As
we near the Christmas holiday let us remember our Lord's humble birth
as well as His great sacrifice. The Lord has been on my mind all day
today. I am so thankful for His many blessings. Today I went out for
lunch with my lovely wife. As we were finishing up our meal our waitress
dropped off our check. Moments later she returned and said "someone has
already paid for your meals". My wife and I were very touched that
someone would do this. As I pondered this act of kindness I was reminded
of another debt that was paid in full. Christ, the king of all kings
gave of His life so I could live. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for the
sin in my life. I was not worthy of this but He did it anyway. He loves
us... Thank you Jesus.
Why does all this bad stuff happen to me? Why can't I catch a break? God when I pray, do you even hear me? I know I am not alone when it comes to questioning God. Often I feel like I know what's best so when I pray, it's just a matter of waiting for God to answer my prayer the way I want it to be answered. Sometimes He does but many times He does not... So I wonder WHY? Did I do something wrong? Does God want me to suffer? I prayed for that mountain (in the bible) to be moved but, nothing happens! Why, why, why...
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and were removed from the Garden of Eden, God has been answering the prayers of His people. Many of those prayers were/ are answered but many are not... immediately anyway. When we pray we want the answer now. God does not operate on our time table. He always knows what's best for us and He always answers our prayers. Even when we do not see the answer, God is still working in our lives. It all boils down to this, do you and I trust God?
God is our father, we are His children. God is all-knowing, we are not. God knows the future, we do not. So when we pray we must trust God to answer our prayers by doing what is best for us.
Just like 2013, 2014 ended with sadness. My dad died in December 2013 and my step mom died in November 2014. Even though 2013 and 2014 had brought my family some storms involving death, illness and injuries, something very special occurred early this year (2015). Enter Blair... this young lady who we believe is 3-4 years old is now is my newest granddaughter. God has blessed my family with a wonderful little girl that has so much love to give. Her young life has been difficult at best with unfortunate circumstances forcing her to live in an orphanage in Uganda, Africa. She now lives with a new mommie (my daughter), daddy (son-in-law) and sister (my first granddaughter Ava). After a trying adoption process... Blair is now home; we love her so much.
God, where are you? I need you! How often do you call out to God but wonder if he hears you? God does hear us and has not forsaken us but still often we feel abandoned from Him for one reason or another. Even Christ felt abandoned from His heavenly Father once. Remember when He cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"(Matthew 27:46)? On the cross when Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself, His Father could not look on Him so Christ felt alone. When we reach out to God sometimes our sin can separate us from Him too. The good news though is when we reach out to the Lord seeking forgiveness He always hears us. You see more importantly than anything else, whether it's our need for help with finances, relationships or even our health God is most concerned with the condition of our spiritual lives. Because of Christ's death our sins can be forgiven and God's grace will show favor on us.
What else can cause us to feel forsaken? Well first remember we will never be forsaken by God. So if we feel this way it is just that, a feeling and a lack of faith in God. My faith wanes too my friends and my actions help me to trust Him more. When I start to feel this way then I generally need to work on my relationship with Him. What do I need to do? Pray more, read the Word more and do more for God's Kingdom.
2013 started as any year with anticipation and hope for personal improvement. As time went on I found myself dealing with issues at work that caused much stress. These issues/ problems had nothing to do with the county I work in but ones that still had negative affects on the agency. After a few months the issues were resolved. Life is better...
Forward to October 15th (which by the way is the anniversary date of when I started my career working in emergency services ~ 34 years), my wife Carla had a risky surgery on her back (one of two needed). The doctors had a lot of difficulty performing this surgery. They decided against performing her second surgery and referred her to a neurosurgeon at another hospital. Then on November 20th she had the second surgery; she is still recovering. Carla suffers from many health related problems. I won't list them here but please pray for her. I will say this, Carla is a fighter. She exercises and continues to live life. If you didn't know she had health problems you wouldn't know by looking at her. She is a beautiful woman that loves her family and the Lord!
Forward to December 2nd, my daughter in law (Brooke) and granddaughter (Ella) were in a horrible accident. Shortly after dropping my grandson (Grayson) off at the babysitters, Brooke who is a school teacher lost control of her vehicle, hit a telephone pole and then a plank fence. Two planks of the fence went through the windshield. When my wife and I received the dreaded phone call it was the worst news possible. Praying on the way to the hospital, My wife, Jamie (my son, Brooke's husband and Ella's dad) first went to the room where Ella was located. Thank the good Lord she was OK, only minor scratches. Next Jamie and I headed to see Brooke. She had serious facial injuries and an injury to her right eye. As of today Brooke is doing but better and it is becoming less noticeable that she was even in an accident. She still has no vision with her eye but there is nerve damage and we are hopeful and praying. Thank you Lord for protecting my family.
