Such a Time As This

I received some bad news today regarding Charles in Uganda.
Charles is a 15 year old boy whom I met in February this year, 2017, while there on a mission trip.   

Though there were thousands of people present who we prayed with, helped, and ministered to- when Charles approached me asking for me to pray for him, something happened.  
The Holy Spirit deposited this message into my spirit, “He is why you are here.”
Instantly, God-bumps arose all up and down my arms, an an instant Word of knowledge came to me by the Spirit.
Charles needed our help- and I was the vessel to get him connected to the help he needed.
Charles was diagnosed with a rare cancer at the early age of 9. 

His loving parents spent all they had to get him the care he needed, which included radiation, chemotherapy, and when that didn’t stop the aggressive cancer, surgery to remove the tumor on his right eye.

Sadly, the family ran out of funds… and the returned surgery planned for 6 weeks later never occurred in 2012…so this young boy had an open wound in the area where his eye used to be… getting infected…
When I met him this February, the eye was covered by gauze, and tape, but it was unclean.  When he asked me to pray for him, he apologized for the odor and pointed to his eye.  

He explained what I just shared, and asked if I would pray for him to be healed.  The odor was quite foul.
Yes.  
I laid hands on him, and prayed for his healing.  I prayed for his provision.  

I found out he had to drop out of school, since all the funds were being used for medical.  I found out he had a large family of brothers, and two young sisters.  I found out he had a dream.
But, like most 15 year olds, he had given up on his dream of becoming a doctor, because he had given up all hope of living through the cancer.
Without funds, there would be no treatment.
Without treatment, the cancer would continue spreading, and would eventually take his life.
So we said no to Satan, the spirit behind the sickness that bound him, and called him healed by the blood of Jesus.
I led him to the director, and first got him to wound care to treat the infected area, and then obtained permission to personally assist him. (Necessary when on a mission trip with an organization other than your own.)

We were able to go with him to meet his family at his homestead village in the bush.  

I was able to hold his hand, and watch hope come back to his countenance, with a smile from ear to ear.

I told him how God loved him so much and saw his struggles, and sent me from America to Uganda for such a time as this.  
I told him we would do all we could to help him get the eye surgery necessary so he could return to school.  I said ” hmmmm. Dr Charles…. that sounds good!”  
So a plan was arranged with the local doctor and pastor, funds were given to have Charles and his parents sent to hospital and to provide for food, transportation and lodging, and medical testing.
This all began on 2/24/17.  His initial biopsy showed him to be cancer free!  We were so happy! 
But then other symptoms began to appear… and his short term hospital stay has now grown into 5 months… and more bad news…
The cancer has returned and he will need to begin aggressive chemotherapy again on this coming Tuesday.
My husband and I had been covering the ongoing expenses each month out of pocket, and reached out to others through speaking engagements Churches 4 Africa: Planting Seeds 4 Love, through our newly formed non profit, iamjesusgal ministries.
The initial funds received specifically for Charles has long since been sent. Much more is needed.  
How can you help?
First and foremost, pray.  Prayers of faith for his complete healing are vitally important while we wait for these symptoms he’s experiencing to line up with God’s Word.  Prayers for finances to come are also needed.
****In order for Charles to receive treatment and ongoing medical care, we are asking if able, please make a contribution on our website, Iamjesusgal ministries, and in the comments state ‘Charles medical care-Uganda’.*****
The Christian Doctor, whom I personally know there in Uganda, is working hand in hand with his cancer doctors providing his care as long as funds continue.  She is reporting back to me his specific needs, and giving an account of each dollar given.
Currently they are in need of $500 US dollars very quickly., to ensure he receives necessary medical care.
I’m saddened by this news., but hopeful for his prognosis based on GOD’S report! 
Thank you to all who have helped thus far.  Thank you for reading this, and I hope, thank you for sharing this… and more, I hope, thank you for prayerfully making a contribution to help Charles live and not die.
“I will live and not die, and shall proclaim the deeds of the Lord.”

