Friday, July 1, 2011

"There We Saw the Giants"


"A righteous man may have many troubles but the LORD delivers him from them all." Psalm 34:19


Dear Praying Friends and Family,
   Thank you so much for your kind emails...i know that whenever the LORD let's me go through things and comforts me, HE always uses that comfort to encourage others as Paul shares in II Cor. 1:3-6:
    Praise  be to the GOD and FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, the FATHER of compassion and the GOD of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from GOD. For just as the sufferings of CHRIST flow over into our lives,so also through CHRIST our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted it is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." 
    I am thankful the LORD is using the comfort from HIS WORD and others each week to bring comfort and encouragement to your hearts, where you are walking and standing in the fire...As my friend Tony Greene, who i dearly miss, used to stay, we are all either coming out of a fire, or going into one.  Tony, who suffered from kidney failure, and died last year from an infection, knew about suffering, and he knew about GOD's comfort.  That's what he and his wife and the Greene's did...that's what they were all about, comforting others with the comfort that GOD had given them in their trials, and sharing the salvation of JESUS CHRIST through their testimonies and songs.  I've been missing Tony and all the Greene's a lot this week, and thinking what a huge place of encouragement and joy the LORD brought to my life through those years I was blessed to go and hear the Greene's sing.  I sure hadn't meant to write about this when I sat down this morning, but this is where the LORD has lead.  I guess last Sat. night, I was down and discouraged, wrestling with reactions in my body that I haven't quiet understood, and I clicked on FB.  Their was a post by Tim Greene, Tony's brother.  You remember praying for Tim don't you...for years I asked for prayer for Tim, as he was sicker than anybody i knew, couldn't leave the beach cause he would get sick from mold.  Two years ago, the LORD miraculously healed Tim Greene, and he wasted no time, hitting the road again, preaching and singing the gospel and telling others what GOD has done for him.  He formed a gospel group called the Tim Greene Trio...www.timgreenetrio.com.  On his status on FB, Tim said that his group was going to be singing at Grandfather Mtn there near Boone the next day.  I started thinking about all the years I had prayed for the Greene's, and I can remember particularly praying about their singing at Grandfather Mtn. each year in June.  It sure did make me miss Tony and all the Greene's.  I started looking over Tim's website, and seeing all those places Tim was singing and preaching, and GOD just blessed my  heart so much, thinking of all the answered prayers for Tim Greene and his family.  So many people had prayed for Tim through the years, and who would ever guess, that Tony would be in heaven, and now Tim on the road, having a Tony Greene Memorial Sing at Grandfather Mtn.  For years, Tim was home, and Tony was out on the road with his own health struggles, asking prayer for his brother, and bringing home the love offerings from the concert to pay for Tim's medical expenses.  These Greene's are "giants," not in the sense that we think of giants, but they are giants because they are weak men who reckoned on GOD being with them.  Tim and Tony were raised by a Mom and Dad who lived by faith in their LORD, not in what they could see, but in the belief that the LORD would be with them to part the waters, and make the way. The Greene's are weak vessels just like you and me, but they are "giants" when it comes to believing in the LORD being with them and empowering them for what HE has called them to do.

"All GOD's giants have been weak men who did great things for GOD because they reckoned on HIS being with them." J. Hudson Taylor


  I was talking to a long, long time friend of the Greene's last Sunday night and he told me how Tony was so easy to deal with when it came to promoting concerts.   Tony needed money just like the rest of us to live on, but he trusted the LORD to provide, and didn't strangle the promoters when the money wasn't all there.   It was always a great thrill for me when the Greene's would call and ask me to help them find a church to sing at...money was never discussed, they always seemed very grateful for whatever the LORD provided that night in the love offering, whether their was a small gathering or a large one...their desire was to share CHRIST's salvation, and encourage others in the LORD.    I love the Greene's and I sure do miss them...funny I get to see more of them in a way than I used to on FB...but I sure do miss Tony and i am looking forward to seeing him in heaven.  One of my favorite songs the Greene's  sang is "I Can't Even Walk Without YOU Holding My Hand." I am so thankful the LORD led me to record Tony singing this song the very last time I ever saw him here on earth and I pray that it will be a great blessing to you as it continues to be to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgSNUKv9yQI
"I Can't Even Walk Without YOU Holding My Hand"
  

Thank you for praying for my friend, Tim...who is carrying on the ministry of JESUS CHRIST through the Greene's trio, and through preaching the gospel and singing solo too.  Be sure and check out his website, www.timgreenetrio.com and be in awe of what miracles that GOD has done in his life to bring healing to his body and get him back out on the road to share what CHRIST has done for him.  Go see him, if he's near you, or invite him and his group to come and sing at your church...you will be so blessed.

