Saying Goodbye and Going Forward
Hello sisters!
I pray you are all standing strong in the Lord and being a living witness for the world in your obedience. I rejoice as a sister wrote in claiming miraculous works in her husband. She is striving to be a quiet, shamefaced, obedient wife and is saying that the Lord is working hard in her husband who is coming out of the world. Let us rejoice at the victories in the saints! Amen!
I'll update on what's been going on before I share about saying goodbye...
We are traveling for a while before we head to Missouri to do some carving work, a few trips around local areas and then out west to Wyoming we go....after that I'm not sure where we will go. We really like to get out west in the summer because there are soooooo many tourists out that way along the highways and we get many opportunities to witness! My personal favorite witnessing is with the downtrodden, unique, and rather black sheep of the world. Those who have never felt like they fit in, are on the fringes of society, they see the web and trap of the the powers behind the scenes and that we are all on a trajectory into destruction. They have an insight that the average working person doesn't have and some are filled with wisdom....but they still need to repent and be born again and as always brother Jim gives them the gospel. Praise God let the Word go out.
We have been doing a few things here and there in the van and brother Jim did something for me that was very kind and thoughtful. I have some internal issues that come on and can bring me down to where I need some time to recoup and let me tell you, laying down in a van that is super hot in the summer is very difficult so he put a small air conditioner in the van . :-)
As you can see there were storm clouds coming...yup, we got rained on in-between each step of the project but we were thankful to have it finished. Now, after standing outside holding gospel signs in the boiling heat, we have a little refuge to recoup.
And as we finished other projects on our list brother Jim said it was time to do the van roof and add some insulation so we parked at a homegoods store way out on the edge of the parking lot and did it.
It was very inexpensive and for a minimal cost we see that it's made a maximum difference from when the sun would bake the top of the van with the heat making the inside like an oven, now it's cut the heat way down, its awesome! This will help for winter as well. Over time we will see what to do with the walls etc. If you look close at one of the wood strips you will see a square piece of metal...that's for my magnetic curtain rods. Brother Jim put a few of those in strategic places for me so that I can move my curtain around such as in front of the door, at the foot of the bed or behind the front seats all depending on what sort of privacy we need. He's helping me make my rolling 'keeper at home' job more function-able.
Praise God we had a celebration dinner the other night...
Salad, hummus and kombucha... sitting in our little van home and praising God because......
....it was our last day in Wisconsin and we are set free.
So we took off and the next night we spent in a truck stop and not our normal Walmart boondock camping.
We really appreciate the hard work of the truckers that drive goods across the country, long hard hours and brother Jim gets to witness to some of them along the way.
One of the other nights along our travels as we had a nice grassy area for privacy and look there on the horizon!!!
If you can't read it, it's a resale shop!!! Yay :-)
And of course since I love gardens and God's miraculous creation, I always like to look at the plants and flowers and give Him praise.
Yes, I know they are at the store but they are still beautiful and I'll take what I can get:-) I call them Walmart gardens lol. They are a glimmer of beauty in my backyard parking lot home.
I've shared before that we are leaving behind a house that we worked hard on, memories and people we love that have refused the gospel but we are now completely set free to serve the Lord. We don't deserve it but because much has been given to us in both forgiveness and resources, much will be required (Luke 12:48), so we are willing vessels for whatever the Lord wills.
But the main point of this post is because I want to share a sad story that should encourage us to always examine ourselves because those little 'compromises' will eventually destroy you and your household.
Many years ago brother Jim stopped at a natural food store and found it was run by a man who used to be a German Baptist. His testimony was that as he was reading God's word he saw through their man made rituals so he left them and through his life (with a wife and many children) he seemed to be seeking truth. At one point in the many spiritual discussions with brother Jim, he said he wasn't sure if he was born again so brother Jim offered to study the word with him. He set up a time and when it came around, he backed out saying he had obligations and faded away. Brother Jim warned him about man made religion, mass deception, all the various ecumenical ways etc. but as time went on we saw subtle signs that showed he was befriending the world and it's ways. In love brother Jim would keep reaching out to warn him, and to no avail as he kept making excuses and covering his sins. Those subtle signs manifest themselves to be exactly what they looked like and now his family is on the fast track of being swept away,
I was so grieved for them... so sad to see the destruction of sin being introduced into his family (which at that time he had 12 children) and one of them had already left to go into the world and became very vile and dark.
