But HE said to me, “MY grace is sufficient for you, for MY power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.II Cor. 12:9-10
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I don't usually start the "Friday" email at 10:15 p.m. on Friday night...but that is what GOD has provided, and so here i go. I have been "whacked," by an allergic reaction since Wednesday, and well, this really is the first open window GOD has given me to write. HIS thoughts have been in my heart, and I trust that HE will lead me what to share with you.
I want to ask each of you to please remember my friend Darlene Anderson in your prayers. Darlene is in Huntsville Hospital tonight and she is struggling for her life. Many of you know Darlene and you know what a joy and delight that she is along with her husband Arthur, and their three children, Jeremy, Natalie, and Phillip. Darlene has cancer and earlier this week was given some platelets contaminated by bacteria. Her body is really struggling to recover and get her platelets up. Please remember Darlene and her family who has meant so much to our family through the years. Arthur was our Sunday School teacher at First Baptist when the LORD led us there in 1998. They joined us on the homeschool journey and what a sweet time of fellowship we shared for several years as we camped together, fished together, went to see the Greenes together, celebrated CHRISTmas together, kayaked together, and oh yeah, studied some together:). It is so special how GOD brings people into our lives to help us and encourage us along the journey, and that's who Darlene has been to me, when i was sick and trying to homeschool. She was such a ray of sunshine and so teachable, and always willing to help me however she could. Eventually, Arthur and Darlene felt the LORD leading them to put their kids in a CHRISTian school when they got older, and our families were led to different churches so our paths went different directions. But what sweet time it was for the years the LORD allowed the Anderson's to walk alongside us on our journey and encourage us in the LORD. Thank you so much for praying for Darlene and her family during this most difficult time.
Earlier this week, Johnny and I had the great blessing of watching our son receive the Electrical Engineering Academic Award at the UAH honors day. That morning as my son got ready for the honors ceremony and looked so handsome in his navy sport coat, white collared shirt with red tie, and cacky pants, I said son, what the LORD has done in yours and Hannah Beth's lives gives me the faith that if GOD wants me to go back to school, HE can do it. What I meant by that is GOD allowed this weak sickly homeschool Mom, who cheated on her high school math and was too scattered to even help her children with their Math much beyond sixth or seventh grade to receive the Electrical Engineering Academic Award and finish with a 4.0. Yes, i am bragging, but I want to brag upon the LORD for HIS grace has indeed been sufficient and HIS power is made perfect in weakness...in my weakness. GOD has clearly shown this to me over and over in my life...and because of what HE has done in the past, HE gives me faith that HE will give me grace for the future to be strong in my weaknesses to do what HE is calling me to do and what HE is calling my children to do.
This week I have been reading about Joshua in my Daily Bible reading, and how Joshua utterly depended on the LORD and was obedient to HIM. Today I read about the walls of Jericho falling down...and the Israelites were able to defeat their enemies. Not because of their own power, but because of their obedience to GOD and HIS power made the walls of Jericho fall. First they had to march around the city seven times will little lamps in their hands. I wonder if any of them felt dumb doing that, wondering what good that is going to accomplish marching with a lamp in their hand? I sometimes wonder about the paths that GOD leads me down, like homeschooling, when I was so sick. I wouldn't take anything for those years with my children. I'm sure to those looking at us, it must have seemed dumb sometimes to homeschool when we could have put them in school. It is GOD's grace that enabled me to go on when there were many days I didn't feel like getting up. I praise HIM for HIS grace in our lives and truly it has been sufficient, and will continue to be for the battles HE has for us to fight, and the plans that HE has for us that are much bigger than our strength, and beyond our comprehension.
