Seasons of Change

I completely enjoy all of the four seasons of the year. Living in upstate NY affords me the opportunity of experiencing each of the seasons. However, old man winter tends to overstay his welcome threatening the chance of snow on in to April.  Alabama, where I am originally from, has the opposite problem...summer can extend far into October and sometimes warm weather can last on into November.  Because of these long stretches, I gladly welcome the change of seasons. But this next season of change from summer to fall is not as welcomed as it usually is. The season of sending my first born off to college is not eagerly anticipated. Sigh!

I am a mixed bag of emotions! I am thrilled that she will be attending the same university that I attended. It's just so hard to believe that this is where we are right now. 

Remember that car commercial where a little girl is sitting behind the wheel assuring her dad that she was only going to a friend's house and that she would be OK?  Just before she drives off you see a  beautiful teenage girl. The dad still sees her as little. That's the way I feel right now. I find myself staring at her in amazement. I am so proud of the young woman she has become.  My husband and I have done our best to train her in the way of our Lord.  This is the time where her faith in The Lord Jesus Christ becomes her own.  It is time for me to let go. It is time for me to bathe her in prayer. It is time for this season of our lives to change.

"Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it" (Proverbs 22:6 NLT).

****** I'll try really hard not to cry when I leave her on Monday!

Heaven...The Final Destination

Philippians 3:20-21, "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."

Two years ago, my family and I decided to take our first Disney vacation. We started planning about ten months out. We bought books, searched on line, and talked with many people who had already been to the Magical Kingdom. The goal was to be as prepared as we possibly could be. It was funny at how much it consumed my thoughts. I found myself talking to strangers about our preparations for this incredible trip we were about to take. Many fed off my excitement and would begin asking questions. Some were turned off by the mere mention of such a trip. Others just smiled and listened to me chatter away. Such joy came to me and my family as we planned and anticipated our long awaited journey.

Thinking about the preparation for that destination made me ponder the thought of my final destination; the moment that I take my final breath and enter into THE Kingdom. When I was little, I thought of heaven as a mystical place where we all floated down the streets of gold and sang "hallelujah" for eternity. Eternity....the idea of never having an end point was just too much for my young mind to dwell on. Even now, it is hard for me to really comprehend it.

John 14: 1-3 says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am you may be also." (John 14:1-3). There is room for many people in God's Kingdom. Those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior will dwell in this Kingdom with him. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he told the thief, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 (NIV) Upon the thief's death he would be with Jesus. The moment we leave this temporary home, we will be at home with the Lord.

I believe that we have lost the eternal perspective...and that sets us up (especially the younger population) for great heartache, disappointment, and sin. We get fixated on things we want or need at the moment, such as popularity, drugs, sex, good grades, climbing the ladder of success, etc. for fear that we might miss out on something. But what we were truly made for is to be in relationship with God and other people and, ultimately, to dwell in Heaven. Missing this truth can have destructive ramifications in this life.

Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, mentions that the church has shown an unbiblical view of our heavenly home. He states that some of Satan’s best untruths are about Heaven. Satan knows that if we truly grasped the existence of Heaven, it would completely change our present lives. We would have far more determination and fearlessness if we saw the world from an eternal mindset. Can you imagine what would happen if all believers captured this mindset and acted upon it?

“God has planted eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes. 3:10 TLB).
The realization that there must be something more lies deep within us all. Some people try to stay busy in order to fill that nagging question. Max Lucado wrote this in a post from he had on the "Preach It, Teach It" website,
"Take a fish and place him on the beach. Watch his gills gasp and scales dry. Is he happy? No! How do you make him happy? Do you cover him with a mountain of cash? Do you get him a beach chair and sunglasses? Do you bring him a Playfish magazine and martini? Do you wardrobe him in double-breasted fins and people-skinned shoes?

Of course not. Then how do you make him happy? You put him back in his element. You put him back in the water. He will never be happy on the beach simply because he was not made for the beach."

We were not made for this earth. We were made for so much more. Only through surrendering our hearts and minds to the Lord each day and keeping our sights set toward our heavenly home will we experience peace. Unsurrpassing peace as we look toward our final destination!

A picture is worth a thousand words....

I will post more later. This week of ministry has been amazing! God has moved in so many hearts. Here is a photo I was able to capture....children praying to receive Christ!

Boldness of Faith

Spring break. Snow. These two words should be far far away from each other. However, on our first full day at Flower City Work Camp (during our Spring break mind you)....we were met with a bone chilling windchill of 10 degrees and periods of heavy snow. Now I must tell you that I don't handle cold very well, and there I was serving on the Side Walk Club. The Side Walk Club is like a Back Yard Bible Club where songs, arts and crafts, games and a dramas based on a Bible story are performed for the children within the city.

I was blessed to be on a team with an incredible group of teenagers as well as adult leaders. It was wonderful to see the confidence that these high school students had in the Lord. Even on that first, snowy day, when no kids showed up, they kept a positive attitude through it all. Teenagers...keeping a positive attitude, seeing the best in people, encouraging and building each other up, working together.....what a joy this was to see first hand!

Our second day proved to be quite a blessing. We had 27 kids show up to our 2nd site...the same one where there had been zero the day before. Apparently there was a miscommunication as to where our location actually was to be held. On Tuesday, while we were waiting outside in blizzard like conditions, there were some precious children waiting for us to show up in a warm,cozy room in their apartment complex! Glad we finally figured it out! We were able to love on these kids and share the gospel with them.

I heard countless testimonies at our final meeting of how groups would go on prayer walks. While on the walks, they would approach people on the street and ask them if they could pray with them. Some accepted it; some rejected it. But seeds were planted. They saw people who took the time to care; to look them in the eyes and ask to pray with them. To share the gospel with them if they were open to it.

This brought conviction upon me. It is easy to sit here and type the gospel message, or to post it on FaceBook or to Tweet scripture. It is another thing to go up to a total stranger and begin a conversation about the Lord. But why should it be? It did take me out of my comfort zone a little bit. Most of the circles I'm in...everyone is already a believer. If I'm to be an obedient follower of Christ, then I must do what He says in the Great Commission.....

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

He will empower us through the Holy Spirit to go out and share our testimony with others. The thought of missing an opportunity to share the love of Christ with someone who is ready to respond horrifies me. After reading about the convictions of D.L. Moody and how his boldness in the faith changed a man has challenged me.

D. L. Moody made an covenant with God that he would witness for Christ to at least one person each day. One night, about ten o’clock, he realized that he had not yet witnessed; so he went out in to the street and spoke to a man standing by a lamppost, asking him, “Are you a Christian?” The man flew into a violent rage and threatened to knock Moody into the gutter.
Later, that same man went to an elder in the church and complained that Moody was “doing more harm in Chicago than ten men were doing good.” The elder begged Moody to temper his zeal with knowledge. Three months later, Moody was awakened at the YMCA by a man knocking at the door. It was the man he had witnessed to. “I want to talk to you about my soul,” he said to Moody. He apologized for the way he had treated Moody and said that he had had no peace ever since that night on Lake Street when Moody witnessed to him. Moody led the man to Christ and he became a zealous worker in the Sunday school.
The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 205

What if Moody had not gone out that night? What if he chose sleep over His conviction? I know that God will get His work done with or without me. I read that Billy Graham felt that he was God's second choice for his evangelism ministry. Mr. Graham was willing to be used and was open before the Lord every morning. I don't want to miss out on being used in any capacity by the Lord. It requires a daily surrendering with an open heart. A daily sensitivity to His leading. Less of me...more of Him.

This week has deepened my need to be bold in my faith and to love people unconditionally. It has done the same within the hearts of my four children and my husband. We are different. Our eyes have been opened. I am looking forward to see how the Lord will use us in this journey as we are obedient to Him!

