"In everything give thanks for this is the will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS concerning you." I Thess. 5:18
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you.When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your GOD. The Holy One of Israel, your SAVIOR." Isaiah 43:2,3
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
Last night, Johnny and I and my dear Mother- in- law had the privilege of going to hear our old pastor, Aaron Johnson, preach at a nearby church where he was leading a revival. We weren't the only ones there from First Baptist, in fact, half or better of the crowd was probably from First Baptist where Br. Aaron used to be all of our pastor before leaving to go to a church in Acworth, Ga.
Someone had told Johnny that Br. Aaron was going to be preaching on depression. I knew Br. Aaron had struggled with depression a while back, and I had a pastor friend of mine earlier in the week told me he thought i might be suffering from depression. I told him, i definitely have periods of depression with this valley i'm going through with my health, and I struggle with despair and discouragement at times that things will never get better. It's not like GOD hasn't helped me through a thousand difficult places and more in my life...but this trial is this trial...and right now, is the place i'm struggling and GOD is stretching my spiritual muscles.
"GOD is good. Whether or not HIS choices seem good to us, HE is good. Whether or not we feel it, HE is good. Whether or not it seems true in my life or yours, HE is still good." Nancy Leigh DeMoss, www.reviveourhearts.com
"YOU are good and do good; teach me YOUR statues." Ps. 119:68
We got there a few minutes before the service started and Br. Aaron looked so handsome in his yellow shirt and pullover sweater. He came over and shook hands with us as he went through the congregation speaking to everyone he could before the service started. We sang Br. Aaron's favorite hymn, "Victory in Jesus," and a few more hymns before Br. Aaron got up and started speaking. He told us right off that the sermon was going to be part testimony and part sermon. The passage he chose was out of Jeremiah 20:1-7. He talked about the prophet Jeremiah being obedient to GOD and prophesying to the priest Pashhur about Israel going into captivity because of their sins. Pashhur didn't like what Jeremiah prophesied and he struck Jeremiah and put him in stocks.
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| Br. Aaron Pushing Jordan in the Impossible /Possible Race in Kennesaw, Georgia |
Br. Aaron started sharing about his journey, he's had two bouts of colon cancer, and in one of the surgeries to help one problem, another long term problem developed...that resulted in another surgery. During that surgery where a pacemaker was installed in Br. Aaron's hip, he also received, MRSA, a type of staph infection, which made him very sick for a year. The doctor's didn't discover it until they had to remove the pacemaker because of complications. It was then i believe that Br. Aaron took 10 Percocets for pain over the course of several days and the medicine threw him into a deep dark depression. He also shared that their house was flooded, his father in law and grandmother had died , his daughter found out she was married to a homosexual, (she is married to a wonderful CHRISTian man now, and they are expecting Br. Aaron and Denise's first grandbaby!). If you read my letter last week, you realize that Br. Aaron's son recently fell 26 feet and broke his pelvis, and several other injuries, and one neurosurgeon walked in Jordan's room in Grady Hospital and told him that he'd never walk. Tuesday, Jordan walked 420 feet! Praise the LORD from WHOM all blessings flow!!! Br. Aaron had to resign his church in Acworth, Georgia earlier this year, because of his health problems...he's like me, he has to take IV's occasionally to keep him going, and the stress affects him worse.
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| Jordan-Standing with his Mother, Denise-"He's Walking Again!" Praise the LORD!!! |
So, Br. Aaron was sharing about the time of depression and other hard trials he's been through and he encouraged us that when GOD brings us through a difficult period in our lives we need to be prepared to help others who are walking behind us.
. . . but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings . . . —1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.
The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”
Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”
He used the verse from Psalm 84:6-7 to remind us of the springs of refreshing that are found in the LORD JESUS as we pass through these "valleys":
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools, they go from strength to strength; Each one appears before GOD in Zion."
Br. Aaron reminded us of the springs of refreshing that GOD provides for us as we walk through the Valley of Baca's in our lives...how thankful i am for those springs of refreshing, for times in the WORD to encourage my heart with GOD's promises, for CHRISTian brothers and sisters who encourage me like Br. Aaron with his own honesty and transparency, and with the help GOD brings us in so many ways. Earlier this week, Johnny and I reminisced about the many times the LORD blessed us going to see the gospel group, the Greenes , before Tony died last year. What a dear blessing they were to us and to so many, to encourage and strengthen us through their songs of the LORD, their laughter, and warm fellowship in CHRIST JESUS. I was going through some hard times in those years too, and the LORD used the Greenes to be such a refreshing to me in the Valley of Baca.
