Life: God's Great Adventure

Update:

Sometimes it feels as if life is predictable. There are times that we methodically go about our days with a sense of routine. In these times we settle into a mindset that things will never change...they will always be the same. It's just like God to show up in those moments and present you with a challenge that will shake the very foundations of your faith and place a path before you into the great unknown.  You know that He would never lead you into darkness or harm and you know that what He challenges you to do, He will provide the grace for the journey. This is our story: For just a little over a month ago, God confirmed that He is leading us into an area we have never gone before and at our age and situations... it seems totally foolish to even consider such a thought. But God...has clearly shown us again and again that he desires for us to. .."Follow!" After I realized that the thought of laying everything down and following the Lord in this was becoming a reality. ..I held onto my bed and cried out to God! "This is just a test!... Right? ... Surly you would not ask this of us at this season of life. You really don't want us to leave everyone we love behind?" We are five days from setting sail for; as my husband likes to refer to it: .."one more adventure. "

May 1, 2016...we followed. 

 

We moved to SC and helped in ministry there for one year. It was one of the best decisions we could have made,  especially for one of our children. This move was a pivitol change in his life and he had been blessed ever since.

I know the Lord helped us to bless others, even if just a short time. We have made lasting friendships and connections and left a piece of our hearts there with those we love. 

So, bringing you to the present day. 

We decided that due to Gary's reoccurring health issues, it was best to move home.  

Since returning, we have ministered in various places and have waited in God's "next adventure" for us. He has shown us some beautiful things and we have met some more of God's family along the way. 

I'm getting ready to start this blog over and try to be a greater blessing to those who read the words I believe that God would have me to share. 

So, here we go....

"Healing Thoughts"

The Bible says: "By HIS STRIPES WE WERE HEALED." PAID FOR! DONE! FINISHED! I AM NOT FORGETTING HIS BENEFITS...WHO HEALETH ALL MY DISEASES. LET THE HEALER COME...LET THE CHURCH ARISE AND CALL GOD'S WORD, "TRUE."  LET'S  STAND AND SEE GOD'S SALVATION! JESUS....COME!  I WANT TO BEHOLD HIS HAND OF LOVINGKINDNESS MOVE IN HEALINGS AGAIN. IN MIRACLES IN SIGN AND IN WONDERS. WE NEED IT. OH GOD, HOW WE NEED A FRESH REVELATION OF A TANGIBLE,  LOVING FATHER'S TOUCH IN THESE LAST DAYS. REACHING WAY PAST THE VEIL OF SEPERATION AND APPLYING THE BALM MADE BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS STRIPES.                                                          There is a Savior whose blood cleanses every sin stain. There is a Healer who heals every disease.  It's the same blood!  From his head or hands, his side, back or feet... The blood is sufficient! 

"Let the Church Be the Church!"

 It is time to stand up for the church. If we would see her as the BRIDE period...no matter what she is facing and run to her aid when she is broken and quit commenting about how she ain't what she should be or could be or used to be....blah blah blah...(forgive us Lord)....and make her well again by us BEING HER!  GET IN THERE and LOVE ON JESUS, LOVE ON HIS CHILDREN ...the family of God. SERVE ALONGSIDE ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE AND UNITY... and....LOVE HER BACK TO HER BEAUTIFUL SELF...THE BEAUTIFUL BRIDE GOD HAS CALLED HER TO BE...INVEST IN HER...BRAG ON HER...BEAUTIFY HER... It really isn't about us....It's about JESUS great sacrifice so that others won't be eternally lost; teaching and admonishing them to live godly until he comes... and his CHURCH should be triumphant especially in these last days. Sometime's life is hard. Sometimes there are seasons even in the church. PRAY! We need more prayer than ever before. The enemy wants nothing more than to close more churches and get more pastors and leaders to quit their ministries. These are the most evil days I have ever experienced in my life! WE have been commanded to (having done all..... STAND. Stay connected! Quit petty arguing and being easily offended! Remember, there are many around fighting horrific battles they haven't told anyone about. They are hurting and need to be loved. Sometimes people do unkind things because they need someone to reach out and love them. They can't take another disappointment. Have you ever been there? Do unto others (at church) as you would have others do unto you.  Stay committed! Be as faithful the the church as you would other things you are faithful too. AND JUST STAY...no matter how dark...God will come and save his BRIDE! Bloom where you're planted.If you don't like something...help that something become better by getting involved. Use what God has given you to use. Produce some fruit. Don't just die on the vine. For heaven sake, don't beat her while she is down. QUIT BEING A QUITTER! Come on! Let's stop looking for a new bride! LET's be the CHURCH that finally hasn't got a spot or wrinkle...and has made herself ready for her LORD.

