Friday, January 29, 2010

All Things Work For Good

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Sometimes things go wrong. However, those wrong things may be good in disguise.

Huh?

Let me explain:

Have you ever tried to go somewhere, and everything kept going wrong before you could get out the door?
... One such time, when I was late getting out the door because of annoyances, I came upon a traffic jam. There had been a terrible accident! I got that sinking feeling that it would have been me in the accident, had not all those pesky annoyances slowed me down!

... Does that mean that all our 'annoyances' are meant to keep us safe? No, of course not! However, I find that keeping a good attitude, during annoyances, heartache and trials, allows God to work on my behalf.

ONE OF THOSE TIMES TODAY

Yesterday, while at the radio station, I prepared a radio playlist for today. The playlist of programs would run during the time that I was at HACC, today. I downloaded all the paying programs from the secure FTP sites. I also located the CD's of some programs, that usually air directly from our satellite dish and the Oasis Network. I just 'felt' like I should be ready for something.

What was that something? That something was our satellite transmission going out!

What does that mean? It means that the Oasis Network, that I use to air our programs during the day, was gone-inaccessible! Now I would have to program everything, all day--more work!

Hows this supposed to work for the good?

Here are just a few ways:
  • It is Friday. Tomorrow I program most of the day anyway. If the satellite had gone out in the beginning of the week. I would have had LOTS of WORK to do!
  • It is Friday. And because it's Friday, I program the whole morning to play directly from the station, including some of the paid programs. I wouldn't have had the programs ready, and would have lost the the revenue, had it been during the week!
  • I may not have been able to figure out what was wrong any other day, until late in the morning. Because:
  1. In the morning, I turn the radio station on to the Oasis Network using my phone.--I can't hear what is going on through my phone. It could have been 9:00 or later before I discovered that something was wrong. Thus, we would have been off the air.
  2. If I hadn't already been in Gettysburg, for class, I couldn't have gotten to the station quickly; thus loosing more air time and more paying customer's revenue.
  • My husband was at the church, where the station is located, so he was right there to take care of things until I could arrive. He was there to search for the problem.

Oh, I could give you more reasons. However, I'm thankful that God kept everything running until circumstances could be easily controlled. There was no frantic panicking Which is a gift from God in itself!

Our satellite is still down, but our radio station is working. I'm confident that God will truly work all things out for the good, as we walk in His purpose, with simple child-like trust.

It may mean a lot of extra work, but thank God I'm prepared, because.... remember what I said earlier? "I just 'felt' like I should be ready for something." Because I obeyed Father God's small prompting. I was ready!

God is SO GOOD!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Husband and Wives

1 Corinthians 6:20

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. KJV

I am a pastor's wife, and with the ministry comes many challenges. One of which, is having a husband that can spit out scriptures like a nail gun. Only thing is, not all scriptures that come out are meant to bring grace to the hearer.... I have been guilty of this travesty as well! Too often we use scriptures on each other like hammers and swords, and leave each other bleeding!

HALLELUJAH! FATHER GOD HAS A WAY OF GETTING THROUGH OUR THICK SKULLS--EVEN IF IT DOES TAKE HIM A LIFE TIME TO DO IT!

My husband, Pastor Mike, had me laughing myself silly during his sermon today. He said how we are always trying to change each other, but we are to work on ourselves and leave our spouses to change themselves by God's grace. We are to pray for each other and let God deal with us personally.

Pastor read from Ephesians 5. He spoke about how husbands love verse 22 and wives love verse 25. My husband told how for 29 of our 32 years of marriage, he would quote to me,''Wives submit yourselves to your husband...

Well, he said one day God told him, "What are you doing? That verse is not your verse! Your verse is verse 25.'' ''Husbands, love your wives,... As Christ loved the church.''

My husband then said,''Men, if you are trying to take verse 22 for yours, it's like you are trying to put a girdle or a bra on! That verse you're quoting belongs to your wife!!....

Well, Ladies, what is it like for us to be trying to take verse 21 for ourselves?