Boy do I love my sister, Janni, and her last post was beautiful. Anyway, as you can imagine it has been difficult to fight the lump in my stomach and I cannot deny my tears. The funny thing is that today God pointed out to me something profound, as I sat in gloom. God does not have a dark cloud of depression, despair, doubt or death in His being! We as a people follow the world and the evil one's lead to despair when bad news comes. God does feel sadness, but there is no darkness in Him. It says in 1 John 1:1 "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by truth". So, why follow the darkness when we do not have to! Choose the Light ! The other Sunday we were studying the Israelites in Egypt during the time of the ten plagues. We followed the ten plagues and noticed that God only allowed His people to experience the first three annoying plagues, but protected the Hebrews from the rest of the plagues, which were very detrimental! When God called for the plague of darkness, only the Egyptians experienced the darkness. At the same time God's people experienced the light! We came to see that being born into the family of God has real tangible benefits here on this earth, as well as in heaven. We are able to draw a distinct line. The evil one represents: darkness, despair, death, deceit, and destruction. The God of the universe represents: life, light, love, hope, mercy, grace, joy, peace, deliverance, and life eternal. There are always two sides. There, of course, is difficulty in this life as a Christian, as anyone else, but "joy comes in the morning". Jesus, too, had the difficulty of knowing his death on the cross was eminent. He knew the day in advance. He knew that once that "one day" was over it would be "it is finished", and joy would come to all the people of the world. For on the day of Christ's resurrection, sin and death would be conquered forever. We have life now and forever! We also have access to a powerful healing God because of His Son. We can go to God claiming His Son and we have God's ear. The book of Acts, in the New Testament, records the healing of a man at the gate Beautiful. In Acts 16, it says that "It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see". We not only have the Light and Life of God, but we have access to His power to heal in the name of Jesus! We sometimes do not realize the privilege we have in Him, and only see the darkness that surrounds! I keep thinking of Peter as he was attempting to walk on the water. As long as he kept his gaze fixed on Jesus he was fine, but as soon as he let the "waves of this world" intimidate him, he started to sink. It is a fight to the finish to keep our gaze fixed on Christ. We will have victory if we pursue Christ, and in a way ignore this world. Christ is a much brighter future! Christ is Kole's bright future. Lamentations 2:19 "....pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord; lift up your hands to Him for the life of your little ones".
May we all walk in the Light! Through Christ, gloom is lifted! Praise His Name!

Jodi