Thursday, October 29, 2020

Jesus the Miracle Worker: Do It Again Lord!

A man injured himself after falling into Anish Kapoor's art installation of a black hole in the ground.

We live ins tumultuous  times. Times in which groups of people want to strip us of our rights as American citizens and make the greatest country in the world...socialist. As Hitler tried to do in his day when he sent thousands of Jews to their deaths in gas chambers because they were deemed not worthy to be alive. 

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Ah, but some of us still think that can't happen to us. Not to this in our country we live in

Our country's freedom stands in the balance in just a few short days to decide our fate, Friends. Whether we want to believe it or not.

Do we want to become a socialist country? Or do we want to remain a country by which our forefathers fought to become one that would give us the freedom we have all enjoyed.

We can't both. We don't want both, even if we could have it that way. 

Hopefully, we want to remain a nation that is under God. And not one that is under man that pushes for taking from us what God has already given to us through first the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ and secondly through the shed blood of those men and women that have given their lives to make and keep us free.

But is there any "hope" for us, on this election day, when we will know which way we will be going?

It doesn't seem so, sometimes. The news media often reports the fake news we often hear about that surely does not give us that hope. And even when it is probably true, it isn't very hopeful. I just read last evening on my phone, that if Trump wins this election again, there are planned attacks that will rise up in indignation against his re-election. 

And for sure, that is to be believed due to the fact that this has gone on since he was put into office four years ago. It has not mattered that he has brought this country a long way from what had we had in the eight years before. To my way of thinking, into like a black hole in the ground, that he had started to bring this country out of. At the time prior to his election, there wasn't much hope he would get in. And yet he did because as a Christian nation, those of us that love God, went to bat for him. And it knocked the other party right out of the ball game because they thought they had the game tied up in their own favor. To their other agenda. 

But it hasn't stopped them. This morning I woke with that news message on my phone from last evening and was concerned about the coming election. 

Jesus

For whatever reason, I went to John 6 in the bible and began to read about how the disciples and many other people were with Jesus one day, teaching them. And it became meal time and the people were hungry but there was no food. The disciples brought to Jesus a little boys lunch of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. But that wasn't going to fill the hunger of all those people that day. What had they thought? Perhaps that Jesus needed the lunch himself, since he had been the one teaching. Or did they wonder if he could do something with it so that more people could eat?

I do not know. But one thing is probably true. Surely, they had not known that when Jesus blessed it, and it multiplied, not only did everyone eat, but there was twelve baskets left over to save for later. 

Wow! What a miracle, Jesus had preformed it for his followers! 5000 of them! Because they were hungry. Because he loved them!

But Jesus hadn't stopped there, providing all that food out of those loaves and fishes. No, for in verse 35, Jesus told the disciples that he is the Bread of Life from heaven itself which his Father had sent to them and those that believes in him will never be hungry and never thirst. In essence, though we go through physical death, we will live forever with Him in Heaven.

Friends we need the Bread of Life from Heaven to win this election for us. It happened four years ago when He put Trump into place so that he could pull our country out of this hole. And it was because Christians went out in droves to get it done with Jesus leading the way. Oh, I know. Some should say that Trump isn't a Christian and we shouldn't have voted for him. But what choices did we have? God calls us to humble ourselves before Him and He will heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14) Isn't that what he has been doing this past four years through the Trump administration? No, Trump is not perfect. He may not really be a Christian. I don't know. But God can use anyone, he wishes to. Christian or not. Even if he has to use someone who is not a Christian to get us and that person to sit up and pay attention. Who are we to judge His decrees? 

I have not had money for their requests of donations towards this election. But I do have something that the Trump administration needs much more. Prayer that the election will bring us good news and that we can continue to enjoy the freedoms we do have, and the ability to fight for those we have let be taken away from us by people that would point us in the unholy direction of a God forsaken country. 

God did it four years ago. Will you join me in saying to God....

"Do it again, Lord"

Max wrote this prayer in the aftermath of 9/11. It seems appropriate to share it once again. Dear Lord, We’re still hoping we’ll wake up. We’re still hoping we’ll open a sleepy eye and think, What a hor­rible dream. But we won’t, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was no dream and, dear Father, we are sad. There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church h...