By His Stripes!

Remember, Jesus suffered those stripes for our healing. We have no problem believing for salvation... and that once we are saved it purchases an eternity in heaven. But we have a harder time believing HE still heals. ..I tell you it is the same blood! Jesus suffered that whipping of his back...his flesh laid open down into the very marrow of the bone so every disease would be healed. Doctors say there are 39 major disease categories and that every disease falls under one of those 39.  Jesus was lashed 39 times. I guess he has it covered. Hallelujah!   I look to the blood that is on the mercy seat ...paid in full. I may not look healed and there are days I don't feel healed. ..But HIS WORD SAYS, BY HIS STRIPES WE WERE HEALED! GLORY TO GOD!  NOW BEAUTIFUL CHILD OF GOD. ...REST IN HIS FINISHED WORK. HE LOVES YOU!

Sovereign Walk

                                   It is great to know he is with us and close to those we love. That he sees no matter where we are and he sees all the hidden things. He sees when we hide in the secret place with him and he answers our prayers. He takes a supernatural healing salve to all our wounds and binds them up in the bandages of Heaven... holding us close to his heart while we rest in his unfailing love. Shall we weep? Yes.  Shall we mourn? For a season. Shall we rejoice? There remains a rest for the people of God, I tell you! I choose to wait upon him. I choose to trust in things that are invisible. He has put his hand upon me and I have chosen to trust! To realize that in all fleshly efforts at purity and right; like Job said, " I am vile, I will put my hand upon my mouth." No more pointing questions at God,  but acknowledging that he is Sovereign and that his ways are right. He has a plan, and though I don't understand the hardships, I yield to to the path, as I follow his lead. Surrendering ALL..., KNOWING that HE is faithful!                                                                                 __ Rosie

Valley of the Shadow

Recently, my mother went to be with the Lord. My father passed away over 19 years ago and I had the honor of being Mom's caregiver.

When dad passed it was from a sudden massive heart attack with no time for goodbyes. With Mom it was different. For the past year and a half, for the most part, it has been difficult day by day process...and even on the very last day of her life here, it was very hard to watch such a lover of life, fight with all she had to live even though it was time for her to leave.

In her last moments she still was able to smile that precious smile at the nurses who attended her.  I know she really didn't want to leave us. I also know that at some point she realized that God was wanting her to come home to heaven to be with him. I told her it would be okay for her to leave...that I would be alright....

Death has many faces.

I wondered at it this time.

I have stood by those I did not know and watched death take them. I have lost my dad and was called by a nurse from the ER to join my family in what would be remembered as the longest walk I would ever take to this day. I have stood beside the bedside of both parents-in-law and marveled at the supernatural strength that came to both of them in their journey home.

But with Mom...I wondered. I felt such a tearing away. I had so many questions....as if I had never faced death before. So many things unanswered. False hope...and despair. I would go to see her one day and she would be in bed asleep and I would expect to find her the way I had last seen her and I would go in and she would be in the dining hall waiting for me. Smiling and alert.....

It was hard. One of the hardest things I had ever experienced.

The past month...especially hard. December was her birth month. December, my daughter and her son's birthdays. One of her son's anniversary. It was Christmas. Her favorite holiday of all.

Daily I traveled to see her. Times when I would go in and she would be so sedated that her head was almost on her chest from drowsiness. I would watch as she began to refuse food and then as she rapidly went from feeding herself to having to be fed...until she finally could no longer swallow. I who had cared for her every need....was not able to do anything. I felt so helpless....so hopeless....so weak...and afraid. I realized that I was powerless against this and could do absolutely nothing to prevent her discomfort.

I watched and prayed for mercy.

