After arising earlier than this morning than I have since my 9-18-18 instant retirement fiasco, I can only say it has been a very interesting day. First, at 10 a.m., we toured a modest 2-bedroom home that was an answer to our prayers and going beyond all our desires. I do believe our sweet little 87-year-old widowed landlord lady, Pat, also president of the development’s homeowners association, only because no one else would do it, was divinely as smitten with us as we were with her, judging by the forming tears in her eyes when she and Loretta embraced when we parted.
Our realtor friend, Samantha, originally from South Africa, had informed us prior, that Pat had only purchased this home two years earlier to house her long-time good friend, Olga, who was then down on her luck, and on Tuesday was forced to move into a nursing home because of her declining health, all of which Samantha had just discovered (I think divinely) just hours prior to our last Thursdays appointment to discuss the extremely tight rental market in the neighborhood we had hoped to locate.
Yesterday’s relationship ordained scenario with Pat and the home’s features both indoors and out, including a fenced yard, double the usual counter space and storage with even an island, new appliances through-out including even a D/W, was nearly exactly the way I had detailed to Loretta how I envisioned us finding a rental would play out, after she had succinctly detailed the desires of her heart for our “wintering” home’s features, even before we arrived in Panama.
It is important you realize in our request, we were not in any way being insistent, just laying out our desires. In fact, you need to know, our back-up plan was to simply scale our desires back to renting, until something opened up, from our good friends, Darrell & Denise, their cute little Airbnb container house where we have been staying. Of course, the location was added after a week of intense looking and contacting at least six rental persons. Ben had chided me upon arrival that most people coming here to rent, move 2-3 times before they ultimately find what they want.
Needless to say, our afternoon and evening was spent in awe of what had just occurred offering prayers of thanksgiving and a renewed desire for us to both discern and obey his bidding in this community.
I also spent an hour on the internet visiting sites I’ve subscribed to over the years that offer daily spiritual encouragement, but now seldom if ever, do I open them. I realize blogs are a different animal and that I don’t really fit, nor necessarily desire to fit, any particular mold or model, but just so that all you potential readers know, the posts on this blog, be they short or long, simple or complex, are truth and hopefully on occasion, worthy of your valuable time and reflection, at least to the best of my current abilities.
Personally, I’m torn between being “short, sweet & done,” such as in a daily text ministry of less than 50 words; versus the other end of the spectrum, as in what I’ve done in the past two posts, that virtually could be a good start for a chapter in a book; wherein we explore an idea, concept, concern, etc., from His “it’s so simple it’s profound” perspective, that it seems whatever “it” is, must simply rise up and slap us in the face sometimes to get our attention, when it’s in plain sight.
Otherwise, when as Loretta and I were praising God yesterday for His attention to detail, I am reminded of Jesus’s answer to the Pharisee’s after the crowd’s triumphant Palm Sunday entry, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples,” when He simply said, looking at the disciples and the crowds about Him, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
FYI, the strong proverbial language here in Luke 19 has always intrigued me, so I learned in my quick research from Barnes Notes on the Bible, “We are not to suppose therefore, that our Savior meant to say that the stones were ‘conscious’ of His coming, or that God would ‘make’ them speak, but only that there was ‘great joy’ among the people; that it was ‘proper’ that they should express it in this manner, and that it was not fit that he should attempt to repress it.” Now I tend to think our joy yesterday, was like that of a gnat in comparison to the joy Our Prince of Peace has planned for us when He returns. Again, we must consider everything in His perspective!
Remember, my mission here is to be an encouraging facilitator of your faith here and now for your future. If anyone has comments, suggestions, or criticism of any portion of what I’m attempting here, please text or WhatsApp me@ (330) 465-2565 or email merlin.erb@gmail.com. And please, most of all, do pray for me in this undertaking that I’m either been given or claimed as ‘squatter’ or a ‘migrant’ in a new ‘wintering’ land, so that I will indeed continue to hear Him loud and clear.
Now, let’s consider some wisdom from David Jeremiah’s Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God 2002 Aug 8
God’s Training Process Outlined
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. Luke 16:9
Joseph was cooperative with God’s process of training. Joseph had to go through thirteen years of schooling so that he could experience eighty years of ministry, certainly a better efficiency than my six decades of training for hopefully a decade or two of service. The bottom-line difference though is that throughout all that training, Joseph unwaveringly focused on the Lord. In slavery, in the pit, and in prison, he focused by working to become a strong, disciplined man of God, an impossibility if you’re a tool of Satan. Joseph portrayed no complaining, simply a desire to obey the Lord and do his best.
BOTTOM LINE:
Therefore, when we become God’s people, we will be obedient to Him no matter what our situation. Joseph was faithful in every circumstance, and the Lord blessed him. He proved himself faithful in a home, and God put in charge of a prison. He proved himself faithful in a prison, and God put him in charge of a nation. God used Joseph because he was cooperative with God’s training process, and the Lord is still looking for cooperative obedient men and women today.
Interested in joining His ranks? Have you access now to a supporting faith facilitating community that continually is refining His preliminary orders in you? If not, ought we not to be forming as of yesterday discipleship cells to get you placed, prepped, and credentialed for acceptance into His Advanced Training Process, (ATP) such as exemplified by Joseph above. Cooperative and obedient volunteer congregations and individuals are being sought for the oversight of the strategic discipleship modules.
I have no idea from whence or why that paragraph came forth! I’m just a leaky broken down faucet.
dailylightdevotional.com Evening Aug 8: This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. I John 5:14, 15