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Thursday May 21 2015 DAY 74 BONUS HOURS!
How awesome that the class schedule was not what I thought it was. Actually we were dismissed at 3:00 p.m. today and I do not have to report back until 6:55. The prayer room will be set up and every attendee will be prayed for individually. I am praying that my hands will be healed and my breast lumps will disappear.
Jessica, who I pick up and drop off each day came to the conference this morning. After she arrived in the packed room looking for me so she could sit next to me she realized how blurry everything was. She forgot to put her contacts in and did not have her glasses with her. She asked herself how could she do that. She felt the Lord impress upon her heart that it was because He was going to heal her vision today. Five years ago someone came to her church and prophesied over her (my paraphrase) saying that the Lord would one day heal her vision and she would see signs, wonders and miracles. That memory was brought to her recall and she again felt God impressing His word into her heart telling her that this was not only a physical restoration of her sight but would be restoration of her spiritual sight as to who He was and how He perceives her. There was more but I do not remember and do not want to misquote. During the first half hour worship session (remember, they are out of this world) her vision cleared and she can now see both near and far without needing glasses. Her eyes even looked different. Perhaps because I am used to seeing her with contacts or glasses. Needless to say, that was amazing to her and those around her. There have been many testimonies of healing taking place. I am ready to have a testimony. I could even go for my eyes being healed, especially the dryness! I’ll add that to my list. God is the God of miracles and what He starts, He completes.
The speakers today were awesome. All the speakers have been awesome but today clinched it for me, confirming that I need to hear it all again and so I decided I will buy the download of this week’s speakers. I just hope I will know how to upload (or download?) it onto my computer. I would much rather have CD’s so I could listen in the car.
So much is spoken by the speakers at each session that it makes it difficult to take accurate and thorough notes. Though I try I am certain a lot gets left out or incorrectly written. I’ll share a couple of highlights of today. A beautiful statement that stood out is “Miracles are an extension of worship. The proper response to miracles is PRAISE. When someone gets healed it is a song from the Lord. It draws people into praise”. I love “it is a song from the Lord”. The song I heard from the Lord when my ears were healed was the song that went into my heart when I first heard birds again. I hadn’t heard birds for many years except an occasional crow. I have a poem I wrote about that. When I find it I will print it in the blog. I think it is in the trunk of my car in a place that is difficult to get to. If I have time I’ll do it today. Our praise opens the heavens to increase more healing power. This class teaches us that our assignment is to release worship across the nations. “Our role is not to try to do God’s job for Him. Our job is simply to come to Him, recognize who He is, and to get out of the way. We are to take our eyes off the problem and put our eyes on the One who IS THE SOLUTION. Our worship is in intimate fellowship, not on the problem or illness at hand. Healing is not what God has to do, but healing is what He IS. WHEN HE IS PRESENT, SO IS HIS HEALING PRESENT.”
There is so much more but these sentences were interesting to me and thought you might enjoy seeing what we are learning. It is a very hands-on intense teaching. Some of the classes are so packed with information that it would not be possible to share just bits and snippits because it all builds on each sentence and explanation. That is why I will buy the download. So many wonderful scriptures to back up what is being taught. One of my favorite sentences that was in this last session today was: “FAITH IS NOT IGNORANT OF REALITY. IT JUST DEFIES IT!” (My exclamation point!) I have lots to study when I arrive home. I took careful notes and when I have the access to the messages again I should be able to comprehend and understand even more. I feel so honored to be able to attend these sessions. I would love to come back again with Dave. I highly recommend a trip to Bethel Redding for the Healing Classes.
Well, I think this will be my blog today. Tomorrow is an earlier day and a long one. Perhaps I’ll get to bed before 1:30 a.m. like last night.
I must get ready to leave for my healing time.
This week has passed all too quickly!!!
April 26 2015 Day 50 My last full day with Sue
My last full day with Sue. Forty two years ago she stood by myside as Dave and I spoke our vows. Forty two years of life lived by each of us. So many roads travelled. So many experiences experienced. As stories unfold I comprehend that I could use just the story of one life to write a mini-series or several volumes of books. And as I speak and share with others I realize that I too have accumulated a lifetime of stories. The stories of this trip are also accumulating. I am beginning to see some of the lessons that God has prepared for me to learn. Day after day the building blocks of my trip are beginning to take shape. They come in the form of each experience, each person I meet, the roads I travel, the words I speak, the words others speak to me, and even in the beds I sleep in.
