Praise

Dear friends,

These last few weeks have been amazing. Never before have I believed so fully in the power of The Holy Spirit than in these last few weeks. How can I adequately describe what He has done in our very home, our very hearts?

"...And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and there was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague....and he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague. Mark 5:24-35

This passage kept appearing before me. In my daily bible reading with the girls, sent by another in an email, in sermons. I noticed again and again that this lady referred to in the passage had been sick 12 years. 12 years! Just like Brian. It was during this time that I felt a renewed sense of urgency to pray for Brian. Liv felt it, too, when she said resolutely, "We won't stop praying for daddy until he feels better!" Just a couple short weeks later, Brian felt God's hand upon him and has been delivered from the severity of his disease. His worse days now are comparable to his best days before.

Friends, if you had known the heartache we have felt the last 12 years of sickness, pain, near death, hopelessness...the very medical rollercoaster that had been our every day...you would know the relief we feel today.

But silly me, I know you do. You have seen with your eyes, you have prayed with your mouths, you have held with your arms. You have opened the door or phone during devastating times, you have offered words from your heart. You have cooked meals, taken care of pets, nurtured our daughters during hospital overnighters. You have gathered in prayer, embraced in gratitude, thanking God with us for the journey we didn't want, yet tried to be grateful for....because, you see, gratefulness is sometimes the key to being sustained. Yet looking back, we see the refining He had to do in our hearts and our life. We believe in the hope of God. He reminded us throughout the way that we were to look to Him alone and we did feel Him throughout our journey, though admittedly, it was harder to do that during the valleys. Your prayers carried us. Your reminders kept us on track. But never before had we seen such power in His name as we have the last 5 weeks. This has given us new hope, new peace, and a new energy to battle wars.

How does God do that? Take the very blinders off in the most debilitating moments? Give new legs, new eyes, new wisdom, a new song, even? How does He, in less than even an instant, restore all hope and peace? I'll tell you how--He is The Only God. The Creator of Our Universe. Our Father. Almighty. Prince of Peace.

God has done and is doing amazing things in our family. We have witnessed His healing hand and we are overjoyed at Brian's improved health. :O) We wanted to praise God for all He has done, and thank you dear friends, for your past and continued prayers. God does indeed hear them! And even this new understanding of His holiness, is so small compared to how holy He really is...to God be all glory and power.

Dedication of Reese!

Dear darling girl,

Even before you were born your name was whispered and shouted and sung into the beams of every room in our home. It was whispered in excited anticipation when your foot would stick so far out of my tummy. Reese. It was shouted by your sisters during playtime while they danced with their dolls. Georgia Reese! Your name was even sung at bedtime, by your family who longed to see you. Sweet, sweet Georgia Reese! We knew your name even before we saw you, and believe it was God who gave us your name.

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your might." Deuteronomy 6:5. Is this our prayer for a little girl whose name means enthusiastic? We prayed so. We prayed and still pray that your life would be a passionate exclamation for Jesus and for all you do in His name. And now that you are in our arms, we see how perfect the name Reese is for you, as you interact with us in smiles and shouts. Even in mid-cry, you are unable to resist a reciprocating smile to any who offers one.

Dedicating you to God last Sunday, as it has been with your sisters before you, is a very heartfelt experience--cozy and warm almost--as if we are inviting God to stay and work in your heart and soul--and we are. And only God knows what your life will become, sweet child, but we can and do pray that your heart will reflect your Maker in every beat.

Matthew Henry says about Deuteronomy 6:5: Happy those who have this one Lord for their God. It is better to have one fountain than a thousand cisterns; one all-sufficient God than a thousand insufficient friends. This is the first and great commandment of God's law, that we love him; and that we do all parts of our duty to him from a principle of love;...we are to love God with all our heart, and soul, and might....with a sincere love...in truth...with a strong love; He is our ALL, must have our all, and none but He....with a superalitive love...above any creature whatever...with an intelligent love...to love him with all understanding, we must see good cause to love him....with an entire love, He is ONE...oh that this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts!

And as we do pray for these things in your life, we also pray for ourselves--that our entire family would join in this giving of mind, body, and spirit, to the Lord. In doing so, that our dedication to God over you would be sincere and whole.

