"HE guided them by the skillfullness of HIS hands." Ps. 78:72
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
Looks another "Sunday" email, after Friday came and went with me taking a CPR class, studying for my final this week, and celebrating my brother and sis in law's birthday's with my family Friday evening. I wasn't feeling the best in the world on Friday either...but I did want to take this next few minutes to share with you a few thoughts from this past week. Great is THY faithfulness, would be the continued theme of my life, of how GOD keeps things going around here, when I feel like I am coming apart at times...literally. I have continued to try to take my thyroid medicine here and there at reduced dosages, and all my efforts, though giving me some measure of stability, result in side effects that far outweigh the benefits...so I continue to wait upon the LORD to guide me by the skillfullness of HIS hands through this uncharted territory for me. Thank you for remembering me in your prayers. Last Monday evening, I felt like I was going to burst after I finished studying, and although it was our "family" night, I loaded up my kayak in the back of the Yukon, tossed my gear in and rod and reel and headed for the peacefulness and serenity of the river. I hated to leave Johnny and Hannah Beth, (John Mac was in Hawaii), but I just felt like I had to get to the river and Johnny was okay with it. I had a wonderful time in the late summer evening paddling along in the smooth water close to the shore, as I slowly made my way to Big Creek. I took time to buy my fishing license at Sportman's Park before I unloaded my boat, and I enjoyed casting my rod and reel as I paddled along the river bank. I don't know what I would do if I did land a fish...I don't ever take my tackle box anymore...just doesn't seem necessary since I never catch anything...but oh was it relaxing just being out on the water...it was just what the "doc" ordered. Not really, but MY GREAT PHYSICIAN knew I needed that time to unwind, and let my body relax. After trying another "thyroid," pill experiment the day before...my body was fit to be tied. I sure enjoyed my sunset paddle, and made my way under the bridge where the barn swallows build their nest and swarm in and out under the bridge. I paddled a short ways up into Big Creek and cast my fishing line a few times, before I headed back...I didn't want to get caught out on the river after dark. I enjoyed a leisurely paddle back to where I had put in, and then decided to fish a little bit more, before heading back to my family. It sure was a soothing time to my soul...even though I don't remember even being able to pray that much...just getting out there, paddling in GOD's beautiful creation on the Elk River, casting my line into the water, brought peace to my soul. This is just one of the ways, the LORD has ministered to my soul during the midst of the "storms," that my body has gone through these past couple of months. I praise HIM and thank HIM for these times of refreshing and taking me from "strength to strength," as I walk through the Valley of Bacca as it talks about in Psalms 84:6.
"When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs." Psalm 84:6
I sure wouldn't want to repeat this trial, which isn't over yet, but I am thankful for the LORD's presence and love and comfort to me in so many ways, through so many people and circumstances in the midst of it.
This is the final week of my Precalculus class and I will be done...PTL!!!! What an incredible 2 months the LORD has brought me through...and what seemed impossible at times, became difficult, and now is almost done. However, because of my health issues, and the toll it's taken on me and the family, it does have my husband and me to question will I be able to handle the upcoming nursing courses at UAH. I read this devotion this morning from Streams in the Desert, and once again the LORD encouraged me in this journey.
Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Psalm 78:72
Skillful Guidance
Great waves beat o'er her side, as north wind blows;
Deep in the darkness hid lie threat'ning rocks and shoals;
But all of these, and more, my Pilot knows.
I mentioned Johnny having his own health issues...this past week, he had a CT scan done on a cyst in his hip and we are waiting to hear back from those results. Sure would appreciate you keeping him in your prayers....and pray for our family that in the midst of all that GOD is doing in our lives individually and as a family that CHRIST would be magnified, and draw others to HIM through us.
As I've been doing this summer, I'm just going to share with you some things the LORD has used to encourage my heart this week to sustain me, encourage me, and strengthen me as I walk with HIM day by day, minute by minute...HE is teaching me to lean hard on the everlasting arms.
"Manna from Heaven"
Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD." Ex. 14:13
"GO from strength to strength." Ps. 84:7
"Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe."
