwardly but wholeheartedly. Knowing that the LORD is our SHEPHERD, and HE is going to get us where HE knows is best for us and HIS perfect plan and will for our lives brings great comfort to me. I pray that these words will encourage your heart where the LORD has you walking and asking you to "Bow the Knee." Thank you so much for taking time to read and listen to what the HOLY SPIRIT has been speaking to my heart about this week. GOD bless each and every one of you!
With all HIS love,
mitzi
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge HIM and HE will direct thy paths." Pro. 3:5-6
"GOD guides us by our ordinary choices, and if we are going to choose what HE does not want, HE will check and we must heed." Oswald Chambers
"As long as I consider my personal temperament, and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of GOD. But when I am brought into relationship with GOD, I am in the condition Isaiah was in...to be brought into the zone of the call of GOD is to be profoundly altered." My Utmost for HIS Highest, Oswald Chambers
"When we want to know GOD's will there are three things which always concur:
1) Inward impulse
2) the WORD of GOD
3) the trend of circumstances
-GOD in the heart, impelling your forward. GOD in the BOOK, corroborating whatever HE says in the heart; and GOD in circumstances, which are always indicative of HIS will. Never start until these three things agree." Springs in the Valley
"Our LORD is longing to help us to a new discovery, or rather rediscovery of an entirely different and gloriously powerful ministry, through prayer and intercession and wonders why we are so slow and unwillingly to be shown it! Hannah Hurnard,
GOD specializes in the impossible, so that when the victory is won and the task is complete, we cannot take any credit. As soon as we think we can handle it on our own, we become useless to HIM. We have to be willing to get out of the way, to let GOD take over and let HIM overshadow us." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from GOD." 2 Cor. 3:4-5
P.S. It began snowing about 6:00 p.m. tonight (last night). As i wrote big, white fluffy flakes were falling from the sky...the ground is covered once again, just as the blood of JESUS covers our sins, and makes us white as snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! The pictures are from CHRISTmas Day, what a blessing to have a White CHRISTmas and from our latest snow, last night! Thank you, LORD!
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