My husband lost his job right before the holidays in December 2007. His job defined him and thought he’d one day retire from it but God had other plans. When the dreadful recession of 2008 picked up steam in California, jobs dried up. It was all we could do to keep making the mortgage payments on our dream home. Little by little his retirement fund vanished and desperation set in.
Finally, he landed a short-term contract more than 2,500 miles away. I stayed home and prepared our home for sale while I worked part-time. Before he left for South Carolina, we painted the shutters and door and planted beautiful flowers to give our home the
curb appeal it needed but, in a market where there were thousands of homes for sale, the prospect of selling seemed bleak. Room by room, I sorted, packed, and pitched. But I kept praying. Praying for favor from buyers and wisdom for the sale.
My husband remained stubborn, and he refused to sell even though it was the only way to keep us from losing everything we worked for. His South Carolina job was not what was advertised, and he wanted to come home. He couldn’t stand being alone. I gave him an ultimatum. He could come home but he had to do two things: put the house on the market and find another job.
In July, he made that long trip back, and we put the house on the market. It took months to sell the house, but it sold when no houses were selling and most of them were selling for less than the owners’ mortgage. This was a miracle given the Sacramento area was one of the most hard-hit of recession areas. When our house finally closed on December 31, 2008, we were overjoyed because it sold at a profit. Unheard of. We knew God showed us favor in the house sale and He’d continue to show favor with a job.
We moved into a small apartment and put most of our belongings into a storage POD. During the sale period, my husband received an offer to work for a company that worked for the military in Germany. Neither he nor I were keen on living in Germany. Neither of us was getting any younger. He turned it down. Once. Twice. Three times. The employer told him the job would be his if he wanted it. After the third time, my husband said, “I don’t know how many times God has to hit me over the head. I think we should take this job.”
I wasn’t thrilled with picking up and moving across the world to a foreign land but if God wanted us there, we’d go. We had valid passports and no house to sell. A perfect situation for us and his future employer. But we could only take so much with us. Our decision to rid ourselves of all the gardening equipment housed in the storage POD meant we had to dispose of it.
We traveled the short distance to our old neighborhood and gifted our old neighbor, Chuck, with the gardening tools. When we arrived at his home, not only was his home on the market but so was the home right next door to our old house. Chuck had the same house like ours. The one next door to our old house was a little larger. Both owners were short selling their homes.
When we unloaded the gardening equipment, he said to us, “You were very lucky. Your buyer overpaid for your home big time.” And I said, “That wasn’t luck. That was the power of prayer.”
My husband and I rejoiced all the way to our tiny apartment and looked forward to the adventure God had in store for us when we moved to Germany.
When have you seen God at work in your life?
Wisdom. We all want it but seldom do we ask for it or seek God for that special wisdom. My husband and I pray together daily and we decided many years ago to pray for wisdom. Why? Because when you have wisdom, you seldom make terrible mistakes whether it’s in your relationships, your finances or your work. We have asked for and were granted wisdom in these areas many times over the years. Do we still make mistakes? Occasionally. And usually when we haven’t sought proper counsel…whether from God or from those more knowledgeable in the areas we need counsel.
Another place to look for wisdom is in the book of Proverbs. It’s amazing how many proverbs are mainstream and most folks don’t know a particular saying comes from the Bible and many of them from Proverbs. I like to think of Proverbs as a guide to life. You can’t go wrong with what you learn from Proverbs.
Case in point. Years ago, my daughter studied in Luxembourg for a fall semester with sixty other college students. A small class. Lo
She told me she had gone to Prague because it was one city she loved in Europe. At this point, I was reluctant to tell her what had happened. I gently asked her about her friends that went on a ski trip. She said other students wanted her to go but she didn’t feel comfortable about the trip. (I believe the Holy Spirit told her not to go.) When I explained what had happened, she immediately wanted to go to the school because she had no idea what had happened since she had been out of town.
The book of Ester is my favorite Old Testament book of the Bible. I’ve read it many times and am always amazed at Ester’s strength and courage. How God worked out the circumstances to preserve His people is mind-boggling. Every little detail. His love, commitment, and grace to His people always astound me even though I shouldn’t be astounded…I always am.
