Dependence Upon God

~park point winter 2011

My times are in your hand." Psalm 31:15


Let this precious truth divest your mind of all needless, anxious care for the present or the future. Exercising simple faith in God, "Do not be anxious about anything." Learn to be content with your present lot, with God's dealings with, and His disposal of, you. You are just where His providence has, in its inscrutable but all-wise and righteous decision, placed you. It may be a position painful, irksome, trying, but it is right. Oh, yes! it is right. Only aim to glorify Him in it. Wherever you are placed, God has a work for you to do, a purpose through you to be accomplished, in which He blends your happiness with His glory…live a life of daily dependence upon God…it saves from many a desponding feeling, from many a corroding care, from many an anxious thought, from many a sleepless night.

~Octavius Winslow

The trials of life may look bleak, but just remember things may look desolate but spring will come, the sun will shine again.....God will never allow Satan to discourage you without a plan to lead you to victory! Hang on with me! Love to you my friends and family~Susan

When Death Becomes Birth

by Max Lucado

You, as all God’s children, live one final breath from your own funeral. Which, from God’s perspective, is nothing to grieve. He responds to these grave facts with this great news: “The day you die is better than the day you are born” (Eccles. 7:1). Now there is a twist. Heaven enjoys a maternity-ward reaction to funerals. Angels watch body burials the same way grandparents monitor delivery-room doors. “He’ll be coming through any minute!” They can’t wait to see the new arrival. While we’re driving hearses and wearing black, they’re hanging pink and blue streamers and passing out cigars. We don’t grieve when babies enter the world. The hosts of heaven don’t weep when we leave it.

Oh, but many of us weep at the thought of death. Do you? Do you dread your death?

Is your fear of dying robbing your joy of living? Jesus came to “deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Heb. 2:15).

If Scripture boasted a list of the famous dead, Lazarus would be near the top. He lived in Bethany, a sleepy hamlet that sat a short walk from Jerusalem. Jesus spent a lot of time there. Maybe he liked the kitchen of Martha or the devotion of Mary. One thing is for sure: he considered Lazarus a friend. News of Lazarus’s death prompts Jesus to say, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up” (John 11:11).

And now, four days after the funeral, Jesus has come calling. Literally calling, “Lazarus, come out!” Can we try to picture Lazarus as he hears those words? Heaven-sent Lazarus. Heaven-happy Lazarus. Four days into his measureless days. By now he’s forming fast friendships with other saints. King David shows him the harps. Moses invites him over for tea and manna. Elijah and Elisha take him for a spin in the fiery chariot. Daniel has promised him a lion of a Bible story. He’s on his way to hear it when a voice booms through the celestial city.

“Lazarus, come out!”

Everybody knows that voice. No one wonders, Who was that? Angels stop. Hosts of holy-city dwellers turn toward the boy from Bethany, and someone says, “Looks like you’re going back for another tour of duty.”

Lazarus doesn’t question the call. Perfect understanding comes with a heavenly passport. He doesn’t object. But had he done so, who could have faulted him? His heavenly body knows no fever. His future no fear. He indwells a city that is void of padlocks, prisons, and Prozac. With sin and death nonexistent, preachers, doctors, and lawyers are free to worship. Would anyone blame Lazarus for saying, “Do I have to go back?”

But he doesn’t second-guess the command. Nor does anyone else. Return trips have been frequent of late. The daughter of the synagogue ruler. The boy from Nain. Now Lazarus from Bethany. Lazarus turns toward the rarely used exit door. The very one, I suppose, Jesus used some thirty earth years earlier. With a wave and within a wink, he’s reunited with his body and waking up on a cold slab in a wall-hewn grave. The rock to the entrance has been moved, and Lazarus attempts to do the same. Mummy-wrapped, he stiffly sits up and walks out of the tomb with the grace of Frankenstein’s monster.

People stare and wonder.

We read and may ask, “Why did Jesus let him die only to call him back?”

To show who runs the show. To trump the cemetery card. To display the unsquashable strength of the One who danced the Watusi on the neck of the devil, who stood face to clammy face with death and declared, “You call that a dead end? I call it an escalator.”

“Lazarus, come out!”

Those words, incidentally, were only a warmup for the big day. He’s preparing a worldwide grave evacuation. “Joe, come out!” “Maria, come out!” “Giuseppe, come out!” “Jacob, come out!” Grave after grave will empty. What happened to Lazarus will happen to us. Only our spirit-body reunion will occur in heaven, not Bethany Memorial Cemetery.

When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true:“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54–55)
With Christ as your friend and heaven as your home, the day of death becomes sweeter than the day of birth.

FromCome ThirstyCopyright (Thomas Nelson, 2004) Max Lucado

I just attended 2 funerals this week of loved ones of dear friends of mine. I read this last night and I find such comfort in Max Lucado's thoughts on death when we know Jesus........Susan

Pray this…

Prayer of Help, Protection, and Deliverance

Lord, I thank you that You are a Warrior, and You never know defeat;

You are a Conqueror and every enemy is under Your feet;

You are a Deliverer and every foe will sound retreat.
I thank You, O God, that you preserve me.

I take refuge in You and I am safe from every cloud of darkness, from every voice of condemnation, from every thought of defeat and despair.

I put my trust and confidence in You alone.

I lean on You, for You will not falter or faint.

You are my support and keep me from falling.

You are my high tower and keep me from fleeing.

You are my confidence and keep me from fearing.
Thank You, God, for being with me, beside me, behind me, and before me.

You are always at my right hand and keep me secure.

What joy it brings to know that when I call to You, You answer me.

You are my perfect refuge from every storm and battle.
Thank You for being my sure place, and for providing me with the safe place under the shadow of Your wings.

Lord, arise and rescue me from all evil, from every lie, and from every bondage.

I stand upon You as my rock, I abide in You as my fortress. You are my covering.

You are my shield. Thank You for saving me and for rescuing me from my enemies.

You always hear my cry for help.

~ Scriptures: Psalm 16, 17, 18

Continue....

~ship on Lake Superior

Continue in the things that concern Him;

He will continue to take care of the things that concern you.
Continue to give Him all that is yours;

He will continue to give you all that is His.

Continue to wait upon Him;

He will continue to be faithful to you.
Continue to seek His highest;

He will continue to give you His best.

‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ Jeremiah 7:23 NLT

Reed Christmas Weekend Take 3

Nephew Philip, Alex and Ashley

Alex and Ashley with Mom Linda
Niece Stacy and Brian, Brianne and Joshua

Nephew Michael and Morgan with Charlie and Colin

Niece Angie and boyfriend Mike

We had a wonderful weekend as a family with a few friends thrown in. Travel was not easy for some, but God blessed us and we all arrived safe to celebrate Christ's birth and to treasure each other. Thanks to all of you who made this weekend special. May we trust the Lord for the New Year and may we all desire to serve Him with our whole hearts.

With love from Susan, your daughter, sister, auntie and friend!

Reed Christmas Weekend Take 2

Brother Jason and Carol, Hannah and Jared

Blessed Friends~William and Susan
Nephew Robert and Mandy, Preston and Baby Peyton

Niece Ami and Taylor, Maddi and Trenton

Nephew Jonathan and Jessica, Hunter and Kayden

Reed Christmas Weekend

Dad, Grandpa and Papa Great

Sisters~Sandi, Cindy and Susan
Brother John and Linda

Clarence and Sister Cindy

Brother Jeff and Tammy