Psalm 119:17

She Wanted to Run

There are tests and trials that come to us all, whether in business, in ministry, or in everyday life.
How do we overcome them?
Do we let them control us, destroy us, or contribute in defining us?

Six years ago this August, Satan attempted to kill our youngest daughter in a horrific hurricane related accident.

God brought her from death to life, restored her completely from total brain damage… she was unable to stand… unable to talk for awhile & was able to see only in one eye…
When she was finally able to speak, she kept saying ‘I want to run.’ 

She was 16 years old, a few months away from turning 17.   She was beginning her senior year of high school, the girls cross country team captain.

Running was part of her life.

She was determined to do whatever she could do to help lead her team to States.

But…

She was told she wouldn’t be able to run again, and possibly not be able to walk again.

But she kept saying ‘I want to run.’ 

Don’t ever let someone else’s word be your final word.

Words are powerful.   Proverbs 18:21 says ‘Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.’  

It matters what you speak.

It matters who, and what you believe.

She refused to give up, she refused to accept what others said about her fate, unless it agreed with God’s Word.

Like the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25–34, Matthew 9:20–22, Luke 8:43–48) who kept saying to herself  ‘if only I can touch the hem of Christ’s garment I will be healed’, our daughter kept saying ‘I want to run.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’

She walked out of the hospital in 13 days in spite of the odds, went through two brain surgeries to repair brain fracture-and endured months of multiple types of therapy, but never she gave up.

Medical science via expert doctors told her she’d never run again. She kept saying she can do all things through Christ who gives her strength.
Well, never in my life have I met someone as self disciplined as this gal.

She’s the strongest person I know.

She’s my hero.

She pressed through the pain, she sets goals and goes after them, with the strength of God in her.

She runs with the pure freedom of LIFE, and Christ IS Life!

She runs for herself, but she runs for God!
She’s a walking, talking, RUNNING MIRACLE and all I can say is WOW GOD, and THANK YOU GOD!

She ran a marathon this morning in Pennsylvania and qualified for the #Bostonmarathon!

Guess where this family will be next year?
Most won’t remember the trials that began August 27, 2011 that she overcame.
Many wouldn’t understand the daily sacrifices of conditioning and running made to get to where she is today, but we will never forget, and will always be her biggest fan.

The body of Christ

Joseph, a disciple of Jesus, secretly asked Pilate (because Joseph was afraid of the Jews) to takeaway”the body of Jesus”… and Pilate gave him permission.

So, Pilate came, and “took away the body of Jesus.”

Nicodemus, who earlier came to Jesus by night (see John 3) came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75lbs.

So, they (Joseph and Nicodemus) “took the body of Jesus” and bound it in linen clothes with the spices,  as is the burial custom of the Jews.

Now, in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden-a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

So, because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they “laid Jesus there.”  (John 19:38-42)

Three times j  this passage the words read “took the BODY of Jesus” (emphasis mine).

Three days, His “body” was in the tomb.  But, while the “body of Jesus” laid in the tomb, where was His spirit and soul?

We are a three part being:  We are an eternal created spirit, we possess a soul as we live temporarily on earth in a physical body.  Jesus, when He left Heaven and came to earth, became flesh and dwelt among us.  He is a spirit, as well.

We read scriptures to determine the answer.  Right before He died on the cross, He declares “It is finished!”

Luke 23:46 we read, “Then Jesus called out  with a loud voice, saying, ‘Father into Your hands I commit my spirit!’  ”

So, we know He trusted God with His spirit., and He took in His own body on the tree all of our sickness, disease, and the weight of all our son… He paid the wages of our sin, death.

We also read in Colossians 2:15 “He (Christ) disarmed the rulers and authorities (demonic rulers) and put them to shame openly, by triumphing over them in the cross.”

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 “when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immorality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?’  (Isaiah 25:8)

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sin carries a massive cost.  DEATH.

Eternal death-eternal separation from God. A HOLY God.  In a HOLY Heaven.

In a holy heaven, where THE Holy God dwells, there cannot be a trace of sin.

When God created the heavens and the earth, He made it a perfect place.

