Precious Joy

Baby Joy has gone home to be with Jesus.

Psalm 34:18 ESV 

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

There hasn't been a lot of news about Joy. Her parents wanted to keep things a bit private and that is totally understandable. Every now and then I would see on Facebook a request for prayer for Joy or sharing of a blessing and last night a request came up that Joy needs prayer and then this morning this is what I saw...

At 730am CST our Joy was called home. We have told her from the beginning that if Jesus called her name she should run to Him and she did. We are Blessed to serve a God who let us call her ours for even a little while.

From what I understand, she had an infection and when you are a heart patient things can go from good to really ugly, super fast.

Please pray for the family as this is a very difficult time. Thank you.

Psalm 147:3 ESV

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Praying and praying,
<><

Another Miracle

Remember Joy? 

You can read her miracle story here and here.

I have been following her on Facebook and she has been up and down but nothing too serious to make a report about. Actually all of those who are on the prayer page are either doing really well, or I haven't heard a word about.

Well, today Joy's mom reported yet another amazing miracle in Joy's life. I have copied and pasted it here below since there are a lot of you that either are not on Facebook or are not following her story.

Attention Ladies and Gentlemen,
When Joy suffered her severe lung damage in October, one pulmonary doctor told us we would be lucky if Joy was off of oxygen by the time she started preschool, but the goal would be for her to not need it during the day when she started Kindergarten. She has needed oxygen all the time since October. Well last night Joy and God must have had a long talk.
Joy weaned HERSELF off of oxygen in just 3 HOURS last night! She is doing amazingly well without it! i cannot begin to express how unexpected this was! We will be keeping oxygen here, just in case, but it was amazing today to walk around with her without any cords!
We are so grateful and humbled to be blessed by another miracle working in our Joy. We are so very unworthy! The only way we know to honor what HE has done is to shout it out!
GOD IS GOOD! HE WORKS MIRACLES EVEN TODAY! HE IS WORTHY OF PRAISE! HE STILL LISTENS, STILL LOVES, STILL CARES FOR HIS CHILDREN!
WE ARE BLESSED!

This mom and dad have given Joy and her health completely over to God and have asked for His will to be done in her life AND just look at what He is doing!!! I am so thrilled!

Please join me in praising and worshiping Jesus Christ, healer of all!

Psalm 148 NIV

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights above.

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for at his command they were created,

and he established them for ever and ever—

he issued a decree that will never pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth,

you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and clouds,

stormy winds that do his bidding,

you mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars,

wild animals and all cattle,

small creatures and flying birds,

kings of the earth and all nations,

you princes and all rulers on earth,

young men and women,

old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

And he has raised up for his people a horn,

the praise of all his faithful servants,

of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord.

Blessings,
<><

Pray With Me

Psalm 118:24 NIV

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Revelation 12:11 NIV

They triumphed over him

    by the blood of the Lamb

    and by the word of their testimony;

they did not love their lives so much

    as to shrink from death.

Today is a day that is either for Joy for against Joy. Please join your heart with many others and pray for a miracle for Joy. This miracle baby needs another touch from our amazing God. Below is taken directly from Joy's Facebook page...

Friday is a make it or break it day for Joy. She can really use a lot of prayer today. I will update as soon as I know something. Thank you!

The Blood of Jesus gives us the victory over Satan and all his demonic guests and Satan cannot hold out against the power of the Blood of Jesus. I hold the Blood of Jesus as a shield against the enemy that is trying to resist the authority of the prayers of the children of God. Jesus, let Your Holy, precious Blood, flow through Joy and heal her completely. Your Word God, is Spirit and life, speak life into Joy and she will live. With all of my heart I believe Your Word God and trust Your decision and know that Your Holy, perfect will be done. In Jesus' name, amen.

Isaiah 53:5 NIV

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

Praying and praying for you Joy!!
<><

Cancer Stinks!

Proverbs 4:20-22 NIV

My son, pay attention to what I say;

    turn your ear to my words.

Do not let them out of your sight,

    keep them within your heart;

for they are life to those who find them

    and health to one’s whole body.

Joey Needs a ton of prayer right now as he has taken a turn for the worse. Taken from CaringBridge site.

...things have gotten progressively worse over the last two weeks. What a nightmare. We wanted to again ask for your prayers. Joey can barely communicate w/us, is very tired (from having to breath so fast) and is having trouble breathing (labored). We need God to intervene and stop what otherwise will be a horrific next few days. There are some signs that it might be hours not days. ...

Jordan is in hospice house and is losing the feeling in his legs. Below is taken directly from his blog.

...The reason we came to Canuck Place was to explore two options for pain management until Jordan's healing. Both are harsh but one has become dangerous due to the seemingly rapid progression of numbness throughout his body.  So in many ways we are backed into a corner....

...And what we had thought would be a few days, (I packed for 5 to be on the safe side) suddenly has no end in sight...that all by itself was a tough one....

...In a text I received this morning, Reece asked me if I was scared.  And I was surprised, after checking, that I was more mad/frustrated than scared.  For crying out loud, he just wants to sit up or lie on his side.  And late last night and this morning, eating became increasingly difficult, stealing some of the joy from one of his few pleasures.  This is wrong on soo many levels....

Lucy has been pretty sick and so her scans were canceled  I am not sure when they are going to do them as there has been no information put up yet. 

Scarlett will be having surgery to remove this unknown mass from her brain after the American Thanksgiving. Click on her name to go to her blog and check out the scans. Please pray this is nothing to be of concern. 