You bring abundant joy to our lives and the four walls in which we live, sweet girl. Our prayer is that you would whole-heartedly have the joy only He can give, in your heart, and that the wanderings of your heart and soul would always find their way to Him.

I love you, Reesie-girl,

xxoo Mom

Our Pastor (aka Uncle Troy) , who also happens to be Reese's godfather, was able to dedicate her. He is the new pastor at Calvary Chapel Middleton. We were extremely blessed to have him pray over her.


First, daddy prays for Reese, beginning with, "Thank you Lord for my three little girls..."


Then Pastor Troy prays...


...while the girls peek. They look so tired. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the sleepover they had with Papa and Nanette at their hotel. Nah. Couldn't be. I'm sure.


And as if on cue, Reese gives a big--enthusiastic--smile.


Here Reese sits on daddy's lap, after the dedication. I may be going out on a limb here, but I'd say she looks...dedicated.


Family photo after church:

My dad and mom (aka Papa Snail and Nanette) were able to come up and join us for the occasion. And they played and tickled and giggled with our two oldest girls into the wee hours of the morning at their hotel. Oh...did I say that out loud?

Happy Dedication Day, Reesie-girl!

Healing, part 2

After reading a little bit in Matthew last week, our school day began with Liv's declaration: "We won't stop praying for daddy until he gets better!" I was so overwhelmed with her sweet and believing heart. Lord, please help us all to have such faith. So on that note, please continue to pray with me for Brian, for all our loved ones. Prayer is powerful. Here is some dialog and verses to remind us all that God does have the power to heal. He is able!

Sometimes when someone has been hit by an extreme sickness or disease, especially with one that may be considered terminal, our faith levels may be severely shaken - possibly to their core! You have been just diagnosed with terminal cancer and the doctors have told you that you only have 6 more months to live.

Though you know God is all-powerful - your situation looks so hopeless, that you start doubting whether or not God can really deliver you out of such a dire, extreme and hopeless situation. You are so overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation - that you start forgetting how powerful God really is and that He does have the supernatural power to be able to fully heal you - no matter how grave the situation may appear to you in the natural.

These next three verses are telling us that nothing - I repeat nothing - is too impossible for God to be able to handle. Again, these verses should be burned into your memory banks so you can have them fully loaded up into your mind and spirit if you are ever faced with what appears to be insurmountable odds.

1. "For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37)
   
2. But He said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27)
   
3. "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." (Ephesians 3:20)

The second verse is telling you that if you cannot get any kind of a healing from a doctor, then God Himself can come to your rescue and fully heal you - no matter how bad and hopeless the situation may appear to you in the natural.

Remember - God the Father has the full power and full ability to accomplish anything that He wants to. If He has the divine supernatural power to create our entire world in 6 days - then I don't think He will have any problems in being able to fully heal you with whatever may have just struck your body.

Pray for Healing

As most of you know, our entire married life (almost 13 wonderful years!) has been riddled with countless doctor visits, tests, medications, surgeries, and medical questions without answers. Somedays it is very difficult to be optimistic when surgery did not give the relief hoped for, when natural medicines and doctors can't help, when the very nature of the sickness has no determined cause. It's even more difficult to allow people to see the daily struggle that life is when health is an issue.

But isn't it wonderful to know a Savior who can heal? We are learning to embrace God as we surrender our own will and our own futures. Will He heal? We hope so! We don't quite know how to answer that. We know He may not heal.

But there are questions we can and should be able to answer:

Will we continue to serve and love Him if He doesn't? Will we give up on our faith and prayer life if He doesn't? Will we turn our back on God if he doesn't? Because in reality, our life is anything but destitute. We have MUCH to rejoice over. We have healthy children. Warm and dry shelter. Loving family. Fierce friends. A God who sees. And hears. and Loves.

What are we to complain about? There is nothing on this earth that is worth throwing away our faithful standing with God over.

I am grateful for a husband who, despite his battle with UC and the complications that come with it, has fine-tuned his skills as a boxer and jujitsu fighter to become an effective teacher and fighter....who has competed in countless races, including Ironman 70.3, who drags his body out of bed in the early AM hours to go for a run. But even more importantly, I am grateful for the man who patiently explains God's love to our girls, the one who likes listening to Johnny Cash recite the bible on his ipod, the one who delights in making me sushi--even at 9pm--and the one I found leaning over the side of our baby's crib, hand on her head, praying for the precious little thing.

