tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53014302936210557062024-03-23T06:22:05.039-07:00Exodus15:26 "I am the Lord, your Healer"Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-45903201757263183142015-09-08T07:45:00.003-07:002015-09-08T07:45:50.138-07:00Faith Through the Storm: Part 2, One Week on Lower Prednisone<div style="color: #555555; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 15px;">
A week ago, yesterday, I dropped my current daily dose of Prednisone from 40mg to 37.5mg. This is our second attempt in 2015 to begin the process of getting me off Prednisone completely. After the first attempt, I had to go back up to 40mg because the pain and inflammation came on too strong. You can read more about the whole story <a data-mce-href="http://scoutinghispresence.com/2015/08/faith-through-the-storm.html" href="http://scoutinghispresence.com/2015/08/faith-through-the-storm.html" style="color: #555555; cursor: pointer; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" target="_blank">here </a>if you'd like.</div>
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This time around, our doctor has me taking another drug whose sole purpose is to modify my symptoms. It's not curative and can be fairly toxic in large doses. I'm taking the smallest possible dose in hopes that its action in my body will help carry some of the burden that the Prednisone has been carrying as we try to get me off of that.</div>
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I started taking Methotrexate about a month ago and have been seeing some noticeable improvement in symptoms, as we expected. But we can't settle. Not where we're at. That's why I started the lower Prednisone dose two Sundays ago. No settling. Jesus promises health, and so we push for that until it comes.</div>
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The week has been noticeably rougher. It's amazing how much of a <img alt="dropping prednisone" class="alignright wp-image-166 size-medium" data-mce-src="http://scoutinghispresence.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dropping-prednisone.jpg-300x219.png" height="219" src="http://scoutinghispresence.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dropping-prednisone.jpg-300x219.png" style="color: inherit; display: inline; float: right; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1.625em; max-width: 100%;" width="300" />difference 2.5mg, one half of a tiny tablet, can make! I've had a bit more pain and a lot more fatigue, but the overall trajectory is good. Imagine a line graph. We should typically expect a little dip in how I'm feeling every time we drop the Prednisone dose (where the line goes down). But ideally, that dip would only last a short time before the line turns around and starts to go up again. As long as the overall trajectory is up, then we keep dropping the dose, bit by bit.</div>
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So far, the progress is good. We're going super slow with the whole thing because my body has been in such a fragile state for quite a while now. So the fact that the week has been pretty good is very good news.</div>
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To be honest, I'd much rather have our victory over Prednisone and the whole disease be overtly and obviously miraculous. You know, no help from another drug. No dips in how I'm feeling along the way. A quick process of going from 40mg per day to 0mg in a matter of days (which is pretty much unheard of after you've been taking Prednisone for as long as I have).</div>
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But does it mean that Jesus hasn't, or won't, come through? No.</div>
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I do want to make something clear. Corrie and I believe 100% that all healing is in line with the heart of our Dad. Whether that healing be the instantaneous miracle of a tumor shrinking,<a data-mce-href="http://scoutinghispresence.com/2015/06/healing-miracles-are-happening.html" href="http://scoutinghispresence.com/2015/06/healing-miracles-are-happening.html" style="color: #555555; cursor: pointer; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" target="_blank"> a wrist getting healed, discoloration on our daughter's neck going away</a>--or the gradual healing of a cut from peeling potatoes--or the healing of a staph infection through antibiotics.</div>
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However--and this is a big however--we also believe that it's possible to see each and every physical infirmity, injury, disease, disorder, disability healed by the hand of Jesus. That's what we want. We want a testimony at which everyone can look and "know that there is a God in Israel and that this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear."</div>
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The spiritual battle for this thing is already won. Matthew 8:17 says that Jesus already bore away our sicknesses and pains. And Galatians 3:13 says that he redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us.</div>
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The battle was won by Jesus on the cross once for all. So we live from that victory and believe his truth no matter what. We believe that it's possible for this disease to go simply by believing and walking in faith that the finished work of Jesus is THE MOST powerful force in existence. He came to destroy all the works of the devil, of which sickness is a part.</div>
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Corrie and I will push on for that. Yes, we are growing up into that faith, up into the full measure of the stature of Jesus. In the process, we are faced with very real giants. And as we are learning who we are in him, and as our faith for more and more of the reality of heaven to bust into our existence is growing, the medications are helpful and good. But may we all need them less and less as the reality of Christ in us, the hope of glory, radiates out from our spirits into every corner of our lives.</div>
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And by the way, here's a fun promise that God recently showed me we can stand on:</div>
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<strong style="color: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Mark 16:18</strong> "If they drink any deadly poison, it will by no means hurt them."</div>
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It would seem like this isn't true for my body, if I've been experiencing toxicity from the medication. But no, it is true. No medication, no poison has more power over my body than the word of God. No poison has the right to hurt me anymore, because the promise is for all who believe in the name of Jesus.</div>
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So whatever damage has been done...it's subject to the pervasive grace and love of Jesus. Whatever bones have been cracked and adrenals have been burnt out...they are subject to Jesus's making the lame walk. And by the way, the promise for us all is:</div>
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<strong style="color: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Joel 2:25 </strong>I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.</div>
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Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-82941449658933229892015-08-27T15:46:00.000-07:002015-08-27T15:46:08.907-07:00Faith through the Storm<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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As many of you know, my health has been somewhat shaky for the past few months. Obviously it's been a battle of ours for the last 8 years, often marked by times of seeming to get better, only to be followed by times of seeming to get worse.<br />
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In the early part of 2015, I had to increase my daily dose of Prednisone from 30mg to 40mg because the pain and inflammation all over my body was getting worse, and we couldn't figure out why. The treatments that have worked for me in the past seemed to actually be exacerbating my symptoms rather than moving us closer to healing.</div>
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After a couple months on this higher dose and having done some other treatments to help support my body, we tried unsuccessfully to lower my Prednisone dose back down. So I had to go back up up to 40mg per day, and I've been at that same dose for the past 4 or 5 months.</div>
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While the Prednisone is definitely useful and effective in relieving the Lyme/Arthritis symptoms, namely by keeping my body's pain and swelling down, it is not good to be on such high doses for such long periods of time (about 4 years total).</div>
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Now, my body feels like its primary battle is against the Prednisone. I won't go into all the details, but my Prednisone-specific symptoms, which I've never had until recently, are a puffy face, adrenal exhaustion (which I can feel through cyclical waves of fatigue and pain throughout the day), easily breakable bones (especially my ribs), dry eyes, and a couple others.</div>
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If true healing is going to take place, the toxicity from the Prednisone needs to be halted. </div>
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We are hoping and believing for me to eventually be free of it all together. But the last times we have tried to drop my dose, believing Jesus to support my body and free me from Prednisone, it just hasn't happened. My pain got too bad, joints started getting too swollen, and pushing forward in faith to lower and lower doses just wasn't having our hoped-for effect on my body.</div>
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There's a line of thinking that offers itself as a temptation. "You're stuck. You're stuck on this drug and it's hurting you, but there's nothing you can do about it. You've prayed and believed for health and freedom from it. You've put your faith in Jehovah Rapha, but it's just not doing anything. He's promised healing, but you're not going to get there."<br />
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That's why I'm writing this post, friends. Corrie and I cannot give in to the drawbacks that we've experienced in my health at the cost of believing the Lord's Word. And it's hard because we can start to feel like we can believe something all day long, but it sure would be nice for that belief to pan out in our experience. If Jesus is powerful and real and active, then it should pan out, right?</div>
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But if we give up, then it never will.</div>
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Faith in the Storm</h3>
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Jesus has recently been using the short little story from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+4%3A35-41&version=ESV" target="_blank">Mark 4 verses 35-41</a>, where he calms the storm after being asleep in the boat for a while, to pull me further into a place of intimacy with him. With these fresh eyes for it, the story is quickly becoming one of my favorites in the gospels.<br />
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It begins with Jesus telling his disciples after a long day of ministry, "Let's go to the other side of the sea." So they set out in their boat only to be faced with a huge storm whose waves began to fill the boat. This was clearly not the voyage that the disciples had in mind when they heard the innocuous words, "Let's go to the other side."<br />
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In a panic, the disciples went to Jesus and asked him somewhat accusingly if he cared about whether or not they were currently "perishing."<br />
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So Jesus woke up from his nap, stood in the boat, and, as though he had it under control all along (which he did), told the storm to be quiet and stop.<br />
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But what gets me is his response to the disciples. See, I always read this story and thought that he was a little harsh on them. And I never saw their question, "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" as anything other than an honest, legitimate question coming from some guys who were clearly in danger.<br />
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And right! How could Jesus be sleeping at a time like that? It sure doesn't seem like he cared at all! If the disciples DIDN'T go wake him up, then yes, they would have died. So they did the right thing, right?<br />
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Why, then, the rebuke from Jesus? "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?"<br />
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Wait.<br />
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Wasn't there faith in the very act of going to him for help in the storm? But Jesus said that they still had NO faith.<br />
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Jesus has said in many ways--in the <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/p/healing-scriptures.html" target="_blank">Bible</a>, to <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/08/when-jesus-visits.html" target="_blank">Rebecca</a>, to Corrie, to me, through friends, through prophetic words--"Let's go to the other side of this lake. Let's get you healed."</div>
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And we've believed him, we've gone for it. We've said, "Yes Jesus, you are our healer. You can heal me. You WANT to heal me." Even, "You HAVE healed me."</div>
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But we're not at the other side yet. We're still in the storm. Learning faith.</div>
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So if faith is not what the disciples did, if it's not, "Jesus, don't you care that this disease is still attacking my body? Don't you care that I'm still stuck on Prednisone? Save us!"--then what IS faith for us right now?</div>
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<b>Hebrews 11:6 </b>And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.</blockquote>
This is more than, "Jesus please heal me, but your will be done, not mine." The verse says that faith believes that God rewards those who seek him. That God answers the cries of their heart. Faith holds on to the fact that our Dad already gave us his Son freely, so how will he not freely give us all things (Romans 8:32).<br />
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Faith spends time in the quiet place of intimacy and learns our Father's heart. If we ask him for fish or bread, he does not give us something different! But he gives GOOD things to those who ask (Matthew 7:9-11).<br />
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And faith stands on the promise that "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you HAVE RECEIVED it, and it will be yours."<br />
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This is not, friends, "Whatever you ask, believe that you've received something different..." Corrie and I are asking for healing, and this verse says that THAT is what we have received.<br />
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Pushing Through to the Other Side</h3>
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Corrie and I will keep standing firm through the storm. Our recent experience has looked like the storm is too much. It's looked and felt like my body is just stuck on Prednisone, left to suffer from its toxicity.</div>
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But Jesus has said differently! Jesus has said that we are going to the other side. And so in the rest that comes from knowing his character, that his word stands true, that he can be trusted, we won't panic in the storm. But we'll come sit down next to him and share our hearts with him. We'll tell him that fear is tempting us. We'll tell him about the lurking disappointment that could sweep over the sides of the boat.</div>
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And then we'll listen as he assures us that he is good, that his promises stand true, that he is Jehovah Rapha, the LORD our Healer. And he'll say, "Everything I have is now yours. When I died, you died with me so that you could be raised to new life and receive every gift, every blessing, every victory over all the works of the devil."<br />
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We'll stand back up in the boat and be able to see the storm for what it really is, an impostor that threatens and intimidates and makes a big show of strength. But here's what Jesus said about Goliaths: "I have given you authority to trample every snake and every scorpion."<br />
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As Corrie and I face this storm, we declare with the full backing of heaven:<br />
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You come to us with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but we come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whose word and promises you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into our hand, and we will strike you down and cut off your head. We will give your dead body to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all may know that there is a God in Israel, Jehovah Rapha, our great Healer and Champion, and that all of this assembly, everyone watching may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he HAS GIVEN you into our hands. (paraphrased from I Samuel 17:41-47)</blockquote>
I've got to imagine Jesus looking up from his bed in the boat, with a twinkle in his eye and excitement in his smile, "Now <i>that's</i> faith. Let's do this."<br />
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Please Join Us</h3>
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We are about to start another round of lowering my Prednisone dose. My doctor has put me on another medication to help with the process. Would you all join us in faith as we subdue this enemy? Though, on the one hand, this battle is mine and Corrie's--on the other hand, it is all of ours. The enemies we defeat and the ground we take in healing are victories for all of us as we push back the darkness to bring more of his kingdom and presence to this earth.</div>
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<b>Hebrews 11:1 </b>Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.</blockquote>
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<b>Hebrews 10:35-39</b> Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.</blockquote>
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For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."</blockquote>
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But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.</blockquote>
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Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-8573564338069402852015-08-16T12:50:00.002-07:002015-08-16T12:50:42.145-07:00When Jesus VisitsOur daughter, Rebecca, came to me one morning about a week or two ago. We were in the middle of getting ready for our day.<br />
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"Dad, did you know that Jesus came into my room last night?"<br />
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<i>Record scratch. </i><i>THAT'S not the conversation I was expecting right now.</i><br />
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Calmly and matter-of-factly I replied, "No, I didn't." <br />
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"Tell me about it."<br />
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"Well, he came over to my bed before I fell asleep and he told me, 'Rebecca I know you love your daddy, and I know you need me to heal him, and I am going to heal him."<br />
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"Rebecca, I love that! That's so special. Isn't Jesus really really good?"<br />
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"Yeah."<br />
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And then she continued on with her morning, probably playing with her sister or something, leaving me to marvel at our daughter's very own relationship with Jesus, who knows her heart and cares about the things that really matter to her.<br />
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A little while later, Corrie came to me and asked if Rebecca had told me about Jesus' visit. Apparently, Rebecca shared a little more information with her. Corrie asked her what Jesus looked like, and she said that his body was like stone but covered with jewels.<br />
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(Side note: as I was asking Rebecca about it again, I asked, "So his body was covered with gems, huh?" "No, Daddy. Not gems...jewels.") :)<br />
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Corrie asked her what his face looked like, and she said that it looked like the pictures of Jesus in her storybook Bible, but that it was hard to see really well because he was too shiny.<br />
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The way I see it, we basically have two options at this point. We believe her. Or we don't. And here's my question: Why is it so easy to NOT believe her?<br />
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Eh, she's just a kid. Kids say all kinds of things and have a propensity for pretending and making things up. She was probably just imagining, but definitely not experiencing something real.<br />
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It'd be easy to simply write it off both in my mind and hers. "Now, Rebecca. Did Jesus REALLY visit you last night? Are you sure you weren't just imagining him? Are you sure you weren't asleep?"<br />
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There there. Why don't you let the adults handle appearances of Jesus?<br />
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To be brutally honest, I think that Jesus' appearing to Rebecca presents a very pivotal and potentially dangerous opportunity for both her and us, her parents. We have the opportunity, right now, to either foster and protect her childlike heart, her faith OR to pull that seed right out of its soil, fostering doubt in the name of wisdom.<br />
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I want to be very careful here, because the way that SEEMS right--the way that feels like having a cool head, a sound mind, wisdom--actually goes against the heart of Jesus.<br />
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<b>Luke 18:16-17</b> But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."</div>
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When the children ran to him, his presence, his appearance, Jesus didn't rebuke them. He rebuked the adults standing by who were (probably with the best of intentions) quenching the children's innocence and faith. And he didn't say, "To such, who have been tempered by the reason of loving adults, belongs the kingdom of God." He just said to the kids, pure, innocent, and ready to believe. These have the kingdom! So we adults should take some lessons from them!<br />
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Then there's this story from Matthew:<br />
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<b>Matthew 21:15-16 </b>But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?"</blockquote>
It's interesting that it's the Pharisees--the quintessential Bad Guys of the Bible, the ones you DON'T want to be--who question the children in the verse in Matthew. "Hey Jesus, don't you hear what these kids are saying?! They're worshiping you and calling you the Son of David! Clearly, they don't know what they're talking about. That's not who you are."<br />
