Fresh Manna | Expectant Faith |

Today's daily bread was found in 2 Kings 4. Elisha is doing his prophet duties and this position seems to include tons of travel. Since he continually visits the town of Shunem, a wealthy woman tells her husband that they need to make a guest room so that Elisha can be comfortable when he comes into town. (I think it's funny how much I can relate to this woman since I would let anyone and everyone live with me as one big happy family! Well, back to the story . . . ) Elisha is so grateful for her kindness he is willing to put in a good word with the King but she declines the offer. So, Gehazi (his apprentice) tells Elisha that she does not have a child and that if she had a child, that would bring her much joy. So Elisha tells the woman that she will have a baby by the next year and she begged Elisha not to joke with her about such a sensitive subject. But, true to his word, a baby arrived within the year.

Fast forward....this blessing baby soon grew into a boy and went out to the field to visit his daddy while he was working in the fields. When he was out in the fields the boy complained that his head was hurting so the daddy sent the boy back home to his mom. As the boy was held in his momma's arms he died. So this bold woman went and told Elisha that he needed to come with her and save her boy. Elisha did just that and the boy returned to his momma. Several years pass and Elisha warns this momma that she needed to get out of town because a famine was about to come upon the land so she takes her family and heads out. After seven years of being gone, the woman returns with her family to beg the King to give her back her home and her land. Just so happens that the King was talking with Gehazi about all the miracles that Elisha had preformed and was in the middle about telling the King about the boy, when who walks thought the door....the momma and the boy (who was now grown up). The King was so excited he gave the woman back everything that she had walked away from seven years earlier.

This story reminds me of what Lee & Leah's preacher said, "All things God works for the good of those who love him. (Romans 8:28) That doesn't mean that only good things happen but that God uses the good and the bad for his glory." I think of the boldness this woman had to tell her husband to scoot over cause they were making room for Elisha to come visit. I smile at the joy which resulted from her boldness of having a precious baby. Then I think of the pain she must have felt as she held her little boy in her arms as he suffered in pain and died in her arms. Then I think about how she was a woman on a mission to find Elisha to make him come to help her dead little boy. I think of the helplessness that she must have felt as she fell on the ground worn out from stress as Elisha was with the boy behind close doors. Then finally the indescribable joy that took over her body as she ran to hold the boy who was once dead and then was brought back to life. Had it not been for the ups and downs in her live, the King would not have been talking about her that day. In fact, she was a testimony to God's amazing power because she lived in expectant faith.

Fresh Manna | God Speaks |

One of the final moments with Jesus is captured in Matthew 28. The last words he spoke to us are found there . . . Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Owen and I have been on a spiritual journey for the past several months. God has revealed Himself in so many ways. Through this journey, we have been lead to move our family from the safety of what we know to the inner city in order to be a bright light shinning on a hill. Since I'm sharing my story with so many people, I've decided to write down every time we've seen God at work so that you don't miss a single step of the process. Each detail, one after the other, is being shared to reveal God's glory.

Our story first begins with the stirring of Mark Sterns . . .

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