Stop Blaming God

By: Jim Shoffstall

“A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord.” (Proverb 19: 3)

Every now and then I enter the cyber-civilization known as “Facebook”.  I and many of my friends are very open about our faith in Christ and love for God.  We often post messages sharing how the Lord is working in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

That’s when the inevitable happens.  Someone who rejects God takes the opportunity to interject their thoughts on the subject:

What God?  Why should I believe in God?  He’s never done anything for me! 

If there truly is a God, why did he allow my life to become such a mess? 

Now there have been times early in my life when I shared that sentiment.  I got myself involved in some bad relationships which made my life seem impossible to live.  During those times when Christians approached me wanting to share the Gospel with me I had no problem telling them what to do with their so called “gospel”.

Then one day I grew up and realized something; God didn’t make a mess of my life.

I did a pretty good job of that on my own.

Whether it was my refusal to weigh the advice of my parents and elders as a young man, or just my own lack of willingness to exercise good judgment the simple truth of the matter is this:

By nature I am a sinner in both thought and action.

As a result I sought pleasure in all the wrong places.  I chose the wrong people to engage in relationships with.  My lack of compassion toward others would occasionally take a calm situation and turn it into something explosive. Impatience came back to bite me in the rear as well.  Bottom line; my responses to the situations I encountered in this life were often sinful.  Had I known how to respond properly I could have saved myself from suffering so many “stress” headaches.

The truth is I knew how I should have responded in each and every situation in my adult life.  I just chose to act inappropriately.  My heart was full of sin and that manifest itself in my interactions with others.  So is it God’s fault that I behaved improperly?  Absolutely not!  All of us will have 2 methods of response to choose from in any given situation in our daily lives:

 

• We can reject God’s way and respond with a sinful nature;
• We can submit to God’s way and begin to respond in a Christ like nature.

 

If we want life in this world to be less complicated, then we need to start to make better decisions.  We need to begin to do things God’s way.  He doesn’t promise a life without pain, however that pain will serve a purpose and we will be made stronger as a result.

Don’t blame God when you finances are in a shambles because you have overspent your income.

Don’t blame God when your marriage is a wreck because you refuse to remain faithful to your wife.

Don’t blame God because you are in prison because you chose to steal something that wasn’t yours.

We need to man up and accept accountability for our own actions.  We can’t submit to a culture which encourages the passing of blame to others for our mistakes.  God wants to bless us however he will not bless sinful conduct!  So the next time the thought that “God has never done anything for me” consider this:

 

• God owes us nothing!
  1. God sent his Son, Jesus, into this world to become an atoning sacrifice for my sins. A debt that I would have no hope of ever paying has been cancelled thanks be to God and the precious blood of Jesus.  Do you want to know what God did for you?  Watch Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ”.  Watch what Jesus went through during the crucifixion and then (and ONLY then) say to me “God never did anything for me”.

 

• We deserve nothing other than judgment!
  1. As children who disobey their parents deserve punishment, so I, one who has been willfully disobedient to God deserve punishment as well. Have we as a culture become foolish enough to believe we can defy the God who created us and yet turn and demand blessing from him?

 

Instead of being angry at a God who loves us, we need to direct that anger at the sin in our lives which is the root of our problems.  So let’s try to turn things around: instead of hating God and loving sin, try loving God and hating sin.  I’d be willing to bet things will begin to get a lot better.

 

In Jesus’ name,

JS

Jim is guest writer for Right Turn Ministries, and as always, we appreciate his willingness to share the words God has laid on his heart.

In the Bible, there is a parable about 2 people who build homes…one builds on solid rock, and the other builds on sand…..you know the story….it’s an oldie but goodie. If you don’t know it, here is a quick verse about it. It simply says a wise man builds his house on rock while a foolish man builds his house on sand.

The Wise and Foolish Builders

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”-Matt 7:24-27 NIV

 

How many of you just read that passage and thought it was only about building your house on Jesus Christ?  While that is true, there is another message here that cannot be overlooked….an important message that we as Christians, often want to forget or are deceived about.  That message is simply this:  STORMS HIT BOTH HOUSES.

