The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend. Laureen, Janice, and Sunita, along with their mom, gave a bridal shower for Jess our youngest daughter, who is getting married on February 14, 2010. It was a great time of celebration and joy and the table settings were beautiful. Some who came said that it looked like something out of the magazines - now, that's a compliment. Family and friends came to bless Jess, including Tom's mother, who drove in from near Philadelphia with a friend of hers. Tom's Mom, along with the family and friends are also planning for another Bridal shower for Jess in Philadelphia this coming Saturday. Alice and Laureen will be driving down this weekend to Philly to share the joy and the blessing. One of the added blessings for our weekend was to have Micah and Simeon along with their parents to spend a few days with us. It has been a very frigid weekend, but the Lord gave us a very blessed and brilliant weekend. Sunita was able drive up from Washington for the weekend, and returned safely yesterday.
The Old Testament reading for yesterday was taken from Isaiah 42. I was reading from today(Isaiah 43:2) today. "When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression (A feeling of being heavily weighed down in mind or body), you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you." In other words, God promises to be with us in whatever trouble we go through in life.
Dave Dravecky lost not only a game but a career, a livelihood, his pitching arm, and his shoulder, when he was stricken with cancer many years ago. He has energetically rebuilt his life and looks forward to whatever tomorrow might bring. He now runs Outreach of Hope non-profit organization to help people that are suffering.
Is it possible for someone to be physically, emotionally, or financially abused and come out as an extraordinary person? Is it possible for someone to have wealth, popularity, and power and be miserable? (Romans 5:3-5) states, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."
(James 1:2-4) "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."
Some of the world’s greatest men and women have been saddled with various disabilities and adversities, but have managed to overcome them. Cripple him, and you may have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you may have a John Bunyan. Deafen a genius composer, and you may have a Ludwig von Beethoven. Have him born of parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down when he is four, and you may have an incomparable concert violinist, such as Itzhak Perlman. Call him a slow learner, even "retarded," and write him off as uneducable, and you have may have an Albert Einstein.
(2 Corinthians 4:17-18) For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."
When spring came to England after the devastating bombing raids of 1941 by Nazi Germany, a strange thing occurred. It brought a beautiful, botanical resurrection. The explosions brought to the surface seeds of plants which were thought to be extinct. Some 95 different flowers and shrubs were found suddenly growing and blooming in the bomb-pocked landscape of England. Likewise, adversity in life often turns up unexpected and undeveloped parts of our lives. The bombs of adversity and suffering often resurrect long-dormant flowers.
(Joel 2:25a) The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts."
(Isaiah 26:3) "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!"
In Grace and Peace,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEXDPzqo2g
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