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Being Isaac: Bill from Unshakable Hope “More than Just a Dream”

May19

Editor’s Note:  Our weekly guest spot is our effort to help our reading community connect with each other.  “Being Isaac” is in response to our growing number of male readers. We think it’s important that there’s a male reply to our female’s call to live in passionate pursuit of Christ. Thanks Bill from Unshakable Hope for submitting an amazing post that reminds us that heaven is our destination and it will be more than just a dream. :)

I had a vivid dream last night -  In this dream I was completely healed and whole.

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The dream began with me simply stepping out of bed, which is something I haven’t been able to do in over 15 years. I could walk, talk, eat, dress myself and do everything else that I was once able to do. Mary and I were so excited that we began calling all of our family and friends and then we began visiting people at their homes and offices (Mary drove the car because I don’t have a driver’s license and the only thing I’ve driven in last 15 years is a wheelchair).

The dream was so real-to-life that I was telling Mary all the places I wanted to travel to and all the restaurants I wanted to try. I was even making practical plans like getting a driver’s license and making an appointment with the doctor to have my feeding tube removed etc. As you can probably imagine, this was so exciting; more so than winning a billion dollar lottery! But that incredible excitement soon turned to great disappointment when I awoke from this vivid dream at 4:15 this morning and realized I couldn’t even uncross my feet, let alone get out of bed.

1335964_sunsetThen my great disappointment turned back into incredible excitement when I remembered that, regardless of what happens in this life, one day I KNOW that I WILL be healed and whole! One day “…there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain…” (Revelation 21:4)

There was a time in my life that I feared death and the unknown in general. I later found out that these fears are quite common. But, as strange as it might sound, ever since I committed to following Christ and began believing the promises of God’s word, my fear of death has been replaced with an excitement of what lies in store for me after this brief and fragile life is over. Christ died and rose again to free us from sin AND from the fear of what lies ahead – “…only by dying could He (Jesus) break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT)

In 1996, Bill was diagnosed with ALS (“Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) and the doctors told him he had 3-5 years to live. He is now completely paralyzed and unable to speak, but by God’s grace, he’s still alive and through his Unshakablehope blog he shares a message of hope in Christ.

See the original post at http://unshakablehope.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/more-than-just-a-dream/

Published with the permission of the author. Submit your own post at beingrebekah@outlook.com.

Trusting for Something Beautiful

May18

“I lean not on my own understanding,

My life is in the hands of the Maker of Heaven.

I give it all to You God,

Trusting that You’ll make something beautiful out of me.”

These are lyrics to a song (posted below), originally by the United Pursuit Band, that’s pretty much been my heartbeat for several months now. Every time I leave the house, I want to be used. In a profound way. I want spirits to move and God to be known. I want to love, unconditionally and boldly.

I don’t, however, want to do anything without Jesus.

It’s a good thing I have that caveat, because He hasn’t used me as often as I might’ve thought. I passed a homeless person once and God gave me a word for him about how he was priceless and precious and needed to remember who he was. Other times I have prayed with people. But not always. Sometimes I’m not led to do or say anything. It breaks my heart a little bit to walk by a person. But I have to trust that Jesus knows their hearts as well as He knows mine, and He knows who is ready to receive His words. He knows where to send me and what to have me do.

Then again, sometimes I’m called to do something but my tasks are more subtle than I would have predicted. Once, Jesus had me anoint a subway car. Why, you may ask? I might ask the same question. I have no idea why. I knew I had a mission that day, I could feel it. But I was assuming that the mission would be to pray over someone or be given discernment and a word for someone. Nope. I anointed a subway car that had nobody else in it. I obeyed the command and completed that task. I will never see the benefits or affects it had. But I trust that God had me do that for a reason.

Sometimes, I don’t know why He makes the decisions that He does. For instance, after praying for so long and hard to find an aide for Jimmy – not just any aide but the person that God wants in our house every morning and every night – after all that, I don’t know why our new aide is so rude and argumentative. Why there’s so much anger and anxiety in him. But I trust that God knows. Maybe the reason he’s been assigned to our house is because I do keep it covered in prayer. I pray for the people who come here too. Maybe he has spiritual issues of his own that need to be worked out and he needs that extra prayer support. Maybe. I don’t know.

The point is, I don’t have to know. I can feel Jesus beaming when I serve Him, even if I don’t know why I am. But really, I am a mere vessel. I’m hands and feet. Jesus is the center, the head, the breath that sustains me. The ‘tasks’ I do stem from Him. That’s all I need to know. Beyond that, “I lean not on my own understanding. My life is in the hands of the Maker of Heaven. I give it all to You God, trusting that You’ll make something beautiful out of me.”

