Waiting on Him

Waiting. This is what the Lord is teaching us how to do right now. Our lives seem to be in a waiting period currently as we wait on many different things. The most obvious is our waiting for Michèle's arrival, which is becoming more and more difficult at least for this pregnant mommy. We are also waiting for the arrival of family who will be coming to help us. We are waiting to see how the Lord will continue to grow the relationships with which He has blessed us. We continue to wait on Him to show us how we are to better serve the people of our city. I am not very good at waiting but it continues to be a theme of our lives, so I know that the Lord has much more to teach me about waiting on Him. This morning, He reminded of Isaiah 40:31 which states: "but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint." I am so encouraged to hear that it is the Lord who renews our strength and that all we need to do is wait patiently on Him. As we wait upon the Lord, I want to learn as much as I can from the waiting experience. Thanks for praying with us as we wait on Him.

Aromas!

The Lord has been recently speaking to my heart quite frequently about the aroma of our house. I do not mean if it smells good due to a candle or after mopping the floors with Pinesol (which I truly enjoy both of the fragrances), but instead if our house is smelling sweet to our Lord and to those who enter into it. The verse which comes to mind is 2 Corinthians 2:15, which states: "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." So often, we allow our circumstances, bad attitudes, stresses of life to destroy the aroma of our home. I find myself having to stop on a daily basis and ask the Lord to refresh the aroma of our home. We want to exhibit the sweet smelling aroma of Christ to all who enter into our home and to the other family members who share our home. We pray that our home will be a sanctuary where the Lord will draw people to Himself, for this reason we must stay focused on keeping Him as the fragrance of our lives and our home. To this end, we are very excited about this coming week, because the Lord has graciously allowed us to have three different opportunities where we will be opening up our home to others. We covet your prayers for each of these times.

We thank you for your continued prayers. We continue to be reminded of the Lord's faithfulness in answering our prayers. Some prayers are answered very quickly and some we are still waiting on responses, but He continues to remind us that it is all in His perfect timing. I continue to be amazed by how He chooses to use us to share His love and message with others. I feel so inadequate and undeserving when I think of my sinfulness, and yet He continues to give me opportunities to share His message with others. It always excites me when He uses my struggles to teach other people His truth and faithfulness. He chose to use my weakness this morning to hopefully draw someone closer to His kingdom. As Grace and I were walking back from taking the boys to school, I was praying and asking the Lord to guide and direct our steps and asking Him to forgive me of a sin which He had shown me. Later in the morning, I was on the internet when I had a friend who lives in another European country begin a skype conversation with me. I was so thankful to the Lord that I was able to share with her some Truth that the Lord had just reminded me of this past weekend and then later in the conversation I was also able to share more of the Gospel with her. I praise the Lord that He used me to share with her what He had just taught me. I continue to be amazed by His perfect timing.

This past weekend, He gently reminded me that He knows the plans that He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11). He spoke to me after the third word, that's all He needed to say and then we stayed at that place in Scripture for a while. Life can be very uncertain at times, but He reminded me that He is still the One in control and that His plans will be established. In the midst of these uncertainties (language school for Chris, Michele's birth, etc) I can still find peace because He is the peace giver. He did not give me peace this weekend by giving me an answer to all of my questions, instead He gave me His peace by simply reminding me that He knows His plans for me. This may seem completely obvious to you, but I needed to be reminded of this truth once again. May we continue to be hopeful and patient in Him!

His faithfulness in every detail

I just wanted to share how the Lord once again surprised me by His faithfulness. I know that I should not be surprised, because He has proven His faithfulness to me so many times before, but once again, I was amazed by His goodness and faithfulness. Here's the story: I had an appointment for my last ultrasound in Brussels, but my husband had class about thirty minutes away for our home and would be there until about an hour before my appointment. So, I had made arrangements for a friend to come and watch the kids so that I could take the train and meet my husband in time for the appointment. Well, my friend told me early last week that she was not able to watch the kids, so things began to get a little crazy. I began to stress out, because I did not have any other options and I knew that I would not be able to take the kids with me on the train by myself, especially since it involved changing trains and dealing with a stroller and lifting a three-year old on and off the train. I really began to panic! What was I going to do? I forgot that the Lord is always in control and that I just need to trust Him. So after, thinking through various scenarios, my husband graciously planned on missing some of his class to come back and pick all of us up and then drive us to Brussels. I finally thought that we had a plan. I forgot that God is in control and that His plans are always better than our plans. Yesterday morning, my husband called me and told me that he had wonderful news for me. His class was ending early and he would be able to come home and have plenty of time to pick us up and take all of us to the appointment. You may think that this is a silly story, but I am once again reminded of how GREAT and MIGHTY my God is and how much He cares for me. I just wanted to thank Him once again for His faithfulness in every detail!!

 

the wind and the waves

As I was reading our morning Bible story to the kids, I was once again reminded of our disobedience and our need for the Lord. The Bible story was about when Jesus was in the boat with the disciples and the huge storm came up. They were all very scared, but Jesus was sleeping. He had nothing to fear. As the story goes on, the disciples woke him up, because they were scared of drowning. Jesus calmed the storm by His words and the disciples were amazed. The passage reads: "In fear and amazement they asked one another, Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."
Obedience is a topic which comes up very often in my house, since we have three little children who do not always want to obey. As we were talking about the story, I reminded them that all of nature obeys Jesus, but we so often do not choose to obey Him. I am amazed by our disobedience and our lack of submission to our Creator. We are quite arrogant to think that we do not have to obey Him, even though all of His other creations obey Him. I was also recently reminded of this truth as I read David Platt's book, Radical. He states, "Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator... until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say, 'No.'" Unfortunately, we do this every day. We, as the creation, think that we do not need to obey our Creator. How foolish are we?
May we learn to obey Him just as the wind and the waves do.

Exalting in our inabilities

One blessing which we received was the book, Radical, by David Platt. He was our speaker last year and has a wonderful heart for missions. As Chris began reading the book, he asked me to share with you a portion which was especially meaningful to him. We pray that the Lord would continue to be exalted in our inabilities, so that He may be glorified.

"In direct contradiction to the American dream, God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts his people in situations where they come face to face with their need for him. In the process he powerfully demonstrates his ability to provide everything his people need in ways they could never have mustered up or imagined. And in the end, he makes much of his own name."

This past year has been filled with experiences which clearly demonstrated our inabilities, but I know that we did not always thank the Lord for allowing us to experience them so that His name would be praised. May we begin this new year on the field praising the Lord for all of our inabilities and thanking Him for showing us that we desperately need Him. May He alone receive the glory for our weaknesses.

Thought: What inabilities has the Lord placed in your life for His glory?