6/26/2016 0 Comments Screaming MonkeyHe was only fifteen years old, had a baby face, dark curly hair and a great smile. He was just older than my oldest daughter. I had seen him (I’ll call him Chris) in the family room watching TV the night before. My husband was having a rest after his round of chemo. Chris and I were talking and he told me his dreams for the future. He wanted to do so many things, one of which was being a writer. That pulled at my heart strings and gave me something to visit with him about. “Do you have anything with you?” I asked, “I’d love to read something you have written.” He went to the room and got a couple of his stories. I enjoyed them. He was very talented. Chris was waiting to have the same procedure as my husband, a stem cell transplant, but couldn’t have it until they got his blood counts down. I’m not sure of his specific type of leukemia but his cells were out of control and the chemo he was getting was knocking the rampant cells down so eventually he could have the stem cell transplant. G6 was a super sterile hospital ward. We had to wash at a sink in the hall and do other rituals before entering the patient’s rooms. We spent six weeks on that floor, then we had to come back every day for treatments for another couple of weeks. On one visit I saw Chris. He had had his stem cell transplant and he was walking down the hall holding frozen bottles of water. His body was rejecting the transplant. My heart went out to him. I wanted to get him something. I thought about chocolate but knew that could bother his stomach. I thought about a model car, to put together, but the way he was at the moment he wouldn’t be able to do it. Into my head came a picture. It was a monkey. If I remember correctly it was black with white whiskers, white paws and white around its mouth. I got another picture it was of a dog puppet my sister got from my grandmother when we were kids. The dog had velcro hands and feet, that fasten around her neck and waist. I thought, yes that would be a nice gift for Chris. Then we headed back to the house we were staying at. Rain was coming down and slush was splashing on our windshield and the windshield washer tank was empty. So I had to stop to buy some washer fluid. I went into the store grabbed a jug and went to the counter. I got the impression that I was to turn around, so I did. There was the monkey on the bunk end behind me, exactly as I had seen it. I picked him up and excitedly said, “There he is.” The man beside me picked up my excitement and grabbed one too. I didn’t know they were making velco animals again until I saw that one. I took it to the hospital that evening and found Chris laying in his hospital bed, with his father at his side. I gave the monkey to Chris. I told him if he wanted to scream and he couldn’t that he could hit the monkey in the head and the monkey would scream for him. He was a Screaming Monkey. Chris was groggy and apologized for that but was able to say thank you for the monkey. I said, “I’d repeat the story for him sometime when he was more awake.” I left his room and told a young nurse from back home what had happened. “That was the perfect thing to get him. Did you see what was on his shelf?” she asked. I hadn’t realized it but just then I got a picture of fuzzy animal slippers and something else along that line up on the shelf in his room. I said, “Oh yes.” After that we would meet Chris going up and down the hall with the monkey hanging on his IV pole. I got to tell him the story of how God wanted him to have that monkey. I asked him if he had learned about God. He said he went to a youth group in his home town. I was glad to hear that. I thought of Chris one day, a few months later, when I was in the drug store on our way to the clinic. I bought him a key chain not knowing if I would see him or not but I felt like I should buy it. When we got to the hospital our nurse told us it was Chris’s sixteenth birthday and that he was there that day. I was able to talk with him for a few minutes, give him the keychain, and wish him a Happy Birthday. Chris passed away on Neil and my wedding anniversary a couple of months later. I didn’t hear about his passing until a few months after. I was glad I got to know Chris and glad I had help picking out the perfect gifts for him. ( There are more blog entries if you go up and click on May or a topic)
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I’ve been enjoying mowing this summer. I used to mow lawns for people as a teenager and it was always fun when my brother let me use his riding mower. (Yes we had them way back then)
Anyway this summer I’m enjoying a zero turn mower. You can get nice and close to trees and poles and buildings barring nothing is sticking out too far to cause you havoc. Today some caragana branches succeeded in swiping the glasses right off my face. I felt them going but couldn’t grab them in time. They were gone. I pulled back on the handles to stop moving and I started going backwards. Had I run over them? I pictured my glasses in a billion pieces under the mower. I frantically reached for the buttons, pulled up the yellow one and stopped the blades. I shut the mower off and began to look (to hunt is a better description). I couldn’t see much at all. I was between two rows of trees, so there wasn’t much light. I searched the seat and around the motor and on the mower deck. Nothing. Were they under the mower? I thought. I won’t even be able