So on our last trip through Wisconsin our route went through the the town where that man was and I blurted out "We should stop at ******'s and encourage him to repent." Brother Jim said 'You know, about a half hour ago I thought of that', so we did. We were there only a few minutes and sisters, I went into shock. My mind flashed back to many times brother Jim pleaded with him to repent before this happened. It was like I just witnessed a horrible accident where people died and here I was looking at the destruction of a spiritually dead man who lead his family into spiritual darkness.
And later that night I learned that son who went into the world, had just died.
I cried for them because we actually saw this man who at one time seemed to be seeking life... choose death.
This sent me on a spiral of looking backwards and we see a pattern....
There are many people in our past (from where we just said goodbye) that have been given the warning and truth, some have come close, were seeing and hearing some of God's truth but they turned away to be worse off than before.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 2 Peter 2:20
And now their lives are getting darker as time goes on. And of course with all this going on it brought me down. Sad for the people we love and tried to reach, for those we don't know and trying to reach them too, for all the little children who are being deceived and satan had a good ol time with me for a while...until I realized I was in sin for looking back (again) like the dog and vomit.
We cannot stay and watch the destruction of all these people who we have warned and will instead pray from afar.
We have to say good bye..... we are going forward.
Onward to the hope of eternal life and offering that hope to those who come across our path.
Stand strong sisters, satan is out there with his workers watching you. But rejoice because....
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Amen and Halelujah!
And about the dog and vomit, I have a visual that pops into my mind when I think about that verse and I wonder if it happened for just this reason. Years ago when I was in second grade we had a couple big labrador dogs and they would eat all sorts of nasty things. One day one of my brothers hollered at me 'Come and look at this!" I came around the corner and he said 'Watch Grover, he's going to eat his puke'.
And he did.
It grossed me out so bad I threw up.
And now as a Christian whenever I think of that verse, the visual pops in my mind and shows me the the depth of vileness of returning to vomit and it sends me running to look forward and forsake that which is behind.
Praise God our Father is a loving God and one of moving us forward to the hope of eternal life.
Strive on sisters in the armor of God (Ephesians 6).
Have a joyous day in the Lord.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
I pray you are all standing strong in the Lord and being a living witness for the world in your obedience. I rejoice as a sister wrote in claiming miraculous works in her husband. She is striving to be a quiet, shamefaced, obedient wife and is saying that the Lord is working hard in her husband who is coming out of the world. Let us rejoice at the victories in the saints! Amen!
I'll update on what's been going on before I share about saying goodbye...
We are traveling for a while before we head to Missouri to do some carving work, a few trips around local areas and then out west to Wyoming we go....after that I'm not sure where we will go. We really like to get out west in the summer because there are soooooo many tourists out that way along the highways and we get many opportunities to witness! My personal favorite witnessing is with the downtrodden, unique, and rather black sheep of the world. Those who have never felt like they fit in, are on the fringes of society, they see the web and trap of the the powers behind the scenes and that we are all on a trajectory into destruction. They have an insight that the average working person doesn't have and some are filled with wisdom....but they still need to repent and be born again and as always brother Jim gives them the gospel. Praise God let the Word go out.
We have been doing a few things here and there in the van and brother Jim did something for me that was very kind and thoughtful. I have some internal issues that come on and can bring me down to where I need some time to recoup and let me tell you, laying down in a van that is super hot in the summer is very difficult so he put a small air conditioner in the van . :-)
As you can see there were storm clouds coming...yup, we got rained on in-between each step of the project but we were thankful to have it finished. Now, after standing outside holding gospel signs in the boiling heat, we have a little refuge to recoup.
And as we finished other projects on our list brother Jim said it was time to do the van roof and add some insulation so we parked at a homegoods store way out on the edge of the parking lot and did it.
It was very inexpensive and for a minimal cost we see that it's made a maximum difference from when the sun would bake the top of the van with the heat making the inside like an oven, now it's cut the heat way down, its awesome! This will help for winter as well. Over time we will see what to do with the walls etc. If you look close at one of the wood strips you will see a square piece of metal...that's for my magnetic curtain rods. Brother Jim put a few of those in strategic places for me so that I can move my curtain around such as in front of the door, at the foot of the bed or behind the front seats all depending on what sort of privacy we need. He's helping me make my rolling 'keeper at home' job more function-able.
