Courageous Faith–Final Thoughts

As promised, here are a few pictures…

First, a couple of the older ones I have kept in my “Joshua Scrapbook” over the last 19 years. 

SUCH a beautiful baby!!

A couple more… current ones…

Josh and his sweet girlfriend, Meg, and then one I just thought was too cute…

even if he does have an UGLY ORANGE hat on!! :-)

 

And lastly, here are two that we took the day all the children all met each other for the first time.

I think you can tell by the expression on my face… I was SO PROUD!

I’ll leave you with these final thoughts from my message this last Sunday…

**(You can listen to My Story in its entirety here.)**

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

What do you need to TRUST GOD with today? How do you need him to WORK AND MOVE in your life?? Are you being held CAPTIVE by sin, or circumstances? Maybe you are like I was, and need to pray a prayer like “God, you have to make this okay. You have to handle this. Because I can’t. I don’t even WANT to.”

Remember the verses we started with? From Isaiah 61?

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion ---- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

That is why JESUS CAME. To proclaim FREEDOM to the captives… to SET THE PRISONERS FREE!! Redeeming our lives is His specialty! That’s HOW HE ROLLS!!

I am not just saying these words because they are the “Christian Thing” to say. I am begging you right now to come to him and surrender everything, because I have lived it. I have seen what He can do with a heart and life that are totally His.

He has TURNED MY MOURNING INTO DANCING!! He has given me JOY in my heart instead of tears of mourning. He is making me a MIGHTY OAK that stands tall and testifies to HIS GLORY!!

(That’s the tagline of my blog, by the way… Truly Captivating: Shining My Light. Reflecting His Glory.)

I want to share one more thing, and then I’ll close. Do you know what the name JOSHUA means? It’s actually a form of the same name as our Savior… Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua… It literally means “Jehovah Saves”.

What do you think? Could there be a more appropriate name? God used Joshua to save my life… God gave Joshua to me because He knew I would save his… But it’s not Josh’s name that is most important.

It’s JESUS.

Call on Him today. Let Him be YOUR SAVIOR… Your VERY PRESENT HELP in time of need!!

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Thank you all for the privilege of allowing me to share these special details of my life with you.  Thank you to all who have joined me on this journey… My beloved parents and siblings, Josh’s precious parents and siblings, My awesome KISA, my three beautiful babies (Emilee, Jake, and Sam), and most especially, you Josh.  Thank you for giving me permission to share our story… to continue to allow God to work and move through it in MIGHTY ways… You totally amaze me!! And I will ALWAYS love you… Like Jesus does!!!