It's Easter! And ...

It’s Easter! What does that mean to you?

Today was NOT a normal Easter for us. There are things that happened today that were NOT good, but I have CHOSEN to look ONLY at JESUS. Nothing in our circumstances has changed from our previous blog. My stomach is a mess and spring allergies are now on the move, but my heart is focused on JESUS. I purposefully open the Gospels and see the miracle of my redemption. I find the Psalms pulsating with songs of rejoicing. I want to sing praise and shout, “GOD is so Awesome!” Jesus lifted the “poor me” centered burden I was carrying! Look at all He’s done!

It’s Easter today! I remember all God has done for me and for all His children in the past and what He is still doing in this world. It is a choice I need to make EVERY day to REMEMBER and CELEBRATE God’s saving work. The message of the CROSS IS TRUE and POWERFUL.

As I attempted to write of our journey, I realized how little of the truth of the gospel is really shared in our world today. I thought about all the people we met on planes, in Uganda, here at home, in churches and out, and how little everyone seems to know of the real message of Jesus. I continually hear people say a variety of, “As long as we are nice, do good works, and help folks have an easier life God is pleased. All religions are the same if we just accept one another. Live like Jesus, he was good.” These are good people doing good for others. Yet, few share the gospel in day-to-day conversations or even in churches.

I had to ask myself, “Do I just try to make it easy for people and easy for myself telling them, ‘God loves you and wants to help you with your problems.’ Do I minister to help carry their burden and do my good deed for God, but neglect their real need?

What is anyone’s real need? Do we know anymore in America? What is Easter about? Where is the cross? Can we share the gospel because we have lived it and experienced Jesus?

When was the last time I shared the true full gospel with anyone? Am I afraid they can’t handle it or don’t want to hear it? God’s message to the world is not just “I love you, I have a plan for good for your life and I want to make it all better for you.” Can I tell anyone in America that they’ve sinned against a holy God and will face judgment and hell if they don’t repent of sin and turn to Jesus? Can I tell them that Jesus took their punishment for sin? He was on that cross because that is where we deserve to be. Our sin has separated us from a holy God. Our problems in this world are the result of sin and our separation from God.  Will we bend our knees before Him in humble repentance? Will we thank Him and give our love only to Him because of what He endured for us? Fellowship and forgiveness with God can be restored. Do we realize that Easter is a celebration of our resurrection from death forever? Do we live with thankful hearts that share the joy of a redeemed life and the victory over this world and all its shallow imitations of true life?

People need the truth. Most people know deep down there is a problem. We have an answer. The answer is JESUS. Where will they hear it if not from us?

We were called recently to go to Uganda to see the heart God has for the people there and to know how we can share the gospel in that place. It is not an easy place to live. Hearts there are no different from hearts here. But, there are so many who have never heard the name of Jesus. They have never seen a Bible or never had the opportunity to learn to read. We desire to go and give them that opportunity. We want to teach them to read. We want to give them Bibles. We want to disciple them and let them know the truth. They will go to hell and die in their sins if they never know that Jesus came and paid their penalty for sin.

It is tough to open our mouths and tell people that they are sinners, guilty before God, and they will be punished. It is tough to say that they must repent; tough to say they are truly guilty and can’t pay the penalty themselves. No one is good enough before a righteous God.

But Praise, Hallelujah, let’s get excited, raise our hands, and shout for victory and dance! Jesus paid for our sin when he suffered it all for us on the cross! Easter is the victory shout! Jesus’ offering of His own body for us was accepted by God and IT IS GOOD! Because He lives, I live! PAID! DONE! WE ARE FORGIVEN! We can live forever with the one who bought us and set us free from Satan’s chains and hell.

Does that mean anything to us? Can we share it so others can be free of sin’s grip? Our souls are sick. Our lives don’t just need a bit of cleaning up. We don’t just need help walking though this life. We need to be reborn, changed on the inside and ONLY JESUS and HIS Cross and Resurrection can meet our real need. Do we believe it? Have we humbled ourselves and said “I am a sinner. I am trusting you Jesus to cleanse me from my sin and do with my life as you will. My life is Yours.” ?

If we have trusted Jesus and thanked Him for His sacrifice as payment for our sin, can we boldly, excitedly, tell others here today, right next to us now, that they need Him too?

God demonstrates His own love for us in this. that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Rom 5:8

GOD help ME and all of us respond to His gift of love through Christ and share the Truth with others.

I think I should ‘Be still and KNOW that YOU are GOD’

   Ever notice the up and down moods of the Psalms. I feel these past few weeks like I’m on a roller coaster. I never liked those rides; too wild for me. But life is not calm and plain, it ebbs and flows; like our airplane rides, a rush and ear popping to start, an exhilarating climb up and then the beautiful calm above the clouds and earth below. Then things can get bumpy, even frightening, noisy, and restless. The calm comes again, the atmosphere clears and wow! Am I really up here with you God?