It doesn’t matter if you have built your life on Jesus Christ or if you have built your life around the adversary, the storms of life WILL hit both houses.  What the difference, is, though, is whose house will remain standing when the storm passes and the sun is shining once again.  Do not fool yourselves to think that once you give your life Christ and decide to be a follower of Jesus that the storms will never hit your house….that is a lie of the devil.  How do I know?  Because my house has been hit.  Thank goodness I was in a good place spiritually to realize that storms come to Christians as well as non Christians.  What I learned in the storms of my life is that I am grateful I have a faith built on the Rock, so that when that storm comes, I will remain intact. It is those storms that we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and not the storm.  Much like Peter, we all want to take our eyes off Christ and instead watch the waves.  What would happen if we all decided the storms of life had no power over us and we were going to keep our eyes permanently fixed on the One who can calm those waves?

I recently returned from an impromptu trip to Honduras. Normally, we take teams down for a week at a time, we have months and months of planning, time to raise money, time to get things organized.  This trip, though, was needed outside of those normal “mission trip” weeks.  It was the kind of trip where you don’t have time to plan, raise money, or get your ducks in a row.  It was the kind of trip where a tickets were obtained and we were off and running.  It was while I was there, that God really showed me about the Storms of Life….all through 2 little boys.  These 2 boys met each other for the first time in our hotel. They have so much in common for the young age of 6….read about my experience with them over 2 days.

If you think you are exempt from the Storms of Life, just ask these little guys about storms…..they have so much to teach us old farts.

This is what I posted on social media last weekend:

Something captured my heart today. It was these 2 boys. Boys who are the same age, and recently just met each other but have so much in common…
Both recently lost their mothers to death too early….
Both are now being raised by single fathers (very rare in Honduras)…
Both boys have had Jesus poured in to them their whole life….
Both have the heart of gold.
Today they learned a life lesson while learning to swim…. At 1st in the beginning, they did not want to let go of the side of the pool.. After much coaxing, one finally let go..and doggie paddled 3 feet to where i was waiting with open arms. Of course when one went, the other soon followed. Over the course of 2 days in the swimming pool these 2 young boys went from not wanting to get into the pool to swimming almost 20 yd by themselves….as long as they could see me, their confidence grew and stretched the limits of their trust and faith. When they took their eyes off of me, even for a second, the lost their confidence and began to sink. Of course, I was right there to scoop them up from their sinkfall, and then they would go at it again.
When they were finally exhausted, lungs tuckered out, arms like jello, and they just had no more left to give, I had the chance to hold one on each hip and tell them that today proved they could do anything….as long as their eyes are on the right thing…and that thing is Jesus. I remind them that much like swimming…they we watching for me, but in life, they will have to watch for Jesus and they will have to always keep their on Jesus, because He, like me, in the pool, will always be there to catch them, but if they take their eyes off Him they will fall and sink.
I think they understood that simple concept.
Kids get it.
Friends made for life!
Luis and Jonathan…two boys…two tragedies…two boys I already know God has BIG plans for!

I was trying to think of how to best summarize our latest venture to Honduras, but quite honestly, it’s just so hard to describe.  First of all, let me begin by saying we had an amazing team of 8 women. Each spiritually gifted in their very own unique way. I think that is one reason the trip was so successful.  When you allow God to work through people in the spiritual gifts He gave them, only great things can happen.

It was clear from the get go, that writing and journaling about our trip was the spiritual gift that Carrie Gaxiola had been given. With her permission, I am going to summarize our week through her eyes….the eyes of a first time, out of the country missionary.  I pray her words touch your heart.

Day One: long flights, mechanical delays in Atlanta getting 3 hours off schedule, busy loading supplies in Chuck’s truck, armed guards all over the airport, wonderfully kind Honduran people, participated in a home study, Bible study participants received prayer shawls made by the ladies of our church, adventures in getting lost trying to find the home study and SLEEP! It was a great first day!

