Dick Lucas wrote: "The Christian's present taste of reality in fellowship with God and His People is but an anticipation of the substantial realities which are reserved for the future, laid up in heaven for us... Sometimes we think of heaven as the glorious consummation, kind of a finishing touch...we are to recognize that heaven holds most of the great things won for us by Christ, and that our present experience is no more than a precious foretaste of what is to come."
Prayers for you, Annette, for comfort, for God to show up huge (and play more "Breath of Heaven" on the radio) and of course, for Kathleen's family.Thinking of you in this season of loss and sadness that you will again know the mountaintops of joy and be carried in the meantime with His Perfect Peace.
ReplyDeleteThere is a hope laid up in heaven waiting for us. Our present suffering does not compare with the glory that will be revealed in us! I often write that verse in Colossians to dear friends in the faith when I send a card. I love the horizontal relationship of friends and loved ones sharing the faith together in the Lord. And I love that this Gospel, this Very Good News still ministers to my heart some forty years after I accepted Jesus as Savior. Ann Voskamp said on Facebook "The Gospel isn’t a one time message for the unbeliever but the constant miracle for the imperfect." Amen.
ReplyDeleteMay the Gospel be a brand new miracle in our hearts each day.
Connie has pancreatic cancer. Not sure if it has metastasized so she goes to get a PetScan next. I'm so sad with this news, and my prayer tonight is for her to find peace in her heart with Jesus and the strength to finish well. Just wanted to let you praying friends know the update and thank you for being a quiet place to go each day here. May we all appreciate the days we have been given and hold those we love a little closer this evening.
ReplyDeleteOh, Annette. I am so sorry. That had to be such very hard news to hear. Have a friend here, whose cancer has now gone into her spine and she is in terrific pain and she keeps saying that she believes that God has told her He is going to heal her. I have NO idea how or what I would say, think or do to hear what these two women have heard. I will pray for Connie when I pray for Alice and yet another woman who has brain cancer, Betty. May each one of us remember them and allow their sufferings to not be wasted and to appreciate the days we have been given and to not waste them. May we lift our sisters in Christ up as we would want to be remembered. He does hear us....it is all for His glory and His honor and so hard for us to grasp the harshness of it all. May we all finish well no matter what He allows into our lives.
DeleteWhat a glorious prayer to ask God to shape now how they will be remembered. I will join you in prayers for Alice and Betty and Connie our ABC prayer perhaps...to give them precious moments in these difficult days of suffering, and for their testimonies to shine as His Light in this imperfect world as He draws very near.
ReplyDeleteYesterday a friend told me a beautiful story of a caretaker who had lost her husband, and was taking care of a lady who had tongue cancer. The woman who was ill was wondering how it could be God's plan for her that she never married or had children and was sad that she would leave this life not having experienced it. The caretaker was taking her complaint before the Lord, asking God why she of all people had to be planning a funeral with her under the circumstances that she hadn't gotten to experience children or married life. By the way, the caretaker's daughter was struggling and had tried to commit suicide during this time, also, so she was truly making a sacrifice to take care of this woman when her daughter needed her. She said as she laid it all out before God in prayer, she got an almost audible Voice reply: "You are not planning a funeral. You are planning a wedding!" She took this back to her friend who was ill and it totally shifted. She told the florist that she needed some sunflowers and lavender with no palm leaves for the wedding she was planning. She explained and it became this woman's testimony as she died that she was finally getting that wedding she always wanted.
And so it is with Alice, Betty, Connie. They will be going Home to have a glorious Wedding. Their Bridegroom awaits them. May our sadness dissipate as we look with anticipation for their glorious Day that might come a little sooner than the rest of us.
Love the idea....our ABC's to pray for. Do not think the radiation helped Alice like she had hoped and prayed for. Could not get her into a comfortable enough position to hit all of the spine that needed to be hit. Looking at surgery more than likely...this is her second go round of cancer.
DeleteOh, Annette, I am so sorry about Connie. My prayers and thoughts! No Words. Bev
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