Forward to December 6th, after breaking his hip my father (age 84) spent weeks in the hospital. In a lot of pain his health started to decline. He could not do his therapy much and after being transferred to a rehab facility eventually got pneumonia. We became encouraged because he started responding to the treatment for the pneumonia. Unfortunately my dad was not eating well. He was transferred to another rehab facility but it didn't help and he was dying. Per his wishes we brought him home. We had a hospital bed, oxygen and other equipment to care for him as well as home healthcare nurses. After a few weeks my dad went to see the Lord. I miss him.
So yes 2013 was a tough year; there were other issues but they seem like nothing compared to the end of the year.
Forward to January 11, 2014, it is a new year. I thank the Lord because in spite of resent bad events I feel very blessed. Brooke and Ella are here and still in my life. Carla survived a surgery that many doctors had said was extremely risky; they were concerned because of her health problems that she could become paralyzed or hemorrhage and die during the surgery.
Yes I am blessed!!!
Carla had surgery on her spine to help with the pain from a condition called Arachnoiditis. She is on her 4th day since the surgery. She
is still in a lot of pain. She has 27 staples in her back that won't be
removed until December 6.
My dad (84) who broke his hip a while back is not doing well at all. He is not eating and has lost a lot of weight. We have fixed
his home living room like a hospital room. We have contacted home
health. If he stayed where he is he was going to die. We are hoping
coming home and eating home cooking will help; it is his only chance.
This decision was made after talking to his rehab center's staff, his
doctor's office and praying. He is very depressed where he is and wants
to come home; today he is...
Please remember Carla and my dad in your prayers. God bless!
We live in Kentucky and just returned from vacation in Florida. I
really love Florida and have good reason to do so. I grew up in the
sunshine state; I was about 1 month old when my family moved there from
Kentucky. So, I had more sand in my shoes than clay. I really enjoyed
my early childhood years in Florida except for a major hurricane
(honestly for me it was an adventure), the passing of my mother when I was 5 and the assassination of President Kennedy.
When
I was 9 years old my dad, brother, sister and I moved back to Kentucky
(my dad remarried). Most of the time I was in Kentucky I talked and
dreamed of moving back to Florida. In 1977 a few months after I got
married, we were living in Florida. So nice, so many palm trees... so
HOT! We adjusted to the climate change, I eventually got a wonderful job
on a great fire department in Sarasota, we had 2 beautiful children and
met a lot of fantastic friends.
After
13 years on the West Coast of Florida we moved back to Kentucky. Now 24
years later I often think about what it would be like living back in
Florida. Most of my friends live in Florida and the greatest fire
department in the world is there but ... they are not looking for a few
good (old) men.
So
how would I like moving back to Florida? This year something has
changed... when we flew out over Florida and I looked at the land below I
saw a sparse dry flat terrain. Then as we were over Kentucky,
everything was lush, green, hilly or mountainous and actually beautiful.
Florida with the exception of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean
has a man-made manicured beauty while Kentucky has a natural beauty.
Now even without this new revelation I would never leave my children and grandchildren and move to Florida.
I realize just how hard to please I am sometimes. I know that even
though I'm happy with Kentucky right now, come this winter when we have
ice and snow I would love Florida more again.
The
Lord wants us to concentrate on important things, not where we live or
what we own. These things are nice but our relationship with Him and our
families is and should be number 1. When we put God and our families
first everything else will fall into place and we will be happy no
matter where we are.
How
are you today? We all struggle like the disciples did. One difference
is they walked and talked with Jesus. They witnessed His miracles. So I
guess it's OK to have some unbelief, right? Nope, we need to work on this. How? Our faith will
strengthen as we trust the Lord. Sounds easy doesn't it? Not convinced,
think of your relationship with someone you love. As that relationship
grows and you begin to truly trust that person your "faith" in them
grows. If either one of you hurts the other, the trust/ faith in them
fades. One big difference with our Lord is He will never hurt you. So if
the trust/ faith seems to vanish it can only be our fault. You are not
alone, I struggle often. Let's pray for each other.
In life's journey you are never alone. God is near; He will come as
close as you let Him. There was a time when God actually talked directly
to man. There was a time when God actually walked among men. Now we
live in a time where God's Spirit desires to live in man, to help him,
to love him and to give him peace. Still we have a free will to accept
or reject God. The troubles of this world are not God's fault but the
results of our free will.