Honduras Day 2: Today I learned that Honduran time is “10 minutes” and “10 minutes” equals two hours, at the paint store, at the market, at the restaurant… We learned that a missionary will save all they can to take care of the children, even a few pennies for white paint. We bought colored paint for those precious girls’ room and that was simply enough to make them smile. We have amazing interpreters. Honduras is a beautiful country, I learned that 2 gringas don’t want to walk around the Mercado and not speak the language, even if you’re only 6 feet from our vehicle and lastly, the poorest of the poor love deeply and give the most. My teammates did all the painting and organizing. I played soccer, frisbee and bathed poopy bottoms, but fell in love with the sweetest of God’s babies. I’m beat. And we’ll get up and do it again!! ❤️❤️ Oh and monkeys named Pancho are a little intimidating

                         

Honduras Day #3: I woke up to the church bells ringing this morning. What a beautiful sound. We gathered for breakfast together anticipating a slower day with ministry but not unproductive. We attended our sister church in San Pedro Sula. What beautiful people! I learned that a concrete building in the middle of the barrio is a host to many people worshipping and falling in love with Jesus. No frills, no air conditioning. Just gathered for one purpose. We learned in the Honduran neighborhoods they schedule power outages lasting all day, 8 am to 5 pm. Well, today was the day for this little church to have a power outage. Did they complain? No, not even in 85 degree heat. We all just set out today to do what we came to do… worship God. Well, about 10 minutes into the service, the power came on! I can’t explain what some of us felt at that moment! It was electrifying. We wept at the goodness of God in such a gracious act of His plan of changing a “planned” power outage! Amazing! We left church, our ministry leaders were given funds to buy food, so they went and bought hundreds of pounds of food. We bagged beans and rice to take to the orphanage, river barrio and sponsor families. Jesus fed people. He cared about their needs. Still does; He just uses us to meet those needs. We took a little break and went to the Monkey Park. I still don’t want a monkey for a pet. 🐒 We stopped at a roadside stand, got a real coconut cracked open to drink the milk and fresh pineapple. It’s a beautiful place. I can see past some things that might seem awful to most of us. I see humanity that needs true love. I hope I’m helping to pass on even a little. Until tomorrow…

                

Honduras Day 4- Post #1. I have to do this in 2 posts today. This one is called Raw Humanity. I have struggled with being a first time mission trip traveler. What would I see, how would I feel, would I just be another “do-gooder” patting myself on the back because I wanted to feel better about myself. Not today. Today I was broken to being speechless. I’m still reeling. Never have I really felt the pain of such raw humanity as I did today. The squalor, the makeshift shacks with no hope for better. Handing out toys, beans and rice, toothbrushes, clothing. What could possibly improve this? One beautiful soul in one of these photos said thank you, God bless you, in Spanish. We hugged and got a kiss of gratitude from this old woman that may have known no other life. Another lady wanted to know if we were giving the duffel bags that held our goods. We said no, we had to have something to put things in when we came back next time. She said, ok, you remember, you will come back. She knew the teams had been before. A little hope in her heart. Another lady said thank you for making us happy-today. In the heart of people is the need to be loved. To be remembered. These people and their circumstances may or may not change. I can’t say I understand it. But Jesus reached out to their hearts and said, I remember you. Today. My prayer is they will wake up in the morning and the next and they will remember. But for today, He made them happy.

Honduras Day #5: part 1.

We started the day with breakfast, visiting with a young man that had been living on the wrong side of life but met Cheryl and her team last year. God has turned his life around! Mario is his name and he has a girlfriend and baby. They tell me he is a new person because of love and the gospel. Next we went to the public school where our sister church’s pastor teaches. The children made us all pictures and welcomed us. We handed out supplies and had a sweet time with the kids. You see, in Honduras, if you can’t purchase a uniform or supplies, you don’t go to school. Period. Many children cannot go to school because of this. There is a photo of two boys looking in at the school gate. They have no means to go and learn. The playground is what you see and the classrooms are fairly simple. Thank God we have what we do! Today I pray these children we continue their education because we helped a little bit. We really are so blessed.

