Month: May 2009

Mothers Day

Jeff’s Mother’s Day Post

A. Knight

Sorry this took so long! But “somebody’s gotta work for a livin’ “…. (sorry girls…that is what Jeff says all the time…as if he alone works 🙂 )

After reading his post…go on down and sign in with Mister Linky and link up —be sure and share your mother’s day with us!

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I want to wish you all a very Happy Mother’s Day. A few mothers I really want to honor on this day, my wife Angie, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my two daughters, Tiffany and April. These are the closest, dearest and most precious mothers to me. I could write a blog about each one individually, but I feel lead in another direction today. I would like to share about a very special mother in our church.

Matthew 7:16 says you can identify them by their fruit, — by the way they act.

Matthew is talking about false prophets, but we can identify Christians in this story (mothers) by their actions, by the way they live.

This particular mother has a special needs child. Although I’ve never had a conversation with her, she is part of my daily prayer life. On a Tuesday in December of 2008 during our morning men’s prayer meeting, I asked God for something different, something new, something I had never done before for 2009. A couple of weeks later, God answered my request.

The Lord gave me two people in our church to pray for every day for the next year. The first, a man with some health challenges, and the second—-this special mother.

“Wow–what a challenge” was what I thought. “What have I gotten myself into? To call their names every single day for an entire year? Could I do this? Commit to this? God, are you sure?”

Does this sound familiar? How many times have you done the same thing? Okay—off track just a minute…now let’s get back to the mom.

I don’t know the mother’s heart on a daily basis. I have no idea what she goes through every day….but I can tell you what I see. It takes a special mother to care for a special needs child. Do you realize that by 8:00 a.m. she has probably done more than many of you all day long? How about when you come home and retire to your special chair, her day is far from being over.

I see love in motion as she carries her child, for he cannot walk. Her face reflects love as she looks at him when she sits and holds him. I know that this kind of love—only comes from the Father’s love.

Do you see the resemblance? Just like our Father —who carries us through the times when we feel that we can’t go on…He wraps His arms around us when we are afraid or lonely. Only God loves this special child more than this special mother. And only God loves this special mother more.

As you go about your day—enjoying your family—or thinking back to the day you became a mother—thank the LORD above for the gift of that life.

Have a blessed mother’s day!

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Mothers Day

Mother’s Day Memories *Updated*

A. Knight

We are all about “mothers”.

I am one. I have one and so does Jeff. Both mom’s are spectacular! I told mine so just tonight. And she replies—“oh shush–I am not.”

But she is. And Luna, Jeff’s mom is too. I am so thankful for the childhood that I was blessed with. I realize that many children are not as blessed. I realized this even more as I grew up. Have I finished growing up yet?

On a young birthday, maybe 6 or 7, when we lived in Clermont, Florida, mother made me a special birthday cake. It had blue icing—I ate some icing on the sly—AND on the cake…needless to say—it was a LONG time before I wanted any cake icing…

I remember, as we grew up, mother up late very often —since she was the sole provider for 4 kids, she had her full time job, a part time job at the church, as well as keeping house, cooking, cleaning, and teaching and training 4 youngsters! What a job that must have been!

On special occasions when it called for a new dress or outfit, you’d find her sewing away on her machine in her room completing 3 dresses for 3 little girls, and many times a little boy pair of shorts to match our dresses! I remember more than once she made little Jeff (our baby brother) a whole suit! One Easter it was light blue jacket and matching shorts! HE was so cute!

I remember many sacrifices she made for us–and she never complained to us about not having this or that, she TRUSTED God to meet the needs of her little family. He always did. He still does.

I learned from her example, as well as the godly examples of both my grandmothers. Mamo and Granny. Lois and Vera Mae. They had an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ and they passed this faith and trust in the Almighty God onto their family members. Some chose to follow, some not. Still the path was set. They did not waiver.

I remember cooking with both Mamo and Granny. I will share many “grand-mother memories” on a later post! But both were AWESOME women! One a mighty prayer warrior—the other a mighty fishing-woman! But dedicated to Jesus Christ all the way to the end of their days. And what a journey it was!

