Hello family and friends!
This morning I woke up with the birds singing beautifully outside my window in the trees, so I opened my window and whistled along with them for a while. The Lord be praised with their song!
The Lord has been showing me how powerful and great He is, and how we should praise His name all day long! Hebrews 11:6 says "Without faith it is impossible to please Him." Oswald says, "Faith is not common sense. Nothing Jesus ever said was common sense. It was revelation sense. For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be." Hearing the birds sing can be nice, but when you hear the birds singing to praise the Lord, how much more wonderful it sounds! "Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." Amen! Let the Lord have His way in you.
"What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8. A. Helleman says "Jesus Christ demonstrated perfect obedience to God. We must pursue Christlikeness in our walk with God. God wants us to offer ourselves wholeheartedly, living for Him with every part of our being." This is what it means to walk with the Lord.
A week ago I went to Vlieland with the family for a week. God's creation - the forests, the beach and ocean, the big open fields of long blowing grass and the sand dunes - it all brings glory to His name. It was a beautiful place to be. Yet, I was very unhappy because I was suffering from homesickness. The Lord drew me to cling to Him. At the time, all I wanted to do was go home and be where I belong; with my family and friends, but the Lord has caused me to say that He is my home. I must long for Him more than anything else. I must be homesick for my eternal home with Him. Mat. 5:4 says, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." The Lord has comforted me! He has caused me to rejoice through my afflictions because they have brought me closer to Him. He is teaching me so much! Bakker says, "Let us not bypass our most vital need. Our most vital need is to be aware that we have an urgent need. We are like those of Laodicea who knew not that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev.3:17). Once we finally become aware of our wretchedness, we need comfort. And that comfort lies in Christ alone. The comfort is that we belong not to ourselves, but to the Lord Jesus. That is a sure foundation that lies in the depths where people with no comfort have fallen. We fall so low in sin that we don't know how matters can work out in our own life. But in the depths of our lost condition we find Christ. He is waiting for us to pick us up, for He came not to save the righteous, but sinners. If we don't have this comfort in our life it is not because it is not possible with God or that there is not fullness of grace in Him. It is because there is no room for it in our lives. There is no need for the Surety because we think there is no sin." I was wretched and blind. While at home, I was thankless when I should have been thankful, and complained when I should have rejoiced! The Lord showed me through my homesickness how blessed I truly am! I pray that when I return home I would never forget this and that you would all be moved by the Spirit to praise and rejoice always! "There is a great blessing when we recognize our need for the Savior. Jesus paid the debts of His people with His blood. He is with them in life and death. No one can snatch them out of His hands. Therefore, He bore their curse. He was alone and forsaken. He had to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" For Him there was no comfort. He was cast into the depths of hell so that true comfort would be merited for poor sinners. Therefore, church of God, realize that in yourself you will be nothing, but that He will be more and more glorified. You now have comfort, but in heaven there will be perfect comfort. There, all tears will be wiped from your faces. Therefore, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!" (Bakker)
I wanted to add some photos for you, but the computer isn't letting me do it at the moment, so I will try again another day. :D
Be encouraged! The Lord holds us in the palms of His hands!
Lovingly, Yolanda
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