  Mario    !Rocco.  He is still a work in progress, but we make sure we to keep on loving Him!

 

The public school setting…the teacher, Dina has to supply her students with all of their supplies from her own pocket, so we came in with backpacks and school supplies…and of course, like the American Aunties we felt we were, we also loaded them up with candy…..and left them for Dina!  🙂

 

          

 

Honduras Day 5: Part 2. I’ll call this The Faces of Jeremiah 29:11 Mission. This place is a place where 2 people were called by God to leave what they knew in America and take in the “least of these”. Children who’s parents died, were abused severely in every way, homeless, broken, battered. Society’s throw aways, but not God’s. God’s treasures, the ones His heart breaks for. Children with disabilities (my little friend, Fernando, had a seizure in our arms today 😢), children with severe medical and emotional needs, people of humanity that need love. These are the faces of this house, no wait, this home where love abides. I am in awe of how Chuck and Joyce have hearts so big. I am in awe of how they live day to day seeing God meet their needs for their 40+ babies, children and a few women. I’m in awe of a God who says, even in our pride, He says He is pleased when we care for the orphans and widows. This has been a continually humbling experience. I won’t be the same. I’m not sure what that will look like, but these children have left an imprint on my heart. What is imprinting your heart today? May it be something that will change your world!

{WARNING….Kleenex may be needed here….}

Honduras Day #6: Last day in this beautiful country. What a whirlwind adventure! I have felt every emotion this week: pure joy, overwhelming sadness, smatterings of fear, immense gratitude and a sense of wonder at how a people can live day to day oppressed by their government, some in abject poverty, unknown futures, and so much more. Yet they get up each morning and face the day. We started and ended our day handing out Bibles. In less than 10 minutes we handed out 9 cases (about 220 Bibles) across the street at the park that is always full of people. We are coming home with no Bibles. They are all in the hands of many Hondurans. Thank God. We then took about 45+ children from the Jeremiah 29:11 Home and some of the sponsor children and their families to the most beautiful beach to just play. And they did! It was amazing to hear their laughter, watch their sweet faces, have splash wars with them and just rejoice that they could be kids. You should have heard little Fernando as he sat in the ocean water. He just hummed the whole time, grinned and grinned. The ocean is already my happy place but today it was music I’d never heard; the music of the heart. The heart that longs to be loved and longs to be free. Today those little hearts made beautiful music. Today I’m praying one heart that received a Bible will hear the God of all creation singing over them through His word and they will know True Love. It’s been a good, good trip. Seeds were planted, hearts were touched. Today.

This is FERNANDO.  He cannot speak.  Sometimes words are not necessary!

This young lady has to use a walker to get around, so our team carried her to the water, set her on a plastic tub so she could enjoy the ocean water.

Jenny lives in a wheelchair. She too, was carried to the ocean front so she could expericene just being a kid in the ocean!

 

Daniel loves showing off.  When we first met Danie last July, he wouldn’t even look at us. Now look at him.  He is ALL MUSCLE!

Sometimes you just have to sit back and say, “WOW, God, You sure do amazing work”

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Thank you, Carrie Gaxiola, for sharing your heart.  We believe that God gave you an amazing spirtual gift and we thank you for for being so open and vulnerable in your thoughts and words.

If your heart has been even remotely touched by Carries story and you want to get involved, we would love to have you join our team.  We have lots of room at our table.  It takes a full tribe to run a ministry like ours.  It takes people to be boots on the ground…those who go and do.  It takes those who are willing to stay behind and do all the behind the scenes things, like help with fundraising, social media, grant writing, etc. It takes people willing to stand in the gap and PRAY.  No matter what your spiritual gift is, we have a place for you.

