Happy
New
Year!
New Chapter!
New Page!
And His mercies are new every morning!
Lamentations 3:23
Have a Blessed New Year!
New Year – New Chapter – New Page!
Hope and a future! 2013 – I will bring you back!
It’s mine.
It’s yours.
Hope and a future in 2013.
God says He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5b)
2012 was the most difficult year of my life. But He never left me through it all nor did He ever forsake me. The pain was nearly unbearable at times, but His grace was even greater.
In February, our youngest daughter and her husband were arrested. The four days that followed were a blur. So devastating that I don’t remember all the details. Ron and I held each other and dropped to our knees, crying out to God for help. He helped us. I learned to pray unlike I had ever known before. The pleas and praises came from a depth within me that I hadn’t known existed. I prayed without ceasing – quietly, silently, or aloud while walking through the grocery store! Communion with my Lord unintentionally encompassed my every moment during those days. Later, communion with my Lord became intentional.
In March, my daddy died. Yes, he was old. Yes, he had dementia. Yes, it was a blessing. But he was my daddy, and the pain was real and continues to rouse from time to time. I miss snuggling his neck and face. I miss hearing him say, “I love you. Be careful now, honey.”
In April, my mama died. If you’ve lost both parents, you realize how final the passing of the last one is. I’m 10 years old again, and I’m an orphan. The last months, weeks, and days were terrible – she suffered so. Through it all, God was faithful. His grace was so real. But the night after her funeral, after all the family was gone, including the grandchildren who had been my comfort — after the beautiful words were spoken and the songs were sung, I suddenly couldn’t find that grace. I honestly thought I couldn’t go on. I’ve never felt so empty in my entire life. I had no peace. I had no joy. But I remembered that there was a love there that I could feel, if I could just reach it – if I could just find it. So I spoke the only words I could: “I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord.” Over and over I said those words. The peace came. It filled me. The grief remained, but His peace surpassed the grief. I found Him to be faithful in the midst of my greatest grief.
Court dates, pleas, recovery programs, caregiving, taking classes, teaching courses, 50-mile round trips to and from school, doctor and dental appointments, baths and bedtimes, overseeing homework, laundry, cooking, and finally, the sentencing, filled my 2012 days and drained my natural energy, but the Lord was my strength. When I felt I couldn’t go on, I remembered those dear people who were praying for me – I remembered them by name and thanked God for them and prayed for them, in return. I trusted that God would give me the strength He promised, and I told myself that if I did not believe it, it would be an insult to Him, so I believed in that strength.
“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” (Psalm 94:19)
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Because of the Lord’s work, my prayers have been answered. My daughter and her husband embraced the Savior. Their lives are totally transformed. They now walk with and honor the Lord with their lives. I thank God for answered prayer.
I also thank God for the heritage left me by my daddy and mama. I cherish every memory and envision them together in their “big yellow house” in heaven.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
As the year 2012 came to an end, our tenth grandchild was born – Luke Ryan Greene, our Bringer of Light. God blessed us with him. He was born with heart defects. We trust God for his complete healing. We began to see miracles. His platelets had lowered to 60,000 – then to 54,000. The levels were becoming dangerous. The next day, his platelets were over 100,000! He required oxygen for days. Then suddenly, his oxygen levels became normal, and the oxygen was removed. He went home! He relishes in the environment of his home, with the commotion of his active brother and sisters. He flourishes in the nourishment of his mother’s milk. He gains weight! 1 lb. 3 oz within 2 1/2 weeks! The next cardiologist visit and tests revealed that two defects were healed! We trust and await the continued healing of his heart, for we know that he is fearfully and wonderfully made and God loves little Luke.
This is the first of the miracles I am looking for in 2013 – the complete healing of our precious little Luke!
“Nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Next, I am looking for the miracle of the birth of our eleventh grandchild – healthy little baby boy Waligora, to be born in March!
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you . . .” Jeremiah 1:5
And, in 2013, we will rejoice when our dear three grandchildren who now live with us are reunited with their parents!