I have slept on soft beds, hard beds, couches, air mattresses, on fold out beds, in low beds and in high beds needing stairs to climb into them, in living rooms, in kitchens, in twin beds, in a toddler bed and in beds fit for a king. I have slept on new sheets and worn sheets and smooth sheets and rough sheets, clean sheets and sheets that had been previously used. I haven’t slept on the floor… YET… One thing I have discovered, no matter which bed I was in I slept like a baby. And for that I thank God. It has been amazing. As I think back over these places of rest the stories surrounding the beds surface in my memory. So many that haven’t been told and may never be told, tucked into that special place of my heart to be savored only by me. Friends and faces and surroundings and incidents all come flooding back into my memory. I will take them home with me.
Every day I am learning; about the world, about others, about God, about myself. Today was a God learning day. My friend Sue wanted to go someplace different today for church. She gave me the scenarios of what she knew about different churches in the area but didn’t know which one to choose. I felt impressed that we should go to Calvary Chapel in Modesto. So we did. EXCELLENT CHOICE! After looking back over the day I believe it was a God inspired choice. The praise and worship service was amazing and the teaching was illuminating. Senior Pastor, Damian Kyle, used the scripture reference Isaiah 66:1-6 as his topic. I deduced that this was the last day of the series of sermons on Isaiah. The last teaching of the Isaiah series was tonight at the 6:00 p.m. service. Sue and I planned to attend but our day zoomed by too quickly and we couldn’t make it back. I do hope I can listen to the entire series on Isaiah online as I do my workouts. The only problem with that is that I can’t take notes and get into the deep study of the series while exercising. Reverend Kyle’s presentation just opened up the scriptures with understanding and comprehension that I had not understood previously. To discover Damian Kyle’s teaching is like a gift presented to last a long, long time. I thank God for my ears that I can hear so I can learn more and more about who God really is. And I thank God for a teachable spirit. If you don’t have one just ask God for one and I’m certain there are a lot of things He’d like to teach you.
Not only was the teaching excellent but from the time we stepped out of the car onto the parking lot we could feel the friendliness of the people around us, from the grounds attendants, to the greeters at the door, to the people in the restrooms, concluding with those sitting around us. I have never felt so genuinely welcomed at a church service as I did at Calvary Chapel, Modesto. I was also very impressed with all the volunteers, each doing separate jobs preparing the building for the next congregating of “THE CHURCH”.
So much packed into the session this morning that I can’t go into it all here. I would recommend going to the website www.ccmodesto.com and do some exploring. Believe me, I already did and am excited to see listed all the topics I will be able to listen to.
It was so refreshing to be so welcomed into “The Family of God” in a “foreign” land. Thank you Robyn and John and Jenny and husband and Mrs. B. You helped make this Sunday Sabbath special! God bless all of you!
Sue and I have had a wonderful time remembering the good and the bad times, filling in the blank episodes of our lives that we hadn’t shared before and just loving being in each other’s presence again. I do hope all of you have this kind of friend to remember with in your later years. Sometimes the remembering is easier than it was going through it. And life has a different perspective when looking back, a little older, a little wiser. The best part…we can look back and know we survived. I can look back and see all the times when God was right there beside me as I trudged through the cement of life. So much more to tell.
Yesterday I said I would write part of an essay I wrote about 47 or 48 years ago. If the typing goes fast I’ll write the entire essay I wrote as a teenager:
*************************************************************************************
THE FUTURE IS TOMORROW
In the beginning God…In the beginning God created…And our beginning was created by God. And we were created for a purpose.
Where were you in 1872? Where will you be tomorrow? Tomorrow is our future. What we, you and I, do with it is completely up to us. Tomorrow is our future. Yesterday is gone. Soon tomorrow will be gone. What will we, as Christians, do with our lives? Is the future really ours? How can we as individuals be certain we will have a future?
Life is now lived at an exceedingly fast pace. Violence and death are nothing unexpected. Individuals are abused and slaughtered; whole nations can be wiped out by one bomb. What is life anyway and how can we be so sure we will be here tomorrow? Too often “tomorrow”, “next week”, and “nest month: are taken for granted. “I’ll do it tomorrow.” The familiar phrase that has certainly been spoken by many of us at one time or another. As one character in the popular play, THE MUSIC MAN, said, “Pile up a bunch of tomorrows and you’ll find you’ll end up with a lot of empty yesterdays.” These words are so very true. What is a future if we don’t use it now? Empty?? The future is ours because of what we do with it now. We must live to the fullest of God’s plan for us as individuals. Not by saying, “I will do”, or “I did”, but by doing His (God’s) will and works for our lives now. The future is ours because through a day by day walk with God we can claim each day not for ourselves but for God; awakening with the thought, what can I do for my neighbor, my friends, my pastor, my country…for GOD?