To all of you out there, we at Right Turn Ministries want you to know that we exist because of YOU!  Your continued financial support allows us to go in to Honduras and make an impact for Jesus.  100% of your gift is used to connect people with Christ.  We are proud that we are ministry that can proudly proclaim that.  Our board members willingly donate their personal funds to cover all of the ministry administrative fees.  By doing so, that allows 100% of your gift to go straight to work on connecting people with Christ and not on things like letterhead, websites, and daily business fees. We pay for our own trips to Honduras and we never use ministry funds to cover our own personal expenses.  We are transparent in all we do, and we proud to say that we have received the Gold Seal rating from Guide Star, a governing body who monitors all non profit organizations.

If you would like to be a part of what we are doing, give us a shout out. We would love to have you on our team.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can do that here, on the website.  We are headed back to Honduras in July 2018 where we will be building a fish pond for the Jeremiah 29:11 Mission House. We anticipate the cost of that to be around $5,000.  If you want to make a difference in the life of a child, then we pray that you will consider giving.  Take a look at the faces above…THESE are the faces that fish pond will feed for years to com.

May God Bless You All!!

Cheryl

 

This past July, 23 of us boarded up and headed down to Honduras. We brought with us kids from the Sr. High, adults young and old, and tons of supplies.  Some us had to make a 4.5 hr trek to Chicago to catch a great airfare deal, while others had to trek down to Nashville, TN to get decent airfare.  Either way, we got to Honduras!

Our week started out running and well, we never stopped.  We arrived Friday afternoon, after being up for almost 24 hours straight, we were dead tired…no other way to put it.  Once we settled in and unpacked, we wasted no time in getting to work.  Friday night found us enjoying a bite to eat, then visiting one of our in home Bible Studies where we were welcomed with open arms.

Saturday it was up early…no sleeping in for this group.  We boarded 3 vehicles, one of which was a massive open air truck that our younger people loved riding in the back of. Us more “seasoned” folks opted for the vans.  1 hour on the road and we found ourselves at the Jeremiah 29:11 Mission complex.  I cannot even begin to describe this place.  It is…well…unbelievable.  It sits behind a large concrete wall that surrounds their grounds for protection. It has a great big, tall guard tower, and it sits on a road that is mostly controlled by the horrific MS-13 gang.  We were fortunate not to have any encounters with these folks, though.

When we pulled in, you could immediately sense the presence of the Lord.  It was in the facility, it was in it’s owners, Chuck and Joyce Harper, it was in the faces of the 50+ children they serve.

Our job for the week was to build chicken coops.  We wanted a way for this facility to become more self sufficient and by building them coops, we realized we could provide them with chickens, which would give them a lifetime of sustainability in meat and eggs.  While some of our team members got to work on the coops, others spent their time loving on babies, playing with the kids, and painting some of the unfinished rooms.  At one point there was a soccer keep away game with their German Shepherd guard dog, there was softball lessons, and lots of tag.  We also had some amazing youth put their violin talents to use and give the kids an impromptu concert.

At the end of the day, 6 chicken coops were built, painting was accomplished, we were tired, hot, sweaty, yet none of us really wanted to leave. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t been there, but there was just an overwhelming presence of Jesus all around, and we all fell in love with not only the facility, but with every single child who resided there.  I am pretty sure some of our youth never put down the babies.

On Sunday, we attended a local United Methodist Church, where our very own Zack Funk brought a strong message of faith to their attendees.  The church was packed, the music was loud, and Jesus showed up in a way that is indescribable here.

After church, we headed to the local barrios and the riverfront where we handed out over 400 lbs of beans and rice to hungry people, we put more than 200 pairs of flip flops on bare feet, and gave Bibles to over 100 people who are so desperate to read the word of God.  After we ran out of supplies, we took a slight detour and found ourselves at a Monkey Park…true story…it’s an open park that has all these monkeys….you can buy “monkey chips” for a few cents and feed them. There is a whole story about the Monkey Park and Zack Funk…but that is for a later story.  🙂

Monday, we found ourselves back at the Jeremiah 29:11 Mission where, while some team members went in search of a cow for the complex, while those who stayed behind ministered to the kids of the complex by just loving on them.  If you think that you have nothing to offer in the lines of ministering to others, I would encourage you to consider joining us sometime, and see how much you loving on a child will be a ministry!