God desired a family, with intimate relations with a family; so God created man, Adam; and then out of man, God created woman from the side of Adam, Eve- a perfect match, his helpmate, to complete Adam. He instructed them to be fruitful and to multiply; and they walked upright with God.

God gave them free will, and gave them every good plant to eat of; with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-actually commanded them not to eat of it, or they’d surely die.

The serpent deceived Eve,  and had her questioning what God actually said, and lured her into eating from the forbidden tree…then she gave some to Adam who knowingly knew he was eating forbidden food.  They committed high treason and surrendered legal authority and dominion on earth to Satan.

Genesis 1-3 gives account of this.  Through they didn’t die at that moment physically, spirituality they died, and were separated from God. A great chasm divided them.  An animal sacrifice was required with shed blood to cover their sin.

The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood there cannot be remission of sin.

Each year, prior to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ- at Passover, a sacrifice was made, with shedding of blood.

2000 years ago, Jesus became our blood sacrifice-the spotless, pure, sinless Lamb of God, (John 1:36) once and for all-and He conquered death, defeated Satan and took BACK the keys of the Kingdom, and gave them to us, His believers- to use His Name . (Matthew 16:18-19; 18:18/Mark 16:18-20).

Hell was never intended for mankind.  It was created for Satan and all his evil cohorts.  Heaven (3rd Heaven where God dwells) was created for all born again believers and followers of Jesus Christ.  However, those who reject Christ as Lord and Savior, and live for self as their own god-those who are outside of the blood covering that remits sin and makes them the righteousness of Christ, choose to remain in their trespasses and sins- which cannot enter a holy heaven.

God loves the world, all of us, even while we were yet sinners, God gave us a free gift of salvation, through Jesus His only Son.  But though it’s a free gift to us, it cost Christ His very life.

He choose to go to the cross, to stand while spit upon, beaten, tormented with his skin, and muscles torn to shreds, ridiculed, then be nailed to a heavy, rugged cross, with nails through His hands and feet…and die in all of our place.  The nails didn’t hold Him on that cross- His love for us did.

Then He died, and while His ‘body’ was placed in the tomb, His spirit and soul descended into the depth of the earth, where He battled Satan, with a river of His precious blood flowing crimson- and arose victorious over the dark domain.

On the third day, the day celebrated as ‘Easter’ (Resurrection Sunday), the REAL Jesus, His spirit and soul, reunited with His ‘body’ , He neatly folded the linen shroud He was wrapped in after His body was removed from the cross (Luke 23:54) and laid it where His body previously laid, and He left the tomb, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.” (Mark 16:9)

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Romans 10:7 “Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)”

Ephesians 4:8-10  “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

John 6:62 “what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? How can He ascend unless He be descended first?”

Only a loving, POWERFUL God can overturn death, take upon Himself the weight of the worlds sins, sicknesses and diseases in their entirety, defeat Satan and all His evil cohorts, resurrect Himself and everyone who hides themselves in Christ, and then turn around, ascend to Heaven, then send the ‘Promise of the Father’, the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, to come dwell WITHIN us, His Holy Temple!  The miracle of Easter is this:  the same mighty power that raised Jesus from the grave IS IN US, as His body!

He is risen!!! Hallelujah!!! And He has raised us up with Him, oh, glorious day!

Jesus gave it ALL for us.  Sacrificed EVERYTHING for us.  Suffered the absolute worse pain and agony known to man, because He demonstrated His love for us.   Can we in turn sacrifice a ‘day off’ to assemble together and worship Him, to give the only One who is worthy all the glory and praise due Him?

Consider the ‘body of Jesus’… broken for us…lying in the tomb that should have our names written on it- instead, He wrote a love letter of crimson, written in red… and died for me and for you.

 

She died…and now lives!!! Five years GODS Grace.

She was only 16…SIXTEEN. She was intelligent and athletic… Very self-disciplined, strong willed, determined. With hopes & dreams…things to do, and places to go. Then a hurrica…

Source: She died…and now lives!!! Five years GODS Grace.