Morning Glory

Tuesday  morning presented  a  glorious

spectacle  in the  eastern sky

and I  was  out  with my  camera  taking

early morning  photos.

Sunday was  exceptionally  hot

but  after  that temperatures

dropped  a  few  degrees.

We had  strong  winds with

  shadow rain,  I  like  to  call  it.

On Wednesday night   there  was 

thunder and lightening

but  the  clouds  were  dry   as cotton.

Our  very  first  amaryllis Lillis  have  just  bloomed

Our  first  tube  roses or Raat  ki Raani

(Queen  of  the Night)

Soon the  summer  blaze will

petrify  our  roses.

They will  try  to   bloom

but  will  be  turned  in

paper fossils in  a short while.

The  monsoons  will  produce

a wilder, thorny crop.

I made  my  home made  peanut  butter

and  mulberry  cordial  this  week.

I will take  pictures  to  show  you.

These  photos  remind  me  of  the

dry, wet  and  cool  seasons  of  my  life.

Last Sunday my sister Sonia (in  Lucknow)

was  attacked  by  a  stray  cow.

When she  stepped back to  avoid  the onslaught,

she slipped  and fell  badly bruising   her arm and

neck. She  received  home  treatment.

She  is   in a lot  of  pain .

Please pray for her  wound to heal.

Each year thousands of  people  are injured

or  meet  with accidents  due  to

stray animals  on Indian  streets

but  the  civic authorities  hardly

do anything   about this  menace.

Yesterday we  got   my mother' s  blood work

done. All reports  are  clear , Praise  God.

Only her blood  urea is  one percent

over the  border line.

I will  consult our family doctor  for that.

____________

I want to  share  a  short  devotional  article  by Joni.

She  is  a  great inspiration  to me.

Joni was  paralyzed  in a diving accident  when she  was 16

years  old. Her  life  struggles  and  growth

in faith   has  been  a blessing to  thousands  around  the world.

Life  would  be great if  only

- Devotional  by  Joni Eareckson  Tada

In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been
given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
-- Colossians 2:9-10


What do quadriplegics (people whose hands and legs are paralyzed) daydream about?
Running a marathon? Ballroom dancing? Climbing a mountain? Many of us have scaled
down our fantasies. In my weaker moments, I'm tempted to think life would be great
if only I were a paraplegic - then I could use my hands. I see paraplegics transfer
themselves out of their wheelchairs into their own beds, reach for items in the
refrigerator, wash dishes at a sink and quickly sort through the mail. Then old
feelings of disappointment start to slink back into my heart.
Even able-bodied people look at others who seem more attractive, smarter, richer,
healthier, and who get all the breaks in life. In comparison, our minor defects
begin to look like deformities. Thankfully, the Bible has good advice for people
prone to compare. Paul tells us we have been given "fullness in Christ." In other
words, we are complete in Him. We have everything. We lack nothing. There's no need
to compare. Once we comprehend this truth, our so-called defects become reminders
of how "full" we are - because we have "fullness in Christ." The inferiority complex
releases its grip. We become content.
I wouldn't be happier if I were a paraplegic rather than a quadriplegic. The fullness
of Christ dwells in me, even with my infirmities. Therefore, I will gladly boast
as a quadriplegic. After all, you can't improve on "complete."
In what ways do you feel incomplete, inadequate, or less than you had hoped? Rather
than seeing these as insufficiencies, realize you are lacking in nothing. Why? Because
Christ dwells in you. Bask in that knowledge for a few, quiet moments and feel yourself
relax into contentedness.

* *

Lord, help me to keep from drumming up "if only" scenarios in my mind. Fill my thoughts

with satisfaction in you and in whom you have fashioned me to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many  times  I  feel  very weak and  insufficient  for the tasks  and  duties  I am called  to  perform. I  stumble  and  fall physically  an d spiritually. It  seems  my  disabilities  are  ridiculing  me. Many   times  I don 't  get  the respect   due  to me as  a lonely, handicapped reclusive  woman, I get  wounded. I wonder  about  the  future.

If  I  look at a Python on the ground I  will most  probably  be  afraid  of it, but  if I  let  it  be  draped  around  my  neck (for  a  short  while) I  can  overcome  my  fear of it. So  I  have  to  tackle my problems  head  on - I cannot back away  from them.