Tuesday offered up a free day…after 4 days of 16 hour work days, they all deserved a break.  We headed to a local beach where everybody took in one of Gods greatest creations…the ocean.  We were able to hand out Bibles and Salvation tracks on the beach and minister in that way as well.

I wished I could do the trip justice by writing about it, but I just can’t….there is just no way to describe what happened that week.  I can tell you that mission work was done in the most unusual ways, peoples hearts were changed, lives were saved…both on our end and their end.  While we may think we were going down there to serve, there is no doubt that they served our souls way more than we ever gave.  Each person who went has their own story and experience.  It was different for all of us, yet the same.  We each encountered Christ in a unique way…whether it was from God bringing somebody to his knees while serving on a river front, or whether it was by something encountering Jesus because she loved on a young lady who had been beaten, gang raped, and thrown off a bridge and left to die…(before she came to Jeremiah’s place, that is), or perhaps it was when a team member was able to use his personal life experience to witness to a Honduran brother in crisis, or maybe it was from providing music by a simple violin….so many stories…so many experiences, each personal, each profound, each life changing!

I  hope to have some blogs coming up from some of the people who went….and maybe through their eyes you can see the experience we had. In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures…..

Blessings!

Cheryl

 

In 2009, the below devotion was written by my husband, Jim Shoffstall who was awaiting a kidney transplant. We found ourselves up against a faith battle. We had to make a choice…we could either believe God was going to clear the path or we could choose to live in self doubt. He never waivered! God cleared that path!

I bet you are wondering what does a kidney transplant have to do with this blog….well….nothing really,. except for the reality check needed for this wife!
Here is why I needed that reality check….

Recently, we started this new ministry, and over the past 3 months, I found myself living the later listed above…living in doubt that God could clear what I perceived as unmovable mountains. Yes, I am ashamed to publicly admit that, but it is true. Even though I have seen God do great things time and time again, over and over, and even up close and personal with my own husband, I still found myself battling the devil of doubt.

I do not have an answer to why that is. I do not know why I found myself letting the devil live rent free in my head. You would think that when a person sees God do something over and over and over, why would they ever doubt He wouldn’t do it for them? I don’t know why…but that was me. I was/am a Peter. I am a Thomas. I hate that about me. I pray every day that God takes that away from me…and He is doing his part…but I still keep battling Him…It’s like I say to God “yeah, that was great, but I now need to see something else”.

Anytime you step out in faith and do something that God has asked you to do, it is going to come with a cost, whether it be push back from people who don’t like what you are doing, hurt feelings from others who feel like you shouldn’t be doing what you are doing and/or, lost friendships,.. etc. I experienced them all…and well, to be honest, it was/is very hard for me. It is only natural to not want people to be mad at you or to not want people to not like you…and when it happens while you are doing God’s stuff, it is so easy to fall in to the trap I found myself living….telling myself :THIS IS NOT WORTH IT!! I CANNOT DO THIS! SERVING JESUS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HARD! I AM GOING TO QUIT!!!

When I shared the above words with my husband, he looked at me and well….he laughed…I mean…really laughed. I wanted to punch him…how dare he laugh at me when I am in the middle of pity party? After all, I sent him a personal invitation to join my party, and what kind of present does he bring??? He brings laughter That was so not funny to me.

But in that laughter, he gently reminded me that serving Jesus is NEVER easy, I CAN do this, and it IS worth it, and I WILL NOT QUIT! He then asked me if I remembered what happened to all of Jesus’ disciple “Cheryl”, he said, “Do you think it was easy for them? They were murdered for following Him….like beheaded kind of murdered!!”

