Our God Cares

Flying is not on my 'Fear' list, but for many people it is. 

My friend's daughter is one of those people, and flying is a time of high stress and anxiety for her. 

She was recently booked on a flight for a vacation destination with her husband. 

My friend called me and asked me to pray for her daughter, 

In my prayer I asked that God show them in some visible way that He was in control 

and that He would melt her anxiety. 

The young couple finally boarded their plane, the wife barely holding it together. 

The plane's engines roared to life and the plane taxied down the run away, gaining speed for take off. 

When it reached the end on the runway, the plane slowed 

and the pilot's voice sounded over the intercom. 

"We will not be taking off.  Our engine just failed. We will attempt to repair the engine. 

You may remain on the plane, but it will be about a seven hour wait." 

Now completely frantic, the wife decided no way was she going to fly on this plane. 

They needed to find another flight.  

There was only one, leaving in about five hours.  

She managed to book on that flight, securing the last two seats on the plane. 

Finally, they boarded, their seats being among the least desirable, in the back of the plane. 

They safely took off and had just unbuckled their seat belts, 

when a stewardess stopped in the aisle beside them. 

Leaning toward them she asked, 

"We happen to have two vacant seats in 1st class.  Would you like to move up?" 

Yes! 

Not only did God stop the defective plane before it took off 

but upgraded their seats to the luxury of 1st class. 

Was God's care 'visible' ??

Yes, indeed.

"Casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you."
I Peter 5:7

Where are you, God?

Where is God ?

When the darkness ‘round me closes in,

When fear and anxiety drum my heart’s din,

When all goodness is squeezed from my life,

When pain and suffering slash like a knife,

I fall,

I fail,

I call out in vain….

My tears drop like the rain…

Oh God, were can you be?

The answer is soft,

“I’m too close to see!”

                         julie klassen,2016

I was thinking about how  far away God seems at the darkest times in our life. When we need Him the most, we grope in vain to find Him. 

Through my mind paraded bible heroes of  faith, and I realized how they too went through 'dark' times when God seemed to be far away.  Yet, in hindsight,  we know their stories from God's perspective  and can easily see that God was the closest to them in the worst times. He was working out what was needful for His highest purpose in their lives. 

I thought of Joseph, suffering in prison for a crime he did not commit - then, when hope finally came, it was dashed for two more long years.  He was forgotten - no family, no friends - where was God?  He was preparing Joseph for the 'moment' when he would step into the role of second-to-Pharaoh - ruler in the land. Through Joseph, God would save the people.  The telling of his story has captured the imagination of thousands of generations!    

I thought of Elijah, who stood alone against a wicked king and his even more evil queen who wrathfully threatened his life.  Elijah fled in fear ... where was God?  God was so close He was in the whisper. 

I thought of Naomi, who fled with her family to a foreign land, to escape the famine and then lost her husband as well as her two sons.  She returned home , empty and feeling forsaken by God, with a heathen daughter-in-law who insisted on going with her. Had He forsaken her?  Oh no, God was too close to see - He was walking alongside putting the details in place for Naomi to be blessed through her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to be the grandmother of King David and in the genealogy of Jesus. 

I thought of David whose psalms express his heart's cries when he felt abandoned, unable to find God.  Yet, we know, God was close ... looking upon David as a 'man after His own heart' - a king who pre-figured the coming King of kings, Jesus! 

I thought of Job, who cried out for God and wished for death, unable to bear the darkness of his lonely pain and suffering.  Where was God? Close ... very close.. about to speak to Job in audible voice. God knew this short time of testing in Job's life would be written about and be God-glorifying for millennia to come.

I thought of Esther, who faced a life and death situation - in her words, "If I perish, I perish."   Where was God?   Hovering very close, about to use Esther "for that moment of purpose" where she would save her people. 