I  had  delegated   2 people to  help  me in a small  church business which  would  earn us  a  few  rupees each month.  But  they were   lax  and  careless  about it resulting  in  our losing ten thousand five  hundred  rupees.  US $ 234.   That 's  a  lot of  money  for us.

So I  have  to  take over  the  duty  of  managing it. It will be  a  physical strain on me, but  I have  to  do  it, till I can find someone reliable enough for  the job.Please  pray for this.

Things are  difficult but not  impossible.
God 's grace is  sufficient for  me.
His power is  made  evident  in weakness.

Workmanship

In the  month of  January we permitted  a government approved  charity to  hold a small exhibition cum sale for  10 days  in a tiny corner of  our  church  campus.

This  charity assists  and  trains  underprivileged  young  women from  rural  and  semi rural areas  to  learn  various handicrafts  and  skills . After  attending  their  school/college and finishing  their  household chores  the  girls  come  together to  learn needlework skills.

They  then sell the  fruit of  their  labour in the city and handicraft fairs. The money they  earn boosts  their family  income empowers  them as  women and  gives  them  self confidence as useful  earning  members  of society at large.

If they  sell  their  products to  city  shops  and traders, they  have  to  contend  with middlemen who  buy them  very cheaply and  sell  them at  exorbitant prices. For  example they  would purchase  a  hand  embroidered  bed cover  for  Rs 300  or so and  sell it  for   Rs  1000 in  the  shops. The  girls  hardly get  anything  for their  labour.

The  government  has  instituted  an Handicrafts Association under whose umbrella charitable   societies  can run  training programmes and also hold  sales.   Financial  aid  is  provided  for this  purpose.

We  thought this  to  be  a  noble  idea , so these  girls  could display their  skills  and  earn  some  money on our  campus.

Have a look at their handmade  linen and  clothes

The  girls  came by and chatted  with  mummy and me.

We  asked  them about their  lives and  families.

Before leaving they said

we spoke so kindly  to them.

One girl remarked to my mother,

"Aunty  we feel  you  have  a  heart

of  compassion  for  the  poor".

 'Not  all  city women are  so friendly '.

All  glory belongs  to God.

A  few  days   ago I read in  my newspaper  that

my  state  of  Uttar Pradesh has  the  most

cases  of  human rights  violations

in  the   whole  of  India.

Most  of  these  crimes are  against women.

The  police  is  no  help

thousands  of  complaints

have   been registered against

the  police.

Read  a  report  about  this

from  The Times  of  India

HERE

I want  to  conclude this post  with a

positive note with

the following article  by Ravi Zacharias

Our Father, the Weaver

By Ravi Zacharias

Some years ago, I was visiting a place known for making the best wedding saris in the world. They were the producers of saris rich in gold and silver threads, resplendent with an array of colors. With such intricacy of product, I expected to see some elaborate system of machines that would boggle the mind in production. But this image could not have been farther from the real scene. Each sari was made individually by a father and son team. The father sat above the son on a platform, surrounded by several spools of thread that he would gather into his fingers.

The son had only one task. At a nod from his father, he would move the shuttle from one side to the other and back again. This would then be repeated for hundreds of hours, until a magnificent pattern began to emerge. The son certainly had the easier task. He was only to move at the father's nod. But making use of these efforts, the father was working to an intricate end. All along, he had the design in his mind and was bringing the right threads together.

The more I reflect on my own life and study the lives of others, I am fascinated to see the design God has for each one of us individually, if we would only respond.

All through our days, little reminders show the threads that God has woven into our lives. Allow me to share a story from my own experience. As one searching for meaning in the throes of a turbulent adolescence, I found myself on a hospital bed from an attempted suicide. It was there that I was read the 14th chapter of John's Gospel.

My attention was fully captured by the part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19). I turned my life over to Christ that day, committing my pains, struggles, and pursuits to his able hands.

Almost 30 years to the day after this decision, my wife and I were visiting India and decided to visit my grandmother's grave. With the help of a gardener we walked through the accumulated weeds and rubble until we found the stone marking her grave.

With his bucket of water and a small brush, the gardener cleared off the years of caked-on dirt. To our utter surprise, under her name, a verse gradually appeared. My wife clasped my hand and said, "Look at the verse!"

It read: "Because I live, you shall live also."

A purposeful design emerges when the Father weaves a pattern from what to us may often seem disparate threads. Even today, if you will stop and attend to it, you will see that God is seeking to weave a beautiful tapestry in your life.