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But Jesus' reply shows that God himself put that revelation in the children. They were testifying to EXACTLY who Jesus was.<br />
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So when we hear our five year old daughter tell us that Jesus showed up in her room and spoke to her about healing me and appeared shiny and like stone with jewels all over him...we're going to believe her. And not just that she thinks she saw him. We believe she actually saw him.<br />
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<b>John 14:21</b> "And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."</blockquote>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-69166031717278678092015-07-29T11:59:00.002-07:002015-07-29T12:05:43.770-07:00Prodigal Father Part 1: All That Is Mine Is YoursIn stark contrast to the incredibly deep spiritual direction that this post is going to take, I’d like to start out with a reference to Zoolander.<br />
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“But wait!” you say, “I haven’t seen Zoolander!”<br />
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Don’t worry – it’s not a thinker movie.<br />
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Check out this clip:<br />
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When things don’t go his way, Derek has an identity crisis and, staring into a puddle, asks: Who am I?<br />
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His reflection is no help.<br />
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I have felt this way before. I’ve never lost a modeling competition (I won them ALL), but my foundations have been shaken a good deal. And I’m not just talking about west coast earthquakes.<br />
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But Jesus has been speaking to Matt and me lately about our identity in Him. Our adoption, our sonship, our co-heir-ship.<br />
And I was brought to the story of the prodigal son where Holy Spirit highlighted some things I had never seen before.<br />
I noticed that these brothers both had lost sight of their identity. Neither of them was living in what it meant to be sons and coheirs.<br />
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Growing up I can remember thinking “that brat, asking his dad for a bunch of money! And that dad is kind of a push over…he didn’t even flinch.”<br />
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Interesting. The dad didn’t even flinch.<br />
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I wonder if that isn’t where the son went wrong. Was the asking for his inheritance wrong, or was it the way he spent it?<br />
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When I was a kid I loved going to my grandparents‘ houses for all the obvious reasons. My dad’s parents’ house not only had my Grandpa and Grandma IN it, but also a pool, a pool table, a TV bigger than me, and a substantial stock piling of Dole pineapple juices in tiny little cans.<br />
<br />
I am not sure if Grandpa himself liked these, as I have actually never seen him consume one…but they were always there. And I loved them.<br />
<br />
Mom and Dad didn’t want us to be little crazy kids, though, and tear through our grandparents’ house eating anything we wanted so I was always instructed to ask Grandpa or Grandma first before I had one.<br />
<br />
And, every time, Grandpa’s response was: “Of course! You can have anything you want.”<br />
<br />
He almost seemed confused as to why I was asking.<br />
<br />
So I would enjoy a can poolside with my cousins. The 90s were awesome.<br />
<br />
However, I’m not sure Grandpa would have been quite so thrilled if I had opened up the can and poured it down the drain.<br />
While the juice was blessing me and filling me and taking care of me it was all mine to have as much as I wanted. If I had been flippant with it, that would have changed. It seems to me that the son’s offense wasn’t in wanting his inheritance. He grieved his father when he took that inheritance, along with all his other stuff (probably also given to him by his father) and left.<br />
<br />
So not only did the dad not flinch at the request, but he divided the inheritance right then and there and gave half to his younger son. My study Bible says that was very uncommon.<br />
<br />
But then our Heavenly Father IS uncommon! He made us co-heirs. Through Jesus we have received adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba! Father! (reference) And we know that Abba translates as basically “Daddy,” which is an incredibly close and intimate term for father.<br />
<br />
(An aside: I love the poetic irony of God. He set up how inheritances should work in the old testament and then BLEW THAT UP in the new testament. I find that so magnificent.)<br />
<br />
These sons weren’t being intimate with their father. The younger took his freely given inheritance and squandered it, while the older assumed that he couldn’t have his. The one felt that he had to leave and be his own man while the other thought he had to unquestioningly serve in order to gain approval. Neither was wanting to be close with and known by his father.<br />
<br />
What if I had always just sat there in my grandparents’ house knowing that they had pineapple juices and assuming that, if I was good enough, they might bring me one, but never asking for it? My grandpa can’t know what I need unless I am talking with him and letting him know me.<br />
<br />
And so bitterness consumed the older brother. His inheritance sat right there in front of him, and he never asked to participate in it. In self-righteousness he even spits out that he has always “served” his father, when it doesn’t really seem like that was a requirement put on him. The father doesn’t even acknowledge the statement in his answer, but instead just asserts “you have always been with me”.<br />
<br />
If we are serving our Father in order that He might bless us, I believe our motivation is wrong and is setting us up for bitterness and even worse, distance. Our heavenly Father wants to know us. He wants to be with us. Jesus endured the cross for the joy of having us restored to Him. That is a Father who is going out of His way to get us to Him. Why would He go all that way and then stand at a distance once He has us and make us serve Him? If our serving of Him is born out of thankfulness and joy, and wanting to honor our Father who has freely given us so much, then the outcome is more closeness, not mere admittance.<br />
<br />
It goes against our “it’s a hard knock life” mentality to graft into our noggins the concept that we did nothing, nor can do anything to earn our inheritance. We weren’t good enough. We aren’t now (in our own power). And we won’t be in the future (I’m pretty sure I’m going to sin around 2pm today when I get angry cause Darcy will refuse her afternoon nap). In the same way I never did anything to earn my grandpa’s love and pineapple juice. I was a total user in his house. I played pool upstairs, then I played in the pool outside, then I drank his pineapple juice, and then I lounged around and watched TV, and then I trotted along behind him while he did some chores, and then he would take us all out to dinner where again, I could “have anything I wanted”…!?!?!?!<br />
<br />
All he needed in return is that I loved him and was his.<br />
<br />
Heavenly Father has been getting at this point with me lately. The Bible says that in Him we are: saved, redeemed, more than conquerors, sons and daughters, brought close, seated with Christ, free, heirs, a royal priesthood, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and on and on. We didn’t deserve it, but there it is.<br />
<br />
What am I supposed to do with all of that?<br />
<br />
That needs to flavor my life somehow.<br />
<br />
And I think that it’s more than where we spend our Sunday mornings (or Saturday nights in our case) or what music we listen to as we drive around town. It’s more than how we tithe and what homeschool curriculum we buy.<br />
<br />
The closeness we are invited into by our Father does not have to wait around until after death. In fact the father in the story tells the older son that his brother had been dead, but was now alive. We have been made alive in Christ!<br />
<br />
Testify!<br />
<br />
I am so thankful that I never forsook my Father and I never really had “prodigal” wandering years.<br />
<br />
But I don’t want to live like the older brother either. He was waiting around for his inheritance that was already there, and was living like he couldn’t have it until later – like some family heirloom samurai sword that you can look at but never EVER touch…And that confused, self-righteous bitterness blocked the closeness that they could have been enjoying all along.<br />
<br />
Why does it feel weird to be close to heavenly Father? Why does it feel odd to trot along behind or beside Him while He moves about His kingdom just as my Grandpa and I walked around his property? Why does it feel odd when I hear someone refer to Him as “Daddy” or “Papa God”? That is what Abba means…and yet…<br />
<br />
Can it be that in wanting so much to not be the prodigal son, we have become the stingy son? And we have put that stingy-ness on the Father as well.<br />
<br />
In another coming post I am excited to share more about what our inheritance in Christ is. But for now ask Holy Spirit to speak to you and to establish (maybe for the first time in your life) WHO you are in Him. Jesus, impress on our hearts the awesome fullness of the place you have made for us: adopted Sons and Daughters who did not deserve it, but who want so much to represent you, our lavish Father.Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-72343909326011783512015-07-11T21:40:00.000-07:002015-07-11T21:40:05.914-07:00Healing My Sin, Healing Our Marriage<div class="MsoNormal">
We were sitting together, Corrie and I, in our room not sure
how this talk was going to go. We had
had a bit of a fight the night before and had gone all day without having a
chance to sit down and work it through.
So after the girls went to bed, we both knew that we had to work it
out. We want to be close to each other
and just letting things fade into the distance is not the way to get there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Neither is digging in my heals, fighting for my rights, and
feeding my anger. But I wanted tonight
to be different. That's why we were
sitting in our room instead of the living room.
I sensed that Jesus would do something good, and I wanted him to do it
in our room. I wanted his healing to
fill our space, to change the atmosphere there from what had happened the night
before.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we were sitting facing each other, Corrie cautiously, but
lovingly and hope-fully, told me that I had gotten really angry. It didn't seem like me. It scared her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There it is.
Anger?! Wait. I'm not an angry person. Most people who know me would say the same.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This had been coming up somewhat frequently for us over the
last several months. And to be honest, I
either didn't see it or didn't categorize it as anger because, in my mind, it
was justified. How can I be
unrighteously angry if I DESERVE to be angry?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But something broke that night. I don't know what caused it. I can't give you a trigger or a formula: If you are struggling with x then do y and it
will be fixed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just seek Jesus for his presence and power. Spend time with him. Talk to him.
Listen when he talks to you. Then
rivers of living water will flow from you, and you won't have to work up holy
living. It just happens.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It doesn't matter what the struggle is. Sickness, bondage, hurt, sin, anger, marriage
stuff. Be with Jesus. Any answers outside of his real, near
presence are incomplete.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That night, when Corrie shared her heart with me, it finally
broke through what had been my hardened walls.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had hurt her. I had
HURT her. My love. My beautiful wife. My best friend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had hurt her, and that fact mattered more, finally, than
all of my rights and hurts and thoughts and reasons for justifying my
anger. I had wounded her heart. That fact broke my heart.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
And I cried in front of her.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It wasn't for show.
It wasn't to impress her with how sorry I felt. It wasn't anything I tried to do. It just happened because, like I said,
"Rivers of living water will flow."<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After these tears Corrie and I together went through a
process of dealing with sin that we learned at the <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-marriage-as-it-is-in-heaven.html" target="_blank">marriage conference</a> we went
to several months ago. It involves going
through some steps of repentance and actively resisting the sin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4>
A Fresh Perspective on Sin</h4>
But it's so beautifully different than the way I had thought about sin growing up. When I saw something in me that I wished were different (anger, depression, lust, general melancholy, fear of people...especially NEW people!), it became a huge source of self-doubt, self-deprecation, and an endless spiral of guilt and shame.<br />
<br />
I'd ask questions like, "What's wrong with me? I've been a Christian for however many years and still can't get it right."<br />
<br />
Or there's the questions to God. "What's wrong with you? You say you're powerful but you still can't get <i>me</i> right!"<br />
<br />
This is what happens when we don't know, or don't believe, who we are--who we've become under the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It doesn't matter how crappy I feel about myself, the Bible says <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+corinthians+5%3A17&version=ESV" target="_blank">that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+7%3A20&version=ESV" target="_blank">Romans 7</a> says that it is no longer I who sin, but the sin that is in me that sins. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A12-13&version=ESV" target="_blank">John 1</a> says that, because I believe, I have the right to be a child of God. His DNA courses through my veins now. And isn't it in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+peter+2%3A9&version=ESV" target="_blank">Peter </a>where we see that we're kings and priests? "A royal priesthood." <br />
<br />
Sin is not my identity anymore. It used to be...but then...Jesus! Now, the sin, the anger, is an enemy. I am not on its team. Therefore, I come against it in the authority that he has given me over every power of darkness (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010:19&version=ESV" target="_blank">Luke 10:19</a>), and in the presence and power of Holy Spirit, because "greater is he in me than he that is in the world" (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+john+4%3A4&version=ESV" target="_blank">1 John 4:4</a>).<br />
<br />
As I repented of my anger toward Corrie and we, together, fought back against the sin, we asked the Father to send it away from me and to replace it with something from his heart instead. When we asked him what that something was that he wanted to exchange for the anger, he showed me a vision.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Visions from God's Heart</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I saw myself standing in a small square of land surrounded
on four sides by tall stone walls. It
was like a hollow tower. As enemies
attacked this tower and stones were knocked out of the walls, I would scramble
to try to repair the holes quickly before any flaming arrows could get through.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I knew that these walls were anger. I was using anger as a way of protecting
myself from anything that could hurt me.
Specifically with Corrie, getting angry and staying there was a way of
isolating myself from real closeness with her.
My anger cut her off from me while it was telling me that it was
actually the only way to get what I want in our marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In that anger, my focus was on myself and nothing close to
caring for her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, suddenly, the walls were gone, and I was standing in
the same place alone, with no walls this time.
I could see now that I was on a hill with a battle going on all
around. Covering me was this armor that
kept flickering in and out between armor and the body of a lion. When it was armor, it was solid and very
visible. But when it switched to the
lion it became more transparent, almost superimposed over me. It looked as if both the lion and I were
occupying the same space without one replacing the other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
When arrows would hit me now, it didn't matter. They were immediately extinguished (if they had been on fire), and they fell right off. Who needs walls when Jesus lives in you? Who needs to fight for your own rights, to dig in your heals to make sure you get your due when the Spirit of God is your protection, your very identity?<br />
<br />
<b>Psalm 16:8 </b>"I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken."<br />
<br />
<b>Psalm 62:6 </b>"He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.<br />
<br />
<b>Proverbs 28:1 </b>"But the righteous are bold as a lion."<br />
<br />
The Father showed me that this is the man he made me to be for my wife. A man with no walls of angry self-protection...firstly in our marriage. My protection is the armor he gives me, which is his very presence inside of me, the presence of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. And his armor does not divide us. It unites the two into one. It both keeps my heart strong to love, and it fights for and protects her heart.<br />
<br />
After the vision stopped, and I told it to Corrie. I immediately had thoughts of doubt and accusation come at me.<br />
<br />
"This isn't real. You're not hearing from God."<br />
<br />
"This doesn't mean anything. You haven't changed yet, so why should you expect to change now?"<br />
<br />
"Corrie isn't impressed with this. She won't believe that you'll change. You've hurt her so much already."<br />
<br />
As I was telling Corrie these thoughts, out of nowhere I heard in my spirit a lion roar. It was quite loud and powerful and right above me, like Jesus was standing over me. As it roared, I felt a warmth flowing down my head and back, almost like his breath.<br />
<br />
Sure, the devil may prowl like a roaring lion, speaking lies and defeat and death. But Jesus is stronger. Jesus is more powerful. His roar is louder and gets the final say. What he stakes a claim to, no power of hell is allowed to have. Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, can have my sin, my anger. He can have my emotions. He can have my mind. And he can have my marriage and the woman I love.<br />
<br />
I'm done with you, anger.Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-68724729286626360012015-07-08T16:10:00.003-07:002015-07-08T16:10:42.432-07:00Praying for the Mailman"Come one Rebecca. Take my hand while we walk in the street."<br />
<br />
I was keeping Rebecca focused on the task at hand (a task in and of itself as parents of 5 year olds know) as we set out for the park.<br />
<br />
As we stepped off the driveway, one of our regular mailmen was there, his truck parked at the bank of mailboxes, which is just about 40 feet from our driveway. He noticed the way I walk, with an obvious limp from my soon-to-be-free arthritic joints.<br />
<br />
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Did something happen?"<br />
<br />
That's always a tough question to answer because I never know how MUCH of an answer the person is ready for.<br />
<br />
"Yeah, I'm okay," I replied. "I've been battling arthritis for a while now."<br />
<br />
"Arthritis, huh? You know, I've got arthritis too."<br />
<br />
Bingo. The way I happened to answer resonated with some common ground in him. And I got excited because this was shaping up to be a great opportunity for praying for healing for this kind man. And to top it off, Rebecca was right here with me and she would have an opportunity to see her Daddy show Jesus love and power to someone who needs it. So rather than keep on talking about my health, I asked him about his.<br />
<br />
"Oh really. Where?"<br />
<br />
He went on to explain that his lower back, particularly his spine, had some pretty significant issues.<br />
<br />
"Does it hurt all the time? Or just when you're straining it? Or more in the winter than the summer?"<br />
<br />
"No it hurts all the time. Just worse sometimes than others."<br />
<br />
Okay, this was my fork in the road. I could stay comfortable and give my condolences and go on my way, hand in hand with Rebecca. Or...or...<br />
<br />
Or I could step out in courage and faith and go for this thing. If I'm gonna believe in healing, then Jesus please help me to walk in the boldness of your Spirit and live like it :)<br />
<br />
So I continued, "Hey, this might be weird, and I know you're working, so I won't keep you long. But I was wondering if it would be okay if I pray for your back right now. I don't know what you believe or anything like that. And to be honest, it doesn't really matter. Jesus really really loves you, and I believe that he would love to show you by healing your back. Would it be okay if I pray for you?"<br />
<br />
I didn't preach at him. I didn't try to get a conversion out of him. I just wanted to love him with the power of Jesus and let that do its own work. And to my surprise, he said yes!<br />
<br />
So right there, in the street by our driveway, at the back of his mail truck, I put my hand on his back and I prayed, "Thank you Jesus for (name) and for how much you love him. Thank you that no matter where he's been in life or what he's done, you love him immeasurably and you really want to show him. So in the name of Jesus, I command the pain in this back to leave (name) right now. And I speak full and complete healing to his spine and muscles and ligaments. Everything that is not the way Jesus made it to function, be restored and fully well."<br />
<br />
He turned around and looked me in the eyes. And I could see surprise and awkwardness. But I could also see genuine gratitude, like he was thankful for someone to love him, and at least try to meet his need without asking for anything in return.<br />
<br />
I asked him, "So do you feel anything?"<br />
<br />
"No, not right now. But you never know, it could have started something, and maybe I'll be able to tell later."<br />
<br />
A kind, gracious reply. I could tell he didn't want to bum me out. I thanked him for letting me pray for him and that I believe that Jesus wants him well. Then, Rebecca and I said goodbye and headed off to the park.<br />
<br />
Corrie and I are so brand new to praying for people for healing, and we have a lot to learn.<br />
<br />
I learned that day that, if nothing happens at first, I'd like to ask to pray again, and again, and again if needed. Sometimes these things take a few assaults on them before they bow to Jesus and get out.<br />
<br />
