HAVE YOU CONSIDERED MY SERVANT JOB?

I don't suppose this is the kind of post you would expect - or want - to see on my first blog of 2010 but I want to take you where God leads me, so here we go.

I was all settled in for a month long study of Genesis in my daily Bible reading when my chronological study sent me to Job this morning. From Genesis 1's perfection to Genesis 3's fall to the drowning of the human race with the exception of one righteous man, Noah and his family, I had just begun to prepare my self to read about the wonderful new beginning of life on planet earth now inhabited by the upright family of Noah when God chronologically took me to the book of Job.

Here is my first point: In the midst of a new start with 'better' material trouble came calling to the most righteous and upright man on earth.

In a new year most of us are plying ourselves with black-eyed peas and resolutions to ward off bad luck. We are wanting to do whatever we can to make sure that nothing bad happens to us.

Point two: God started Job's trouble by drawing attention to his goodness.

Most of our resolutions center around behavior that we anticipate to bring us into favor with God and we equate favor with prosperity. I started to type in 'blessing' but blessing is exactly what God is after. It just may not look like blessing to us on this side of the tapestry. God was proud of Job's uprightness and Job never knew it. On his side of the tapestry, it looked like catastrophe.

Point three: Job's friends equated trouble with sin.

They got it partly right. Sin does bring trouble. Sin also brings prosperity and power - at least for a season. But partly right isn't right. Trouble also comes to good people, Godly people, righteous people. People who attempt to live for God and His glory. The final word was God's and He wasn't too happy with Job's friends or their conclusions.

Point four: God so ordered a daily Bible reading that early in the year we can learn some important lessons about trouble and trust.

God isn't as interested in our comfort as He is in our confidence in Him. Trouble causes us to dig down deep into our reserves. What do we find there? Do we find a history of walking with God and really knowing His faithfulness? Do we find scriptures memorized to pull out for such a time as this? Do we find a will that chooses to trust Him when we can't feel Him? Do we find a heart that believes in His love despite the pain? OR...

Do we find ourselves drifting on a sea of faithlessness? Reeling from the unexpected? With no scripture to hold dear in the storm? A will that is flabby and unexercised in the discipline of making the hard choices? A heart that questions how love could allow or even cause such pain?

It's early in January and the time is now to prepare our hearts for the year that is before us. Stock up on the necessities: prayer, God's word, time with other believers, take an accounting of His faithfulness to you in the past, write it down, relive it. There is a part of me that yearns for God to point me out as His faithful servant and another part of me that wants to run screaming. Oh for grace to trust Him more! And that only seems to come when He saves me....again and again from myself, my mistakes, my troubles.

Trouble is coming my friends. Not to un-do your black-eyed peas or cabbage, but it's true. "Count it all as joy my brethren WHEN you experience trials." "Do not be surprised at the fiery trials that come to you." The Bible is filled with warnings but it is also filled with hope - "...take courage, I have overcome the world."

I want to be found faithful. I know you do too. So what do we do?

I intend to purpose to live in the kingdom each and every day. That will mean sucking the life out of every joy that comes my way. I choose to LOVE life. To love my family and friends. To greatly rejoice in belonging to God and to living in a country where I can read my Bible and go to church whenever I want to. And then when trouble comes to do everything in my power to look for God in that trouble. If it is sin on my part, to quickly repent and if it is not to patiently wait on Him to reveal Himself in the trouble. To know that He has my good and His glory at stake. To know that trouble has nothing to do with God's love for me. HE LOVES ME AND YOU PERIOD. In trouble and out of trouble.

God purpose for trouble is to grow us. Satan's is to get us to question God's love.

That love was settled forever on the cross. He said to us then, "I have no greater love for you than this." So let's settle it here and now! He loves us. He is for us. And let's walk in the victory that is ours that one day we will hear those blessed words, "Well, done!"

From Our Family To Yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2009 began on a sad note for our family with the passing of our Mother/Naw. While she had been in poor health for years, her rapid decline took us all by surprise. We are thankful to the Lord that her children and husband were by her side as she peacefully transitioned from this world to her real home. Her funeral was a testimony of the sweet and kind person she was and is.

The great news of 2009 was Matt and Amy's return to Texas after two years in Kentucky!! We are thrilled to have them in McKinney. Matthew was laid off from his job of nine years after a company takeover and Amy had fulfilled her contractual agreements so they came home for Amy to begin her own equine veterinary business in the Celina-Prosper area. Her business is beginning to take off and she is a determined and hard working young woman. Matt had to face the daunting challenge of finding a job in the Texas job market. Thankfully he had a generous severance package that covered him until he found a position. Now he is getting back into the groove of getting up early and fighting Dallas traffic!!