Diamonds in the Dust

January was an up and down month.
Many battles won and lost , lots of experience gained and knowledge gathered from dealing with unforeseen situations.

These are photos of a troupe of grass cutting ladies who came to our church yard. They belong to a nomadic tribe which travels
as migrant workers seeking employment on building sites.They are very poor and often sleep on city side walks out in the open. They gather grass and sell it to cattle owners for a paltry amount.

During the freezing weather we allowed many poor people take grass and fire wood from our church yard.

By God 's grace we are doing good. Mama and I have a little cough and cold. We are taking hot vapor inhalation with eucalyptus oil, works well. Today was a very peaceful and 'kind ' day. My younger sister 's wedding anniversary too.

The following is a devotional from Joni Eareckson Tada

The Poor Shall Be Rich

"Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?"
-James 2:5

George is an evangelist in Malawi who uses an old badly battered wheelchair. Not long ago he wrote to ask me to send him my husband's used shirts - his were wearing out, and he wanted to dress his best as an ambassador for Christ.

George wheels himself from village to village over bumpy, rutted dirt roads that connect the small towns in Malawi. He longs for a power wheelchair during such exhausting journeys but realizes such a luxury is beyond his grasp. Despite sore muscles and calluses on his hands, he keeps going. His deepest desire is to share Christ with others who are handicapped, to tell them that despite their poverty, God is in control for their good and His glory.

George is dirt poor. The people to whom he ministers are even more poor. But there is none so rich in faith as George.

Remember, Christ willed to be born poor, and He chose disciples who were living, for the most part, in poverty. Christ made Himself a servant of poor people. And He reminds us that whatever we do to help the least of the brethren - those most poor - we are personally ministering to Him.

"All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do" (Galatians2:10).

Lord, let me see those who are poor through Your eyes. And when I see them, may I not turn my back on their need... for if I do, I would be turning my back on You.



Taken from Diamonds in the Dust. Copyright © 1993 by Joni Eareckson Tada. Used by permission. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Blessings,

A Telegram From God

It is indeed strange how God speaks to us -
His message can come like a telegram from across the miles- riding over ocean waves -
rolling down snow draped mountains
spiralling over bland desert sands
and echoing into monsoon forests

My friend Sita from Canada sent me a James MacDonald devotional - which I inhaled as life giving oxygen.

I asked for prayer in my last post and have been comforted by the knowledge that many of you are praying for us.
But when one enters
uncharted waters
one can feel nervous and tense.
I 've been on a roller coaster -
feeling strong and brave at one time
and weak and vulnerable at another.
I needed a shot in the arm to boost my feeble faith.
When I opened my Inbox the title of Sita 's email hit me between the eyes -FEAR IS NOT FROM GOD.
It came as a red letter message from God.
Thank you Sita

Thank you God for sending me Your Word.

Here is the precious reminder from James MacDonald. My dear friends continue to pray for us


Stir it Up!

"For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." - 2 Timothy 1:6-7


I've mentioned in the past about my love for messing around with fire. And when a fire dies down, that's my favorite part - kick it and blow on it and stir it up a little bit.


You have faith! How's that faith going? You say, "Well, it's getting a little dormant." Stir it up! Stir it up! Let's get it going. Let's fire that thing up again. You're like, "Well, James, if I really fire it up for the Lord, I've got to tell you, when I think about doing that, there is stuff that comes into my mind. Like, but what if... And How is that going to affect me at work? How is that going to affect..." Fill in the blank.


We all have times like that. Timothy was feeling that.
Listen up. You have nothing to fear. These verses in 2 Timothy really gripped me. You have nothing to fear circumstantially because God has given you power. Do you see it in the text? You have power!


A Christian has nothing to fear. Nothing. If you struggle with fear, if you are fearful about some things, this will help. That feeling of fear is not from God, it's just not.


God did NOT give you a spirit of fear.
God did NOT give you an attitude of fear.
God did NOT give you a problem with fear.
He gave you something else - POWER.


God gave you power.


The idea is that you have nothing to fear—not circumstances, not anything.

The word "power" is dunamis, from which we get our word dynamite.
It means to act and accomplish. Most often in the New Testament, it is used in close connection to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God controlling you produces an attitude that is powerful. Here is the apostle Paul facing momentary execution. He has maybe hours or minutes to live and what does he want to do? He wants to write a letter to Timothy to encourage him.
Who does that? Someone with a spirit of power. There is nothing that can happen to you that you can't - with God's help - get on top of. I am telling you the truth. Paul faced it. Timothy was facing it. I have faced it. And in God's power, you can, too.
You have nothing to fear.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Last night a group of young men from Evangelical Union came to sing carols for us. EU is a sister organization of Inter Varsity Fellowship. Our family has been a part of it since more than 30 years.

