Ups and Downs and Ups

Greetings from hot Manitoba!
I want to give you all a short summary of my weekend. Last week was marked by much fatigue and being tired. Friday Wally and Dominic came to Rosenort from Alberta for the weekend. We had family supper that evening and my prayer was for energy to make it to that gathering. PRAISE GOD HE GAVE ME THE STRENGTH TO GO!!!!
Saturday was another big day as the extended Friesen Family had a get-together. And I rested up for that and again God supplied the energy to attend. Thanks to God!
Sunday was the biggy. I wanted to attend church, which we did, and I so very much wanted to attend the Goldeyes's game. Our friends Dust and Tam Waldner had a suite and so I really wanted to go. Praise God, again He filled me with the strength to attend. The Suite saved the day. Even though I fought with fatigue, God was there to help.
What a wonderful God!
Thank-you for answering my prayers, Lord.
Thank you for praying, dear friends.

Endurance

Julia and I ehave really enjoyed participating in the ABS of Touring, and HOG game where riders find a city, and county beginning with each letter of the alphabet. There are other spots to aim for as well: National Parks, Natural Forests, Countries, and so forth. It gave us a destination, and kind of a motivation to ride.To accomplish a high number, for us it meant going on a trip of some kind. In the summer of 2008, Julia and I started out for central Iowa. That was our turn about point. The ride began on a Friday to Grand Forks to watch the World Of Outlaws Sprint  racing.
We met some friends in Grand Forks who were on a shopping spree. Saturday we awoke to solid cloudy skies wiht rain a coming down. We had breakfast hoping the rain would pass. No passing on this rain!.The long and short of it is it never stopped raining that whole day. Yes, we did browse around in one of those lady estrogen craft stores at which time it looked like the rain would pass. It did stop raining for us to get out of our rain gear. We simply threw the gear over the seat and went to shop. Half and hour later I took a peak outside, and sure enough, it was raining.
At times it just poured rain; at one fuel stop it rained so hard it looked like snow drifting across the parking lot. We had rain all day, and my Harley Davidson brand rain gear kept me dry as could be.
And we got many ABC pictures, enduring the torrential down pours. I tell you when we finally hit Alexander, MN it stopped raining, and we settled in for the night.
Life is full of torrential rain. At times they seem more like hurricances and typhons. The idea is to set your mind into a state where we have decided that nothing will get us defeated and put us into a state of despair. We make up our minds we are going to conquer this rain. Here is a wonderful verse from Isaiah 50:7 that speaks exactly to this situation.
For the Lord GOD helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have set My face like flint,
And I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Yes, dear readers, I know this is a prophecy about Jesus facing the cross, but it is for us to read and follow Christ's example.Dear precious reader friend. The key to that verse is For the Lord GOD helps Me. And He will never leave you. Come to Jesus in faith my friend, and experience His helping hands. We sure felt His care this weekend. I will try to bolg about that next time as this post has become long enough.
Thanks for your prayers.
Thanks so very much!
He is answering your requests.

God Still Rules

"From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and sufer amany things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, AND BE RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY. (Matthew 16:21)
Jesus knew it. He was going to die. He came from heaven's glory where there is no tear, no sadness, no pain, no death. And He can to earth where there is tear, sadness,pain death. We wish to leave this place of pain and Jesus obeyed His Father by coming down into the place, and died for us. What person in his right mind would do that?
I am dying also. Doctor gave me 3 months. I wonder if I will make it that long. I would like to go today.
Monday was my strongest day in a very long time. After monday it has been my weakest days ever. I am mostly lying down. I am exhausted and extremely tired.
That's it for now.
Thanks for praying. Please keep on.
God still reigns.

Does God Have A Sense of Laughs?

The other day a person dropped by and wanted spent some time with me which was very much appreciated. In the conversation he commented on how my legs looked- very water retained and fat looking.  But he meant well, I loved his visit, I loved he prayed for me, I appreciate that he took time out of his busy, busy day and came to say HI to me. He is a dear friend, and I love him dearly.
My body does not look good-Nothing that would pass on the cover of GQ magazine. In fact, my body is skin and bones above the abdomin and water and skin and bones below the naval base.
After my friend left, I hurried into the Bible and raced for the Psalm section. As soon as I saw Psalm above the page, I stopped and read- it was at Psalm 149.
Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song.
And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
Let Israel be glad in his Maker,
Let the son of Zion rejoice in their king.
Let them priase His name withdancing;
Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.
FOR THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN HIS PEOPLE;
HE WILL BEAUTIFY THE AFFLICTED ONES WITH SALVATION.

