Wednesday, October 17, 2007

10-17-07

Okay folks, here's the deal. I write, then you read and respond. Let's go over this again. I'll go slowly this time. I WRITE. YOU READ. YOU RESPOND. It's quite simple, really. I do most of the work and you let me know it's worth it. That probably sounds really pitiful, but the truth is there is no way to tell you how much I look forward to your e-mails and responses to the blog. It helps me to not feel so far away, keeps me connected to you and gives me something to look forward to. When I wake up in the mornings I'm like a kid jumping from one foot to the other in anticipation of Christmas morning! The first thing I do is pour a cup of coffee and gleefully and expectantly log onto the computer to see who has written or responded. So work with me, will you?
Today was a fabulous day! Every day is a gift, of course, but when I teach, when I stand in front of a group of women and the little Baptist preacher hidden deep inside my proper, reserved, Presbyterian heart is breathed to life, and the Spirit of God energizes me and speaks through me, it's the greatest feeling in the world. There's no way to describe it. It's like being in the "zone" when you run. When you run for a while, if you've been doing it for a long time, there comes a point when you quit thinking about the rhythm of your feet hitting the pavement and the sound of your breathing and you just ARE. You are transported to a different plane. If you don't know what I'm talking about picture yourself doing the thing you love most; operating fully in the gift God has given you. Whether it's hosting a dinner party and exercising the gift of hospitality or speaking a prophetic word of confirmation to someone, it's joyful and thrilling and effortless. When you are doing it you are energized rather than depleted. That's how you know it's your gift.
Such is the case for me when God allows me the awesome privilege of speaking and teaching. Anyone who knows me knows I love to talk! But when I can talk with a purpose, infused with the "dunamus" dynamite power of the living God, it's what gives me the deepest sense of satisfaction I have ever known. Though having kids comes close...
So anyway, I got to do that today! I told these 70 some-odd women they had been prayed over for months, that they were there by Divine appointment. That my prayer group had been praying for them every Wednesday night and that the women in my Bible study were praying for me and them also. It was so good to finally see their faces after such a long period of anticipation!
I got to share the Gospel and the love of our great and awesome God with women from all over the world who are in Thailand for one reason or another. The response afterward was more than I could have hoped for. I knew I was seeing months of prayer being answered right before my eyes. So thank you Denise, Victoria, Betsy, June, Vickie, Sandy, Robin, Jean, Jay, the Paulas, my CBS core group, Kristen, Tara, my fabulous children and ALL the rest of you!
I told them a bit of my testimony then shared Jordan's story and weaved the Gospel into it. I told them God was the Master Surgeon and Jesus gives us a new heart. I told them of my deep grief and suffering when Jordan died and acknowledged their own suffering even though I didn't know what it was specifically.
But then I told them what God had suffered when He ripped Himself apart and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed part of Himself into a single seed that was planted into the belly of a woman and brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit. How this great and powerful and incomprehensible God of all creation had entered His creation; had become one of us. I explained how He lived as a man and died as a man, yet was God and was separated from Himself for the first and only time in all eternity past, present or future. How there was a cataclysmic change within the Godhead. I explained that death is nothing more than separation from God and when Jesus died part of God was separated from God. It's incomprehensible! Who can grasp it? It's circular and crazy and unbelievable and staggering, the lengths He went to. For us.
I told them the sky turned black, the earth quaked and the rocks split in two because creation itself was crying out for its Creator.
I told them how Jesus hung in agony from the cross and wailed, "My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was abandoned; separated. It was an entirely new and agonizing experience.
I told them that He who has suffered exponentially, who suffers still because every day people are going to a place He never intended for them, could meet them in their present suffering. Because we all suffer something in this fallen world, don't we?
Maybe it's not the loss of a child. Maybe it's the loss of a marriage or a dream or a job or a ministry or desire or WHATEVER! We've suffered, haven't we? We've lost something. We've been undone. But none of us more than our King and Creator. He has suffered the most, and because of that, He can meet us completely wherever we find ourselves.
The Scripture the Lord gave me the day after Jordan died, when I was crying and sobbing in disbelief and rocking methodically in my chair with snot running down my face, was 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 where it says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." That's a lot of comfort folks. God gave it to me when I needed it most, and He delights to give it to you where you need it most. So ask Him.
I pray He comforts each of you (and I know what many of you have suffered & are suffering!) with His awesome presence and unsurpassed healing and compassion.
I am supposed to speak at the YWAM staff meeting tomorrow afternoon. Will you all please pray that God will once again infuse my words with His power? I have given the other talk many times and with it comes a measure of confidence. Not so with what I feel the Lord wants me to say tomorrow and on the 29th. Your prayers are essential. I take great comfort in knowing so many of you are partnering with me in that regard. I pray for each of you as well as God faithfully brings you to mind. This is a joint effort!
Now I expect to see a few responses tomorrow! But even so, my heart is full, your prayers are felt and God is moving! To Him be the glory and the honor and the power forevermore.

2 comments:

Denise said...

Yippee! It's amazing to hear how all those weeks of travailing in prayer with you and for you (and I continue even now) are being answered. Can you hear Him, Catherine? Saying "Well, done..."?

Just like when a child first learns to ride a bike, they first do it with training wheels. One day it's time for the training wheels to come off so the child can glide along on two wheels like one of the big kids, but at first Daddy has to steady them, running behind holding the seat. Not because they can't do it, but to give a sense of confidence that he is there and won't let them fall. Then, without immediately realizing it, they have taken off on those two wheels. That's you! You have been in preparation for this, studying God's Word for YEARS and speaking for over 3 years as He opened the door to small groups and now there you are in Thailand. He's taken off your training wheels and you are now flying down the path he has planned for you from before the foundations of the world. He's looking on like the proud Papa He is and saying "Well done, Catherine!"

Blessings to you, my friend!

Betsy said...

Wow. I was writing a response to you when a terrible storm struck here in downtown Tulsa. 80 mile an hour winds, hail, and sounds like a freight train. Octoberfest was hosting a pre-event corporate get-together and had the largest ten blown down...the huge poles were pulled right out of the ground and flew through the air injuring 45+ (latest report). 480+ lightening strikes in the hour. Mobil homes topside, a house in Owasso on fire, a business on Utica blown apart and scattered on the street, trees down...whew. That was the third storm today. I was caught out in the second one this afternoon. Hail, winds, flooding rain so severe I couldn't see to drive. An airplane containing an Episcopal priest crashed in a residential area in Glenpool with no survivors. 2 or 4 people. Not confirmed, yet. Wow. Aren't you glad you are "suffering" for Jesus in Thailand? All local news aside...I will always enjoy hearing your reports of how God spoke through you. You are soooo gifted. Praise God for his faithful anointing and many more opportunities to come. Love, Betsy