Not once or twice. But continually until we get the word that He has decreed it into existence. And also pray, that for those that would be angry and ready to do the work of the devil, may He quiet them so that this nation can rest under God. Because Friends, we need Him. This country needs His Rest

If you will, please share this page to all your friends. And thank you!.

God bless you and God Bless the greatest country in the world.

Stay Safe!

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

God is Bigger than all My Problems








When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? Psalm 56:9-13

When going through something hard in our life, it is true you know. We forget how big God is, I mean. Sometimes we want to give up because we don't see any way out of our situation. David of the Bible probably felt that way a lot as he was being chased by his enemies. He had one one solution. God. And of course, God is the best solution because even if David could not see how big God was, compared to how little his problems were-God did. And yet, David knew that God was for him and would take care of him.

Just like he will take care of you and I. When we put our trust in him. No matter what we are going through. God is for us.

Recently, I faced a situation in which I forgot for a bit just how big God is. If I had let it, it could have pulled me down and kept me depressed. But as hard as it seemed that it was not going to be worked out the way I wanted it to, I didn't give up on God and he honored my faith that he can do what I cannot do. And even better then I thought possible.

He has gotten me through so much and each time I don't think he can, he does. Because he is bigger than all my problems. 

Let him be bigger then all yours too and you will be amazed at what he can do in your life. Because you know what? He loves you and wants to bless you! That is who God is, and it is his characte to do that for you!

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed day!






























Tuesday, October 27, 2020

God's Love: His Grace is Greater Than All of Our Sin



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    If you are having a hard time believing that God loves you as for a  time I did, go to his Word and read about his love. Because it will convince you that no matter how you feel, or what you have done in your past or present, you do not have to believe the devils lies. He does love you. Start off reading about it here and then find more scripture about God's love.


     Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love .In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12

     The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3

     And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

     We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

    But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Ephesians 2:4

    But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 4;8

    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

    Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

    He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21

    For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John 16:27


    God has so much to say about his love for us, whom he has created. When we don't believe that he does, is that not inadvertently calling him a liar? And so how can we not believe his love, when it is in the Bible? Right there in black and white. These verses I have given you should be proof enough. But there are so many more dealing with his grace and mercy. If he did not love us, we might as well believe his word is nothing but a fairy tale. Because why would we want  to believe in something that is but empty words. We can do that with many writings that are out there today. But the thing is...

    GOD

    Loves

    US!

    You and me. Me and you. The world. We have only to believe. No matter what we have done or are doing now that displeases him. 

    Jammu and Kashmir: One terrorist neutralised in Handwara, after terrorists attack CRPF patrol party near Qaziabad area. 3 CRPF personnel have lost their lives, 7...

    Friends, in a world gone crazy, the love of God our Father, is the only thing that we have to really depend on.



    Don't take my word for it. Take God's word. Because he is who is most important in your life. And he doesn't lie.


    Thanks for coming today, May you be blessed beyond measure this day and every day!

    Good Morning, I pray that you have a safe and blessed day!!







    Sunday, October 25, 2020

    What Do You Think?

     Oh death, where is your sting?  Oh grave, where is your victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.                      I Corinthians  15:55-57



    Vintage letter stock 5 by rustymermaid-stock


    Death. An enviable part of life. Until Jesus comes back. A part we dread, knowing that someone we love might pass on. As a teenager I dreamed my beloved father would die. I had the same dream several times and it scared me and made me dread that time when he would no longer be with me. Thankfully, he would live 54 years of my life before he passed on, of cancer.

    As Christians we do not have to fear death, as we know we will be in heaven as will our loved ones that know Christ at their own time of passing from this life to the next.

    But if they go first, we often find ourselves grieving for them. Lonely for past conversations and experiences we had shared. 

    Can we ask God to have them speak to us in an audible voice  during those times? Surely, he could. But would he? What might they say to us, if they did?

    This weeks story is about a farmer's wife that was struggling with loneliness, especially during this corvid epidemic, for her husband that had passed sometime prior to it and now with less contact that made her feel even more isolated from her circle of friends life was hard. And so she asked God  one day to let he from her beloved husband because she missed him even more so.