I thought of Abraham, climbing the mountain with his beloved son, ready to sacrifice him according to God's command.   Where was God?  Oh, so very close - about to provide in  prophetic picture the supreme sacrifice He would make in the death of His own Son. 

I thought of Jesus Himself , at the moment of His full humanity, when He cried out .. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?"    Where was God?   Oh...   so very close !  His love, through His Son, reaching out to save the whole world. 

God recorded these stories of bible characters for us, so that we can be encouraged and strengthened - so that we can be inspired to deepen our faith, having the assurance that even as God did not abandon them, neither will He abandon us in our time of need but will draw  near to us...  so near that He is too close for us to see. 

Duet. 31:6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord you God, He is the One, who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

Heb. 13:5b,6 "... For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you', so we may boldly say, ' The Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?' "

Malachi 3:6 .. "For I am the Lord, I do not change!" 

God's Supernatural Care

We recently spent a week in Maui and saw things that were so new to our 'untraveled' eyes.
 I was reminded again and again how creative our God is and varied and how incredibly beautiful His earth is.
We gazed at this lovely rainbow from our lanai (balcony) for about an hour. To me a rainbow is always an emotional reminder to me of God reaching into our physical realm  to show the reality of His invisible realm - how true His promises to us are.

This morning, I had an insight that answered a niggling question I have had in the back of my mind for years.
I wrote a post about an experience I had in July of 1998. You can find it here  

While I have always believed in my heart that Dr. Koo was an angel, I have always entertained the question I had about why she was there for ME.   The experience of course was enough ...  but I still felt that there must have been a reason other than just giving me a 'special' experience.

This morning as we were having breakfast, I suddenly felt I had just been given the insight I had sought.

Over the years, I have continued to have those painful pericarditus attacks.  I no longer rush to the hospital emergency...  I just take my Toridol medication and ride out the attack.
Recently, I had a very severe attack that lasted hours longer than the attack normally lasts .  I had already taken my daily dose of my regular anti-inflammatory meds and my rheumatologist has warned me not to take two different anti-inflammatories in one day.
So when I recognized the attack coming, I took my regular anti-inflammatory, but it did nothing to lesson the pain.

I know that my rheumatologist is somewhat hesitant to continue prescribing the Toridol for my attacks, but she trusts me not to abuse it and has always graciously continued to prescribe it.
Actually, there have been times I myself wondered if it was psychological on my part that I just believed that only the Toridol was able to control the pericarditus attacks.
I have no scientific reason for why only the Toridol anti-inflammatory med. is able to offer me relief... and it seems that medical science does not know the reason either, and therefore would never have thought to prescribe it for me/  Except for God supernaturally sending me that 'doctor angel'  I may never have known about Toridol and I shudder to think of the suffering I would have had to endure over the years ... Many emergency trips to the hospital and administered morphine.

But after that  recent last experience when I was not able to take the Toridol, I know for a fact that other anti-inflammaties do not offer any relief for my pericarditus attacks.

Does God provide all that we need ??  YES, indeed .. and if He needs to reach down supernaturally into our physical realm then He will do so !  
How great is our God ??

I read something last week  that resonated with me ...
"First God sends the solution, then He sends the problem."    
Need we ever fear ??  no ...  as Jesus said to Peter .. "Fear not, is it I!"  If Jesus is with us, we are 'covered'!

God knows every detail of our lives and all that we could ever need ... and He will provide it "out of His great riches in glory!"  How supernatural is that ??

The Wicked Prosper

God is good ! He is good to those who keep their hearts pure before Him.
I am so convinced of that now .. but I did not always believe it !

In fact, I almost turned away from God, almost lost my faith in Him !
Why? You might ask….

It happened like this……

I allowed myself to be distracted by focusing on the ungodly around me… the people who did not have faith in God.
And as I watched them .. … I heard their continual boasting about how good life was! How prosperous they were, how they never even experienced fatigue!
I observed how they were not plagued with hardship like the rest of us….and they even boasted of dying without pain!
They wore their pride like jewellery , showing it off !
Everything they touched turned to gold.. everything they looked at became theirs! They had more than they could even wish for !!
They mocked adverse circumstances , which never even came near them! They even mocked the God of heaven , so full of self-confidence they were!