"To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless, it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the LORD HIMself." Elisabeth Elliot
"Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind." Luke 12;29
"For we are GOD's masterpiece HE has created us anew in CHRIST JESUS, so that we can do the good things HE planned for us long ago." Eph. 2:10
"In their affliction, they will seek ME early." Hosea 5:15
"Loss and adversities are frequently the means the GREAT SHEPHERD uses to fetch home HIS wondering sheep. Like fierce doges, they worry the wonderers back to the fold. Lions cannot be tamed if they are too well fed; their stomach need to be deprived and they must be brought down from their great strength before they will submit to the TAMER's hand." Charles Spurgeon
"You are GOD's opportunity in YOUR day. HE has waited for ages for a person just like you."
"Bring to GOD your gift, my brother, HE'll need not to call another, You will do. HE will add HIS blessing to it, and the life of you will do it, GOD and you." Springs in the Valley
"What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Jn 13:7
"I do not ask my cross to understand. My way to see-better in darkness just to feel THY hand and follow Thee." Streams in the Desert
"The power of forgiveness can keep us in the flow of GOD's will, at peace in the storms, carried along in the ever advancing river of HIS eternal places and purposes for our lives." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"You will keep him in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." Is. 26:3
"If we really comprehended the measure of the grace of GOD toward us, surely it would be easy for us to forgive others for the relatively small sins they have committed against us." Elisabeth Elliot
"LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Mt. 18:21,22
"I learned that I must bear all that others were allowed to do against me and to forgive with no trace of bitterness." Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places
"I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine." Song of Sol. 6:3
"Forgiveness is a mighty tool in the hand of an all powerful GOD to bring healing to every conceivable type of situation and relationship-past and present."
"Through this MAN forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by HIM everyone who believes is freed from everything." Acts 13: 38
"For YOU equip me with strength for the battle." Ps. 18:39
"For when I am weak, then I AM strong." 2 Cor. 10:12
"Jehoshophat cried out, and the LORD helped him." 2 Chr. 18:31
"Do not sorrow for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Neh. 8:10
"As we get the TRUTH of GOD's WORD into our hearts, it protects us from deception and from sinning with our tongues." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"Nevertheless, I am continually with thee...Ps. 73:23
"A hardening of our hearts means a resistance of our wills, for the heart is the throne room, the innermost place of control. and in the heart, either self will is on the throne, or the will of GOD." Hannah Hurnard, GOD's Transmitters
"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of GOD because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Eph. 4:18
"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
"The Shepherd laughs too-I don't know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection." Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places
"I will meditate on all YOUR works and consider all YOUR mighty deeds, YOUR ways, O GOD are holy...YOU are the GOD who performs miracles, YOU display YOUR power among the peoples." Ps. 77:12-14
Well, this seems like a good place to wrap this letter up...meditating on all GOD's works and considering HIS mighty deeds in our lives. HE has performed a miracle for me this summer, to get this incredibly weak vessel through Precal, i know that and I praise HIM for HIS power and HIS love to me.
This morning, our choir sang the beautiful song, "Bow the Knee" and it sure did minister to my heart, where the LORD has me walking, not quiet understanding but wanting to surrender to HIS will and "Bow the Knee"....I pray that it will yours too ...http://www.youtube.com/
Please continue to remember my in laws in your prayers...Pop has better times and then difficult. Pray for my Mother in law who is so lovingly caring for Pop at home. Also, Darlene begins her new treatment for cancer in Houston tomorrow at the Brysinski clinic. Please remember her and her dear family while they are away from her and all that GOD wants to do in their lives during this time.
Thank you for taking your valuable time to spend this time with me....i love you and I covet your prayers...one more Precal Test, pray me through it, i'm counting on you!
With all HIS love,
mitzi
--
Scripture Reference: Psalm 78:72
Skillful Guidance
"He guided them by the skillfulness of his hands"
(Ps. 78:72).When you are doubtful as to your course, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, and ask Him to shut against you every door but the right one…Meanwhile keep on as you are, and consider the absence of indication to be the indication of God's will that you are on His track…As you go down the long corridor, you will find that He has preceded you, and locked many doors which you would fain have entered; but be sure that beyond these there is one which He has left unlocked. Open it and enter, and you will find yourself face to face with a bend of the river of opportunity, broader and deeper than anything you had dared to imagine in your sunniest dreams. Launch forth upon it; it conducts to the open sea.
