He'll Do It Again

I grew up in what would be described today as abject poverty. Yes, my father had his own business, but it never made a whole lot of money, and every single year our family faced the terrible Sheriff's Sale. Every year, Mom would call us together and say, "God listens to the prayers of children, so I know He'll listen to you before He listens to me; you MUST pray that our house doesn't get taken away from us."

Pretty serious stuff for a child who wasn't even near the age of ten. But, every year, I prayed so fervently that our house would be saved. And you know, every single year it was saved from being sold out from under us. I personally believe that God saved our house from being sold not for my mother's sake, but to train up a little girl in HIS way, to teach her to rely on Him before all others, and to remember those times when He answered her prayers so that when times got rough when she got older, she would KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt who her Source truly was. It says in Isaiah, "the LORD shall teach your children, and great shall be the peace of your children."

I have been having a very strange peace, lately, during all of this latest hullabaloo over the economy, as well as our church. Don't get me wrong, I've worried alot in the past several months about things that, in the grand scheme of things, don't even matter. I have truly sweated the small stuff and have serious panic attacks over the littlest things. But in His Word it says, "I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread." And, "My peace I shall leave you,,, not as the world gives..." He's helping me to remember His Word is truth -- yesterday, today and forever.

I have personally known one who committed suicide over fixable problems. I see people hurting others and themselves over what? MONEY?! The love of money is the root of all evil -- now I know what that means, really.

In the midst of thinking about this, I have to mention Dolly Parton. I love that lady, and I don't even know why. She's so real, in spite of having had enough plastic surgery to keep Dupont or Rubbermaid in business. How is she real, you may ask? She's so transparent in her way of talking about things regarding herself and others. This week, as I was switching channels, I noticed her on Larry King. He asked her what she would do if she lost everything. She replied that she had been born dirt poor, and remembered doing things to get by with her family. She also said that even though she may not like it, she could go back to living a simple life as she did growing up.

And then it hit me -- I KNOW what it's like to be poor. What it's like to have NOTHING. To watch your father chop every other step in your cellar to get wood to burn to try to heat up one little room in your house. To sleep with a coat on and seeing your breath in the night air, whilst in your bedroom. To save milk jugs so that you can fill them with water from a local spring near a state park. To heat water on a hot plate and use a basin full of water to take your whole bath. And you know, it sure didn't kill me to be poor, so what's there to fear?

I've heard people complaining about little things; my own son will "throw shadows" at me (meaning, sulk) because I tell him I think x-box live is unsafe; he's unhappy with just enjoying his x-box and the multitude of games he gets to play on it. But tonight, he will be sleeping in a warm house in clean sheets. He will experience hot and cold running water out of a faucet. He will be able to brush his teeth with toothpaste, instead of salt on a toothbrush. He enjoyed a healthy portion of a good hot meal tonight, cooked on a working stove; and he'll be able to eat leftovers out of an honest-to-goodness working refrigerator. In our strong desire to make things easier for our children, have we made things ultimately harder for them?

Would I be happy if we lost our house and way of life to which I've readily grown accustomed and live the way I used to? No. But I know that if I needed to survive again, I could. Because my Lord will NOT leave me forsaken, nor leave my children begging for bread. He will keep me in His perfect peace. As it stands, I have a beautiful home, a wonderful and supportive husband, gorgeous children, and loyal friends, and best of all, a loving Father. And for that, I say, "Thank You, Father, for answering the prayers of a little girl so long ago and loving me, through it all, and giving me no reason to fear what lies ahead, because You are there, waiting to help all who call upon Your name."

Chuck Bently has it on the money

As a homeschooling mother, I usually don't get to listen to the radio during the day. Goodness, I'll be lucky if I get to change into nice clothes, because I usually hit the ground running, because if I sleep in too late, my children, who could be named, "Brooding Storm", "Hurricane Category 4", "Ms. Tornado", and "Little Mister Typhoon" could make me rue the fact that I did so! But then, that's a whole other post for this blog.....

At any rate, I was on my way to my first ever appointment at a chiropractor's, when I turned on my radio. I was about to place my Newsboys CD into the player when I heard a person named Chuck Bently on the radio. He's on Crown.org. He took over for the late Larry Burkett's show, "Money Matters." What he said spoke directly into my spirit, and I needed to share it.

Did anyone notice that the major component missing in all of this trying to solve the whole economic disaster is the MAJOR component that we as a nation should come together to do: PRAY and seek God's face and wisdom in this matter.

I sure have, and so has Chuck Bently.

He said that we've omitted God from the equation, and we need to ask God to turn our hearts over to Him. Chuck stated that we as Christians need to run contrary to the world and form a grassroots movement to:
1) Turn to Him
2) Get our personal house in order
3) Create the "New American Dream" of LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS.

Wow! Living within our means! What a concept congress, the country and the world has missed out on. It says in the Word that whatever we are beholding to is of what, therein we are slaves. We need to get out from under the bondage of credit card debt (and I don't mean by declaring bankruptcy), the bondage of wanting more and more and more, while having less and less and less to pay for these items. It means saying no -- to our children, the ads on the television and radio, and mostly to ourselves.

It says in the Word that God will take care of our NEEDS according to His riches in glory. Funny, I never saw anything about wants, although I'm sure He fulfills our desires beyond our wildest imagination. It also says that we as Christians are NOT to WORRY. We are not to worry about what we will eat, drink or wear -- that is what the world worries about. BUT, our FATHER in Heaven WILL take care of all of our NEEDS. What a wonderful Father!

We Christians have to step up and be the leading force, showing a world terrified by this economic disaster that there is NO reason to fear!

Chuck Bently has called for a fast from October 14th through November 23rd to ask for God's wisdom, Divine guidance, and Repentance. He's based that upon II Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." My own husband preached that one verse for over a month -- God feels it's THAT important that we all humble ourselves. Anyway, Chuck also said that after the fast, that we should have a week of Feast and Thanksgiving for God's provision, followed by a National Day of Generosity on November 30th.

Chuck is right -- we need to stop waiting for someone else to help us -- Church leaders need to LEAD -- and by that, they need to point to our Father God in Heaven as the answer to our need. I plan on fasting and becoming humble before the Lord,,, I humbly ask that you do the same.