I hope you can join us this weekend and share some special memories of your childhood, whether the memory is about your own mother, or someone that had a great influence on your life. If you’ve got some pictures —past or present–put them on! Let us visit together—we’re pulling out the scrapbooks…bad hair days and all! Be sure and link back to here so that we can visit around and spread the mother’s day cheer! You can grab the special mother’s day button on the side bar and display it for your “Mother’s Day” memories!

I have combined pictures of the past few years of special moms in my life. Some friends…some family. If you aren’t pictured —either I don’t have your picture…or…OR…it’s not on this computer the day I made this! (I apologize for being in more than one picture…I am in the company of some awesome women and I just left the photo as it was for memories sake!)

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

My linky has not been working right…so if it’s not here…be sure and leave a comment letting others know you are participating—and we can visit!

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Jeff’s post will be added this weekend! He will be writing about his mom!

For Sisters of Faith

Victorious Living – A Sister’s Story – Connie Haile

A. Knight

My name is Connie Haile. I became a Christian when I was 21. At 21 I had been married, divorced, and married again and going to have a child with my second husband…who is wonderful by the way.
I just played church for three years then the devil became to play with my mind….long story short I was very fearful of being sick. It just came out of the blue . I had never battled with anything like that before. I didn’t know the Word or the power of His name. I just got worse and worse….I would sit in the yard with my little girl everyday after Mike went to work.
The Lord one day sent me someone that knew the power of God’s word…..she and two other wonderful people who just took me under their wing and taught me how to stand on the word and not be moved by what I was feeling or hearing from the devil.
That was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. Back then we didn’t know about panic attacks or pills that would help. So, it was just me and my Precious Heavenly Father. It was a long hard battle but I never crumbled….I didn’t want to be this way and if God said he would do it ….I took him at his word.
Praise Jesus I am set free from the spirit of fear! People often say that there is no way that I don’t have bad, blue days…..but I stand with great confidence that no I don’t have blue days……why, because I make a choice to walk in His Joy everyday of my life…I can’t afford to open the door to fear…the lack of joy is fear….no thank you, been there done that and don’t ever want to go back.

So then when my youngest was 2 and my oldest was 5 my husband decided that he didn’t love me anymore and wanted a divorce. Talk about a shocker!

I had been telling a friend whose husband had left her, that God would bring him back, she just needed to stand on the word…..I shared scripture with her all of the time…four months to be exact almost everyday.
This one particular day we were sitting in my drive way and I was giving her my daily speech about the power of God’s word and if she would just stand, Jim would come home. She looked at me funny.
I said to her, “I know you are thinking, how do you know, you have never been in my shoes.” She said that was exactly right. I got out of the car and went inside and it wasn’t long when Mike came home to deliver the news. He began to tell me how he didn’t love me anymore and that he was going to move out. I just stood there and then I told him I had to leave but would be back. I called my friend and she came and picked me up to take me to my spiritual parents house. We prayed for several hours.
I just knew when I got home everything was going to be fine. But I was wrong . He was sitting on the couch with all of his stuff waiting to go. Needless to say, he left.
What was I going to do? I had to do what I had been telling Susan. For months I had told her about the power of God’s word…..I couldn’t back up now…so I did exactly what I preached to her about.
Mike would call me, sometimes everyday telling me he didn’t love me anymore………….this went on for 9 months. I just stood firm on His word. Sometimes several times a day I would say, Thank you Father that Mike loves me as Christ loves the church.
God honored his word above his name. It was a true test of my faith and sometimes things in the natural looked really dark, but God’s Word always changed things for my good. I had to learn a lot about myself and change a lot of things about myself…it wasn’t just about Mike leaving, it was about how the Lord wanted me to change some of the dumb things I did as a wife.
Mike came home and told me that he did everything in his power to stop loving me but the harder he tried the more he loved me. The Lord reminded me how I stood on the scripture. “Mike loves me as Christ loves the church.”
The more I stood on that scripture the more Mike loved me. God’s word never fails.
That was 27 seven years ago and Mike and I have been married 34 years.