I learned that, even though I don't know whether he was healed or not. And even though I don't know what Jesus may have done in him through my quick encounter with him...it's okay. I loved him. I was the conduit for Jesus to love him. And it's his kindness that will lead him to repentance, not my pressing and pushing to be able to share the full gospel message. If I get to...great. But what I really want is to demonstrate the gospel in power and love.<br />
<br />
I also learned how great a privilege it is to model Jesus for Rebecca. Maybe she didn't see the mailman healed right then. You might think, "Doesn't that rock her faith?"<br />
<br />
The truth is...NOT AT ALL! In fact, quite the opposite. <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/06/healing-miracles-are-happening.html" target="_blank">She prays for healing quite often and has seen it happen a couple times</a>. Her faith and awareness of the reality of Jesus was not weakened by this man not getting healed right then. Her faith was built by watching Daddy go for it!<br />
<br />
Let's keep seeking Jesus for more of his healing power to be released through us.Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-8242253295285744262015-06-17T22:34:00.000-07:002015-06-17T22:37:27.809-07:00Healing Miracles are Happening!We have had a few more healing miracles happen in our family lately, in addition to the one with <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/06/his-eye-is-on-our-children-too.html" target="_blank">Rebecca's acanthosis nigricans</a> that Corrie wrote about in our last post. Here they are!<br />
<br />
<b>Ear Infection</b><br />
The week following Rebecca's neck getting healed, she got pretty sick with a nasty cold. It was hanging on for a while and then, one day, she started crying out of nowhere.<br />
<br />
"What's wrong Rebecca?"<br />
<br />
Through tears and a bit of panic, she replied, "My ear hurts really bad!"<br />
<br />
Uh oh. Ear infection. Please no. She's never had one before, which has been great. Can we keep that streak alive still?<br />
<br />
It was hurting her really bad and we had to do something for her, poor thing.<br />
<br />
Corrie did some research for a few minutes, since, being health hippies, we weren't super excited about antibiotics. We found that breast milk can actually help ear infections (if you happen to be nursing currently). It's recommended to apply it every couple hours for 24 to 48 hours. That should help the infection subside.<br />
<br />
Well, we didn't get a chance to go that long.<br />
<br />
Corrie put some drops of milk in Rebecca's ear right then. When she was done, I put my hand on her ear and again, like with the neck thing, commanded the ear infection to leave in Jesus' name, because he loves her and paid the price for her body's redemption. Short. Simple.<br />
<br />
Rebecca fell asleep for a short nap, tuckered out from the intense pain. She woke up fifteen minutes later, and the pain was completely gone. And it never came back!<br />
<br />
<b>Intense wrist pain</b><br />
A few weeks ago, sometime in May, my mom came home from work with her wrist in intense pain. It was at the point where it would nearly prevent her from being able to work, since she works in a medical lab handling various instruments and blood samples, etc.<br />
<br />
After some debate in my mind, I suggested that we pray for it. <br />
<br />
Corrie, Rebecca, and I gathered around and commanded healing in Jesus' name. And then asked my mom if she felt anything.<br />
<br />
Nope. Nothing. Still hurt.<br />
<br />
We tried again, and again...nothing.<br />
<br />
Hmmm. Oh well. We tried. Maybe we would be able to try again later.<br />
<br />
But for now, Corrie had to go to a meeting and I had to take Darcy into her room to go to sleep. So Rebecca and my mom were hanging out just the two of them for a couple minutes.<br />
<br />
When Darcy had fallen asleep, I emerged from her room to hear this report from Rebecca:<br />
<br />
"Dad, I prayed for grandma again in her bathroom."<br />
<br />
"What did you pray?"<br />
<br />
"I said, 'Pain leave grandma's hand. Be healed in God's name, in Jesus' name."<br />
<br />
So precious.<br />
<br />
"And guess what, Dad? When I was done praying, her face was like this." Rebecca demonstrated for me a face with wide eyes and open mouth, full of excitement and shock. "And she said that her wrist felt better. Like it was healed! And now when I'm telling you about it, Dad, it makes me want to cry."<br />
<br />
Incredible! First of all, what a precious girl. Second of all, I love that Jesus loves Rebecca so much that he uses her willingness to work a miracle.<br />
<br />
Later that night, the pain came back for a little while. But it left again on its own shortly after and, as far as I know, hasn't come back since.<br />
<br />
<b>Headache and Nausea</b><br />
A few days after this wrist fun--on Memorial Day actually--my mom woke up feeling as if she had gotten food poisoning (how she described it). She had a terrible headache that was coupled with pretty extreme nausea. The two would intensify when she stood up. So she was pretty much lying down all morning.<br />
<br />
Corrie and I were going to have some friends over, but were wondering if we shouldn't just in case this thing was the flu We didn't want to be spreading that to the poor unsuspecting family!<br />
<br />
But mid-morning came and we went to my mom's room where she was incapacitated, sitting on the floor leaning back against her bed.<br />
<br />
Together, we decided to pray for her. I put my hand on her head and commanded the headache and nausea to leave, regardless of the cause (flu, food poisoning, etc.).<br />
<br />
When we were done, I asked my mom if she felt anything, and she said that she felt a fluttering feeling in her stomach. Then, believing that Jesus had healed her, she stood up off the floor and walked around. Instead of feeling worse after standing, she was feeling better!<br />
<br />
She slowly milled about her room and then slowly did a load of laundry. All the time her pain and nausea lessening. By the end of the day, after a long nap, it was gone completely and she was able to keep her plans to go visit her friends to celebrate the holiday!<br />
<br />
For full disclosure, a couple days later, she was hit with a very bad headache (no nausea this time) and was laid up in bed for several days until visiting the ER and having a simple procedure done to fix the headache.<br />
<br />
I don't know if this second round of headache was related to the first at all or not. To me it doesn't matter. We saw victory in that moment. The nausea and headache left when we stood in the power of Jesus and the authority he has given us. I don't know why the other headache came a few days later, and why it didn't leave when we prayed for it that time.<br />
<br />
But each victory is worth celebrating as we keep pushing in to the kingdom and taking more and more of the promised land back from the enemy's hands.<br />
<h3>
The Dam is Breaking</h3>
<div>
Whether these instances seem small and trivial, or cool and significant, I know we're seeing more of Jesus' power. Corrie and I want so badly for this dam of healing to break and to see our lives and others' lives (through us) flooded with our Father's healing heart and power. So when we see the dam that's holding that healing flood back start to crack, it doesn't matter how big or small those cracks are...they are still cracks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And when the dam starts cracking...</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-38081322005340480942015-06-09T21:49:00.000-07:002015-06-09T23:01:18.358-07:00His eye is on our children, too<i>One of the obstacles that Corrie and I have encountered as we've been believing Jesus for more of his kingdom healing power is this:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Okay Jesus, all of this bold faith for healing, trusting that you died in order to pay the price for the redemption of our whole being---all of this sounds great! But if it's true, shouldn't we start to see it play out in the physical realm? i.e. Shouldn't we see some lasting results in my body?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Now, at this point in our journey into the kingdom, neither of us can foresee backing away from this bold faith for healing. Even if we reach the end of this stage of the game and stand before Jesus never having seen his healing power, we won't change what we believe. Nonetheless, those thoughts come around tempting us to question.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>BUT! We are starting to see miracles. And there's no better remedy for doubt than real experiences with the our loving, living, REAL Father.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Yes, Jesus did say that blessed are those who believe without seeing (<b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A29&version=ESV" target="_blank">John 20:29</a></b>), but he also likes to meet that faith with answers!</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Hebrews 11:6</b> And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.</i></blockquote>
<i>And it is our faith that pulls the promises of God and the spiritual realities of his kingdom into our physical world.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Hebrews 11:1 </b>Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Hebrews 6:12 </b>Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.</i></blockquote>
<i>The rest of this post is kind of a guest post. "Kind of" because Corrie wrote it, and she's not really a guest on our family's blog. "Guest post" because she actually wrote it for her own blog, which she has just started over at <a href="http://hopeandhomestead.com/" target="_blank">Hope & Homestead</a>. If you have the opportunity, you should go check it out. She is a fantastic writer. She writes with incredible depth and insight, coupled with hilarious humor. She's basically awesome.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Without further adieu, here's Corrie:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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A few months ago I began to notice some brown streaky markings on Lulu’s neck. Ew, I thought, don’t you ever clean your daughter’s neck?</div>
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Yes, sometimes I speak directly to myself.</div>
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But at her next bath, they wouldn’t come off. Weird.</div>
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At the next bath, there they were again. Maybe they are sunspots, I thought.</div>
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Then I saw something online about Acanthosis Nigricans. They are brown streaky marks that people can get on their neck, underarms, and groin that can often be a signal of type 2 Diabetes, hormonal issues, cancerous tumors on the stomach or liver, OR sometimes they are just genetic streaky marks that girls especially can be self-conscious about because they never go away.</div>
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The internet can be so helpful.</div>
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My stomach dropped like a rock. <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How could I have missed this?</i> <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What is going on in this little body that I can’t see? She seems perfectly healthy.</i></div>
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At worst, she could find herself checking her blood levels a couple times a day – or <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cancer</i>. Or she could just not ever want to wear her hair in a ponytail and wish that her body was different.</div>
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The desire of a momma’s heart to make sure that her children have what they need and feel beautiful and are healthy is often overpowering, and it can tip over into fear awfully fast.</div>
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And that’s where I went.</div>
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Stomach ache. Looking at mayoclinic.org when I know I <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shouldn’t be</i>. Worry. Worry. Worry.</div>
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My sweet husband can see it in my face now. Sometimes worry washes over me and steals my joy. It makes life feel like doom. And the enemy of our hearts starts in on speaking his incessant lies into my head.</div>
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<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“What makes you think that in this world, where so many people are sick, that your kids could escape it?”</i></div>
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Matt and I believe that Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and that through His power the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk – <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on earth as it is in Heaven</i>.</div>
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But when the rubber meets the road, when the poop hits the fan and other clichés, will we put our money where our mouth is? Will we put our <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">actions</i> where our mouth is?</div>
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Sensing me tip over, Matt came calmly to my side and looked over my shoulder at the marks I was trying to nonchalantly inspect. If these were going to be around for a while, I didn’t want to speed up the self-conscious aspect by making a big deal out of them.</div>
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While I brushed her hair (that was my premise for the inspection), Matt just quietly held his hand out toward her and I could barely hear him under his breath declare in the name of Jesus that these marks were to mean nothing, were to go away, and were not to scare me anymore.</div>
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That night after she fell asleep I snuck back into her room “I’ll love you forever”-style and sat, as I often do, on the floor next to her little toddler bed that she is growing out of. I lay my hand on her snuggled up, heavily blanketed little form and surrendered her again, as I continually have to do, into Jesus’ hands. I entrusted her body to Him, and I thanked Him again for the honor of being one half of the duo that gets to usher her into life in this big awesome world; for the honor of being the one who gets to momma-love her so strongly, that I begin to understand a little more the love for me that led Jesus to endure the cross.</div>
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Matt and I decided together to wait a few more days before calling the pediatrician just to see what happened.</div>
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At bath time a day or so later, the marks were gone. I mean really gone. I mean gone before bath time even started. Before I had a chance to wash her down with a cloth.</div>
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I wish I had a before and after picture to show you, but that wouldn’t have worked with the whole “not making a big deal out of it” plan, so you are just going to have to take my word for it.</div>
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I would do just about anything to ensure my children’s safety and health and happiness. And I still will. This story doesn’t disqualify diligence and wisdom.</div>
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But parenting, and the crushing amounts of love that come with it, just expose my weaknesses. Because I can’t, just from <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">willing it,</i> make skin markings go away. But Jesus can. And through the markings that <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">His</i> skin received, we can be healed.</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-28246537588776131562015-05-27T16:08:00.000-07:002015-05-27T21:01:34.678-07:00What Happens When "Nothing" Happens?Okay.<br />
<br />
Corrie and I have wanted to be totally honest throughout the life of this blog. We want to share the unadulterated truth of our journey, our struggles, and our beliefs even when that truth <b>seems</b> to run counter to what we're going after.<br />
<br />
Namely: healing, a deeper and more real experience of the person of Jesus, the kingdom.<br />
<br />
After going to that <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/p/healing-conference-series.html" target="_blank">healing conference at Bethel</a>, wouldn't it be a beautiful thing to be able to write to you: I'm healed! It's done! Maybe I didn't feel it then, but I woke up the next day, or two days later or whatever and it was gone!<br />
<br />
At this point Corrie and I would definitely consider a gradual healing to be a miracle.<br />
<br />
<b>Where My Body is at Now</b> <br />
<br />
Today as I write, my body isn't feeling all that great. The joints that were crooked are still crooked. The fatigue and adrenal exhaustion are still exerting their influence. And the general pain, though not super intense, is still there.<br />
<br />
After the healing conference, I went through a time of feeling pretty bad. In fact, I had to increase my daily dose of prednisone (a steroid that suppresses pain and inflammation) from 30mg to 40mg. This issue of prednisone is one that Corrie and I would love to be rid of. It's typically pretty toxic and can have some negative long term effects. We <b>really</b> want for me to be able to get off of it completely.<br />
<br />
And in the last couple months, we've tried. I dropped the dose first from 40mg per day to 37.5mg. Then after two weeks, again to 35mg per day.<br />
<br />
But shortly after, my body showed signs of REgressing rather than PROgressing and I had to go back up to 40mg and am still working on regaining my strength.<br />
<br />
On the positive side, I have been gaining weight, which is huge for me. It's nice to be able to hold my own against those light spring breezes :) <br />
<br />
<b>What God is Doing in Us Now</b><br />
<br />
There are quite a few details to that summary of my body's state right now, some of which are quite interesting and carry flavors of the miraculous working of His kingdom. But those details aren't actually the point of this post.<br />
<br />
The point is: We went to a healing conference where miraculous healing was clearly happening, where Jesus was clearly leading us. Yet, we did not and currently are not experiencing the full extent of healing that we've been pursuing.<br />
<br />
So what in the world do we do with that?<br />
<br />
Battling this sickness for eight years is hard enough. It could seem like salt in the wound to come home from that conference with what seems like nothing to show for it.<br />
<br />
<b>Offended by Disappointment</b><br />
<br />
In Matthew 11, John the Baptist is stuck in prison with no hope of escape. He's heard about the miracles that Jesus has done and is doing. He saw heaven open over Jesus and heard the Father's voice bless him for crying out loud.<br />
<br />
But now, in prison, when HE needs rescuing, he doubts. <b>"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (vs. 3)</b><br />
<br />
Basically, "Are you really who I thought you were? Because here I am, needing saving, and you're not doing it. So maybe I should look for another savior."<br />
<br />
I'm going to be bold and say that I think a lot of Christians join John the Baptist in this line of thought...especially when faced with persisting sickness, or any other type of disappointment for that matter.<br />
<br />
And I'm going to be even bolder and say that this type of thinking brings death.<br />
<br />
I don't mean to be insensitive or cruel. But I speak from my and Corrie's own experience. Everything in us wants to ask the question, "WHY? Why, God, have you not healed me? We need you to save us, and you aren't doing it. So now we have to make sense of this current set of circumstances."<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">But when we dive in to this line of thought, our minds often inadvertently start undermining one of two things, or both: who Jesus
is...and...who we are.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Who Jesus Is</b><br />
<br />
Maybe some start looking to something other than Jesus to save them.<br />
<br />
But more likely for us Christians, we tend to look to another version of Jesus. <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">We unwittingly remake him into someone who matches our disappointing circumstances rather than hang on in faith and patience until our circumstances bow at his feet.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">This is where, I think, the thoughts come in that say that he must have a higher plan. His ways are not our ways. He's building my character. Maybe he wants to heal some but not others, but not me.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">And before we are even aware of what's happening in our minds, we reason ourselves right out of faith and into what has felt to me like paralysis. And instead of a Jesus who came to bring light wherever there is darkness, to heal wherever there is brokenness, to push his kingdom violently into our existence, we start to believe in a Jesus whose power was great 2000 years ago and will be great again 2000 years from now. But in the present, he really doesn't do much.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">And now the Bible, the written revelation of God, is no longer the final authority on his character. But our reasoning, our experience has usurped its place. All of our "if then" statements make so much sense to us.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">"If I am still sick, then it must be because..."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">And these conclusions SEEM right!</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;">Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."</span></blockquote>
Corrie and I have written and declared over and over and over: Jesus heals. His name is Healer. He can heal. He WANTS to heal. Even, he HAS already healed. <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/p/healing-scriptures.html" target="_blank">The Scriptures are absolutely rock solid on this</a>. Sickness should not stay where Jesus is present. Therefore, in the body of a believer, sickness is a squatter. It's illegal, and God has authorized us to evict it.<br />
<br />
Similarly, in the body of anyone who is in the presence of a believing believer, sickness is still a squatter. Because we believers get to bring healing to the world to show them God's overwhelming and REAL compassion.<br />
<br />
So if we get offended at not seeing healing yet, and we redefine Jesus, we start to believe that maybe he's not the same yesterday, today, and forever. Maybe he's not Jehovah Rapha. Maybe he did not bear our illnesses and carry our diseases (<b>Matthew 8:17</b>).<br />
<br />
Or maybe my Father, instead of wanting our family to be free of sickness, which is merely the result of sin and the curse of it, wants us to endure it so that we can get stronger.<br />
<br />
As a family that battles sickness, this version of Jesus and the Father is not one that gives me and Corrie life and hope and joy and the will to keep fighting. Instead it has in the past led to depression and angst and being angry at God.<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">But if we take God at his Word, his unadulterated, plain and simple word. Then his goodness, his power, and the sheer magnitude of everything he has made available to us...they bring life!</span><br />
<br />
<b>Who We Are</b><br />
<br />
