What happens next?
You have experienced the goodness of God
in your life - has it changed you?
God miraculously healed Danny,
our 2 year old, of kidney failure.
["Is God Able? This is what I know."
https://conta.cc/3SmJgVg.] But then what?
Needless to say, after Danny's miracle, my faith was GREATLY increased. And yet I have heard stories where folks chalked up their 'miracle' to an amazing coincidence. Hmmm. How could that be?! All I know is that I was so humbled by the mighty move of God in our family, I asked God to show me what I could do to serve him.
In my imagination, I was holding something beautiful and rare in my two hands and I wanted to share it with others. ‘I will steward this miraculous gift of life well, Lord--I will serve you as you lead me,’ I promised. I became impassioned with what God wanted to do in, for, and through his people by his great power, if we would but ask.
Truly, things were very different for me after that. I saw all of life as an opportunity to say 'yes' to God in whatever ways he asked. I remember praying, “use me . . . I’m ready”.
I told God I would go.
I would tell others about him,
and when needed and asked for,
I would pray for the 'miracle'..
And I have, for almost 23 years now.
Many times the 'yes' meant I had to learn what to do and how to do it. For instance several months after Danny, I started a neighborhood Bible study in my house (January 2001); and women are not always easy! Some women were still together in 2021 when I moved to North Carolina. Cool.
Then a local businesswoman and mother named Lisa was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Someone brought a note she wrote asking for prayer, alternative treatment suggestions, etc . . . just anything, because she desperately wanted to live. Compelled, I contacted her and then went to her home to pray for her. Let me tell you, I was nervous, unsure of the 'right words' to pray, what to do--but I went anyway. [God looks at the intent of our hearts when we pray--he doesn't parse every word.] Besides Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”1 God heard, God answered, God healed.
Yes to requests for prayer in ICUs, pediatric oncology wards, hospitals and bedsides because the Bible instructs us to pray for the sick that they may be healed.2 And then I was hired to be on staff at a local church and while there, was licensed by the church to enable me to serve folks more easily in the hospitals. My growing neighborhood women's study also found a church home.
Over the decades, I learned to say 'yes' to God in many different settings for varied purposes. Each one has stretched me--requiring something of me that I had to look to and rely on God to accomplish. There was street ministry in Long Beach, CA (Goodness gracious, I was an unlikely character--white soccer mom from Orange County, but they accepted me anyway, calling me 'the pastorwoman' in the prayer meeting I led at the old Friends' Church and in the city park where I met them)
There was the call from some corporate guys who wanted their international company to count for 'more than just the bottom line'; they wanted to point others in the marketplace to God, wanted to serve him, and let Him direct them. But first, they would need a biblical foundation. And so in July, 2008, (among other duties), I began writing 'Morning Briefings' and emailing them, making them accessible anywhere in the world. This soon required a non-profit to support a website to serve as a platform for ministry, Pastorwoman.net. These many years later, there is a vast readership - only God.
The most stretching 'yes' was Fellowship of Christian Athletes at San Clemente High School. Several high school sports dads asked if I could find someone on campus to start it, and I said 'sure' and diligently went to work to secure that person. First the tennis coach, then a math teacher, then a history teacher, and then the football coach... each one eventually fell through. More unlikely than a soccer mom in the Hood was this mom leading F.C.A. - but God came through anyway, as top notch athletes heard about Christ, became believers, were baptized in the Pacific Ocean ... amazing. I led the students for a couple years until a great guy/former lacrosse player came along.
Tours to Israel? Why, yes! Teach the Word in the land of our Messiah, the prophets, and the kings? Sign me up. St r e t c h.
The year 2020 brought all of us Covid, and California closed her churches. If my Bible study women ever needed God, they needed him when we were all scared, not knowing what was going to happen, facing social unrest, BLM, an election, etc. The question, 'Hey, why don't you teach outside?' Yes! I taught weekly from the back of a Ford Raptor in a shopping center parking lot with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean; women brought their beach chairs ... then their kids ... then their husbands. 'Yes, Lord, I'll go ... I will figure it out with your help.' He opened the door, I said 'yes'.
I do not talk of any of these things to boast - not own any way--only to say this:
When you experience the goodness of God in your life,
just say 'Yes'... let him stretch you as you serve him.
There is nothing like the adventure of serving God,
using whatever gift(s) he has given you,
in whatever creative way you are able,
telling people of his great works--3
all to influence others to love him and be loved by him for eternity.
All praise to him who is "Holy Forever" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcFM9CBiOE
Christine
1 - Luke 12.12
2 - James 5.14
3 - Psalm 105.2
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