Then March of last year I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. It was in my lungs and several other places. I told the first doctor that I was healed in Jesus name and he told me that it was my faith that had kept me alive this long. The doctors in Dothan told Mike I only had 3 to 6 weeks to live.

It was decided that I go to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fl. So off we went….I was on oxygen and in a wheelchair. We met the doctor and she quickly told me that she wanted to do chemo. I told her that I was healed in Jesus name and she turned around and told me that only God could heal me. The chemo was only going to control and comfort me. Healing was not in the equation.
I told her to just hide and watch! She ordered scans of all sorts. We got the results back and she told us that there was cancer in several places. She wanted to start chemo immediately but I told her that I wanted to go home and spend time with my family. I also told her that I would do chemo only if they could promise me that I would not throw up. I told them I didn’t not want to do that everyday. They promised that would not happen as long as I take the medicine they gave me. They honored their word because I never got sick or felt bad. God is so faithful.

I began to listen to healing cd’s 24/7, and I quoted healing scriptures all the time. I guarded myself from negative people. Couldn’t afford to hear anything negative. I stayed guarded.

The word says to be careful what you hear and that is what I did. The devil was out to kill me and I was not going to give him the pleasure of taking me out…..I was going to put a good fight of faith.
I had 8 rounds of chemo….my blood levels never went below normal. My blood platelets never went below normal either. The doctor was so amazed with my blood. Everyday I would say out loud so that every demon from hell could hear it, “Thank you Father, that your blood flows thru my veins bringing healing and health to all of my flesh.” He honored His word above His name.

The second set of scans showed that all the tumors had shrunk 50%. My doctor was so excited and so was everybody in the clinic. That was the first miracle….When I finished chemo I had more scans made. The results came back and the cancer in my brain, liver and bones was gone! The tumor in my breast was a 10 and had shrunk to a 1.5! We were so excited and she was amazed…..remember she said that healing was not in the equation. Of course, she says that I responded so well to chemo….I would tell her.. no I am healed in Jesus name. She would just look at me.

Next and last step was 7 weeks of radiation. I lived with my son and his wife for that time in Tampa. That was a real test of faith,— not living with them, but what radiation had to offer. But because of the power of God’s word working in me…..I made it. Going through radiation brought me to another level of bringing my thoughts captive. I would lay on that table and because of some of the procedures it was very painful and lengthy. It is times like these that one must bring their thoughts captive or the pain and just crazy thoughts would take you to a place of fear. It was a battle sometimes but the Lord always carried me through.
That 7 weeks was such a wonderful time of ministry. Everyday there was someone to pray for or just give a smile. The power of a smile should never be under estimated. There is healing power in a smile…I saw that everyday.
When you are wondering what can I do for someone in a situation like that ..….give them a smile.

The end of December I had more scans and Praise the Lord, my doctor stood amazed at the results. She said that she never dreamed they would be like this……healed and whole. God is so faithful to his word no matter what the battle is. The devil is a liar and he will do all he can to get you to listen to his lies and turn from the word of God. No matter what the battle is Jesus is still the same…..He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. His Word has 365 “fear not’s”…that is one for each day. How sweet is He to make sure we will have a promise for everyday so we won’t be afraid. He has made provision for us for everything we are going through.

I would not be here today if it weren’t for Him and the power of His word! So whatever it is you are facing….get the Word, find the scripture you need, and hold on to it! Speak it out of your mouth until it becomes life within you and makes its home in your heart! For out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks….stand strong….
He is your refuge, your fortress, and the God in whom we trust. His joy is our strength. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us to quicken our mortal body. Glory to God and the promises go on and on!
Thank you Connie! There is power in her words! The power comes from the Holy Spirit that lives within her!
We want this blog to be a place where you can come and find hope for your situtation! The BIBLE is the key—to unlock the heart of God for your life! YOUR situation! As Connie said, stand on His Word. HE never fails!