Matthew 18:19-20 NIV
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
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| Canadian Rockies |
Thank you to all of you who were praying for the family and I as we were at my husband's aunts funeral. It was a very sad time that had an amazing, unexpected twist that could only be from God.
Sometimes we pray and pray and we see no results for years and then all of a sudden God answers prayer and we are left totally amazed and in awe. My husband and I have been praying for his family for about 15 years now and just recently, 3 years ago, we joined a prayer group that prays for the unsaved. So, there has been a lot of prayer going into his family with ZERO results and only hardened hearts towards anything about Jesus.
Well, we had a 10 hr drive and arrived on Friday night late, so we really didn't have much of a chance to help with the preparations for Saturday's funeral but Harold's brother B helped with most of the arrangements. Uncle J is not religious and really had no preference to who gave the funeral service so Harold's brother B took charge and since no one in the family cared, he decided to go with our faith and got an evangelical preacher to give the service.
Saturday, before the funeral service, my husband had a chance to speak with the preacher and tell him the family does not have a belief in Jesus and asked him if he could give a salvation message. The preacher said it was not custom to present the Gospel to unbelievers at a funeral BUT the Lord had given him a salvation message to share and he was like, 'really Father? They are not believers and this isn't the way it should be done.' Still, the Lord pressed very heavy on his heart to preach salvation and all the Scripture verses he received were ones that you share with the lost. He wrote them down but he really didn't have any intention of bringing on a full force salvation message until he spoke to my husband. :) My husband was so thrilled and encouraged to hear that God prepared the pastor and he told him to bring it on and hold nothing back. He said I will take full responsibility for any lash back you receive but the pastor said no I will stand with you on this. :))
The pastor gave a beautiful service, honouring Aunty O and beseeching the listeners to give their lives to Jesus. You could have heard a pin drop while he preached. It was beautiful!! The pastor was so anointed, not offensive and his words were filled with the Spirit of God! That whole family sat in silence as this man of God told them if they didn't receive Jesus as their Savior they will be lost in hell forever.
To add to the whole beautiful service, the pastor joined us for lunch and he had a chance to talk to Uncle J and made a promise to meet up with him in the near future to spend time ministering to him. He also made an effort to make an appointment meet up with my husband's father to talk and share why my father in law hates the church. It was sweet!! This also opened up for my family and I to buy a Bible for Uncle J and we were able to present it to him and spend a bit of time praying with him. He is so hurt and lost that his heart is very ready to hear what Father had given us to tell him. God is so good!!
Seeds folks!! Seeds were planted!
Praise GOD!
Thank you for praying! I know that your prayers helped in all of this to happen at this time of sorrow and sadness. We now have more hope than we did before and an open door to discuss the funeral message of salvation with the family members as the opportunities arise. :)
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| Canadian Rockies |
Romans 12:12 NIV
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Blessings in Jesus,
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How exciting Praise God!!! Praying those seeds bloom!!
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
DeleteThank you!! :) It is a good start and very encouraging to see Father work.
Blessings hon,
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Wonderful! This again shows us how important it is to speak what the Lord puts on your heart. If your husband hadn't spoken to the pastor about what he really felt in his heart then maybe the pastor would not have been spiritually strong enough to bring the message that God had given him to bring. We are all weak in the flesh sometimes and 'reasoning' can be our greatest enemy. The Lord gave the pastor the message and used your husband to encourage him to speak it. Praise the Lord, and may He continue to lead uncle J and all in your families who don't know Him through the gate into the sheepfold. Amen and God bless
ReplyDeleteHi Brenda,
DeleteYes, it is very important to be obedient to the Lord and what He tells us to do even when it seems totally silly or pushing boundaries. What is really amazing is that this sort of thing usually makes my husband's family mad, angry and lash out but it was like the Holy Spirit kept them in line and closed their mouths so they couldn't say a word against the pastor. So far, nobody has uttered an ill word against him and the message he brought.
Thank you for your prayers. It is amazing to see Father's hand at work. :)
Blessings hon,
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oh my gosh! that is good news!! pretty amazing, when you think about it. huh?! keep planting those seeds!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Annmarie,
DeleteIt is pretty encouraging to put your neck on the line even when it doesn't feel right. :)
Thanks for praying.
Blessings hon,
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Good to hear Child of God. He works in mysterious ways!
ReplyDeleteHi Ma,
DeleteFather sure does love to give us nice surprises. :) I love seeing Him work and His plan unfold.
Blessings hon,
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This is a very interesting post for me, I suppose for a number of reasons. Firstly I am a Christian but don't come from a Christian family, background or community of any kind, and my family are not anti-religious or anything like that, just skeptical of it all really. Likewise, all my friends are not Christians just regular folk really; why me I ask sometimes. Also, we are Working class people, both my parents did menial low paid jobs all their lives and sometimes that can knock the stuffing out of people and make them wonder why other people have wonderful lives and they might say as no doubt many people do if there is a God why am I poor, or suffer, or why does nothing nice really happen to me? All questions many of us might ask. I hasten to add, poor we were but not really deprived. But you get my point. And sometimes when we see 'Christians' being judgemental or cruel, or people claiming to be 'religious' who are just as worldly or corrupt or grasping and greedy as any other person we might question that too. These are complex issues, and sometimes people have these and many other questions, and the very people who we want to ask, the priests, reverends and vicars and so on, seem the most reluctant to answer; they just appear to want to tell us and hear our misgivings. I hope that makes sense?