   Then the decent down, where all is crazy again in a mad dash to the next gate. Some get rude, some panic and cry when they miss a flight. Insensitive folk push through the jostle of the security gates, Weariness can numb a heart, all lost in their own plans and problems. Few see the other folk around them.

   Five times, we were up and down on the planes going to Uganda. How much I ‘m reminded of the ups and downs in our experience with God. Reading the Psalms this month, I see how they express what I have been feeling. I’m praising God for his awesome works in my life, then the next day, or moment, I feel I am rushing down into the hustle and bustle of the dash, running again to catch a flight, needing God to deliver me and help from the onslaught of petty attacks.        

   Oh Lord, you know me. I am a very simple person. Life can be so complicated. Lord, I hear the words of Ps. 131 and I cry “Lord my heart tries not to be haughty, nor my eyes be lofty. I do not concern myself with great matters, nor things too profound for me. Lord, how I have prayed for the calm and quiet soul so I’d be like the weaned child with his mother; so I’d have my soul like that weaned child. LORD my hope is in YOU.” 

   Ever have the details, not the great matters, disturb your peace?  I’ve felt like the psalmist who said “My spirit was overwhelmed within me. …Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your Name.” Ps.142

   My stomach hasn’t been happy since I got home. (Reflux can make my chest hurt.) I get asthma from the cold air. Then there are all the details of a busy life here with 6 children.

1.      We’ve talked to Katie a lot lately as we hope she and her family can come visit soon to help us before we sell the house.

2.      Gabriel and I plan to go quickly to Tennessee soon for Matt and Erin’s baby’s entry in the world. They have all been sick there again.

3.      Reena and Annie are in the thick of home schooling and need my help.

4.      Gabriel and James need guidance to prepare to move on to the next leg of their journey on their own.

   Big jobs; no different than most people. Maybe I’m a bit stretched and tired!

   I did just recover from an illness that left me unable to attend to much of anything but the basics for the past 2 years. Now I am looking at selling most everything we own and preparing to go to live overseas.   I am trying to go at all slowly, but life just rolls on.

   Details, like a lost receipt pop up. We need that receipt of 3 years ago to have a problem worth hundreds of dollars fixed. The hunt is time consuming right before bed and my mind then just won’t shut down. 

   Have you ever had days and nights like that? The details, boring and no fun, yet regular life, continue. Help me Lord be faithful in them too.  

   “LORD, still and quiet my soul today.  I want to write of the great things we saw You do in Uganda and what dreams we have to move forward. But today… Lord, I think I should ‘Be still and KNOW that YOU are GOD’, Ruler of the Universe and all the Hosts of Heaven.   Please protect me from the attack of the enemy who wants to steal my joy and energy.”

   I remember the attack on me days before I left for Uganda. Satan continually whispered that I would die there.  It was intense and it went on for days.  Quietly one day as the attack came again, and as I prayed again for deliverance, Christ spoke to my heart. “I have come that ‘You’ might have life and that ‘You’ may have it more abundantly.”  I realized it was in the context of “the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy.”  John 10:10 Yes, that was it exactly. I cried out Jesus’ words to me… And peace came. No more attacks (of that nature) anymore. But our enemy won’t let up…Yet now today remember what God has done in the past!…..

   Praise be to God, the Victory was won at the Cross!

   Today I am going to stand on that TRUTH. God will heal my gut or help me through it. The winter cold will pass and my asthma with it. One moment at a time, God will see me through the details of life. And with David I can say, “My hope IS in the LORD.”

GOD IS AWESOME, FAITHFUL, AND TRUE!!! Trip to Uganda, Africa Part 1

WOW! There is so much to say! We were blown away by the loving kindnesses of God, by His faithfulness, His tender mercies! After a whirlwind ride on the eagle wings of God to the uttermost parts of the earth, we are still soaring. Our hearts want to burst. Oh how very, very grateful we are to God. Thank you to all who prayed for us and our children these past weeks.

Yes, we want to go Back!  Psalm 126 says so well what we feel.

“When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, shouts of joy and triumph! Then they said among the nations, 'The LORD has done Great Things for them!' The LORD Has Done GREAT Things for Us! We Are GLAD!"

At the beginning of this journey with God, I had the impression that God wanted us to spy out the land that He had planned for us to claim for Him. Way back, Pat and I started to pursue a path for overseas missions. He gave us a dream, He sold our home, we would attend some mission training, then He’d drop us back near home territory. The scenario happened again and again. I’d cry and wonder what was wrong. Each time God would remind me that it was the Journey with Him, the relationship building with Him, trusting His plan that counted. It was not my plan for great works for Him that He wanted. We, as a family, as individuals, had so much to learn.

