Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

What a glorious Easter day. We had a wonderful community wide Easter Service at the Cedar Park Center this morning. How very much Jesus loves us to have sacrificed so much for us so we can spend eternity with Him in Heaven. What an awesome awesome God we serve. 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.   Jeremiah 29:11

As any of you that have read this blog long know, Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite verses. It is so comforting to know that no matter how it looks, no matter how illogical it appears to be that God has a plan and He’s got it all under control.

As I've mentioned before the last 4 years have been hard. Cliff and I went from both having middle management jobs and living very comfortably to 4 layoffs in 4 years. Needless to say our bank balances were much prettier 5 years ago than they are now.  

You've heard the saying “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times”?

Without the layoffs we would not have learned how to relax and leave it to the Lord. We have seen His hand on us so many times over the last 5 years. There have been so many occasions when “it was a God thing” is the only possible explanation for things that happened. When times were at their worst for the economy and jobs were very scarce and applicants more than plentiful for every job that came open God arranged an interview for me as I stood in line at a restaurant. I didn't get the job in fact it would take almost a year before God opened the door for a job for me but because of “the interview” our faith did not waiver. If God had spoken to me out loud in an audible voice it would not have been any clearer to me that God was telling me to keep the faith, keep doing what I was supposed to be doing, and when the time was right He’d open the door for just the right job for me. Consequently we kept our focus on God not the problems, God continued to be faithful and we kept “walking on the water”

I was talking to a good friend a while back about some news we had received. An inheritance of mineral rights from many years ago that my mother-in-law received, then passed down to us almost 20 years ago was going to come through to us just at a time when we needed it more than any other time in Cliff and I's 25 years of marriage. Her comment was something along the lines of God has seen how you've handled the challenges of the last few years, and how you have remained faithful and now He is rewarding you. I don't know about that, actually I'm extremely thankfully God doesn't always give us what we deserve, I have made some whoppers of mistakes through the years and skated by without getting the just desserts from them I deserved, but her comments made me start thinking, then I read the following scripture:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.   James 1:2-4

The wheels started turning a little bit faster; there may even have been some smoke. This verse pretty much tells the story of our last 4 years.  No, the trials that came our way weren't fun but the faith and assurance we have, having come through them is pure joy. I wouldn't trade it for anything. The first layoff was really hard, but it pulled us closer to God and we learned and grew so much. By the time the 2^nd and 3^rd layoff came along we were looking at them as pearl making opportunities and were able to focus on looking forward to what God was going to do with them rather than wringing our hands and wallowing in despair. I believe that “Consider it pure joy” doesn't mean it’s going to feel like joy, just that you should think of it as joy; looking forward to what God is going to do to turn it to your ultimate good. Focus on the end result and how awesome God is not the current circumstance.

“testing of your faith produces perseverance” By the time the 4^th layoff rolled around this year, we were able to react with confidence and faith we could of never ever imagined having back in 2010, the lessons learned with the first 3 layoffs allowed us to face the 4th one with confidence that God was in control and had a plan. By this time we knew that the drilling on the land we owned mineral rights on had been successful and we would be getting in some much needed extra income. If I was in charge of the world, my “perfect” plan would have been to have the check come in the day Cliff was laid off. As usual God had a better plan. He had Cliff go to an interview that didn't exist and still have an hour and half interview for a job that didn't exist, but that they hired him for anyway. We are in no doubt that Cliff is working right where he’s supposed to be. Seriously the only way God could have made it any clearer would have been to write it in neon on our ceiling.

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  Yesterday we got a check from the drilling company that will put us in the best financial shape we've ever been in. I look at where we are now and where we were 4 years ago and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are much better able to handle this now than we would have been 4 years ago. We have a maturity in our walk with God that we didn't have then. Now, we know we need God just as much if not more on the mountains as we do in the valleys. You've probably heard the one about there being no atheists in foxholes during a war. In the valleys of life human nature is to know we need God, when things are going well we tend to think we can handle it ourselves. With maturity, we know we need His guidance every single moment of every single day and that we can depend on Him totally. How incredibly awesome is our God, He gives us what we need just when we need it and He knows what that is better than we ourselves ever could.  

