| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14459 Registered: 12-2003  |
Cliff, praise God He has given you peace and the opportunity to deliver her funeral message. Praying for you and your family, Colleen | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 2870 Registered: 5-2007  |
Cliff, Thank you for sharing what is a hard thing. I am praising our Savior that he is able to lead you and your family through this time of sorrow with his peace. Phil | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 3102 Registered: 7-2007 |
Kiki; how are things going with you now? | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 2878 Registered: 5-2007 |
Two months ago I went to my doctor suffering from lower back with severe pain extending into my upper left leg. The doctor informed that was neuropathy and is a condition I would have to live with along with major restrictions on my physical activities. The standard medications were prescribed. Later, this has developed into sharp numbing pains centered on the left lower back leading to the conclusion that I have a pinched nerve and that I needed a MRI. However my doctor sent me to a physical therapist instead. My pains have worsened to the point where I have become incapacitated. A friend took me into emergency a couple days ago where they performed the MRI which shows I have herniated disc between the second and third vertebra on the left side and is the cause of the pinched nerve. The good news is that I can expect full recovery with surgery being the most likely solution. Tomorrow morning I see an orthopedic surgeon. Please pray that things go well. As always praising our Savior, Fearless Phil | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 3138 Registered: 7-2007 |
Phil; I'm praying for you... | ||
| Mjcmcook Registered user Username: Mjcmcook Post Number: 1131 Registered: 2-2011  |
Phil~ I am so sorry you are having such pain and trouble. However, I am happy you will be receiving the medical care you need. Praying all goes well~ ~mj~ | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14508 Registered: 12-2003 |
Phil, I am SO sorry. We are praying. Who will care for Jan? Please keep us posted. We are praying. Colleen and Richard | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 2879 Registered: 5-2007 |
My surgery will be 'out patient' surgery where I go in, they put me out and get'er done. Then I get up and go home. Date not set yet but will be soon. Fearless Phil | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 10031 Registered: 3-2004  |
Praying to our awesome God that all will go well with you Phil. Diana | ||
| Nowisee Registered user Username: Nowisee Post Number: 1355 Registered: 5-2009 |
Praying, too, Phil--"what a pain!"...I'm glad you will get it fixed & hope your suffering stops soon. No wonder you hurt so terribly--that's no fun! | ||
| Kiki Registered user Username: Kiki Post Number: 97 Registered: 9-2011 |
Praying for you Phil. I'm glad it's something fixable. After three years on the market my mom's house is being sold, I feel terrible, because my mom won't listen to my advise, she is going to lose a lot of money and I feel responsible for it, if she had listened to me, these last 3-4 years of heartache would not have happened. I have tried to help her for many years and she never follows through. I am feeling very low, like I should just walk off the bridge, nobody believes or trusts me because I am poor but that doesn't mean that my advice is wrong. Please pray for me, I have this overwhelming feeling of dread and fear. | ||
| Nowisee Registered user Username: Nowisee Post Number: 1358 Registered: 5-2009 |
Kiki--praying for you, that God Himself will be your peace. I'm sorry for the pain--my parents do similar things & it's frustrating, but not worth walking off any bridges, OK? Promise? If your mom didn't take good advice, that's not a reflection on you, it just shows she's stubborn--I hear your frustration. God knows your situation exactly & cares about you. You are loved by Him! | ||
| Kiki Registered user Username: Kiki Post Number: 98 Registered: 9-2011 |
Thank you Nowisee. I have failed at most everything in life in spite of the chances God has given me. That is why I have no credibility. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 10036 Registered: 3-2004 |
Kiki, Praying for you. God took you out of adventism and He has a reason for your life. He can still use you for His honor and glory. Love you sister. Diana | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 3148 Registered: 7-2007 |
Kiki, I'm praying for you too. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14528 Registered: 12-2003 |
Kiki, it's time to read Ephesians 2:1-10. The "gospel declaratives" there are true for you now. You were made alive while you were dead in sin, and you have been (that's an act that occurred in the past and is continuing to be true) seated at the Father's right hand with the Lord Jesus. You are HIS workmanship; you are not the sum total of your own failed works. You are His workmanship created for the good works He has already prepared in advance for you in particular to do. Moreover, Col.3:3 says you are hidden with Christ in God, and Romans 8:15-17 says you are His adopted daughter, and teh Spirit testifies with your spirit that you are His and gives you His intimate family name to use: "Abba!" These are FACTS. They are eternal facts, and they trump your shame and your cringing regret. These are facts based on the eternal, omnipotent work of the God the Son on your behalf, and you have been chosen and transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom the Beloved Son by your true Father (Col 1:13). I am not surprised you feel like you do; your mother's lack of respect for your opinion and her bad decision tells me much about her; it reminds me of members of my own family. Her lack of respect for you is not a reflection of you; it is a statement about her own fundamental lack of trust in anyone, especially anyone close to her who might actually be, in her own mind, an extension of her own identity. My mom has a pretty frustrating pattern of believing well-dressed men who promise profit...because they are "professional", and I am just "her daughter" and have no financial professional experience. I completely relate to what you describe. I have had to conclude that my mom's money is not my future nor my security. It is God's provision for her own care, and if she fritters it away by making bad decisions, it is her own loss. God will provide for what I need and for what I need to care for her. It is just money, Kiki...and money is of no great significance to God. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He desires that we trust Him to provide for us. Your mom will do what she will do; God will hold you and provide for you. Read Matthew 6:25-34. He already knows what you need. Praying for you, Kiki, that you will allow God to handle your mom and allow your true Father to be your identity instead of your physical ties. He will show you how to care for her for His glory....without putting yourself in a position to be squashed. Colleen | ||
| Kiki Registered user Username: Kiki Post Number: 99 Registered: 9-2011 |
Thank you everyone, and by the way, I am a guy, not trying to deceive anyone (thanks Diana), Kiki was my cat (also a male). I read that I must forgive myself and I really can't. I have to fire myself. I will look at the scriptures that you indicated Collen, thank you. In spite of all this, I am very thankful for what I have learned here in regards to not being me who must achieve perfection to be saved, no more conditional/confusing "gift". | ||
| Nowisee Registered user Username: Nowisee Post Number: 1359 Registered: 5-2009 |
If God couldn't use people who have failed, He wouldn't be using very many people at all. We often fail, but He never does. When we admit our failings & turn our bad stuff over to Him to redeem, then we are taught that we are to lean/depend wholly on Him. We come to the end of ourselves & there He is.... All of us coming out of the SDA system have struggled with perfectionism & shame & fear, I think. There are some really good, healing books that have helped many of us-- | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 1238 Registered: 7-2004  |
Kiki, I do feel for where you're at and personally know the depths of feeling like a complete and thorough failure. I hope I'm not coming across as uncaring, but have you ever considered that it is God's right to decide whether you live or die, not yours? And trusting/accepting that God knows what He is doing with your life and that He chose for you to live at this time, means truly living, not just existing or wishing for what God has not chosen for you. I know it's often hard for the feelings to match reality, but maybe that perspective on the truth could be helpful. I'm praying for you. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14531 Registered: 12-2003 |
Raven, that post is so impacting to me. Thank you for saying it's God's decision whether I live or die right now...and that if He has me here, I must LIVE because He is the reason for my existence. Wow. Kiki, we can't forgive ourselves by deciding to do so. That's a therapeutic myth. It is only God who forgives us, and when we realize that the Lord Jesus shed innocent human blood for our personal sin, we can only have one appropriate response: to bow in repentance and receive the eternal gift of forgiveness that is ours when we accept His price paid for our sin. Once we repent and receive His blood shed on our behalf, then it is a learning process to choose to believe the words of Scripture. God tells us point-blank that when we are in Christ, we are His adopted children and counted completely righteous (Rom. 3:20-27). We have a righteousness that is not connected to the law but is alien to us: it is the literal righteousness of Jesus Himself that is credited to our account. The Father looks at us...and He sees Jesus. We are hidden in Him. Because He has forgiven us when we receive His gift and believe in Him, forgiving ourselves is actually a matter of believing that God tells the truth about us even when we don't yet "feel" it. It is God's word that tells us what is true and real, and the personal insight doesn't happen until we choose to act by faith on God's word. Once we know Jesus, He begins, slowly, compassionately, to show us the truth about our lives. For those of us who have been Adventist, that truth very, very often, as Nowisee said, includes realizing that there was actual abuse in our lives. Spiritual abuse twists reality and paves the way for emotional and physical abuse. Jesus thaws our emotions so we can feel, and He is with us as we begin to feel and walk through the pain of the past that we so often suppressed. He walks with us, though, and He brings us out on the other side. We cannot heal until we allow Him to help us know what is real. But He never, never leaves us. He personally holds us as He takes us into the truth about ourselves. Our "self forgiveness" is actually submitting our defenses to Jesus and believing that He loves us and has purchased our justification and our life. We are His forever; no one can ever snatch us out of His or the Father's hand (Jn. 10:28-29). We really can't "forgive" ourselves; we must believe Jesus, and He teaches us who we are in Him. We forgive ourselves when we agree with God about ourselves. We are by nature objects of wrath (Eph. 2:3), but when we were still sinners Christ died for us and made us alive with Him, seating us at the Father's right hand (Eph. 2:4-10). REmember what Raven said: God chose for you to be alive at this time, It is His will that you are here, and He will not leave you alone. He has ransomed you through Jesus' blood; He Himself will keep you when you are hidden in Him. With prayers for you, Colleen |