I looked at them and said… “How can this be?? Does God not SEE that the people that are ungodly are always at peace and just increase their riches with apparent ease ??”
Seeing how ‘blessed’ the lives of ungodly people were, I began to question what I was doing wrong !! .. "Here I have taken care to live right, to avoid sin, to do what is right ... but it has all been in vain -- because all I end up with is trouble and punishment !!!"

I tried to understand but it just didn't make any sense to me ... it just seemed sooo wrong and unjust !!!

But then.....

I went to the place where I commune with God ...... and suddenly I saw through HIS eyes... I saw what the end of these ungodly people were.... Yes.. maybe they were enjoying good things now.. but how short lived !! and then all eternity would be pain and suffering for them , if they did not change their ways!!
Everything may be great in their life now, but one day justice - God's wrath - will fall on them and they will get what they deserve and be forever in torment!"

I was soooo humbled and ashamed for my attitude.... and angry with myself …..What WAS I thinking !!!!
I was soo sorry that I accused God without cause, not recognizing His tender heart !!
and I said ....
"I don't want anyone but YOU , Lord, now on this earth and all through eternity.
The wicked are going to perish! What does it matter that they have a few moments of prosperity on this earth.
It IS good for me to trust YOU and stay close to YOU, Lord, that I may tell everyone of YOUR good Works !!!! "

My paraphrase of Psalm 73……..
********************************

A permissive parent's kids may be envied by their peers because they get to do and have everything they want... but then they grow up undisciplined and spoiled and cannot fit into society, cannot commit faithfully to marriage, and cannot do well in their education or their career!
It is not so with God's children .. He is NOT a permissive parent .. He watches carefully over His children to discipline, to chastise, to train, to mature, not only for their 'purpose' on this earth but also for their life with Him for ALL eternity !
Sometimes we may not understand all the difficulties and pain that come our way, but we do know that we have a Father we can trust – one who is working to bring us to maturity so that we will be ready to enjoy our ‘real’ life – eternity with Him on the new earth where only perfection reigns !!!!
***

A Dream Come True

There is a coloured thread that runs through each of our lives. The colour is distinctively ours alone – it is the theme that characterizes our life purpose.
Though we may go through much of our life unaware of the thread, God does give us glimpses of it occasionally as it weaves in and through our lives. Often the glimpse comes as a desire, as a dream we dare to dream but not realistically hope that it come to pass.

I got an e-mail today from a dear friend.
Betty got the first glimpse of the colour of her thread when she was four years old.
One night she had a dream. She dreamed that there was a knock on the front door of her home and when she opened the door…there was a baby on the doorstep.
She knew from that moment on that she was going to take care of babies.

She grew up, married and had three boys of her own. As her youngest son neared his second birthday, she realized her last baby was growing up and her God-given desire to nurture babies again rose up in her heart. She and her husband decided that they would become foster parents.
And they did.
Over the years she took care of over 50 babies/children, most of them born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Some of her babies she cared for as long as five years.
My friend, Betty, was a rare kind of foster mom. Each baby that was placed in her arms claimed her heart as securely as one born to her. She loved them and gave them the best care. She often had 3-5 babies at a time, but it was with grace and a supernatural calm that she kept everything in order. Whenever you saw her… either in her home or out of it… the children looked like they were on their way to a photo shoot. Betty herself always looked like she stepped out a fashion magazine. I was in awe of her. Her joyful attitude of service ruled over a spotless home and well behaved children.

One thing was without question. She was true to her ‘thread’ of purpose.
Each child was prayed over and taught to pray. Her desire for each one was that when they were taken from her care that they would go with a deposit of God-consciousness in their hearts that would keep them under the shelter of God’s love.

