39 A Ray of Hope in My Darkness: Greg's gift today

The first question friends and prayer warriors ask me is, ‘How is Greg doing?’   

My answer is usually, ‘Physically,  not so good, really pretty bad,  he needs a kidney,  but emotionally he is doing wonderful, he is on top of it all, most of the time.’  

So my first phone call today, he was really upset, because he doesn’t get to see Zach very often, and he had planned to take a pizza over and have lunch with Zach, at school.   Well this just did not happen.

So this evening I got a call from Greg, and he said,  ‘I have a Blog for you,’ and I was very excited!!!!

We texted back and forth so I would have all the words correct…the following is what transpired:

He was coming home from the market with his sidekick Donnie, (who is a life saver)  he was looking at his apartment and the surrounding apartments , thinking how ‘low-end’ they were…(but it is close to dialysis, and he can walk there...besides God put him there)… the following is some texts back and forth:

Greg:  I felt an overwhelming sense of God's presence today and God's worth as He said to me, ”Greg you are willing to live in places and meet with people, that most of my Body are not willing to meet with or live with.”  Then very clearly He said, “He values my sacrifice.  The people you live with, the people (your) neighbors are on the peripherals, and have fallen through the cracks, and He loves them very much, and He appreciates me showing them that Love.”   How’s that, he said?  I got a gift from God today...a ray of hope in my darkness.

Mom: Thanks, that is really very special… not just to you but to all who are going to read  our blog...It will be an encouragement to some, but a zinger to others…who are not willing to be willing!

Greg: I am glad that God is a God of second chances.

Mom: That just may be the name for this blog...and by the way I need all the help I can get  in naming the blogs with intriguing titles.

Greg: A God of second chances is another whole blog, and I will  tell you about it.

Mom: I will be waiting with baited breath…God is so good!  So we will name this one ‘A ray of hope in my darkness’.

God and Greg made my day that day…I guess you know.

So …..Look up!  Hang in there!  Hang on tight to His hand, and we’ll see you here, there or in the air!

See y’all in the morning…as we are sailing thru the air when He comes for us!  Won’t that be spectacular?      Hey Cray…Nanny

38 DISTRACTIONS, DISTRACTIONS

Where am I going and what am I doing this morning?  

  

Well I am going to make bread, the first time since January 10^th

(Before we left for  California)…and we  got to come see you and Zach…that was a blessing…and we have special memories!!

SPRING  has sprung…the grass is riz…I wonder where them flowers iz?  (From somewhere in my childhood, and it still hurts my ears!!  *Smile* )     

But spring is here!?!   YEAH !?!   But He (God) said all these things will change, BUT MY WORD SHALL NEVER FAIL!     

So glad He is in control!  

Now about distractions…I had some very distracting distractions yesterday…very!!     

Now what do we do with them?    

Ignore them?   

Get all huffy and try to quell them?      

Try to understand them?     

 Maybe I just say , like Jesus said to  Peter, ‘What’s that to you…Follow Me!’     

I also just figured out a way to  get past them, but can’t figure out if I am being  ridiculous, rebellious, or what!!   (Not ME?)  

 Oh yeah, I forget you know me pretty well….so who am I kidding?  *Smile*

Some distractions are good, maybe…some are bad,  maybe.  

 I'm like a woman who is decisive, maybe…smile…but I seem to get distracted easily, especially when it comes to sitting at His feet, and just soaking up His presence.  Now I know those distractions are not good.

But this morning, as I watched the snow fall,  (when I wanted sunshine) I found a little nugget that spoke to my heart.  

  

 1 Peter 4:7 sez, ‘Keep sound-minded and self-restrained  AND alert…therefore for the practice of prayer.   

 Hmmmmm...practice of prayer?!?  So God is telling us something that we already know…just in a practical sense…if you repeat anything for 30 days, it becomes a habit.   So we need to create a habit of prayer.

If we keep our mind sound, are self-restrained and alert, we definitely need the Holy Spirit daily in our lives…actually our spiritual lives depend on it.    

So this is our challenge, today….

"be still so we can hear and recognize His voice so we can be alert and pray without ceasing for whomever you bring to our minds (Holy Spirit)…whatever situation that needs immediate  prayer and intercession.”    

I am readily brought to the time when you, Greg, had flat-lined…and I got up at 2:30 a.m. (Arkansas time,)  to call the hospital to see if there had been ANY change…I remember when I talked to Donna (later) that she said, 

“God woke her up at 12:30 a.m. to pray for you.”   

  

That was the time I called for an up-date, and the I.C.U. nurse said, 

"yes, he just rallied at 12:30 a.m. and we just took out the breathing tube, and he is doing very well.”   

I said, "that was GOOD news,"  and he replied, ‘No--that was GREAT news,’  because they didn’t think you were going to rally.   

Thank you Donna, friend and prayer-warrior for being obedient.

God I am so intensely  aware of MY needs, Greg's needs,  Mindy's needs…that I forget there is a whole world full of ‘Calvins’ out there….who are literally dying without Christ, while I am living in my own little bubble, praying for our own little family.    

You have taught me something, Greg,    

 Father help me be like  Greg, who is learning to reach out and touch others….in spite of what ole’ slewfoot is throwing his way. 

  I  loved what you told Calvin (neighbor upstairs above you):

”If God had to take me from Sacramento, to Vallejo, to Michigan, to Spokane, to Spokane  Valley through all the pain, misery, ‘pooh’...everything...heart-attacks, stents, mini stroke, open heart surgery, divorce…just to tell Calvin that God loves him, then you guess it was worth it.”

