Thursday, July 13, 2017

Good-Bye Vermont




As I took my last walk in our neighborhood today my heart is full with thankfulness for the precious friends God has given us in Vermont. As this day approached I feared much sorrow and trepidation as we packed and prepare to move out west. But surprisingly I find myself full of awe and praise to our great God for all He has done in our lives over the last eleven years. Here in beautiful Vermont God has so graciously challenged us, discipled us, nurtured us, loved us, and grown us and established us in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He has used many of our dear friends here in this work in our lives for which we are very grateful. As I reflected on this work I was reminded of a little story I used to read Hannah when she was about five years old. The story was about a kindergarten class who one day went outside and found a little caterpillar. They brought the caterpillar in to their classroom and put it in a jar. There it ate and ate and ate until one day it went inside a cocoon and slowly changed and became, through a miraculous work of God, a butterfly.  During this time the children had grown to love the caterpillar who went into a cocoon and one day emerged as a butterfly. But the children realized that it was time for the butterfly to come out of the jar. It could not fly and do what God had wanted it to do, so the children walked over to the window, opened the jar and the butterfly flew away. As they watched it go they were a little sad and a little happy.

As we embark on this new chapter in life and move out west, away from our home in Vermont, I find myself feeling the same emotion of "a little sad and a little happy". Positionally, we who have placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation are already butterflies but experientially we are growing and changing each day to become conformed to the image of Christ in our daily lives. The Lord has used our time in Vermont and the people we have known here to so bless us, change us, and mold us by their love and example. The work that the Lord has done in our hearts here in Vermont is now done and it is time to go and learn new things He desires to teach us in NM. But as we go we will fondly remember each one of you, our friends in Vermont, and all that you have taught us.

Moving is hard, change is hard. But we serve such a great and awesome God who knows the plans He has for us, to give us a hope and a future. As I close this post I want to leave you with a thought the Lord had brought to my mind recently in hopes that maybe it will be an encouragement to you as it was to me. Many times the Lord will call us to "launch out into the deep", to do something hard, to face the unknown with only Him to guide us and keep us, with no answers but His promises, no guarantees but His word to us. Launch out into the deep He says, trust Me and see. That is His call to you today and His call to me, my encouragement to you is say yes...say yes to this great God who calls you and see what He will do. I am reminded of the admonition the Lord gave me to share with a dear friend many years ago as she and her family were leaving New Mexico to go to the mission field in Albania, and now these words are a comfort to me as well.

"A ship in a port is safe...but that's not what ships were made for"

God bless you as you seek to answer His call


Its not too late

                                                  Its Not Too Late


Have you ever had a dream, a vision , a hope that you longed for ,prayed for, sought God for and it hasn't happened yet? You may wonder, is this  right after all? Am I hoping for the impossible? Is
it too late? Maybe the Lord has called you to do something and you just havn't gotten started yet. Or maybe you have been praying for something for as long as you can remember and it seems no closer to happening than when you first brought it before the Lord. Heaven is silent. Maybe God has given you a dream that you long to accomplish and you were so afraid that it might fail that you never took that first step. You procrastinate, you wait, time goes be, and opportunities slip away. Nothing happens. Life goes on. And in the business of our lives it is so easy to let our dreams slip away. Especially when it would take an extrodinary amount of faith and divine intervention to make them happen.

Its tempting to give up sometimes. To finally let go of what seems so out of reach seems reasonable
and even rational. And yet when we do this something inside us dies. When we give up our dreams,
our hopes, our prayers, we give up a part of ourselves that can never be restored. We concede defeat
to the enemy of our souls, but worse than this we miss the opportunity we have in life to allow God
to show Himself strong in our needy and ever dependent existence.We miss the chance to find out who He really is.The opportunity is lost for Him to magnify Himself in our lives in a most amazing way.

What we dont realize often times is that this is the very reason for the trial, the test, the seemingly unanswered prayer. God is watching to see what we will do. Will we trust Him, keep on, pray through, step out. Or will we back off, retreat, and let go, get bitter. God wants to see what is in our hearts. He is in the business of trying us, proving us, purifying us. I don't doubt that one of the most precious things to God in the lives of His children is their continual ever hopeful faith in their heavenly Father amidst great obstacles, dire circumstances, unmovable barriers, or simply the awaesome silence from heaven that seems to drone on in the presence of enormous difficulties or
yet unanswered prayer. This faith which cannot be thwarted, I believe, is a treasure to God, and of great worth to Him.

Have you lost hope in some dream, vision or prayer that the Lord has yet to answer? Don't give up! Wait, wait on the Lord. You will yet praise Him! He is faithful, even though you may not see it yet.  It is coming. His answer is coming.

Spring is a time of renewal. New grass is seen, new leaves break forth, and beautiful flowers grace us with their glorious color. Why not make this a time to renew your faith in the one who has promised to help us and to uphold us with His righteous right hand. He knows the end from the beginning, and He knows the way that you take. Rest in Him, trust in Him with passionate abandon and see where He takes you. He is worthy of such trust. When you are tried you will come forth as gold.