We could not have survived the many upheavals we’ve had if Jesus were not a part of our marriage. It’s interesting to me. My husband once said, “I don’t know how other couples make their marriage work without Jesus in it.” I believe he’s right.
Let’s look at the context of this verse. After Israel had three waves of their people exiled to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Persia held the Jews in captivity for seventy years. In the first two verses of Ezra chapter one, God gave the King of Persia, Cyrus, who followed Nebuchadnezzar, a sense of urgency to put out a proclamation in writing to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
Solomon asked God not for wealth, health or abundance of any sort but he asked for wisdom. How wise it was of him to ask God for a trait that he could use to push the nation of Israel to heights no one had ever seen before. God was exceedingly pleased with the request and not only gave Solomon great wisdom, the likes of which this earth hadn’t seen before him or since but great wealth and favor among the nations.
My husband and I pray daily, both individually and corporately. One of our prayers is that God gives us wisdom and favor in all things and with all people like work issues, family, finances, health. All of it. And He has been faithful to provide the wisdom and favor we need for the day.
He truly is a mighty and awesome God.
Freedom. It seems appropriate for America’s 243rd birthday tomorrow on the 4th of July. This great country has weathered countless wars. We seem to remember the major wars: The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican American War, World War I, World War II, Persian Gulf Wars and the War in Afghanistan and many, many Indian Wars. In the almost two and a half centuries since our great nations was founded, many have sacrificed their lives to keep us a free nation.
Our flag, when flying high and proud, makes us think of those who fought and died so we can have the freedoms listed in our bill of rights.
So if you see a service member in uniform, whether or not you know that service member, walk up to him or her, thank them for their service. They are not thanked enough and should be. My heartfelt thanks on this, America’s 243rd birthday.
Genealogies. They’re important. In ancient and not-so-ancient times, people depended on their parents to relay who their ancestors were and their history as a nation, tribe and ultimately as a family. They passed that information along to their children and grand-children through word of mouth and the written word of God. Namely, the Bible.
The Bible became the perfect place in which to document marriages, births and deaths of who they were and how they were related to one another.
The results were almost identical in both DNA tests. But what I liked most with 23andme.com was the ability to connect with potential relatives. First, second, third, fourth, and fifth cousins. As of this post I have over a thousand connections, some of which are messaging me.
We hadn’t intended to travel to Bamberg, Germany but when we went to Wurzburg, we met two very nice ladies who said Wurzburg had been demolished in the war and most of the beautiful architecture was not ancient but rebuilt to look the same as it had… meaning it wasn’t authentic. We were disappointed but that’s another adventure story. They said to visit Bamberg because it had the historical buildings we adored. We scheduled a trip at a later date to see Bamberg. And we were so glad we did! There just wasn’t enough time to see everything.
A cold and cloudy day met us as we made our way to this lovely city. Although it is not on Germany’s famous Romantic Road, personally, I think it should be. It’s picturesque and quaint. Since we got a late start, and it was a little further afield we opted to stay the night and return to our home in Plieningen in the morning.
After checking into the hotel, we tooled around town on foot. It’s an absolutely lovely city and one I’d like to revisit, but not stay at the IBIS.
I wished we’d had more time to visit the seven churches on the seven hills surrounding Bamberg, but we didn’t. If you ever get to Bamberg, make plans to stay for at least three or four days to see everything…but don’t stay at an IBIS!
Let’s look at the context of this verse: At the time of the book of 2 Kings, Israel had been divided into two kingdoms: The Northern Kingdom or Israel (made up of ten of the original 12 tribes of Israel) and the Southern kingdom or Judah (made up of the remaining two tribes). The King of the North, Ahaziah, was an evil king in the sight of the Lord because he worshipped pagan gods. Twice the King of Israel sent a captain and fifty men to the mountaintop to summon Elijah to bring him to the King. Both contingents of men died because Elijah called down fire from heaven. And that brings us to this verse.
Whether you are a leader or you are not, it’s a great thing to be humble. Here are five traits of a humble person: