Cathy’s Corner

 

Being a Godly parent

 

Never underestimate the ponderings of a Christian parent. Never underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with God on behalf of a child. Who knows how many prayers are being answered right now because of the faithful ponderings of a parent ten or twenty years ago? God listens to thoughtful parents.

            Praying for our children is a noble task. If what we are doing, in this fast-paced society, is taking us away from prayer time for our children, we’re doing too much. There is nothing more special, more precious than time that a parent spends struggling and pondering with God on behalf of a child. Max Lucado -  Walking With the Savior

 

Know and believe today that the Lord is God. He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other god! Obey his laws and commands that I am giving you today so that things will go well for you and your children. Then you will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you forever. Deuteronomy 4:39-40.

 

            I attended a conference this past week and the basis of the entire conference was on Deuteronomy 6. As parents and grandparents we have been given a command to teach our children and grand children who God is, that they should love Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, and to follow Him all of their days. We can’t do that if we aren’t walking with Him ourselves. If we tell them that they need to go to church, read their Bible and pray yet we drop them off at church and don’t attend ourselves, never crack our Bible or bow our head then we’ve taught them that it really doesn’t matter.

            Working with our young mom’s ministry has opened my eyes to so many things. I see these girls as lost souls searching for someone to love them and to show them some attention. They need a parent interceding on their behalf, someone praying fervently for them and over them. In most cases their parents have taught them they are unimportant and other things matter more than they do. Actions speak louder than words in most cases and when we model one thing and speak another, those actions usually have a much louder voice. Prayer however can speak volumes louder than anything else. The words of a parent interceding for a child go straight tot the heart of God. I began praying for my children before they were even born and for their future spouse. I started praying for the grandkids as soon as I knew they were on their way. I’ve seen God intervene many times in the lives of my children and I believe He heard my prayers. I’ve felt God’s presence and comfort so many times over the years as I have pleaded on one of my children’s behalf. My prayers may not have been answered the way I wanted every time but they were answered the way God thought best, and as Romans 8:28 states, He works all things out for good. You may still have children at home and are just beginning to grow your family; I encourage you to intercede on their behalf everyday. Those with older children lift them up to God everyday and your grandchildren as well. God hears are prayers and they make a difference in the lives of our children.

 

Have a great day in the Lord

 

Cathy’s Corner

 

Borrowed from - TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1, by Os Hillman
08-18-2010

 

Today's Prayer
For every problem, every anxiety, every temptation, every sin in my life, there is a deliverer--Jesus Christ! Thank you, God, for Your sacrifice, Your love, Your way to reach down and pull me up. Please forgive me and help me to stand sure-footed and steady on the Rock of my salvation and not to slip and fall into the mire of the world. Please, be in control of my life...and I know everything will be all right. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Response of Faith
..."Everything is all right".... 2 Kings 4:26

The prophet Elisha often would travel through the town of Shunem, and in that town was a well-to-do couple who extended hospitality to him. At first, they simply offered Elisha a meal when he came through town. Then, seeing that Elisha needed a place to stay and study, they built a room for him above their house so that each time he came through town, he had a place to stay. He was so appreciative of their kindness that one day he asked the wife what he could do for her. His servant Gehazi later informed Elisha that the woman was barren and her husband was old. " 'About this time next year,' Elisha said, 'you will hold a son in your arms' " (2 Kings 4:16). A year later the son arrived.

One day the father was working in the field, and the son became ill and died. The woman ran to meet Elisha to inform him. When Elisha asked what was wrong, she did not panic and react in fear. Her response to Elisha seemed almost unnatural. "Everything is all right," she said. Elisha went to the boy and raised him from the dead. It was a glorious miracle. (See Second Kings 4.)

Faith looks at situations through God's eyes, not the eyes of our limited understanding. This woman did not panic, for she knew something more than the current circumstance. Faith does not panic, but realizes that what looks like devastating circumstances may be God's plan to bring glory to Himself by demonstrating His power. When Jesus appeared on the water to the disciples in the middle of the night, they exclaimed, "It's a ghost!" (see Mt. 14:26) First appearances can bring great fear upon us even to the point of paralyzing us. Find the Lord in your circumstance today. Exercise your faith today and trust Him for His outcome in the situation.

Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders

 

How many times do our circumstances seem so overwhelming that we can’t see anyway that God can intervene and change them? How many times can we look back and see when He has? Recently I went through something that I knew there was no way the situation was going to be changed by me or anyone else and I was scared to death. So I fasted for a week and prayed more and more every day. I even went on prayer bike rides praying and interceding for the situation. What looked like devastating circumstances to me was indeed God’s way of bringing glory to Himself. The situation was rectified and some said “it was a sign;” but I believe it can only be explained as “it was God.” His power was demonstrated in such a way that it was obvious He was all powerful. While I would like to say I was completely calm through the entire thing, I was not. But I did trust that God was going to provide and protect and had faith He would work all things out for His good.

 

Have a great day in the Lord!

 

Cathy’s Corner

 

Our lesson today is God is with me when I am afraid and God helped Moses. We learn how God provided for Moses though Aaron and how God was with Moses even though he was afraid. There are many times in our lives that we are in fear and we trust God for protection and provision and to calm those fears. The summer of 2007 our son, J was in Iraq for his second tour of duty. While we think it is hot here, it is usually eight to ten degrees hotter there, and it was no different three years ago. I checked and they are looking at anywhere from 116 to 118 every day this week. In August of 2007 we received a phone call from J; he began telling us one of their men had been killed by an IED two days before. Then he began to tell us about where they were and what had been going on that week. Here is an excerpt from the notes I took from that phone call.

“We are living in a safe house and building the base around it. It has a wall of Bradley’s and trucks around it and on one side is a canal. Yesterday around 11am me and five guys were clearing some reed out of the canal by burning them with jet fuel, which is pretty powerful stuff. The canal has about a 10ft drop from where the water stops, it’s deep and steep. You can’t just walk out of it, you have to climb and crawl. The other guys were on top of the canal. Sgt Robinson was hanging on to me and I had the can of fuel and was flinging it everywhere and we had made a trail with it. Something sparked and all of a sudden you could hear this “whoosh” and the whole canal was on fire. It was a wall of fire. I started crawling to get out and the fire was just chasing me and it caught up with me. I got to the top and ran out and the guys were yelling at me to stop and drop. I was engulfed in flames. They said it was like this wall of fire and all of a sudden I came shooting out. I rolled around and put myself out. I had to throw my Kevlar off because it was on fire. I heard Sgt Robinson yelling and he was running and his legs were on fire. I jumped on him and tried to put the fire out and it wouldn’t stop. I took my shirt off and started trying to smother it and that didn’t work. Then Vega came and helped me throw dirt on him and we got it put out. I heard Scremo yelling “Jones, Jones!” I found him in the back of the truck just frozen with his legs and arms burned. I got in the truck and tore off to the house so the docs could get to him. They air lifted me, Robinson and Scremo to the ER in Baghdad. I burned my hands, oh by the way; I’m in the hospital in Baghdad. When jet fuel flares up it’s a bomb fire. Everyone said I just shot out of the flaming canal. No one knows why it went up either. They said that it just went up and everything was on fire. They knew I was down in it but they couldn’t even see me when it went up and they couldn’t believe it when I came out. No one can believe I wasn’t burned anymore than I was. You know I was holding the can, I was in the canal and I was the one engulfed in flames but I have the least amount of burns.” “You know why? Don’t you?” I asked. “Yes I know why.” J answered.  “There are all of these people praying for you over here and God is watching over you and protecting you.” I said. “I know.” J said. “You know how they cut your pants off when you are at the hospital? Well they started cutting mine and they just fell apart because they were so roasted and scorched. One second I was chunking gas and the next second there were flames everywhere.” He said. “That’s just insane.” I said. He said. “NO! What’s insane are the three holes left from those IEDs. They were huge” I just kept saying thank you God the rest of the conversation and Gary and J would say, “Yep.” 

I can’t even imagine how scared my son was nor if he even had time to be scared. I was scared for him listening to him tell us all that happened. We were so grateful to God for J’s protection. There is a song called Through the Fire and one line says, “If I trust the hand of God, I know He’ll shield the flames again and again.” Just as Moses trusted God and God provided for him, J trusted God and God shielded the flames, and we trusted God to help J and to protect him and God did.

 

Say a prayer today for all our military men and women and their families, after all, freedom isn’t really free.

Have a great day in the Lord