The Cold, Prophecy and Communication!

I got a text alert earlier this morning announcing that today was the coldest day in the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) in 368 days!  That official temperature of 17 degrees was taken at the Raleigh-Durham Airport which is about 40 minutes away from our home.  When I took the dog out around 8:00AM the thermometer on my deck read 14 degrees.  So, I guess I beat the record today!  We are actually located slightly outside of the official Triangle area, southeast of the airport, so that may account for the difference.  Anyway you look at it though… It is COLD today!  It is about 10:30 EST now and the thermometer has only gone up about three degrees with a breeze blowing!

We are supposed to get up to whopping 31 degrees by late afternoon!  So, needless to say, I’m wearing my long pants today!  But that’s okay for me as I’ll continue to be working on cleaning walls and filling and sanding gouges on the door frames in the house where I was a little less than gentle when pushing Piper’s wheelchair through! 

The worst spot was the guest bathroom that we used pretty much exclusively for Piper, as I couldn’t get her big chair through the doorway in the master bath.  It is funny out here, but I’ve noticed that many houses have doorways to the bathrooms that are narrower than the other door frames in the house… including with ours!  The only reason our guest bath worked for Piper’s chair was that the door opened barely enough to squeeze the front wheels of the chair through and then I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way!  The extended size of the jacuzzi tub in the master bath didn’t allow for a wide opening of the door!

So, if I didn’t position the chair exactly right… I rubbed the door frame… and considering how tired and sore I was at times, the wood frame was in better shape than I thought when I got down on my knees to sand, putty and sand again!  Hopefully I can get to the painting today.

I have had a very difficult time getting the oomph for the vision of this planned move to Oklahoma in the spring.  Like my wife Piper, I had always been a forward thinker with a strong vision and plan for our future.  With her departure though, all those hopes and dreams kind of went up in smoke.  It’s a bit difficult to catch the vision when you have no idea of what it is and all you can see ahead is a hazy fog!

But thanks be to God for His encouraging Words to me!  The one thing I HAVE known to do is to continue filling myself up with God’s Word.  As most of you know, that practice is what I believe gave me the strength, peace and emotional fortitude to take care of most every need of Piper’s during the last eight years of her life.  And I believe that this is one habit that I most definitely need to continue with!

I recently got a couple of boosts as well.  At the end of his sermon yesterday, the Pastor of our home church in Oklahoma (that I continue to live-stream each week) suddenly paused for a moment and then looked into the camera saying “this is for those of you watching online” and proceeded to declare in prophecy saying “I know you’re facing some major changes in your in your life, but it will all be okay!”

Now, I have to say that Piper and I have been involved in Pentecostal/Charismatic circles since the mid-seventies and I have developed a pretty good sense of picking up when a word of prophecy is right or not… and that particular word spoke directly into my heart!  The minute he said it, tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t help but stand up at the dining room table where I had been participating in the service, shoot my hands upward and thank and praise the Lord!

It was like my whole being was suddenly filled with hope for a positive future.  But it didn’t end there.  This morning while studying in the book of Jeremiah, I turned to chapter 29 and zeroed in on verse 11 where Piper had circled in her old and well-worn NASB Bible that I’ve been keeping on the table as a reference guide and read: “For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

From there I looked it up as per my study style, in a few other translations in order to catch the best overall idea of what the Lord was trying to convey though the Prophet.  It was when I looked up the original Hebrew for the words translated “welfare” and “calamity” that caused me to have almost the exact same reaction as I had yesterday to the Pastor’s words of prophecy.  “Welfare” or “peace” as the KJV states is defined as “completeness, soundness, happy, tranquility, contentment and friendships.”  “Calamity” or “evil” in the KJV talks of something that is “disagreeable, bad, unpleasant, unhappy or displeasing.”

After learning that, you can most likely understand why I jumped up from the table again and began to shout and cry (startling the dog who was resting comfortably on the couch!) Wow! Wow! Wow!  According to that word of prophecy from the Word of God, I have little to worry about concerning my future!  I may not YET know what it is, but I have the peace, the hope and the earnest expectation that it will cause me to end up content, tranquil and sound and not disagreeable, bad or unpleasant.  In other words… It’s gonna be okay!

But you know what really clicked for me?  And I know this might sound a little selfish, but I have often found myself over the last four months since Piper’s passing, wondering aloud to the Lord if I would ever be happy again… And Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries makes it pretty clear that one of the thoughts behind the word “welfare” is that of being “happy!”  Enough said!

God has good and perfect plans for each of us who actively believe in Him and His Word.  By “actively” I mean regularly seeking Him through prayer, the study of His Word and fellowship.  I have seen many who consider themselves to be Believers but fail to receive of the goodness of the Lord in their lives… simply because they don’t spend time with Him.  What will it be for you?

Have a great new week, and as you do, join me in declaring that “I am expectant of the goodness of God in my life because I stay in regular communication with Him!”