Isaiah 41:11-13
11 “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. 12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. 13 For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. When I read this today, I could not help but think who my enemies are. They are satan's advisaries come to wage war upon us, as well as the troublesome times that we go through. Recently, Joshua had a bout of constipation. We tried 1 thing, didn't work. Now, we're trying something else, mineral oil. If these things do not work, then we need to have a colonoscopy and an upper GI, and possibly some other tests. Ouch. And yet, in knowing these things, I am calm; I have such a peace. For it says above that every pain that I go through - and if I use that pain for the Lord's good, it is never in vain. Ever. For He takes hold of our strongest hand, and personally whispers in my ear, "Jocelyn, do not fear. I will help you." What a releif to know we can count soley on the Lord for our strength and might, and wisdom. I haven't posted in a while, but this time it's very important to say what I need to say.
My Mother went home to be with the LORD on March 7th @ 5pm. What had happened was she fell down a flight of stairs and hit her head. She was brought to a great hospital in my area and they basically kept her alive with a breathing tube and some blood platelets, etc. When I went to go see her at first I thought perhaps there might have been a chance that she could pull through. But I took a break and went back a few hours later, and she looked terrible. She had hit her head horribly and there was a big laceraction on her chin/neck. I threw myself on top of her hospital bed and said, "No Mommy No! Don't Go! You have so much to do here!!"...... But it was in God's immovable will that she was to pass, and I just knew it at that moment. I am doing OK. Each day is different; I have felt very numb throughout this week and the week of the viewing and burial. But at the graveside sevice, I was able to share her Life Verse - 2 Cor. 12:9-10: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." And now I know, she is strong, because she has a new body in heaven. She is seeing Him FACE TO FACE. Oh, I cannot wait for that time to come. Come Lord Jesus! Amen. Well, it's almost been 1 month since my last blog, but that's ok. So many things have happened to me lately, one of them being that I dislocated and broke my right foot. God is gracious, however, and I am now healed and can walk fine with no support. The Dr. had to insert a screw into my foot to hold the bones together (erg). It only hurts when I go up and down-stairs and when it rains (go figure lol).
But anywhoo.... I have an EXCITING thing I thought about doing this year, based on the bestselling book by Nancy Leigh Demoss of "Revive Our Hearts (www.reviveourhearts.com) called "The Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free". When you purchase the book, you reiceve a little bookmark with all of the TRUTHS of and about God and how the enemy of our souls tries to steal them away from us. I thought we could, each day, take 1 truth and expound upon it. I would love to hear from anyone who would like to comment or offer their stories or opinions on the Truth that will Set Us Free for each day. Today's Truth is this: GOD IS GOOD! "You are kind-hearted and do good things, so teach me your ways." Psalm 119:68 "Praise the LORD! He is good! God's love never fails!" Psalm 136:1 What a great way to start out TRUTHS about God our Savior! He truly IS good, and we all know that in our times of suffering, God has proven this to us time and time again. In what ways has God been good in your life? Wow.
I apologize that it has been THIS LONG since I have posted ANYTHING. And geez I have so much to say!! Joshua is doing so well. We now have him on some supplements, and we changed his liquid diet; instead of Pediasure we are now doing Silk Milk Very Vanilla Soymilk with Neocate Jr. added to it to bulk up his calories. Right now we are hoping that the insurance will pay for the Neocate; please be in prayer that we will be reimbursed. :) Thanks for Klaire Labs and Barlean's supplements, Joshua is doing extremely well. He is not as discended (his stomach), and he is EATING FOOD (no, not spitting it out, actually eating it). So far, at home, Joshua is eating honey nut Cheerios and organic cheese puffs. Hey look, it's a start! Joshua is also very much more affectionate. He is brighter, less active, and is definetly more involved with people now. I believe it was the change to soy and the supplements. Currently he is taking: _ Barleans Omeaga-3 Swirl Fish Oil (Pina Colada) _ Barleans Flaxseed Oil _ Klaire Ther-Biotic Infant Formula (probiotics for his belly) _ Klaire Vital-Zyme enzymes _ Neocate Jr. (www.neocate.com) I'm so happy. What a wonderful Christmas with my WHOLE family. Thank you Lord for all of Your blessings. Tata - let me know how you all are doing! "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we shall reap a harvest if we do not GIVE UP." -Galatians 6:9 Daniel 3:28-29
"Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent His angel and rescued His servants! They trusted in HIM and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship and god except their own God...for no other god save in this way." Babylon had 44 gods. These men were not willing to worship them, but were willing to give up their own lives to worship and serve God, the King of all Kings. Do we do this? How many gods do we have? 44? 107? Think that about that. Are you willing to give your own life for your own gods? We life a life of luxury and affulence. I can tell you, seriously, it would take a lot for me to give up my own gods for the King of Kings. Yes, I can admit that. Can you? My husband Jim is going to speak on this very verse tomorrow at church, so I thought that I would share it with you. Dear Father, please help me to serve You instead of myself. We just recently went on vacation to Lancaster, PA. What a lovely and very family friendly place! :) We stayed at the Willow Valley/Double Tree Resort; they had an indoor playground - which both James AND Joshua went in and enjoyed very much, indoor pool and...a beautiful chapel.
