Life is Hard but God is GOOD!!!
Wow---I don't know how anyone gets through life without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ & a church family of God for support.
The last week has been a rough one for me. I got the phone call that no one ever wants to get--my mother called from Florida to say that my brother was in the ICU unit hooked up to life support. The doctors didn't think he was going to make it.
It's been touch and go and he's sill in critical condition. We're seeing very small signs of improvement though and today he opened his eyes for the first time in a week! Thank you Jesus!
It wasn't easy preparing a message this week & preaching yesterday. It was hard to concentrate. I kept wondering if I should get on the next flight to Tampa. My mother tells me not to come, yet, but, it's so hard to know what the right thing to do is............
My mother has been calling me every 3-4 hours to give me an update and every time the phone rings, my stomach ties in a knot. All she has to do is say the word 'hello' and I pretty much know if things are going good or not.....
But when she called me earlier today to say that my brother had opened his eyes and even squeezed her hand, we both cried with joy.
I told our congregation Sunday that it has been their love, prayers and support that has gotten all of us through this and I meant it with all my heart. The phone calls, the emails & the text messages have given me incredible strength!!!
Yesterday, our Sunday message was all about how God created us with the purpose of being a part of and CONNECTED to God's Family. (Sermon is on our website--listen).
When I shared about my brother, I got choked up. I couldn't talk (that almost never happens :-). But I told our church family that there was no way I could be standing up there doing a sermon this week if it wasn't for their love and prayers.
On Saturday, I went to Barb's sister's funeral. This is the second sister of hers that went home to be with the Lord in the last two weeks!!! She has been a wonderful example of what it means to walk in faith and praise God in the storm. We have found much strength in each other in the past week or so and that is the amazing thing about being CONNECTED to one another in the family of God.
Barb told me that she has felt much love from the people in our church & I am so very proud of our church family!!! They are loving each other just as Jesus told us to love each other in God's family.
BHCC has become the church that I've always dreamed about. I know it's not perfect, but it's healthy, and growing in numbers AND in LOVE!!!
Thank you dear Jesus! Thank you for Your Faithfulness! Thank you for giving us strength & for filling our hearts with your love. You told us that in this world there would be trouble and yes, trouble is always lurking around.
But you also said: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16: 33)."
Thank you God that you had a plan for when trouble finds us--and Your plan is that we would find strength and peace, and that one way that you would deliver it to us is from our brothers and sisters in our church family.
Lord---I pray for all the Christians who say they can be a Christian and NOT go to church. I pray that you will show them how wrong that is---I pray that you will show them that they too were FORMED to be intricately CONNECTED to Your church--the Living Body of Christ.
LORD---I want them to have what I and all the people in our church have---a loving family that will be there for them in good times AND in bad times. Show them the Way Lord---to find Your Purpose for their life in Your local church!
Amen and Amen!