Br. Aaron shared that depression is prevalent...i was sharing with my friend Wanda that when Br. Danny, the pastor at New Life asked us to raise our hand if we had ever suffered with depression or knew someone, almost everyone in front of us raised their hands, including me, and i'm sure it was the same way behind us as we sat near the front. He said that depression is not something we should be ashamed of but it binds us together. He said that whenever we are in a season of depression, GOD has a plan and as Corrie ten Boom who suffered through a Nazi Concentration Camp and her Daddy and sister there...."GOD doesn't have problems, only plans." That sure is comforting for me to think about in this season of my life now.
Br. Aaron reminded us that during a season of depression is a time that we can join in the fellowship of CHRIST's sufferings: "That I may know HIM and the power of HIS resurrection, and the fellowship of HIS sufferings, being conformed to HIS death." Phil. 3:10," and we can draw closer to GOD. This has been a season for me, in that i don't "feel," close to the LORD, as i would like to. I was listening to the song..."Praise You in the Storm," by Casting Crowns, recently and part of the lyrics are "how can I carry on if I can't find YOU?"http://www.youtube.com/
"The TRUTH is, GOD does love you. Whether or not you feel loved, regardless of what you have done or where you have been, HE loves you with an infinite, incomprehensible love." Nancy Leigh DeMoss, www.reviveourhearts.com
Br. Aaron shared he was driving along in his car when he was going through the deep depression and "How Firm a Foundation," came on the CD. He said the third verse really spoke to him:
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, thy grace all sufficient shall be my supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine."
Those words encouraged me too, as i thought about them...i hadn't thought of them in a good long while, but to be reminded of them put courage in my heart....GOD's grace will be sufficient and the flames won't hurt me. GOD's just consuming my dross, and refining my gold. It does hurt though, trials hurt or they wouldn't be trials to shape and mold and conform us to the image of CHRIST.
The passage Br. Aaron really centered on was verse 7 out of Jeremiah 20.
"O LORD, YOU induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily;"
Br. Aaron shared very honestly about that verse, and just like Jeremiah we can often feel like the LORD has done us wrong when things aren't going the way we anticipated. We all love that about Br. Aaron, how he is so real, and he expresses what we all feel, we're just afraid to share those feelings with each other...or with GOD. He encouraged us to be honest with GOD and tell him how we really feel and lay it all out before HIM. I know when this first happened to me with my health struggles early this summer, i was mad at GOD. I was being able to take more supplements than I ever have, and I was planning to return to nursing school so I could help more people the way i had been helped, and then all of the sudden, i find myself in a hole again, struggling to stay afloat with my health. That wasn't the way I thought things were supposed to happen...i was supposed to get better and better...but GOD had another plan, and honestly i think i am getting better, i just have to go through this pain to get there. I also am very thankful the LORD kept me from returning to nursing school...HE knew the better plan, and I praise HIM for using my health struggles to block the way.
Br. Aaron encouraged us that our prayers must be honest, and we must be broken and humble before the LORD. I know that once again, the LORD is breaking me. He said that our prayers should always lead us to praise-just like Jeremiah's was a few verses later:"But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome ONE...But, O, LORD of hosts, YOU who test the righteous, And see the mind and heart, Let them see YOUR vengeance on them; for I have pleaded my cause before YOU. Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For HE has delivered the life of the poor from the hands of the evildoers."