On November 30th the EU had a Christmas Programme which was attended by 103 students. 28 were from non-Christians faiths The students were able to make 50 contacts which will be followed up in Bible Study cell groups.

Look at Sheeba sitting right in the middle of everything. The boys were riding motorcycles, You can see their helmets placed on the coffee table. They are students from different parts of India all studying in the Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture and Technical Sciences (SHAITS) Its a prestigious university and has international students too.

Last Sunday the university took out a Christmas street procession. It had about 12 floats all displaying various Nativity scenes. It passed near my house but I did not know about it otherwise I would have gone and witnessed it and taken photos too.

I want to introduce you to Paulson 's blog. He is a professor at the Engineering College.

His wife Shirley is a medical doctor. Their 2 sons and a daughter are school going. The Paulsons are very devoted to the spread of the Gospel. They are members and mentors of EU and host a weekly Bible study for Engineering students in their home. You can visit Paul HERE

Mama and Sheeba - captive audience.

As the celebration and decoration of Christmas is picking up momentum all over the world the following quote by Martin Luther made stop and reflect.

Of Christmas Eve Martin Luther wrote once," There are some of us who think to ourselves,"If I had only been there!How quick I would be to help the Baby. I would have washed His linen . How happy I would have been to go with the Shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger? Yes we would say that.And we say it because we know now how great Christ is But had we been there at that time I don' t think we would have done any better than the people of Bethlehem."

Martin Luther has a good point. And I am afraid he' s got my number.

(adapted from Joni' s More Precious Than Silver)

Hello Sheeba & A Short Note on India 's Caste System

Sheeba and Chandi saying Hi to each other.Chandi is the youngest member of our church

She also has a dog named Jacky. Her family takes good care of him, I see that when I visit them.

Sheeba is doing better. Her food intake increased today. She needs a bath , with all the dust flying around.

Today, on Day 7 the workmen gave the living room its first coat of paint and scrubbed the walls of the veranda and filled the cracks and fissures with putty , then smoothed the rough patches. It is a time consuming and laborious job. That 's another reason why people in India prefer to hire men to paint their homes. Painters belong to the lower economic class, and they are either ill-literate , semi literate., or school drop outs. Its good they find employment this way.These kind of people form a large part of our work force - people who perform daily mundane tasks, jobs which according to the caste system is reserved for the lower classes.. Sounds very bourgeoisie but its practical.This is a way the poorly educated people find means of livelihood.

I got interesting reactions from some of my readers about India 's caste system.

The caste system is an ancient Hindu legacy which has caused a lot of inequality, injustice and suffering over the centuries. There i s more on this Wikipedia LINK

It is completely banned and declared illegal by law. In fact the government has made considerable efforts to raise the status of the lower castes by providing job reservation, subsidised education ,health care, scholarships , cheaper food etc. Although this aid is riddled with faults ,controversies and corruption. At present the upliftment of Dalits ( underprivileged , backward classes)is a major issue politically. The Governor (Chief Minister) of my state is a Dalit woman, democratically elected.

The caste system is deeply embedded in the psyche and social milieu of our nation and it will take ages to completely get rid of it. But the Dalits are progressing and are taking pride in their identity. In fact if you can prove you are a Dalit, Scheduled Caste or Tribe or Backward Caste you can get special privileges.

On the other hand anyone who becomes a Christian loses his Caste status , although they retain their tribal identity.(A very controversial and complicated subject.) Christians don 't condone or practice the caste system. In fact the Christian world view and teaching acceptance of all men equal in the sight of God played a major role in the abolition of this degrading practice since colonial times.

Christians themselves were ( still are) considered low castes - worshiping a 'western god ' and eating meat etc. It was an anti colonial mindset too. Christians were clumped together with the British rulers.

Now after more than 60 years of Independence things have improved vastly but there is plenty of room for more.

With unemployment rampant, well educated or high caste Hindus etc. are vying for jobs which the lower class people used to do

In Ephesians chapter 2 , Paul likens believers to a building which God is constructing, whose cornerstone is Christ .

