Abundantly Pardoned

I want to testify to the power of prayer! This morning I had my yearly thyroid ultrasound done (the physicians have been watching them to make sure they don't get any bigger). Sunday morning I asked my Sunday School class to please pray for me, that I get good news. Let me tell you, those sisters know how to pray! My results have previously shown 2 nodules measuring 5 mm and 6 mm. This time there was only one nodule measuring 2 mm! One is gone and the other is shrinking! Sisters, can I please get a big ol' praise from everyone for our Lord God Almighty who is so good, so glorious, so wonderful and so loving? Share your burdens, your illnesses, and your answered prayers with your brothers and sisters in Christ so that things will happen and God will be praised! Let's all stop right now and do a spiritual Snoopy dance for our awesome God! "Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afficted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, AND BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED." (Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV) Dear sisters, please testify to the power of prayer!

I'm reading an old Isaac Asimov sci-fi novel set in the future, a future in which there are more robots than there are humans. A robot on another planet has been "murdered," and a human detective from earth has gone to the other planet to track down the murderer. Imagine being surrounded by more robots than human beings. Makes you shudder, doesn't it? Even though we sometimes wish that mean, nonChristian co-workers or drivers with road rage would be replaced with, a society filled with robots would be an unfeeling society. How could God's love be shared? How could the gospel be spread? How could God use bad people to bring up the dross in us if we worked with robots each day? We need to take a look at the people around us and see them through God's eyes. What does He see? What does He love about them? We need to love them like God loves them. "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." (1 John 3:11 NIV)

After yet once again going through compromise yesterday, I was at home listening to the novel "Little Women" on CD when I discovered that Amy March was going through the same thing as me. Mrs. March aka "Marmee" told Amy what she had done (compromise) was good. She described it as "A kiss for a blow." Giving a kiss for a blow is truly difficult, especially when you have to do it nearly everyday, but I know that God is teaching me, and I am learning. The last verse of Matthew chapter 5 says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (NIV) Let me tell you, I'm far from perfect, but I know that in my weakness I am made strong by my Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 12:10). Make me strong, Lord Jesus, make me strong! Let me tell you, sisters, you are not alone when you feel your temper rising and you're fighting against it as you give a kiss for a blow day after day. It's hard being perfect, but that is something we must strive for every day.

Daily I am reminded of how working relationships are like marriages in the areas of compromise and communication. Let's say you're having to turn on the AC because the person in the adjoining office has her heat cranked up (even in weather in the 70's), causing a wave of heat to roll into your office. You see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego wandering around in her office, you're about to throw-up or cast off your clothes, and you politely ask her if you can turn her head down a little. She immediately flies back with, "The reason I have it on is because you have on the AC in your office," ignoring the fact that you wouldn't have to turn it on if she didn't have on the heat. You offer to have a door put in the opening so she can run her heat, and she exclaims, "No!" (Why "no," I have no idea) You suggest her putting on a jacket instead of cranking up the heat, and she retorts, "I'm not ready to wear long sleeves!" What do you do? Compromise. Turn off your AC so she'll turn off her heat---even though you know she'll be cranking it right back up again. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9 KJV) Making compromises is difficult, especially when you're going to throw-up or pass-out from the heat, but being called a child of God is worth so much more.

^{1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Human nature causes us to look at a person's appearance rather than his/her heart. Like that old saying, "You can't judge a book by its' cover," so we canot judge another person by how he/she looks. When I was young, I chose boyfriends first by their looks and then noticed their hearts later. I was a shallow girl, and I found out that you really can't judge a book by its' cover or you'll be dramatically surprised when you turn the pages. What is in the heart is what is important, not what's on the surface. We don't choose a computer because it's pretty; we choose it for what's inside. If we chose a computer for its' looks, we would probably end up with a piece of junk.}

I just wanted to take this time to praise God! He is good, He is wonderful, He is mighty! Thank You, Father, for Jesus and the Holy Spirit! Thank you for the rain, woohoo, hallelujah and amen! I love You, Father, Son and Spirit!!!

When I take my breaks at work I love to walk through the cemetery and look out over the beautiful countryside. There are some graves of wee babies in the cemetery, so I always pray for Jesus to take them into His arms and hold them and kiss them. I can't help but imagine the babies in heaven, up on their feet with their tiny arms uplifted as they praise God day and night. In one of our Beth Moore Bible studies she told of a pediatric oncologist who was an atheist. Each one of the children who died of cancer smiled as they died and said they could see Jesus. Each one described His appearance in the same manner. That pediatric oncologist became a believer because of the witness of those dying children. Imagine Jesus welcoming the babies and children as they pass away from this world. Glory to God in the highest, dear sisters! Glory to God above!