Brandon continues to practice medical defense law and was selected as Rising Star of Young Texas Attorneys for the second year in a row! Kylie is beginning her eighth year with ID Group. They are hoping to provide the Kulwicki family with a baby in 2010! Mom and Dad are really happy about that!

Our sweet Justin has been gone for 4 years now. 5 birthdays, 5 Thanksgivings and 5 Mother/Father Days have passed. It is still hard but not nearly so painful. I hate typing those words because they don't tell you how we still think of him every day, that we still miss him terribly, that we truly long for our reunion with him. And yet we are better. Much better. We are living again and want to. That in itself is a miracle and we are thankful if we have to be here that we want to be here. :)

Billy is loving his job with CFC. He works for the greatest employers and has the greatest electric co-operatives in the world! He gets to travel to Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas regularly and then wonderful places in our country every month or so. I get to go with him a lot of the time and it has been a huge blessing for us to meet and to minister with these wonderful people.

I began my 11th year of Firmly Planted Ministries this September and the winds of change are blowing for me in ministry. I have felt a leading from the Lord to return to my nursing roots and my present love of heaven by entering the field of hospice. I have recently been hired to work part-time for a hospice agency and I am really excited to begin using all the things God has placed in my life over the past 11 years to help people transition from this world to the next one. I - and my board - believe this is a natural progression of the circumstances God has engineered in my life. It will mean a slight change in how ministry will happen in FPM. I will continue the prayer chain, mentoring and teaching Bible study and hopefully Sunday school in my local church but will cut down on my traveling and retreat ministry. Each opportunity will be prayerfully considered based on the time constraints of my patients and my schedule.

Billy and I have loved our move to Rockwall. We ride around in our golf cart or our boat, eat out, have some wonderful new friends who like to stay active socially and we have great old friends who come to Rockwall to hang out with us. We love being close to our boys and their wives and we are enjoying this time of good health in our empty nest. I never thought I would enjoy empty nesting. :)

We found out right before Christmas that my stepdad of 29 years has a malignant brain tumor. It looks like 2010 will begin with another member of our family making a journey to heaven. He is ready to meet his Lord and his wife and we are blessed that we know our family is going to be together forever.

So at the end of 2009 and all its changes - sad and glad - I want to leave you with a Christmas wish for blessings in whatever circumstances you face. May you know in the deepest part of your heart that you are dearly loved by your heavenly Father. That nothing is impossible with Him. That any and everything He has allowed in your life will be worked for your good and His glory. That you would settle that on this side of your circumstance. We have no clue what 2010 will bring but I have a feeling it will carry its share of good and bad. But we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. I wish you joy my friends. I wish you peace. But most of all I wish you Jesus. May 2010 find you more in love with Him!

God bless you - I love you - See you in 2010!!

Christmas Turnaround

Over-spending
Over-eating
Over-scheduling
Over-stimulated
Sometimes the excess of Christmas makes us wish for the simplicity of the original. I happen to think maybe that's a good thing. Not the simplicity - the excess that makes us long for the simple. We long for a turn-around. And the original Christmas WAS a turnaround.

For over 400 years there had been silence from God - no dreams, no visions, no prophetic utterances. And silence was going to give way to a sonic boom:

As God became man
As a virgin became pregnant
As a political decree turned into a divine proclamation
As the darkness became light
As shepherds became leading men
As angels became heralds; and
As a single star became a guiding light.

A REVERSAL - divinely orchestrated; and deliberate.

Christmas originally was INTENTIONAL. The original marketing strategy was one of mystery and revelation - NOT hype and fanfare. Shrouded in prophecy and overshadowed by expectation - NOT advertisement and commercialism.

Earth was on a collision course with Divinity and an invasion was staged. God Himself came to earth and He was on a rescue mission. The lost needing saving. The creation needed a Creator who could redeem what was ruined. And a reversal was staged:

A Creator became a human being
A Redeemer became a baby
and the stage was set:

"And it came to pass that a decree went out from Cesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed...."

So familiar and yet ....so under-thought! It was a plan beyond anything we could conceive. How did it begin:

With a decree that a census should be taken for the sake of taxes - how very mundane and political!

With a virgin becoming impregnated - how very unlikely!

With a baby being born in a world that had no room for him - how very sad!

With an announcement that a redeemer and king had entered the world being given to the lowest on the economic and social ladder - how very unorthodox!

A REVERSAL - divinely orchestrated; and deliberate.

He came in obscurity - under the cover of 400 years of silence and in the womb of a peasant girl - He will return on a cloud with trumpets blaring.

He came to rescue a world lost in sin - He will return to rapture a people saved.

He came in darkenss - He will return in blazing light.

