Another WOW!

It looks like I haven’t written an actual blog post for some time now.  With everything going on with the house prep, showing, buyer inspections and packing, I’ve had a few things on my mind, I guess!  I have been able to put out a few quickie “Piper’s Story” journal entries and will continue to do so as time permits.  But regular blog posts may be few and far between for a month or two for the time being as I prepare and move to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.  I’ve decided to lease an apartment for six months in the same neighborhood where we lived back in 2006-2009.  This way I’ll be right back in familiar digs and hopefully the shock of a new place shouldn’t be that rough!

The six-month period will also afford me the time to settle in to the community, find the right church to plug into and just the right neighborhood to purchase a home and live!  At this point the moving van will be here on June 13^th and then we’ll be heading off to begin the next chapter of our life with family in the “Sooner State.”

It’s been a long and mountainous journey that we’ve walked on the way to where we are today.  The last thirteen years have been like none other before.  And while I don’t understand lots of it, I do continue to have that peace of God on the inside “which surpasses all understanding” and guards my “thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7 KJV/God’s Word ©)

I have learned so much over these years and feel confident that God has some kind of plan for me to be of assistance to others who may be going through the most difficult times in their lives.  It will be interesting to see what’s ahead!  Like I have repeatedly shared… especially since Piper’s heavenly move eight months ago, the biggest key to our stability throughout our roller-coaster ride has been to “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in” and to “study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed…”  (Hebrews 12:2 MSG) As long as we kept our eyes on Him and the truth of His Word, we found that we were free to have an expectancy of His best working for us whether things looked positive or not.

I found myself captivated by something I recently read in John 8:31-32… and I’m taking the liberty to modernize a little here from the King James Version, “Then said Jesus to those who believe on him, If you continue in My word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”   What first caught my attention was the Greek definition of the word “continue.”  Strong’s says it means “to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy” while Thayer’s says it infers “to continue to be present.”

For us, success, peace of mind and strength was multiplied as we stayed in the PLACE and STATE of God’s Word, kept building our faith by the constant study of His Word and thereby continued to develop a strong and personal RELATIONSHIP with Him throughout the ups and downs of what we faced every single day.  Then, when you combine all those actions, we couldn’t help but to explode with EXPECTANCY toward His performing His Word on our behalf. (See: Jeremiah 1:12)

Along the way we came across those who, when push came to shove, seemed unable to continue in His Word.  Piper and I realized early on that we had the fight of our lives on our hands and quickly submitted ourselves to Him and the truth of His Word… no matter what negative symptoms we saw and experienced as time went on. (Let’s face it… as far as we were concerned, we had NO other choice!)  For some others… well, to be honest, I think that the natural circumstances tended to prevail over their faith.

In many conversations and corresponding actions, we saw the opposite to what Jesus spoke of in John 8:31-32.  We experienced people actually drawing away from us, which worked to reduce the closeness of their relationship to us and saw their expectancy in the wonders of God’s Word diminish as they tended to stay in a place and state where they allowed what they saw in the natural to guide their emotions, words and responses toward us.  In the end… they lost out on the last eight precious years of Piper’s life… and that has really saddened me. 

As Fiver and I were coming home from town the other day, I found myself praying aloud to God about all the lessons learned of late and clearly heard that small-still-voice inside of me say, “You can’t just expect people to do what is normally expected of them!”  All I could say once again was WOW! (I seem to be exclaiming that a lot lately!)  Another lesson learned!  Our experience demonstrated that the ONLY ONE who we can ALWAYS depend on to do what is expected of Him is God!  And once our dependence is firmly placed on Him, we discover that His truth will set us free!  It happened to us and I believe it will for you as well…

Have a great week!  I’m off to mow lawns, buy more boxes and then wait for our oldest son to fly in tomorrow to help me attack the storage in the attic!  Remember to continue in His Word and He’ll continue to work in and through you!  And while you’re at it, say with me… “I’m expecting GREAT things this week from God… how about you?”