I am on my knees in prayer for my sweet husband. For my friend Suz. My sister-in-law, Tami. For my nephew Tristan. for all you others out there who constantly deal with health issues. I pray that you all would be able to grasp how wide and long and deep the love of Christ is, (Ephesians 18-19), and that your faith would increase as you present your requests to God.

I wanted to share this amazing site--the portion dedicated to healing. I will post one section a week. I invite you all to pray with me for Brian, for your own health issues, for a loved one's health. Prayer is effective and is worthy of our time and consideration.

Healing Verses of the Bible

s a result of the curse of Adam and Eve that is still in full operation on this earth - disease, sickness and illness are all still part of the big picture that we all have to put up with. Anyone of us at anytime can get sick. We all know the different things that can happen to our bodies that can cause them to breakdown, and in some cases, seriously disable us. Just about any part of the human body can get hit with some type of cancer, and in some of these cases, these cancers can be terminal.

However, as Christians, we have an all-powerful God who not only has the power to fully heal us from any specific ailment that may strike us, but that He actually does want to heal us many of the time if we properly approach Him in our prayers.

In this article, I will give you 93 of the best verses from the Bible pertaining to being able to get a divine healing from God the Father. As you will see in some of these specific verses, not only can God heal us, but many of the time He actually wants to heal us.

I will break these Scripture verses down under their specific captions below so you can fully grasp the revelation that God is trying to transmit to us on being able to receive a divine healing from Him.

1. Our God is a Merciful God

The first thing you have to really grasp is how good and merciful God and Jesus really are. Every time God decides to heal someone, He is showing incredible mercy, love, goodness and compassion towards that person. So the first thing you will need to grasp from Scripture are the specific verses that will show us how merciful, kind and compassionate God the Father really is.

You have to realize that God the Father has these attributes in His personality. If you don't believe that God the Father is a good, merciful, loving, kind and compassionate God - then you may not be able to receive a divine healing from Him because you won't have enough faith and belief in His ability to even want to heal you in the first place.

Many people are scared to death of God the Father. They know that He does have a judgment and wrath side to His personality and as a result, they have become too scared to approach Him to enter into any kind of close personal relationship with Him. Then when they do get sick and need a divine healing from Him, they are too scared to try and approach Him for their healing.

So the first thing each Christian must really grab a hold of if they really want to try and press in for a divine healing from the Lord is that God the Father really does have a very loving and tender side to His personality - and that many of the time He actually does want to heal us and help deliver us out of any adverse situations that we may have fallen into. And any kind of disease, illness or sickness is definitely an adverse situation.

Study these first set of verses very, very carefully. When you read one verse after another, you will really see how loving, kind, good, merciful and compassionate God the Father really is - and as such, that He does have a natural desire in His personality to want to help His children out if they need any kind of help or deliverance from Him.

1. "... But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness ..." (Nehemiah 9:17)
   
2. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy." (Psalm 103:8)
   
3. "But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth." (Psalm 86:15)
   
4. "Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness ..." (Joel 2:13)
   
5. "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." (Psalm 145:8)
   
6. "The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting ..." (Psalm 100:5)
   
7. "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him ... But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him." (Psalm 103:11,17)

Notice the words "mercy or merciful" are stated in every one of these Scripture verses. Every time God decides to heal someone - He is showing incredible mercy towards that person. These verses are all telling us that not only is God merciful - but that He is "abundant and great in mercy." In other words, He is full of mercy and goodness.

For those of you who are too afraid to approach God for any type of meaningful personal relationship - notice that several of these verses state that God the Father is "slow to anger."

These verses are telling us that God has a long fuse. God doesn't blow as easily and quickly as some of us humans do. It really does take quite a bit to cause Him to lose His temper. All of these verses are showing you that you have absolutely nothing to fear in approaching God to enter into a close, loving, personal relationship with Him.

God is your perfect loving Father and He has nothing but your best interests at heart. If you have been struck with any kind of illness or disease - don't be afraid to approach God for a divine healing. You may be pleasantly surprised with what He might just do for you.

Thank you so much for praying with me! We love you. God bless you today.