    As I said, I didn't mean to write about the Greene's this morning, just seemed like that's what spilled over into this email, and i'm glad because the Greene's always encouraged me that I could overcome anything in CHRIST JESUS.   That's the kind of encouragement my heart has needed this week.  I have wrestled every which way which my thyroid med trying to make it work, and yesterday I finally surrendered and changed back to one I had previously taken but not felt as well on.  Changing thyroid medicines, and where my IV's come from in the middle of my precalculus class is not my desire...and a step of faith for one that is allergic to so many things.  But, my back was against the wall, and I felt, the LORD was "pressing" me into having to do something so i did.  I am so thankful for all the help and encouragement from my doctors who have been helping me through this time and for my family and friend's  and especially my FATHER's patience with me...

    You see to me, this trial has been a "giant,"   making me feel anxious, depressed, panicky, and all those ways I don't like to feel, and which makes it very difficult to concentrate on precalculus or anything for that matter...except the LORD.  Isn't that interesting...this "giant," is driving me, casting me upon the LORD JESUS CHRIST...and that's what our trials should do.  My chiropracter reminded me so timely yesterday that "All things work together for good to those who love the LORD, who are called according to HIS purpose." Romans 8:28...including these trials I've been facing, including the trials you are facing in your life.  Not 999, but one beside...says a devo in Streams in the Desert.     GOD's grace has been so sufficient, providing the way through each and every obstacle I have faced, and I made an 87 on my first test...wow, I am so thankful and so grateful to each one of you for your prayers for me.  But as you know, I have been tempted to give up, give in...and I ask you to keep praying for me to stay the course, and that my new thyroid med will agree with me, "exceeding abundantly beyond all that I ask or think..." and maybe it will help me to think even better than ever!
     GOD has encouraged me in so many ways this week, through HIS WORD, through HIS dear people, including you...and how thankful I am for the medical people who are ministers of HIS healing and HIS WORD to me.   I have needed it so much...encouraging words that I know are true, but in the trenches my weary heart may doubt.  This week, as I have the past several, I want to share with you some of the comforting words that GOD has shared with me this week to encourage my fainting heart.  One devotion from "Streams in the Desert" that just a few weeks ago, i was breezing through and now am devouring again was called "There We Saw the Giants:"
There We Saw the Giants

"There we saw the giants"

(Num. 13:33).

Yes, they saw the giants, but Caleb and Joshua saw God! Those who doubt say, "We be not able to go up." Those who believe say, "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able."
Giants stand for great difficulties; and giants are stalking everywhere. They are in our families, in our churches, in our social life, in our own hearts; and we must overcome them or they will eat us up, as these men of old said of the giants of Canaan.

The men of faith said, "They are bread for us; we will eat them up." In other words, "We will be stronger by overcoming them than if there had been no giants to overcome."
Now the fact is, unless we have the overcoming faith we shall be eaten up, consumed by the giants in our path. Let us have the spirit of faith that these men of faith had, and see God, and He will take care of the difficulties. --Selected

It is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was when Israel was going forward that the, giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none.

There is a prevalent idea that the power of God in a human life should lift us above all trials and conflicts. The fact is, the power of God always brings a conflict and a struggle. One would have thought that on his great missionary journey to Rome, Paul would have been carried by some mighty providence above the power of storms and tempests and enemies. But, on the contrary, it was one long, hard fight with persecuting Jews, with wild tempests, with venomous vipers and all the powers of earth and hell, and at last he was saved, as it seemed, by the narrowest margin, and had to swim ashore at Malta on a piece of wreckage and barely escape a watery grave.
Was that like a God of infinite power? Yes, just like Him. And so Paul tells us that when he took the Lord Jesus Christ as the life of his body, a severe conflict immediately came; indeed, a conflict that never ended, a pressure that was persistent, but out of which he always emerged victorious through the strength of Jesus Christ.
The language in which he describes this is most graphic. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body."
What a ceaseless, strenuous struggle! It is impossible to express in English the forcible language of the original. There are five pictures in succession. In the first, the idea is crowding enemies pressing in from every side, and yet not crushing him because the police of heaven cleared the way just wide enough for him to get through. The literal translation would be, "We are crowded on every side, but not crushed."

The second picture is that of one whose way seems utterly closed and yet he has pressed through; there is light enough to show him the next step. The Revised Version translates it, "Perplexed but not unto despair." Rotherham still more literally renders it, "Without a way, but not without a by-way."

The third figure is that of an enemy in hot pursuit while the divine Defender still stands by, and he is not left alone. Again we adopt the fine rendering of Rotherham, "Pursued but not abandoned."

The fourth figure is still more vivid and dramatic. The enemy has overtaken him, has struck him, has knocked him down. But it is not a fatal blow; he is able to rise again. It might be translated, "Overthrown but not overcome."

Once more the figure advances, and now it seems to be even death itself, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." But he does not die, for "the life also of Jesus" now comes to his aid and he lives in the life of another until his life work is done.

