God's greatest blessings can never be taken away...

Last night, my dh and I watched In His Steps. We'd read the book years ago, but had never seen the movie before. Although not as good as the book, we still really enjoyed it. A pearl of wisdom spoken by the pastor, so spoke to our unemployment situation right now:

"Sometimes God's greatest blessings come to a man when he finds himself stripped of all the temporal securities he's always depended upon, so he can fully enjoy the thrill of childlike trust in Almighty God."

As well, this came today in my email today:

"The heart is rich when it is content, and it is always content when its desires are fixed on God." ` ~ Miguel Cordero-Munoz

May you have a blessed day enjoying the simple pleasures of life...yet most of all, may you enjoy the richest pleasure of all...that of the grace and fellowship of Jesus Christ!

"Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence." ~ Psalm 21:6

Rejoice in the Lord, o my soul!

Returning from another day of job searching...

"O my soul, tune your harp to a glad song of thanksgiving! Go to your rest rejoicing, for you are no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched over, cared for, supplied...by your Lord." ~Charles H. Spurgeon

"Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him!" ~Psalm 64:10

"The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;...." ~Psalm 37:23 (ESV)

Our suffering...His glory...

I have posted, below, a video on suffering. Some of my favorite quotes from it are:

"So that they might trust God's heart, even when they cannot trace His hand." ~ Charles H. Spurgeon

How I love that! :), as we cannot see what His hand is writing right now with my dh's unemployment, but we know we can trust His heart...always, always, we can trust His hand. We have seen this time & again in our lives.

"When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes, if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross, than on the suffering itself." ~ C.J. Mahaney

The cross IS the great giver of hope...it is the crusher of discouragement...thanks be to God!

"Those who recognize that their suffering in this life is never as great or as serious as their sins, find joy in an unexpected place in the midst of suffering. Because the great mystery is not "why do I suffer?". No. The great mystery is "why would the sinless Son of God suffer as my substitute on the cross, for my sins, receiving the wrath that I deserve so that I might be forgiven and declared righteous?". THAT, is THE great mystery of mercy. And that mercy, can, and will, make all the difference in the midst of the severest forms of suffering." ~ C.J. Mahaney
 
Thank you Father for this great mystery of your love for us. Everything else can vaporize in this life, but that never can. Thank you that YOU are the great ever-constant, never-changing, life-presever in the midst of the calm, as well as turbulent seas.


T4G 2010 -- Session 8 -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Lastly, Matt Chandler said that he had a B.A. in Bible...that pastoring was all he knew to do, and who else would have wanted to employ him with a B.A. in Bible? I had to chuckle at that, as well as feel a deep comradeship with that comment, as my dh and I have already gone that route. My husband is a quiet man, so kind and gracious at serving those that have lost loved ones. Perhaps one of the reasons he's so good at it is that he doesn't say much, but rather comes alongside grieving families, silently praying over each family as he tends to their funeral and memorial needs and wants. We had viewed it as a ministry, as well...he would mention the loss and impending funeral, and we would join together to uplift those that are hurting so...how we already miss that intimate contact for uplifting them in intercessory prayer. 

His college degree is in mortuary science. He's not a man extremely knowledgeable about computers. He knows no other fields. He's quiet and reserved, yet strongly empathetic for others. He is perfect for tending to grieving families, and conducting funerals...but not oh so right for the rest of the outside business world. Gregarious he would not be called. Life of the party, no. Technological whiz, no. But he is always a come-alongside-others person...the strong, silent type, ready and always willing to do what needs to be done...to be the arm that others lean upon. So from a human stand-point, much like Matt had pondered, we wonder what else he can do, since this is what he has always done. This is all he really knows and is trained for. And he is magnificent at it. But nowhere to employ those gifts right now.

Yet we know that God knows all this...just as he knows the very number of hairs on our head. Out of all the innumerable sparrows in the world, He knows when each solitary one falls to the ground. As numerous are the sands on the shore, He knows every grain of them. This did not catch God by surprise, but is something He is intricately working and weaving together, for His glory, and His purposes alone. Which is really what our lives should be about, anyway. Not my life, but yours, O Lord. We may not see the end of the story, but it is being written, and being written magnificently, praise be to God, the master weaver, and author, and loving Father of all things. Somehow, it seems fitting to close with the Doxology. May we each in all the various struggles and trials that come our way in this life, remember that God is always worthy of our praise. Our family's burdens, for sure, are so light, compared to so many...so much to be thankful for....

DOXOLOGY

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." ~ Job 1:21

God's love in letting us be undone

Today marks a week since my husband's last day at his job where he worked as a funeral director. Still no work...jobs in his field are not a dime a dozen. Once someone is at a place, they usually stay there for years and years, much as my husband has always done. Until the funeral home was bought out, new staff brought in, and his job ended. But I know there must be a reason...God is not a random God of happenstance. In a quote email that came today, it said the following, which so spoke to my heart...how true it is:

"The life you have constructed may be falling apart, but the life God has fashioned is not. His wisdom has known all things before the foundations of the world— including you. If God has let you be undone, He has allowed it for a reason.

