Prayer

Don't you just love it when the Lord reaches down and gives you a hug? You know, those times when something happens that is just undoubtedly HIM.

Several things happened this week ~ emails from friends about special prayer needs, tragic situation in my brother's church (you can link to his blog from my page), a husband sick with a head cold for a week, you know...

...life.

Anyway, this morning I was reading while drinking my coffee. Last week I decided it was time to read the O'Malley series again (for about the fifth time). Anyway, I'm reading the 'Marcus' book and for those who have read the books, you know he struggles with the unanswered prayer of his childhood. So this conversation jumps out at me. To give up praying and decide there is no need to pray because God is just going to do what He wants anyway, that is cowardly and selfish. We deny Him His right to be LORD OVER ALL when we demand our way when we pray.

As parents, our children often ask us for things and sometimes we have to say no. It's not easy to deny our children their desires. But we know what is best for them. We see things they cannot see.

Is He not our Heavenly Father? Is He not allowed to deny us things for our good? "No" is still an answer.

Jesus went through similar pain during His time on earth. He prayed...and His prayers were not answered in the way He asked. He brought His petitions with groans and tears. And yet, He also accepted: Not my will but Thine be done.

Do I understand why some prayers are answered and others are not? No. Will that stop me from praying? No. I will continue to be both trusting and passionate in my prayer. He is still Lord over all.

So...back to today. All of this is going through my head. Since my hubby is still sick, he stayed home and me & the kids went to a church nearby. During the course of the service, songs were sung that just kept all of this going around and around in my head. Tears streamed down my face as we sang "I'm Close to the Savior" -- one of my favorite Malagasy songs. "When I fight a hard battle, I'm close to the Savior...when the water rises, I'm close to the Savior...when I walk through the dark valley, I will not fear my enemies, I am close to the Savior..."

So the pastor asks me to testify. Nothing to do but share this thought with the congregation. It was on my heart and I had to share. After I sat down, the pastor came back to the pulpit, and with tears in his eyes shared how he had been struggling with a prayer request for three years and feeling particularly discouraged about it today. But through my testimony, he felt release. Release to trust the Lord with the answer. Then the evangelist gets up to preach and he preaches: I will not be silent in the face of His goodness. One of his examples was blind Bartimaeus. Don't you think Bartimaeus had prayed for his healing before? I don't know...but I would think it was certainly something he had longed for often. And on that great day, as Jesus was passing by, he called out. People tried to silence him but he would not be silenced. He called out louder. I will not be silent in the face of His goodness! And what did Jesus say to him?

"What do you want me to do for you?"

Did Jesus not know? Of course, He knew what Bartimaeus wanted. But He wanted to hear it ONE MORE TIME.

So today, I don't know what you are struggling with. A prayer unanswered. A longing. A hope. A dream.

Don't give up! The day will come when you, too, will hear:

"What do you want me to do for you?"

Beautiful in His Eyes

Today I came across this thought in a book I'm reading: God loves to make detailed and beautiful things with THAT alone as His purpose for creating it. This was in reference to flowers growing in an obscure field. The majority of the flowers bloom and die with no one ever seeing them or appreciating their beauty. In reality, so much beauty God creates goes unnoticed. By man. But not by God.

This made me think of spiritual applications as well. That precious saint of God who scrubs the church toilets every week. Or a smile shared with someone in need of a ray of sunshine. That gentle touch and hug for a love-starved bus kid. The list goes on and on. Things that we do in service of the Lord that seemingly go unnoticed. Beauty that just seems to get overlooked.

By man.

But God notices.

And you are beautiful in His eyes.

Attitude

Before we left the states, we were in service in Murfreesboro, TN. Awesome church! Since we were there on a Sunday morning, I had the special treat of being a part of their awesome Sunday School program. They have classes for ALL ages – it is just great. Anyway, in my class with mid-to-late-30-somethings, we had a great session. I’m drawing a blank on the teacher’s name (although I’ve known him for years *smiles*), but he shared a brief thought that really stuck with me. It has been on my mind this week, so I want to share with my blog buddies. :)

Our attitude is like a window. If you are sitting inside, and look out through a dirty window, everything seems a bit blurry, dirty, dull, and dreary. But you can take that same window, clean it up with some Windex, and voila! Your whole outlook has changed! Wow, those little blurs are actually beautiful pink roses! Everything is now clear, crisp, and bright. No, the circumstances outside the window did not change…just your outlook!

When we are sitting inside the little house of our minds (some have bigger houses than others), rocking in our rocking chairs (or maybe you have a recliner), looking out the window of our “soul”…what are we seeing? Are we looking through a dirty window ~ a dirty attitude? Or are we looking through a clean, positive attitude?

Matthew 6:22 says that if your eye is good (“single” in KJV), then your whole body will be full of light. We like to talk about the tongue being a small part but powerful. Well, I think the eye is another small part of our body, but with great power.

Just a few verses down in Matthew 6, we find that our Heavenly Father is taking care of our lives. We really have nothing to worry about!

So grab your Windex and paper towel and wash away! Let your window be sparkling clean today!