to drive to town, I thought. I pictured myself at the edge of the highway flagging somebody down. Then I remembered I had a phone. No I’m not like most people, I can forget I have one. I could have called someone who could see, to come and help me find them. I was down on my hands and knees feeling through the grass. I crawled to where the trees started to attack me and I felt around some more. There was nothing. I prayed, “God please help me find my glasses.” I went back further the direction I’d come from. I felt metal and glass. There were my glasses all in one piece. The branches had propelled my glasses quite a distance from where I had stopped. Thank God! Yes, I could have done that without God’s help and maybe I did. I don’t know, but it gave me peace to ask and it made me think about a couple of things when I got back on the mower. My first realization was what it was like not to be able to see and my second thought was what it would be like not to being able to see for a long while or forever. That’s the way we are before we accept Jesus sacrifice for us. We just don’t know we can’t see. The Bible says Satan has blinded the eyes of non-believers. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NKJV) But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. It says there is a veil over non-believers eyes. They can not see. 2 Corinthians 3:15-16(NKJV) But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. There are verses that talk about the veil being removed and about God revealing Himself to us. He is hidden from our sight (I know some would say invisible) but once we accept Him it’s amazing what people can see and experience then. There is a story about Elisha and his servant in the Bible. Elisha could see into the realm where angels are but his servant couldn’t. Elisha said, “God open my servant’s eyes so he could see.” And then the servant saw the army of angels that was with them. 2 Kings 6:17 (NKJV) And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Living with the ability to see is an adventure like no other. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to put my glasses on and see to finish my job and drive home. Not being able to see had me at a real disadvantage. 6/13/2016 0 Comments God cared about My HamburgarHow important is it that we hear God’s voice? The Bible tells us in John 10:27 (NKJV) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I have shared a few instances where I have heard God, but this is one I would like to live over again. I will tell you what happened then I will tell you how I would do it over, if I had the opportunity. One day I was in a location where someone was making me a hamburger. I got this picture in my head (I hadn’t had too many God pictures at that time.) The picture was of a lady in the kitchen. She lifted up the top bun on my burger, pulled a hair out of her head, put it on top of my burger and put the top bun back on. I remember thinking, no way, she wouldn’t do that. She and I did have a relationship issue but I wasn’t holding it against her. So I just brushed off the little vision and accepted my burger with a thank you. As I ate the burger, there it was, a hair, her color on my burger. It hadn’t been fried, it was straight from her head on top of the condiments. I remember thinking, darn I should have listened. So here is my do over. When the burger arrives at my table, I will lift up the bun, take the hair off in front of her and hand the burger back and nicely say, “No thank you.” I had been told about it, being there. I could have done that. If I’d listened. How important is it to take God seriously when he shows you something? God has shown me quite a few things now. I will link to a few of these events at the bottom of this page. Hearing God is so important. I like the verse that says anything that is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4-8 We are supposed to overcome. A few years ago I was sitting in a prayer meeting and I saw a picture in my mind. It was a picture of a tine going into the back of my head. It alarmed me a bit. But I knew what to do. I said to the lady beside me, “Could you pray for safety for me and that the spirit of fear won’t bother me?” She said. “Sure.” and the next time she got a turn, she prayed those specific prayers for me. Within the week later, I was on my way to Winnipeg. I was reclined in the passenger’s seat of a car, sleeping. I was awakened, when the driver of the car SWORE. Before I even sat up or fully woke up, the word “Stop,” came out of my mouth. As I sat up quickly, I could see that our lane had run out and there were many cars going by, in the lanes to our right. As we got stopped, I saw a truck with a forklift in the back going by. All of a sudden, I knew that if “Stop” hadn’t come out of my mouth we would have merged into traffic and been in an accident with that truck carrying the fork lift. And I could see how it would have happened. My driver may have thought now that the truck is by, I can merge into traffic taking us into the part of the vehicle carrying the forklift. Hearing God is very important for us in many areas of our lives, beyond protection, and knowing when there is a hair in your hamburger, God wants to communicate to us that He loves us and He also wants to work through us for others. He can communicate with us in many ways. I will list a few; his still small voice, audible voice, dreams, visions, through the Bible, circumstances