Choosing Gratitude

So I'm reading this great book given to me by a great friend...

Above is the title.

Author: Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

For my next several posts, I'll be passing along the nuggets nestled within its pages - the ones that really resonated within my heart.  Here's the first one....

"I've come to believe that few things are more becoming in a child of God than a grateful spirit.  By the same token, there is nothing that makes a person more unattractive than the absence of a grateful spirit.  I have learned that in every circumstance that comes my way, I can choose to respond in one of two ways:

I can whine

-or-

I can worship!

And I can't worship without giving thanks.  It just isn't possible.  When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances, there is a fragrance, a radiance, that issues forth out of our lives to bless the Lord and others."

Mai

There's someone I want you to meet.  My daughter-in-law, Mai.  (The "a" is silent and the "i" is long.)  She is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met and completes my son, perfectly!  We worked in the kitchen tonight fixing dinner.  Well, actually, I mostly watched her fix dinner.

(To view small album, click here.)

She made spring rolls and soup.  I could not pronounce the Vietnamese name of this dish correctly if my life depended on it, but it was delicious!  (Tim wasn't too thrilled with the fish sauce for dipping the spring rolls in, but I didn't think it was too bad.  According to Mai, fish sauce is made over a period of several months.  You throw fish into a barrel along with some salt and let it ferment.  Hmm...)


Anyway, I have been enjoying Mai immensely.  She just loves Daniel to pieces and Daniel has taken to his Auntie Mai.  He grins from ear to ear when he sees her.  She went with me to Bible study this morning and I introduced her to all the gals at church.  They welcomed her so warmly.

Thank you Lord, for this precious addition to our family!

Obedience: The Acid Test of Love

"God loves His children.  He knows that we cannot fully experience and enjoy His love unless we are obedient to Him.  Obeying God is not meant to be a sterile, cold requirement; rather, it is a willing, glad-hearted response to One who loves us extravagantly and has our best interests at heart."

Introduction to Lesson 7, in "Seeking Him", by Nancy Leigh DeMoss & Tim Grissom

New Blog, Same Great Writer

Kristen has a new blog, everyone!  Groundwork for Grace is now history since her Genesis study is over and Nike Musings was just created.  Check it out...bookmark it...follow it...comment on it...you WON'T be bored or disappointed but you WILL be challenged to think and live like, the Overcomer that you are, if you are in Christ.

You will be greatly blessed, I'm sure!

God is Good!

It was a week ago today that I received a phone call from my sister Karin that my mom had developed blood clots.   They landed in her lungs after having undergone cancer surgery six days before.  She was in critical condition and if her oxygen levels didn't come up by ten o'clock that night, they would have to intubate her.

God is good.

I had been fine up until I received that call on Saturday.

God is good.

My mom told me prior to the surgery that she didn't think it was necessary for me to come down for the surgery.  My two sisters were close by as well as two sisters-in-law who love my mom as if she were their own mother.  They would be there for the after surgery care. 

God is good.

My son and daughter-in-law had flown into LA, from Viet Nam, three days after my mom's surgery but prior to the blood clots.  It also happened to be my mom's birthday.  She said meeting her new granddaughter-in-law was the greatest birthday present ever.

God is good.

My son was calling me daily after they arrived.  He could hear the concern in my voice after I learned about the blood clots.  I told him I was "so down there" on Sunday if Gramma had to go on the breathing machine.

God is good.

My son took action before the ten o'clock deadline of that night.  He and his cousins all pitched in and bought me a ticket to fly down.

God is good.

My mom's oxygen levels had risen to the point where she only needed an oxygen mask, no intubating.

God is good! 

I had to be up at 4 am on Sunday to leave for the airport.  I had gone to bed at midnight and didn't fall asleep right away, so I didn't get much sleep.

God is good!

My son and daughter-in-law picked me up at the airport.  It was so good to see their smiling faces and wrap my arms around them.  I hadn't seen Ben since last October, or Mai, a year before that.

God is good!

On the way to the hospital my son announced they were expecting a little boy!  Another grandson!

God is good!