Because You Are

Yesterday I was listening to Point of Grace, and the words of this song just jumped out at me...

Holy, unbreakable, infinite God
Ever unchanging in all that You are
Light of the world and the sun and the stars
You are I am and I am because You are

Wow! What powerful words. I am -- because You are. Without Him, I am nothing.

Kinda puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?

Anything...and everything

"Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in EVERYTHING, by prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6, 7 (NIV - emphasis mine)

With God, there does not seem to be any "half ways". Anything and everything are pretty much all inclusive words.

Today -- don't be worried about ANYTHING, but IN EVERYTHING, be confident that He is able. EVERYTHING, every situation, can be affected by prayer. How awesome is that??? God can either change the situation, or change our view of it. Either way, He is good and He is faithful.

So, sisters, NO WORRIES!

Love ya!
PR

Chief Editor

One of my main responsibilities here in Mada (other than wife, mother, & cook) is editing books for our printing department. Because the Malagasy language is unique to this land, we have to print most of our own materials. So, when new things are needing to be translated, I go through and prepare them for translation, and once they are translated, our printing staff inputs the text into the computer then I take it and edit it. It's work -- but I enjoy it. And nice that I can do the majority of it right here from home. We have a full time printing staff that does the rest of the work -- printing, assembling, and selling. All of our Bible School books, Sunday School books, songbooks, ladies books, and so on, are done this way. (Pictured here is Sis. Poitras and me standing behind one of our display cases.)

Everything We Need

It is easy for us to think that the temptations or difficulties we face in our world today are more intense that what Christians in the past have faced. I mean, the apostles did not have to worry about the internet. And my great-grandmother certainly did not have to feel pressured to be a size 0 and try to find clothes in the current styles that are modest and becoming to a godly lady. Parents did not have to worry about the billboards and advertisements that were bombarding their children's eyes and ears.

However, I have it on good authority that "there is NO TEMPTATION taken you but such as is common to man." True, the 'face' of the temptation may have changed. The packaging is brighter. But the temptation is the same. Isn't there another scripture that mentions the root of all sin: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life? That has always been the root of all temptation.

We often talk about how much harder it is to raise children in this day and age. How much harder it is to keep young people saved and in the church. Older generations (of which I am swiftly becoming a part of) like to shake their heads over the "new fangled" music and the entertainment of this generation. But I wonder if any of that is new? Can you imagine what happened when the first church allowed a drum set on their platform? Or even a microphone? I'm sure there are things that my parents worried about when I was a teenager, that are the same basic worries that I now have about my soon-to-be-teenage daughter.

I guess what I'm trying to say is -- the devil is ALWAYS trying to worm his way into our lives and our churches. It is a constant struggle to live in this world, take advantage of the benefits of our generation and technology, and yet, not let the world take over us. In the world but not of the world.

So, here is a scripture I read this morning -- that sparked this whole thought process.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." II Peter 1:3, 4 (NIV)

Wow! He has given us everything we need. For life. For godliness. For escape from the corruption of the world.

So I guess there is no excuse. We can live a victorious life in 2008. His power is all we need. His Word is just as relevant today as it was in "the old days". His promises are great and precious -- and they are for ME!

Sniffle

It seems I have a cold/sinuses/allergies -- who knows?? Whatever it is, I don't like it. Just makes you want to crawl in bed and curl up under a blanket. Ah well...life goes on and this too shall pass. :)

Anyway, I have some thoughts to share, but better wait until I'm not contagious. Hehe

Have a blessed day in Jesus!

Madagascar's Children

Here are a couple of pictures I took of some children. It's so sweet to watch them entertaining themselves on the side of the road.

God Is Greater Than My Heart

A friend recently posted a blog about giants in our life (blog of Danan Benson). We all have things in our past that sometimes come back to "haunt" us. Decisions made, failures, mistakes...

This reminded me of a favorite portion of scripture. I heard Bro. Arnold preach this years ago and I have NEVER forgotten that sermon. When I find those giants trying to raise their ugly heads -- I quote this passage:

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." I John 3:19, 20

God is greater than my heart! He is the one that can truly FORGIVE and FORGET! That is not a human trait. But it is a Jesus trait! We can set our hearts at rest in His presence.

So take that, giants!

Loyalty

Well, here is today's thought from my Bible Study:

Loyalty.

What does that word mean to you?

"...to be firm, established, steadfast, faithful, sure, reliable, fixed, certain, ready, prepared, determined."

In I Chronicles 29:18, David prayed: "O Lord, ...keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts LOYAL to you." (Emphasis mine)

In the definition given above (from the original Hebrew word), think about being "prepared". In this context, we could say that loyalty is not something we develop suddenly at the exact moment of testing. It is something we already are when the test arrives...and it surfaces.

As I've already said, the study I'm doing is on the book of Daniel. When you read of how the three Hebrews responded when faced with the king's anger upon hearing they had not bowed, this definition of LOYALTY comes to mind. They responded: "...we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter." They did not have to go have a prayer meeting, or consult with each other or Daniel, but they had already made up their mind to be loyal to their God.

Wow!

Now there's some food for thought!