This morning i was really feeling badly still, and wanted to write, but didn't feel like it. The LORD keeps trying to teach me to rest in HIM when I can't write...HE has something else HE wants to teach me or show me. One of those things was today i took Troy, our Maltipoo to the "beauty shop" to get his hair cut. When i went to pick him up there was a Maltipoo that looked just like him, except for a "combover" hanging down over the dogs face. It wasn't Troy, thought it looked like him, and turned out it was a Maltipoo born with one eye that someone adopted from the pound. It was destined to be put to sleep. My heart was moved for the compassion of the owner, to pick out an imperfect dog and save it, and love it, and give it life. That's what our LORD does for us..."But GOD demonstrated HIS love for us in that while we were yet sinners CHRIST died for us." Romans 5:8... HE loves us so much, HE picks out us who are sinners (who cheat on their math) and destined for eternal death and HE gave HIS SON to pay for our sins, and then HE adopts us into HIS family. We still sin...but HE has given us a new heart, with new desires to love HIM and obey HIM. You can't fake being a CHRISTian...you're either born again or you're not, and CHRIST loves to take our weaknesses, and show HIS power through us.
Today's reading for Streams in the Desert is one of those devotions that has encouraged my heart greatly through the years when i was so weak, and wondered why I couldn't be strong like the other Mom's homeschooling their kids. I shared with my Detoxify or Die class Sunday night, the LORD led me to start reading Streams in the Desert when i first got sick about 21 years ago ( John Mac was 8 months old when i began to experience mysterious back pain and it went downhill from there). I had no idea the LORD would keep me reading it for the next 21 years...it has become a part of me in the way GOD has used the devotions to help me to see suffering from HIS perspective. Today, as soon as i read these words, about GOD being dynamite in our weakness, i am not kidding, i immediately felt stronger, and got up, and cut the grass this afternoon. I felt HIS power upon me. I was so encouraged at being reminded how GOD uses our weaknesses to be DYNAMITE and unleash HIS power through our lives...it made me once again, so very thankful for the thorn that HE has allowed in my life...this thorn that has taught me to cling to JESUS, to depend on HIM, to know HIM in a much deeper and sweeter fellowship than I would have every known HIM if I had not had this thorn, and to know HIS resurrection power in my weaknesses...power like dynamite!
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I don't usually start the "Friday" email at 10:15 p.m. on Friday night...but that is what GOD has provided, and so here i go. I have been "whacked," by an allergic reaction since Wednesday, and well, this really is the first open window GOD has given me to write. HIS thoughts have been in my heart, and I trust that HE will lead me what to share with you.
I want to ask each of you to please remember my friend Darlene Anderson in your prayers. Darlene is in Huntsville Hospital tonight and she is struggling for her life. Many of you know Darlene and you know what a joy and delight that she is along with her husband Arthur, and their three children, Jeremy, Natalie, and Phillip. Darlene has cancer and earlier this week was given some platelets contaminated by bacteria. Her body is really struggling to recover and get her platelets up. Please remember Darlene and her family who has meant so much to our family through the years. Arthur was our Sunday School teacher at First Baptist when the LORD led us there in 1998. They joined us on the homeschool journey and what a sweet time of fellowship we shared for several years as we camped together, fished together, went to see the Greenes together, celebrated CHRISTmas together, kayaked together, and oh yeah, studied some together:). It is so special how GOD brings people into our lives to help us and encourage us along the journey, and that's who Darlene has been to me, when i was sick and trying to homeschool. She was such a ray of sunshine and so teachable, and always willing to help me however she could. Eventually, Arthur and Darlene felt the LORD leading them to put their kids in a CHRISTian school when they got older, and our families were led to different churches so our paths went different directions. But what sweet time it was for the years the LORD allowed the Anderson's to walk alongside us on our journey and encourage us in the LORD. Thank you so much for praying for Darlene and her family during this most difficult time.