He reminded me that at least I have that going for me… chances of me being beheaded are pretty slim…and he went on to reassured me that I will not rot away in prison like some of Jesus’ disciples did….so, again, in his unique way of loving me enough to tell me when I am wrong, he took me out of my pity party and invited me to look around and see what God had done for our ministry over the past few months:

– Cleared the way for us to take the HS Sr. High to a 3rd world country (that has never happened at our church before)

– Grew a vision from 1 in home Bible Study of 3 people, to now over 8 studies of 75 people (all of whom get fed after study) and is growing daily.

– Feeding program that has allowed people to not only hear about Jesus, but gets a fully belly afterwards

– 4 students who are receiving private, bilingual, Christian education

– 8 people baptized thus far (that”s more than some churches do all year)

– Provided 3 Godly Men from Christ Church who graciously offered to transport a van full of people to Chicago to catch a 4am flight..which means they drive overnight…both dropping us off and picking us up.

– Provided us with ample supplies to take down and unique ways in which they were provided:
– a WalMart associate who offered to mark down tennis shoes to $1 just so kids could have shoes
– kids who donated their piggy banks to buy flip flops
– a Church who willingly gave of $2 per person so cows could be purchased
– a private $$ donation from a non believer who said “While I may not believe in what you believe in, I do believe in YOU…now take this, and go change the world”

Jim is right, you know. God has moved so many “unmoveable” mountains. Shame of me for ever doubting. But I did. For that, I asked God to truly forgive my doubt that He could things I could never imagine.

Don’t be like me…Don’t ever doubt God….I promise, He is so much bigger than what we think is impossible. I wasted a lot of time worrying about things I shouldn’t have, crying over things I could not control, and stressing over things God had already taken care of…I just didn’t have the faith enough to see it or believe it.

Lord, I pray if there is anybody out there who sufferers from lack of faith like I do at times, I pray that you will remove ALL doubt. May their eyes be opened as wide as mine have been. Forgive us for when we doubt and guard our hearts and minds to keep the devil from ever trying to let us think You can’t do something like move a mountain!

Amen~
cheryl
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YE OF LITTLE FAITH
August 25, 2011 at 9:15pm

You of Little Faith

Originally posted December 30, 2009 by Jim Shoffstall

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:25-31)

It was this time last year when my wife, family, and friends were walking on water. We were preparing to experience the reality of the miracle which God had orchestrated in our lives. The wife of one of my closest friends was prepared to donate one of her healthy kidneys to me. Everything was ready to go.

That was when the tsunami his us.

We got a phone call that none of us ever thought we would receive. The surgeon who was to handle Mary’s end of the procedure had decided to disqualify Mary as a suitable donor due to the presence of an extra vessel on her kidney.

I recall that Mary was upset at the news.

My wife and Mother were devastated.

We had to announce to all who had made so many sacrifices to prepare us to receive this gift that our plans were to be put on hold.

My wife and Mary were both frustrated. My entire family had begun to question whether or not I had chosen the proper hospital and physicians to care for this old body.

I had to remind myself that it was God who had brought us to this point; and for that reason I knew that he would finish the work he has begun. I did my best to share with those around me the peace which I felt knowing that God was not finished yet. He just gave us a helping of wind and waves.

So we continued to wait and pray.

Several weeks later we received another phone call.

The Chief Surgeon of the Transplant Team reported that he would be able to perform the surgery necessary to “splice”

Mary’s two vessels into one making it compatible with my own vasculature. Dr. Garvin of St. Louis University Hospital was the answer to a lot of hearty prayers.

While in this world our faith in Christ will be put to the test. Things will seem to be going so well when all of a sudden; Wham! Something happens and we begin to feel like we’re sinking.

That something might be a sudden serious illness; or perhaps a lost job. It is during times such as those when our attention must remain focused on Christ (did you notice in today’s scripture that Peter didn’t start to sink until he took his eyes off of Jesus and started to look at the waves?). We must maintain faith that Jesus will not allow us to sink and drown.

The miracle God gave us went off without another hitch. Through a young lady named Mary god gave this undeserving sinner a new life. God allowed things to happen in his time, not ours. Our faith was tested. Some passed while some confessed failure. No matter, because when all is said and done:

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:32-33)

How about you? Has your faith ever been tested? How did you do?

