failure.... or?

Okay, I guess it's time for me to learn from failure.   Yesterday, I thought I was prepared to share (with an interpreter) at a women's meeting, but it seemed to me like it fell flat.   True, some of the ladies kindly came up afterward,  and wanted to shake my hand, and some asked me to pray for them...but it seemed it all was without the power of Christ, or the preparation I really should have had.  May the Lord forgive, and yet water the little bit of seed - the mixed up giving of my testimony, and especially the few verses I shared.  I truly feel it was in weakness and trembling and nervousness.

But how does this fit into "Unexpected Journey in 2011"?  I guess I wouldn't be here in Egypt if it wasn't that I was "pushed into it" by thinking that perhaps I wouldn't be able to enjoy making such a trip later IF this cancer continued to expand in my bones.   Was this a failure in my belief in His touch?  However, I believed God was at work in my body...there is such a wonderful array of ideas there.  But God is not the author of confusion, so I'm resting again in Romans 8:28 concerning God making all things work together for good, because I DO love Him....and I am enjoying being here!   He has already begun to make the "hot spots" in my PET scan disappear or get smaller in the last three months....Thank you JESUS!

He also is sooooooo wonderful to give us the desires of our hearts. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (from Psalm 37)   He is granting two of those desires this month...being here in Egypt, and also getting to be in the Holy Land during Passover and Resurrection days. This is really an unexpected journey in my "Unexpected Journey in 2011"!

I don't know when the time for me is done, as far as opportunities to live for Jesus here on earth is.  If for some reason, He decides my life has fulfilled the "three score and ten years", and I get to experience the joys of Heaven, then it will REALLY be an unexpected journey in 2011!  And the best of all!

Accidents? No! . . . Purposeful Happenings? Yes!

There are no "accidents" to you and me when we belong to God's family.   What about cancer?   What about "unavoidable distresses"?

When we have become a child of God by trusting Jesus Christ's precious sacrifice for us "In His own body on the tree, He paid the penalty...to set me free"  (see 1 Peter 2:24)...we're in the family of God.  We immediately have a Father Who not only loves us dearly ...but a PERFECT Father who is able and does control the things that shape our lives.

And going on to 1 Pet. 2:25, we see the Father is like a shepherd, who CARES for His sheep (John 10:10 "I am the Good Shepherd-the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.") He calls us by name and then He leads us out. vs. 3.   This Shepherd is the perfect Father pic for us.

Maybe you didn't have a good father who was able to care for you.  God blessed me with a daddy who was a wonderful example of a father who cared.    Yet our earthly fathers are limited in how much they can control the situations around us.   When we know the Omnipotent Father CARES and is in CONTROL, we can enjoy life.  May we become more like little children "who don't have a care in the world" because they know their parents are responsible.   How much more for us,  knowing our Father cares and is in control!

This leads to my favorite verses again...Romans 8:28 and 29, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren."  and I can't stop there  "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.   What then shall we say to these things?   If God is for us, who can be against us?" and who can stop there, when verse 32 says, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?   Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?  

How can we not rejoice and be glad, knowing He is in control....or is He in control?  ...and though He IS in control, He has allowed us the choice to fit into His plan for our lives by yielding control. 

on the road again...with prayers

I read this morning from Acts 12, and I noticed how Herod had John killed in verse 1.  Then he had Peter arrested.  In verse 5, it says..."but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church."   I wonder if the church hadn't prayed, would Peter still have been rescued?   It seems that it was their prayer that freed God to work for Peter.

When traveling on the freeway yesterday, I was passing a big semi.   Ahead of me, suddenly I saw a huge piece of truck tire in my lane.  There was no time to slow down to get behind the semi, or to speed up and pass it.  In that split second, I saw there was more room between the tire and the semi, then there was between it and the left edge of the pavement....and going at 65, or 70mph, I swung over close to the semi and back again, startling Earl and maybe giving him a few more grey hairs.  But I thanked God for giving me the quickness of thought to see what to do, and for His angel holding my hand as I steered it so quickly.  Afterward, I thought of the "prayers of the church".   I wonder if the church hadn't prayed, would we have been rescued?   Thank you for praying, church!

• Makes me very thankful for those praying for me.
• Makes me see the importance of my praying for others