    Did God answer her prayer? And if so how, and what did he say to her? Read her story to find out how. You will find this and other stories of God's goodness at:   How Six Sheets of Yellowed Paper Eased Her Loneliness | Guideposts

    What do you think?

    How Six Sheets of Yellowed Paper Eased Her Loneliness

    Feeling alone during the Covid-19 pandemic, this farmer prayed to hear her late husband's voice. Had she been too bold?


    Three weeks into this time of social distancing and my emo­tions were melting down.

    Around the world, people were sheltering to prevent the spread of Covid-19. You’d think someone like me, a veteran at being alone, would have no prob­lem with isolation. Since my husband John’s death from cancer seven years ago, I’ve managed our 468-acre farm and cattle operation on the North Da­kota prairie by myself. I’ve learned to live with solitude, silence.

    Yet this forced separation from my neighbors, my community and the co­operative farming arrangements that had taken me years to develop was stretching me to my limit. I was 67. Never had I felt so alone.

    It was Maundy Thursday, four days before Easter. How I longed for John’s companionship, his hardy strength and clear-headed wisdom.  “Lord, please let me hear his voice!” I said out loud during my morning prayer time.

    It was an unusually bold prayer. Or­dinarily I am content with God’s own ways of communicating. A sudden feel­ing of joy perhaps or a flash of insight amid silence. A memory of something John had said during the many long conversations we shared during our nearly 30-year marriage.

    Was it presumptuous to ask for something more direct? It was Holy Week. If ever God might grant such a prayer, it was now.

    My partnership with John had been close, and I had not expected to be alone at this stage of my life. We did not have children. The farm was our life’s work, and we worked in a prayer­ful rhythm, alternating solitude, to­getherness, silence and conversation throughout each day.

    John was a steady, thoughtful man. He made decisions carefully, writing out plans and goals. He had a way of considering ideas from all sides to ar­rive at a balanced view.

    I needed that balance now. The news was full of conflicting opinions about the severity of the pandemic, the im­portance of quarantine, the right gov­ernmental response. I knew my age put me at risk. But I had a farm to run, and I couldn’t do it without help from my neighbors. John would have known how to sort through the confusion.

    Since John’s death, I had built up a small community of people I worked with or just visited over coffee. I could endure isolation because there was al­ways human contact to look forward to.

    Nothing is as comforting as a hug once in a while, and my two young friends Julia and Mirek were certainly great huggers! They owned Farmtastic Heritage Foods Hub, a farm-to-table restaurant andcatering busi­ness they had started in the nearby town of Anamoose. Julia and Mirek sold locally grown and prepared foods, including grass-fed beef from my farm.

    I tried to visit them as often as I could to support their business, which had become an outlet for local growers. I loved Julia’s salads and desserts. And I loved even more the warm welcome I got and the sense of community in the restaurant, which occupied an old post office that had been vacant and marked for demolition before Julia and Mirek rescued it.

    The restaurant was closed now. Would it survive? If it did, would I be able to hug my friends the next time I visited?

    I wondered the same thing about other friends in the area. Here in North Dakota, dropping by for coffee is prime social time. When would I have that again?

    I couldn’t visit my older sister, Kar­en. She was rightfully concerned about exposure to the virus, and she knew I had to be in contact with other people to keep the farm going. We mutually agreed not to meet for coffee.

    And then there were Tony and Sam. They were my neighbors on either side of the farm, young men in their thirties, just starting their families. John had gotten to know Tony first, supporting his interest in horses. I had known Sam since he was a 17-year-old member of the church youth group John and I used to lead. Now he was married and establishing his own operation.

    Life as an independent farmer is challenging in this era of agribusiness consolidation. I let Tony and Sam graze their cattle on 68 acres that John and I owned. John had grazed our cows on that piece of land, but I simply couldn’t manage it. It was too far away from the main farm.

    Sam and Tony occasionally helped me on my farm. Some jobs required more raw strength than I had. I called Sam and Tony my “farm cooperators.” We worked shoulder to shoulder, treat­ing a sick calf, pushing a stubborn cow into a trailer, hauling heavy loads. Then we had coffee back at the house or visited outside.

