hope and prayer

Hi everyone!  I wanted to kind of deviate from my regular posts and just bring up some things that I think we can all be praying for.

• Obviously, the priority on everyone's mind right now is Hurricane Sandy and those affected by it.  Specifically, let's pray for the families of the people who have died, and also for the continued safety of everyone in harm's way because of limited electricity, flooding, high winds, etc.
• I also wanted to bring up the deaths of two preschool children who were killed when their school bus crashed yesterday.  I can't imagine the grief that their families are feeling right now!  Also continue to pray for four other children who are in the hospital, as well as the driver of the bus, who must be dealing with some incredible guilt and grief right now.

I also wanted to post this video, which is Barlowgirl's last song ever as they have chosen to go in a different direction apart from the music industry.  I've loved listening to their music over the years, but I was so glad they put out one last song.

 

God is so good in how He always sovereignly works in our lives so perfectly.  I feel like He's really been teaching me to hope.  On the last day of 2010, I posted about how my "word" for 2011 was going to be "hope".  You can go there to read about why exactly I chose that, but I've continued to feel that God is teaching me to hope in Him, and not be afraid to have hopes and dreams for the future, because He'll do whatever's best.  Even if it sometimes doesn't feel like the best at the time, it will be the best.  Over this past week, the Lord has been bringing this thought to my mind again, and I just loved how perfectly this song fit in with what He's been teaching me.  His timing is amazing!

Anyway, I hope that this song encourages you and that you'll pray for those things which I've brought up in this post.  I'll be posting another 20 random posts "post" soon; talk to you then!

How deep is His love

These past weeks have been hard.  Ten days ago, there was the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.  Then there was the nuclear crisis there as well.  Along with all of this rocking the world, in some cases quite literally, things were going on in the personal lives of some of the people I know.  Last Tuesday night one of our church elders was taken to the hospital with stroke-like symptoms.  He couldn't speak properly, and over the course of a few days we found out that he was sick with herpesviral encephalitis.  It's a very serious disease, and we didn't know whether he would live or not.  Then, last Wednesday morning, we got another phone call and found out that one of our church father's had lost his father that morning.  His dad had very poor health, but they still weren't expecting his death quite so soon.

Yet even in the midst of all of this, there is hope.  In Japan, we know that God is taking care of those people just as He sees fit, even though we don't understand it.  This morning our church elder was released from the hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery.  And for the family who lost a father and a grandfather, there is the promise that they will see him again in Heaven.  Just a few years ago he came to Christ, and they are looking forward to not only seeing Jesus in His kingdom, but seeing this man too.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'

Jeremiah 29:11-14

How great is His love!

Japan tsunami

I want to ask you all to join me this morning in lifting up the people of Japan after this terrible earthquake and tsunami this morning.  With Hawaii and California scheduled to be hit later on today, please also pray for the people there, especially in Hawaii as it's around 3 AM there and it's a race to wake people up and warn them to get to high ground before the tsunami hits.  You can go here to learn more.