God bless,

JS

I have been thinking a lot about God’s provision and how sometimes, we as flawed people can overlook a provision because it didn’t arrive in the pretty, perfect package that we had envisioned. We didn’t see the provision for what it was…a gift from God.

In my beginning years in leading ministry, I knew that I had to depend on God’s provision to provide for my ministry needs…after all, we are just everyday working people. It’s not like we have a bank account that an endless amount of 0000s at the end of our statement balance. There is a finite amount of money that resides in our account at US Bank, and unfortunately, that money does have to go other places….you know….every day things like a power bill, food, water, clothing….you know, those things we have to pay in order to survive.

That’s just the necessities…what about the wants?? You know, that bigger house, the newer car, that designer purse?? I won’t even go there on this blog….lol…that’s a WHOLE other issue.

God promised me if we would be faithful to Him, He would be faithful to us…He would provide for our needs. We see it time and time again in scripture:

Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

John 14:13-14 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

But what does that provision look like? And where does it say it will just be dropped in our lap?

In my earlier days in my walk with Jesus, I had this romantic idea that when God said He would provide for all of our financial needs, I truly in my heart of hearts thought he meant that money would just suddenly appear out of nowhere….you know, I thought it would be like the reality tv show Secret Millionaire or Undercover Boss….where somebody who was secretly wealthy, would see the good works we were doing, and they would show up at my door with a check or a brief case full of cash and simply say “Here…Take….Go change the world….”

Guess what?????
That didn’t happen.

So I may or may not have had a conversation with God that went something like this….

“Hey God…about this whole provision thing…I kept my end of the bargain and was faithful to do what you asked…so can you keep your end and start the provision fountain?????:

“Still no knock at my door God….Can you believe it?? I mean come on, God…where’s the secret rich guy….I know You must have him hiding somewhere close by……”

“No?? Really, God?? Are you sure?? Because I have seen the TV show….I have it saved on DVR if you want to watch an episode…..it works….it really it does…I saw it on ABC… So you see, God, all You have do is send this really rich person to me and BAM! Provision provided! How simple is that?”

“Wait?? What?? That’s not how it works?? Are you sure, God? Because again, I know what I saw on TV……”

“Jim’s overtime shift?? What about it? What does Jim working overtime have to do with this conversation?”

“That was a provision?? Are you serious? That wasn’t a provision…that was WORK……you know….. W>O>R>K!! Work, work, work…..24 hours of his life away from me, him all hot and sweaty in a helicopter, saving people’s lives….that’s work…not a provision….”

“Yes, Lord…that was an OT shift…so no, it wasn’t money we had budgeted….so yeah, I GUESS you could say this was ‘extra income”, if you wanna really stretch the imagination…..”

“Our tax refund?” Now wait a minute…there is NO WAY that is a provision….that is money we OVERPAID a greedy government in the first place,

“Were we counting on getting it back? Well…..no…..but…”

….Oh….ok….so it’s really money that was unexpected……so that’s a provision???

“Yes, I know I have the opportunity to so some speaking for a big pharma company…but as You know, I already committed 100% of that income to ministry…..and I have kept that promise…..but did you know that I had to give up 2 of my vacation days at work just to do it this week?? That’s like 2 full days I could used laying on beach somewhere….

“Yes, Lord….I have plenty of vacation time in my bank….no…taking those days off wasn’t a hardship to my vacation allowance…..and no, we didn’t really have plans to go to a beach…

DING…DING….DING!!!

LIGHT BULB!!!!!

Oh, my…..Yes, Lord, now I see now how You have ALWAYS provided. I am sorry for being so selfish at times to not recognize it and to think I wouldn’t actually have to WORK for it….we thank you for the all of the opportunities you provide us to use as provisions in ministry, and may we never lose sight and confuse what You have sent as that provision.

GOD SUPPLIES ALL OUR NEEDS….WE JUST MAY HAVE TO WORK FOR IT!

-Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Blessings!
Cheryl