April 15-21 we spent in the Rogue Valley. Mom's health has been up and down since her last open heart surgery in Dec. and was excited when I suggested we invite a few people over for Easter dinner (we hadn't been to the valley since January).
I cooked several
things that night before, while my sister-in-law cooked several things. Sunday morning, we went to
Jerusalem Center in Medford – it’s amazing how strong the Holy Spirit’s
presence is there at that place, full of the poor and outcast, yet
rich in blessings. They had the whole outside decorated and set up
(tho it threatened to rain) for Easter dinner; I kinda wished I
didn’t have to rush home to prepare our own! I wanted to hang with everyone there! However, we had a great time with family and friends, though mom wasn't feeling so well and had to go lie down.
Mom was only up ½ the day Monday, not
feeling well, we painted together part of Monday. We then tried to get through a Bob Ross
video and paint with it, but she wasn’t feeling well and was down
rest of day and all day Tuesday was down sick. I went with William
around town Wed. and Thurs. while mom was still down and sick.
April 21 got back
from mom’s by 1pm, and we went right to work on yard work since it had been the only
sunny day (thus a little dried out) the whole week, so we mowed and
used the weed eater on the entire property, finished up Saturday, but
it sprinkled off and on. Sunday, we didn’t go to church,
because God told William in a very creative way not to go, and to
quit trying to be accepted by the organized church. Sat. night,
since William had to get into Elizabeth's house to take care of her plants, etc. When
William was done, he accidently locked his keys in the house, the
only set to the house, and by the time he realized this, it was dark
and he was too tired to deal with it. The next morning, he found his
keys sitting in plain sight on the table in the trailer! Now I saw
him, the night before, he looked EVERYWHERE multiple times for those
keys. When he found the keys, it was already 10:30, so we decided
not to go to church, but rather, spend the day reading God’s Word
and praying. Why is it we always want to join a fellowship? We
realized we were again trying to gain approval; we are to go into the
small groups to build them up, but not to ‘join’ the church part
as such.
We had a
wonderful, insightful day just staying home. We’ve been reading though the
Books of Jasher and of Enoch also, to gain historical perspective on the Bible. Very interesting.
William started
speaking about a verse he was reading: (Rom. 7:6) The letter of the
law kills but the Spirit brings life …
Like William says
about our trip to the valley this time, he was dealing with his
family members, running around making arrangements (burial site,
plaque, etc) to bury his mom May 16th. This gives more
meaning to the verse (Matt. 8:22): ‘let the dead bury the dead’;
In dealing with the spiritually dead in the valley (talking about
when we go back in June), when you’re not being refreshed by the
breath of God, you’re dying. We realized that we were dealing with
the dead when trying to deal with them about burying the dead. When
we start doing what everyone else is doing, it quenches the Spirit
and it isn’t that it is right or wrong, it just that God has a
certain job for us to do, and it’s not what everyone else thinks is
important. When we were there this week, running around dealing with
‘life’ issues everyone else is concerned about, we stopped
praying and reading the Word every day. We noticed this in our
spirit, that it wasn’t getting fed, we especially noticed it when
we went to Jerusalem Center, then looking back after the week was
done, that was the only ‘life’ we witnessed!
Getting up and
involved the things that they do, we find that the message is growing
in us, if we don’t pray every night listening to God’s voice,
getting up in the morning and not hearing God’s voice, not hearing
from the throne of God, we feel empty, we cannot live in our natural
man, reason, live, but rather, we need to be moved by the Spirit,
live by the Spirit, learn to hear His voice well by being in the Word
daily. We cannot live in this world like others, but live by the
Spirit of God because the time is short, we need the fire of God is
within us, we have to tell the people that God is coming soon, the
fire within cannot be contained. Like William says, there is a real
burning inside of him to tell people that Jesus is coming soon and
they have to be ready, something burning inside to get out there and
tell people what God has to say is more important than all the stuff
in this life. God chose us out of the world to be His and to do His
will – this is His will, to go out and tell. The presence of God
keeps us. Some people can do so many things in this life, but we
have to only do what He says, speak what He says and step where He
says to step. Christians think there is something wrong with us for
living this way. We have to not have concern as to what people
think.
While sitting in the
trailer, I see that the blossoms from the cherry and pear trees have
hung on so long, and were just starting to fall. I made a comment
about this to William, who said they were around longer than normal
because God was speaking: they were waiting for the sun (son), it’s
all in God’s timing, even they know to wait on God. Same with the
dropping of the peddles, Just like we should be, as the Son shines on
us, we fade away and He takes over.
Before we left for the valley, I was remembering the prayer meeting from the 13th - it was great, not as powerful as the week before, but
still great. It took some interesting turns. Since I got paid from
IWU that day, I invited 2 of the ladies out to lunch; however, in the
end, one paid for us all! I got to know them better, which was awesome.
It was such a wonderful time of talking and getting to know one
another, we were there for hours! After I had gotten home, I
remembered something one had said during prayer meeting, she said
“God will give you new shoes” and she went on to explain that He
was widening my sphere of influence and that I would have bigger
shoes to fill. William kind of said the same thing the week before,
saying that I would influence more people and be busier than ever. I
am constantly wondering what God is going to have us do and where he
will park us once we get into the Rogue Valley; not that I’m
worried, I just like to know what’s coming – always been that
way. I’m a planner, but God is obviously trying to get that out of
me …
We’ve been
really reading a lot lately, about being more vigilant in prayer:
Rev. 16:15, Is. 62:6-7, Ez. 34:8-10, Matt. 24:42-51, Mark 13:33-37,
Acts 20:28-31, 2 Tim. 4:1-4, 1 Peter 4:7
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