The reason so many fail in this experience of divine healing is because they expect to have it all without a struggle, and when the conflict comes and the battle wages long, they become discouraged and surrender. God has nothing worth having that is easy. There are no cheap goods in the heavenly market. Our redemption cost all that God had to give, and everything worth having is expensive. Hard places are the very school of faith and character, and if we are to rise over mere human strength and prove the power of life divine in these mortal bodies, it must be through a process of conflict that may well be called the birth travail of a new life. It is the old figure of the bush that burned, but was not consumed, or of the Vision in the house of the Interpreter of the flame that would not expire, notwithstanding the fact that the demon ceaselessly poured water on it, because in the background stood an angel ever pouring oil and keeping the flame aglow.
No, dear suffering child of God, you cannot fail if only you dare to believe, to stand fast and refuse to be overcome. --Tract.


   This devotion just really spoke to my heart, as I feel this is where I've been...I took a step of faith to take this class and go back to school to be obedient to what I feel the LORD is leading me to do. I thought Precalculus would be the "giant" itself, and I wasn't counting on these other "giants," with my health to be there as well.  But GOD knew...and through HIM we are more than conquerors through CHRIST JESUS who loves us and gave HIS life for you and for me.  GOD has reminded me at 48 he has overcome many other "giants" in my life and HE will these too...and their will be more "giants" that you and I face, and HE will be there with us to overcome and defeat them and deliver us.  Wednesday night, I awoke early and the LORD just started bringing Scripture to my mind that I had learned years ago.  Psalm 34 was a Psalm the LORD led me to learn when I first got sick, and how true it has proven to be through all the things that GOD has brought me through...the particular verse HE brought to my mind as I lay in bed Weds night was, "A righteous man may have many troubles but the LORD delivers him from them all."  Psalm 34:7.  As I walked the dogs last night under the diamond star studded sky, HE brought more promises to my heart:  "The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing." Psalm 34:10 and "Fear the LORD, you HIS saints, for those who fear HIM lack nothing." Psalm 34:9

    Lack nothing...that is our fear isn't it...that we are going to lack something that we need and GOD promises that HIS children don't lack anything.  HE loves us, HE cares for us much more than we care for our own children, "No good thing does HE withhold from those whose walk is blameless." Psalm 84:11...so why am i so fearful that I am going to fail, or that GOD is not going to fix my thyroid, or,  provide me the magnesium I need when I need it...apparently all the pharmacies are out of IV magnesium because of one of the producers of it is not being able to get it out for some reason.  I got my IV yesterday from the new place in Texas, right when I needed it, so I could treat on it.  It had no  magnesium in it which is most important for me...thankfully, I still had some here from previous IV's that I saved, but don't know after that...i'm just going to have to trust the LORD's promises that HE will provide all my needs in CHRIST JESUS.  HE has never failed to do that, and He won't stop now to provide for your needs and mine..."And my GOD shall provide all your needs in CHRIST JESUS." Phil 4:13
    
    ‎"GOD's promises are like stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine." David Nicholas

"For all the promises of GOD in HIM are yes, and in HIM amen, to the glory of GOD through us." II Cor. 1:20


     "I know WHOM I have believed." II Timothy 1:12

     "You may not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that GOD knows what HE is doing." Oswald Chambers

     
   These are words of comfort to my heart, and I pray they are to yours too, where GOD has "engineered your circumstances," and you are trusting HIM to strengthen you and overcome the "giants," in your life.

   I ask you to pray for my loved ones facing their own giants:
  •     Buddy and Bobbie Evans my in laws:  Pop had a stroke last week, and it's been a tough week, but GOD's grace has shown through in the midst of the trials...the doctor going to his home, the nurses coming each day to help Baba care for him, and all the family and friends that have shown their loving care towards our family.  Thank you so much for your prayers.
  • Arthur and Darlene Anderson- got back from the doctor in Texas this week after having a consultation about her breast cancer. The doctor believes he can help her but they have to have $15,000 to help pay for the medical costs when they go back in three weeks.  Dr. Brysinski http://www.burzynskiclinic.com/cultured her tissue, and does a specific test to see exactly which medicine would be best to combat Darlene's type of cancer. 
  • Hannah Beth is in Mobile this weekend, getting registered for the fall semester, buying her nursing uniforms, and preparing for the fall semester.  She has studied her head off this summer with her two anatomy classes, and I am in awe at all the LORD enables her to retain in her brain...she didn't get that from her old Ma...definitely her Daddy.
  • John Mac-got his MCAT scores back this week and we praise the LORD he did well.  He continues to do all the things you have to do to apply for medical school including essays, interviews, letters, etc.  Please pray for him as he works to complete the process to apply for med school
  • My dear husband as he labors to work and provide our needs...please pray for his strength and health
  • I have my next test in math next Thursday...thank you for praying for me as I prepare this weekend, that my new IV will go well Tuesday, and that I will function well on the new thyroid medicine.  GOD sent my tutor yesterday to help me with the pretest...HE is providing all my needs in CHRIST JESUS, one plank at a time...just like Paul when he floated to the island of Malta.