And so my heartbeat continues.

God bless!

~Rebekah A

When the Big Gestures Don’t Work

May17

I hear stories sometimes of people who sort of believe in Jesus but they need one last piece of proof. Something to solidify it in their minds that Jesus is definitely there. Or they don’t quite believe but they want to.

So what to do when you want proof of this supposed King of Kings? You do something big. Something crazy and life-changing. Something unplanned. I mean, God’s big, right? So by putting Him on the spot in a big way, having Him do something that coincidence and mere people wouldn’t be able to work out, you’re getting proof of His existence and His interest in your life. Right?

So you do your big life-changing gesture. You make your move. And the Almighty God responds with…..nothing. Nothing but crickets from the spiritual realm. Were you wrong about Him after all? Is this God guy just a myth?

I assure you, He’s not just a myth. He’s there. He watched every second of your big gesture. This I know. As for why He didn’t respond…it’s a big question. A vulnerable question, even. And there are a couple of answers. The first is the literal one. We’re sort of told in the Bible not to put God on the spot like that.

But the real reason I think, is that the big gestures aren’t necessary. If Jesus responded to all of those, we’d start thinking we needed to do them. But it’s not about that. Jesus loves us. Us. He loved us so much He made us. Zephaniah 3:17 says “He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.” Just think about that. Jesus, the same King of Kings you thought you needed to do something crazy for, is enamored with you. He looks at you, and His heart is so touched by love that He’s moved to song. Not because you make the big gestures, not because you put Him on the spot. He loves you that much simply because you exist. And He wants to spend time with you. Even if it’s just 5 minutes per day. You are worth it to Him. We don’t having to go seeking Him or searching for Him. He’s already there.

Yes, some people are called to lay down their lives in different ways. Some people are called to different places. But they are called there as a means of serving God, not as a means of proving He exists. It’s different. Making the big gestures without truly ‘knowing’ Jesus is like buying all the furniture before you have a house. It typically doesn’t work well.

So if any of you are struggling with that, or unsure about where Jesus is in your life, it can be a pretty unsettling feeling. Extremely unsettling. And extremely unsettling feelings can cause us to do extreme things. But if you fight that urge, if instead of searching for Him you quiet yourself before Him, you’ll find He was there the whole time. Instead of a big action, give Him intimacy. Look around you – at the flowers, the trees, people helping one another. God is in all of that. All around you. And He’s with you every second, knocking on the door of your heart.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take a big gesture. It just takes opening the door.

If you’re struggling with any of this….with Jesus, with His presence and your place in it all….let me know! Email me at being.rebekah.a@gmail.com. I’d love to chat with you and pray for you!

God bless!

~Rebekah A

His Peace Reigns

May15

Something’s been going on with my roommate’s new aide. He was personable and very nice when he first started working. But during the month that he’s been working with us, his personality changed. He became more caustic, and meaner. He no longer engaged with me, and there were days when he wouldn’t speak to me at all (not even to ask me where the spoons were, when I was standing right in front of the sink washing dishes. He preferred to ignore me and open every drawer we had to find them himself). Later, my roommate informed me that he was actually saying some pretty nasty things about me behind my back and that if it didn’t stop soon, the comments were mean enough that he’d want to ultimately find a new aide to work with. He gave me some examples that would have had me in tears at other points in my life.

This time, though, I wasn’t really bothered. God gave me some immediate discernment over the situation, and I realized that the animosity was coming from external factors and wasn’t towards me personally. My roommate was very offended on my behalf, and I believe his exact words were “It’s mean, and it’s undeserved, and if I could physically do it I would’ve thrown him out the window.” My response, meanwhile, was “it doesn’t matter, it’s just words, and if that’s the price of getting you good care I don’t mind taking the hit.”

He also refuses to do anything extra if he thinks it is helping me. Even when it affects my roommate too. See, an aide’s job is to help my roommate get out of bed and to work. Then, home from work and back to bed. However, that’s not really how life works. Life doesn’t go from bed to work. When you’re living with someone, there’s a life at home too. Sometimes that life needs conversation. Sometimes he has to see something or sign papers. Sometimes there are things in the van that need to come inside. But anything not directly related to care is seen as my territory and he refuses to both help with it or even wait for me to do it.