Joy had a set back. The following is taken directly from her Facebook page...

Joy is back on the ventilator. She was working very hard to breathe and her sats were getting low. While we are disappointed at this step back, we are not discouraged. We know who holds her future and He will never leave us alone. 

We are blessed.

Please keep these children in your prayers. God is listening and we just need to keep on pressing in with faith. Thanks!!

On another note please keep Israel and her leaders in your prayers as there is now a chance of a 7 weeks war to happen. Check out the post from Joel Rosenberg. Below is taken from the post.

...Israel's Home Front Command has been ordered to tell the nation to prepare for 7 weeks of war.

75,000 IDF reserve soldiers are definitely being called up for action -- up from 30,000 on Thursday, and 16,000 on Wednesday. ...

God Bless,

<><

Urgent Prayer

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED FOR JOEY AND JOY.

Please see the prayer page for details. Thank you! 

Psalm 68:20 NASB 

God is to us a God of deliverances;

And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

Praying and praying!

<><

Walk in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 NIV

 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Our flesh fights with the Spirit and we are not to do as our flesh desires but what the Spirit desires. The Spirit of God calls us to love, joy and peace. When we make ourselves focus on the fruit of the Spirit then we will start walking by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I'm linking up with Barbie for Fresh Brewed Sundays.

Blessings,
<><

Praise to God

A prayer request and some praise reports

Psalm 68:19 NIV

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,

    who daily bears our burdens.

Information from: Chelle's email concerning Wayne, Joy's Facebook page, Joey's CaringBridge page.

PRAY

Wayne:  

He has been having radiation and will actually be done with it on the 8th. But for right now it is making him sick and unable to eat much. They are hitting the cancer hard and some of the lymph nodes are right beside the esophagus. Sometime in mid December they will do a pet scan to see how things are going. Wayne could really use some prayer today as he is having a hard time right now. 

Thank you Chelle for keeping us up to date.

PRAISE

Joy:

Thank you all so much for your love, support, prayers, and encouragement. We are humbled by the way our God is using our little girl. Your stories and words speak to our hearts everyday. We are blessed!

Joy is doing well enough for them to try to wean her off of the bypass (ECMO) machine. They have just started doing this now. Please continue to pray for our Joy, we can SEE GOD in this room!

Joey:

•he has had no more seizures!

• (consequently) sodium holding strong at high 130's with last reading at 140. Really good!

•we just moved back over out of PICU to HemOnc floor. Always the last stop before heading home

We still have concerns and he has benchmarks we need to hit before anybody feels comfortable taking him home, but we are certainly moving in the right direction. 

...Thank you TEAM JOEY for praying for us. 

Psalm 103:1-5 NIV

Praise the Lord, my soul;

    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins

    and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

    and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Thank you for reading and joining in to pray for these sweet, precious people. 

If My People 2012

Click on the link above and join in with Joel Rosenberg for a 5 minute prayer for Israel. God tells us to pray for the peace of Israel and I found this a neat, quick way to join in with millions to pray for God's chosen people. 

Psalm 122:6-9 NIV

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    “May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls

    and security within your citadels.”

For the sake of my family and friends,

    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your prosperity.

Blessings,

<><

Pure Joy

James 1:2-3 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 

I have read this verse many times and it has only been in the last few months that I have really focused on the plural content here. 'Trials of many kinds' does not mean a trial or two but lots and lots of trials consisting of all sorts of different things. Christians can be under attack from Satan but they also may be going through trials in order to create perseverance in our faith, which is unseen.

We are going to face trials, that is a given but God tells us to 'consider it pure joy'. Now really?! This is totally backwards to our way of thinking. It does take a bit getting use to but the quicker we learn this lesson the better it is for us and those around us. After all, who wants to spend time with a grumpy, miserable person? Well, you might for a while but after a bit of hanging around a cantankerous person you will find it rubbing off on you.

Joy, defined by Dictionary.com

the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation,

Wow, this is pretty backwards to our general line of thought, 'caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying', Let's look deeper.

Every single person has trials to go through and I can pretty well guarantee that it is not pretty. Most often it is extremely painful, either physically, emotionally, spiritually or financially. So then, if joy is caused by something fantastic how can we feel and manifest this joy while we are in pain? Let's look a bit further. The last part of v 3 says; 'the testing of your faith produces perseverance'.

James 1:4 NIV

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Perseverance, defined by Dictionary.com

steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement.

We are building endurance, training for the race of life. Perseverance will get us through and focusing on the prize at the end of the trial will give us joy while going through the trial. What is this prize? Treasure in heaven. A home that will never rot, no darkness, walking in the physical company of Jesus and uniting with believers from all over and so much more.

James 1:5-8 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. 

Remember when you were a child and you were playing a game? How that game was so very real, you believed it. This is how we should be with believing and not doubting God. Ask God and believe it is yours and He will give it to you. It may not manifest in the way you think it should but it will be perfect because it is His way.

You are not alone in this life, Jesus is right beside you through all of your trials. Trust Him. Believe in His Word, for He cannot lie. Be joyful in all circumstances and remember if at first you don't succeed try and try again.

Please remember five year old Ansley in your prayers. She is going through this last bit of chemo and is so very ill. She told her mom she just wished someone would kill her so she doesn't have to deal with this cancer any longer. How sad for a mom to hear that. Please lift her up and keep her covered in the Blood.

Blessings,
<><