    At least we used to. Sam and Tony still came over to help. But we did our best to keep our distance. How long would I have to give up that treasured time with my neighbors?

    “John, where are you?” I demanded of his empty chair in the dining room. He had often sat there to do paperwork or just think or pray.
    All that day, I listened for him. But all I heard was the wind.

    Good Friday came, and my sense of loneliness deepened.

    “Please forgive me for not letting you be enough,” I said to God that morning. I still had misgivings about my bold prayer the day before to hear John’s voice. I was in my prayer place by the din­ing room window. I reached for my Bible to read about Jesus’ death, but for some reason I picked up my journal instead.

    I opened to the entry for May 1, 2013. I had been at the hospital that day while John underwent surgery. The hospital was run by a religious organization, and there was a crucifix on the wait­ing room wall. I remembered willing myself to envision that cross empty, Jesus already alive and appearing to his friends.

    “I proclaim Jesus Christ, risen!” I had written in the journal while pray­ing for a miracle for John. He died a few months later.

    I closed my journal, put aside the memories and went outside to do the day’s chores. I pitched hay to the goats, watered the calves, checked cows and horses. Their company did nothing to ease my isolation.

    Chores done, I went back to the house and climbed the stairs to my office, where I supplemented farm in­come by writing articles for agricul­tural publications. I passed the room where John had kept his own desk and saw that the two-foot rustic cross on his desk had somehow fallen facedown. I went in to set the cross back in place.

    I noticed some papers on the floor, which was odd because I knew this room top to bottom and those papers hadn’t been there before. Maybe they slipped off when the cross fell. I picked them up and put them back on the desk. They were some of John’s old operating budgets for our cattle herd.

    That’s when I spotted another stack of papers on top of a small box on the floor beside the desk. Recently I’d been cleaning out the closet in that room and set that box on the floor. But I didn’t remember putting any papers there. Six yellowed sheets were filled with John’s scrawl.

    So many farm records in this house. Why did I save them all? But wait! These weren’t budgets. There were paragraphs here, John’s thoughts about something.

    I rushed downstairs to the dining room to lay the pages on the table and decipher John’s writing, which was never easy to read.

    It dawned on me what these papers were. Long ago, we had mused about John’s writing a weekly column for ru­ral newspapers. He certainly had a lot to say about farming.

    Apparently, he’d written a few sam­ple columns but never shared them with me. I didn’t mind. He would have shared his writing only after he was satisfied he’d gotten it right.

    I sat at the table with these tangible memories of my husband spread be­fore me. John wrote in his customary self-deprecating manner, his oblique way of coming at an issue, sidestepping hard-and-fast judgments while point­ing toward a hopeful outcome.

    One of the columns mentioned walks we used to take around the farm. “We talk, we visit, we discuss,” he wrote. Music to my soul!
    Another column spoke of “great and enduring adversities” testing charac­ter. Press on, Raylene, John seemed to be saying.

    He signed each column, “The Red Leaf.” That must have been a nod to his Canadian heritage. He’d been born in Manitoba, and we had met when I was working at a Canadian ranch as a young woman.

    The more I read, the more peaceful I felt. Here in these pages, discovered by accident on the darkest day of the Christian cal­endar, was the voice I had been longing to hear.

    God had answered my prayer in his own time and way. And in that answer came all the other times God had been faithful through the never-ending chal­lenges of farming and making a life in the demanding landscape of the north­ern prairie.

    I was alone, yes, walking into an un­certain future.

    And yet I was not alone. God was here. So were my years of experience as a farmer and the wisdom of my hus­band, which I still carried in my life and my work.

    “There is hope for your future,” God promises in the book of Jeremiah, one of my favorite Bible verses. I believe it, even during this difficult time. A future of love and grace. Of renewed life. Of coffee with my sister and conversa­tions with my neighbors. Hope that flows from a God for whom no prayer is too bold or too big.



    Yellowed papers. Found by accident? Or guided to her by a loving God who wanted her to hear from her mate that had passed on to his heavenly home?

    What do you think? 

    We ask God for things we want, and yet sometimes end our request not believing who he really is or believing  he would not answer us.

