 By Peggy Potter
All scripture references come from the Tree of Life version of the Bible: Acts 20:24 : I don't consider my life of any value , except that I might finish my course & the office received from the Lord Yeshua, to declare the Good News of the Grace of God. Matthew 20:28 : for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve & to give His Life as a ransom for many. Tuesday, 9/24, my neighbor Sally had surgery on her left arm & hand. Sally had prayed with me last August to accept Jesus as her personal Savior. I felt prompted by Holy Spirit to go visit her as she was home, but I was reluctant. At nearly 67 years old, I still work full time & was feeling tired. Afterward, I felt terrible guilt! I begged God's forgiveness before going to sleep that night. The next day, God gave me the chance to make it right. I put down the book I had been reading when I felt Holy Spirit once again prompt me to call Sally! I asked how she was doing. Sally was delighted to get my call & told me all about the issues with her cast & the pain she was in, but she sounded like her usual happy & friendly self. When my dog Annah realized just who I was talking she got all excited & wanted to go see one of her best friends who absolutely dotes on her. So I took Annah for a walk down to see Sally which apparently made Sally's day as well as Annah's. I asked Sally if she needed any help, but she said no. I think just making time to drop by was enough to brighten her day which in turn, brightened mine & Annah's! I reminded her that I had been praying for her, which is true, & would continue to do so. After that brief visit, I praised God for His Grace & Mercy & His second chance to obey Him. It gave me great joy to see Sally & needless to say, I plan on dropping by later today & offering my help again! Luke 17:10 so you, too, when you have done everything you are commanded say," We are unworthy slaves. We have done only what we were supposed to do."  By Joyce Pelletier
1 John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are? The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Our Tuesday Bible Study has been going for some time. When we share, we began to realize that we, too are children of God. Each week we share with each other and when we don’t understand something, we talk it out. God give each of us wisdom. Our blessings come from sharing our lives together in helping each other find the way through the hard days. We learn not to call them “bad” days just hard. As close to impossible, we struggle going through a tough challenge and yet, somehow, we get through. At the end of our study each week we pray for our loved ones. God uses each of us to be some kind of support for the others. Two words came to mind to me most recently. The first is “lavished.” It has been a special time of receiving God’s ‘grace’ at just the right moments. Lavish is a word that reminds me of wealth. Not in a monetary sense, but in the fact that God helps us to get deeply personal with our lives and with each other. In going through this, we experience the care we have for each other. The second word is “predestined.” This is a word that used to scare me. It’s kind of like when I was growing up, my family was poor. Barely getting the monthly bills paid and wearing second-hand clothes. We thought life would always be like that. So, thinking of the word Predestined, it made me think more of being cursed, than blessed. When I finally let Jesus lead my life, I now know better. It means that He knew us before the seed of our life was planted. He knew that on this day I’d be attending a Memorial service of a good friend, who passed away quite unexpectedly. He showed me my friend is ok. She’s in a place of peace and joy. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything, a season that is that of “predestination” and there is nothing to be fearful about. My go-to verse is Proverbs 3:5-6 to Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. He lavishes me with his grace when I most need it, and He knew all along what I would go through in my life and the good news is He is always with me to keep me focused. I pray for your grace be poured out to all who receive you. I pray that when it’s time to speak, you give me the words. When It’s time to act, give me the courage. Turn my reluctance into enthusiasm to share your love with others.  By Rebecca Vickery
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word, I hope. Psalm 130:5 Last week was the first week of school for us. With my older kids now in college, our homeschool class is the smallest it’s been in a while. I started the week with one doctor’s appointment. Monday at 10:30AM. I assured my students that this year should be different from last, with far fewer medical appointments. However, by Friday, as I headed out for the third time to the hospital for bloodwork, it seemed like my words had been in vain. My labs from Monday AND Tuesday resulted in incomplete testing, for whatever reason. On the phone Friday morning, I talked with patient support from the hospital and confirmed my suspicions that I would indeed be returning that morning. It would be my fifth medical appointment that week, and I would be adding three new medications from the two new doctor visits. It was a glitch, or human error. But there I was headed to the hospital again. To the waiting room again. On the way, the radio was tuned to The Light Radio Network, even though it would normally be connected to my phone for music. The message was about patiently waiting on the Lord and His timing. I chuckled and said, “Ok God, I’m listening.” Chuck Swindoll was preaching a message on bearing hardship with patient endurance knowing that God’s timing is perfect. I didn’t hear the full message, but my heart got it. I am now 3 and a half months post Lyme disease and Bartonellosis treatment. At first, the difference between how I felt with treatment and after was stark. I had so much energy and my pain levels were down across the board. I had some consistency from day to day, knowing my body