God guides us, often by circumstances. At one moment the way may seem utterly blocked; and then shortly afterward some trivial incident occurs, which might not seem much to others, but which to the keen eye of faith speaks volumes. Sometimes these things are repeated in various ways, in answer to prayer. They are not haphazard results of chance, but the opening up of circumstances in the direction in which we would walk. And they begin to multiply as we advance toward our goal, just as the lights do as we near a populous town, when darting through the land by night express. --F. B. Meyer
If you go to Him to be guided, He will guide you; but He will not comfort your distrust or half-trust of Him by showing you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will show you only into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still farther. --Horace Bushnell
As moves my fragile bark across the storm-swept sea,Great waves beat o'er her side, as north wind blows;
Deep in the darkness hid lie threat'ning rocks and shoals;
But all of these, and more, my Pilot knows.
Sometimes when dark the night, and every light gone out,
I wonder to what port my frail ship goes;
Still though the night be long, and restless all my hours,
My distant goal, I'm sure, my Pilot knows.
I wonder to what port my frail ship goes;
Still though the night be long, and restless all my hours,
My distant goal, I'm sure, my Pilot knows.
Yes, I am doubtful at my course at times, and wonder, am I crazy or what for even attempting to go back to school. I hope it's the "or what," and I truly am following the LORD's call on my life.
I am just having to trust the LORD one day at a time, and we are going to see how this first semester goes. So ya'll pray for us, pray for me...GOD seems to have opened so many doors for me to do this, and I just keep praying, LORD shut the doors if this is not the way YOU want me to go. So far, HE continues to open them...the latest being me not having to take the required Hep B Vaccine for the nursing program at UAH, and of course finishing the Precal class...my only prerequisite I had lacking for the senior year of nursing at UAH. HE sure did go to a lot of trouble to get me through this class...a wonderful teacher, three tutors including my son, an understanding family most of the time....and well you know some of the other things that were going on at the same time that were more than a bit distracting....like becoming allergic and i think toxic to my thyroid meds, having to change IV nutrients in the middle of the class, my Daddy in law's health being precarious, and my husband having his own health challenges, along with my two adult children home for the summer and all that goes along with everyone coming and going.
John Mac submitted his application this weekend for med school at UAB....sure would appreciate your prayers for him and GOD's call on his life. He plans to look for a full time engineering job now while he waits...if he does get accepted he has to wait a year to start, and he plans to take a couple of classes at UAH this fall, Genetics and something else. HB will be taking four anatomy test this week, beginning tomorrow, and then she will be heading back to the U of M next week where she will begin her clinicals in nursing school soon. She tried on her nursing outfit for me the other day and she looked so pretty in the white top with maroon pants. She and her Daddy went shopping last Thursday afternoon to finish buying her supplies for school and all. It was sweet....and I'm glad they were able to spend that time together while I was home studying for my test. It's been neat HB and I have been doing the same things to get ready for nursing school, and the book I used for my CPR class is the exact book her teacher wanted her to get and read before the class so I gave her mine. She got her Hep B shot, wish she didn't have to, and has two more to go. GOD sure has blessed her with a good mind...i am amazed at how well HE has enabled her to do taking to human anatomy courses this summer. Ya'll please pray for HB as the LORD leads and guides her...I mentioned Johnny having his own health issues...this past week, he had a CT scan done on a cyst in his hip and we are waiting to hear back from those results. Sure would appreciate you keeping him in your prayers....and pray for our family that in the midst of all that GOD is doing in our lives individually and as a family that CHRIST would be magnified, and draw others to HIM through us.
As I've been doing this summer, I'm just going to share with you some things the LORD has used to encourage my heart this week to sustain me, encourage me, and strengthen me as I walk with HIM day by day, minute by minute...HE is teaching me to lean hard on the everlasting arms.