    And yet he does answer us. In some way or another. Yes, or No.  Some times it is just wait. Those are answers to our requests. He gives us what we ask for: yes. Or no: he knows our request is perhaps not a good choice for us at this time because he sees the whole picture. Maybe he says no, not at all.

    He doesn't have to give us everything we ask for but that doesn't mean that he doesn't at times answer our request in the way that we want him to. Some times we have to wait and be patient for a time.. He may answer them the way we want him to but for some reason we have something he wants us to learn first.. 

    This lady's prayer got answered, but not the way she hoped. Perhaps if John would have ended up speaking to her, God knew she would question her sanity? I mean really. Who speaks to us right out of heaven itself in an audible voice? Who really knows the mind of God? It's not that God couldn't do it, he knew for some reason that her finding John's papers, would be a better way. 

    Yes, God had answered her prayer. Only in a different and an unexpected way.

    As he does our own, when ever we ask in faith. John 16:23

    Even in these covid times of isolation and even fear.

    Thanks for coming by today Friends. May God bless you with his everlasting love!


    Sunday Blessings














    Friday, October 23, 2020

    God Never Fails. What Do We Have To Praise Him For?

    Praise the Lord! He is good.

    God's love never fails.

    Praise the God of all gods.

    God's love never fails.

    Praise the Lord of Lords.

    God's love never fails.

    Psalm 136:1-3



    What reasons do you have to praise God today? Here are three easy tips to help you praise him more often. #christianquote #praise #praiseGod #praiseandworship

    David wrote many of the psalms of the bible. This whole chapter. all 26 verses shows us that at the time he wrote it, his thoughts were on God, because God's love, among other things, never changes. And it is so for us today. Who would send their only Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world? God did. Without him, we are a dying and sinful group of unworthy people. He is above all gods, whatever or whoever they are. He is the Lord of all lords. He is who we need. He is all we really need. Who or what do you have to praise him for today? 

    If nothing else God can be praised for, it is his love towards us. But that isn't all. 

    What more can we day of God's love? Come back tomorrow and find out. Thanks for coming, Friends. God bless!







    Thursday, October 22, 2020

    God's Love but What is it? (part one)

    What is God's love?

    To answer that question, all we need to do, is look to his word to find out what he wants us to know about it.


    John 3:16 For God so Loved the World – Bible Verses To Go

    For God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him, should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but through him the world might be saved. John 3:16-17

    Notice though that God sent his Son into the world to save us, but not all the world will be saved. So many people believe in God, they believe in a place where they will go after death, but that does not exactly mean they will go there. 

    For one thing, many religions preach god, goddesses or even some say they are God or Jesus which is a lie because as Acts 4:12 tells us, there is no other salvation or name under heaven whereby we must be saved. 

    At the same time though, God's mercy is so great for those of us that turn to him, and believe that he is the Son that died on the cross to take our own punishment for our sin. 

    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

    That is exactly what Jesus did for us. Look at verses 14-15 of that same chapter.

    You are my friends, if you do what I have commanded you. Henceforth, I do not call you servants, for the servants do not know what his lord does, but I call you my friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made  known to you.

    Imagine that! Being called God's friend! If we look at to the gods/goddesses or even those people calling themselves the true God or Jesus-how many of them will or even can lay down their life or would sincerely call us their friend? Those Jim Jones and David Koresh types that led people away from who God really is, led them to death. And they went with the people. Not because they were giving up their lives for them, we can be sure of that.. They didn't do it to forgive anyone of their sin. Only the blood of Jesus could do that, and it wasn't through sinful man.

    What kind of love is God's love? Go back and read John 3:16-17 That is the answer to what God's love truly is. 

    But what else can we say about his love? (to be continued)

    Thanks for coming today, Friends. Be blessed!


    God bless you ❤️






    Sunday, October 18, 2020

    Only Believe



    When you’re put in an impossible situation, your talent, logic, and education won’t solve your problem. Only God can. That’s why you pray and ask God for his supernatural help. God told Jeremiah, who lived … Continue reading Ask God for the Impossible


    We have heard it said, "Someone's trash, is someone else's treasure." The following story is one that some people would poo-poo. However, if we believe in a God bigger then we are, to other's it could also be called, a miracle. Read on...