If, in our offense, we don't undermine Jesus' character, then we are left to question who we ourselves are. If Jesus is our healer, if the Father takes no pleasure in sickness but instead wants to get rid of it, then there must be something about ME that is keeping me from being high enough on God's list of priorities to think about.<br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;">He must not love me or like me or care to invest in me as much as his other children. </span></span><br />
<br />
So we beg and plead for God to please come to us, to look at us. To consider us. And in so doing we actually accuse God of not being compassionate, of not being caring, or of just being oblivious.<br />
<br />
And we start to believe that we aren't worth his time.<br />
<br />
But let me just say right now, we--me, Corrie, our family, and everyone in this entire existence--we are all worth all of his time. We are not worthless sinners saved by grace. We are precious sons and daughters of the King who were lost but have been redeemed by the high high price of Jesus' blood. We are worth so much because he has declared it so. We are worth the very life and death of Jesus.<br />
<br />
<b>Unoffended in the Truth</b><br />
<br />
Jesus answers John the Baptist by simply restating Isaiah 61, the commission of the Holy Spirit over his life.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Matthew 11: 4-6: </b>"Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."</blockquote>
What he is calling out to us is this: "I am still your Savior. What you are experiencing right now is competing for your loyalty, your heart and mind, your faith. But do not waver. Do not doubt. Do not look for salvation in your own reasoning and explanations. If you remain in me, if you stay steady in your faith in who I am, who I've declared you to be, in my truth, you will be blessed."<br />
<br />
Thankfully, Holy Spirit in us gives us the tenacity to fight this good fight of faith. We have to fight to take the kingdom. That's why just a few verses later, Jesus says,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." (<b>vs. 12</b>)</blockquote>
It is fully ours, and yet it takes a violent faith to keep pushing in to it.<br />
<br />
That's where we are. We are still waiting for my body to reflect the healing that Jesus already paid for. But we are not shaken in our faith or our resolve at all. In fact, both are stronger now than ever. We have seen too much of God's power to stop pursuing more. We have known too much of his heart to want to find a savior anywhere else.<br />
<br />
So, when "nothing happens" it doesn't actually matter. We keep
holding on to the truth, immerse our minds in it, let it permeate our
whole being until we're transformed from glory to glory. But that's a topic for a later post :)<br />
<br />
The truth is, "nothing" never happens. In the kingdom, something always happens. And that's exciting.<br />
<br />
<br />Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-6297184024022055352015-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:002015-05-03T18:06:10.492-07:00How Jesus Rocked Our World at a Healing Conference: Part 3We woke up on day three of the healing conference, having just had a wonderful <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank">second night</a> that really helped settle our hearts and answer some questions that we had after the<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"> first night</a>. As you may remember, we received powerful prayer for healing and were very blessed on that second night.<br />
<br />
Then, the morning of day three came. And again, like yesterday, my body was having the hardest day it had had in a couple years. Except now, it had the previous day to compete with for the top slot on the pain scale.<br />
<br />
What?<br />
<br />
But Jesus, we are at a healing conference. We prayed. THEY prayed. I didn't feel anything, but the people praying did. So where's the healing?<br />
<br />
These questions can, if we let them, suck the life right out of our countenance. And out of our faith. But they are legitimate questions to our natural minds. If <i>a = b</i> and <i>b = c</i>, then <i>a</i> should equal <i>c</i>, right? So what happens when <i>c </i>doesn't seem to show up?<br />
<br />
This verse came to mind and is where we've landed:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Proverbs 3:5 </b>Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.</blockquote>
Our own understanding is where we look at the situation, the fact that my body is tanking, and think, "Jesus must not be ready to heal me yet." Trusting in the LORD is where the <i>situation </i>loses all power to determine our beliefs and conclusions because the <i>word of Jesus</i> and his finished work of redemption stand truer.<br />
<br />
And so, back to the story.<br />
<br />
Day three. A lot of pain in my body. Corrie again was left to take care of me and the girls on her own, taking them to the store and to the hotel pool by herself while I lay in bed, hoping my body would somehow be revived.<br />
<br />
<b>Surrounded by God's Love</b><br />
<br />
But God already had readied his people to come alongside us and carry us through.<br />
<br />
One of my mom's good friends, who lives in Redding and goes to Bethel and who Corrie and I have actually never met, got in touch with us. She had some extra tickets for Friday's day sessions (which had been sold out when we originally decided to come to the conference) and wanted to know if we'd like them.<br />
<br />
We got back to her, letting her know that my body was far too sick that day for us to go anywhere before the evening session. Rather than let that be the end of it, she instead got us in touch with one of Bethel's pastors who himself had been miraculously healed of stage 4 cancer several years prior. He and his wife dropped everything and came to our hotel room to pray with us.<br />
<br />
And what a blessing. Even though we were in a strange town, far away from friends, Jesus was covering us with people we didn't even know, who loved us.<br />
<br />
They prayed more faith-filled prayers against sickness, prayed prophetic words and promises over our marriage, and really built us up in the presence of Jesus. Again, I didn't feel anything in my body, but they felt God's presence as they were praying.<br />
<br />
Corrie and I felt his presence as well, not physically, but definitely in our spirits. We were given new joy and laughter in the midst of my terrible pain. We were given hope that God is indeed breaking this sickness. And we were humbled by the prophetic words about our marriage and God's power working through us together.<br />
<br />
After they left, we slowly got ready to go to the third and final session of the conference. But this time, thanks to my mom's friend, we had seats reserved for us on the ground level. We had been in the balcony on the previous nights, but this friend did everything she could to make sure that there was space for us on the more mellow, more comfortable, and just all around better lower level. We shouldn't have been able to sit there, since it was reserved for people who paid for the whole conference. But they didn't care.<br />
<br />
To them, we mattered more than the rules.<br />
<br />
Like Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Or forgiving the adulterous woman.<br />
<br />
And when we arrived that night, there were people we had never met waiting to help us in. My mom's friend was out of town and wasn't even there, but she had called in reinforcements to help us unload the girls from the car, carry our baby stuff, show us to our seats, and make sure we had everything we needed. We were covered.<br />
<br />
Surrounded on all sides by these people who loved us, we were ready for the incredible third session.<br />
<br />
<b>The Third and Last Session</b><br />
<br />
Just before it started, another man who I hadn't met stopped and prayed for me. He stayed very calm and not worked up during his prayer. And suddenly he asked me, "Are you hot in here?"<br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
"Wow. Crazy. God is doing something right now, 'cause I'm burning up." I looked up at him and sure enough, he was taking off his sweater as beads of sweat started forming on his face.<br />
<br />
Yet another until-now-strange supernatural occurrence.<br />
<br />
The session started with more worship led by Jeremy Riddle (which was fun because Corrie and I loved his song "Sweetly Broken" when it came out back in college). Rebecca again was on her feet with her hands high praising Jesus.<br />
<br />
After giving a mediumly brief message on healing, Randy Clark outlined how the rest of the evening would go. They were going to play several videos, each of which would have several different healing testimonies. They were interviews conducted with people who had been healed at similar gatherings. <br />
<br />
Randy said that, if any of the testimonies were the same as or similar to what we were dealing with, we were to stand up after the video. We would treat these testimonies as words of knowledge, meaning that a video showing someone healed of cancer would be similar to Randy saying from the front, "If you have cancer, I think that I am hearing God say he's healing you tonight."<br />
<br />
So the lights dimmed and the first video played. And the first girl on the video said, "I was just healed of...LYME DISEASE."<br />
<br />
What?!<br />
<br />
My heart beat like 30 times in 2 seconds and tears came to my eyes. Corrie was taking care of Darcy, walking her in the back, but she also had a similar reaction.<br />
<br />
"Jesus, is this for real? This can't be real. I'm not actually about to be free of this thing once and for all, am I?"<br />
<br />
Then, I matched up with several other testimonies on that same video. People talking about joints that couldn't bend all the way or that were just totally locked, pain in different parts of their body.<br />
<br />
It was basically a checklist for a bunch of the things that are wrong in my body.<br />
<br />
"Oh please Jesus." <br />
<br />
So the video ended, and I stood up along with quite a few others sprinkled about the auditorium. And at that point, it didn't matter to Corrie how fussy Darcy was. She rushed back to be by my side. And the people close to us gathered even closer to lay hands on us and pray.<br />
<br />
And as we stood, me in a lot of pain, I kept checking different joints to see if they were loosening (particularly my right elbow, which is almost completely frozen). They kept praying. Nothing was changing.<br />
<br />
Randy asked from the front who was getting healed, and all over the auditorium people were waving their hands.<br />
<br />
Not me.<br />
<br />
After a couple minutes, everyone sat down and the next video played. When it was over, Randy asked the new group of people, plus anyone who hadn't been healed yet from the first video to stand back up.<br />
<br />
So everyone gathered back around again to pray. There was no supernatural evidence happening at this point, like prophetic words or strange sensations. But again, we could just feel everyone's love. And again, people weren't just praying for me but for Corrie as well.<br />
<br />
(Note from Corrie: Several women gathered around me and actually wept with me for <i>my </i>pain, for all the days that <i>I</i> have had - like that day - to carry an unnatural amount of weight to keep our family going. And I just want to say that this was not worked up weeping. It was an honest sharing in the deep pain that I don't always display. I really believe that Jesus would have done the same if He were sitting there with me.)<br />
<br />
Even when the next video played, people didn't stop praying. I sat back down, mostly because of my pain and tiredness, but people didn't leave for their seats like before. They wanted to stay with us, to keep battling on our behalf.<br />
<br />
<b>Miracle #1</b><br />
<br />
As waves of prayer for us kept coming. We were able to witness what Jesus was doing for other people in the room. Three people in particular really stood out.<br />
<br />
At one point during the evening, we could hear a sudden uproar of excitement and commotion about six rows behind us. We could see a group of people all standing around this twenty-something girl with their phones out recording, taking pictures, yelling, "WHOA! Oh my goodness!!"<br />
<br />
This girl had a metal plate in her forearm that you could see under her skin. Well, she USED to have it. But these people, her friends, were all watching as it disappeared in front of their eyes. The bulge under the skin just shrank to nothing.<br />
<br />
She had apparently been healed of AIDS and gotten saved a few years prior at the Healing Room ministry in Santa Maria. But Jesus' grace and compassion don't ever stop...so he wasn't done healing her.<br />
<br />
<b>Miracle #2</b><br />
<br />
Then, about 4 rows in front of us, in the very front row next to the stage, a woman fell to the floor sobbing, quite loudly actually. Randy walked over to her with the mic to ask what was going on, but she couldn't pull herself together to answer yet. Her husband, who was standing with his own tears coming down his face, said, "She knew she'd be healed tonight. God said to her, 'If you go tonight I'll heal you.'"<br />
<br />
Randy gave the woman some time to compose herself before coming back to find out what had happened. She got up on the stage and plugged in her iPhone so that it could project some pictures that she had of her foot. It actually looked a lot like my right ankle which is unnaturally turned out from the arthritis that has damaged the joint.<br />
<br />
She then took off her shoe to show everyone her completely straight ankle with full range of motion and no pain.<br />
<br />
<b>Miracle #3</b><br />
<br />
Another lady got up on the stage and shared her story. She had suffered from Lyme Disease for 37 years. Yes, THIRTY-SEVEN years. When the video played, she too felt the same excitement that we had felt, and, whether it was during the video or after I don't know, Jesus completely took away every one of her symptoms right then and there.<br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
But here's what really amazed us. Everyone's hearts were so oriented toward compassion and love, toward not letting anyone leave without being fought for. The ministry team immediately sent her straight from the stage to where we were sitting so that she could take up arms against the Lyme Disease in my body.<br />
<br />
And she was the kindest most compassionate lady. She sat, probably feeling bad that she was healed and I was still not feeling anything, and prayed for me for most of the rest of the night.<br />
<br />
<b>As We Were Leaving</b><br />
<br />
After all of this and (we found out later) about 160 other healings that night, it got late and we needed to leave to get our girls to bed. Corrie had already gone out to the foyer, sad to leave my side, but needing to settle and care for our two very tired girls.<br />
<br />
I still felt no different than when the evening began.<br />
<br />
But on my way out to meet Corrie and the girls in the foyer, I was stopped by a woman telling me, "There's a man who really really wants to pray for you."<br />
<br />
At this point, I was tired, a bit discouraged, in pain, and just wanting to take care of my wife who had been so heroically taking care of our daughters while I was receiving prayer. So I said, "Well, I can't stay right now. My family is waiting for me and my daughters are melting down. If he really wants, he can come out and meet us while we pack up our stuff."<br />
<br />
She said, "Great," and left, presumably to go get him. Again, as I was on my way to Corrie, a kind man, Zack, came alongside and asked if he could pray for me. Getting a bit MORE tired now, I said, "Sure, but wait until I get to my family." I figured this was the guy that the lady had gone to get.<br />
<br />
So we got to Corrie and the girls, and he was about to start praying with ANOTHER guy came up and said his name was Ben. He seemed to have some kind of authority around there, because it seemed like people knew who he was. And somehow he did look familiar.<br />
<br />
He was the guy who "really really" wanted to pray for me before I left. He said that he saw me in the auditorium from his seat and that I appeared to be glowing white hot. He felt the Holy Spirit moving him to pray for me.<br />
<br />
Ben and Zack prayed. Power-filled, faith-filled, authority-filled prayers against this sickness. Prophetic words about our lives and God's vision for us. <br />
<br />
And with that, we were blessed and loved and had met God again. My body felt no different, but our spirits were a thousand times strengthened and infused with the love of Jesus for our family.<br />
<br />
I want tell you where I'm at now, physically, and how Corrie and I have processed through everything that we experienced there. But telling the story of day three has already made for a long post. Thank you for sticking through to the end! I'm going to sign off for now and save the rest for the next post. So stay tuned!<br />
<br />
By the way, it turns out that Ben is a pastor at Bethel, and that we had seen him in<a href="http://www.sonsofgodmovie.com/" target="_blank"> the movie Sons of God</a>. A great movie really worth watching. It's <a href="http://www.dutchquest.com/watch-now/" target="_blank">free online</a>, by the way!<br />
<br />
Also, I looked him up on Facebook and found that he's leading the <a href="http://www.awakeningeurope.com/" target="_blank">Awakening Europe conference </a>this summer along with another preacher Corrie and I love to listen to, <a href="http://lifestylechristianity.com/" target="_blank">Todd White</a>. All of it is definitely worth checking out.<br />
<br />
To read the other parts of our Healing Conference series:<br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part One</b></a><br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part Two</b></a><br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing_20.html" target="_blank"><b>Darcy's Interlude</b></a>Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-82667338986293908162015-04-20T21:41:00.001-07:002015-04-20T21:41:59.684-07:00How Jesus Rocked Our World at a Healing Conference: Darcy's InterludeSo, even though this is the third post in the Healing Conference series, it is NOT part three. I'm sorry everyone. I know you were all eagerly waiting for part three, but I had to include this little tidbit. It didn't quite fit in <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank">part two</a>, even though it happened on that night, but it still deserves to be told because it's one more example of God showing us that he sees, he knows, and he is very <i>real</i>.<br />
<br />
At one point during the second night of the conference, Darcy started getting fidgety and borderline fussy, so Corrie took her out into the foyer of the auditorium to walk with her a bit.<br />
<br />
While she was out there, sacrificing her energy and her opportunity to listen to the awesome message, no doubt also still worried about how my body was doing, God met her and filled her heart with his love for her and our family.<br />
<br />
Out of nowhere, a man who we didn't know walked up to Corrie and told her, "I just wanted to tell you, I see a rainbow over your baby's head right now (as she was sitting in her stroller). And I think that God wants you to know that she is a promise to you that what has happened will not happen again."<br />
<br />
Immediately, the significance of this hit home with Corrie. "Well, she <i>is </i>our rainbow baby."<br />
<br />
"What does that mean?" he asked. <br />
<br />
Amazing! The guy didn't know Corrie or our history, and he didn't know what the picture God had given him even meant!<br />
<br />
"That's what they call a baby who is born after the mom has had a miscarriage. Two years ago, <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2013/04/see-through.html" target="_blank">I miscarried</a>, and now Darcy, here, is our rainbow baby."<br />
<br />
And then, having just met Corrie and still having never met me, this man prayed a powerful, prophetic prayer for our family. He prayed for my healing, standing against disease on our behalf. And he prayed that we would be established in a place where it would seem impossible to actually get established. The picture that he got for us was that we are like a flower on the side of a rocky cliff. Nothing is <i>supposed</i> to grow there, but because God has declared it, it does. <br />
<br />
We had traveled to Redding specifically with the idea of going deeper in our healing journey with Jesus. But what he had in mind was to draw us more fully into his heart. He doesn't compartmentalize himself into the healing side, the prophetic side, the comforting side, the disciplining side. In him the <i>fullness</i> of deity dwells bodily. So in him, we get ALL of him.<br />
<br />
In that moment, he was ministering healing to Corrie's heart. Man, he's good! <br />
<br />
It was as if he was saying, "Yes, I know you want healing, Hallock Family. I do too. But in the process, I want you to know that I want ALL of you. Every pain, every brokenness, every child, whether still with you or here with me. Your whole family is all mine and I care about every facet of you. This issue, Darcy as your rainbow baby, may seem insignificant at the moment compared to the pressing health needs of Matt's body. But it is SO significant. It is SO near to My heart. And you, Corrie, are not forgotten in the midst." <br />
<br />
"So seek me for healing. But seek <i>Me</i>, not just the healing. Because when you seek <i>Me</i>, then I get all of you, and then you get everything I am."<br />
<br />
Thank you Jesus for bringing us into greater intimacy with you. It's in that place of shared intimacy with the Trinity (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17%3A20-23&version=ESV" target="_blank">John 17:20-23</a>) where all of your gifts and promises and goodness find their<br />
meaning.<br />
<br />
To read Corrie's beautiful post, written two years ago, on her miscarriage:<br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2013/04/see-through.html" target="_blank"><b>See Through</b></a><br />
<br />
To read the other parts of our Healing Conference series:<br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part One</b></a><br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part Two</b></a><br />
<b>Part Three (coming soon...)</b>Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-39242425122035708742015-04-15T21:38:00.000-07:002015-04-20T21:45:07.217-07:00How Jesus Rocked our World at a Healing Conference: Part 2<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Corrie and I woke up
the morning after our first night at the healing conference mentally and
spiritually ready for day 2, whatever it may bring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank">If you missed what happened on day 1, you can catch it here.</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But physically, my
body was in for the worst day it had had in a very long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> No exagerrating, </span>I hadn't felt this debilitated by pain for at
least 2 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But on this day, 4 hours
from home in a strange hotel room with no familiar friends around to support
Corrie, my body tanked.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I couldn't get out of bed at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I laid there for several hours wondering what in the world was going
on while Corrie, being strong and a champion, took care of the girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She played with them, took them out on the
town, fed them, smiled for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
while she was worried and afraid for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Everything in us
wanted to question, "Are we doing the right thing? Should we just go home?