“All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace.” Isaiah 54:13
What does the Lord have planned in 2013?
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. . . I will be found by you . . . I will bring you back . . ” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a)
The Lord said “Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
We have called!
He will show us!
He will bring us back in 2013!
If you have not yet called on the Lord Jesus Christ, accept Him as your Savior! “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Read about it in the Word. See Romans 10:8-13. the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth (speak it) that Jesus is the Lord and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Call, email, or message me. I’d love to hear from you. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life! Plans for hope and a future! A bright future!
No excuses!
I redeemed you . . . I sent Moses to lead you . . . And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:4, 8)
He doesn’t require a Master’s degree or a Ph.D.; He doesn’t even require a Bachelor’s degree!
Your résumé doesn’t impress Him.
He doesn’t care about beauty or physique, ability or talent.
He doesn’t care if you are disabled.
He doesn’t want or require perfection.
Paul had imperfections — imperfections he didn’t want. (2 Corinthians 12:-8) In fact, he begged the Lord to take those weaknesses from him, but the Lord didn’t. Paul didn’t use the imperfections as an excuse. He diligently persevered, running the race, serving the Lord, preaching the gospel, in spite of persecution and imprisonment. He wrote letters to the churches — epistles that teach us, guide us, direct us — all inspired by God. Paul kept the faith. James D. Smith III writes,
“To keep the faith is to put it mildly. Paul had done so in the face of jailings, floggings, death threats, murder attempts, and the constant anxiety for the churches he founded—not to mention what Paul called his ‘thorn in the flesh’—a chronic and debilitating weakness.”
And I complain about not having enough time to serve the Lord – about not feeling well. I want to let the younger women serve in capacities I once did. I’m tired. I have too much to do. My family needs all of my time.
Are you talented? Gifted? Confident? Beautiful? Perfect?
Or do you often feel insecure? Unable? Depressed? Too busy? Disabled?
Moses was disabled.
And he used it as an excuse not to obey God. God spoke to Him directly! Through the burning bush. God called him by name!
“Moses! Moses!” God said.
(We read about this in Exodus, Chapter 4.)
We might think, If God spoke to me directly, I would serve Him. I would do exactly as He asked.
Really? What has He said directly through His Word? (your burning bush)
“So now, go. I am sending you . . .”
God said.
Moses began his excuses: “Who am I that I should go? . . .Suppose I go . . . and they say, ‘Who sent you? What is his name?’ What if they do not believe me?”
God answered every question. And God gave Moses a staff and showed Moses the miraculous acts he could perform with the staff! But Moses still was not convinced, nor was he obedient!
So Moses used his trump: his disability. “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to me. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Oh, really? (As if God didn’t already know!)
The Lord God said, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will be your mouth and will teach you what to say.”
“Please Lord, send someone else to do it!” (Evidently Moses was thinking about his brother, Aaron.)
Moses’s brother Aaron was a gifted speaker – intelligent, refined.
But God used Moses.
God said He would help both Moses and Aaron speak and He would teach them what to do! God told Moses that he (Moses) would speak to Aaron and put the words in Aaron’s mouth! Then Aaron “will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth, and as if you were God to him!”
Imagine! Moses, the disabled one, is going to be God to Aaron!
Finally, Moses obeyed God and went to do what the Lord sent him to do – to rescue his own people.
I want the power of the Almighty God to be evident in my life! I want people to see God in me! I want God to teach me and let Him be my mouth!
And what does the LORD require of me? Does He require intelligence or degrees? Experience or an impressive résumé? Beauty or physique? Ability or talent? Perfection?
No, He requires me To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him.
If God speaks to you directly, will you obey Him? Will you do exactly as He asks?
Then listen to your burning bush – His Word!
“So now, go. I am sending you . . .”
God says.
And make no excuses! Because your disabilities don’t matter to God.