Thank You God for your wonderful provisions for all your children. 

Hey, yeah you. Are you listening?

A while back I made a typical Christian comment about God telling me to do something or the other. I got a really strange look from a friend who then asked me "what do you mean by that? Do you mean an actual voice? I've heard that before from people but I've never known what they meant" I have to admit that set me back a minute and really made me think. I mean I know God talks to me regularly but how do I explain the how of that to someone else who apparently has never experienced it.  I told her that there were a variety of ways that God speaks to me. It's when I get a thought that I know isn't my own, or a thought that just keeps nagging at me. It's when the same thing keeps coming up from multiple sources. It's when somebody sings a song that God uses to speak to me and give me peace. Like when Casting Crowns sings "The Voice of Truth" I'm sure they're not thinking it could have anything to do dieting but for me, when I've just eaten and my stomach is growling, that song is God telling me to turn it over to him, not to listen to my stomach, it's lying, it just didn't like what I fed it, it's lobbying for chocolate not carrot sticks but I'm not in any danger of starvation, I need to ignore it and go to God for fulfillment. 

I habitually put in my ear piece and talk to my Mom while I'm driving to work. On the days I work in Georgetown that's a 35-45 min visit while I drive and chat with her. This is precious time to me. The other morning she had to be somewhere so I called a friend, she couldn't talk, I called someone else they couldn't talk either. The thought entered my head, Hey Rene why don't you spend this time time today talking to me? That was God, no doubt in my mind. I had the best time just talking to God, thanking Him for being so awesome, thanking Him for the miracles He's been working in Cliff and I's lives. I mean seriously, Cliff went to an interview that didn't exist, and was hired for a position that didn't exist, it was supposed to start in 10 days or so, it started in 3, he's been there for a couple of weeks and he's loving it. That's a God thing! It couldn't have been any clearer if He wrote it in neon on our bedroom ceiling.

I've never thought God was deaf so I've never seen the point for asking Him for the same thing in the same way over and over again, He heard it the first time. I don't mean I don't come back to Him and say you know bla bla, well it's still a problem for me how do you want me to handle it today or could you please hurry those people up they are taking way too long. We have some friends that have been going through a very rough patch lately and we promised to pray for them. It just seems ridiculous to repeat everyday "God please be with X and Y today and heal their marriage" In God and I's conversation that morning on the way to work He showed me that while praying for healing for their marriage is certainly valid and a good thing to pray, I could pray specifically that today they would be loving and lovable to each other. I could pray that they would each hear what the other was trying to say not just what was coming out of their mouth, that they would take things in the way they were meant not how they came across through their own filters but through God's. That they would have some time for themselves, separate from the kids where they could relax together and just be. Truthfully I really can't think of anyone's marriage that couldn't use a daily dose of any of those things but a couple that's struggling, yeah those would be really helpful.  

While we were talking for that 30 minutes God brought so many of my friends and family to my mind that needed prayer for this or that. He brought things to mind in my own life that need work and need His guidance, I was able to turn them over to Him and quit worrying about them. There is something so incredibly freeing to letting go and letting God deal with whatever it is. He's so much better equipped to deal with things than I am, I need to remember to daily, hourly, moment by moment ask Him what He wants me to do, ask Him for His wisdom in every situation, ask him to guard my heart, my thoughts and my words, and finally rely totally on His strength to deal with whatever challenges are coming my way. 

So... that's what God's been showing me lately, I'd love to hear what He's been sharing with you. Please feel free to comment and let us know.

The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Psalm 29:11

Do you know how the dictionary defines blessing? Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week.
René 

WOW - I could of...

