Patti Is Home!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 02:27 PM, CDT

Well...... SHE IS HOME!!!!!!!! When she walked in her house she broke down and started to cry, overwhelmed of being back home and thanking the Lord for making it possible.
She'll update you when she gets stronger, in the meantime, I'll continue to do so.

God bless you prayer warriors, keep praying!

Raisa
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I was thrilled to read the above posting in my email this afternoon. I know that after so many days in the hospital, home is such a comfort. Thank you again for all your prayers and concern for my sweet friend.

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We had a wonderful mid-week service at our church last night. A young, visiting evangelist by the name of Jason Tester, presented an awesome sermon which made us consider this question:
"What are you doing with your sins? You are either CONFESSING them, or COVERING them!" Of course, he was speaking mostly to saved individuals who have already accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

He shared a couple of his failures when he, as a Christian teen and later as a pastoral college student, had tried to cover his sins rather than dealing with them. His transparancy had each one of us listening attentively and tears were shed as we saw how his sins were found out and he had to deal with them eventually. The teens of our church were in the service rather than in the back classroom, in their usual Wednesday night setting. I am so glad, because much food for thought was offered them in last night's sermon. I was also taken back in time to occassions I had sinned and tried to cover them. Then once that thing had been brought to light, and made right through true confession, oh what joy, what delight!

One of the illustrations given by Bro. Tester last night was at the end of his sermon. When in college, he came face to face with the guilt of a couple of UNCONFESSED sins he had committed while in high school and still living at home. Finally, after allowing the Holy Spirit to really get ahold of his heart and work in his life, he confessed to the Lord his sin he had been hiding for 7 years. He then wrote a long, heart felt letter to his dad, being honest and including his first pay check to pay his dad back for some money he had stolen for basketball shoes and later track shoes. His dad called him after receiving the letter and check and said, "Jason, I knew you had taken that money." Jason said back to his father, "Why didn't you tell me you knew?" Guess how his father responded? "Jason, I was simply waiting for you to come to me first!" Our Heavenly Father feels the same way as Jason's dad did! He loves us so, but waits patiently for us to come to Him with our sins and confessions. We can never simply HIDE our sins from God.

Of course, the amazing scripture of Psalm 66:18 was used, "If I regard iniquity(sin) in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

Another point that was put forth very clearly was this: to have good success and a prosperous life, we must maintain the right relationship with our Lord. We wonder why our lives are falling apart sometimes and it seems things just aren't going well for us, but we aren't in the Word daily, we have no real prayer life, we aren't faithful to the house of God, we aren't sharing our faith, God is on the back burner until Sunday morning. Joshua 1:8 says: "This book of the law shall depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to ALL that is written therein: for then thou shalt make they way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

I've learned through my life as a Christian that God certainly blesses OBEDIENCE! It isn't always easy to do what I know is right, but it is rewarding!