and through others. I have been asked to explain the difference between hearing God through another person using a prophecy, a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom and the new age practices of mediums and psychics, so here goes. We hear from God through the Holy Spirit and some people hear, as well, from angels sent by God. The difference with psychics and mediums is that although the information they have is true, the source of that information is not from God or his angels. We do have an enemy in the realms around the earth and psychics hear from them. They do know truths about what has happened and is happening on the earth. I don’t fault these people they are seeking for the truth, as a lot of people are. I pray that they find the truth. The Bible says though, that we are not to have anything to do with mediums, psychics, or sorcery. 1 John 4:1-6 (NKJV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So often I hear the New Age people referring to God or this higher power they believe in as The Light. We need to be careful with this because Satan can come in the guise of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14 (NKJV) And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. I hear people refer to the power of God, as The Universe and other things. Why don’t people call God, God, Jesus or Holy Spirit? We aren’t to have anything before Him. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (NKJV) 9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. Below are more scriptures that talk about mediums and psychics being against God. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 1 Chronicles 10:13 Daniel 2:27 Zechariah 10:2 2 Kings 21:6 Isaiah 19:3 Michah 5:12 Deuteronomy 18:11 Exekiel 13:6-9 1 Samuel 15:23 Revelation 18:23 Acts 16:16 Exekiel 12:24 Isaiah 47:9-13 2 Chronicles 33:6 Acts 8:9 www.openbible.info/topics/sorcery We are to enjoy a supernatural power, and that is what people are looking for, but it is the power of God we crave. The blog entry Maggie Mae was written about events that overlapped this event so you may recognize some of this if you read Maggie Mae.
The summer began with me seeing a great plan for a summer youth group, including a motorcycle group and a youth group from Winnipeg that was connected to Pierson in three different ways. I could envision a summer full of active kids playing games and learning songs and the motorcycle group coming out to Pierson for an afternoon to play motorcycle games with our kids. I pictured a church service and a pot luck and the youth group from Winnipeg coming out to spend time with the kids and singing with them. We had kids who were very talented singers in our youth at the time. The Winnipeg youth group had just put out a CD. My problem was that I didn’t know if I should plan it or not. So I asked God if He wanted me to set up this youth group and these summer activities that I imagined. I went to church that Sunday morning and there was a motorcycle on the front of the church paper that was handed to me at the door. So I took that to be a ‘yes.’ I asked another lady at church if she wanted to lead the singing part of our events because that’s not where my gifting lies. She said, “yes.” The motorcycle group had asked me to make them up a waiver. So I proceeded to do that. I had just bought a new computer and didn’t know how to use it. I used a template to make the waiver and when it printed it had a bright yellow light bulb in the middle of the page that I couldn’t seem to make go away. I glanced over at the book I was reading. I read the words letting in the light. I remembered that I had just read about how God is the light. I decided to leave the light bulb on the page, besides that it may have taken me forever to have figured out how to get rid of it. We met for our first youth meeting and the song leader started to teach the kids a new song. The song was Shine Jesus Shine which included lots of references to letting your light shine. I showed the song leader the light bulb on the waiver page. She thought that was great. I told her that was an accident. We had a great time with the kids playing soccer, swimming, enjoying camp fires, playing water games and learning the new songs. The Sunday before the motorcycle group was to come out I wanted to find out the name of the motorcycle group so I could have it engraved on a small motorcycle replica we had bought for them. I called my friend, one of the biker’s wives. I asked her the name of the motorcycle group she said the “Christian Light Riders.” The light bulb on their waiver page was coming to life. I also asked her how many bikers were coming out. She said nineteen. I was a bit concerned because people were going away on holidays. I was concerned that the nineteen bikers would show up for ten adults and four kids. She said, “Don’t worry the people God wants to be there, will be there.” I went to church that morning and on the front of the church paper was a man and woman sitting on a motorcycle and below that were the words. Maggie’s Love Story. I said, “Ok God you are in charge.” I read the story later that day and it was similar to my own. A week later the park was buzzing with over 120 people of all ages, and nineteen motorcycles and their riders. The kids enjoyed the bikers and their motorcycle games. The singing was great. Our theme was Letting in the Light. Honestly, I had never heard of this before but I wanted it.