Earlier this week, Johnny and I had the great blessing of watching our son receive the Electrical Engineering Academic Award at the UAH honors day. That morning as my son got ready for the honors ceremony and looked so handsome in his navy sport coat, white collared shirt with red tie, and cacky pants, I said son, what the LORD has done in yours and Hannah Beth's lives gives me the faith that if GOD wants me to go back to school, HE can do it. What I meant by that is GOD allowed this weak sickly homeschool Mom, who cheated on her high school math and was too scattered to even help her children with their Math much beyond sixth or seventh grade to receive the Electrical Engineering Academic Award and finish with a 4.0. Yes, i am bragging, but I want to brag upon the LORD for HIS grace has indeed been sufficient and HIS power is made perfect in weakness...in my weakness. GOD has clearly shown this to me over and over in my life...and because of what HE has done in the past, HE gives me faith that HE will give me grace for the future to be strong in my weaknesses to do what HE is calling me to do and what HE is calling my children to do.
This week I have been reading about Joshua in my Daily Bible reading, and how Joshua utterly depended on the LORD and was obedient to HIM. Today I read about the walls of Jericho falling down...and the Israelites were able to defeat their enemies. Not because of their own power, but because of their obedience to GOD and HIS power made the walls of Jericho fall. First they had to march around the city seven times will little lamps in their hands. I wonder if any of them felt dumb doing that, wondering what good that is going to accomplish marching with a lamp in their hand? I sometimes wonder about the paths that GOD leads me down, like homeschooling, when I was so sick. I wouldn't take anything for those years with my children. I'm sure to those looking at us, it must have seemed dumb sometimes to homeschool when we could have put them in school. It is GOD's grace that enabled me to go on when there were many days I didn't feel like getting up. I praise HIM for HIS grace in our lives and truly it has been sufficient, and will continue to be for the battles HE has for us to fight, and the plans that HE has for us that are much bigger than our strength, and beyond our comprehension.
This morning i was really feeling badly still, and wanted to write, but didn't feel like it. The LORD keeps trying to teach me to rest in HIM when I can't write...HE has something else HE wants to teach me or show me. One of those things was today i took Troy, our Maltipoo to the "beauty shop" to get his hair cut. When i went to pick him up there was a Maltipoo that looked just like him, except for a "combover" hanging down over the dogs face. It wasn't Troy, thought it looked like him, and turned out it was a Maltipoo born with one eye that someone adopted from the pound. It was destined to be put to sleep. My heart was moved for the compassion of the owner, to pick out an imperfect dog and save it, and love it, and give it life. That's what our LORD does for us..."But GOD demonstrated HIS love for us in that while we were yet sinners CHRIST died for us." Romans 5:8... HE loves us so much, HE picks out us who are sinners (who cheat on their math) and destined for eternal death and HE gave HIS SON to pay for our sins, and then HE adopts us into HIS family. We still sin...but HE has given us a new heart, with new desires to love HIM and obey HIM. You can't fake being a CHRISTian...you're either born again or you're not, and CHRIST loves to take our weaknesses, and show HIS power through us.
Today's reading for Streams in the Desert is one of those devotions that has encouraged my heart greatly through the years when i was so weak, and wondered why I couldn't be strong like the other Mom's homeschooling their kids. I shared with my Detoxify or Die class Sunday night, the LORD led me to start reading Streams in the Desert when i first got sick about 21 years ago ( John Mac was 8 months old when i began to experience mysterious back pain and it went downhill from there). I had no idea the LORD would keep me reading it for the next 21 years...it has become a part of me in the way GOD has used the devotions to help me to see suffering from HIS perspective. Today, as soon as i read these words, about GOD being dynamite in our weakness, i am not kidding, i immediately felt stronger, and got up, and cut the grass this afternoon. I felt HIS power upon me. I was so encouraged at being reminded how GOD uses our weaknesses to be DYNAMITE and unleash HIS power through our lives...it made me once again, so very thankful for the thorn that HE has allowed in my life...this thorn that has taught me to cling to JESUS, to depend on HIM, to know HIM in a much deeper and sweeter fellowship than I would have every known HIM if I had not had this thorn, and to know HIS resurrection power in my weaknesses...power like dynamite!
Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 12:10
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 12:10
Thankful for the Thorns
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
The literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to it, and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have probably never realized. Here It is: "Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being chased about, in being cooped up in a corner for Christ's sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite."
Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him. --A. B. Simpson
George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows."
"Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through the cypress trees."
The stars shine through the cypress trees."
This past week in Sunday School one of the passages of Scripture that Pastor Edwin used was Phillipians 3:10:
That I may know him, and the power of HIS resurrection, and the fellowship of HIS sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
That passage has really spoken to me all week, as CHRIST has reminded me of the fellowship that I have with HIM because of my sufferings, not in spite of them. Elisabeth Elliot says that suffering is anything we have that we don't want or anything we want and don't have...that can include a lot of things in your life and mine. All of these sufferings are an opportunity to "embrace the Cross," and join in the fellowship of the sufferings of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. I can't explain to you all that this means, as I continue to try to understand this passage. But i do know first hand that in my deepest fires the LORD has indeed drawn so near to me and revealed HIMself so sweetly through HIS WORD, and through circumstances, through other people.
Earlier this week, actually it was April 5, the day John Mac received his award, I read a powerful devotion by Charles Spurgeon that stirred my heart so much:
Author: Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning: Carrying Christ's Cross
Evening: Humiliation Brings Blessing
Morning: Carrying Christ's Cross
Evening: Humiliation Brings Blessing
Morning: Carrying Christ's Cross
"On Him they laid the cross, that He might bear it after Jesus."
--Luke 23:26
We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.
But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry. When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus!
You carry the cross after Him. You have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The mark of His blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. 'Tis His cross, and He goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. Take up your cross daily, and follow Him.
Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried ne end of the cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the cross, Christ bore the heavier end.
And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it, count it very dear, when it works out for us "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
I know from experience what it means when CHRIST interrupts our plans and asks us to help HIM carry HIS cross. Many of you reading this also know as Arthur and Darlene know as they are walking a path of suffering in their lives. GOD has not deserted them, or their family. HE is faithful to carry the heavier end and knows that this suffering is temporary and achieves a crown of glory for more than what we can comprehend.
"For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" II Cor. 4:17
Elisabeth Elliot, www.elisabethelliot.org, in her book A Path Through Suffering, talks much about how GOD wants to transform our crosses and make them our gateway to joy, just as the worst day in history when JESUS was nailed to a wooden cross for your sins and mine was turned into the best day when our sins were paid for and HE rose from the dead three days later. Just as there was resurrection power that brought JESUS back to life, so is there resurrection power in our sufferings that transforms them and brings HIS power and life to us and others through them. HE takes them and transforms them as we offer them to HIM, and gives us beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...
"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." Isaiah 61:3
"Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5
It is getting late, and there is much more that I could share about HIS grace being sufficient and carrying the cross of CHRIST. I hope to do that in the weeks ahead as we think and ponder upon the death and resurrection of our LORD JESUS CHRIST...as we think how very much HE loves us to give HIS life for us, and as we think about the DYNAMITE power that is ours in our weakness because of HIS grace and power in and through our lives.
This week, when i read that devotion about carrying the cross, the LORD brought Steve Green's "Embrace the Cross" song to my mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thank you for spending this time with me..., it's still Friday and the LORD is right on time:). CHRIST's desire is for each of us to "know CHRIST, the power of HIS resurrection, the fellowship of HIS sufferings, being made conformable unto HIS death." I hope and pray that you have trusted in CHRIST as your LORD and SAVIOR and repented of your sins.
"For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON that whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
It is an honor for me to walk this journey with you and to know CHRIST, and HIS power and share in the fellowship of HIS sufferings together with you...thank you for remembering my friend Darlene, and please remember my Mom also as she has not been feeling well.
With all HIS love,
mitzi
If I accomplish one goal in my life, if nothing else gets done, this is the one thing that really matters to me-this is my highest goal and my number one priority: to live in the presence of the LORD, to look on HIS beauty, and to learn from HIM."Nancy Leigh DeMoss, www.reviveourhearts.com
"One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in HIS temple." Psalm 27:4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnRhbxF4cbU
"Where YOUR Glory Dwells"
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