References:
Exodus 4:1-17
James D. Smith III, pastor of Clairemont Emmanuel Baptist Church and adjunct professor of church history at Bethel Seminary—West, both in San Diego, California, is an adviser for Christian History. Copyright © 1995 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
Through the child, the angels are made known
I don’t begin to know how or why, but I do know that my little granddaughter, Kaylee (the one who lives with us now) sees angels!
The first time I realized that she saw angels was one night – the middle of the night! – when she climbed into bed with her Papa and me.
See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:10)
As she lay between us, squirming like crazy (while we tried to get back to sleep), she talked as though it were the middle of the day instead of the night! Then she began describing the angels she saw flying around her. I thought she might be frightened, so I said, “It’s probably your special guardian angel, Kaylee. Everyone has a guardian angel!” She wasn’t frightened.
“There are lots of angels, Nana. See?”
I didn’t see them. I just kept encouraging her to go to sleep!
“Close your eyes, Kaylee. And go to sleep, honey.”
She did close her eyes. “I can still see them, Nana.”
I turned toward her. She opened her eyes and said, “There’s one on your nose, Nana.”
At breakfast, I encouraged her to “rethink” the events.
“Your were dreaming about angels last night, weren’t you Kaylee?”
“No, Nana, I didn’t dream about angels. I saw angels!”
I tilted my face, smiling, “You were just kidding about the angels, weren’t you, Kaylee?”
“No, Nana. I really did see angels!”
Similar episodes have since occured, both in her own bedroom, as well as ours. But the episode that amazes me the most occured one night when many angels flew around the room. By this time, I had learned to pretend I was sleeping while quietly, I enjoyed her descriptions. She described the many as perhaps forty, which was more than the few at a time she had previously recounted. Suddenly, these forty angels stood perfectly still, forming a wall.
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve us? (Hebrews 1:14)
I waited. Finally I asked, “Are they flying around again?”
“They’re still not moving, Nana. They’re holding still on the wall they’ve made.”
A few minutes passed.
“They’re flying around again, Nana.”
Have you not put a hedge around [her] and [her]household and everything [she] has? Job 1:10
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. (Psalm 34:7)
I don’t know the danger that was coming our way at 1 am that morning, or why those angels formed a wall of protection around us, but I prayed, “Thank you, God, for showing me, through the innocent eyes of my child, your awesome protection upon our family.”
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. (Psalm 8:2)
Really, Christmas is . . .
Christmas is for kids –
innocently believing in a Santa Claus. Believing that someone cares SO much that he wants to bring you a gift.
Things I’ve learned in the last week . . .
Things I’ve learned in the last week or so.
~~ ~~ ~~
1) Perils arise, but God is still God.
He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
He loves,
He cares,
He comforts,
and He heals.
~~ ~~ ~~
2) People care.
They pray;
they bring food;
they write notes;
they send gifts;
they call;
they send money;
they give hugs.
Sometimes I’m surprised to experience this care.
Then I realize again that I don’t know it all.
~~ ~~ ~~
3) Pain is real, no matter what.
Someone may think your problem is not that big, but it’s big to you!
So it’s big to God.
I’ve learned to recognize the intensity of other’s problems.
~~ ~~ ~~
4) Many people have much greater burdens than I do.
Some have the Lord to help them through;
some don’t.
I want to be the hands and feet of Christ to both–my hands extended in love and in prayer and praise, my feet running to meet their needs.
~~ ~~ ~~
5) Being a mother is joyful.
It is also painful.
It involves entrusting your child (and grandchild) to the Lord God. At Christmas, I am reminded how a young, innocent, virgin mother began learning to do just that.
This Christmas, I am observing my beautiful daughter entrusting – day by day – moment by moment.
I am thankful for motherhood and nanahood and a God in whom I trust.
~~ ~~ ~~
6) Christmas is one of the saddest times to suffer and endure.
~~ ~~ ~~
7) Christmas is one of the greatest times to remember why I suffer and endure. And to remember who suffered and endured for me, in my place.