I stopped reading right there and burst out with laughter and praise. Yes, one day this frail, lean, skinny, boney body will be beautified with His salvation. The ship is coming in. The ship can be seen in the distant. It's coming to pick me up and taking me to heaven. It wouldn't be long.
What about you, dear reader? Where are you at in your life? Do you have any savior other than Jesus? There is only one God, Lord and Savior of creation, of the whole universe. His name is Jesus, and He is your hope, He is your Savior, He is your friend. You need Him. You need to repent of not following Him, and you must believe in Him, and obey His will. Then He will cover you with His blood and make you holy.
I can help you with that step. Contact me and let's do business with Jesus. He is waiting with open arms for you to come.
Thanks for your prayers.

Beautiful Summer Days

The blogs have not been numerous, and yes, you guessed it, it's because I am not feeling strong and full of vinegar. My legs are very water logged. I stopped wearing the compression socks because the water is forced into other parts of the body, and that is more uncomfortable. We have another appointment July 12, so see what can be done then.My eating is interesting. There are times when food tastes good and then when it tastes like nothing. I am not really hungry, and my stomach or gut area continues to expand. Girls, how much bigger can that skin stretch? I feel there is a baby in there.
But God is good and His hand is upon me. A tremendously encouraging verse for me the other day was "My God loves me, and He will come to me." Ps. 59:10 TEV.
Many of you know that I have been quite firm in my resolve to donate my body to science, but that is not as simple as it seems, and yesterday in conversation with the U of M i became clear to me that I am not longer pursuing that avenue. It's to complicated, and has a very definite possibility to create real confusion and further grief to the family.
I thank you for your prayers. I will keep blogging as long as I can.
Until then, lift your eyes to Jesus.

The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes, a name typically given to the passage covering Matthew 5:1-11, is Matthew’s first recorded sermon by Jesus, and it is part of a three-chapter length message given on “the mountain.” It does not say whether the multitudes came up to the mountain with Jesus, but it is clear that the disciples did. This leads some scholars to conclude that ultimately Jesus was addressing the disciples only.

It is of interest that Jesus ἐδίδασκεν (began to teach them). The Greek word means “to teach” and so Jesus is not on a preaching assignment. Jesus begins with 10 “blessed” statements. The first “blessed are the poor in spirit” means blessed are those who recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy and place their total dependence on God. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn.”  The Greek word for “mourn,” πενθοῦντες,  means “grief so intense it expresses itself externally.” These who mourn are mourning and grieving over all the sin and evil in this world. They will comforted.

Blessed are the gentle. These are the humble, the dependent on God who reject and refuse to take advantage of selfish goals and ambition. They shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are the saints who yearn for the righteousness given by God and not attained but received righteousness. They shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful- those who have a habitual bent towards extending mercy. They shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart. The heart is the center and whole of mans inner life, and the pure in heart have a life characterized by a holy and pure heart. They shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, not peacekeepers. Blessed are those who end hostilities and unite in harmony the quarrelsome.

Now come the tough parts of the beatitudes, saved for the last. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me. Those are tough words, and yet that is what Jesus is teaching His disciples.

There is a brief paraphrase- while remaining true to the Greek- of the Beatitudes.

God is Love

Searching thru the scripture last night I asked God to show me a verse. I was down, and I was in need of a boast. I am not coming off a grand week, but a week of continuing weakness, fatigue and loss of power physically. This past week Julia and I were going to go to Winnipeg with motorcycle. We needed gas so we stopped in town here for gas. As I rolled away from the gas pumps, the bike came to a stop, and then it leaned just a bit to far and down it went onto the pavement. Since I was at a standstill to begin with, nothing happened to the bike, but inside I knew my bikings days are coming to a close.
 What hurts now so much is how people plan for vacations, camping trips, holidays, and all that kind of stuff that is nothing wrong with, but things we probably are done with. I cannot foresee myself going on vacation and actually enjoying it. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty about going on their trips and vacation. Enjoy them, my friends! Enjoy the times with family and God's great outdoors. My time is coming soon, and I will camp with my Dad and Bathsheba, and David and Moses and we will have a blast. I will be with Jesus of my Salvation, and worship Him. What joy awaits me.
The verse God showed me was 1 Peter 1:14
I have now attached the message I preached June 26 at RFC. To get to it, just go to the "Heavier Readings" part, click onto the subsrib icon and you should find the sermon.
Thanks for your prayers.
Thank-you very much!