God Is Good All the Time And All the Time God Is Good
Testimony
sunny couch
"Standing On the Word"
I was listening to someone teach on Ezekiel 10 and 11, but I read on to chapter 12 and it brought back a flood of memories! I was working for some wonderful people. The wife was like a sister to me, and she often sent me home with “yummy things.” Their son was pastoring a church, and it seemed likely to me that I should attend that church, after all wasn’t the mother of the pastor ministering to my family?!
So, I started going on a regular basis. My kids struggled there, and I have to admit, so did I, but I kept thinking that it was my problem and I just needed to “submit” myself to that part of the “body of Christ” ... I was very young in the Lord so had valuable lessons to learn about the Father’s love and faithfulness to me!
As I prayed about these things, I was reading in Ezekiel 12 one morning and the words jumped off the page, “Pack your bags and get out! You dwell among a rebellious people!” And... do it in their sight that they might see and perceive their rebelliousness and repent! Being a new “baby Christian” I wasn’t sure if that was truly the Lord speaking so I kept the words in my heart but also decided that I must be obedient to the word and leave, and tell them, and why.
My son and I went and spoke with the pastor and explained to him how we felt the Lord was leading. Needless to say, it didn’t set well with the man, and he told me I had a demon! He also said there was another woman that had come against them also. He also told me that I needed to stay put, and to submit to his authority. We left his office that day with questions in our minds as to just which way we were to go.
I entered a time of prayer and fasting, that I might know with certainty what the mind of the Lord was in all of this. During that time, I was talking with a friend that was not associated with that church and I explained how the pastor had said to stay and submit, but the word seemed to be pretty emphatic to “pack your bags and get out!” So, was that really the Lord or what? He has promised to go before us!
My friend asked me a couple simple questions. The first one was, “If you died and went to heaven and the Lord asked you why you stayed at that church? What would be your answer?” I immediately replied, “because the man told me to stay!”
Then she asked me, if I left, what would I say? My answer? “I left because the Lord directed me to leave.” So, now the Lord’s direction seemed quite clear to me! I had heard His written word, now I had heard wise counsel.
After that I had instruction in an unexpected way, making things even clearer. A friend called me, and asked me to please pray for her and her husband, as they were being called in front of the elders that night, (not a desirable thing to hear!) I promised to keep them in prayer.
As I slept that night, I had a dream about this meeting of the elders and my friends... In my dream, I decided to sneak into the meeting, to find out just what was going to happen to my friends! I was not surprised, when I heard the pastor say my name and the name of another close friend of mine, that we were not welcome in the church any longer. The next day, I received another phone call to tell me that what I had dreamed had actually taken place, and my friend and I were no longer welcome at that church. I actually felt a huge relief!
That place “folded” about a year later! I grieve over the many people who are still disconnected from any fellowship, BUT I know God is able and will do great things for them!
Then I prayed, “Lord, where do I go from here?” I heard the question, “where is your heart?” I knew immediately that my heart was out on the Applegate. I had lived in that area for years and I had so many good friends and mentors that were attending out there, so it was quite wonderful to think about being united with them once again. That was in 1982, and we were meeting in the old “Western Auto building” as it was called!
The Word was being taught there, verse by verse, chapter by chapter! I have been blessed for about 43 years now! There was a time when I thought of leaving and finding somewhere closer to home, but the Lord spoke to my heart again, “Stay and watch and see what I am about to do!” I did and He has done great things!
I rejoice in God my Savior! I am so very thankful for the often-difficult lessons learned! He uses every hard thing to reveal how wonderful He is all the time! God is GOOD all of the time. When we ask Him anything at all, He does answer in His time, not ours, if we wait on Him, believing He will always be faithful.
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6 KJV
Sunny Couch
Testimony
DEXTER FEAGIN
You too, can be a man or woman after God’s own heart.
Ever had a defining moment? One time I was driving down the road, Pastor Jon was speaking on KAPL radio. Talking about David, he spoke of God saying, “David is a man after His own heart.”
A thought came to me. I want to be a man like David after God’s own heart and then something spoke to my heart: “You are.” I can’t tell you how blessed it made me feel. It brought tears to my eyes to think God and me were best friends, special bud’s. Now that was exciting to me.
I had always known He was my Father somehow. He had taken the place of my father after my dad had been killed in a logging accident shortly after I was two years old.
Although I felt it, I never knew it was in God’s word until I was in my forties. I heard Pastor Jon teach on Psalm 68:5 “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.” And He is now my best friend.
Thank you, Jesus for making that possible. This whole thing called life is not about me. It’s about You, Jesus my Prophet, my Priest, my King, and my Lord of Lords. Praise truly belongs to You.
You are the One who made a way for me-for us to be saved. You paid the price for me, for all of us You did not owe. You exchanged my bad for Your good.
When I began to calm down after being so excited to be a man like David, I started thinking David had a lot of not so good things in his life.
How would you like to have all your sins put down in writing for all the world to see throughout all generations? But God still says David is a man after His own heart.
I think all of David’s sins are recorded for us to see to know that with all the bad in our lives there is hope for us. And that hope is Jesus, because He takes all the bad away just like we had never sinned.
“…the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
What a friend we have in Jesus!
Dex
Precious truth
jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