I’m not sure what those external factors are that triggered this animosity. Either way though, Jimmy was going to have a conversation about it with his aide. And so I turned to prayer. I’d already covered the selection process in prayer. God sent us the man that he wants to be in our house every day. I know that because I prayed for that. Why this particular man? I don’t know. But God wants him with us for a reason. So, with Jimmy standing in agreement, I prayed for God’s spirit of peace to reign over this house, to touch all those in it. That the aide’s rudeness would be met with peace on Jimmy’s end, that the aide would know peace from other areas of his life while he’s here with us. That I would continue to feel nothing but peace in the face of any meanness that came my way. That coming from a place of peace rather than emotion, Jimmy would be able to choose his words wisely and well and have a good conversation that would bring back the positive relationship they’d started out with. We prayed together in Jesus’ name.

Sure enough, the next day a weight was lifted off of the aide’s shoulders. He was relaxed. He chatted with me again. He even joked around with me. This was before the conversation even happened. And the conversation itself went really well.

So today I walk in gratitude of my savior. Jesus can move in hearts in ways we can’t even imagine, and He is so attentive to everyone all at once. His peace and love are perfect, and always available to us. How great our God is!!

God bless!

~Rebekah A

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

May14

instrument of peace 2

Words are timeless. The Scriptures are the purest example of this, but sometimes even mere mortals manage to write down a few thoughts that last centuries. The poem below was written about 800 years ago. You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s a good reminder of what we should strive for as Christians.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

~A Prayer of St Francis of Assisi

Jesus, I am so much more inwardly focused than I should be. Lord, “grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand, to be loved as to love.”

In His Love,

Rebekah L.

Ode to Mothers

May12

Being that today is Mother’s day, Rebekah A and I felt we’d like to make a joint post sharing a story each of our mothers :)

mother

Rebekah M- When I think about my mom, I can’t help but think of how much she rejoices and weeps with me through the times in my life.  I received news that I failed one part (of two) of the medical boards in early December. It became a test of faith. Without passing, certain residency programs would no longer rank me for their program. More over, I only had a small window in which to re-take the test and it was crucial to graduating on time. It wasn’t until January until a new spot opened up for me to re-take the test.  As I went through my second round of testing, I was nervous and part of me wished that I had had greater faith in the midst of that time, but I survived and at the worst of the stress, my prayers to Him who could calm my heart from breaking down in tears worked.  When I received an email in early March saying that the results were posted online, I quickly called my mom.  As I opened up to the results I was able to say to her that I passed.  She immediately started breaking out in praise to God. I could hear her tears through the phone as she wept and gave God praise.  What an amazing mother! Not only am I certain of her MANY prayers on my behalf that I would pass, she continued to encourage me to hold to His steadfast mercy and grace. To know that if this was God’s road for me, all would be well. Even if she had doubts swimming within her mind, she still pushed me to trust Him and clearly, it was well founded.  Praise God for such a mother!!

Rebekah A – “Pal Time”. That’s what my mom and I used to call our morning routine when I was younger. I’d wake up at 5 every morning. Mom would get up too, make tea (tea for me – coffee for her and lots of it!), and join me. In a house full of people, every morning it was just the two of us. She called me her pal, and we talked about everything. As the years have gone by, there have been many ups and downs in my family. My mom is the one who kept us together throughout it all, and has supported me through so much. Success or failure, good times or bad, she met every situation with her unconditional love. No matter what was going on, she was my confidant. To this day she is my best friend. I don’t get to see her as often, but when I do, we still enjoy having the early morning to ourselves, we still have tea (and coffee) together, and we still talk about everything. I thank God every day for my mother – and my first and very favorite pal.

We wish you all a very happy Mother’s Day.

God bless!

~Rebekah M & Rebekah A

Family Movie Night: Facing the Giants

May11

This is one of my favorite movies ever since it combined two of my greatest loves: Jesus and football.  There are some pretty powerful concepts in here- one of my favorites talks about a concept similar to the story going around the internet about how a church decided to gather together and pray for rain in the midst of a drought, but only one little boy brought his umbrella (they use a different example in the movie).  Do you have your umbrella ready for God’s miracles? Will you truly act on your faith when you pray or do you come umbrella-less? Enjoy the movie! :)

~Rebekah M

Song of the Day – “Closer”

May8

Sometimes a song is in my head not because it’s catchy or because of the tune, but because the lyrics give words to the cry of my heart. Today is one such day, and my heart’s desire can be summed up with one sentence: “Jesus I want to know your heart.”

I hope it speaks to you too. God bless!

Rebekah A

Simple Gifts

May7

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The other day I was at the department store when I saw a fan on sale. I contemplated purchasing it for myself since the warmer weather will be coming soon, but then I suddenly had the thought that I should purchase it for my brother-in-law instead. My brother-in-law hates to be hot. I knew he would use it and this one was really nice. It has multiple settings, six speeds, the ability to set it to automatically turn on and off at pre-determined intervals and a remote control. It’s just a fan, but as fans go, it’s a pretty cool one.