"Manna from Heaven"
Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD." Ex. 14:13
"GO from strength to strength." Ps. 84:7
"Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe."
"To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless, it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the LORD HIMself." Elisabeth Elliot
"Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind." Luke 12;29
"For we are GOD's masterpiece HE has created us anew in CHRIST JESUS, so that we can do the good things HE planned for us long ago." Eph. 2:10
"In their affliction, they will seek ME early." Hosea 5:15
"Loss and adversities are frequently the means the GREAT SHEPHERD uses to fetch home HIS wondering sheep. Like fierce doges, they worry the wonderers back to the fold. Lions cannot be tamed if they are too well fed; their stomach need to be deprived and they must be brought down from their great strength before they will submit to the TAMER's hand." Charles Spurgeon
"You are GOD's opportunity in YOUR day. HE has waited for ages for a person just like you."
"Bring to GOD your gift, my brother, HE'll need not to call another, You will do. HE will add HIS blessing to it, and the life of you will do it, GOD and you." Springs in the Valley
"What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Jn 13:7
"I do not ask my cross to understand. My way to see-better in darkness just to feel THY hand and follow Thee." Streams in the Desert
"The power of forgiveness can keep us in the flow of GOD's will, at peace in the storms, carried along in the ever advancing river of HIS eternal places and purposes for our lives." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"You will keep him in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." Is. 26:3
"If we really comprehended the measure of the grace of GOD toward us, surely it would be easy for us to forgive others for the relatively small sins they have committed against us." Elisabeth Elliot
"LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Mt. 18:21,22
"I learned that I must bear all that others were allowed to do against me and to forgive with no trace of bitterness." Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places
"I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine." Song of Sol. 6:3
"Forgiveness is a mighty tool in the hand of an all powerful GOD to bring healing to every conceivable type of situation and relationship-past and present."
"Through this MAN forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by HIM everyone who believes is freed from everything." Acts 13: 38
"For YOU equip me with strength for the battle." Ps. 18:39
"For when I am weak, then I AM strong." 2 Cor. 10:12
"Jehoshophat cried out, and the LORD helped him." 2 Chr. 18:31
"Do not sorrow for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Neh. 8:10
"As we get the TRUTH of GOD's WORD into our hearts, it protects us from deception and from sinning with our tongues." Nancy Leigh DeMoss
"Nevertheless, I am continually with thee...Ps. 73:23
"A hardening of our hearts means a resistance of our wills, for the heart is the throne room, the innermost place of control. and in the heart, either self will is on the throne, or the will of GOD." Hannah Hurnard, GOD's Transmitters
"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of GOD because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Eph. 4:18
"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
"The Shepherd laughs too-I don't know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection." Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places
"I will meditate on all YOUR works and consider all YOUR mighty deeds, YOUR ways, O GOD are holy...YOU are the GOD who performs miracles, YOU display YOUR power among the peoples." Ps. 77:12-14
Well, this seems like a good place to wrap this letter up...meditating on all GOD's works and considering HIS mighty deeds in our lives. HE has performed a miracle for me this summer, to get this incredibly weak vessel through Precal, i know that and I praise HIM for HIS power and HIS love to me.
This morning, our choir sang the beautiful song, "Bow the Knee" and it sure did minister to my heart, where the LORD has me walking, not quiet understanding but wanting to surrender to HIS will and "Bow the Knee"....I pray that it will yours too ...http://www.youtube.com/
Please continue to remember my in laws in your prayers...Pop has better times and then difficult. Pray for my Mother in law who is so lovingly caring for Pop at home. Also, Darlene begins her new treatment for cancer in Houston tomorrow at the Brysinski clinic. Please remember her and her dear family while they are away from her and all that GOD wants to do in their lives during this time.
Thank you for taking your valuable time to spend this time with me....i love you and I covet your prayers...one more Precal Test, pray me through it, i'm counting on you!
With all HIS love,
mitzi
--
"Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Luke 18:11
"When I passed by thee,...I said unto thee..., Live."
Ezekiel 16:6