Praise God we had a celebration dinner the other night...
Salad, hummus and kombucha... sitting in our little van home and praising God because......
....it was our last day in Wisconsin and we are set free.
We really appreciate the hard work of the truckers that drive goods across the country, long hard hours and brother Jim gets to witness to some of them along the way.
One of the other nights along our travels as we had a nice grassy area for privacy and look there on the horizon!!!
If you can't read it, it's a resale shop!!! Yay :-)
And of course since I love gardens and God's miraculous creation, I always like to look at the plants and flowers and give Him praise.
Yes, I know they are at the store but they are still beautiful and I'll take what I can get:-) I call them Walmart gardens lol. They are a glimmer of beauty in my backyard parking lot home.
So....we have said goodbye and are moving forward.
But the main point of this post is because I want to share a sad story that should encourage us to always examine ourselves because those little 'compromises' will eventually destroy you and your household.
Many years ago brother Jim stopped at a natural food store and found it was run by a man who used to be a German Baptist. His testimony was that as he was reading God's word he saw through their man made rituals so he left them and through his life (with a wife and many children) he seemed to be seeking truth. At one point in the many spiritual discussions with brother Jim, he said he wasn't sure if he was born again so brother Jim offered to study the word with him. He set up a time and when it came around, he backed out saying he had obligations and faded away. Brother Jim warned him about man made religion, mass deception, all the various ecumenical ways etc. but as time went on we saw subtle signs that showed he was befriending the world and it's ways. In love brother Jim would keep reaching out to warn him, and to no avail as he kept making excuses and covering his sins. Those subtle signs manifest themselves to be exactly what they looked like and now his family is on the fast track of being swept away,
I was so grieved for them... so sad to see the destruction of sin being introduced into his family (which at that time he had 12 children) and one of them had already left to go into the world and became very vile and dark.
So on our last trip through Wisconsin our route went through the the town where that man was and I blurted out "We should stop at ******'s and encourage him to repent." Brother Jim said 'You know, about a half hour ago I thought of that', so we did. We were there only a few minutes and sisters, I went into shock. My mind flashed back to many times brother Jim pleaded with him to repent before this happened. It was like I just witnessed a horrible accident where people died and here I was looking at the destruction of a spiritually dead man who lead his family into spiritual darkness.
And later that night I learned that son who went into the world, had just died.
I cried for them because we actually saw this man who at one time seemed to be seeking life... choose death.
This sent me on a spiral of looking backwards and we see a pattern....
There are many people in our past (from where we just said goodbye) that have been given the warning and truth, some have come close, were seeing and hearing some of God's truth but they turned away to be worse off than before.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 2 Peter 2:20
And now their lives are getting darker as time goes on. And of course with all this going on it brought me down. Sad for the people we love and tried to reach, for those we don't know and trying to reach them too, for all the little children who are being deceived and satan had a good ol time with me for a while...until I realized I was in sin for looking back (again) like the dog and vomit.
We cannot stay and watch the destruction of all these people who we have warned and will instead pray from afar.
We have to say good bye..... we are going forward.
Onward to the hope of eternal life and offering that hope to those who come across our path.
Stand strong sisters, satan is out there with his workers watching you. But rejoice because....
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Amen and Halelujah!
And about the dog and vomit, I have a visual that pops into my mind when I think about that verse and I wonder if it happened for just this reason. Years ago when I was in second grade we had a couple big labrador dogs and they would eat all sorts of nasty things. One day one of my brothers hollered at me 'Come and look at this!" I came around the corner and he said 'Watch Grover, he's going to eat his puke'.
And he did.
It grossed me out so bad I threw up.
And now as a Christian whenever I think of that verse, the visual pops in my mind and shows me the the depth of vileness of returning to vomit and it sends me running to look forward and forsake that which is behind.
Praise God our Father is a loving God and one of moving us forward to the hope of eternal life.
Strive on sisters in the armor of God (Ephesians 6).
Have a joyous day in the Lord.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...