Then Br. Aaron mentioned Jeremiah's depression again immediately following these verses of praise: Verse 14: Cursed be the day in which i was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! Let the man be cursed Who brought news to my father, saying, "A male child has been born to you!" You ever wish you hadn't been born? I have a few times, and i told my doctor just yesterday, i would just as soon skip this part of my life, but i guess life doesn't work that way. I remember when i was 13 and I suffered from depression, a real depression. I realize now that we had new carpet at that time in my life...and my little detox system that GOD made me with didn't detox those chemicals well in that new carpet...and I was depressed. I had no idea why or how long it would last. I remember it being an awful time...but I grew closer to the LORD. Thankfully, the depression eventually lifted and i had no idea why until years later when i began learning about my detox system from my doctor not "firing on all cylinders." A few years later, i had "panic attacks," when i moved away to college...again, no idea why, but probably had something to do with that "detox," system not being able to process the different chemicals i was around. It too was "awfully," hard...but I grew closer to the LORD. GOD delivered me from that eventually, as well, as many other uncomfortable health trials HE's allowed me to pass through, and HE will this one too, eventually. That's the key...as that verse says that i opened with...when we "pass" through the waters, I will be with you. These trials are something we're "passing" through, and GOD, our heavenly FATHER is with us... Our trials don't last forever, though the devil tries to fool us and make us think that things will never change from the way they are now. Even if we're sick unto death, like my friend Darlene who went to be with JESUS a few weeks ago...her trials have ended, no more sorrowing or suffering or pain for her. Though her family grieves and misses her so very much, they know they will see her again and be with her forever and ever in heaven. The devil tries to tell all of us that things will never change, i know,cause that's what i'm wrestling with right now...it's spiritual warfare and "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph. 6:12.
"The greatest things are always hedged about by the hardest things, and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and chariots of iron. Hardship is the price of coronation. Triumphal arches are not woven out of rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody scars. The very hardships that you are enduring in your life today are given by the MASTER for the explicit purpose of enabling you to win your crown." Streams in the Desert, Nov. 16
Our current pastor at FBC, Athens, Br. Edwin Jenkins preached on spiritual warfare recently and he too has suffered with bouts of depression throughout his ministry. Br. Aaron said that many great men of the Bible wrestled with depression, Elijah, David, Moses all probably did...and this morning i was reminded that the great "Prince of Preachers," Charles Spurgeon, wrestled with deep depression, along with the great hymn writter, William Cowper, who wrote, "There is a Fountain." So, if you suffer from seasons of depression, you're in a lot of good company.
When my pastor friend, Br. Mike Dawson, said i sounded like i might be suffering from depression, i bristled inside a little at that, but i told him i am depressed at times about these circumstances i find myself in, and the nature of the problems i'm having makes me feel depressed at times. Most of the time i really feel "depressed," is when i have taken a drug, or i'm trying to detox things in my body. I have really been fighting discouragement, and the LORD reminded me yesterday of the verse from Isaiah 41:10:
"Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am thy GOD; I will strengthen thee; I will help thee; I will uphold thee with the right hand of MY righteousness." Is. 41:10.
This morning's reading from Springs in the Valley was a real encouragement to me about GOD being able to untangle our tangles...such as depression or whatever it is that concerns us. I feel like i'm in a tangle right now, and i don't know how to untangle the tangles.
"LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me." Isaiah 38:14
Are you feeling that life for you has become a tangled skein; tangled with problems that seem to be desperately hard to unravel? If so, examine them and see whether it be not true that somewhere in the tangle there is the golden thread of an obvious present duty. Commence with that thread: what ought you to do next? Now? Never mind tomorrow!
Father, my life is in tangle,
Thread after thread appears
Twisted and broken and knotted,
Viewed through the lapse of years.
I cannot straighten them, FATHER;
Oh, it is very hard;
Somehow or other it seemeth,
All I have done is marred.
I did not see they were getting
Into this tangled state;
How it has happened I know not-
Is it too late, too late?
Is it? "Ah, no!" Thous dost whisper,
"Out of this life of thine
Yet may come wonderful beauty
Wrought by MY Power Divine."
Take then, the threads, O my FATHER,
Let them Thy mind fulfill,
Work out in love a pattern
After THY holy will!
-Charlotte Murray
The case looks utterly hopeless. Hope is dead-yea, hurried, and the bones are lying scattered at the grave's mouth. But the eye fixed on the living GOD can bring a resurrection. Hope may yet flourish again. The net of terible entanglement may be broken by a FATHER's hand, and liberty and life abundant may yet be mine!
"The SAVIOR can solve every problem,
The tangles of life can undo,
There is nothing too hard for JESUS,
There is nothing HE cannot undo."
I was thinking about these "tangles," recently as i was taking "Troy" our Maltipoo out and he got tangled up in the leash around his feet. He would have never been able to get all the tangles out, but for me it was easy. Our tangles are easy for our MASTER, i just have to keep reminding myself of that when i get discouraged...and not give in to thinking things are hopeless.