and brain would be willing participants. But then I started taking on too much. And the consistency dropped. I was again requiring naps on a daily (sometimes more than daily) basis. The leveling out of my hormones was getting imbalanced again. My mobility was being challenged. Holdups from a lifetime of untreated Lyme disease and cat scratch fever (Bartonellosis) were making themselves known. We added some muscle spasms and connective tissue issues (hypermobility disorder) to the docket. My docket didn’t want to add those things, I wanted to be better. I wanted a fully clean bill of health. But these, too, were somewhat familiar. In the years following Juliet and Ian’s recovery, I had done research on recovery from Lyme Disease. After the obliteration of all the bad microbes, our bodies need to rebuild. I had previously reminded Juliet to be patient when she lamented that she was not feeling better yet. (She is doing MUCH better now.) Recovery takes time, I told her, and we need to be patient, as hard as that can be. Your body needs to rebuild. Strengthen. You’ve got this, you just have to be patient. So now I was the impatient patient. I had learned to listen to my body throughout the treatment and part of the recovery. But now I was back to not listening. To pushing through. To faking it until I make it. None of those things were helpful to my body. None of them were conducive to healing. They were, in fact, a surefire way to prolong the process. They stood in stark contrast to the beginning weeks of recovering where I was listening to the Lord and trying to not run on ahead. I was paying a steep price. But the Lord doesn’t tell us to be patient and wait for Him to frustrate us. He loves us. He knows better than we do. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His plans are higher than our plans. “But LORD, I have things to do. Campers to sell. (Actually just the one.) A business to run.” All of my buts get in the way. I am reminded of James 4:13-15 as I write this. Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” I don’t know what recovery will bring. I don’t know one day to the next how my body will be responding. Yes, things are on a whole SO much better than they have been. However, recovery is almost never linear. There’s no line that goes from low point A to high point B without dips or declines. Yet, my hope is not in my body, it is in the Lord. What I do know is that if I wait on Him, He will renew my strength. He will renew my heart and my soul and put my feet on solid ground. I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds my tomorrow. Lord God, thank you that you hold my present and not just my future. Thank you that you can be with me in the waiting. Thank you that you are patient with me as I attempt things that are beyond my current capacity. Please be with all of us as we wait upon You. Help us to place our hope in you and your word. Help us to endure hardship with patience and renew our strength. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.  Written by Peggy Potter
John 11:35 NIV "Jesus wept." The recent passing of my dear friend Bob Racicot gave me pause for reflection. I was actually happy for him because I knew he had been freed from all his long-term suffering & disability. I also know where he went : home to be with Jesus ! Jesus knew this too, when His friend Lazarus passed away. He lovingly reminded Martha & Mary, Lazarus' sisters, that their brother would rise again & told them "I AM the resurrection & the Life...", but in His Love & compassion, He still knew their pain & heartbreak, so He wept with them. And He raised their brother ! Bob was a very devout man of God who no doubt went on to his reward. His greatest joy & his heart was singing & strumming praise & worship songs to Jesus ! One of his greatest sorrows at the end of his earthly life was that neuropathy robbed him of his ability to play his guitar. I am certain that Heaven's praise & worship choir & orchestra have been increased by one more enthusiastic member! This , however does not lessen the the sorrow & grief felt by his family & friends who were devastated by the loss of him . This made me cry as I am certain Jesus also bore their grief & pain. The beautiful thing in all this is how God -never late , but always on time- brought his whole family back together, something we at his years-long Bible study had long prayed for. We who know Jesus as our Lord, Savior, & King as did Bob, know we have a blessed future; an eternity with & glorious resurrection in Him. We should always remember to pray for our unsaved loved ones & the lost in this world, that they will come to know the same blessed assurance we have in Him. After all "He would that none should perish, but all come to everlasting life in Him " 2 Peter 3:9. This is Jesus'Heart & the very reason He came into this world.In Him there is no need to be eternally separated from Him & those we love ! Our grief will pass away forever ! Not only will we be spending eternity in the presence of God-most wonderful in & of itself-, but we will NEVER have to say "Goodbye" to our loved ones again ! "And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes & death shall be no more ! " Revelation 21:4 NIV He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  by Joyce Pelletier How many times do we fall back to Romans 8:28? Is this that one verse we take for granted? Or do we miss it’s true meaning? The definition of suffering - the state of undergoing pain, distress or hardship.The loss of something important. We all experience some kind of suffering in our lives. Some of it is physical, other is emotionally, circumstantially and just plain hardship where it is just one of those times when you are tempted to throw in the towel. Until… If I think about what Jesus suffered on the cross, it was the worst! No one could ever feel the pain Jesus experienced. He felt rejection, throbbing pain all over his body. His emotions were tested to the limits. Yet in the Garden He prayed that if this cup cannot pass away, unless He drank it, so he prayed “Father, Your will be done.” Jesus knew what He was facing in the Garden. Yet, He surrendered everything to the Father. He knew that was his call. Romans 8:18 Paul tells us, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Vs 22 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Vs 26-28, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” I recognize my example/experience is pretty trivial. But, I will share it anyway. Recently, my clothes washer broke down. I purchased it new 15 months ago. It rebelled, and I called in the repairman only to find out the repair would cost more than what it is worth. Now you may be thinking it’s not a big deal! Well, I’d have to agree, you’re probably right. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least. The short life span was the sore spot. After two plus weeks, we broke down and bought another one. It is not the electronic age, with ships that go to the moon and yet a 15 month washing machine cannot measure up to provide clean clothes. How does this speak into Romans 8:28? Well, it’s been a time of trial for “things” that don’t work. It happens all the time. I fell prey to getting frustrated, angry and critical. Even thinking no one understands. (Well, when you are put out, you think no one understands. So, what is the good out of this? Well, I learned some shortcomings in my life that needed attention. I also learned that you may not get good results from a repairman, but he will provide truth for what is wrong and charge you for the call anyway. With, God, though, He’s always providing truth for us. Yet lots of times, I fall short for being a good listener. My frustration level is something that I need to work on. Also I realize that sometimes, I don’t play the waiting game very well. The good parts were, taking more time to talk more to God about things. Take on His patience and “wait” and never give up on hope. Learning the hard things in life can be more “good” than just wanting to jump through those hard days and seek God and trust the end result to be what God does for us. Now that it's behind me, I got a break from doing laundry. Guess that's not so bad! Jesus didn't get a break. He suffered on the cross. He didn’t whine or get angry, he knew the Father had a Plan. He willingly went to the cross. He didn’t like it, but knew the outcome would provide believers to share Heaven with him. He trusted His Father and the end result is… Father knows Best!  By Mary Spence
Malachi 3:2-4 NIV [2] But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. [3] He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, [4] and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. Gold is most valuable when it is pure. To refine gold the goldsmith heats it to a very high temperature. Gold melts at 2000 degrees. Because it is very dense, when it is heated the impurities come to the top once it is liquified. Then the impurities are scraped off the top as it cools. Like Gold we are going through a process to sanctify us. The definition of sanctification is to make something holy; the action or process of being freed from sin or purified. When we think about being purified by God through a process of heating and scraping, heating and scraping, it doesn’t sound like much fun. But on the other side of the trials, once we have moved through that valley there is a better product. Just like the gold, which is becoming more pure and more valuable, we are becoming more like Christ though each trial and tribulation. In its purest form gold is soft and pliable, moldable and easy to shape. The hardness comes from added impurities like silver and lead, which are harder substances that help it resist bending and changing shape. As human beings we have our own impurities. Our life experiences, relationships and interactions in the world have caused us to erect walls of defense. We reinforce these walls each time we are rejected or wounded. Continuing to secure our hearts, making certain no one is getting in hardens our hearts and our walls get higher. In fact, they can become impenetrable, no weapon could pierce that armour. But in many ways we are the same as the gold. As we are refined by our goldsmith our walls begin to break down. Those very walls we put in place to protect ourselves are crumbled into rubble and swept away. We become open, reachable and vulnerable. All the impurities we added to keep ourselves safe and protected were actually preventing us from being open to God changing our hearts. Not really sounding like alot of fun, right? Its painful sometimes. We built all those walls for a reason. The world showed us that without walls and guards we were unsafe; open to injury and attack. So we reinforced the walls. Stonger, taller, unbreachable. To keep ourselves safe. So when he begins to purify us, to remove all of that excess stuff and make us more like Him, it feels uncomfortable. Its scary, to think that we will be open, unprotected. But isn’t this is how we are going to grow? To begin to evolve into who we were designed to be? Gold starts as a rock in the ground. It is barely distinguishable as what we know as gold. The lengthy refining process reveals the most valuable. As we travel through these times of trial and hardship, let's try to remember that the process we go through changes us. We can continue to work on our walls. Building those barricades around our hearts, becoming more removed, more distant, and disconnect. Or we can choose to walk through it looking for opportunities to reflect Jesus as we journey. We can be willing to submit to His plans and designs for our lives, so that we will be changed... refined. Choose wisely my friend. [8] Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; [9] he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. [10] For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. [11] You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. [12] You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. Psalms 66:8-12 . |
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