What we do today will reflect what happens tomorrow and the many more to come. God has not definitely said, “I promise you a tomorrow,” but when this physical life is ended our tomorrow with Christ will begin…for eternity. The future is ours only because we live in the complete will of God today.
And that is what I wrote all those years ago. This was the entire essay.
Good night. It is 11:23 p.m. and I am going to eat dinner and go to bed. My dinner will be goat cheese, peanut butters and an orange. I don’t like eating quite this late but my lunch was at 2:00 p.m..
Friday July 17 2015 A DAY OF THANKS!
Why is July 1th a day of thanks? I’ll tell you why. Thirty six years ago today I gave birth to my son. He was born two months early and things weren’t going so well. He was transferred to another hospital to the NICU center. His entire first year did not go too well. But since we are celebrating his 36th birthday you can conclude that he did survive.
Tonight when I hugged him I was so thankful that I have shared 37 celebrations of his life. That he survived the first 24 hours was a great celebration! We did not know if we would ever share another birthday with him.
As I hugged him I thought about the parents who this week lost an eleven year old son due to being run over by a car while he was riding his bicycle. They only had 12 celebrations of his life. I am so thankful for every day that my son has lived.
Courtland and his family came over for a birthday celebration dinner. It is always a joy to have my family over so I can make food they like and share in the enjoyment of once again having my son at our dinner table. On birthdays we like to tell stories about the birthday person. It is a fun time and I always learn something new as I listen to the stories. It is delightful to hear the stories that the three and seven year old tell. The three year takes a story that someone else has told and enhances it quite a bit. I think he even believes that what he says is true. Tonight the seven year old told the story about his dad coming over and having dinner with us. It was a very current story.
After the story time I asked each one to give Courtland wisdom they would like to share with him. Dave went first and actually gave him the same wisdom I was going to share. He told Courtland to never get too busy with all the things and hustle and bustle of life that he did not take time out to enjoy the everyday and ordinary things with his family. He encouraged him to live in the moment.
So I had to come up with something new. My wisdom to Courtland was to not neglect his spiritual life. To be certain he trained his boys in the way of the Lord and had them in church so it would become a way of life to them. I told him to walk in the way of integrity so that his sons would see his life walked out as a Christian Father. I recommended that he walk the walk.
This morning on the way to the gym I stopped at a garage sale in my neighborhood. It is a family I only know through our neighbor get-to-gathers. The daughter just graduated and is going off to college. I asked her what wisdom she had for others at this stage in her life. Ashley’s wisdom was: “Don’t sweat the small stuff”. That may be a short sentence and one that we have heard many times over in our lifetimes but until you learn how to “not sweat the small stuff” you don’t really understand how difficult it is to learn. If more people could just learn that earlier I think the world would be a much friendlier place. Thank you Ashley for your timely wisdom. I pray that as you grow into full blown adulthood that you will remember these words of wisdom today and take them to heart. You are already one step ahead of so many others in know this lesson of life.
DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
By Kathleen Martens
July 17, 2015
Sometimes it’s the little things
That turn into all the big.
Little misunderstandings
Cause us to dance a jig.
Maybe we should listen more
And really hear what is said,
And just sleep on what makes you mad
Instead of worry, just go to bed.
Think on what bothers you,
Mull it over in your mind.
In the morning speak your piece
With words that are kind.
Understand the other’s view
And listen as they explain
There are always two opinions
Do not hear their words in vain.
Give just thought to their beliefs
It will be different that’s for sure,
And when you do understand
You may surely have the cure.
You will no longer suffer
From angry and malicious thoughts,
Because the small stuff is unimportant
In its struggle you’re no longer caught.
So…don’t sweat the small stuff
Place your focus on what is true.
Put your eyes on God alone,
And understanding will be shown.
Then the small stuff stays
Exactly where it should be.
Your spirit is no longer bound
By only what YOU see!
Well, I didn’t know that Ashley’s wisdom would by my inspiration for today’s poem. And timely I think it was. For you see, when I tried to publish this bog I did something incorrectly and lost everything except the poem. I had to totally rewrite everything (except the poem). It was as if I heard in my mind “Don’t sweat the small stuff”! And in the scheme of life, losing a blog really is small stuff.
It is late, Dave is asleep, so I will publish and go to bed. Dave is slowly making strides toward healing. I think he may have overtaxed himself today helping me do some things to prepare for tonight’s birthday celebration. His leg is still painful and red. His next appointment is Tuesday. He is still on oral drugs until then. Please pray that continued healing will be noticed daily.
My first blog was quite a bit longer and more detailed. Sorry for the “quick” version.
Good night and God bless you!
Visions of Poetry 