When you step foot into Betty’s home one of the first things that catches your eye is a shelf built specifically for the purpose of displaying framed pictures of all her children. She knows every one of them by name and still prays for them.

Betty’s years of being a foster mom were far from easy. Working with the child-welfare authorities was often an exercise in frustration…the more so because the ones who suffered were the little ones who had no defence. Betty was their advocate but often her hands were tied.
Over the years I walked the path with her, sharing her joys, her tears, her frustrations, her justified anger and stood as a prayer partner to hold her needs up to God.
Often Betty would wonder if she was making a lasting difference in her childrens’ lives.
I remember one particularly discouraging time… and we prayed that God would give Betty some hope, some indication that her efforts were not in vain.
At the time she had a little blonde, blue-eyed, three year old boy that Betty and her husband wanted to adopt. But it was not to be.
The little boy was only16% native but he was made the test case in the court battle that decided that native children could not be placed for adoption in white homes – never mind that he did not look native, and that he was over 80% white.
I don’t have to describe to you the pain and agony Betty suffered over having to let this child go so he could be adopted into a native home.
She did not know how much, if anything, this child had absorbed of her gentle teaching about Jesus. He spoke very little.
One day she was sitting on some bleachers with this little boy, watching her sons play baseball. She was feeling despondent and worrying about what would become of this beloved child sitting beside her. Suddenly, without any fanfare he did something he had never done before. He stood up and began to sing Jesus loves Me.
Betty had her sign from God.

Betty had a dream. She wanted to take care of black babies… always hoping that the next baby placed in her arms would be a little black girl.
We prayed…we asked…but it never happened.
She had another dream… go to Africa! I remember times we would talk about it , but it always seemed a very unrealistic dream. There was just too much that stood in the way – not the least of which was the financial cost.
I remember praying asking God for a miracle so that Betty could have her dream come true. She had given so selflessly of herself for sooo many years… was having this dream come true so much to ask?

A few years ago I began to see a restlessness, a discontent that I had never seen in Betty before. She began to call me talking about how the mounting frustrations with the ministry had taken away her joy in being a foster mom.
I sensed that perhaps God was saying her years as a foster mom were completed. But understandably, Betty was reluctant to acknowledge that – it was what she had done for so many years – and it had been her joyful fulfillment. She tried switching to older children, but it just wasn’t the same anymore.
Finally, she and her husband made the decision. They were resigning their contract with the ministry.
Their sons were marrying and grandchildren were on the horizon. Timing was perfect.
God led Betty in other directions and she is content.
She is now able to devote herself more fully to her family than she would have ever been able to do if she was still a foster mom. The babies she holds in her arms now, no one will ever take away. They are her own grandchildren.

I got an e-mail from her today.
Her life-long dream of going to Africa is going to happen!!
Years ago, God gave her the glimpse and ignited the dream…. Then filed it under future!
The timing couldn’t be more perfect!!
She is going for three weeks this fall, with her best friend and an outreach team from her church.
She will be spending 7-10 days in an orphanage!! She can hold black babies to her heart’s content!! (If she comes home with one hidden in her suitcase, I won't be surprised!)
She will also experience the excitement of a safari and relaxing time on the beach.

I had forgotten her dream, it has been years since we even talked about it… and I’m sure she had tucked it away as well….but God had not forgotten!!
This is her well deserved reward! I am sooo thrilled for her.


How wonderfully God is involved in our lives…orchestrating all things to work together for our good! And delighting to give us above and beyond our wildest dreams.

I share Betty's story with you as a well deserved tribute to her but also as an encouragement to you.
If you have a dream that has deep roots in your heart, one you have ‘forgotten’ because it seemed impossible that it could ever come true – take heart and know that God does not forget and His timing is perfect.
Keep faith, watch and wait! If the dream was a glimpse of God’s ‘thread’ of purpose in your life….it will come to pass!