How are we gonna make it through the rest of this if my body won't even
function?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we both had heard
Jesus, and we just couldn't let go of that. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Four o'clock finally rolled
around, and my body had garnered enough strength to be able to
slowly get out of bed and shuffle around to get myself dressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Corrie had to do my socks and shoes for me, since it hurt to much to reach down that far.</span><br />
<br />
Both of us feeling scared and disheartened,
we ventured out again to get dinner and to head to night #2 of the conference.<br />
<br />
<b>Trying to Figure All This Out</b><br />
<br />
As we waited in our seats for the session to begin, we were watching everyone, again. The imagery from last night was still fresh in our minds and we couldn't help but wonder, "I wonder if THAT person was one of the people on the floor last night." Or, "Maybe THAT person got healed of something last night."<br />
<br />
We just watched, wondered, and kept talking to Jesus the whole time.<br />
<br />
At this point, we were still wary. And I had one key question.<br />
<br />
What was the underlying motivation behind the events of last night?<br />
<br />
To the observer, casual or otherwise, it really could have seemed like hype and sensationalism. That's what stuck with me as I was wrestling through it all. Were these people in it just for a fun, feel-good experience?<br />
<br />
If so, we didn't want that. We want Jesus, the authentic Jesus. And we know that everything he did was motivated by love. Yes, he had very real, feel-good, life changing encounters with people. But it was never about the show or the experience itself. It was always about love. His eyes were first on the person. His heart was moved by compassion.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Matthew 9:35-36 </b>"And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Matthew 14:14 </b>"When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Luke 7:13 </b>"And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep.'"</blockquote>
No matter how weird--or normal--spiritual happenings feel, they should always...<i>always</i>...be fueled by love. God is love. He is not concerned with a show or a spiritual party just for the heck of it. Love moves him.<br />
<br />
So even though all of those Holy Spirit manifestations that we had seen raised other questions for us, those would be much easier to answer if we could answer this one: Is this moved by love and compassion? Or just excitement and "cool-ness"?<br />
<br />
<b>Questions Answered</b><br />
<br />
The night started much the same as the first night, with a set of awesome worship<b>. </b>Then Bill Johnson gave one of the best sermons I've heard. Period. It was on healing, yes, but also on the nature of the kingdom and Jesus' mission here on earth. Absolutely world-rocking.<br />
<br />
Actually, the sermon was one of the wrecking balls God used to help tear down our protective walls. Not only was the message itself great, but Bill's spirit emanated love and humility the whole time.<br />
<br />
At the end of his message, Bill lead the whole assembly in a couple voice-only impromptu worship songs. And then, God began to show up. But in a weird way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the singing, everyone just started singing out notes, not with words or melodies, just notes. Tones, almost. And as these tones kept ringing out over the auditorium, a beautiful harmony started to form. I don't know how to describe it in writing. It sounded complex, like it was always moving and fluctuating, like there were dozens of harmonies all harmonizing with each other.<br />
<br />
Granted, it could possibly have been the science of music and acoustics...maybe. Or it could have been heaven's chorus breaking in to ours and the two blending together as God met his worshipers.<br />
<br />
On the flip-side, though, the sermon was fairly long, which meant the girls were getting "restless" and we were going to have to leave before the actual healing prayer time. So during this strange harmony...thing...we packed up and snuck out the back into the foyer.<br />
<br />
And here, God sent another wrecking ball in the form of several students of Bethel's School of Supernatural Ministry. I'm sure that God must have used the words, "If Matt and Corrie want to see love, then, by jove, let's show them love."<br />
<br />
He often says <i>by jove</i>.<br />
<br />
As we were walking through the foyer, we were stopped by a group of three students who had seen my obviously poor health and wanted to pray for us. At this point, I was thinking, "Wow! In the midst of everything going on here, someone noticed us and has gone out of their way for us. BUT--they might just want to pray for us so they can see God do something cool and get another notch in their supernatural power belts. Or...they might actually love us."<br />
<br />
We quickly learned it was the latter. They showered love on us so heavily, I could feel their compassion just washing over us. And they prayed powerful, faith-filled prayers for healing. Commanding the sickness to leave. Commanding health for my body. Not taking no for an answer. Prophetically declaring that this disease is not our destiny but that the tunnel is ending soon.<br />
<br />
And they prayed to build up my spirit, that I was a son of God, strong, a warrior.<br />
<br />
And here's how I really knew that love was at work. A couple of them branched off to pray for Corrie.<br />
<br />
YES!!<br />
<br />
Some people see that I'm sick and pray for me and usually with wonderful intentions. But they can often overlook Corrie. That she needs prayer just as much as I do. That this sickness is not just mine but hers too: we <i>are</i> one, after all.<br />
<br />
When these strangers prayed not just for me, but for Corrie as well, Oh! I knew love was working. They had eyes and hearts and prayers for my wife. If they really love me, they'll love what I love, <i>who</i> I love. And their hearts will break for her too.<br />
<br />
And on top of that, one or two of them (I don't remember) spent the whole time not praying, which can be perceived as the more glorious role to play, but sitting and talking with Rebecca and holding Darcy. They wanted Corrie and me to just be able to receive and to not have to worry about how the girls were doing for the moment.<br />
<br />
Hello love. Hello wrecking ball. Goodbye walls of self-protection.<br />
<br />
Now the weird didn't really matter. One of the girls, while she was praying, would kind of twitch from her stomach as she was praying. Sometimes she would yell out when it happened too. The others would say things like, "Whoa! Did you feel that?" "Yeah, yeah! God's presence is really all over him." I didn't feel anything (other than the emotions), but it didn't matter.<br />
<br />
The weird didn't matter so much anymore because the love of Jesus legitimized it. His love for us, through these people, made uncomfortable things feel like the safest things in the world. And we knew then, if this is the spirit here, who are we to say that the weird stuff is actually weird at all. Maybe it's just God being himself. And he's the standard for normal.<br />
<br />
<b>One More Prayer</b><br />
<br />
So, feeling totally wrecked (in a good way), we eventually made our way out to the parking lot where one more man, totally moved by compassion, came chasing after us. He said that his hands were burning while he watched the others pray for us. And as soon as we left, they all told him to run after us and pray too.<br />
<br />
So he did. The same faith-filled, love-fueled, hell-shattering kind of prayer as the others. And once again, we got the message from Jesus. "I am here. I love you. I see you. Trust me."<br />
<br />
We left that night incredibly thankful we had stayed. Filled with hope and believing that, in the spiritual, the tides were turning on this disease.<br />
<br />
And there was still more to come. This was only night #2...<br />
<br />
To read the other parts of our Healing Conference series:<br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part One</b> </a><br />
<b><a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing_20.html" target="_blank">Darcy's Interlude</a> </b><br />
<b>Part Three (coming soon...)</b><br />
</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-8713339979462185502015-03-31T17:00:00.000-07:002015-04-20T21:43:56.241-07:00How Jesus Rocked our World at a Healing Conference: Part 1<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
</div>
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You may remember from <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/03/jesus-healing-and-childlike-faith.html" target="_blank">this post</a> that back in mid-January,
I had to cancel nearly all of my tutoring appointments because of how poorly my body was doing. It could have been quite discouraging. But thankfully, Jesus had been leading Corrie
and me into a renewed fervor for seeking more of
his presence and healing power.<br />
<br />
And he was answering our pursuit!<br />
<br />
At that time, I learned of an upcoming healing
conference happening at Bethel Church in Redding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By upcoming, I mean in a week and a half.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep in mind, this was during a time when we
had a 4 year old, a three month old baby, a fast-approaching deadline by which we had
to move out of our apartment with no place to actually move to yet, poor health
for me, and Corrie's regular job at the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">With all of these things on our plate, </span>it was
not the ideal time for us to take a trip. But this conviction to pursue healing and more of Jesus' kingdom reaches deep into our hearts. So I told Corrie about the conference and she, being the amazing wife and passionate pursuer of Jesus
that she is, was totally on-board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And though it wasn't convenient or easy to take the trip right then, we had the "peace that surpasses understanding." The peace that feels nonsensical to our natural mind, which wants to fix all the storms in our lives. The peace that focuses on Jesus, the source of calm in those storms.</span></div>
<br />
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So we drove all
morning on Wednesday, checked in to our hotel exhausted, and mustered our energy to head down the street to the conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corrie and I were
excited and nervous this whole time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
had no idea what to expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All we knew
was that Jesus was urging us to come here, and that it would be different than
what we were used to.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Where We've Come From</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Corrie and I
have for a long time now been hungry for more of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not that he has ever deprived us of himself,
but we have felt him telling us, "There is more to my heart and my
kingdom than you've seen so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come
after me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come and see."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much of that hunger has actually been fueled
by this sickness and our desire for total healing.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And that hunger has
led us to his Word where we see the Holy Spirit working in power in the lives
of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sick get healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trapped get freed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lives are changed and forever different
because Jesus has come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's what we
want for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A real tangible
difference made by a real encounter with Jesus.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Our church
experience for most of our lives was filled with wonderful believers, who loved
and were incredibly loved by Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With
wonderful and powerful teaching about Jesus and salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With many very good things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the ways of the Holy Spirit and His
kingdom are still relatively new to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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What all that adds
up to is this: We've been getting more and more comfortable with the
uncomfortable things that we usually associate with the Holy Spirit and
"charismatic" Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
least in theory we were comfortable with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Things like falling down when getting prayed for, demons manifesting in
people and needing to get kicked out, speaking in tongues, prophesying, maybe
even laughing and dancing…and MAAYYYYBE even shaking under the power of God.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Even as I write
this, part of me feels uncomfortable with those things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, I can't say "no" to them
just because they're uncomfortable or messy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because, what if?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if Jesus
is in them and I miss that part of him because it rubs me the wrong way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or it threatens my dignity?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or it's messy?</div>
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<br />
Jesus abandoned all of his dignity for the sake of winning me back. So who am I to hold on to mine?<br />
<br /></div>
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What if I let my own
reasoning and clinging to propriety rob me of fully knowing a God who is not
proper or safe at all, but good and loving nonetheless?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to mention powerful.</div>
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<br /></div>
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These were some
of our thoughts leading up to this conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They're all easy enough to espouse when you're a week-and-a-half and a
four-hour-car-drive away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it's a whole
different story when you're in the auditorium with your wife and two little
daughters, wondering, "Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
are you going to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And please let it
be you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, oh yeah, please heal me
also."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The First Night</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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We got to the
auditorium eager for Jesus and healing while also watchful and a bit guarded…just in
case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a fantastic time of
worship, during which Rebecca blessed our hearts by standing and singing and
raising her hands and giving herself wholeheartedly to Jesus.</div>
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<br /></div>
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You could tell that
Darcy would have, but, in her words, "I'm just a baby."</div>
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<br /></div>
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Pretty shortly into
the service, after the worship, we started seeing "things."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man leading the service that night, Randy
Clark, asked people who needed healing to stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked others nearby to gather
around to lay hands on and pray for them while he also prayed from the front.</div>
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<br /></div>
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All around the
auditorium we started hearing people making many, for lack of a better word,
uncomfortable noises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some yelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some started laughing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some cried out in what you could almost call a scream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
All over the auditorium people were lying
on the floor, some even shaking in various ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br />
<b>An Interjection</b><br />
<br />
I want to throw in a couple thoughts here that I'll share in more detail in the later posts about this conference. These different reactions that we were witnessing, the yelling and falling and shaking can be and were unsettling. Our mind wants to come up with all the explanations for why this isn't okay, why it isn't God, why it must be at best the people making it up or, at worst, Satan.<br />
<br />
You see someone lying on the floor shaking and you think, "Jesus doesn't do this. Demons do." But then you talk to that same person and they tell you that during their time on the floor, they were seeing Jesus look into their eyes. They were feeling him touch their body with waves of heat and electricity flowing from his hands, healing them.<br />
<br />
Or you hear someone nearly scream and think, "Why would Jesus terrify someone so much to the point of screaming?" But then that same person says that they were screaming in pain because God's power was so heavily cleaning them out. One person even had a vision that Jesus was sticking a flaming sword into his stomach. And the strange thing is that these people aren't traumatized or damaged. They're beaming, peaceful, joyful, made new even.<br />
<br />
And though these things sound so weird, I am reminded that the Bible is FULL of God doing weird things to people that may have been extremely unsettling. But the fruit of them was none other than Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And Jesus said, "You know a tree, whether it's good or bad, by its fruit."<br />
<br />
<b>Our Initial Reaction</b><br />
<br /></div>
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But that night, watching all of this for the first time, we
were not sure what to think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
standing to receive prayer, but nothing like that was happening to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn't feeling anything in my body like
heat or electricity or healing…nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No physical signs that God was actually doing anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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We naturally started
to wonder, "What's going on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
this stuff real?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are these people
crazy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they just stirring themselves
into an experience but not really connecting with Jesus?"</div>
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<br /></div>
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By the end of the
night, there were people literally all over the auditorium having supposed
encounters with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Corrie and I
just weren't quite sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got back to
our hotel room not knowing whether we should stay and go back again the next
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was all just so
<i>uncomfortable</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But you know, that
evening turned out to be a fantastic opportunity for both of us to hear
Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to go by our feelings or natural thinking, but to set those aside to listen to His voice and to see what HE
would have to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the midst of
both of our wrestlings, we each heard him tell us, "Stay. Don't
leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you leave you'll be leaving
out of fear and judgment, and you'll be missing what I have for you while you are here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don't give up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not yet."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So, together, we
decided to stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>At that point, we didn't know if what we had seen
was really Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we DID know that
Jesus, the real Jesus, was with us and wanted us to stick with him.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Intrigued? <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank">Read the second installment here</a>...<br />
<br />
To read the other parts of our Healing Conference series:<br />
<a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing.html" target="_blank"><b>Part Two</b></a><br />
<b><a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-jesus-rocked-our-world-at-healing_20.html" target="_blank">Darcy's Interlude</a> </b><br />
<b>Part Three (coming soon...)</b><br />
</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-67635880684370828872015-03-07T08:51:00.000-08:002015-03-08T14:16:58.517-07:00In Marriage as it is in Heaven<br />
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Apparently, I'm slightly behind the times because Corrie already <a href="http://hallockexodus.blogspot.com/2012/08/learning-about-prayer.html" target="_blank">wrote a fantastic post</a> on this verse a couple years ago. But I've recently
discovered that the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 has one of the most foundational
verses for healing in the whole Bible. Jesus, praying to his Dad says,</div>
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<br /></div>
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"Your
kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."</div>
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<br /></div>
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Jesus came, bringing
the kingdom of God with him, invading the kingdom of darkness that had been
reigning in the earth since the fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And here he tells us what that means exactly:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God's will happening on earth in a way that
represents the way things are in heaven.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Jesus is
telling us to pray--to fight--for God's will in heaven to happen on the
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we have this commission then
to go out and change the world until it looks like heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that's what Jesus modeled for us by
healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the gospel, rescuing the poor,
loving enemies and friends alike, saving people from sin.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So when I see
someone on the street with a cast on their foot, I can know that there will be
no casts or broken feet in heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get
to fight to change that right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get
to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, like Jesus promised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or when I have a friend with a stiff neck, I
know there are no stiff necks in heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I can pray and see the neck healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That's what the Bible says.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But here's what's
really exciting:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this goes far beyond
just healing our bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This extends
into every area of our lives, including marriage.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Corrie and I just
went to a fantastic marriage workshop/Holy Spirit surgery session, so marriage
is fresh on both of our minds right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And our question is this:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
What are we
believing God for in our marriage?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
One of the more
common sentiments about marriage in our culture is,
"Marriage is hard work."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
that's it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's often said with this
look of weariness and relief-that-I've-actually-made-it-this-far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's a look that should be more fitting for a
soldier having just returned home from war. I know I've been there. But Jesus is offering me this hope: God is excited--eager--to give us more than that. He loves me and my marriage.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br />
I agree that marriage is hard
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I don't want to let the fact
of the struggle steal my faith for the blessing and passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be easy to lower our hopes
and goals for our marriages over time as disappointment, hurt, and difficulty
creep in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We start to think, "Well
this is just how marriage is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Maybe </span>God is
using it to refine me, to make me more holy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Passion was good at the beginning, but it's not needed anymore."<br />
<br />
Corrie and I love each other so much, but we have gone through some difficult seasons. We've gone
through seasons of feeling like just business partners, of not really liking each other, of causing more frustration or sadness than joy. Especially during the last couple of years as God has been uprooting unhealthy and hurtful things from us. For me, selfishness, et al!!!<br />
<br />
Anyway...moving on...It has been easy at times to think, "Well, this is just us. This is the kind of marriage that we get: hard with some sprinklings of awesome. "<br />
<br />
What's up with THAT?! That's not God's plan for us at all. Proverbs 5 says that there is a place, in the kingdom, where I can REJOICE in my wife, where her love is intoxicating to me. That sounds more like, "Awesome with some sprinklings of hard." <br />
<br />
I know to some of us that may sound impossible after __ years of marriage. But the Bible says it's God's heart, his will, and Jesus told me to pray for that to manifest in my life. I get to pursue it with all my being until it comes. And I pursue it with the full force of heaven, the approval of my Dad, and the power of the Lion of Judah to move mountains. </div>
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<br /></div>
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In my last post I
mentioned that we don't want to let our experience of sickness overpower God's
revealed will for healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So even if
my healing doesn't come at a particular prayer time, we don't try to rationalize it, we keep pushing for more until
it does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Well, Corrie and I
are ready to apply this to our marriage too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We're determined to not let the times of struggle steal what we know our love
CAN be, and IS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that Jesus
has a vision for our love of each other that is more passionate, joyful,
and fulfilling than we've experienced thus far. And we've been letting
God teach us how to love each other in a way that reflects his love for
us and that creates such an intimate powerful connection between us
that no power of hell can sever it.<br />
<br />
So my prayer for us is,
"Jesus, your kingdom come in our marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In heaven there is no bitterness, no selfishness, no distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In heaven there is unlimited intimacy and
oneness, giving, self-sacrifice, passion, and fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Thank you Jesus that the cross's redemption is so far-reaching, even into transforming our marriage."</span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Bodies don't have to
be sick in the kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's not what Jesus paid for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marriages don't have to be broken, full of pain,
sources of strife in the kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can instead reflect the oneness that Jesus has with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The passion that he has for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His passion is a fire that is constant
forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if we are called to be like
him in our marriages, then I've got to think that passion for our spouses, true
LIKING of our spouses, excitement about our spouses has got to be possible for
the long haul as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Yes it's hard
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it's hard work on the road to
the wonderful blessing that marriage is meant to be.</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-82684979064471898622015-03-01T16:03:00.001-08:002015-03-01T16:03:44.869-08:00Jesus, Healing, and Childlike Faith
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(I wrote this post a few weeks ago. I plan to write another update soon.) </div>
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<br /></div>
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Jesus is good.</div>
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<br /></div>
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His love is close
and real.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We've been
experiencing that so much lately. In fact, during these last few months,
as my body has started to show more of its old symptoms (pain, swelling,
fatigue) and even some new ones, our inner experience of Jesus and his reality
has been so much greater than it's ever been before.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Yes, you read that
correctly. My body hasn't been feeling very well. I've had a lot of
days of pain and rest. I've had to cancel my work appointments more often
than I've been able to keep them . I've even begun to see new damage in
my joints (namely my ankles and toes). It hasn't been easy for either of
us.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But here's the
beautiful thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe in healing
at the hands of Jesus now more than we ever have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The more we spend time in the His presence, letting his Spirit speak to
us, the more he shows us the full power of the salvation that he bought for us.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Unfortunately, we
can sometimes let the disappointments, the tragedies in our lives shape the
truth that we believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in so doing,
we cheapen the finished work of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We strip him of his power, of his goodness, of his compassion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I understand why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don't mean to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just come up with explanations for why our
experience doesn't match his promises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"He hasn't healed me because he has a greater purpose behind
this."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I am still overcome by
depression or anger or judgment because it's part of who I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someday, we'll all be free."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's very very natural.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But we are now
called to be SUPERnatural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that
sometimes means letting go of our explanations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For we are to "lean not on our own understanding."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are to instead "trust in the
LORD" and his revealed will in his word "with all our
hearts."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"For the
righteous", we who live and stand confidently in God's favor thanks to
Jesus, "shall live by our faith."</div>
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<br /></div>
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For us, with my
health, that means that we choose to believe that Jesus WANTS to heal me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's easy for us to believe that he can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course he CAN heal me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He CAN do anything he wants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's not really faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's avoiding faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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It stems from a
mindset that says, "God is all-powerful and thus can heal me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, he might not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it's more likely that he won't.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since he won't, it must mean that he must
not want to for some greater reason."</div>
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<br /></div>
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But faith that moves
mountains looks at Jesus, since his is the "express image" of the
Father, and trusts in his revealed will, his heart, his character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus never denied a single person healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When asked if he wanted to, if he willed it,
he said, "I am WILLING!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What's more, he promised that we who believe would lay hands on the sick
and they would be healed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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He didn't say only
some would be healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, he healed
100% of his attempts and then said, "Go do likewise."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"As the Father sent me so I send
you."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"You will do greater
works than these."</div>
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<br /></div>
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When the disciples
tried to heal the epileptic boy while Jesus was on the Mount of
Transfiguration, they failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did that
give grounds for a theology of defeat though?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, because Jesus came and healed the boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their experience showed nothing about Jesus'
desire to see the boy well, about his will.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It's not the Bible
that stops at "God CAN heal."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It's our reasoning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
experience has seen people get sick and not get healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we start to put on our adult-tinted
glasses and reason ourselves out of childlike faith in the outlandish promises
of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can't let what we haven't
seen malign the name of Jesus.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So if Jesus walked
into the room right now, would he heal me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Absolutely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His compassion
compels him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's irresistible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It IS his will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we fight for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We push into that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We resist the urge to reason, and we let
faith in God's truth shape our experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-25656128700794620692013-12-30T15:05:00.000-08:002013-12-30T15:05:11.589-08:00Adventures in PeruHola! Como estas?
