Complete in Thee: Thursday

Friday, January 16, 2009

Thursday

Thank you, everyone who prayed for me on Thursday as I accompanied my grandparents to the hospital. It went a lot better than I had expected, except that it was a lot longer than originally was planned. I was gone from our house from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM!! Anyway, my grandma's procedure went well and she is doing okay. The time spent with her, Granddaddy, and Daddy was a good memory made, and I do praise the Lord for it.

The Lord sent a couple great blessings along the way. One was in the cafeteria. Daddy, Granddaddy, and I had gone downstairs to get something to eat and were sitting at a large round table-- room for probably seven or eight people to sit around. While we were eating, a lady came by, sat down, bowed her head and closed her eyes for a moment, and then began to eat her soup. I wonder if she's a Christian! I wondered. But the whole time she was eating, I was too nervous to ask. (Bad me!) Anyway, just as she was about to leave, I finally asked, "Ma'am-- are you a Christian? I saw you pray before you ate."

A sun broke out on her face and she exclaimed, "Yes!"

"Praise the Lord!" I said, "so am I!"

She replied sweetly, "Well, we'll see each other again in heaven!"

Later, we were sitting waiting while Grama was in her procedure. We were at a point in the hallway that was right near a corner, but we couldn't see around it. A lady was talking on her cellphone on the other side of the corner, where we couldn't see her, but it didn't take long before I realized she was talking about God. From what I could gather, she was witnessing to a skeptic who didn't want to believe God; and the lady whom we could hear talking was sharing Christ and Scripture so boldly-- it was incredible!! She was talking about God being our creator, Him knowing all things, basically about surrendering to Him (I don't remember the wording she used), but anyway, that was a great blessing! Two Christians in one day in such a big place! :-D

There was one big "discouragement of the day" though: While Grama was waiting to be discharged from the hospital, Daddy and I decided to walk around and "explore" the hospital to pass time. At one point along the way we decided to look at the chapel. It was a narrow, dark room, and in the back were several books all in a row: there was a Hebrew Torah, a Book of Mormon, a tract about a mystical Jesus, a Koran (!!) and some other strange "holy book". On the other side of the room there was a Catholic Bible. I was so saddened that there was no copy of the true Scriptures in the whole room except for a hand-written message on a piece of paper stating that Jesus was the only mediator. (I know, the Torah/Old Testament is definitely part of the Scriptures-- don't take me wrong!-- but it is incomplete in itself; it is only an introduction to the culmination of God's promises in Jesus Christ. Without the message of the New Testament, one's understanding of the Gospel cannot be complete. Without Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.) Anyway, going into that chapel made me sad because where there is no Scripture, there is no true, lasting comfort and no salvation. :-( It made me realize how important it is to share the Gospel with everyone around me, like the lady on the phone at the hospital.

The trip there was, truly, not as bad as I had been expecting, and actually turned out to be a good experience for me. Thanks again to all of you who prayed for me. You are all so sweet! :-)

2 comments:

Ana said...: I tagged you, Melanie.; January 19, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Leah said...: Praise the Lord for His goodness and love toward you! That is such an AMAZING story! I love the way the Lord works in others lives. I'm glad it went well.; January 20, 2009 at 12:19 AM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."