Note to new readers:  To read Steven's story since the TBI, go to the "Our Journey" tab at the top of the page.  To see his life before and after the TBI and to read short sections of Steven's "letters to God", hit the Celebration Service Slideshow.   

My Mother

My mother, Doris Rocke, had the awesome privilege of being called home to her Lord early on the morning of Friday, August 5, 2013.  I would like to share with you some of the amazing ways that God worked during her homegoing and also at the memorial service afterward. 

Mom was in a deep sleep all day Thursday, from which we could not awaken her.  I sang to her, prayed with her, and read the Bible to her, even though she wasn’t responding.  The verse I read to Mom that day (in addition to Revelation 21 and 22) was Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.”  (I had been reading through Psalms consecutively with Mom, and that was where we were in Psalms for that Thursday).  Since mom wasn’t struggling to breathe, we didn’t realize she was close to her homegoing, so late that evening, I left for a little sleep.  About 1:30am, one of the aids, Rhonda, kindly went in and sat with Mom for awhile.  (This was typical of the staff at the Pines Nursing Home.   They were not only unbelievably excellent caregivers to all the residents, but they were also “friends” to mom.  They loved her.)  While Rhonda was sitting quietly beside Mom’s bed, Mom suddenly awakened, looked Rhonda right in the eye, and smiled the biggest smile!  Not too long after that, the Lord called Mom home.  The wonderful thing about the situation is that Mom had not really smiled since her 2^nd stroke, around 3 months previously!  How beautiful of the Lord to have Rhonda sitting beside Mom just at that moment, to be able to see and tell us about that miraculous “homegoing” smile!

The other situation that I’d like to share concerns the memorial service for Mom at the Apostolic Christian Church.  It stormed ferociously during almost all of that service, with lots of thunder and lightning.  The winds blew hard and the rain came down in buckets.  Shortly after the service, we were told that there was a foot of water in the grave, so the burial would have to be delayed.  We postponed the graveside service until after the dinner, but the cemetery road was still badly flooded, and our cars barely made it through without stalling.  Consequently, the graveside service was changed to the mausoleum.  This was a blessing in disguise from the Lord.  We had a little choir of 8 or 10 people (pulled from visitors from up north because the normal funeral choir were mostly out of state that day). When they began to sing (A cappella and with no microphones), we were in for a glorious surprise.  Because of the acoustics of the mausoleum, it sounded like 10,000 angels singing!  The music seemed to be coming from everywhere – above us, below us, and all around us!!  I sat there enthralled, thinking that this must be a little taste of what heaven will sound like! 

What a blessing God gave us, through a storm.  It’s the same way with our lives; sometimes the most fearsome storms of life bring greater spiritual blessings than we could have imagined possible.

       

"I HAVE SET THE LORD ALWAYS BEFORE ME"

A short while back, I was leaving the nursing home (my mother had another stroke), and I passed a thin, little, elderly gentleman (whom I had never met) resting in his wheelchair in the sunshine outside the nursing home door.  Being in a bit of a hurry, I was past him and opening my car door before I fully realized the Holy Spirit was nudging me to talk to that elderly man.  But I was in a hurry, so I climbed into the car, started the engine, and backed out.  Then I remembered a point in our pastor’s sermon that morning, “Be obedient.”  So….I pulled under the portico, popped out of my car, and approached the gentleman with “I noticed you looked a bit lonely, and I wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you.”  The light of a million suns burst forth from his face as he excitedly told me, “Yes, yes, I know!  Jesus loves me!!  And He’s right here beside me!  He goes with me wherever I go!”  For the next 5 minutes, we proceeded to talk together with great joy about the Lord, about the coming rapture, and about the awesome life that awaits us.  I left feeling SO BLESSED and encouraged.  And here I thought it was for the little old man’s sake that God wanted me to stop!

When I got home, I sat down to have a little quiet time with the Lord (since I’d left the house at 7:00am without more than a quick prayer).  I’m currently reading through Acts, and the verses were Acts 2:25-28, talking about when Peter got up and addressed the amazed crowd of onlookers immediately after Pentecost.  Peter is talking about what David says concerning the Lord in Psalm 16:8-11, “I have set the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken or overthrown or cast down.” 

It brought to mind the little old man in the nursing home; he had given me a picture example of that verse.  In an atmosphere of public noise, lack of normal privacy that we in our home take for granted, dependence on others, and only a part of a room to call his own, he was able to be joyful and expectant and thankful (instead of miserable), because he saw in his mind’s eye the Lord constantly beside him.  It struck me as I studied the verses that it is an act of choice to “set the Lord constantly before us.”

The rest of the verses go on to explain the benefits of doing so:

·         We won’t be shaken or overthrown or cast down, so troubles and problems won’t get to us and Satan won’t defeat us.  Verse 25

·         Our heart will rejoice and our tongue will exult exceedingly (we’ll be speaking and singing praise).  Verse 26

·         Our flesh will dwell in hope (absolute knowing of heaven coming!)  verse 26

·         He will show us the path of life (the way we should go)  verse 28

·         We will be enraptured with and in His Presence (filled exceedingly with joy because of our fellowship with the Lord).  Verse 28

 Which leads back to the other point of my pastor’s sermon:  “Fall in love with God and be satisfied with His fellowship”.  The little old man was even beyond satisfied; he was ENRAPTURED with the Lord.   