We kept in touch several times a day. I went to see her every other day and visited at least an hour or two. We got her a cell phone so she could contact me anytime she was lonely and finally she called every morning after breakfast and again at suppertime. This is the only way she could remember to call me. But.......the late night phone calls from her ceased. The quality visits grew shorter. The days seemed longer. Day and night for over a year I have been awakened with a thought of...."will I get that dreaded call today?'

For some reason I believed that she would go in her sleep and I would get a phone call that she had left this world. But God had another plan. He decided that she would go with me, one of her sons and our spouses attending her.

God was gracious. He helped us to call all of her children and she mouthed the words I love you to each one of them and also to her brother the morning she left. But God's time for her to leave would not be long after.

My brother and his wife gave me a break so I could get some rest. I left and returned 3-4 hours later after having come home and slept awhile. When I got back, Mom was still struggling but my brother and his wife were so tired they left...but within 35 minutes afterwards, she took her last breath and passed through the veil into her eternal home.

I looked up and around....wondering..."are the angels here?" I saw her, that her breathing changed and I called to my husband..."Mom is getting ready to leave us." And there it was...her last breath....so easy... she breathed... her last.

I felt numb. I had my husband go out to get the nurse and they confirmed time of departure. And from that moment...the world began to spin.


I was able to sing yesterday. All alone in my dining room... I sang a new song....about the Valley of the Shadow... how the Lord has been faithful to me and how I love him. I can't even remember the words, but I remember the comfort of the Holy Spirit that wrapped all around me.

On January 31st it will be 1 month since Mom went to heaven.

A Woman Who Fears the Lord

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the   Lord; she shall be praised."  -Prov. 31:30

Last Friday night's Women's Ministry Meeting, I felt led of the Lord to share my heart about the subject above. I am going to attempt to share a few key-points here.

Favor's Deceit:

Beware of the deceit of favor's flattering tongue that may drip with the sweet words as honey and yet sour as soon as you yield to their
enticement.

 Dorian Gray enticed young virgins, entrapping them by his flattering tongue and Adonis like physique in Oscar Wilde's novel... The enemy of your soul knows just exactly who to send across your pathway to entice you from your relationship with your Lord. Let your affirmation come from God! Do not entangle yourself in the allurement of false lips...whose secret agenda is for their own fleshly gain. And once their trap is successfully laid and their evil web is spun around their target, they come in and take what they desire, only to leave their prey laying in a heap; paralyzed and dying. God has everything you are looking for. Let the Lover of Your Soul satisfy you at all times!

Beauty's Vanity

Guess what? No matter how you powder, pluck, nip, tuck, plump, lipo, botox; no matter how splendidly you dress...while obsessing in the mirror for hours, it is all going south!  Trust me! I have lived long enough to have realized the delusion of a "Fountain of Youth."

The men and women I have observed at the Nursing Home where my mother lives have taught me some life lessons. I know that at one time they were all little "Hotties"....but now....they are "Notties!"
The beauty that the Lord desires is that of a meek and quiet spirit. Kindness and gentleness that mirrors the heart of Jesus.

Fear's Praise

The children of the Virtuous Woman rise up and call her blessed. To rise up here means to, "stand up" and "blessed" means to shine. The Lord himself says that to have a reverential fear of the Lord, is to live a life of love and submission to His word and His will and to walk in obedience to the promptings of His Spirit.

I can envision how her children stand to defend and honor her. How they love her and rise up to help her in her old age. And when her body lays before them and her soul is with finally with God, they stand; honoring her memory; heralding her favorably for the beautiful woman and mother of God she had faithfully lived before them.

 I see her husband also, as he sits back listening with a satisfied look on his face; as his beloved wife an is honored by their children. He stands proudly to his feet and boasts of her in the gates.

Whether you are in the city or country, at home, work, school... No matter where you are... No matter whether you have earthly children or spiritual ones....(those you have influenced someway for Christ)...and whether or not you are married....(we are betrothed to the son of God...we are His bride)...If you have lived the life I have spoken of above and not allowed Favor's Deceit to entrap, or Beauty's Vanity to obsess...but you have lived in reverence to your Lord....you have Fear's Praise...and You are called "Blessed".  

So................Shine! Woman of God, Shine!!!