Now that the holidays are almost over, I figured I should sit down and go ahead and report on my trip to Peru and all that happened there.
What a great time we had!
Teresa, Hilary and I left on Wednesday evening of November 13th, arriving in Lima around 10:30am on Thursday morning. While still in the airport waiting for our ride, we ran into a group of women arriving from the church in Arequipa, a city in the south of Peru. Only one of these women spoke English – like, at all – so we got started right away practicing our Spanish!
As Pastor Fabio drove us out of the airport parking lot he warned us to be ready for the infamous Lima traffic, and he was not exaggerating. It was quite fun. The city of Lima is very full with 9 million people in the main area of the city – and they all have places to go!
We spent the remainder of Thursday walking around the district of Miraflores, and having dinner at La Lucheria, a “sangwich” shop. It was so interesting to Teresa and I the words that were ever so slightly different between Mexican Spanish and Peruvian Spanish, “sangwiches” being one of those words. The Peruvians did poke a little fun at Teresa and me for speaking “Espanol Mexicana”
On Friday, Pastor Fabio and his wife, Mariella, led us and some of the people visiting from other parts of Peru and Venezuela around on a little tour of historic Lima. What a beautiful city! The government buildings in the oldest area have a strong Spanish architectural influence, and are so ornate and lovely. We actually got to see the Peruvian Presidente as he stood on the steps of the main government building while someone made a speech. The locals seemed uninterested…but we thought it was pretty cool. And I did have kind of a fun time smiling at the expressionless, heavily armed guard until he smiled back at me.
On Friday evening the Women’s Conference began, which was of course the main reason we were there. Both Hilary, my pastor, and Yerelyn, a pastora from Venezuela spoke at the conference, and both did wonderfully. Hilary had to speak through a translator, which made her job a little harder than usual, but her interpreter, Maria, was so wonderful, and really helped us all quite a bit throughout the trip.
By Friday evening I was speaking Spanish fairly well, and over the course of the next 3 days I continued to get better. This was, as you may remember, one of my main prayer requests, and I do feel that the Lord really answered it. I took Spanish classes in high school, but…ya…haven’t used it since…and so I was worried that it would all be gone. But immersion really is the best way to learn it – and after the initial 24 hour period of the “deer-in-headlights” look, I started following what was being said, and verbs just kept coming back to me. There were even a couple times when I was around only Spanish speakers for a few minutes and didn’t feel totally lost.
The openness and loving hearts of the Peruvian people that we met made a huge impression on me. They were so blessed by our coming, but also blessed us by really wanting to get to know us and hear about our lives. One of the times I was with all Spanish speaking women, I managed to construct some sort of Spanish paragraph about my little family back home, and I briefly mentioned that my husband had a chronic illness. Thank fully chronic is almost the exact same word in Spanish . One of the women, Angela, immediately stood up and said (I’m translating now) “No! Well, do you believe that Jesus heals?” I replied that I did, and that we have been asking for it constantly, and believing that He is at work. I shared with her one of our favorite verses (the verse that our blog title is based off of in Exodus), and they all started saying “amen” and “yes!” And then Angela started speaking very quickly to the other women, and they gathered around me and just started praying for me. It was very special. For a while I tried fully understand what they were saying, but after a minute or so, I just allowed myself to feel the love and care that they were expressing, and I was just praising the Lord that He and His love is not bound by language.
A few days into the conference, both Teresa and I had an opportunity to share a little of our testimony with the women at the conference. After we shared, and Hilary finished speaking, we were all told to break off into pairs to pray for each other. I turned to a woman behind me who I had chatted with a little, but hadn’t really spent much time with yet. When I asked her if she would like to pray with me she blushed a little and said that she had really been touched by what I shared, and that she had wanted to pray with me but thought that maybe we didn’t know each other that well yet and I wouldn’t want to. I am so glad that I followed that inclination to pray for her. It was a great time of prayer for both of us.
Over the weekend I was also able to connect with many of the young adult women who attended. Most of the younger generation knows at least a little English, and so we were able to communicate fairly easily. They were so eager to hear my life story, my thoughts, and even my advice for their lives. Many of them are now my friends on Facebook
One girl, who was from the church in Iquitos (which is in the northern Peru in the jungle) and did not know very much English, hugged me on one of the last nights and said in very broken English “I no entiendo ingles, but – we are friends”. I hugged her and said that was very true.
I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to make all these sweet friends. I know they will pray for me as they said they would, and I think of them and pray for them often too. I loved hearing about their lives and finding out what we have in common. I enjoyed tasting Peruvian food, and experiencing their culture. I became good friends with my host, Silvia and her new husband from Venezuela, Pedro.
We were so tired when we got home, but so full of good memories and testimonies of the Lord providing and going before us. He kept us safe, He kept our families safe, and He was, as He has promised to be, faithful.
Thank you all for praying for me and
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-47070591752818983772013-11-12T08:41:00.001-08:002013-11-12T08:41:52.113-08:00Off to Peru!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="ES-PE" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-PE;">Hola</span>
y Buenos Dias mi <span lang="ES-PE" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-PE;">familia</span>
y amigos!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This Wednesday evening I will be boarding a huge plane for
my first ever mission’s trip and my first ever visit to South America! I am
just so excited and honored to be part of this team I can hardly handle it…and
I didn’t want to go without telling you (our faithful readers) all about it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few months ago Hilary, my friend and pastor, was asked to
speak at the National Peruvian Foursquare Women’s Conference in Lima Peru. Our
senior pastors, Todd and Hilary have had a relationship with Fabio and
Mariella, the couple who lead Foursquare Peru, for a few years now, and this
trip has come out of that friendship. Since I am Hilary’s assistant, I heard
about the trip pretty early on, and in my heart I thought “I wanna go I wanna
go!” But I also wanted to be patient and see who Hilary had on her heart to
take with her. So it was even more exciting when she asked me to go…it was a
pretty easy decision at that point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Matt was also SO very excited for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is looking forward to some special time with
Rebecca, and we are both incredibly grateful that his health is so much
improved that me leaving for 5 days is possible. (More on that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> needing to come soon in a post,
huh?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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So the next step was to raise the money for the trip,
something that I was nervous about. I have never gone on a mission’s trip
before, and so I had never had to write a support letter before. While I love
getting support letters from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i>
people going on trips, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me </i>being the
writer pushed on a vulnerable spot for me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t want anyone to feel pressured or
expected to do anything, and yet I know that every time we receive a support letter
(and depending on the season in our life sometimes we support through prayer,
sometimes we send five bucks, sometimes a little more), it is always such a
blessing to us that we get to partner with that person and be behind them while
they share what the Lord has done for them in another place. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, trusting that the Lord would take care of the
finances, I sent out the letter. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And shattering my fears, and blowing my mind, BAM! Just like
that I was fully funded. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But more than that, I feel fully supported. I separate the
two because the outpouring of love and prayer and excitement and questions and
the “I’m so excited to hear stories” means so much to me. Of course just
getting to go monetarily speaking is awesome, but the fact that my trip is on
so many people’s hearts and to know that they are praying for me, whether they
sent money or not, is hugely humbling and encouraging.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dear friends sent me notes, deeply blessing me. Two of my
previous students who are 4 and 6 years old, actually went and dumped out some
money from their piggy bank because they were so excited that “Teacher Corrie”
got to go to another country and tell people there about Jesus. Like the little
boy who gave Jesus his lunch, these little boys just wanted to give what they
could – but to me, it was treasure! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, feeling thus supported and incredibly loved, I am
fervently packing and list-writing and alternately last minute shopping and
freaking out that I will forget something <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">: ) </span></span>
(But it’s a good kind of freaking out…mostly)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will write more when the trip is over about all that we
actually did, and while we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> been
emailing back and forth with the Pastors there in Lima, sometimes the
translation is a little iffy, so here is the run-down of what we will be doing
– as we currently understand it <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">: )</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hilary will be speaking twice at the conference of probably
one or two hundred women. She has asked both Teresa (our third teammate!) and
me to be prepared with a possible testimony to share at one or the other of
those talks if there is time (This is Hilary’s first time preparing a teaching
that will have to be entirely spoken through a translator…so budgeting time is tricky).
Then, after the retreat, we will also be meeting in a smaller setting with
women from around Peru who are in leadership of some kind in their churches.
The focus of this meeting will be not only to encourage them and pray for them,
but also to discuss what it means to hear from the Lord, and how to walk in
faith, and also humility as we share with people what we feel is on our heart
from the Lord to say to them. Again, Hilary has asked Teresa and me to be
prepared here with a testimony of hearing from the Lord, and what we have
learned so far about how to share that with others. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am so eager to see all that the Lord has in store for this
trip. From the conversations on the plane in between trying to get a good
night’s sleep <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">: )</span></span>,
to the relationships we build with our host families, to the words we say, and
the words we hear, to the health and the contrary-to-jet-lag-űber-energy we are
believing for, I am trusting that the Lord will be in it all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Things to please pray for!</div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>My hosts will be Pedro and Silvia, a newly
married couple almost exactly the same age as Matt and me. I would love to be a
blessing to them, and would love this to be the beginning of a lasting
relationship.<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Confession: I get trip anxiety. It’s not usually
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">during </i>the trip, but more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> the trip as I try to prepare for
all the unknowns and then that’s not possible and then I try to think of the
possibilities and then…and so on and so forth. So, ya, that would be a please
pray for this right now! : )<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li>Please pray for our health. Traveling wears
anyone out…and I don’t want to be worn out! Sometimes airplanes lead to little
bugs in the recycled air (trying not to think about it), and I don’t want to be
sick. Peru has different foods, and water-drinking “considerations” – and
again, I don’t want to get sick. I want to be all there.<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li>Pray for Matt and Rebecca. I know they will be
fine, and we are so surrounded here on the church campus that I know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">if </i>Matt needed anything he would be
supported…and yet, I don’t want them to miss me at all. I want their time
together to be so special and bonding that me being gone for 5 days actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">added</i> to their relationship. I love them
both so much. Also pray that I don’t miss them too badly – a little missing is
good…just not too much : )<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li>And lastly, please pray that my heart is open to
what the Lord wants to do in me on this trip. I know there will be places where
He wants to challenge and grow me, and in my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mind</i> I’m up for it…but sometimes it’s a little harder when it’s
actually playing out…So I’m asking that my heart is soft and ready to hear from
Him. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adios y hasta proxima semana!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thank you all! Love to you!</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-12390893803021343882013-07-22T11:46:00.001-07:002013-07-22T11:46:57.499-07:00"I Want Jesus!"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parenting is such a strange adventure. On any given day I
can experience joy/tiredness when she wakes me up to snuggle – she prefers our
cheeks to be touching while we snuggle – then delight in her cuteness while she
plays with her animals, then annoyance when she baby talks to her animals (her
animals fuss a lot), then noble, self-sacrificial maternal care when she asks
for a snack, then frustration when she won’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stop</i> asking for a snack (Mom just needs two minutes!), then love
when she goes down for her nap all snuggly, then devastation when she wakes up
from that nap just 5 minutes after I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">finally</i>
had a chance to lay down, then happiness while we play before dinner, then “mom-eyes”
when she won’t eat her dinner, then exhaustion during the 30 step bedtime
process (“Mom, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> to get back out
of bed cause we forgot to brush my teeth!” How do you argue with that?), then
back to love when I go kiss her before I go to bed (Oh my gosh, she stirred!
Please don’t wake up please don’t wake up…)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love all that the Lord has taught me through being her
mom, and even through the things she says. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lately we have been going through the “bad-dream” phase that
a lot of kids go through. It has been so comforting to talk with other parents
who say that their kids went through it too and they grow out of it etc…but it
is still so hard to watch. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are practical reasons for it (ie growing
awareness, being exposed to more info as you get older, trying to process that
info etc), but I really believe that it is also a very early form of spiritual
attack. Of course the enemy wants to make children feel scared, unsafe, alone,
and confused. That’s what he wants to do to all of us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have battled with terrible dreams my whole life. I will
wake up crying, or feeling nauseous for most of the morning. Often I can’t even
remember the dream; I just know it was awful and dark. But that’s me. And it’s
one thing if the enemy tries to attack me. It’s a whole other ball game if you
come after my kid. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when Rebecca started having nightmares that she would
wake up crying from, or worse, the night terrors when she never even fully
wakes up, just cries and refuses to be consoled, we just started praying over
her while we held her at 3 in the morning (this is an attack on parents too,
who aren’t the most lucid at 3am), and praying more specifically against that
before she went to bed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rebecca would also ask questions about the dreams and
how to make them stop. So we would go over with her that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus</b> is stronger than those bad thoughts and bad dreams. And He
never goes to sleep, and never leaves her side, so she can call for Mommy and
Daddy, and she can call on Jesus too. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One morning a few weeks later, I asked Rebecca how she
slept.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Oh not good” she said “Bad guys AND Jesus were in my room <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all night</i>! And the bad guys were saying
mean things to me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She went on to tell me that the bad guys told her to get out
of her bed and that Jesus wasn’t there (vicious!). As my righteous-don’t-bug-my-kid-mom-anger
burned inside me, I asked her as calmly as I could what she did about it?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I said to them ‘NO! I want Jesus! You go away! My mommy and
daddy love me!’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suddenly I stared at her. This tiny little person, just barely
three, was doing battle. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Wow, Rebecca” I said, “that is exactly right. You did the
very right thing. Those thoughts cannot stand against Jesus. You are very brave.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was shaking with anger and excitement and a new wave of
mom-unpreparedness. I was suddenly aware that while I am raising a little girl,
who is naughty and silly and often at the same time, and won’t eat her spinach
unless it is folded (!?), and blames her baby-talking on her animals, and
bursts into manipulative tears when possible, and thinks she can read cause she
has books memorized, and fights with her friends but also wants to sleep over
at their houses, and will only be consoled by me after the most infinitesimal
scrape on her leg – I am also the guardian of a tiny little spiritual being,
who is already learning that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against
rulers, powers, and forces of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). And this little child
has the simple faith that I forget to have. The simple faith that Jesus
challenged us to have! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The faith that just says: “No! I want Jesus!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That little statement has such power in it. And I was acutely
reminded that I am in over my head. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lord, I ask you a lot to help me raise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my </i>child. But Lord! Help me raise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">YOUR</i> child! You have plans for her, and you are making her a tiny
little faith filled warrior. Show me how to mold her! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I get proud of my kid ‘cause she can write a few letters.