“What did you want?” you might ask. Okay, here I’ll tell you. I sat at a church in Winnipeg listening to the guest speaker who was the pastor’s mother and a pastor herself. I enjoyed her service a very much and what I took from it, changed my life. She taught that you take everything that Jesus paid for us to have, by faith. And this is what I took by faith that night. The pastor’s mother told of two situations she had while raising her sons and she has five of them. She told how on two occasions she stepped into her house and had instant knowledge of something one of her boys had hidden away in their room and she would know exactly where it was. This knowledge was given to her by God. She would go directly to where God showed her the item was hidden and she would remove it. After she told both stories I said, “God I want that.” Meaning, God I want that kind of help raising my children. And I got it. Now this is telling stories on my children but I have their permission, so it’s okay. One day when I was with one of my daughters, I had a little video go through my head. When my daughter got into the car I commented about what I had just seen and she told me what she had just done. It was the exact same thing. The realization that God knew what happened made it so that situation never happened again. You can tell I’m being vague, I don’t want to expose anyone, but that few minutes was profound for both of us. I had a similar thing happen when I walked through my living room one day. I heard a thought go through my head about one of the girls. My first response was “No, that didn’t happen.” But I accepted it as the truth. I was beginning to believe the voice that guided me. Later that day it was confirmed. The knowledge was meant to keep that daughter safe and it did. This one is fun. I was out with my daughter buying skates. She had a list of four stores to go to. As I walked down the sidewalk in front of the first store a thought went through my head, “You don’t have to go any further than this.” I said to my daughter. “Your skates are in here.” “How do you know that?” she asked. “God just told me.” I said. “Okay,” she said and we went into the store. The first thing I saw was a pair of skates that were three hundred dollars off. Those were the ones I wanted her to try on. We took two different pairs, her size, to the chairs to try on and have baked to her ankles. One, a regular priced pair and the other, the sale priced pair. They were both good quality skates which she needed because she skated every day. She walked around in the skates and said that both pairs hurt her feet. She asked if we could go somewhere else to look. I said, “Sure but your skates are in here.” We went to the next store. There was nothing of that quality in that store. So we went to the next store on the list. It turned out to be a second hand skate store with nothing of the quality she needed. So she said, “Should we go to the last store?” I said, “We can but there is no reason to go there because your skates are in the first store.” “Ok,” she said and we went back to the first store. We picked up the skates from the counter that she’d had fitted to her ankles, and took them to the chairs. A man came around the corner and asked, “Can I help you?” “Maybe,” I said. “My daughter has had these skates baked to her ankles but they hurt her feet.” He said, “I know the problem. Her socks are too thick.” He tossed my daughter a very thin pair of socks and told her the benefits to them. She put on the socks and then the skates and walked around. “These feel good now.” She said. Fortunately for me she had on the skates that were on sale. She called me the next day and told me she loved her new skates and a couple of other girls on her hockey team had the same ones. The Holy Spirit is our guide, our councilor and our teacher and God wants to have a relationship with us through the person of the Holy Spirit. Learning how to hear Him has been so helpful to me. My desire is to hear Him more. I’m so glad I learned how to take the gifts by faith. John 14:26(NKJV)But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 16:13(NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. God has also given me things for other people on occasion which has also helped them. This is called a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom and is a gift of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:7,8 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, We take Salvation (eternal life), healing, hearing God, and everything else by faith. For an example Ephesians 2:(NKJV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, |
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