Do you remember the old V-8 Commercials, where at some point the principle actors or actresses, slap their-selves on the forehead and say "WOW - I could of had a V-8. I have never liked V-8 but there have been many times when I've had that kind of "Aha Moment", you know the kind, where the answer is so obvious but it pretty much takes a knock upside the head for you to get it.

I've been struggling through a life issue that had really been dragging me down. I could see where God was working it out but His timing is certainly not my timing and He just wasn't mvoing things forward as fast as I thought He needed to. I wasn't sleeping well, I would wake up with knots in my stomach and several times a day would find myself thinking I just can't keep doing this, I just can't do this anymore, I just can't etc etc etc. Then came the V-8 moment, and although I didn't literally slap myself on the forehead I certainly deserved a slap. After all the miracles God has done in our lives, after all the times He's provided for us when there looked like no way our money would ever stretch far enough, after all the guidance He's given, idiot me, I'm still sitting there saying I can't, I can't, I can't. Well guess what I don't have to, I just have to get out of the way and let God. He didn't have Paul write  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me in Philippians 4:12-14 just for fun and grins, no He wrote it so we would know we could turn to Him and He would give us the strength and guidance we need to deal with anything going on in our lives. So simple and something I know so well in so many areas and yet in this particular area, there I was trying to handle it all on my own and failing miserably, and incidentally making both myself and my family miserable in the process.  

I'd love to tell you that all the issues have resolved themselves and everything in our lives is just hunky dory at the moment and everything is all tidied up and perfect but it's not. There are still struggles and the same issue that was giving me so much trouble is still there and was in fact an even bigger this problem this week than last but how I handled things was very different. I prayed first before I tried to deal with it and asked for God's guidance and His control and as I got into things and started feeling myself getting overwhelmed I stopped and asked God for help. Amazing the peace in the middle of chaos when we take the time to plug in God's awesome power source. I went to bed and slept every night and did not wake up with my stomach in knots even once. My circumstances had not changed only my perspective, instead of me trying to handle everything on my own, I asked God to handle it and He is more than big enough and more than powerful enough and loves me enough to handle anything that comes my way. What an awesome God He is. 

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week. Remember to let go and let God before you try to handle things on your own, I promise He is much better equipped to handle whatever is going on much more effectively than we could ever hope to, He's just waiting on an invitation. 

Rene

Divine Appointment

In my last blog I shared with you that my husband Cliff had been confused about which company his interview was with last week and had gone to the "wrong" company. In spite of the fact that they did not have any openings and had not called him to come in for an interview, they interviewed him for an hour and a half. With all the people that were praying for him and this interview, we knew this was a divine appointment, he was not in the wrong place and it did not happen by coincidence. Today they called him in for a 2nd interview with their upper management and ended up offering him a job which he immediately accepted. I was asked if the money offered was enough? My response and a response seconded by Cliff was that when God wraps a job up in beautiful paper, puts a bow on it and serves it up on a golden platter you'd have to be an idiot not to think the money was going to be "enough" no matter what the amount was or what human logic indicated. We are in no doubt that this is exactly where Cliff is supposed to be at this time in our lives. Cliff took their drug test, had a physical and they're working on his background check. As soon as the results are in, he'll begin work. It should be by the middle of next week.  What an awesome God we serve! Thanks you for your prayers and support, never doubt how much we appreciate you. 

Just a Little Dippy

The last few years have been a "little" challenging on the work front. Cliff and I are neither one job hoppers, we tend to get a job and keep it a long long time. I started work for a paint company when I was 20 and worked for them for 13 yrs, Cliff started work right after college at a stone mill and worked for them for 18 yrs. We both went on to other long time jobs after that, me for a solid surface distributor for 9 years and Cliff for a concrete tilt wall plant for 11 years. I tell you all this to let you know that stability in the work place is important to both of us and definitively what we're more comfortable with. 