 “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus ,  Life's  trials will seem so small, when we see Christ.

One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrows He’ll erase, so bravely run the race,

‘till we see Christ!”

So keep looking up, hang on tight to His hand,  we’ll see you here, there or in the air!

See ya in the morning, Cray, and you are right, Greg is one strong, tough cookie!!!

Love ya, Nanny…Mom…Sis

 

37 Grace for TODAY

Hey Mr. McGreggor…

 

Today is a new day, and the first day of the rest of your life…what are you going to do about it?    

I am busy getting over the flu, but also getting Zach’s Easter Basket ready to mail.   I told him he might be in his teens, but everyone needs  an Easter basket…I need one!  *Smile*   I hope I make him smile because I did when I got the idea to make him one… you know the candy corn they have ? Well I found some candy corn  but they were made into ‘chicken feet’...U G L Y !!    But quite funny, so that is what I am sending in his basket.  Remembering with fondness when I used to hide your baskets and then leave a trail of notes to find them.  Corny but fun...smile …

Thinking this a.m.  about  all the things that life has thrown at us, and how we handle them….what would we do without Jesus???????

As we walk this long road of life…often we are blasted with things that we have to deal with.   When we know Jesus personally, we are able (or not) to just throw them over our shoulder into Jesus arms for Him to carry, work out, or deal with-----and we go on our merry way without a care or a doubt…Right?  Wrong again Margaret!!!

We are very blessed indeed, to have a Savior who will do all that.  But I am quite sure that if I did not know Jesus and could depend on Him, I would, as Apostle Paul said, ‘ Be a most miserable man!’

But as I was reading yesterday about God’s Grace…We, by faith, can and do accept the fact that Christ was the ultimate pure Sacrifice….No one has ever found a way for sin to be forgiven forever without  ‘The Lamb of God and His  Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection.‘   

That is what this walk is all about.

Sins were dealt with, animals slain, blood flowed, but this all just pushed the sins away, for the time being...until it could be done by The Pure Sinless Lamb, Christ Jesus. 

   

ONCE FOR ALL…NO REPLAYS NEEDED…DONE… FINISHED…MISSION  ACCOMPLISHED…

And not only were they taken away, BUT thrown into the sea of forgetfulness,  NEVER to be remembered against us ever again.  Priceless!!!

Yep, we understand that we could do nothing, but He could…and He did!  Sound like a song?

We owed a debt we could not pay, He payed a debt He did not owe…

We can also accept this “Blessed Hope” of life after death to be eternally with that Perfect Lamb…Jesus…  We could never get there on our own, only He could make a way and He did….o.k. we got that, too.   The beginning and the ending (or the other beginning… smile)

He paid the ultimate price for our PAST…PRESENT  AND   FUTURE…  

 O.K. we got it….so what is the problem here?   Problem?  What problem?    The problem is in this life, the few short years we call our  sojourn  on earth…NOTHING has changed…God made the plan, Christ completed the plan…nothing else needs to be done or CAN be done by you and me…us!

As our Pastor said, ‘are you picking up what I’m laying down?’     

Do you get that the middle is just like the beginning and the end?     

Day after day, wearily we trudge along…things hitting the fan in a regular manner….

we forget who God is or what He says,

we think  He is asleep in the boat…

we think He needs our help, because things are not going right...

We forget that His plan is complete from beginning to end   without our help or input.

IT IS ALREADY DONE…..AT THE CROSS……Jesus exclaimed….IT IS FINISHED!!!!

Did He need our help, or does He now?   Absolutely not!!

Noooooooooooo all He needs is for us to trust Him and let Him do what He is doing, all for our own good.    

Remember the Potter and the  clay?    We are  just the POT…THE CLAY…WE ARE NOT EVEN THE WHEEL THAT TURNS THE POT…WE ARE TOTALLY HELPLESS…TOTALLY USELESS!!    

How can we be so  Egotistical as to possibly try and tell The Potter  how we want to be formed,  or try to tell Him what the problem is….

We are the problem… 

He is the Answer…

He has the answer.

So in  the middle part of this journey we make the problem…we think He needs our help …*smile*

 

Today…this minute… is  all we have….yesterday is gone,  just like our sins…tomorrow isn’t here yet…so we can’t accomplish anything tomorrow, today!  Nope!!   

  

This second is already gone…never to be recovered!!

Live today as if it was going to be all you have, it might be!  Don’t waste it…He sees ahead…listen to the Still Small voice….He loves you and is  ALWAYS nearby.   

Today He dropped a small word into my heart;  I was enjoying looking at my memories of our time with the Mouse House in Sacramento…these last two months….I am always aware of the tenuous  situation with your health, Greg…and I was musing about how was the fastest  way to get there, if in an emergency.  The thought that God dropped into my heart was, 

“I will tell you with urgency what to do.”

So I am adding that to my things I am truly learning and practicing…”don’t worry about tomorrow” ….pray the prayer that always works….”Thy will be done”…. Listen for directions “The still small voice.” 

How great and freeing is that?

The End!  Well, God is telling me to get out of the way, and let Him do His Stuff!!

Look up…hang on tight to  His hand…we’ll see you here, there, or in the air!!

Love y’all…Nanny…Marker…Mom …Sis…Grandma  (call me anything,  anytime, especially in time for dinner)  You too Cray!!