Recap of 2013 by David

Since I am a bit technologically challenged, I didn't know how to export David's newsletter into the blog without making it a PDF and then changing it to a JPEG, so sorry for the small font.  I was able to zoom my screen in and see it fine.  You can simply do that, or you can also click on the image and then zoom in on the font.

A Battle For Jesus

You share the Gospel, you plant the seed,  and show love, and share love, and live love. This is what we tell ourselves, this is what we try to live.  So many of us Christians have had "normal" lives, have known of Jesus and really known Jesus for more years of our lives than not, and we all have struggles.  We all have moments where we aren't living like we should, making the choices that God would approve, and living a complete Christ-centered life.  And in those moments, maybe some of us have people who love us, nudge us in the direction we should be moving, or God intercedes and takes his hand and carries us where we need to be.  We have love.  We have God's love, true love from our family.
I was and am so fortunate that I have parents who truly love me and have always showed that love.  I had a loving family that included a father figure and a mother figure.  Some are less fortunate, and maybe only have one of those, but that is still one.  Then there are some who, by tragedy have neither of those.

Think on this....

How does one know what love is?

How does one grasp that God, the most amazing father in the world loves them more than anyone?

How does one imagine what this love is?

How does one Believe this Father is different?

WHEN....

At the age of ten years old you were sent from your home country to neighboring Costa Rica to work as a babysitter.  REALITY HERE!!!!  My daughter is 9 years old.  I cannot imagine doing this to my child.  You come to this country you have never been to before to care for children, when you are only a child yourself.  And you do this for the next 8 years.  You are all alone!  You are a child alone in a foreign country caring for another person's children.  For the better part of the next 8 years, you never hear from your family much and do not see them.  In this time, your family has grown without you.  You were sent away.  How does that make you feel?  You have nothing!  You are a child with no family.  

Your family moves to the country where you are living at the age of eighteen.  You have yearned for this for so many years.  You just wanted your family.  You wanted to be loved, to be accepted.  But, the reality is they moved on without you, they grew without you.  For whatever reason they chose to send you away.  In your heart you know the situation for what it really is, but it is so hard to tell yourself that they must not have really loved you.  You now find yourself with 4 children, living a life that you wish was better, wishing it could be different for your children.  You are not married and have 4 people who depend on you, but you live constantly in war with life and yourself.  

As I think about this woman, I think about how us Christians who have Jesus struggle at times in their life with their faith, and we know Jesus.  We had and have people who love us, who didn't send us away, who didn't abandon us.  And, we have times in our life when we think, how can I get through this, but we know we have Jesus on our side and we have him to lean on.  He is there to comfort us, to carry us, to carry our load.  

My heart breaks for these people who don't know love.  They cannot even comprehend it.
I can't expect them to understand that God is love, when they don't even know what LOVE is.  

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." ~ Heb 11:1  

With faith, there is love.  And this is the battle that Jesus fought.  He is a warrior for love.  And I have faith that God will show this person what love is, that they will see it. Because the Gospel is LOVE. I think circumstances make things harder or easier for people, but at the end of the day we all have to make the choice to know God's love or to not know God's love.  Please pray that this one who does not know love, will know love, will have faith in the God of love, and act on that love in obedience to the one who showed the biggest sacrifice of love.

Name Them One by One

I started reading this book a couple days ago.  I have seen it on reading lists, Kindle's favorites, and pinned by many.  Into, always, at least 5 other books, I refrained from purchasing it until now.

I am only about one third of the way into it...speechless.  Guilty.  Truly feeling how unthankful I have really been.  A time for much prayer.  A time, time that is priceless, that is given to me, to name the blessings all one by one.  Deep in my heart I see the complete vanity of the words, "Dear Lord thank you for all of my blessings."  And the reality of never completely stopping to see the blessings, ceasing the moment to record the blessings to my memory, and drawing attention to the smallest details He created and BLESSED me with.  He blessed me with Time to see them, and I am just like this author described it, "a slave to time."  She couldn't have been more right.  I am a slave to time.  I run against time.  I wait on time.  I rush against time.  I fight with time...time that God has given me.  Time he has given me to be thankful in all things.  

