Three months ago I was dressed up in my wedding dress walking towards the love of my life. Being a newlywed is awesome and hard. The hard part is learning how selfish I can be at times and growing to be more loving and kind. When I was younger I had an idea of marriage being two people who live happily ever after - no disagreements, no hurts, just happiness all the time. Actually marriage is showing me a deeper and deeper understanding of what love really is and what God’s perfect love looks like even though it’s been a hard process.
About a week ago my husband and I had a disagreement and I chose selfishly to say some rude things and walk into the other room. My husband walked into the room, sat down beside me and starting reading from our daily devotional. The devotional is based on the book The Love Dare so it has daily dares of learning how to love your spouse intentionally. This particular day it dared us to read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. You know the famous love verses read at most weddings:
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Bible Study Give Away Beholding Him, Becoming Missional: Awakening to the Mission Through the Study of 1 Samuel offers women the opportunity to behold the King and be transformed into living uniquely purposeful and missional lives. By the end of the study, women will walk away with minds and hearts that have been transformed through an intimate relationship with the King, and lives uniquely reflecting the King’s heart and mission for the world. It has a “come alongside and let’s do life together” flavor and feel and like 1 Samuel, it is packed full of relevant stories—stories of people bravely living out God’s heart and passion, stories of utter failure and embarrassment, stories of redemption, victory, and partnering with others to live out God’s very heart. It is set up in two sections. The first six weeks will move you into a more authentic relationship with God. The second six weeks move you to the point of action, of living on purpose for the glory of God, reflecting His heart for the world. To enter simply leave a comment below. For extra entries 'Like' the Beholding Glory facebook Page, tweet or put the link for this giveaway in your facebook status (and indicate what you've done in your comment). The winner will be announced next Friday the 17th. Have you ever wondered what God has to say about kids with special needs? "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." John 9:1-7 Kids with special needs must be very close to God's heart as they are vessels for His glory. Their little lives are used to give others a glimpse of what God is like. Wow! Meet some of my family. My uncle Bruce, aunt Brooklyn and little Gabe. They love Jesus Here is little Gabe's story. Gabriel was big at birth as a result of Brooklyn's undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes. By big I mean, 12 lbs. 6 oz. They saw a doctor and had an ultrasound and were cleared for a home birth with instructions to come back in a week if she had not delivered. Two days later Brooklyn went into labor. She attempted to deliver Gabriel in a birthing pool in her living room with the midwife team in attendance. She delivered his head but his shoulders were wider than her pelvis. She was helped out of the pool with little Gabe 1/2 delivered and all the attempts of the midwife to deliver Gabe were futile. He was stuck. The umbilical cord was compressed and Gabriel was not getting any oxygen to his brain, he began to turn blue. They called 911. Very clearly Brooklyn heard the enemy say, "I'm gonna kill your son." Brooklyn prayed. Then Bruce and the team witnessed Gabriel on his own suddenly turn and slip out. He was still not breathing and had no heart beat. They began infant CPR and waited for the EMT to arrive. When they arrived their equipment (defibrilator) wouldn't work. One tech voiced his opinion to cease recescitation efforts, to which the lead tech refused. After 30 minutes of no heart beat, they were able to restart his heart and get him breathing! They flew him to the hospital, where they were told his chances of survival were poor and if he did survive, he would be a vegetable. Today Gabe is a vibrant, spiritually aware, intelligent, passionate little 10 year old boy who understands and allows God to use him to share Christ's love and hope in spite of many physical impairments. Though he is g-tube fed and in a wheelchair and using a computer to talk for him, he is changing our lives and all those who come to know him. From sweet aunt Brooklyn's mouth, "God truly does work all things for good! Thanks be to God who always cause us to triumph in Christ Jesus." Brag on God Friday's is a link up to brag about God. You can share any post about how He came through for you when you took a step of faith, how He answered a prayer, what He showed you through His Word about Himself, how He gave a glimpse of Himself through His creation, basically anyway you have seen Him reveal Himself. If you would like to use this opportunity to brag on God, go ahead and link up. Just post my button (found on the side bar on the right or under the BOGF tab) or link within your post. After you have linked your post, ask God to speak to you through the others linked up and leave them a brief encouraging comment. Tomorrow... We have such a neat opportunity here in the US of seeing God write such unique stories. When I was in Nepal I attended a large Christ honoring, Bible believing church. During the annoucements they said, "If you are approaching that age and would like to get married, approach the elders and we will arrange it for you." I could not believe what I was hearing! "What! How could they do that! That is so... not biblical!" I seriously was shaken, but realized the US way of doing marriage is not the only way, or even