    Her Old Car Helped a Family in Need

    She thought her car would have to be junked. But some divine intervention gave the vehicle a new lease on life.

    by  - Posted on Sep 25, 2020 from Her Old Car Helped a Family in Need | Guideposts

    BEEP-BE-BE-BEEP!

    A chorus of angry horns blared at me as I sat in my Altima, stalled in the middle of a busy intersection. It was a blazing hot August afternoon. Quite the time and place for my car’s entire electrical system to give out, including the power locks on my doors and windows. Trapped inside without air conditioning, I had to wait for a police officer to arrive to assist. He pried open my vehicle, shifted it to neutral, pushed me to a parking lot and called a tow truck to transport the car to a garage.

    “It’s your alternator,” the mechanic told me. Really? I’d just had the alternator replaced. Twice. Then I learned my transmission was practically on life support. “You’ll be lucky to get 25 more miles out of it,” he said. “Cut your losses, ma’am, and find another car. Soon.”

    This was far from my first issue with the Altima. Over the past months, I’d been taking it to the same garage I’d relied on for years. I was making frequent long distance trips for a health crisis, so I wanted to make sure my car was safe and well-maintained. There was a new guy in charge, one who charmed me with his concern for my well-being. When I first met him, he leaned over the counter and whispered confidentially, “When it comes to a vehicle, the best ability is dependability.”

    I kept having issues with the car, so I was in and out of that place every other week. It seemed like an awful lot of effort was required for dependability. But I was so ill, I didn’t dwell on it.

    When the Altima broke down, I finally discovered the reason for all the car troubles I’d been having. That new guy at the garage had been lifting parts from my car to sell, replacing them with faulty ones. I wasn’t the only person he’d done this to. In fact, I was part of a far-reaching scam that eventually ended up in court as a class-action lawsuit. Still, when I found out, I felt stupid and embarrassed.

    Hoping against hope that I wouldn’t need to replace my vehicle, I sought a few more opinions. Two other mechanics confirmed that the car was indeed useless for anything other than parts, so I found a donation center that rehabbed vehicles for people in need. I figured that they could use anything in good condition to help refurbish cars that were more suitable for driving.

    “Just so you know,” I stressed to the acquisitions guy on the phone. “This car has problem parts and a bad transmission. It should not be given to someone to drive.”

    I made an appointment for the donation center to come pick up the junker and called my sister Rebekkah to tell her the whole awful story. She was the only person I felt comfortable confiding in about having been duped. I expected her to join me in righteous anger and give me some sympathy, but instead her voice took on a faraway quality.

    “Roberta, I think this is divinely led,” she said.

    “Are you crazy, Reb? How could this be anything other than bad?”

    “I just have this strong feeling that it’s going to go to a family who really needs it.”

    “That would be lovely, but the car is a hunk of junk! It’s just not possible,” I replied.

    But Reb would not be swayed. The next day, she showed up at my cabin carrying a tote bag overflowing with every conceivable product to clean, condition and polish the Altima. After she’d spent two entire days working on it, I found her using a lint roller on the upholstery. “Why waste your time on this?” I asked. “This car is no good for anyone to drive. I already told you that I’ll be lucky if they end up parting it out and I get a $500 tax write-off.”

    Reb went back to lint-rolling. When I checked back on things, I saw her buffing drink holders. As if lost in a fairy tale, she murmured to herself, “The mama’s coffee will go here when she takes the two kids in the back seat to school.”

    It annoyed me to no end! I just wanted the whole humiliating episode over with so I could move on, but Reb was drawing it out. I started to walk away, then turned to my sister and that bomb of a vehicle. “If you think it’s such a present, why don’t you tie it up with a bow when you’re finished?” I said.

    An employee from the donation center came to pick up the Altima the following morning. He strode toward the car. Reb was lifting lint from a hard-to-reach spot between the seats with some adhesive tape. The man’s smile was a mixture of amazement and amusement. “Why, I have to say, this has got to be one of our loveliest donations ever,” he said.

    I wouldn’t judge this book by its cover, I thought. “Like I said on the phone, it definitely has some problem parts and a faulty transmission,” I said.

    He towed the Altima away. Reb looked on, beaming. “Just look at that, Roberta!”