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." ~ 1 Thes 5:18 

How ashamed I am to say that I have not taken the time to see the blessings in everything and everywhere.  Because they truly are everywhere, because God is everywhere.  This morning after my study, all I could hear was...

I want to see the smallest things, some of the most beautiful things, things that are right in front of me, if I just looked and named them one by one.  Ann Voskamp pens a challenge that I should already be living, a challenge to name all the blessings "One by One."  In the rush of life I have not seen the blessings, the gifts.  I have not named them, I have simply thanked him for my blessings.  What are those blessings?  

So, today I start naming them one by one.  I want to see the thousands and thousands of Gifts that he has bestowed to me, to all of us.  I want to record them in my heart, in my mind.  I will journal them, I will photo them, and I will record the beauty of their sounds...all one by one.  The challenge is a year...1,000 gifts, but I can do this for a lifetime, because his gifts are innumerable.  

Gifts Heard

1. the choir of birds singing after the rain 

2. giggles of children playing 

3. the beauty of instrumental music

ONE BY ONE

The Harvest Is Plentiful, the Laborers Few

Matthew 9:35-38

³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds,he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Every time I see these Leaf-Cutters at work I always think about these scriptures.  

WHAT IF

we all labored together, so hard, so fervently, so intent, and 

TOGETHER

just like these ants?

Imagine the harvest that there would be!!

There are thousands of these ants all working together, with a common goal.  They all carry their load, do their share, to accomplish the task.  The Harvest that we could accomplish together is HUGE.  We can all labor, doing our part, working together, wherever we are to get the job done that the Lord has set before us.  The Harvest is Plentiful!

(I have had this blog post in my mind since we moved here.  It took me 2 months to get some good pictures of these things!!)

Life Is Buggy

As I sit here in this country completely filled to the brim with bugs (in case you didn't know I am not a fan of bugs and I do not let them live) I got to thinking that life is Buggy.  

You are going through life from day to day and then bugs just come in everywhere.  They sneak their way into our lives just like Satan.  They are everywhere just like Satan is everywhere.   He sneaks his way in and we, sometimes, don't even recognize it.  He sneaks his way in and starts making himself at home....just like all these bugs that don't belong in my home.  He does not belong in our lives.  Why do we let the bug in?  

(this are the buggy's guts...Logan ended his life

and this was the effects)

We must fumigate Satan out of our lives.  He is moving in on us.  He is overtaking lives right and left.  He doesn't need unbelievers.  He already has them.  He is working on those who believe, those who have obeyed.  He is working hard..Bugging in our lives.  We must put our armor on and fight.  We have to win that fight with Satan.

This gecko is playing dead.  Apparently they have

a fighting mechanism of when something attempts to 

attack them that they make their tail detach and the tail

then wiggles and they play dead...only to make a run for it.

Well, he was unsuccessful!

We must win this fight in life. 

Won't it be a glorious day rejoicing with the Lord! 

I don't want Satan to win.  Satan is watching, waiting, and attacking...

sometimes all in the same breath.  We must be ready.  We must fight.

Don't let the bug in.

You can't beat Satan without getting dirty.  We have to fight hard.  

Ephesians 6:11

"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

Yes, my child is this dirty...

Every single day.

I must fight the biggest bug of all.  These bugs are nothing.  Satan is the biggest and worst of all, and he is everywhere.  He is working everywhere.  

  

Impossible Is Not Possible

With God, all things are possible. If you know Him, have a relationship with Him, obey Him, then anything is possible.

Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

A little voice keeps entering my head telling me, "Our house won't sell. How will we ever get enough support to move to Costa Rica and survive? How will we do this?" I was driving today, and I kept hearing, "Nothing is impossible." It was like a broken record that kept restarting. The exact phrase that popped into my head was, "Impossible is not really a word to God, because with God there is only POSSIBLE."

So, with God's help....

• our house CAN sell


• he can provide the financial support that will be needed


• we can move to Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Ohio, South Dakota, Peru or wherever He sees the best place to start. KEY word, where HE sees fit. Not where We think or where someone else thinks.


• we can convert lost souls

Nothing is impossible, because with God all things are possible.