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Friday, March 6, 2009

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City of Biloxi

The New Ocean Springs - Biloxi Bridge

The Bridge After Katrina
Beautiful Biloxi Lighthouse

Ewww! I've really neglected my little blog! Sorry, people...let me catch you up on my recent "happenings".

First of all, one week ago I drove, all by myself (!), to Biloxi, MS. For you "Yankees", make sure you say "Bil - uhx - eee", not Bil- ox-ee. There is nothing that grates on a Southerners ears worse than saying the name of this beloved city incorrectly! Anywho, I had a wonderful trip and stayed with my friend, Charlotte Rhett. On Saturday morning, I spoke at our former church. We met at 9 am for breakfast (man, those ladies can cook!), I spoke from 9:30 - 10:30, we took a little break, and then I spoke again from 11:00 to noon. The ladies prepared a WONDERFUL salad luncheon, and then I spoke again from 1 - 2. We had such a great time together, laughing and crying and sharing our hearts! Elise was able to drive over from Mobile, and it was just plain wonderful to spend time with her! She reminds me WAY too much of myself when I was her age!

After the meeting, Elise and I headed back to her place - Mobile, Alabama is about an hour east of Biloxi. We relaxed and went out to dinner with some of her friends. On Sunday, we met up with Tony and went out for brunch. I left for home on Monday morning at 6 am. I was hoping to teach in the afternoon, but I was pretty wiped out from the long drive, so I went home and crawled in bed!

Here are a few pictures of Biloxi - past and present. It was great to return and catch up with "Sisters on the Coast"! God richly blessed our time together, and I now have the speaking bug! I will be preparing a brochure to send to churches, letting them know about me, my topics that I speak on, etc. So many people prayed for me over the weekend and God showed His faithfulness in many ways. Thanks for all of your encouragement and prayers! Hugs.

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One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.
--Jerry Bridges

God is doing a greater work in us, and that can only come as we learn to trust Him no matter how dark the days and sleepless the nights. And it is only as we have been through the darkness with Him that what we know with our heads slides down into our hearts, and our hearts no longer demand answers. The “Why?” becomes unimportant when we believe that God can and will redeem the pain for our good and his glory. . . . When I put the sovereignty of God beside His unfailing love, my heart can rest.
--Verdell Davis

Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God's goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God's goodness, rooted in His character, is the same.
--Helen Grace Lescheid

All of us have wondered at times why God doesn't do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn't rushing to change our circumstances because he is concerned with a much more serious problem -- our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God's main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you.
--Andy Stanley, in "Like A Rock"

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart.
--Alan Redpath

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this: irritations get into his shell . . . . and when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only prescription: make a pearl . . . . And it takes faith and love to do it.
--Harry Emerson Fosdick

What a difference it makes when a trial comes, to see in it not the hand of an avenger, but the loving discipline of a father and the gentle admonition of a mother! God would not have us feel even the shadow of His anger. Judgment hardens the spirit and God never wants to break the spirit of His obedient child, but to win us by His love and transform us by the gentleness. Beloved, let us ever look upon our trials in the tender light of the Father’s love. It is not the token of His displeasure, but the very pledge of His jealous love, a love so inexorable that it will not let us miss His holiest and best.
--A. B. Simpson

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