Ephesians 2

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

I wonder how the Master Builder is cementing us all together,cleaning, polishing and smoothing us applying pressure and heat to make us worthy bricks for His temple.

The Blessing Of Discomfort

I have to share this Franciscan Benedition I found on the web.


May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths,
and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice,
freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain,
rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
And turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen

This is such a godly and courageous prayer. Who would like to receive this benediction when we all want our comfort and opt for the path of least resistance? Makes me pause and think.

Well, there is another kind of discomfort we will be putting ourselves in for a few days.

From tomorrow we our getting our house painted. Its a messy , tiring and stressful job. We have employed a couple of painters. In India everyone hires painters, no one paints their house themselves.

We were putting it off because of the mess and stress but can 't anymore.

The weather is grey and cloudy, not really ideal for house painting but we will see how it works out.
The result of this discomfort will be good.

I want to recommend THIS post by DONETTA. In her family they are celebrating Thanksgiving differently

God Will Make A Way

My dear friends thank you so much for praying for me. Troubled as I was, I could hardly sleep last night , but I prayed and read from the Holy Book. I read the story of Peter walking on the water. In order to do that he had to get out of the boat and fix his eyes on Jesus.

I have to walk by faith and not by sight in my circumstances. God gave me peace and wisdom and literally what to say to a person.

We are dealing with wolves in sheep 's clothing. God revealed the wolf 's garb to me. The clouds are parting but we have an steep uphill journey.

I have peace. God will provide help in His way and His time.

The following devotional from Joni Eareckson Tada blessed me.

Sometimes due to my physical limitations I feel like a caged bird. But God has taught me how to sing in that cage.

The life of Madame Guyon has inspired me tremendously. She was ill treated by her family, husband and the church yet she held on. Please get her biography and read it.

We had a huge rain storm this evening and were without electricity for 2 1/2 hours. Praise God we got it back. I was going to make pizzas (from scratch) had to scrap that plan, so I used the dough to make poories, like tacos.

God's Hedge

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.-- Lamentations 3:7

The four walls of a sick room can be so confining, even if you're there only stuckthere for a short time. Whether in the hospital or at home, we long to escape those suffocating walls. At such times, you may be tempted to cry out as Jeremiah didin our verse for today, or as Job who groaned, "Why is life given to a man ¼ whomGod has hedged in?" (Job 3:23).But it's God's hedge and his walls. Only when we view our restricting circumstancesas being placed there by God can we find courage to face the wall or hedge. That'swhat Madame Guyon, a French noblewoman who was confined to a dungeon for ten years,managed to do. She penned these thoughts:

A little bird I am shut from the fields of air;

and in my cage I sit and sing

to him who placed me there

Well pleased a prisoner to be,

because my God it pleases thee.

Naught have I else to do,

I sing the whole day long,

and he whom I most love to please

doth listen to my song.

He caught and bound my wandering wing,

but still he bends to hear me sing.

My cage confines me round;

abroad I cannot fly;

but though my wing is closely bound,

my heart's at liberty;

my prison walls cannot control the flight,

the freedom of the soul.

The hedge cut off Madam Guyon from the world and confined her on every side. But even a high hedge cannot shut out our view of the sky or prevent the soul fromlooking up into God's face. Because there is so little else to see, when you are hedged in, you view God more clearly than those who move about unconfined. With a hedge around you, the only way "out" is up!* * * * *

My loving Father, help me to remember that hedges and walls protect as well as confineand that your good pleasure is to use whatever means necessary to turn my gaze to you.

Sunday Blessings- The World 's Most Unpopular Preacher

(Click to enlarge the poster)
John Piper is excellent his short message here makes me excited about the life to come.

