Rejoice!
Happy Birthday Poppy Joe!!! We love you.
Hi all!
I intended to write a post today to ask for your prayers. Although I would still love it if you would pray, primarily I would love to share how God is meeting Mark and I right in the midst of trouble this day.
First of all, I won't go into great detail, but Mark and I are experiencing stress and pressure in really all areas of our ministry life right now. We have children that we have loved dearly that are in the process of dying, we are at that point in the year when churches renew their funding (and with the economy we know our funding will likely decrease), we are experiencing some struggles within our team...and yet some great advances as well. Of course, as we close in on the holidays, we are missing Gary (Mark's dad) more every day. I can't begin to imagine how Margaret must feel - and it hurts us to be away from her.
Yesterday, Gretchen posted a few new items she had created that were for sale. I quickly contacted her and told her I wanted to purchase this:
I just love it, and it gave me joy right away. And just to know that my sweet friend made it makes it all the better. Last night, when Mark came home from his men's group, he grabbed my OLD Streams in the Desert devotional off the shelf. He had bought it for me when I was pregnant for bella. We read through some of the prayers that I had written in there several years ago, and it gave us peace. This morning, I grabbed it off the bedside table and found this for November 20:
Blessed is he that waiteth. Daniel 12:12
Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him. Believe that if He keeps you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall not tarry.
Obviously the waiting part is so timely, but this: "the vision shall come and shall not tarry" is taken from Habbakuk 2:3, which happens to be one of the verses the Lord spoke to Mark through a Garifuna woman in Honduras in 2005 (call mark if you want to hear that story!).
And then I sat down and read over Mark's shoulder; he has been faithful to move forward in reading the bible cover to cover this year. The Psalm today was Psalm 118:19-27
Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.
The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
So I wake this morning knowing that the Lord is with us, that He reigns, and His peace and rest is with me.
