May 2, 2009

Greetings My Friend,

The desire in my heart is to share Jesus with people. In Jesus, I have found a peace that passes all understanding. I can face each day now, when at one point in my life, getting out of bed was a major chore.

Listening to the Holy Spirit can be challenging at times. He does not have an audible voice; it is hard to know if God is talking to me or if Satan is. I find that daily Bible reading, prayer and fellowship with other believers helps me in my faith journey with the Lord. God teaches me that life is not only about hanging out with other believers; I must reach out to those who do not know Jesus and try hard to bring Jesus to others as well. Through the years, I have also learned that hitting people over the head with the Bible does not generally open the door for Jesus to enter in.

God is teaching me that I have talent. Most of my life, I have felt like the low end of a totem pole – not important, not impressive etc. I have done a couple of Spiritual Assessment tests. I find that I am an encourager. I love being a “cheerleader,” for people. I had a fight recently with someone I love dearly. I mentioned how I try to tell him, anyone who will listen how much he has done, come through. He did not think much of my “cheerleading,” on his behalf. That hurt a lot. It was like a sucker punch in the stomach. I was giving him my heart and he did not want it.

The Holy Spirit is teaching me that even though, I give love, it doesn’t mean that my love will be received. God is the same way. He loves each one of us as if we were the only person in the world. That amazes me. In Jesus, I find that I am precious. I also know that anyone who walks with Jesus feels exactly the same way. God has given each of us the opportunity to love Him and to be loved by Him. If we choose not to, well…. There will be a day that we must choose and that choice has an eternal consequence.

After the elections last fall Junior and I began to sense that it is time to move. We started talking about living in another state at the same time. I wanted to move, Junior wanted to move. It was strange because we both felt it was time to move. We also felt that Michigan may be seeing some more hard times – tougher times. When the citizens voted to experiment on the unborn, who were to be aborted, God may be unhappy and is going to bring a judgment upon this state. We felt that God was telling us to move to another state completely. It is strange because we both have been in Michigan for the brunt of our lives. Our children are here, our friends are here, and our lives have been lived here for decades.

We went to prayer to make sure we understood what we were sensing. We did a fleece prayer. When Gideon was told to go fight, he was not sure, so he put fleece on the ground and asked God to make it wet if he was to go fight. The next day, he asked God to make the ground wet and the fleece dry. God answered both questions and Gideon knew to go to battle. God was with Gideon and he won the battle. We asked God if we were to move. We sensed that we were to move. We began putting our house in order. We put it up for sale. A rental home became available in Virginia. It is in a beautiful area. It is near a river. It is a valley and the other side is a mountain that goes straight up. We prayed again, and sensed that we were to take the house. We have secured the home. We wait for our home to sell at this point.

We now wait for God to sell our home. If it does not sell, well we come back to Michigan. We believe that God will use us in Virginia as well. Our new calling is not real clear yet. Still we step out in faith. I must say that I am excited and scared.

May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.

I have used the following Scriptures; I try hard to let God’s Word to speak me as I write. My prayer is that I introduce Scripture, prayer and a walk with the Lord, so that you may know Jesus. Even more important, I pray that you accept Jesus into your heart. I love you.

Love

Janet

Judges 6:36 – 40

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised- Look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened, Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.