New Hope!

The prelude to what I’m going to share is related to the events of this week.
A very dear friend of ours who has been like a son to us, got very ill earlier in the week. We have known Frank since he was 19 years old and he has been a part of our family through all these years. He is single and without parents. Because of Covid, he has lost most of his income, as he is self-employed. When he got so sick, thinking it was food poisoning, he called me to ask for ideas to help him, however, by Wednesday I knew he was in trouble. He needed medical attention and that’s when I sent Dave on a mission to get him to a hospital. He was very lethargic and unable to talk on the phone.
By the time Dave got him to the hospital he was fading in and out of consciousness. The nurses came out and got him in a wheelchair and rushed him inside. Dave, of course couldn’t go with him.
Long story short, he was in terrible shape. His heart was beating 200 beats per minute (V-fib) and they had to jump start his heart to get it back into rhythm. It’s called cardio version. They sedated him and got him to a cath lab to do this and then up to ICU. As he got to the ICU he coded. His heart stopped and they had to do CPR to resuscitate him. He was in systems failure, which means his kidneys were failing, his liver, lungs and heart were failing, it was a cascade effect from the virus that attacked his body.
After five minutes they got him back and he was on all kinds of lines and tubes trying desperately to keep him alive. (We found this out after the fact when the Doctor called us that evening!)
My desperate prayers for him were profound. The heaviness of this week, with the elections and the horror of all that has been taking place in the news and with our country has weighed me down and, honestly, it’s been crushing! Now with Frank so ill, I just felt completely crushed.

My go-to when I battle is the keyboard. I pray and sing and reach out to the Lord with everything in me. The very first song that came to me started with these lines: “My heart was distressed ‘neath Jehovah’s dread frown, and low from the pit where my sins dragged me down. I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay and He tenderly brought me out to golden day!
He brought me out of the deep miry clay!
He sets my feet on the solid rock to stay.
He puts a song in my happy soul today,
A song of praise – Hallelujah!”

I played every song I could think of that Frank knew and loved. My confidence came and I knew that the Lord had told me “I’ve got this!”

Steadily, Frank has been improving but at this moment is still in ICU.

The heaviness returned Friday and my spirit was restless. One of my devotions for the day came from Romans 1:21 – which says:
“21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

This spoke to my heart by saying:
“You know me! You know that I’m God but you are not glorifying me as God and you’re not giving thanks to Me! Because of that I will let your thinking become darkened and by your withdrawing from me you can have your thoughts and you will find yourself in despair and depression!”

I realized that it is so easy to fall into that despair of “why” and “how” and “Oh, my goodness, NO!”
But! I know God! I know He is not done! I know that He always has the last word and sometimes it’s at 11:59 PM!
I get to choose! We celebrated Shabbat with deep prayer for God to come into His own! I want Your way, Father!
(By the way, the Torah portion this week was about Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him!)

Then today, Shabbat, as I awoke to another day of the pressure and anxiety of the situation I found myself reading from Philippians 3:7-10 out of a Bible called “The Names of God.” This is what it said:
“These things that I once considered valuable, I now consider worthless for Christ. It’s far more than that! I consider everything else worthless because I’m much better off knowing Christ Yeshua my Lord. It’s because of Him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ and to have a relationship with Him. This means that I didn’t receive God’s approval by obeying His laws. The opposite is true! I have God’s approval through faith in Christ. This is the approval that comes from God and is based on faith that knows Christ. Faith knows the power that His coming back to life gives and what it means to share His suffering. In this way I’m becoming like Him in His death, with the confidence that I’ll come back to life from the dead!”

Here’s what I heard the Father say to me – “You have seen me raise the dead this week! Frank died on the table! But I didn’t leave it at that! He’s alive now and will continue to be alive as long as I say he is! Remember that Jesus was in the grave and the enemy declared himself to be the winner! That was Saturday! But Sunday morning I declared something entirely different! I’m the One who declares things!
(I heard Him say to me -) “Look at Me!! Look at ME!! Watch Me! I’m not done with this yet and I have something more for you to know. “

(This message is for the Church)

“You are on short time. I am watching for your response today (Sunday). You are at a crossroads. If Mr. Biden takes the presidency the Church will run back and hide again in their fear and despair. Your work will be harder and you will be more persecuted than ever. If Mr. Trump remains the President, you will need to understand that My grace is for you to step up and be more diligent to reach the lost for the Kingdom’s sake! You have to know, your window of opportunity is closing. I’m listening to your prayers! But, again you have to see that Romans 1:21 is critical for you!”
My message from today is burning in my heart to the point that I have to get this down for all of us!
Don’t underestimate our Father!! He is working and He is listening for us to give Him Glory and thanks!

This is my song for today –

“My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and Righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name!
On Christ the solid rock I stand! All other ground is sinking sand!
All other ground is sinking sand!”