He came and only a few knew - He will return and all will know.

He came and the world killed Him - He will return and every knee will bow.

He came to save us - He will return to take us.

He came because we were lost - He will return because we are found.

He came a s a baby - He will return as a King.

It is the reversal the world hinged on. But He didn't just reverse Himself. We - because of His coming, because of Christmas - have been reversed:

We were dead - now we live.

We were in darkness - now we are in the light.

We were sinners - now we are His righteousness.

We were lost - now we are found.

We were without hope - now we have hope.

We were unable to see or hear - now we see and hear with spirit eyes and ears.

We were paupers - now we are princesses.

We were beggars - now we can boldly go.

We were timid - now we are powerful.

We were the least - now we are the first.

We were the alienated - now we are inheritors of an unshakable kingdom.

We were separated - now nothing can separate us.

We were nameless - now our names are engraved on His hands.

We were despised - now we are infinitely loved.

A REVERSAL - that is the story of Christmas. Where an invasion took place, a kingdom was reclaimed and a reversal of fortune began.

How fitting then that we should go outside our doors and see a different reversal - commercialism, greed, cynicism, frenzy for the beauty, simplicity and purity of the real Christmas. It doesn't need to make you bitter, angry, cynical or irritated. It is fitting. It is right. It is truth. It is a reminder of the first Christmas - the real meaning of Christmas - when one day - the final reversal will take place and Baby Jesus will give way to King Jesus, the redeemed of the Lord will rule and reign and the stable gives way to a New Jerusalem.

So as you shop, cook, schedule and eat - smile softly to yourself. A reversal is coming!

Till Death Do Us Part

Billy and I met in May of 1973 at our senior class day at Six Flags over Texas. I was dating his best friend and he made me mad and Billy moved right on in and the rest is history! Six months later we were married on my 19th birthday. It scared my parents to death and left our high school friends at the lottery wheel betting on "how long will they last?"

I was your spoiled first-born, blonde-haired, blue-eyed cheerleader who did well in school and was an overachiever. Billy was the third-born, LONG-haired, brown-eyed playboy who tolerated school and just wanted to have fun! We were both 19 and from markedly different environments.

Several years ago I was approached by a youth group director who wanted me to come and share my marriage "story." I gulped and said I was probably not the one who needed to come and talk to young, impressionable minds with my story. She looked at me with great compassion and said, "Oh, did you have to get married?" That was probably the ONLY thing we did right. :)

We are a miracle. We are a living, breathing example that there is such a thing as true love from puppy love. Our marriage is nothing short of miraculous. I have no dramatic tales of fighting, separations or falling-outs! We started out as dumb kids madly in love with each other and grew to be the closest of friends who are madly in love with each other and the family we have - with God's help - created.

We have survived the best of days: a whirlwind courtship and marriage, the birth of three beautiful sons, watching each other become the godly people we were created to be, starting a ministry together and having the good health to enjoy these empty nest days surrounded by wonderful friends and family.

We have survived the worst of days: putting each other through college, a traumatic job loss, several unplanned and unwanted moves and the relocation of one son to heaven.

This man and I have shared so much together. We have grown up and grown old by each other's side and no one knows the joys and sorrows that have tied our souls together like we do. That is the heart of marriage. But more than that it is a commitment to stay when 'the worst of days' seem to go on with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Perhaps that is the biggest perk to growing old - you learn the light will always come. It may take a while - a long while - but it always comes. He always comes.

I sure wouldn't recommend getting married at 19 after knowing someone only 6 months but I'm sure grateful I did it! Wherever you may be in your marriage today I pray that you will hold on to one another. It is so worth it.

Happy Anniversary Billy!

Giving Thanks

It's Thanksgiving week and we are celebrating one year in Rockwall. It is a fitting time to be thoughtful about where we are and where we've come from. Thanksgiving was officially declared a national holiday in order for Americans to look back on our heritage - to remember those early British settlers who chose a hard and rigorous new country in order to have religious freedom. Because of their sacrifices we have the right to call ourselves Americans. Our country is not perfect but it is the best country in the world and many, many thousands of people would give anything to live here. I am so grateful to be an American.

I love our new city. We are close to our children and that is a huge blessing. They drop in on us frequently and meals together, shopping trips, movies, game nights - are no longer rare occurences. What a joy adult children are. We have a new church family and they have been so loving and accepting of us. We do lots of things together and you wouldn't know that we were the new people. We live on a golf course and by a marina. So we have lots of fun things to do.

I have to thank God for Billy's new job. He works for a wonderful company that values their employees in every way. He gets to travel a lot and I get to go. We've met so many lovely people and just this last week as we flew home from Tuscan and I was so sick, one of his fellow employees went to the sky mall store and bought me a neck pillow for the flight home. That's the calibre of people he works for.