Jim, Joshua and I went into the chapel and both of us laid hands on Joshua and prayed for his healing. That one day he may speak the Word of God to us and others as a testamony and be healed of his social inattentiveness, etc. When Jim and I went to The Millenium Theater to see "Joseph" (which was awesome as could be) we went to a little craft store and bought something called "The Bread of Life". It is so cute; it is a loaf of bread and inside are verses for each day. Today's verse brought me back to that day that Josh, Jim and I spent praying in that little chapel: "For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), and His ears are attentive to their prayer. " 1 Peter 3:12 I am so very thankful to God that He promises to hear us when we cry out to Him. I am sure, without a doubt, that God heard the prayers that we prayed that day in the chapel about Joshua being healed. Thank you, Lord, for your loving-kindness and that You hear us when we cry to You. Amen. Wow - almost a month to the day since my last post! I've been quite busy...
Not only busy but very busy. Vacation is now upon us, and Joshua and James are both going to summer school; James gets out at 12 and Joshua 1:15. It gives me a bit of time to do the things that I need to do, like shopping, etc. So not only is summer vacation upon us, but also VACATION. Yes, we're going on vacation. Why no enthusiasm? Well, with an autistic child, vacation is not vacation. It's a sorta-vacation in a way, but with Joshua, I have to be all over the place. In the pool, in the room, in the hallways, it never stops. We will see what happens... it's coming up this Thursday - we're going to Lancaster, PA! Yeah! Well, praise the Lord, we had another wonderful weekend.
I was able to work on the site and still had time left over to play with James and Joshua. Mom and Dad came over on Sunday, like usual, and Joshua did a funny thing. He was playing with Grandma in front of the two big closet mirrors, she stepped away, and then he got her hand and led her back to where they were playing! Isn't that great!! Add on just another wonderful victory! James really didn't give me a hard time with potty-training, which is another wonderful plus. Sometimes he steals diapers but this weekend, no. He went. :) Praise God for little things. I'll tell you, you can lean so very much from our children! You know something, the Spirit struck me today with a verse that I'm sure you're familiar with: "I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing." John 15:5 (AMP) I was thinking today about marriage, and it came to me that Jim and I are seperate branches from the vine, yet the same - and if either of us gets cut off from the vine (by disobedience, "doing our own thing", etc) then we cannot remain together on the vine itself. And if we cannot remain on the vine, we cannot be "with" eachother, and most especially, our Lord. So, it's so important for our marriages to stay straight on that vine, lest we get pruned - and pulled away from eachother. Thank the Lord for his mercy and grace, that He will never willingly pull us off the Vine itself. :) Well, the kids are off to school. Today is Wednesday and so far I have been enjoying 2 full days of relaxation - ANYTHING I wanted to do I could do - go to the store, see someone, etc. Being a stay-at-home Mom I'm sure you understand what that means (even if you work you know what this means!!)
Today I went to the mall with my Mom, sister Alissa and her baby, Stephen. What a blast! I got some great candles, anti-bacterial hand soap that smells SOOOO good from Bath and Body Works, and some tee-shirts, YEAH! If you can, relax a little. It really refreshes the soul. |
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