The Tomb is Empty

Little Philip, born with Down’s syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in Leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, “That’s stupid. That’s not fair. Somebody didn’t do their assignment.”
Philip spoke up, “That’s mine.”
“Philip, you don’t ever do things right!” the student retorted. “There’s nothing there!”
“I did so do it,” Philip insisted. “I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb was empty!”
Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class. He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg.

~Source unknown

Philip had it right. Everyone else was caught up in finding the best item to put in their egg. They were quick to cast judgment on what they did not understand.

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples themselves had moments of disbelief. They had put all their faith in the Christ that was going to set up His earthly kingdom. Now He was dead? How could this be?

Jesus showed Himself alive to His disciples and many others after the Resurrection. Acts 1:3 states that, "He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs."

Many people have set out to disprove that Jesus was the Son of God, was crucified for our sins, and rose again. Because of the well-documented historical facts about Christ's life here on earth, many critics have made their own personal commitment to believe.

Dr. Seamands tells of a Muslim who became a Christian in Africa. “Some of his friends asked him, ‘Why have you become a Christian?’
He answered, ‘Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive—which one would you ask which way to go?’“
Warren Webster, April, 1980, HIS, p. 13

I know the one I would ask. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

As a former pastor used to say, "The tomb is empty and the throne is occupied!"

He is ALIVE!

That is what Easter is all about.

Hallelujah!


This photo is by image-source: http://www.turnbacktogod.com

A Powerful Combination

                        The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.
                                                         D. L. Moody

    Over the past few weeks, I have been listening to a sermon series by Dr. David Jeremiah about the importance of a disciplined mind.  Some, well all, of the sermons are packed FULL of such insight that I have listened to them multiple times. I still feel as though I need to go back and take notes on them so that the truths will stay with me.  One of the little nuggets that he shared was that we are who we think we are.  This is something that I have struggled with as far back as I can remember.     And having teenagers in the house, I see that this is something in which all ages and genders struggle with.  It all begins in the mind.  Our minds can be a battlefield for the enemy to bring us down....to second guess ourselves.  

It breaks my heart to see my children compare themselves to their peers or some famous person on TV.  However, when I pause and reflect on my own thoughts....I do the very same thing. Thoughts of, "I am not a good mother" or "I'm not pretty enough" or "I am so stupid" or "I am not ______" . That one blank can get filled in so quickly through the course of the day. Once those negative thoughts begin to circulate through the mind, it can easily distort the reality of our true self worth.

This is exactly where I was about five years ago. I am a perfectionist by nature. I want to have the appearance that everything is perfect. Notice I said "appearance".  Perfect figure.  Perfect hair.  Perfect house.  Perfect family....and the list goes on. I was constantly placing myself under great pressure to attain this so called "perfectness". What it did was to make my life miserable on the inside.   On the outside, I could put on my happy mask and smile.  But on the inside, I felt miserable. I could never measure up to my own expectations or how I thought other people viewed me.  My insecurities held me captive.  I was becoming a bitter person on the inside.  I knew something was not right when I was sitting through a baptismal service and caught myself looking down at my watch wondering how much longer until it was over.  What was wrong with me?  The person being baptized was showing family and friends that their hearts had been changed and that they wanted to serve the Lord.  This should MOVE me emotionally.  I should be thrilled to see someone want to live for Christ!  