She can recognize her name when written and she is ace-ing the little phonics
games we play. I get proud cause the little “what doesn’t belong in this
picture” SAT prep portion of her Pre-K workbook was so easy for her that she looked
at me with the funniest “duh” expression ever. Call the Montessori schools
people! I am 100% confident that I have a genius here! (Full disclosure: I just
misspelled genius. yikes. Apparently Daddy will be teaching the spelling
portion of the pre-k workbook…)</div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">But I get really excited when my little girl
believes, and acts on the fact that Jesus loves her, and is available to her.
Because above ALL the hopes and dreams I have for that little future
ballerina/Broadway superstar/athlete/Mommy/world renown artist, my biggest wish
is that she knows the Lord, and that she gets to walk with Him, and hear from
Him, and touch others along the way.</span></span>Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-9594795155413036692013-06-02T22:31:00.002-07:002013-06-04T07:00:45.555-07:00To the other side!Good evening friends. Thank you all for your excitement for our family over the last couple of weeks. It sounds funny to thank someone for being excited, but I really do mean it. You all have your own lives with your own concerns and dreams and schedules...and it really means a lot when you care so much to know how things are going and make it a point to pray for us.<br />
<br />
Here I am, back in Carson City looking forward to my third full week of treatment. I just got back here this afternoon after driving Corrie and Rebecca home. They had come for the whole second week...and now I really miss them...A LOT. But my heartsickness doesn't negate the fact that this is still such a huge blessing, a gift from the Lord that we are so immensely thankful for.<br />
<br />
I know that we didn't write at all about how last week, the second week went. We were too busy having family time venturing to Tahoe, getting our car fixed, making wonderful new friends, etc. By the way, this is the baseball/Dad in me coming out, but Rebecca and I played whiffle ball for the first time while they were here.<br />
<br />
I set her up with one of those fat plastic bats, a little plastic tee, and the ball...and she hit it. BUT....then I thought, "I bet she could hit a real pitch." So we got rid of the tee, and I showed her how to stand and where to put her hands. Backing up to about 7 feet away I told her to watch the ball the whole way, you know the typical baseball advice. I threw her a nice soft underhand pitch and she WHACKED it right back at me! The first pitch she's ever seen in her life, and she makes contact...my budding three year old all star.<br />
<br />
But all proud dad moments aside, I wanted to talk about something I could feel happening today on my drive up here. I found myself worrying. I started worrying that this opportunity from the Lord to come and receive such top of the line treatment would just be a flash in the pan that would eventually turn into another "nice try" with no lasting healing value.<br />
<br />
Now, this worry is not from a lack of results. I can honestly say that I feel far FAR better right now--after an exhausting weekend of little sleep and a LOT of driving--than I did on the day I walked in for treatment. Good things are happening. My body is being restored. But nonetheless, the worry was there. What if I wasn't receiving enough of a certain kind of treatment during my three week window of opportunity? What if his plan for me when I go home won't be enough and I actually need months of intensive treatment? What if it doesn't stick, and I could have done something differently to prevent that?<br />
<br />
Then, the Lord brought to mind Paul's question in <b>Galatians 3:3:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?<b> </b></blockquote>
And I remembered two weeks ago when I was getting hit with fearful thoughts: What if I shouldn't be here? What if they don't know my situation? What if he didn't think I would actually take him up on his offer? <br />
<br />
Back then the Lord showed me that it was all OK. It was OK that I had no plan B because he had established my steps. The "what if's" didn't matter because he was directing me the whole way. My fear faded, giving way to faith in his presence and promises. And that stance, of walking through this with no plan of my own, no trying to make anything happen, just simple release into the Lord's hands and following him, has led to spiritual healing and freedom...not to mention a wonderful experience at the clinic.<br />
<br />
Now, it's time to choose that path again. I'm choosing to not reason this thing out, to not have a stance of grasping at every little ounce of...whatever I can get for fear that soon it will all be gone, that the well will run dry. The Lord has spoken good things to us about this doctor, this clinic, this whole thing. And those good words from Him stand in direct opposition to these little lies that try to sway me.<br />
<br />
And it's funny, I just read Mark 4 when I got here. It's the story where Jesus and some disciples set sail to cross the sea, and he says to his disciples, "Let us cross over to the other side." While they're on their way, a huge storm comes up and starts tossing their boats and filling them with water. Meanwhile, Jesus is sleeping. The disciples freak out and wake him up asking, "Don't you care that we are perishing?" To which Jesus replies, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?"<br />
<br />
He really drove this story home with me this evening. "I've told you that we'd make it to the other side. What's more, I'm even making the journey with you...AND I'm not even sleeping this time. These little lies washing over into the boat are no match for my power." And as he called out, "Peace, be still!" to the storm, he gently whispers the same thing to me.<br />
<br />
He has had his hand in this whole Carson City experience from the beginning...months ago when he told me, "I'm giving you favor here." How will he not see it through to full completion for the greatest good?<br />
<br />
We've got to keep our eyes on his promises, on HIS truth. This life, Satan, our flesh all send lies our way that masquerade as truth...but they are powerless in the presence of Jesus. <br />
<br />
<b>Galatians 3:5</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> </b>Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?</blockquote>
<b>Romans 15:13</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.<b> </b> </blockquote>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-24844059804996103942013-05-22T21:42:00.000-07:002013-05-22T21:42:55.232-07:00Ozone in Action<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0QgRvraQzNhvwv3kg0xLnNxAmBUQ5g3E3LMJtzArIpwDp2awFqAAsAIJ8wlAkZ3ZMXDRiXh8SNi9oBgO_yamG_b5W6O2oOFH9dpp05Kko0zbGPe2XYM8lI9Z28pALEn38cJhhIwH-HA/s1600/IMG_20130522_090212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0QgRvraQzNhvwv3kg0xLnNxAmBUQ5g3E3LMJtzArIpwDp2awFqAAsAIJ8wlAkZ3ZMXDRiXh8SNi9oBgO_yamG_b5W6O2oOFH9dpp05Kko0zbGPe2XYM8lI9Z28pALEn38cJhhIwH-HA/s200/IMG_20130522_090212.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frankie...he sat on my lap for a while today.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Day three is in the books...successful as the last couple. Although I blazed through treatment quickly today, so Michael and I got to go to lunch at a pho restaurant. "What's that?!" you ask? It's a really good type of Vietnamese soup with fresh basil and jalapeno...'nuff said.<br />
<br />
So, this post may or may not be too long. I mostly just wanted to share some fun pictures with you guys and also explain a little more about one of the treatments I'm getting. This first picture is the aforementioned Frankie, a good, understanding friend to hang out with while hooked up to the IVs. He's always on the lookout for someone to share food with him, and he was definitely eyeing my trail mix. I don't think he fully realized what it was, otherwise he may not have been so intrigued.<br />
<br />
This next picture is of the IV line coming out of my arm. The dark liquid in the line is my blood as it's coming out of me and into the IV bag. This is the first portion of the major autohemotherapy treatment. What happens here is that they let about 6 ounces of blood out of my arm into an IV bag. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymlynO1fAM6c5Uj90OOSpVxPDx90Y1_wO6_0AENBO7BS_BZvxBsSJOL9b9XqCmU3B-I9V61SxXfJjXAjlMJSri78Kocb8fDe82TJxGQSqQYlP12IE2cDk5nSHryGLiWqkOCbZWyJz_Wo/s1600/IMG_20130522_092129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="ozone, major autohemotherapy" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymlynO1fAM6c5Uj90OOSpVxPDx90Y1_wO6_0AENBO7BS_BZvxBsSJOL9b9XqCmU3B-I9V61SxXfJjXAjlMJSri78Kocb8fDe82TJxGQSqQYlP12IE2cDk5nSHryGLiWqkOCbZWyJz_Wo/s320/IMG_20130522_092129.jpg" title="Pre-ozonated blood" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark, pre-ozone blood on its way out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are a couple possibilities as to why it looks so dark. The first is that it's blood that's actually on its way back to my heart, after dumping its oxygen throughout my body's tissues as it's meant to. Oxygen is what brightens the blood, so when it's on the way back to the heart and lungs to get more, it's darker than it is after it passes through those organs. The second possibility is that when you're sick, your body does not actually get as much oxygen as it wants, and blood with less oxygen means blood that is dark and not as bright red. The third, and this intrigues me, is that my blood is fairly dirty. People who are sick often have much darker blood than healthy people because that blood is carrying around a lot of toxic filth, whether from infections or other toxins. I think that this definitely is playing a role with me, because this is quite a bit darker than my blood looked on day one. The reason for that would be that all of this intense treatment is stirring up the toxic sludge in my body and it's more freely floating through my bloodstream right now.<br />
<br />
So, after the blood comes out into the IV bag, they take three syringe-fulls of ozone gas and inject them into the IV bag with the blood, mixing it around. Once the ozone has a chance to mix into the blood, they let it all run back into my body through the same line.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ekgvAZw7n_LjMpmKr-FjLx7QHb5pOz9IkOhOmi-zSH5efY-Li7AGkti9AQmLoj3eEZ3XaoBeTWkbgit9VHohZT3Z50gQZ5-V6XJxgcwndqXtRnHKS60VKArgwKefz6wkNsSOKYCmwUU/s1600/IMG_20130522_094452.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="ozone, major autohemotherapy" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ekgvAZw7n_LjMpmKr-FjLx7QHb5pOz9IkOhOmi-zSH5efY-Li7AGkti9AQmLoj3eEZ3XaoBeTWkbgit9VHohZT3Z50gQZ5-V6XJxgcwndqXtRnHKS60VKArgwKefz6wkNsSOKYCmwUU/s320/IMG_20130522_094452.jpg" title="Ozonated blood" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ozonated blood going back in.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here's a picture of my blood in the same line, running back into my body with the ozone in it.<br />
<br />
It's amazing to me what a different color it is! They didn't dilute it with anything, add any liquid at all. The only difference is that the ozone is in there, working on both oxygenating my oxygen-starved cells and also killing infectious organisms and oxidizing (burning up) toxic sludge. Crazy.<br />
<br />
So they let that all run back into me where the ozonated blood can be distributed throughout my body, which then distributes the ready-to-work ozone.<br />
<br />
So what is the ozone doing once it's inside? I've already mentioned a couple times that it will kill harmful anaerobic organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi...all of which have come up in the course of my treatment. I've also mentioned that it detoxifies by dissolving and getting ready for elimination both organic toxins (from infections and normal cellular waste) as well as more chemical-like toxins (chemicals, metals, etc.). One top of those major benefits, it will also support many of my body's normal, good, healing processes. I've found so much solid research about so many things that ozone does, it's hard to summarize them all...but here are five things that just scratch the surface. <br />
<ol class="expand">
<li>It regulates the immune system, calming down an overactive system, and stimulating and underactive one.</li>
<li>It stimulates increased oxygen uptake by our cells from hemoglobin molecules...basically preventing and helping treat cellular oxygen deprivation.</li>
<li>Improves circulation by enhancing the bloods ability to flow, which allows for even greater oxygen delivery into the body's tissues and cells.</li>
<li>Increases antioxidant protection.</li>
<li>Stimulates the mitochondria, or energy factories in our cells. Decreased cellular energy is a major underlying cause of disease. </li>
</ol>
Interesting...to me anyway. I won't bore you with more science details, but just know that they're out there. If you're interested, I'm posting a link on the right to a ton of peer-reviewed research. Boring I know, but some may find it interesting. The science is compelling, and I'm very thankful to be here. <br />
<br />
However, at the end of the day, the Lord is our healer. My healing is in his hands and whether he uses ozone and diet and lifestyle or a miracle, or a combination of all the above...it's all from him. Corrie and I never want to put our faith in a doctor or a therapy or anything other than Jesus. HE alone is Jehovah Rapha. <br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-69074290198245999252013-05-22T06:25:00.002-07:002013-05-22T06:25:35.206-07:00After 2 Days...So here we are, Tuesday night, two days in to this incredible adventure, and I'm still having to remind myself to trust God with each step. To be honest, I woke up at 5:45 on Monday morning totally unable to go back to sleep because my mind was racing. I kept thinking, "What if I show up and they're like...Uhhhh what are you doing here?" I kept saying to myself, "You're really going to walk in there with no plan, no proof that YOU of all the sick people out there are the chosen 'special treatment' one."<br />
<br />
Thoughts like this kept coming at me, trying to let fear take over, until I finally realized, "Yes. Yes I am going to walk in there with no plan other than trusting God, that this whole thing is actually real." Granted, I had the Doctor's personal vote of approval, but what if he forgot? What if he changed his mind? What if he really didn't expect me to take him up on it?<br />
<br />
But that's the beauty of walking in a path laid out by the Lord and of having the assurance of that through the witness of his Spirit. All the what if's don't really matter. Romans 8:33 comes to mind:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.</blockquote>
But those fears, those attacking thoughts have all been silenced. From the moment I walked in the clinic on Monday, I knew this was right. They actually said, "Hi Matt," as if they really WERE expecting me...as if they KNEW me. Then I almost immediately went in to see the doctor who examined me, looked at my blood in a dark field microscope, and set up a plan for the coming weeks including medication/supplements and the "big gun" clinic treatments. Not only that, but he gave me a couple ozone knee injections right off the bat.<br />
<br />
As I was sitting on his table, I said, "I can't tell you enough how thankful my wife and I are that I am here." And his reply was simple: "Hopefully you'll be more thankful by the time we're done."<br />
<br />
From there I went to a far back room, by myself, because the IV room was already full. But soon a little older hobbling lady came in with a fire in her eyes and introducing herself as Linda. She said that she also has Lyme and that the doctor had sent her back to pray with me. Come to find out she actually goes to the doctor's church and loves teaching (used to teach at their church's school), loves the Book of Matthew movies with the really down to earth Jesus, etc.<br />
<br />
When she first started coming to the clinic, one of the nurse's kids asked, "Dad, is that lady gonna die?" She could barely walk/move (sounds like places I've been), but now she's functioning and getting her life back.<br />
<br />
And then, in came Frankie, the doctor's little dachshund, honorary member of the nursing staff. Apparently he roams freely around the office checking on patients as he pleases. I was hoping to get a picture of him today, but he wasn't there...sadly.<br />
<br />
The rest of the day consisted of a series of treatments: IV antibiotics, Major Autohemotherapy, Pulsed Electromagnetic Frequency Therapy, Ozone Insufflation, and STEM Muscle therapy. Today was pretty much the same, minus the Pulsed Frequency one, and with the addition of an ozone sauna session. <br />
<br />
As if the welcome, the doctor's compassion, the little old lady being sent to pray with me, the dog all weren't enough to let me know that God is in this, I was pretty stunned by one of the other doctors. He was taking me to administer the autohemotherapy (which is drawing several ounces of blood, injecting it with ozone, and reintroducing it into the body) when he saw that the IV room was full again. But he was excited about that and told me, "Good, I can take you back to the back room without all the other distractions and I can ask you more questions." This isn't a nurse, this is another doctor wanting to pursue time with me to figure out my case. So he brought in my chart and we had basically an unscheduled office visit as he interviewed me about my health.<br />
<br />
The sense I get is that these doctors really WANT me to be healed. They're going out of their way to make it happen. I am so thankful to have this new team of people fighting for me, with me.<br />
<br />
How am I feeling after two days of this? Honestly it's too soon to put too much stock in feeling better or worse. Nevertheless I am feeling better now than I was when we started, no denying it. When I was done yesterday, I was surprised at how easily I was able to walk down to the beach up at Tahoe. It's been a couple months since I've been able to walk uneven terrain that quickly. Also, I didn't have any night sweats last night. That's been rare lately. So, small but good things.<br />
<br />
I'll go into more detail about what the treatments actually are as the next couple of days unfold. As we keep going forward, could you keep praying?<br />
1) For our family as we're separated from each other. It was already a busy time for us with VBS on the horizon, and with me being gone, it's even busier.<br />
2) Honestly, I have the easy end of the deal. Corrie is keeping a lot of plates spinning back home and doing awesome with them, not to mention going solo with Rebecca for a few days. Please pray for her that God will meet her with more than she needs.<br />
3) Please pray for Rebecca, that she won't miss Daddy too much and that she will be able to understand that it's actually good that Daddy's gone right now.<br />
4) Please pray that they have a safe drive at the end of this week when they come to be with me.<br />
5) And also, please pray that deep healing takes place in my body over the next couple weeks. That this would be a turning point for me. That my gait would normalize. That I would stand straighter. That my joints would recover. That my weight would increase. That my pain would go.<br />
6) Lastly, please pray that somehow, our little family with our little story will be a blessing to the doctors, staff, and patients here. We hope that the fact that they blessed us by making a way for us to be here would actually turn around and bless them.<br />
<br />
Thank you all for being with us. We KNOW that you are. You've made it very clear. Thank you.Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-87915889505119625542013-05-21T12:36:00.002-07:002013-05-21T12:36:48.342-07:00God is Moving Mountains!<span style="font-family: Calibri;">"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I
declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you." Isaiah
42:9<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I read through Pride and Prejudice for probably the 5<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
time, I am reminded how much I love a good story. One thing I have asked of the
Lord in these last few years is that He give <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i> stories to tell. Stories that show that He is here. Now. Contending
for us. I want to be able to tell stories that give people hope. The Bible is
full of miraculous events, and we have the same God now. He doesn’t change. It
is so encouraging and faith building to hear about things that are happening <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>, and to be reminded that God isn’t finished
with the miraculous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last fall Matt and I went to Carson City, Nevada to see a
world renowned and highly successful doctor. Matt had been reading his research,
and, in reading other research, kept coming across his name quoted by other
doctors. We went with the hope of seeing this doctor more than once, but
travelling that far is expensive, not to mention the cost of the actual treatments.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I remember thinking “What’s going on here, God? This
seems like a great treatment, why aren’t you making a way for this to happen?”