After arriving at the hospital Karin warned me that my mom didn't look good.  Her face was ashen and her breathing labored.  She could only say a word or two at a time.

God is good!

The Lord graciously strengthened me just before I entered the room.

God is good!

My eyes met my mom's beautiful, big, brown eyes.  I could see the concern in them.  I gave her a great big hug.

God is good! 

Ten of my mom's grandchildren, my sister Karin, and I were gathered around her bedside that Easter Sunday, rejoicing in life and our risen Savior.

God is good!

For the next five days my sister Karin and I took the day shift at the hospital.  My sister-in-law Sherry and my sister Betty Ann took the evening shift.  Each day my mom grew a little stronger.

God is good!

On Monday while sitting by the window in her room, I started to feel dizzy.  Karin was standing by the door.  Then the dizziness gave way to a rocking motion.  Earthquake!

God is good!

The rocking grew harder and the room began to jolt.  I quickly moved to my mom's bedside, laid a hand on her shoulder, her brown eyes growing as big as saucers.  (I was at the ready to deflect any ceiling tiles that would come crashing down on our heads!)  During the big earthquakes I've experienced, I talk to the Lord.  I said, "Lord, we are trusting in you."  This one went on for quite a long time.  Karin said, "This is a big one, far away."  Sure enough, it turned out to be a 7.2 along the Mexico/California border.  (How cool would it be to experience the earthquake that is going to occur at the Lord's return!)

God is good!

Well, my story is getting rather long so I better wind it up.  By Friday, my mom was off all IVs, oxygen, and was able to get up and walk a bit.  They released her to go home.  We were told the clots will take months to be gone so she will get winded very easily.  She and I are now at my sister Karin's, where Karin will care for her until she is stronger and can move back home.  Ben, Mai, and I plan on leaving Monday for Gig Harbor.  Had my mom not made it through last Saturday night, God would still be good.  Had the ceiling tiles come crashing down on our heads or the floor collapsed and I ended up in the basement or in a hospital bed myself, God would still be good.  God is good, all of the time, when our emotions are all over the place, when we struggle with fear or when our  hearts are filled with great rejoicing.

By the way, this is my mom's favorite thing to say, and she said it often, prior to surgery and after surgery when she was in so much pain...

"God is good!"

Light

Read through these verses for me:

• "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" - 1 John 1:5. 
• "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" - 1 Peter 2:9.
• "For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness" - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
• "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light" - Ephesians 5:8.

Now read this one:

• "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" - John 1:5.

 If God is light, if we are called out of darkness into His marvelous light, if we are children of light, if we are light in the Lord, and if the darkness has not overcome the light (nor will it ever because the Light made the angelic powers that fell into darkness), how can it be said that we can lose our salvation?

It would be saying that darkness has overcome the light.

It would be saying that Satan has overcome God!

Can children of light walk as children of darkness?  Oh yes...and of course this grieves the Holy Spirit and blemishes our testimony.  We are commanded to walk as children of light.  This means we are to love the truth and conduct ourselves in holiness and purity.  Children of light however, will never be overcome by the darkness or be cast back into the domain of Satan once they are brought out of it into God's marvelous light!  Never, for God who is light has overcome darkness through Jesus Christ our Lord!

God Almighty cannot be overcome!

A Shout of Triumph

"Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit" - John 19:30. 

"It is finished!" 

Three of the most magnificent words ever spoken by the Lord Jesus and recorded by John.  Actually, Matthew's account and Mark's account tell us Jesus shouted these words with a loud cry.  It was a shout of triumph!  The entire work of redemption, planned from before the foundation of the world, had been brought to completion. Sin had been atoned for and Satan was defeated and rendered powerless.  Every requirement of God's righteous law had been satisfied and God's wrath against sin had been appeased. 

Did you know that the Greek word used in John 19:30 which is translated "it is finished" has been found in the papyri being placed on receipts for taxes meaning "paid in full?"

May you have a blessed Easter,  being overwhelmed and rejoicing in the wonderful truth that your debt of sin has been PAID IN FULL if you have trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior.

"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" - Colossians 2:13,14. 

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" - Romans 3:23.

"...that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" - Romans 10:9.