I continually felt a tugging at my heart to just pray.  If there wasn't time in my day for anything else....I just needed to pray.  So I did.  I realized right then and there that I really didn't know HOW  to pray.  Meaning....I never just prayed my heart.  I was used to praying my little prayer check list and just going through the motions.  But one cold January morning, I knelt down by the bench at the end of my bed and prayed.  I talked with God.  I cried.  I listened.  I sang.  I read aloud Scripture from the Bible.  That was the day I began to experience true joy.  It was hard work.  It was very emotional because I had to retrain my mind.  I had to allow the Holy Spirit with the memorization of God's word to change me.  When negative thoughts would try to creep up, I had to replace that with something positive.  That positive being verses that I had memorized to fight back.  I like to call them my fighter verses.  One of the verses I used was from Proverbs 31:25, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." I am clothed with the arms of Jesus wrapped tightly around me...and that gives me strength.  I have dignity because I am made in the image of God the Creator!  And I love this part..."she can laugh at the days to come."  I like to say that, "I WILL laugh at the days to come!"

When God's word and the Holy Spirit come together in a believer's mind, there is a powerful combination that occurs in our hearts and strengthens us.  This is what helped me to experience freedom in Christ.....freedom in my heart and in my mind.  To God be the Glory!  

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Colossians 3:16

 

Train Up a Child....

" Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Parenting can sometimes be so hard. I adore my kids....love them to the core. Their personalities intrigue me. However, sometimes those precious personalities can be overtaken by little aliens. I am naturally a peacemaker. So when conflict arises, I tend to want to retreat, give in, or say nothing at all. As a parent, I have to establish clear, cut boundaries. This has not been an easy task. I can see both sides of a situation all too clearly. I understand why my child may be lashing out. Because of this, I have a hard time taking a course of action. It gets frustrating for me....

As I am sitting here typing this, my verse of the day popped up.....quite interesting....

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

Ahhh.....God does this in my life so much! I asked for wisdom and strength about a certain situation. James Chapter 1 tells us, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. "(James 1:5, 6 ESV)

I HATE seeing my kids hurt, mad, or angry. It hurts. I want to fix it. However, fixing it and not establishing consequences for actions teaches them nothing. I desire for all of my children to be responsible, loving, caring people with great integrity who are 100% devoted to the Lord. Tough love is a process of them getting to that point.

No one said parenting was easy.....but being a parent is one of the greatest joys ever!


Lord....give me wisdom to honor you in my household.

Be Still and Know That I am God

Still and Know that I am God

This Blog has come into being through events that occurred last year within my family.  I was looking through the CaringBridge sight that I had documented all the details of the Lord's hand upon my dad, my family, and myself.  We just had to take the time to, "Be still and know that I (He) is God."

The following account sums up what happened July, 2012 to September, 2012.

I am finally able to document all that has occurred last week. I will attach a letter that Eddie wrote to the church I amwhere my par I ents attend....but I want to back up and share a few more things that have happened in the past 6 weeks.After the first surgery on July 13, I went back into SICU to see daddy. He was pretty heavily sedated but was able to talk to me and mom. Out of the blue, he looked over at me with that serious look (you know the look that a parent gives a child when you better listen up), pointed his finger at me and said, "I saw God do a miracle today!". I continued to look at him and said, "Sir?". To which he replied, "I saw God do a miracle today!". And so it seemed that He had. The following 6 days were better than textbook. The doctors were pleasantly surprised by his progress and allowed daddy to go home earlier than expected.After 5 days of being home and having his drains removed, daddy's health took a turn. He was dehydrated and started experiencing kidney failure. A second surgery was needed. The surgeon was shocked that the tissue to connect the pancreas had died. He had never seen that before in all of his years of practice. He made a reference at one point that he felt like the enemy was trying to take a good man out. While in MICU, daddy looked at mom and said, "Did you see Him?". Mom asked him who he was talking about to which daddy said, "Did you see Him? Did you see Jesus? He was here.". Mom continued the discussion by asking him what Jesus said. Daddy replied with confidence, "He said that I was His child!". After mom told me this I had to stop and thank God for that precious gift that He had given to him in that hospital room.The following is the letter that I had mentioned before that my husband wrote regarding the last couple of weeks:

I am writing to tell you of the great turn around in Jerome Turner's health that we believe to be orchestrated by the Lord. While we seek wisdom and discernment in understanding what we witnessed this week, it seems the Lord decided to pay Jerome a visit in the hospital. 