the Bible way. It took time, but I finally came to grips with the fact that God could be honored and glorified through arranged marriages too. But that experience did cause me to appreciate the freedom we have in this country and the beautifully unique stories God writes. Here's mine. Day 1 I had just returned from a five month long missions training program with the last two months spent in Nepal. Went I came home to Durango, all my friends except two had graduated and moved away. It was time for me to meet new people and make new friends. I went to a BBQ where I met Austin. He came up to me and asked me if I wanted a hamburger. I said yes, and he brought me a hamburger, chips and all. I thought, "What a nice guy, I wonder if we're going to be friends." He was thinking... "There's that cute girl but everyone is talking to her, wanting to hear about Nepal." So the only thing he could think to do to get my attention was to bring me a plate of food. Austin snowboarding down the sand dunes. Had to included the picture, since he had long hair when we met. Day 2 In the small town of Durango, if you recognize someone (but really don't know them from Adam) you wave and say hi. That's the culture. John and Fred were from the east coast and were taking a road trip, going to different cities they thought the Lord was leading them. They didn't know the Durango culture. Somehow they met up with Jeremiah, a guy I recognized. A friend of mine and I ran into Jeremiah, John and Fred in the grocery store and said hi as the Durango culture demands. John and Fred, thinking we were all friends invited us over to BBQ, we went. A few minutes after getting to Jeremiah's Austin rides up on his bike. Turns out Jeremiah was his roomate. I got so excited, hoping we were going to be able to talk. Someone annouced we needed buns for the burgers. Austin had just rode up and quickly said, "I'll go." Confused and a little sad, I wondered if he didn't want to talk to me. He was thinking... "Oh no, what is she doing here?" Since he felt totally unprepared to talk to me. On the way to the grocery store he started praying, "God, why do I feel this way about this girl? Is this who I'm going to marry?" That night we talked for hours and realized so much we had in common like we both had been to the capital city of Tanzania Africa. Day 3 A ministry in town had a special night at their lodge 45 minutes outside of town. Total there were about 25 people in attendance. Austin and I both ended up at the same meeting. Strange since neither of us were too involved with that ministry. The guy who gave him a ride that night had to leave and randomly asked my friend Erica (who drove me) if she would give Austin a ride home. More great conversation. The lodge is in the picture below and had no idea at the time that God would give our ministry that lodge 11 years later. Here's the amazing story of how God provided! Day 4
Austin knew what time I got off work and had planned to 'happen to ride by' on his bike with his guitar at the time I was getting off. On his way over, he got really convicted that he wasn't trusting God with it. Right then he saw a guy on the side of the road with a sign that said, "Can I pray for you?" Austin stopped to pray. 30 minutes later, thinking he had missed me, he started riding home. I stayed late that day and the exact second I was walking out the door, Austin rode by. Both of us were stunned. We went to get ice cream and had a great conversation again. Then he asked me on a date. The rest as they say, was history. Our friends Dave and Amy had the worst day of their life on July 6th of last year. Amy was giving the kids a bath. She took little 2 year old Gore out the tub and put his pajama shirt and diaper on. She went to go grab his pajama pants, when she returned he was gone. She looked around the house and then went to the back door where he had learned to unlatch the screen door a few days earlier, it was open. She frantically looked for him, after 25 min. ran toward the irrigation ditch 200 yards away and heard screams. She saw her cousin walking toward her with little Gore in his pajama shirt and diaper, white and life-less in his arms. They had found him submerged under a log in the fast moving irrigation ditch. Amy thought he was dead. They got him to the hospital where the doctors said he had 1% chance of survival and even if they managed to restart his heart, they feared Gore had suffered irreparable brain damage. After 1 hour, His heart restarted and they did therapeutic hypothermia, an experimental treatment in which the body temperature is lowered — in Gore’s case, to 90 degrees — in order to protect the brain and allow healing. For 48 hours, Amy and Dave waited and prayed. “Is he going to be brain dead?” Dave wondered. “Is he ever going to wake up? All I really ever hoped for was to be able to hold him again.” When doctors slowly warmed Gore back up to normal body temperature, they all watched for purposeful movement, any sort of sign that Gore still had some brain activity. Immediately, Gore started moving and opened his eyes. He used the sign his parents had taught him to tell them he was hungry. An MRI scan of Gore’s brain came back with astonishing results: Perfectly normal. “It came back no abnormalities. Not one single thing in his brain MRI that was wrong,” A few days later, Gore walked out of the hospital on his own. Doctors can’t fully explain how this little boy came back to life after being underwater and without a heartbeat for so long. God is the same today, yesterday and forever. His power since raising Lazarus from the dead has not diminished, and neither has any of His other incredible attributes. Can you believe we get to serve such an incredible God?! Click the picture below to watch them on the Today Show. |
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