"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And HE shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!" Psalm 27:13,14
"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And HE shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!" Psalm 27:13,14
"I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16
And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. I Peter 5:10
The Greene's were sure faithful to encourage others who were going through a difficult time, even in the midst of their own struggles. The very first time i heard Tim and Tony and Taranda sing "Hold On," in Boaz, Alabama at Snead State Junior College , it blessed me so much. This week as i listened to it in my kitchen, it encouraged my heart again to "Hold On." This is a really encouraging video as it has Tony's testimony about his kidney failure on it...i hope you will take time to watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you.When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, Nor
shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your GOD. The Holy One of Israel,
your SAVIOR.Isaiah 43:2"
I love you and thank you for your prayers for me and my family....I hope and pray that you have a most wonderful THANKSGIVING with your family and friends. I am so very thankful for each and every one of you and your faithfulness to encourage me and my family and pray for us. We all have so much to be thankful for...including our seasons of depression and distress. It is a season, and GOD loves us and has a plan for each and every one of us...plans for good and not for evil as Jeremiah tells us in Jer. 29:11-13. "For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. And you will seek me and find ME when you search for me with all of your heart." One thing about it...GOD uses these trials to help us to seek HIM with all of our hearts that HE may be found to be the Fountains of our Refreshing and our All in All. Have you found HIM? Do you know HIM as your LORD and SAVIOR? HE so wants to reveal HIMself to you and to me that HE sent HIS only SON JESUS to die on a wooden cross to pay for your sins and mine. I pray that you would cry out to HIM today and ask HIM to forgive you for all your sins, and invite HIM to be the LORD of your life. HE loves us so very much, that HE allows things in our lives to cause us to seek HIM....things like depression and other difficult trials, that is a cause to give HIM thanks for HIS plans and purposes HE is working out through those trials. I tell you this...i am so thankful for my CHRISTian brothers and sisters who are helping me through this trial, and praying for me, and encouraging me, and i hope that i won't forget when i am on the other side of this trial to help someone else who is going through a difficult time...or maybe i can be like Tony Greene, and help someone even while i'm still in the midst of this trial and encourage their weary heart that JESUS loves them, to "Hold On," and Give Thanks for the plans and purposes that GOD has for our trials..."exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think."
With all HIS love,
mitzi
This was on my friend Melodye Reeves FB site today as she gave thanks for Queen Esther (going through the alphabet for the month of Nov. today was thankful for things starting with the letter "Q". Powerful words that spoke to my heart about GOD's plans for us. Melodye writes:
"Also, I am truly thankful for the life of QUEEN ESTHER and her role in the history of God's people. It's a great reminder to me that I was placed here in this time and place "for such a time as this!" Priscilla Shirer put it so well in her study on the life of Esther:
"Follow Him -- Impossible as it may seem. Let him take you places, even to places you honestly don't feel all that great about seeing firsthand. You may not grasp what He's got in mind for this, but if you'll follow where He's leading, You will walk yourself right out onto the stage He has set for you. You will locate a significance bigger than you are because it's not based on your own smarts and planning and goal strategies but rather on your utter submission to the Father's eternal, all-wise plans-- plans that are "higher than your ways" (Isaiah 55:9), beyond anything you could "ask or think" or imagine."
"Follow Him -- Impossible as it may seem. Let him take you places, even to places you honestly don't feel all that great about seeing firsthand. You may not grasp what He's got in mind for this, but if you'll follow where He's leading, You will walk yourself right out onto the stage He has set for you. You will locate a significance bigger than you are because it's not based on your own smarts and planning and goal strategies but rather on your utter submission to the Father's eternal, all-wise plans-- plans that are "higher than your ways" (Isaiah 55:9), beyond anything you could "ask or think" or imagine."
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"Praise GOD in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness." Psalm 150:1-2
"O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing"
1 comment:
Once again Mitzi I'm overwhelmed by the depth of your honesty and openness. Certainly at one time or another each one of us has experienced some level of depression and we all certainly know someone who has been in the 'depths of despair' As Anne of Green Gables would say. I'm thankful for your willingness to pour out your heart so others can be blessed.
A very blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Love, Anne Marie
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