When we arrived on Monday (Kelly, the kids and I), Jerome was emotionally, spiritually and physically very down. We had some really important discussions with him that night that relieved him of some of the stress he was under. One of the other problems he was encountering was the relentless hiccups. They would return each day and last most of the day. That alone can be very tiresome and a constant reminder that things aren't normal. But the biggest challenge was that the pancreas continued to misbehave and was not attaching to the intestine. At this point, Jerome had five drainage tubes and one feeding tube. 

On Monday night, I returned to the Turner's house with my son Turner. I felt compelled to get on my knees and pray for Jerome. My specific prayers were for the hiccups to stop, for him to have some increased strength and for encouragement. Also during Monday evening and subsequent moments during the early morning, Kelly prayed prayers of healing as she touched and massaged Jerome's feet and back. Her specific prayers were for the pancreas to begin to attach correctly to the intestine so that the troublesome leaking would stop.

Tuesday we witnessed Jerome's spirit improving, but by the end of the day, he was questioning the Lord's plan and began to feel down again. The doctor reiterated that this was a long journey and he could be in the hospital for a few weeks if not many, many days. He stressed patience to Jerome. Tuesday night and on to Wednesday morning, Jerome woke up in the middle of the night and could not get a verse out of his mind. The words were, "Be still and know that I am God." Jerome felt as if the Lord was giving him this verse but was puzzled about why and what it might mean. Kelly was awake and the two of them had a special prayer together for understanding. Jerome also stated that they should sing "How Great Thou Art" when the morning time came. At this time, they went back to sleep.

Wednesday came around and Kelly reminded Jerome about the singing so they harmonized the song, "How Great Thou Art". During the song, the hiccups cleared up! During the day, Jerome, Kelly and I had some discussions about the verse that Jerome felt the Lord gave him. We didn't realize it then, but apparently it was a call to exalt the Lord for what he was going to do. If you read the rest of that verse in Psalm 46:10, that is exactly what the Lord expected. During the night on Wednesday, Jerome was suddenly awakened by a great shifting type of pain in the area of the pancreas. It was so intense that he thought he was having a heart attack and Mary called the nurse. All vitals were taken and he checked out fine. 

Thursday, Jerome was walking further than he had before, eating pretty good and gaining in strength. Also, his spirit was being encouraged and strengthened too.

Friday morning came around and the doctor ordered an x-ray. Early on Friday, the doctor came in with a very happy and estatic report that the pancreas was finally flowing properly into the intestine. Further, all drainage tubes except one were gone and the doctor began to discuss checking him out of the hospital around Tuesday or so of this coming week.

We all of been emotional but have asked the Lord for healing and for understanding. We all have been in prayer mode and have watched for the Lord to move. The verse that the Lord gave to Jerome has the message of holiness with it, the expectation of exaltation and that He was going to do something. While Jerome still has improvement to achieve, we believe that something wonderful happened this week. We humbly and excitedly report this to you. We ask that you rejoice with us and praise the Lord for his work. As I write this, hiccups have not returned for days, the pancreas is behaving beautifully and Jerome's physical and emotional health have greatly increased. 

May the Lord be exalted among each of you. We have witnessed what the power of detailed prayer and an open heart can do. Something happened this week in the hospital room. Something changed. God moved. We have all have experienced a renewed strength and peace that can only come from the Lord! Grace and peace to you all and to God be the Glory!

In the beautiful and inspiring words of Psalm 46: 

1"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

I pray that you will all be encouraged by this. While this journey is slow and painful...we know what we witnessed last week. Daddy improved and he is going home. Our eyes have been fine tuned to the eternal....a Holy God who walks beside us through the trials. Daddy still struggles with it all...however, we rally around him and encourage him to remember all that God has done. Doing that helps him and helps me as well. 

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" To God be the glory...even in this!