Earlyne Lund of WAPN has gone to Glory!

The memorial service for Earlyne Lund of WAPN was just a beautiful as she was and very fitting to such a woman. Truly a Mother and Mentor in the Body of Christ, there was not a dry eye in the building. I know her family was blessed and the many pastors and people in the community, as well as her own daughters that spoke gave such a wonderful overview of her very essence. It made me and so many others think, "If I could only be half the Christian that she was, I would be happy." Of course we all can only be the very best "Me" and that was what Earlyne was, the very best Earlyne. She was such an example and inspiration of what the Lord planned when he created her. In an ungodly world she stood out; you could really see Christ in her even before she spoke. You knew she believed and lived her faith. Oh, the stories about her were so interesting and showed a picture of "The Total Woman of God."
I know each family member knows how blessed they are to be from that bloodline, but if you need a reminder of your legacy, you can just look all around you. Hang on to those precious memories, that will help you when the numbness of losing her wears off. She not only is dancing with the stares she is dancing before the One who flung them into the sky. What a glorious sight that must be! http://www.wapn.net/

Does Suicide have a Face in your Family?

• As the Lord reminded me of many scriptures today concerning hope and help for family members and online friends that I have come to adore, I wept amazed at His goodness and care.

  
  This first scripture the Lord gave me concerning a mother among us who lost a daughter through suicide; she is celebrating her first birthday in heaven. Liana will be forever 21:
  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

  
  

  This mother is using her pain to try to get the word out concerning bullying and that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It is very permanent to grieving families left behind. There are many grieving among us because of losing children from substance abuse also. For those, too, we pray and commend these verses to you:)
  
  These next verses I had marked from long ago, concerning family. The first is a verse that is quoted often but there is more to glean as you read on: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.Jeremiah 29:11-13
  
  Our loved ones can sometimes be carried captive by many things of this world but the Lord knows how and when to bring them back to their senses. Seeking and calling with all of their hearts, is the first step, but extra prayers from others may help them to do that. Sometimes it has gotten so bad, they just can't seek on their own, and for that the Lord seeks intercessors.
  I ask that you each join me today in an unspoken prayer burden (I will join with you in yours, also, we all have those things too emotional to put in writing) for someone that I love and am very concerned about.

  
  

  http://www.facesofsuicide.com/

You don’t know the cost of the oil in my alabaster box

My friend on Facebook, Sharron Knight Cosby wrote a beautiful post called, The Alabaster Box. (http://efamilyrecovery.com/?p=160)

The oil in our alabaster box is costly to us and to the Lord. It was no small sacrifice for Him to leave the beauty and majesty of heaven for us. The only thing He asks from us is praise and worship, even in the hard and sometimes dry times. Oh, can we praise Him in the pain of Life? Can we say as He said in the garden, not My will by Yours, Lord? Can we have renewed hope as our alabaster box is broken and shattered that the oil of love and forgiveness might be poured out upon those who hurt us? He sees each tear, He knows each heartache, He is our only comforter and Healer. Love him people, with pure love. Adore His Holy Spirit and let us walk towards His plan. We have to yield when we don't understand His ways that it will all work out in the end and there is enough love to go around, when it is His love. Lord, we release whatever we are holding on to that is not Your will for us; asking that You will make us reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

This is one of my favorite lines from the song, and it is true that no one knows exactly what is in our hearts but the Lord. We all have her stories and they all are legitimate, The truth is the Lord is the only one who can truly validate and help heal what we feel inside, the things we are going through.

 “You weren’t there the night He found me. You did not feel what I felt when he wrapped his love all around me, and you don’t know the cost of the oil in my alabaster box.”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdrBB0yb-Mo

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
(Although known most widely in its abbreviated form above,
the entire prayer reads as follows...)
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen. Reinhold Niebuhr

Ann Voscamp says, “God reveals himself in rearview mirrors.”

I'm reposting a blog that I wrote that sums up what I think very often; how I wish I could spare all my friends and family pain, and yet we know that the Lord does draw us close and bring good out of what the enemy meant for evil. Ann Voscamp has some things to say that will minister and her quotes will help you through the day. It is something that is so beautifully written that it may help someone today. Actually I need to read and believe this post. Drink this word deep into your soul.

Ann Voscamp says, “God reveals himself in rearview mirrors.”

If you don’t have time to read it all, this is the main thought that I am feeling: “If it were up to me…” and then the words pound desperate and hard, “I’d write this story differently.” (Ann Voscamp)

"If it were up to me,” yet I know we have to yield to the Lord's hand and people's choices. The whispers of the enemy can be so strong that the love of family and the Lord are silenced. But it won’t be forever, hold on! This story isn’t over yet.

 Drink this word deep into your soul. Ann Voscamp says, “God reveals himself in rearview mirrors.”

She also says, “When it gets dark, it is only because God has tucked me into a cleft of the rock and covered me, protected with His hand? In the pitch I feel like I’m falling, sense the bridge giving way, God long absent. In the dark, the bridge and my world shakes, cracking dreams.

But maybe this is true reality; It is in the dark that God is passing by. The bridge and our lives shake not because God has abandoned, but the exact opposite; God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is the holiest ground, the glory passing by. In the blackest, God is closest, at work, forging His perfect will. Though it is black and we can’t see and our world seems to be free-falling and we feel utterly alone, Christ is most present to us, I-beam supporting in earthquake. Then He will remove His hand. Then we will look.

Then we will look back and see His hand.” (Ann Voscamp)

She also wrote at a time that they were burying the second baby son of her brother and sister-in-law’s within a span of a few years: “If it were up to me…” and then the words pound desperate and hard, “I’d write this story differently.” (Ann Voscamp)


My dear ones, that struck my heart today as I think upon the sorrows that so many are going through. Losses through death, mental illness, estrangement, unforgiveness, bad health, financial losses, and addictions the list is endless. How I wish I could write each of your stories differently so you all get that happy ending that we sometimes long for. Yet think on those we admire and what their story cost them. Think of Joan of Arc, and Corrie Ten Boom to just name two. Their stories and pain have prompted many to live holy for Jesus. The Lord is weaving with golden threads the love story He is writing about each family. The dark times and threads only serve to make the gold and diamond threads He is inserting stand out stronger. Love, Hope (whose name is Jesus ) and prayers, Donna
It is said as Joan was burning she said these things:

Joan asking for a crucifix to be held level with her eyes:
"Hold the crucifix up before my eyes so I may see it until I die."

Joan of Arc's last words.

"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!"

 http://thornrose7.blogspot.com/2012/01/rewriting-your-story-is-there-happy.html

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Happy Thursday! Getting Through the Days

In the mornings I end my daily devotional time with reading first, "Let nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee; all things are passing; God never changeth.(St. Teresa of Avila) and then especially, now, O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You ending with this prayer. Just in case y'all wondered how I make it through the day and want to join me in these readings:)

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit,
and send out a ray
of your heavenly light.

Come, father of the poor,
Come, giver of gifts,
Come, light of our hearts.

Come, kindly comforter,
Sweet guest of our soul
And sweet freshness.

Rest in hardship,
Moderation in the heat,
Relief in pain!

O most blessed light,
fill the innermost hearts
of those who believe in you.

Without your divine power
There is nothing in man,
Nothing that is harmless.

Wash what is unclean,
Water what is arid,
Heal what is wounded.

Bend what is stiff,
Warm what is cold,
Guide what has gone astray.

Give to those who believe in you
and trust in you
Your seven sacred gifts.

 Give the reward of virtue,
Give the end of salvation,
Give lasting happiness!

 

 A  Thirteenth century prayer by Stephen Langton

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88hgb-LnGkA