(Look for my upcoming posting: Things I’ve learned about Christmas . . .)
He will yet deliver Luke . . .
He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
2 Cor. 1:10-11
Indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves,
but in God . . . 2 Cor. 1:9
And we do trust in God.
He’s got the whole world in His hands,
He’s got the whole wide world in His hands,
He’s got the whole world in His hands,
He’s got the whole world in His hands.
He’s got little tiny Luke in His hands,
He’s got the Mommy and the Daddy in His hands,
He’s got all the Greene children in His hands,
He’s got the whole world in His hands.
And how safe is that!! To be in the hands of God, the Father–to rest in the unmerited, undeserved favor of God! Kristen and Josh are resting in the unmerited, undeserved favor of God! Our entire family is resting in the unmerited, undeserved favor of God!
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
2 Cor. 1:20
Will you speak the “Amen” with us? Will you agree in Luke’s healing? To the glory of God. Then we will join to give thanks . . . for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
. . . to have a daughter like my Kristen
She taught me about true faith.
I saw it in her life.
I heard it in her prayers.
Her baby was sick.
I was overcome with worry.
She trusted.
I was frightened.
She believed.
I spoke words of fear.
She spoke the Word.
When is it? That your daughter grows past you in her relationship with the Lord? That you begin to lean upon her–for strength–to lean upon Him?
It is a wonderful thing–to have a daughter like that–a daughter like my Kristen!
All your [daughters] will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace . . . This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Isaiah 54:13,17b
…the joy is in having Him so near!
Wow! In our brief study of Romans 5: 1-5, I was overwhelmed by what God taught me through His Word and my study partners. How can we rejoice in suffering? I’ve gleaned from these honest ladies, and I’d like to share it with you:
Amy commented, “It really is JOY. Is it the happy, skipping, life is wonderful, kind of joy? NO. But.. It is the incredible joy of having that intimate, deep, dependence on, and relationship with HIM. When nothing makes sense . . . when all is dark . . . when all seems lost . . . that’s when His light of peace and JOY penetrate your soul. Yes indeed, there is joy in suffering. The wonderful, incredible joy of holding hands, and being held by our Great, Loving, Compassionate Father.”
So the joy isn’t in suffering – the joy is in having Him so near.
Deb openly confessed from the depths of her heart, “I’m not rejoicing in my sufferings – I’m still waiting to rejoice.”
Why is it worth the wait? Why is it worth the suffering? Because of the end result.
Our passage shows the steps it takes: suffering > perseverance > character > hope.
The end result is hope!
Please read Deb and Amy’s comments in full – see the Bible Study posting, “Rejoice in Suffering? How?”
And look for our next brief, online Bible Study soon. “The Word is near you. It’s in your mouth and in your heart.” (Romans 10)
Pick up Those Jars of Clay!
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
Just imagine it! Imagine those clay jars, which have been placed around you, on the shelf, on the floor, on the table–placed there–for us–for you and for me! They’re free. And they’re filled with treasures.
I pick up one jar. It’s heavy. I’m hesitant. I’ve heard that the treasures are magnificent, but I’m still hesitant. I lift it and slowly begin to pour the content out! I pour it only on my feet. I’m hurting–it heals me. I’m grieving–it consoles me.
I become a bit more trusting, so I begin to pour it on my legs and arms.
I’m praising–it enables me.
I’m homesick–it comforts me.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
The clay jar is still filled to the brim! But it’s not as heavy now! I lift it up, over my head. I pour it out.
I’m famished–it fills me.
I’m thankful –it blesses me.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
I don’t want it to end. I’m anxious–it fills me with peace. I’m suffering–it fills me with hope. The content–the treasure–saturates me!
And it never ends.
It never runs out.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Today, pick up that jar of clay–pour out the treasure–saturate yourself with it–let it fill your mouth and penetrate your heart:
“. . . that is, the word of faith (I) am proclaiming”
Read about it in Romans 10:9-13.