    I am so thankful for the "giants," that our forefathers like George Washington overcame when GOD raised him up to lead our country in the war against Great Britain.  There is no way that the rag tag band of men could have prevailed against the British army without GOD's divine intervention and help over and over to give our country it's independence from England.   We have a picture in our family room of General George Washington on his knees beside his horse, praying for the LORD's help during the Revolutionary War.  I read about the circumstances surrounding his prayers this morning in America's GOD and Country:
     "In the freezing winter of 1777, General George Washington was burdened with the lack of supplies for his troops camped at Valley forge, and with the overwhelming superiority of the British forces.  Soldiers died at the rate of twelve per day, with not many even having blankets or shoes... a committee from Congress reported "feet and legs froze til they became blac, and it was often necessary to amputate them.   A Quaker by the name of Potts had occasion to pass through a thick woods near headquarters...he heard, at a distance before him, a voice which as he advance became more fervid and interested...whom should he behold in a dark bower, apparently formed for the purpose, but the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United Colonies on his knees in the act of devotion to the RULER of the UNIVERSE!  ...Washington was interceding for his beloved country."

    We all know the "giants," that GOD defeated through HIS divine help to George Washington and HIS men...and we thank GOD for this great nation that HE raised up to be such a light for the gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.  So many "giants," continue to try and destroy this great country, from within and without.  As we celebrate our nation's birthday this weekend, please be in earnest prayer for repentance of our sins and spiritual healing in our own hearts, in our leader's hearts, and in our land that so desperately needs to know the salvation that is ours in  JESUS CHRIST.

   "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON that whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD did not send HIS SON into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through HIM." John 3:16,17

     If you don't have a place to worship, come and join us this Sunday as we have our GOD and country service and recognize our men who have served our LORD and our country through the military.  The choir and the orchestra have been practicing our patriotic music...so come and worship with us at First Baptist Athens...9:15 SS, and 10:30a.m. worship service.

   Thank you so much for your dear prayers, and for listening to my heart this morning. I pray that GOD will minister HIS grace and comfort to your heart as HE has and continues to mine...I love you and "I thank my GOD upon every remembrance of you." Phil. 1:3

                                                                                          With all HIS love,
                                                                                                            mitzi


More "Manna" from Heaven:

God vs. Our Giants

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 02:55 AM PDT

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 1 Samuel 17:1–16

"There's no reason for your entire army to be involved in this. Just send a fighter, and I'll take him on. I am the champion. I am the greatest." Goliath didn't issue this challenge one time and then leave. No. His challenge went on for forty days(17:16). Every morning and every evening for well over a month, he strutted out there, flaunting his size and his strength, daring someone to take him on.

How applicable to any "giant" we encounter! That's the way with the giants of fear and worry, for example. They don't come just once; they come morning and evening, day after day, relentlessly trying to intimidate. They come in the form of a person, a pressure, or a worry. Some of you have fear that hammers on your heart every morning and every night, day in and day out, yelling across the ravine in your own personal valley. Few things are more persistent and intimidating than our fears and our worries . . . especially when we face them in our own strength.

I want to look again at something that occurred prior to that battle, when the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart"
(1 Samuel 16:7). Literally, God said, "for man looks at the face, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We, being human, are subject to that same problem. We are impressed with, or not impressed with, individuals because we judge on the basis of surface appearance. We look at the externals, and we form opinions that are usually erroneous.

If God's statement ever applied, it applied in the story of this battle. Goliath had all the things that would normally impress and intimidate. In this instance, however, David had been given the ability to see as God always sees, and he was neither impressed nor intimidated. Because no matter how big the giant might be, God is greater. And no matter how powerful he might be, God is all-powerful.
  

 

      When I am afraid I will trust in YOU." Psalm 56:3


  

Psalm 34
 1 I will extol the LORD at all times;
   his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
   let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
   let us exalt his name together.

 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
   he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
   their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
   he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
   and he delivers them.

 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
   blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
   for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
   but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

 11 Come, my children, listen to me;
   I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Whoever of you loves life
   and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
   and your lips from speaking lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
   seek peace and pursue it.

 15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous
   and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
   to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

 17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
   he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
   and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

 19 A righteous man may have many troubles,
   but the LORD delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
   not one of them will be broken.

 21 Evil will slay the wicked;
   the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems his servants;
   no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

"Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Luke 18:11

"The LORD gets HIS best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction." Charles H. Spurgeon

"Bow the Knee" 




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