We have had much loss and sorrow in the past year also. My mom and dad went home. My brother has had three back surgeries and many complications. My stepdad has a brain tumor. We still mourn the loss of our Justin. And yet, God has been faithful to sustain us, to comfort us, to continue to reveal Himself to us. We are filled with the hope of the day we are reunited. We are living in the kingdom today. We are anticipating with great hope all that God has prepared for us.

This Thanksgiving our children will be with their in-laws and we will be celebrating with our church family/friends who are also 'alone' for the holidays. We have discovered a 'new' life in our 'new' town and it is different. Different for me because I am accustomed to fretting and worrying. My new life - my choosing to live in the kingdom life - is finding joy in the now. Accepting the good in the life I have and refusing to dwell on the difficult. It's not that life isn't hard, it's just that this is not all there is and THAT is what I am the most thankful for.

So I am thankful. Thankful. Thankful. And before I wrap up this post, let me say - I am thankful for you - my friends. You are the greatest. I love you and I pray God blesses you mightily.

The Kingdom of God

OK, I know, I know. I'm really behind in my blogging. Believe it or not, it's not because I'm doing nothing, it's because I'm doing SOMETHING! God has gotten a hold of me like nobody's business and I have truly been meditating on it, contemplating it and down-right reveling in it!!! Let me explain where I think the epiphany began.

It was close to Justin's birthday. Always a sad time for me. I seem to stop any hint of forward progress and regress around his birthday, the anniversary of his departure and holidays. I was lying in bed - more like hunkered down with the covers over my head whining about 'my lot in life' when I heard God speak into my spirit, "Do you really think your plan for his life was better than mine?"

I couldn't move and I knew it was God because my spirit seemed to immediately answer for me - a resounding "YES!" But I - the spiritual Sherrie - knew better. I knew that was the wrong answer. I had to come up with something pious and spiritual. Funny thing about your spirit though - it's woefully HONEST. :) So while my woman was attempting to cover over, my spirit sat smugly forcing me to agree - "Yes, Lord. I think my way would have been better."

Ladies, it was a mind-blowing, life-changing moment. I can't say lightening flashed but a light did come on in my spirit. Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew how wrong I had been. How faulty my thinking was. How shallow my dreams for Justin's life and my family's life had been. The audacity of ME! To think I knew better based on what I was 'feeling.'

And what has happened since then has been nothing short of amazing. I have moved from the valley of the shadows into the Kingdom of God. The only shadow I see is His over me! It is miraculous. It is mind-blowing.

You see, the truth of the matter is - I think it took more power to heal my heart and soul than it did for God to raise Justin from the dead! We are so busy looking for the physical "fix" that we don't recognize the spiritual one.

I guess the true test will be the rapidly approaching holidays and one empty stocking. But grief with hope is life-enabling and grief without hope is death to the soul.

Take that word from God to me and allow it to plant a seed in your heart. Whatever you are stewing over right now. Whatever has been allowed to steal your peace or your joy. "Do you really think your plan is better than His for your life?" It begins with honesty and ends with a choice to move from the darkness to the light. It is a conscious decision that will need re-affirming until it becomes habit.

One days these eyes of faith will have sight. Until that day I am seeking Him for all I'm worth. I'm choosing Him - above all else. Just like a little child - my hand is clutched tightly in the hand that will not let me go. He is my all in all.

In my mind's eye I can already envision the day Justin and I will dance like two-years olds down streets of gold to the laughter of One who rescued us from the fall and redeemed us to His glory. Until He calls me, I will faithfully serve Him on this earth - to the praise of His glory. I can almost hear them in unison right now saying, "Bout time, sister. Live!"

NANCY - I mean - TINA NURSE

My little sister just got accepted into nursing school!!! I am so very proud of her. For starters - she had to go back to college after a L O N G hiatus and she has maintained a 4.0 GPA. She's also had a grandbaby during that time, helped to care for our dad and mother, grieved their losses, went through a major relocation, held down a full time job plus worked diligently for her church and she is 51!!! Did I mention they only accepted 50 students?

Tina is the middle child of our family. She will tell you it was a hard spot to be in. I kinda think it made her who she is today. Anyway.....she will be an awesome nurse. She's old enough to know what she wants and she's been around the block enough to know how to treat people and to empathize with their hurts. She's young enough - in all the ways that matter - to contribute a lot to the medical community. I can't wait to see where God places her. I dread to hear her tell me how "long" I've been out of nursing and how "behind" the times I am. One of the trials I will have to bear over the next two years. :)

So here's to my sister!! Way to go DD! We are so proud of you. We knew you could do it. You are a marvel.