Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Glory mixed with Sadness


We were jolted by the call from my sister. My brother, Bob’s, pneumonia treatment had suddenly morphed into major cancer spread once the imaging was completed. Bob moved to the local hospice and we had only one lucid visit before the drugs took him into unconsciousness to avoid the pain of progressing disease. During my last visit, I still took time to address Bob’s spirit and speak into him the Word of Life. I prayed with him and read Scripture. I was very, very glad for the sense of the Lord’s Presence and Peace. Bob was in hospice barely a week.




I had the privilege to officiate the funeral and grave-side services, though it was difficult. Even the steady soaking rain seemed determined to drench us and our hope. Of course, the only true Hope is in Jesus, and He will never be destroyed. “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness./ I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but whole-ly lean on Jesus’ Name.”



Thursday, September 12, 2013

A New Thing

The beginning of the school year is always full ... full of students, full of activities, full of surprises!The following report comes from one of our new ministry representatives.

"I have to tell you about a really crazy thing happened to me the other day," a student said while we sat on campus.  A few weeks prior to this conversation she had said that even though she's been coming to Bible discussions, what we talk about there doesn't make sense.  She said its like we're talking about an invisible person that we can't see, and don't know if he exists-so it doesn't make any sense to her.  She said that the testimony she had heard of another student was interesting to her-but it still made no sense to her.  She said, "I don't know if God exists, so how can I believe in him?"

As we continued to talk and I shared experiences of answered prayer, and evidence of God, I invited her to simply go home and say- "If there is a God who exists who made me, show yourself to me so that I can know you."  Skeptically she said she would try.

This is where her "crazy thing" came in.  She approached me on campus to share a story of how she had gone home that day and asked God to show himself.  A few days later, she was out of money.  She opened her wallet to find $40 that wasn't there before.  Surprised, she felt like God put it there.  Then a day later, she was again short $5 to pay a large bill.  She said this time she thought, if God did that before, maybe he will provide again.  She found a $5bill crammed in a pocket of her purse.  "What should I do now?"she asked sincerely.  She, for the first time experienced and realized the reality of a God who exists, listens and acts.  She wants more and openly admits that she feels lost.  She expressed that she wants to start coming to church and knowing more of this God that hears and responds.

"See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland."

Praise the Lord that He moves in miraculous ways! Pray that He would make Himself know to her."