You've heard that saying it was the best of times, it was the worst of times? Well that pretty much describes 2010-2013. I was laid off after 9 yrs in Jan 2010, the company I was working for first pulled out of the Texas market then went out of business completely by mid 2010. If you'll recall 2010 was not a good economy in the United States. Texas fared better than most but it still was not pretty. I finally went to work for a company that sold textbook tracking software in the fall of 2010 with the understanding that the job would go full time in the first quarter of 2011. I think it was in Feb 2011 that I was called in to what I thought was going to be them telling me they were moving me to full time to be told they were laying me off. The legislature in Texas had passed budget cuts for the School System and the company I was working for had to shuffle their resources around to deal with the fall out from that, I didn't fit in the new scheme. I went to work for a different solid surface distributor as their Accounts Payable person, my expertise is Accounts Receivable. I learned a lot but it wasn't a particularly great fit. I got laid off from there in Jan of 2012. From there I started working 2 part time jobs doing A/R, A/P and Payroll along with anything else in the Accounting realm that needed done. In Jan 2013 Cliff got laid off from his Supervisor job of 11 years. One thing we've held on to through all of this is that while all of them were surprises to us, God knew they were coming all along and had already made plans to deal with the resulting challenges. This is why one of my life verses is Jeremiah 29:11, it's listed to the right as one of my power verses.  

Why am I telling you this sad sad tale you ask? Really I'm only telling you to lay the foundation for how very great God is, and so I can share some of the "it was the best of times" part. Through out the last 5 years of job upheavals and uncertainty God has been so awesome. He's done so many amazing things. He got me an impromptu job interview by hooking me up with a lady I was in line with for lunch, to show me that it didn't matter how many applicants were out there when it was the job He had for me He'd put all the pieces together. Honestly if He would of actually spoken in an audible voice I wouldn't of heard him any clearer. He let me have great interviews that didn't lead to job to show me that as awesome as that company looked when it was the job He had for me it would be even better. This week Cliff had a job interview at 2:30, I put a posting on Facebook that simply said " Cliff has an interview this afternoon, prayers appreciated" within hours I had something like 30 likes and several comments promising to pray.  "Funny Thing Happened" - there are two businesses with very similar names, one is in Plflugerville, one used to be. Cliff thought his interview was with the one that used to be in Pflugerville, when it wasn't there he found their new location and went on in. Guy told him he didn't call him, they don't have an opening at the moment but he interviewed him anyway for an HOUR & HALF. Ended up saying he was going to talk to his boss to see what they could do, he really wanted to hire him on. With so many saying they'd pray we don't for a minute think Cliff went to the "wrong" place. We don't know if this is the job God has for him or if it was a confidence building way of God showing him He's in control and has a plan, but we definitively know it was a good thing. 

While we have dealt with 4 other layoffs in the last 5 years and God has taken care of us through all of them, this is the first one that affected our insurance coverage. With all of us haveing various preexisting conditions and all of us on various prescription medications to deal with those conditions I was trying very hard to keep my focus on God and not worry about it but I was really having a hard time. Anxiety attacks were sneaking up on me and having to be prayed away. Then God showed me the following verse

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 

                                                                                                                Ephesians 1:18-20 (NIV)

Immediately the stress regarding the insurance coverage melted away and I'm happy to say has not returned since. I mean seriously if God can raise Christ from the dead He can certainly take care of our insurance needs. It doesn't matter that purchasing Cobra Coverage will take almost 75% of Cliff's unemployment checks, God is more than big enough and powerful enough to take care of it and provide for us. And now for why I named this "Just a Little Dippy", I have shared this part of the story several times and each time I've said God showed me this scripture in Isaiah that says we have access to his power the same power that raised Christ from the dead. How can I be worried about insurance when we have that kind of power available from a God that is more than willing to use His power to take care of His Children.  Today I searched and searched Isaiah for this verse only to discover it's not in Isaiah it's in Ephesians. Like I said I'm just a little bit dippy, fortunately the truth of this promise is not dependent on knowing exactly where it's located in God's Word, it's in knowing who made the promise and who's children we are - God. 

I pray your week will be full of God's incredible blessings,

René