Hello my friends and family,
The previous newsletter I discussed the importance of focusing on God no matter the situation and went into detail of what I am currently doing. This newsletter will tell you what has been happening in recent times. I am still in the process of fundraising. I am making progress, but let me tell you some fun stories…
The first week of March. I’m trying to make appointments. I’m calling people, nobody is answering. I’m texting, no response. I was positive I was going to have appointments that week, but it was really looking like I wasn’t. One person I was in contact with like the previous week and we were planning to meet up this first week of March, but we were not able to finalize plans. We were planning Saturday, but just couldn’t finalize plans. Finally, I was like, well looks like I won’t be having that appointment. Saturday morning, I wake up and check my phone. I have a text finalizing our plans to meet that afternoon. Yes! I thought it wasn’t going to happen, but it did. Sunday rolls around, I decide to check with one of the guys at my church about meeting up, because we were going to try that first week of March. As I am walking up to them they see me and say, “wanna go out to lunch after church?” Well, okay, another last-minute meeting, but that’s okay. This is the tip of the iceberg of what happened in March.
Gas has been slowly creeping up. When I returned from Zambia to the States, I was paying about $20 for about 10-13 gallons of gas. Now I pay almost $30. I have to make sure I have enough money in my bank account for my insurance. I noticed I was having some trouble with my insurance, so I called them to situate everything. Come to find out I had the wrong address listed, so we corrected it. For some strange reason that simple change dropped my monthly premium about thirty dollars. Hallelujah! I was not expecting that, but it was good. That isn’t the only money saver that happened, well maybe this next story isn’t a money saver, but more like a money-adder.
I set up my checking account in November of 2016. December rolls around, I check my account. I tend to keep an approximate number of what I should have in there in my head. Noticed there was more in there than what I remember. I checked my history and my bank shows me that there is a $100 transfer in there into my account. I thought that was strange, but I was like okay, I mean, whatever, more money, I guess. January rolls around, once again $100 shows up, unexpectedly, then three days later, I think it was, another $100 appears. My bank won’t show me where it is coming from. I gracefully accept it, what else am I supposed to do with it? February comes about, nothing. Never happened, but I didn’t think much of it at the time, until March. I check my account about half-way through the month, another $100 is in there. I was surprised. I was not expecting that. That is all I was expecting for that month when about a week or two later, I check my account, another $100. I had to do a double-take on this one. All I can do now is just thank God. I wasn’t necessarily desperate for more money, but that is where the joy is. God does not just provide for you when you need it. He is a good father. Luke 11:11-13, “you fathers – if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” My God provides. Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” All those things are prefaced before the verse. The important part of this verse is not that you will be provided things you need, but that you seek the Kingdom first. The verse does say seek the things that will be added unto you first. The Kingdom is first. Otherwise you are engrained in yourself, trying to gain worldly material. We don’t work for God for reward, but because it grows the Kingdom of God. If we focus on the reward, on gaining for ourselves, we have already not listened to the Bible. Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” There is so much in this passage. Paul no longer lives his old self, but lives with the life Christ gave him, so now it is Christ living in him, he lives by that faith Christ gave him life. Know he can live believing what he does is Christ’s life, that he is living as Christ is, that what he says, God says. Jesus only said and did what God said. Now Paul can live that way too. We can too. We abandon ourselves and speak the Words of God!
It is not us who can move a mountain. It is God, sure we speak the words, “be removed and be cast into the sea,” but it is not us moving the mountain. We can’t, but God can. God moved the mountain, but we spoke, we moved the mountain, but God moved the mountain, but we moved the mountain, but God did. Moses can’t part the red sea, but God can. Moses may have lifted his hand, but he can’t part the waters, but God can, it is like God lifted his hand to part the sea, but Moses lifted his hand, but God lifted his hand, but Moses lifted his hand, but God lifted his hand. Ezekiel, God told him what to say to the dry bones. Ezekiel 37, so Ezekiel said it, but God said, but Ezekiel said it, but God said it. Let God live through you! Live the life of Christ by the faith of what he did for you. Don’t say you don’t have that faith, you do, because Christ lives in you, he has the faith, so do you. Christ’s crucifixion was so you could live his life. He sits next to God. Christ didn’t die and come back again, so you could go to heaven, he died so you could be with God forever. God is right next to you! You are next to God sitting as a joint-heir with Christ! To live is for Christ, because the only way you can live is by Christ, and Christ lives in you, the Holy Spirit is inside you, and God dwells in you. You have the fullness of God in you, so live that with confidence!