Unintentionally, we may have been pushing for it in our own strength a bit,
knowing that it is good treatment and trying to work out the kinks ourselves. Our
efforts were probably commendable, but in the end the answer was an unavoidable
“not now”. So we decided to wait and try our best to be faithful and keep
pressing on into healing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Insert tumultuous and full winter here (remember the
whole pneumonia thing?) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then, Matt and I were stoked to be able to purchase an at-home Ozone generator a few months ago. He contacted our doctor in Nevada to set
up a phone consult and just get his opinion on how best to use the machine for
his current state etc. After all, this is one of the doctors who has really pioneered Ozone
therapy...might as well try to get his input. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After a couple phone chats, and some more blood work, our Doc called Matt to say that he considered
Matt's case to be….well…urgent. In his opinion, our at home efforts weren’t
going to be as successful as they could because Matt's body is backed up with toxic inflammation like
the 405 on a Friday evening. He said that Matt could benefit from more
intensive treatment. To the tune of a 3 week stay in Carson City, going to the
clinic Monday through Thursday, all day. Ozone Sauna treatments, ozone
injections, Ozone IV…and something cool called Irradiation. It’s something to
do with taking some blood out, exposing it to ozone and UV (the good kind) and
then putting it back in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So then the million dollar question was how much will
this cost? While he had been very kind and generous to us in September,
drastically reducing the cost of the treatments we received, nothing had
prepared us for his response. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The doctor answered saying that the Lord has been good to
him, and he knows it is good for him to give. So he did not want cost to enter
into Matt's thinking at all, but rather to just come, and pay what we can. He
said he knows that we could use this, and he didn’t want money to keep it from
happening for Matt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Brains blown. Having done the research, if Matt could
have his pick of all the treatments out there, this would be the one he would
choose. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then, pieces of the puzzle just kept fitting: A
family in Carson City who we had met last time offered for us to stay there as
long as we need, another friend generously paid for the gas to get up there,
and (since this week is already booked tight for me) a third friend dropped
everything he was doing this week to drive Matt to Carson and stay with him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">--That was Corrie writing on Sunday the 19th...the next section is Matt, at the end of Monday the 20th.-- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hi everyone! So that story that you just read from Corrie is how I ended up where I am tonight, in bed, in Carson City, updating our blog after day one of intense treatment. This has all happened so fast, it's hard to imagine that I'm up here right now. Just yesterday I was driving home from a wedding in Three Rivers with Corrie and Rebecca!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The experience so far has been fantastic, thanks in large part to our new friends who have so graciously opened their home to us. I nearly cried when the doctor offered his treatment to me, and I've gotten choked up a couple times since then thanks to the unquestioning generosity of our friends here in Carson City. Their home is so peaceful and a perfect place to come back to after a long day of treatment. It's just as much a gift from God as any other piece of this adventure so far. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But since it is getting late...I will save the details of my time at the clinic for tomorrow. I would, however, like to add something. At the beginning of this post, Corrie included the verse from Isaiah 42 that talks about the Lord telling us of new things coming before they even come to pass. Back in September, when we first visited the clinic for some ozone joint injections, I sensed as clear as I've ever sensed the Lord's voice that he was telling me, "I am making a way for you here. I am giving you favor here." At the time, I had no idea how huge that would be. I could never have guessed that this would happen...hope yes...guess, no.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then around the time of my first phone appointment in the last month, the Lord said the same thing again, "I am making a way for you here. I am giving you favor here." To me, these small whispers of the Holy Spirit are almost even more testimony that this is an opportunity from the Lord. The fact that he spoke to us in that way shows me that this is more than a benevolent man with compassion for a sick 26-year-old. This is a benevolent man with compassion spurred by the nudging of the Spirit. What that means for how successful this treatment will be, I don't know. I have high hopes indeed. But whatever the result, Corrie and I are seeing, yet again, how REAL our God is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He speaks to us. He speaks through his word, but he also speaks through his Spirit, specifically, where we are, now. And that shows me that he's not done here. He hasn't stopped pursuing my healing. He wants to do something with all of this. And Corrie and I are thankful that he lets us in on his plans from time to time.</span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-56125780245738811762013-04-21T22:23:00.000-07:002013-04-21T22:23:28.025-07:00See-through<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I have tried to start this post several times. Eloquent
words escape me. I have no fancy intro this time. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When Matt and I moved onto The Coastlands campus, we were
so ready for new things in our life. We wanted to go new places with the Lord. Turns
out, the Lord knew what was ahead for us, and while it was new, it was not
exciting, and He knew just how much we would need people around. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Less than 2 weeks after moving here, in November, we
found out that we were expecting a baby, and less than a week before Christmas,
we lost the pregnancy. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Almost four months later, I would love to say that I am
healed, and some days I feel like I am. It comes and goes...</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As sorrow and frustration swirled around my head and
heart, I attacked my Bible with ferocity. Not actually - *no Bibles were hurt
in the writing of this post* - but also not really in a spiritual “Oh I just
love the word of God” kind of way either. It was more like researching for a
paper or a legal defense. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where</i> does it tell me what to do now? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where</i> does it say how to stop feeling
this way? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where</i> does it tell me why
this is happening? </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
And for some reason, I found Colossians to be strangely
comforting. Be warned: don’t necessarily go recommend Colossians to someone
grieving, it talks a lot about life and death and Jesus being the first born of
the dead…In fact looking back I’m surprised I kept reading. But the verse that
inspired my first deep breath and “yes, Lord” was this:</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Colossians 3:4</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also
will be revealed with Him in glory. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Lord was so near to me during that time, and I felt
Him over and over asking “Do you want what I have for you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
“Not if it includes this” I answered. PS I knew that this
was not something the Lord “wanted” for me, but I was a little mad that it
happened anyway. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
“I know. I hate ‘this’. Do you want what I have for you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Quite honestly, I audibly choked out the response “Ok,
Lord, I want what you have for me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Lord was not asking me to just accept the pain or the
loss. He was not telling me to get over it. I believe He was asking me to be
see-through. In all this, in everything, I want so much to be more of who He
made me to be. And when He is revealed in us, then we are revealed – the real
us. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
2 Corinthians 4:7 says:</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the
surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I am a very earthen vessel. And so often I am painfully
aware of the cracks and holes in my not-so-very-perfect shell. But He puts the
treasure of salvation and His Holy Spirit in us, not because there is no one
else, but because others can see Him better through the holes and cracks! Where
we are broken, Christ shines through. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I will not be complacent with death and loss. But I will
be confident in the fact that where I feel insufficient to hold anything,
Christ is sufficient. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
So then my prayer became “Do something with this Lord, I
give it to you. Force it into something good.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In the months that have passed, I have been asking the
Lord to keep me anchored. I have felt so tossed. I have felt like a crazy
person. Happy for several days, then aching in my heart and bursting into tears
in cartoons, while reading children’s books, looking at my child, you name it.
Anything could push me over for a while there…</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Now as I look forward, I am not hopeless and I am not “over
it”. I’m not sure how “over it” a Mom’s heart can ever be after that. But I am
so certain that He who began a good work in me will complete it. And I am
hopeful that as I surrender my life to Christ, He will reveal Himself and me –
an ever changing me – in Him. </div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-61760938591432060142013-04-02T16:45:00.002-07:002013-04-02T16:45:33.197-07:00Updates & OzoneHello again dear friends and family. I feel like, over the course of this blog's history, a good deal of our posts have started by us apologizing for how long it's been since our last. And though this has definitely been the longest interval between posts thus far...I'll just forego that part for now.<br />
<br />
A LOT has definitely happened for us over the last few months, ever since we moved on to our church campus, when I started working on staff and Corrie transitioned from children's ministry to pastor's assistanthood. Not only were those things in themselves huge life changes for us, but they have carried along with them spiritual changes as well. My world is being rocked by the lessons I'm learning about myself, about Corrie, about marriage, about Jesus, about the kingdom.<br />
<br />
I think the central lesson I'm learning, like the trunk of the tree whose roots go out to touch all these different aspects of life, is this (as one of our pastors told me one day): "Don't concede your place." In other words, know who you are in the Lord. Know what he has given you. Know your place as husband, as father, as believer...and don't let the enemy fool you into thinking anything different. What the Lord has given you to do...do it. When it's hard, fight through. When it's painful, fight through. When it feels like you weren't made for the job at hand, fight through...because you were. For the sake of the kingdom and the sake of our loved ones, and the sake of the world...fight through. Because you are not alone. You may not be powerful or cut out for the job or even minimally able, but, like David, you "come in the name of the Lord," and in him you are, "more than a conqueror."<br />
<br />
This blog is one of those places I don't want to concede. It sounds silly and small and relatively meaningless...I mean really...who cares about a little blog? But it is more than that. It's a tangible way of re-orienting my naturally selfish mind to start thinking about others. When you're sick with Lyme or any disease, it's very VERY easy to turn inward, to let selfishness rule and to start assuming that others exist to help ME. And lately, I haven't been feeling quite as well as I had been. Lo and behold, my attitude has been bending back around toward me.<br />
<br />
On Good Friday, our pastor spoke on the story of the exodus and the first passover. He brought us to <b>Exodus 9:13-16</b>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The the Lord said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth." ' "</blockquote>
So God's heart was, of course, to deliver his people because he cared for them and was moved with compassion by their suffering and captivity. But it was also so much more. It was, like with Abraham, to make them a blessing to the whole earth. God wanted the whole earth to know him in his presence and power. To experience his deliverance and freedom. To live life with Him, not on their own.<br />
<br />
That's why I don't want to concede my place in this blog. It is an avenue for the world, our friends, and our family to look on and see God's hand in our lives. It's a way for us to align ourselves with his heart to use our healing journey as a blessing to others. May my healing not just be for me and Corrie only. May it be for others' healing, whether miraculous or by treatments we try. May it be a way for the Holy Spirit to speak a word of life to you. Our prayer is, "Lord, deliver us...and them too."<br />
<br />
A couple weeks ago now, I had another doctor appointment with our wonderful doctor in Los Altos. I told him that, prior to my getting pneumonia in January, I felt like I had plateaued. I wasn't getting worse...I just wasn't getting noticeably better. Then shortly after I got over my pneumonia, it felt as if my body started slowly getting more and more inflamed. From that time until now, my joints have been a bit more swollen and my non-joint, fibromyalgia-type pain has been more frequent and a bit more intense. Not debilitating by any means, but at the same time definitely noticeable. Until these recent weeks, it had been months since I had had that kind of pain. <br />
<br />
As I told this to my doctor, he didn't look worried. But he did look determined. He wants to act decisively and quickly so that my body can keep making strides forward. So, in addition to adding some solid herbal treatments, he brought up the option of pursuing ozone treatment.<br />
<br />
Now, this is really exciting to me because, if you'll remember, we asked you all to pray that my body would be able to handle ozone months ago. We ventured to Carson City for one round of joint injections, had a wonderful experience, and then we didn't do anything else ozone-related for several months. Well, this time around we will pursue both joint injections AND systemic ozone treatment. If all goes well, it will be an integral part of my treatment plan. Exciting!<br />
<br />
So, for the joint injections, in a month I will be seeing a doctor here in SC who, since our trip to Carson City, has been trained by the "inventor" of the treatment (the doctor in Carson City). I've put two appointments on the books with him, one for May 2nd and one a week later. It will be exciting to see what effect these shots have on my arthritis now that I will be receiving the recommended minimum number of treatments (2), with probable repeat treatments.<br />
<br />
The systemic ozone treatment is what I am even more excited about. The doctor in Carson City uses systemic ozone all the time as a routine procedure for his chronically ill patients. Ozone used in this way has so many powerful effects that I'm considering doing another blog post just about that. But basically, ozone not only kills pathogenic organisms, of which I have had many, but it also is a powerful detoxifying agent. The more I learn by studying and by experience, the more I believe that detoxifying is even more important than killing the infections. Detoxifying is what actually allows your body to heal so that IT can kill the infections.<br />
<br />
While in Carson City back in the fall, the doctor told me that, if I ever wanted to pursue systemic ozone treatment, I could actually buy my own machine and administer treatment myself. He said this would be at least 95% as effective as what he does in his practice. At that time, purchasing an ozone machine was definitely outside of our finances. So we began praying for it. And we are so excited to be able to say that God made a way! So...with our doctor's encouragement and guidance, we bought a machine, and I will soon begin that form of ozone treatment at home.<br />
<br />
In the midst of all this, getting joint injections from one doctor, administering ozone treatment to myself under the care of my usual doctor, still going forward with my already established treatments (infection killing herbs, supplements, detox enemas, exercise bike, etc.), I have also scheduled a phone consultation with the doctor in Carson City. He is world-renowned in the realm of healing and particularly in the use of all types of ozone treatment. Since I've already established myself in his practice, I want to bring him on board as we go forward in this new phase.<br />
<br />
By the way, let's not forget about food! Corrie, Rebecca and I have been diving headlong into eating healing foods. I don't believe any of these treatments would carry nearly as much weight if we weren't eating the way we are. We spend a lot of time and resources on getting good, nutrient-dense food, but it's the foundation for everything else we're pursuing. We've written about it before, but it's probably time for another post soon. <br />
<br />
There you have it...some spiritual mixed with some practical. But really, it's all spiritual. As we're pursuing healing and the breakthrough of God's kingdom in power, we're also seeing him guide us in the physical pursuit of healing. We will go full throttle in praying for miraculous, undeniably-Jesus healing as well as in praying for him to lead us to the right foods, treatments, doctors, etc. And we are seeing that pursuit of one doesn't necessarily mean abandonment of the other. In each case, we bank on what moved the Lord to heal in the Gospels, his compassion. <br />
<br />
PRAYER REQUESTS:<br />
1) Please pray that the joint injections will have profound healing effects on my arthritic joints. May they produce results beyond what they could without prayer.<br />
2) Please pray that the systemic ozone treatment we are about to begin would give my body what it needs to rid itself of toxins, to kill infections, to normalize out of whack systems, and to heal.<br />
3) Please pray that my body would move beyond the plateau that it's been at, and that I would quickly start to see improvement and decrease in inflammation/pain.<br />
4) Please pray that, in all this, my body would start to be able to stand more on its own and that I would be able to wean off of prednisone.<br />
5) Please pray that my mind and spirit would be strong in the joy of Jesus. When I have bad body days, my countenance can be down, which is hard on Corrie and Rebecca.<br />
6) Please pray for Corrie, that her body would be strengthened in the midst of her infections, and that we would be able to start treatment for her too.<br />
7) Please pray for Rebecca and any future children (not that there are any to announce right now...). May this health battle end with my generation. May the Lord cut it off here.<br />
8) Finally, please pray that the Lord would continue to provide for our needs. As you can imagine, treatments and supplements and doctor visits and machines are expensive. Also, the healing foods that we have discovered take a considerable portion of our income. But we believe Psalm 103:5 which says that He "satisfies our mouths with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles" and Philippians 4:19 that "God will supply all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."<br />
<br />
<br />Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5301430293621055706.post-8413498931963198432012-11-05T20:12:00.003-08:002012-11-05T20:12:54.917-08:00On the road again....kinda...for like 10 minutes<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Two years ago today (November 2nd) Matt, Rebecca, Grandma Lynne, Max and I
pulled in to Knoxville Tennessee. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant
we got take out from, but that was some good southern eatin’ that night. We
thought we were coming home from the crazy adventure that New York was, but we didn’t
know we were just getting started on the next one.</div>
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Well now, after two years living with Matt’s mom and
fighting hard for health, we are about to embark on the NEXT grand
adventure!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On November 12<sup>th</sup>, exactly
two years after moving IN, we will be moving OUT. Matt and I have been asked to
live on campus at our church and serve on staff full time as “Staff Interns”. </div>
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“Let me ‘splain – no, there is too much, let me sum up”
Inigo Montoya</div>
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<br /></div>
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Our church building used to be a convent, so there are many rooms
and, after some renovation several years back, there are a few apartments as well.
There are also secret passageways but that is beside the point. Over the years
a great Intern Program has grown and has deeply impacted the lives of many
young men and women. Also, a number of families have lived on campus, working
with the interns and residents and helping to set the tone of life on campus.
We have been asked to act somewhere in the middle of the two, living closely
with the interns, getting to know them and experiencing life on campus, as well
as working on staff. Matt will be the Office Manager, and I will be working in
the Intern Department. </div>
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We are so thrilled and honored to be following in the footsteps
of some of the people whom we so look up to. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are also very excited to learn more about
ministry at the Coastlands and why we do what we do. </div>
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We are so thankful for all that the Lord has walked us
through, and we know He isn’t done with us. This new season will not be without
challenges, but we know that it will be good. </div>
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Love always!</div>
Matt and Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04327699154040480012noreply@blogger.com3