Is 41:10  “Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My right hand of rightness and justice.”

This was one of the verses that the Lord gave me on July 2, 2012, when I was “terrified and dismayed” thinking of the extreme dust and expense in jackhammering all of the satillo tile out of my house.  Little did I know that this would only be the beginning of a barrage of difficulties for the year, coming at approximately one every three days for the past 7 months.  To name a few:

·         3 instances of mold in the house, and another in the rentals, plus an asbestos problem, all causing extreme unexpected expense, in addition to a multitude of crazy plumbing and electrical problems in both places

·       still “temporarily” out of the house after 5 months and still looks barely past demolition stage, drive cracked, ruts in the lawn, dead plants

·         Total of 4 unexpected remodeling projects at the rentals, loss of tenants, angry tenants, upset contractors, threats of lawsuits, furnace fire, seemingly unsolvable problems, all of Steven’s life insurance spent “fixing” and still not finished

Plus a ton of other things.

You know, I was really glad to see 2012 go!

But 2013 “ain’t lookin’ much better”, starting with twenty minutes into the year. 

But then, I look back at that verse, and it says, “I will strengthen and harden you with difficulties.”  And I was thinking…..that’s exactly what these things have all been – difficulties – and that’s exactly what God is doing:  “strengthening and hardening me” with them, just like He promised.  So what is more important to me – a smooth, peaceful life – or that I will become what He desires me to become????

So how are these difficulties strengthening and hardening me?

·         By hammering it into my head that the peace of Christ ruling in me is a command and a choice, regardless of circumstances, and that peace must become the ruling authority rather than fear, uncertainty, despair, or whatever.  Colossians 3:15a  “Let the Peace from Christ rule in your hearts, to which (peace) you were called.”

·         By forcing me to remember that praise and thanks in all circumstances is part of the pathway to that peace.  Colossians 3:15b  “And be thankful always.”  Genesis 13:17, 18  “Arise, walk through the land, the length and the breadth of it” (mentally, walk through and give thanks) “then Abraham…built an altar to the Lord.”

·         By making me doubly aware that “He will send His Angel before you…”  Genesis 24:7 (neither house nor office burned down though potential was high, neither Steven nor I electrocuted when  circumstances should have brought that about, life insurance that we weren’t supposed to have miraculously provided by God preceeding all the need for the money, probable new tenants supplied even before old tenants moved out, place vacated for me to temporarily stay just hours before I needed it)

·         By opening my eyes to the fact that Satan’s first priority would be to distract me (by countless little irritations) from the Kingdom work of the moment and from the Awesome Covenant.  2 Corinthians 3:6  “..Who made us adequate as servants of the New Covenant..”

So, in these ongoing difficulties and problems and troubles (difficulties that will continue on throughout each of our lifetimes),  

Do I…..             
     Lose heart and become overwhelmed?

Or, in them, do I…..
     Hear my Maker calling me?

 

 

 

 

  

 

TEMPTATIONS in 2013

In Genesis 20:6, God is speaking in a dream to the king of Gerar, Abimelech, who had taken Abraham's wife, Sarah, into his harem.  Abimelech knew Sarah was Abraham’s sister, but Abraham and Sarah had neglected to say, out of fear and for the second recorded time (Genesis 12:10-20), that Sarah was also Abraham’s wife.  Surprisingly, Abimelech had not come near Sarah, even though she was part of his harem.  God explains why to Abimelech:  “…it was I Who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me…” 

I have often looked at Genesis 20:6 rejoicing in how God preserved Sarah’s womb for a miracle – the birth of Isaac to 100 year old Abraham.  I previously missed another obvious fact:  this wasn’t only about Isaac; it was also about God sparing Abimelech from falling into temptation and sinning against God.

Six chapters later, in Genesis 26:6-11, amazingly, the process is repeated with Abimelech and his men, only this time it is with Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s wife Rebekah.  “And the men of the place asked him (Isaac) about his wife, and he said, She is my sister; for he was afraid to say, She is my wife – thinking, Lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she is attractive and is beautiful to look upon.”  This time, God has Abimelech look out the window at just the right time to see evidence that Rebekah is Isaac’s wife.

James 1:13 says that God tempts no man.  But the evidence seems to suggest that God goes one step further.  He supernaturally protects/removes his children, in His omniscience (all knowing) and His love, from temptation situations that He knows we are not strong enough to bear without falling into sin against Him. 

 I Corinthians 10:13 says, “But God is faithful not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure.”   (This would include not only temptations of the flesh, like Abimelech, but also temptations of the heart, such as anger, pride, fear, worry, unforgiveness, despair, faithlessness, loss of trust.) 

It goes on to say, “But with the temptation, He will also provide the way out (the means of escape) that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.”

In this new year of 2013, we can be confident God will not bring upon us a trial carrying with it a temptation beyond our ability to stand up under.  We can know with assurance neither Satan,  situations, or our flesh will tempt us this new year with anything that we do not have the power to say “no” to.  His love and omniscience and power go before us and clear the way for our own faithfulness, obedience, and faith – another example of God’s intimate involvement in our specific minute-by-minute life.  Thank you, Lord, for all the things that you will keep from our pathway this year because You know that we would not be strong enough to bear up under it.  Thank you for the power from You to be overcomers in everything that will come into our life this year.  Your love is awesome!