God definitely used us each place He took us. Yet, He taught us more, showed us our sinful hearts and drew us closer to Himself through all the trials.

So now, we looked back and saw our journey through the desert, through Egypt. The years in bed sick, the plagues we have gone through. God had not placed the dream in our hearts for no reason. Just as Joseph’s dream was for a time yet to come, his hope to return to his home for a day in the future, so is our dream. Our family had to be brought together, our lives needed to be shook up through trial, sins confessed, our relationship with the Lord, deepened and refined.  We are not there yet, but “We have called to the Lord and He has heard our cry.” We believe that He will take us all the way through to the Promised Land.

We have been sent to ‘spy out the land’, and it is Good. Yes there are giants in the land, obstacles along the way that can discourage us and send us crying back to our desert.

BUT… We will remember the mighty works of the LORD, we want to choose to trust in Him. Just as He delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh, parted the seas, killed the giants, fed them with manna and quail and gave water in the desert, so He will do for us. He will bring down those giants in our land.

Already He raised me up from a sick bed, provided for all our needs, feeding us often from the mouth of ravens (dear friends who’ve blessed us over the years), kept our marriage through many a storm in these past 35 years, and gave us 6 beautiful children,  who know Jesus and are seeking to serve Him. Our 5th grandchild is soon to make her appearance also and we praise God for each one!

The very first day out I, Sheree, was tested. I hate being late and Pat is slower than I’d like. All morning little things kept popping up that needed attending to and I was ready to blow. WE’LL BE LATE. Panic was in my heart. At the airport, he could not find a parking place and I was inside at the ticket booth fretting…. Where was He????? Ahug!!!      I prayed. I sang… “I am Trusting Thee Lord Jesus” over and over. Ok. Gabriel found him in the airport going the wrong direction… he would have found me eventually... “Yes God… I need your help… calm me.” Ok, got our tickets, in the area to wait… BUT… ice and snow were falling and no plane. We left our phone at home and our computer was not able to work without paying for internet… can’t ask anyone to pray. (I knew there were people praying; what was wrong with me?) We’d fly soon… Nope. We waited. Late to take off. I counted the flight time. Our little time between flights was being eaten up. Finally on the plane.  Good, we will make it on time… Oh no. Now what…? De–icing… spraying the whole plane twice?!  NOOOO!

There was no way we would catch our next flight. We’d miss them all. “God you know we only have a few days there in Uganda. I don’t want to spend it in the Newark airport!”

I knew in my heart that it was an attack from the enemy. I was out of sorts and that is not like me. It was intense!  “God help me! Forgive me for my fears." I cried out to Him and ‘He heard my voice.’

HE did. Up above the clouds God revealed Himself. I had been looking at the clouds, so gray from my view on the ground, seeing all the circumstances from down below. Yet God was above it all. Now I was there too. In the Sonshine! Wow! What a difference that view made! The clouds were white and fluffy, beautiful!

There was good in them. He was teaching me through them. I was on a journey with God. Pat and I were not going on a vacation. This was not our idea. It had never entered our minds till 2 months ago. God told us to go. He was taking us on His journey, on His timetable. He wanted us to see His heart, His work and He wanted US to share the ride with HIM! We had no great job to do, no vision for our plan. We only had the excitement that God was up to something and He chose us to be part of it. I weep now as I think of the awesomeness of God’s grace on us!!!! What love!!!

My heart calmed and I enjoyed the ride. We landed in Newark just 10 minutes before the plane to Brussels was to take off. We were told that international flights generally do not wait. They fly on time and this one just closed their gate. YET...

Remember, I had been pretty much bedridden for nearly 2 years. I did not even walk well through Aldi’s. Pat did all the shopping. I was not in shape. Well…. God had me run. A Longggggg way. Pat out ran me. The airline folk said they would hold the plane as long as we made it in before take off. (How is that holding it?) Oh well, we ran!  Pat got there and the gate was closed. He told them. “My wife is back there…” He dropped the bags and ran back to pick me up. I had just stumbled and dropped my 2 bags. (They were heavy as we carried school books for the base director’s child.) I was wiped out, but we made it and GOD OPENED THE DOORS. We struggled in as the plane crew cheered. Truly God’s hand had carried us.

We realized our check in bag would not make it and we were glad to have put extra clothes (just a few because of having 30lbs of their books with us) in our carry on. We were on our way to Uganda. We could deliver the school books and make it on one outfit if the rest did not come with us. GOD WAS TAKING US ON HIS JOURNEY AND THAT WAS ALL THAT MATTERED!

To be continued...