The Master Weaver

I struggled as a teenager growing up in Delhi. For those of you who have read my story in Walking from East to West, you'll know failure was writ large on my life. My dad basically looked at me and said, "You know, you're going to be a huge embarrassment to the family—one failure after another." And he was right given the way I was headed. I wanted to get out of everything I was setting my hand to, and I lacked discipline. During this time, India was at war and the defense academy was looking for general duties pilots to be trained. So I applied and I went to be interviewed, which involved an overnight train journey from the city of Delhi. It was wintertime and we were outside freezing for about five days as we went through physical endurance and other tests. There were three hundred applicants; they were going to select ten. On the last day they put their selection of names out on the board, and I was positioned number three. I phoned my family and said, "You aren't going to believe this. I'm going to make it. I'm number three. The only thing that's left is the interview. The psychological testing is tomorrow, and I'll be home." The next morning I began my interview with the chief commanding officer, who looked to me like Churchill sitting across the table. He asked me question after question. Then he said, "Son, I'm going to break your heart today." He continued, "I'm going to reject you. I'm not going to pass you in this test." "May I ask you why, sir?" I replied. "Yes. Psychologically, you're not wired to kill. And this job is about killing." I felt that I was on the verge of wanting to prove him wrong—but I knew better, both for moral reasons and for his size! I went back to my room and didn't talk to anybody. I packed my bags, got into the train, and arrived in Delhi. My parents and friends were waiting at the platform with garlands and sweets in their hands to congratulate me. No one knew. I thought to myself, "How do I even handle this? Where do I even begin?" They were celebrating, and yet for me, it was all over. Or so I thought. I was to discover later that God is the Grand Weaver of our lives. Every thread matters and is there for a purpose. Had I been selected, I would have had to commit twenty years to the Indian armed forces. It was the very next year that my father had the opportunity to move to Canada. My brother and I moved there as the first installment, and the rest of them followed. It was there I was in business school and God redirected my path to theological training. It was there that I met my wife, Margie; there my whole life changed. The rest is history. Had I been in the Indian Air Force, who knows what thread I'd have pulled to try to wreck the fabric. Thankfully, our disappointments matter to God, and He has a way of taking even some of the bitterest moments we go through and making them into something of great significance in our lives. It's hard to understand at the time. Not one of us says, "I can hardly wait to see where this thread is going to fit." Rather, we say, "This is not the pattern I want." Yet one day the Shepherd of our souls will put it all together—and give us an eternity to revel in the marvel of what God has done. Our Father holds the threads of the design, and I'm so immensely grateful that He is the Grand Weaver.

Excerpted and adapted from Ravi Zacharias's The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007).

Willing or Not

In Hanover .Germany there is a grave covered with huge slabs of granite and marble and fastened with heavy steel clasps. It belongs to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Yet she directed in her will that her grave be made so secure that if there were a resurrection, it could not reach her. In time, however, a seed began to grow and push its way out from beneath the slabs. As the trunk enlarged, the stones were gradually shifted and the steel clasps were wrenched from their sockets.But the dynamic life force contained in that little seed is only a faint reflection of God 's creative word that someday will call to life the bodies of all who are in their graves. Willing or not they will be resurrected. (Taken from Dr Woodrow Kroll 's devotional)

I Thess 4:13-18 (New Hestament)
13-14And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don't want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.
15-18And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master's word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they'll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God's trumpet blast! He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words. (The message)

Walking Alone

Please pray for me . I am facing a very spiritually oppressive and difficult situation. The Lord has comforted me. I need Him more and more.

The following devotional from Joni Earckson Tada blessed my heart.

EAGLE MEN

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.--Isaiah 40:31
Eagles are solitary birds. They never fly in flocks. At times God asks us to forego human companionship to experience divine fellowship so that later, we have the strength to give to others. "God seeks eagle-men," writes Mrs. Charles Cowman in Streams in the Desert. "No man ever comes into a realization of the best things of God,who does not, upon the God ward side of his life, learn to walk alone with God."
Scripture is replete with such men: Abraham living in a tent; Moses herding sheep;Paul alone with God in Arabia. God then often takes those whom He has sheltered in solitude and thrusts them out to minister to others.
Author Caryll Houselander writes of these eagle-souls:
There are those who must live, as it were, in other men's hands; whose success,even if it be of a spiritual order, must be paid for in a suffering of poverty far more terrible than material poverty, a poverty of not having themselves, not having anything of their own - not time, or solitude, or their thoughts, or even their senses: their hearing filled always with other men's troubles, their eyes with the face of other people's sorrows...

Many times you may feel there is no rest: hurting people call you on the phone or appear at your door; your children clamor for attention and love; your spouse wants to spend time with you when you have no time; your boss adds to the piles already on your desk. Only someone who has spent solitude with God can respond as an eagle,mounting up with a reserve of energy provided by the Almighty. Quiet time with Him isn't an option; it's a necessity.
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Father God, teach me to come to you for strength when I feel as though I have none.In this way, I'll have strength to dispense love and care on others.
Blessings,
Joni and Friendshttp://www.joniandfriends.org/