I was nervous about giving it to him because we have a very strained relationship and we never exchange gifts. He is an atheist and limits the exposure his children have to me because he doesn’t want me influencing them. He assumes all Christians are unintelligent and hypocritical. More than that, he holds a lot of bitterness and anger towards Christians. I can understand his feelings because he was hurt very badly as a child when his father became a “Christian” and walked out on the family, never to support him again. The only contact he had with his father after that was the occasional phone call where his father would tell him repeatedly that he is going to hell. When this is your experience of Christianity, it is natural to distrust Christians.

I took a chance and gave him the fan. I felt that it was God who gave me the idea in the store, so despite my nervousness, I went through with it. And you know what? He sent me a text message the next day that said, “I just wanted to say thank you for my new fan. It is perfect for me and you can rest assured that it will get used every day. Thanks again. I love you.”

This simple text i1101414_my_phones incredibly touching to me and it is a gift for which I am very grateful. My brother-in-law went out of his way to thank me and show appreciation. He even expressed brotherly love. I stand amazed at the goodness of God! I see the door opening a little. I hope to be able to show him that not all Christians are like his father. Although we make mistakes, most of us are genuinely trying to live for Christ and to show His love. It is my prayer that one day he will be converted and model Christ in a way that his father never did.

Rebekah L.

Being Isaac: StephenWhoElse “God is an Open Book”

May5

Editor’s Note:  Our weekly guest spot is our effort to help our reading community connect with each other.  “Being Isaac” is in response to our growing number of male readers. We think it’s important that there’s a male reply to our female’s call to live in passionate pursuit of Christ. Thanks StephenWhoElse for submitting another great post reflecting on how transparent and open to us God really is. 

Open Book

Christian books are a lot more popular today than they were a few years ago. Most major (and smaller) bookstores have a section dedicated to religious books. A couple even made it to the Paperback Nonfiction Best Sellers list. Looking at the selection of Christian books in a typical book store, it struck me how many books attempt to help the reader “figure out” our great and mysterious God. Here are some titles you may see:

  • What Is God?
  • Making Sense of the Old Testament God
  • How to understand God
  • God according to God
  • The God I don’t understand

There were lots more books like these – and it amazes me that there is so much time and effort being devoted to “figuring out” who God is! Surely our God who created us in His image, who loved us enough to sacrifice his only Son so that we can be close with Him again, wants us to know him intimately! If so, how difficult can it be to know God?

While reading Isaiah today, it struck me how transparent God is. He does not hide his feelings from us. He does not leave us wondering about His plans for the world. And how wonderful that He does not hide His love for us! God is completely open to us with His feelings.

God does not hide his anguish when rejected by His people:

The ox knows its master,
    the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand. (Isaiah 1:3)

God’s feels the pain when he punishes his people – he doesn’t want to punish them! And yet his righteousness demands it.

Why should you be beaten anymore?
    Why do you persist in rebellion? (Isaiah 1:5)

God’s frustration is clear to see, when he cannot get through to his people!

 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
    Your incense is detestable to me. (Isaiah 1:13)

God feels disappointment when we do not live up to what we are capable of

What more could have been done for my vineyard
    than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
    why did it yield only bad?  (Isaiah 5:4-5)

God’s plan is to reconcile with his people, not punish them.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
    says the Lord. (Isaiah 1:18)

Friends, God is an open book. He hides nothing from us that is for our good. His love for us is plain to see. Continue reading Isaiah and you will see that despite an intense anger that is not satiated even by the most terrible punishments, (chapter 9), God is compassionate enough to help his people go through the suffering! (Isaiah 10:24-25)

Very soon my anger against you will end
    and my wrath will be directed to their destruction. (v 25)

Can you imagine that? Even in the midst of meting out terrible punishments on his people, God is compassionate enough to reach out to his people, to reassure them that it is temporary, to encourage them to bear with it!

Friends, God does not need to be “figured out”. The character of God is plain to see. We don’t need mountains of books to tell us who God is, because He has already revealed Himself to us through his living Word.

Instead, let us devote our time and energy to loving him. And how do we love an invisible God?

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. – John 14:23

Let us spend time with God, listening to Him, abiding in Him and obeying Him.

God bless.

StephenWhoElse is a Sunday School Teacher and in his spare time he has a secular and less interesting job. He endeavors to write only what He reveals to him and gives all glory to God! See the original post at http://10seventeen.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/god-is-an-open-book/ 

Published with the permission of the author. Submit your own post at beingrebekah@outlook.com.