Urgent Prayer Request for baby Susannah Joy Maxwell

I just came from the Maxwell's blog. If you are not familiar with the Maxwell's, they can be found here. They have a ministry called Managers of their Homes, and it's been a great help to me through the years.

Steve and Teri Maxwell's son and daughter in law, Nathan and Melanie, had a new baby on March 21st. Her name is Susannah Joy Maxwell, and she is in the NICU, and it is very critical. Here is the link to the blog, the information on her, and a picture, of the baby.

Please keep them in your prayers, this is a difficult time for them. This brings back memories because our youngest daughter spent three weeks in the NICU almost nine years ago.

A thank you to Heather

My oldest daughter, who will be 14 yrs. old next month, made supper Monday through Wednesday night this week because I've been really sick with headaches all week. She is very creative, and did a wonderful job.

God has gifted her with many creative abilities. She can sew, which I cannot do. I taught her how to hand sew, but she learned how to sew with the sewing machine. She has made dresses for dolls, pillows. She even made a skirt for herself.

She taught herself how to play the dulcimer. She is also very good at drawing.

I do hope this is not coming across as boasting, because that is not my intent at all. I wanted to post encouraging words to her, and to thank her for her help.

She was such a help to me when I was sick. She also washed the clothes, besides making supper.

So, I wanted to publically thank her for all of her hard work.

Thank you Heather for all that you did when I was sick. I love you.

Thoughts during a funeral

This morning I went to a funeral for the son of a couple from our church, and our pastor preached the sermon. Their son was saved, which does give great comfort during this time of their loss. Because of this, I decided to write about that today.

Before the service started, I came across the below verses from John 11:

John 11:25-26 "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

When my mother died in April, 1991 it changed my life forever. Hers was the first real death I had dealt with of someone that I was very close to, and saw on a daily basis until I married, and moved away from home in 1982. In many ways I think it caused me to fear death, and the loss of those whom I love. At the time of her death, I claimed to be a believer, but in reality, I don't believe I was because nothing in my life had ever changed, I don't believe God had regenerated my heart, and given me a new nature. So, I didn't have Christ during that time in my life.

My father passed away in November, 1998, and I think that caused me to fear death even more, and to fear getting close to people I loved because it hurt too much to loose them.

When I read John 11:25-26 this morning before the service, it was like a light bulb went off in my head, and I had understood a bit more. What I'm about to say seems so simple, yet I could not grasp it until today. As a believer, I have nothing to fear, I don't have to fear death, whether it be my own, or my loved ones. Because when we pass away, we will be with the Lord. Our souls will be with Him. The verse below tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord:

2 Corinthians 5:8 "Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."

Those verses gave me great comfort today, and I no longer have that fear. The death of a loved one is never easy, but when that loved one is a believer, it does make it easier. We know that, even though we miss our loved one, they are with the Lord, and we will see them again.

Death is much more difficult to handle when your loved one was not saved, or you don't know they were saved, as is the case with my parents. Even in that situation, we can trust God to do what is right. As difficult as that may be, we can surely trust Him.

First Day of Spring

I almost forgot! This is the first day of spring! I think this is my favorite time of year because the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and the weather is just right.

The Solitariness of God - Part Six

I've been sick with a headache since Sunday afternoon, and when I get them, they're pretty bad, and leave me unable to function. The worst of it was yesterday, and though I still feel it a bit today, I'm feeling much better. I'm not sure if it was a sinus headache, or because of a lack of caffeine.

In the second to last paragraph of Chapter 1 of A. W. Pink's Attributes of God book he says this:

"Nor is God known by the intellect. "God is Spirit," (John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth) and therefore can only be known spiritually. But fallen man is not spiritual; he is carnal. He is dead to all that is spiritual. Unless he is born again, supernaturally brought from death unto life, miraculously translated out of darkness into light , he cannot even see the things of God (John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God"), still less apprehend them (1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned). The Holy Spirit has to shine in our hearts (not intellects) in order to give us "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

This hit home with me because of a conversation I had with my oldest brother, a retired history teacher. He calls himself an atheist. He, my oldest daughter and I, talked for quite a long time about science, and evolution a couple of weeks ago. Right before our conversation ended, I began asking him if he had ever lied. I was trying to show him that we have all broken God's law, and there was a penalty to be paid for our sin. He couldn't understand that, which to me is simple. It's simple to me because the Lord has opened my eyes, and my ears, and has saved me. It's something I've been thinking about ever since our conversation. My prayer is that He would do the same for my brother, and my other lost family members.

The Solitariness of God - Part Five

Going through A. W. Pink's Attributes of God book has been, so far, such a good study. I learn something new every day. Today, I read a paragraph where he quoted the below verse.

1 Timothy 6:16 "who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen."

In the last two sentences, he had this to say:

"Such an One is to be revered, worshipped, adored. He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none."

Reading that, and meditating on it, causes me to be so grateful to Him for saving me. He didn't save me based on anything I did, He choose me, I did not choose Him, (John 15:16). He did a work in my heart, and made me willing, and though I did repent and believe, apart from His working in my heart, I would never have done those things. And that's just one thing that causes me to be so grateful, and to stand in awe of Him. He doesn't need me, I need Him.

There is so much more I could say, but I've been coming down with a cold, and on top of that, my heart is heavy tonight. Some good friends of ours from church lost their adult son this afternoon. If the Lord brings them to your mind, please pray for this couple.

The Solitariness of God - Part Four

I woke up early this morning, probably due to too much caffeine yesterday. It's not too bad because it enabled me to focus even more on the Attributes of God book by A. W. Pink.

In Chapter 1 of The Solitariness of God, Pink quotes Genesis 1:1, and then says this:

"There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but "from everlasting." During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity. The creating of them when He did, added nothing to God essentially. He changes not (Malachi 3:6), therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished.

God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own mere good pleasure; for He worketh all things after the counsel of His will. (Ephesians 1:11)."

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning"

Malachi 3:6 “For I the Lord do not change"

Ephesians 1:11 "In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,"

God is not powerless, waiting for us to choose Him, nor is He powerless, waiting for us to do anything for Him. He doesn't need us, we need Him. We are dependent upon Him for every little thing, we can't even take a breath apart from Him giving us our next breath. It might be nice for us to think that He needs us, but the reality is that He doesn't. The truth is that we need Him, and apart from Him we can do nothing, and in Him we live and move, and have our being.

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Acts 17:28 “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, "‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

If you have not read, nor studied Pink's book, I encourage you to do so because it is very thought provoking.

May your Lord's Day be blessed today.