    “Yeah!” I said. “That junker is finally gone!”

    The donation center promised to send me a receipt for my tax write-off to include in my tax return.

    The envelope arrived in my mailbox soon after. But instead of the measly $500 allowance that I’d been expecting to get, I was stunned to see that my car’s “full Blue-Book value” had been reported. In fact, it was enough to cover a good portion of the cost of my new car.

    In a panic, I called the donation center. “This can’t be!” I said. “I told you that Altima wasn’t fit to drive. Remember? Please tell me you didn’t give it to someone. What if they wind up on a hill and the transmission goes out?”

    “Ma’am, there’s no need to worry,” the man on the phone said. “Because of your warning, we were extra careful when checking the car over. We had three separate mechanics go over every detail. It was just as pristine under the hood as it was everywhere else. There wasn’t a thing wrong with it.”

    How on earth could that be? Had the mechanics I’d gone to been mistaken, or was there something else at work?

    I looked down and saw a small handwritten card peeking out from the same day’s stack of mail. I opened it to find a message that stopped me cold.

    “Dear Ms. Messner,

    You have no idea what your beautiful car means to my girls and me. We had been taking three buses for me to get to work and drop them off at school. Now we have a car. A car!”

    Attached was a photo. A mother, her hand clasping the handle of the driver’s side door, and two little girls, peering into the back seat. The same back seat that my sister felt called to prepare just for them.

     

    Truly, it is sometimes true. "Somebodies trash is someone else's treasure." And it was true in this case. But why? What made one woman believe that her car had gone caput and another one believe it was meant for a mother and her children that needed it. And then to find out that Rebekdah, had been right after all. And then why did it happen that when the donation center had their mechanics go over the car, it was in "pristine" condition?

    God can do amazing things when we believe. Things we sometimes do not understand how they happen. We don't know the full story of how the lady with the children came to own that car. Did she believe God could work a miracle for her? We don't know.

    But God does. And that is what is important. That we just believe he can do anything we ask. He can make all things possible. If only, we believe.

    You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will remain--so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you John 14:14

    "Because you have so little faith," He answered. "For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."


    Thanks for dropping by, Friends. Have a wonderful day in the Lord! God bless you!








    Saturday, October 17, 2020

    All We Need is Love....

     

    Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that does not love, does not know God; for God is love. In this, God demonstrated his love for us because he sent his only Son into the world that through him we might live. And so, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the replacement for our sins. 1 John 4: 7-10
    All we need is love 0

    Love,
    Love,
    Love,
    All you need is love...

    That song was written by John Lennon (The Beatles) and released in 1967.

    If you are too young to know who The Beatles were, they were a popular English rock band that was formed early in the 1960s. The reason for the song, according to https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&sxsrf=ALeKk030Ssu2oF22pEF7roB2Bh_WoPMulA%3A1602934057086&ei=KdWKX_HgBKqm5wLA77OQDw&q=all+you+need+is+lov was to convey a simple message. The Beatles were asked to come up with a song that could be understood by the world. And that song was born that all we needed was love. And why not? It is a good message. One of hope. 
      
    But then came the Hippie Movement in the 60s and 70s which promoted making love and not war. And it certainly did that as they smoked weed, took illegal drugs, demonstrated against the Viet Nam war and having sex with anyone and everyone.. All of this became the "go to" way of living for many people.

    The problems with all of the love stuff being propagated by both the Beatles and the  Movement, was not really the love that people were really searching for. It was a crafty and albeit fraudulent disguise of it created by none other by the devil himself. Instead of course, being God's love. People looked in other places and found death and disease in place of what He wanted for them.

    It had destroyed lives instead of leading us to Him. For He is love and the only kind that we really need. If we do not have it, we do not know him. And he does not know us. 

    And so we want to know. What is God's love? What does it really look like?

    In tomorrows post, I will again have another story about faith and how God intervened in the life of someone that needed his help. 
    And then on Monday, we will look into more on the questions about God's love. Thanks for coming by. God bless!

























    Silent Night

      Silent Night “Silent Night” is a favorite Christ­mas song for many people around the world. Its gentle melody suggests a “heavenly peace” ...