Do you realize how thoroughly rooted in eternity your life is? It was not an afterthought in the mind of a play-it-by-ear God. He has already made provision for it. Before the foundation of the world, He did at least two things: He brought forth His wisdom; and He thought of you (Ephesians 1:4). His wisdom and your existence went hand in hand. Does that boggle your mind? It should. Rest in the assurance of a forever-wise God." ~Chris Tiegreen, The One Year Walk with God Devotional

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD." ~ Isaiah 55:8

God of the land of unemployment...

Well, today is my dh's last day at his job. He is a funeral director/embalmer, and the funeral home has been sold and bought by 2 brothers who are both funeral director/embalmers. They are not keeping on the old staff, so everyone is out of a job as of 5 p.m. today. Our insurance ends, as well, at the end of this month. Yet we know that God is even the God of the land of unemployment...we can trust in Him implicitly to take care of us.

In the midst of all this change, though, God did an incredibly comforting thing for us this week, to remind us that He is the God of all our needs, not just the big needs, but the little needs and wants, as well. For the past 14 years we have lived here, my dh and I have so wanted fresh cows' milk, much as we had when we lived in VT. But we have been unable to find any. During the time that my dh has worked at his current job, he has been able to buy from a health food store near there, some bottled cows' milk which although pasteurized, it was at least non-homogenized. That meant that the layer of cream was still on top of the milk. It was from an Amish farm in Iowa, and the health food store bought it from there. On Monday night of this week, while I was savoring my after-dinner glass of creamy, semi-fresh milk, my dh said, "You know honey, we won't have any more of your special milk after this Thursday." (He had been driving an hour each way to work every day, so the store would now be too far away to continue to drive to just for milk.) I acknowledged that, lamenting how I'd miss it, but it had been delicious while I had it. The next morning, Tuesday, a Mennonite farmer was coming out to disc our front field, and my dh and I chatted with him for a few minutes before he got started. While chatting, I asked him if he knew anywhere where we could get fresh cows' milk at. (We thought he might know someone that had it, but probably not someone that sells it. But...we figured it wouldn't hurt to at least ask.) He said he did know someone, and right-away he gave them a call! So my dh and I went over there that evening, and bought some from them. When we got home, we poured us each a glass, and were absolutely DELIGHTED that we once again, after all these years, had really, truly 100% FRESH cows' milk! I can't tell you HOW good that is...it is like the difference between store-bought bread, and home-made bread...there is just NO comparison. :) We now had not just the semi-real thing, like we had been getting from the health food store, but the ABSOLUTELY 100% fresh-from-the farm cows' milk! No steroids, no grain...completely grass fed cows! And to top it all, they are in the process of getting ready to make home-made cheese and butter from their cows' milk, and as soon as that is up and running, they will sell those to us as well...how incredible is that? :)

As we were driving home, we discussed how we'd lived here 14 years, and God had not provided us with finding a place to get fresh cows' milk from. But how He knew that our Amish bottled, non-homogenized semi-fresh milk from the health store was going to end as of tonight, and how I would so miss it. How good God is, during a time when our life is completely topsy turvy, not knowing where a job will come from for my husband, nor knowing if we will now have to move quite a ways away....He provides us with milk to replace the health food milk. And not only that, but the 100% completely farm-fresh milk that is both non-homogenized *and* non-pasteurized, from grass-fed cows, direct from the farm, as we've wanted all these years! How good of Him, as well, to wait and give us this special gift when we needed that touch of His hand the most. Even His timing was perfect & so kind. If God can know, and care about, our desire for something as simple and unimportant in the big scheme of things, as farm-fresh cow's milk...He can certainly know and care very much about the very-important-in-the-scheme-of-things unemployment land we are now venturing into. God is indeed such a COMPASSIONATE Daddy!!...loving us down to the tiniest, most insignificant details of our lives. Oh how I LOVE Him!!!

This quote came in my email the other day through a quote subscription service I belong to, and I think it so well summarizes God in all the moments of our lives:

"When all other doors in life are closed to us, Jesus will be for us the ever open door. If we really believe this then no situation in life will ever be hopeless. For to call any situation hopeless is to shut the door on God." ~ Anthony M. Coniaris

On Christ the sold rock we stand! All other ground IS shifting, but Christ stands immovable beneath our feet...PTL...He IS always worthy to be praised!!

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." ~Hebrews 13:8

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Cor. 5:7

Giving unto Him our seasons....

I've known these songs for so long...I'm probably dating myself when I mention them, though. :)  The first one, In His Time, I've been humming off and on each day since my husband found out they would all be out of a job come today. Unto Thee O Lord, I find I am constantly humming today, as well as the other He originally put on my heart. For those whom do not know Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour...who might wonder where God is at this time...know that God is the God of ALL the seasons of our lives. He is ALWAYS there, working everything out in His timing, while we daily give it all unto Him.

                    In His Time                                                    Unto Thee O Lord

                                         by The Maranatha Singers

Were You There?

(Were You There, performed by Selah)

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." ~John 3:16-17

Redeeming love has been my theme...

...And will be 'till I die.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 ...He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

 3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows...

5 ...he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
...for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

 10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,...

 11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

 12 ...because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.  ~Isaiah 53:1-12 (NIV)