ReplyDeleteHi Tim,
DeleteI believe that Scripture has all the answers for all the questions we have. We just need to search for them and ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding.
Walk the talk, is so much more important that talking the talk, anybody can do that, but it takes a real believer in Jesus to live Scripture. If more believers would live the Word of God, then more people would come to Christ and have their very tough answers answered.
Just yesterday one of the young adults and I were chatting and he was telling me about a Muslim and a Christian. The Muslim was speaking to a very large group of Muslim's and he wanted to give a demonstration so he called a man up on stage that he knew was a Christian and he proceeded to completely humiliate this man. He went on about turning the other cheek when one has been slapped and the proceeded to slap the Christian on the cheek. He then asked the Christian to now give him the other cheek. This slap was very hard and it sent the man reeling but he proceeded to give the Muslim man his other cheek. The Muslim did not slap him again but said 'your religion says that if I want your cloak that you must give it to me, take off your pants.' The Christian being terribly humbled and embarrassed proceeded to remove his pants and hand them to the Muslim. After this the Muslim ignored the Christian and turned to the crowd and proceeded to mock the Christian. Afterwards, the Christian sat down and the evening eventually ended. The next day the Christian went to his office only to find that there was a massive line up of people waiting to see him. He entered in and started seeing each person who was outside of his office. They were Muslims that were in the audience and witnessed his humiliation and they wanted to apologize to him and quite a few of them gave their lives to Christ.
It is in the living God's Word that people are saved. :) If you have questions I sure would love to give a go at answering some of them. If you wish you can email me or just ask here.
Thanks for such a good, mind probing comment.
Blessings,
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Thank you for such a thoughtful and kind reply. Being a Christian like yourself I have always prayed and read scripture and know that all the answers are therein. And as you say, talking the talk, and walking the walk are two very different things aren't they?! I get a lot of hits on my blog simply I believe because I often pose and discuss questions about faith, questions I won't pretend to have the answers to, but simply because I am honest people find this attractive. It seems that those in the hierarchies of the established denominations want to tell us what to think and how to behave, but they won't answer our basic questions, and because of this, certainly in the UK, Christian attendance in churches are rapidly declining.
DeleteWell, as for the story of the Muslim and the Christian, if anyone could act in that way, they would have no real respect for God or fellow humans. I too would turn the other cheek, but I am in no way a shrinking violet and grew up in a tough Working class city where you are more likely to get a few teeth knocked out at the least if you act like that to someone! To the unbeliever, Jesus' meekness and gentleness seems utter folly, to the believer, it becomes truth and the only way to live. History tells us that revenge solves nothing, it only creates more heartache, trouble and bloodshed.
Hi Tim,
DeleteIt is sad that attendance in church is declining, yet that Scripture has foretold it and now we are seeing it. With prophecy coming true so rapidly we can look at the times and know that the return of Jesus is quickly approaching. It is kind of like lighting a match under our seat, it makes us jump up and gets the blood flowing.
Blessings and thanks for commenting.
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Wow, this is truly amazing! I cannot imagine attending a funeral not hearing the salvation message. So thankful that God has opened these doors and will continue to pray for opportunities to minister to these family members.
ReplyDeleteHi Barbie,
DeleteThank you for your continued prayers!
Blessings hon,
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Hi child of God,
ReplyDeleteHow awesome and wonderful it is that seeds were planted. I lift up your family members in prayer and their salvation.
When my first wife died, the pastor of my church performed the memorial service. I had told him that many unbelievers would be in attendance and I wanted a message of salvation spoken in the service and I wanted Jesus to be glorified. My pastor gave a wonderful message, which touched the hearts of many, including my brother in law, who got saved that day. I tell you this was comfort to my soul. The pain in my heart was overshadowed by His Joy.
There are also people in my family which I have been praying for, for years. I have heard many of testimonies of people who have prayed likewise for years, and their prayers were answered and this person got saved. How awesome is our God.
Blessings,
Ken
Hi Ken,
DeleteHow amazing that your brother in law came to Christ at your wife's funeral!! That sure is a sweet, precious memory to have during a very sad time. :)
God is awesome! Continuing to pray and lift up your family members who are not in relationship with Jesus yet. He does answer prayer and truly His way is better than ours. I really think that Father allowed your brother in law to come into Him on the day of your wife's funeral to help ease the pain in your heart. How precious.
Blessings brother, thank you for sharing this.
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I can so relate to praying years and years and never seeing any signs of God's move on a heart... praying since childhood for someone (40+ years). But now I see through all those years of prayer that He moves in ways we don't always see, and God's wooing heart never gives up. Your story is a heart-melting testimony to that, and I know God is moving greatly in your prayers. As it says in revelations, pouring out your prayers from bowls over them in the right time, mixed with His fire! I will be back to read more here... I share your intercessor's heart! Thanks for visiting my blog today too!
ReplyDeleteHi Pam,
DeleteThank you for visiting. :)
WOW!! You have been praying for one person for 40+ years and now seeing results, amazing!! It is so cool to see Father's hand move.
Thank you for the encouragement here. I know Father is moving but it sure is nice to hear others repeat it to me.
Blessings,
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