The Wave

March 7, 2010
While reading My Utmost for His Highest today I found it very interesting that it talked about the thrill of the wave. Yesterday we went to the beach in Far Rockaway and there were people surfing. You may think that this isn’t strange but last weekend we had 18” of snow on the ground and one week later there are people surfing in the same area. God shows us that things can change quickly.
What I wanted to say is Mark and I have many changes happening in our life. We will soon be moving to Manhattan and really are not sure what will happen after that. We have made plans and are trusting that God will provide for our replacement at the David Dean House so we can continue with our work in Manhattan.
In life we must realize that we are not in control. The wave that we ride we do not control and praise the Lord that we don’t have to. God controls the wave and we just have to enjoy the ride. Does it get rough sometime, well of course, but just knowing that God is in control makes the ride good. We must realize that the ride is only good if we are in His will. The things that the normal person would be afraid of, like not knowing where the money is coming from gives me a thrill. This is my huge wave and I am the surfer that rides this wave looking to see what may happen. I know that God will supply all our needs, because His Word tells me so.
Read this and remember to enjoy the thrill of your rides.
March 7, 2010
The Source of Abundant Joy
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us —Romans 8:37
Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that "in all these things we are more than conquerors." We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. "We are more than conquerors through Him" "in all these things"; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. Paul said, "I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4 ).
The undiminished radiance, which is the result of abundant joy, is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can change. And the experiences of life, whether they are everyday events or terrifying ones, are powerless to "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Romans 8:39 ).

Amanda