Tremendous, Awesome & Encouraging!

Carol tells me that it is time for me to send a blog, so here goes.

We are so thankful to the Lord for his peace and guidance and for each of you praying/caring friends! Today daughter Karin flies in from Indiana to be with us for Carol’s third chemo on Monday. Join us in praying for her travel and for Keith as he adds extra responsibility to his busy schedule, and for Gavin and Calli as they get along without their mom for the week.

Earlier this week, in preparation to lead our daily SIM chapel prayer time, I was considering several thoughts to share. But the Lord changed the direction of those thoughts, and directed me to focus on the second chapter of Philippians (vs. 1-11).

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit?” WOW...the answer is a resounding YES! We have been the recipients of those blessings of encouragement, comfort and fellowship over and over. Then in verse 4 we read; “Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.” Your interest in us has humbled us many times, and reminded us not to let the challenges of the hour cause us to get too focused upon ourselves.

Finally in verse 11 we read “...and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And here I turned the groups attention to the churches and workers in the countries that we were focusing on that day from our Prayer Guide, which incidentally Carol has had a major part in writing and editing each year.

One of the countries we prayed for was Madagascar, an island nation of over 18 million people, with around half of them considering themselves Christians, but most congregations spiritually dead today. And those dear people, like us are not exempt from verse 11. In his book God as He longs for you to see Him, Chip Ingram writes, “The Scripture tells us that you and I and everyone else will someday bow and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. For some it will be the most tremendous, awesome, and encouraging moment of their existence. They will finally get to see face to face the one they have trusted for years. For others it will be a terrible moment of bitter truth when they wonder, ‘why didn’t I respond’”

All that I have been reading and experiencing is a real wake-up call for me to be more intentional in each contact on the phone, email, letter or personal to allow the Holy Spirit to use me to glorify our wonderful Lord and Savior...Jesus. What a glorious future we have...tremendous...awesome...encouraging, when we see Him face to face.

Have a wonderful weekend. We are praying for you too, that each of you will be growing with us, as we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our time and our lives.

Our love to you all,

Chuck...and Carol too