Today was an emotional day for myself and my church, Bethany World Prayer Center. Not only was today Valentine's Day, but the day Pastor Joel Stockstill burried his lovely wife, Amy at our North campus church. It was a beautiful service I will never forget. Please keep the Stockstill and Hart families in your prayers. Specifically, I ask for you to pray for Pastor Joel during this time that he would be strengthened.
Pastor Dino Rizzo, from Healing Place Church, came to speak to our church this past Wednesday. He cancelled their Wednesday services, and came to join ours. It was so touching to have both churches come together in unity during such a time of loss. Pastor Dino encouraged us with a powerful message on 'The Power of God's Sustaining Love.' I believe it was a word straight from the heart of God for our church family. The passage of scripture he used was 1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love. But the GREATEST of these is LOVE." Pastor Dino talked about how when everything else fails, these 3 will remain. But how sometimes faith and hope run out. We have questions and doubts sometimes. Sometimes hope can dwendle. But God's love for us will NEVER dwendle or run out. God's love is still 'red hot' for us, even after 2,000 years!!! God's love goes beyond faith, visions, and dreams.
Song of Songs 8: 6-7 puts it this way: "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealously unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away..."
Dear friend, God loves you this way. With a burning, jealous and unyielding love that is CONSTANT. This is the love that will see us through all despair and all loss. God's love will put us back together when we feel we are in pieces.
When tradegy hits, when things happen that you don't understand (which is certain to happen), you will be left with a decision to make: will you trust the love of God, or will you not?
Many disciples deserted Jesus in John 6: 60-69 when He preached about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in order to have life. They said "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" They could not accept what was going on, and many disciples left. Jesus then turned to his twelve and asked "You do not want to leave too, do you?" And Peter responded to Jesus in verse 68, "Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." I dont know about you but I choose to be like Peter right now. God, I dont understand why Amy was taken. But I trust You. To whom else shall I go? You are Creator. Star-breather. You are the giver of eternal life. And You are good. I will not abandon You or turn from You just because I can't accept or understand this. Please God, show me the sustaining power of Your love. I love you.
I will leave you with a quote from Pastor Joel to ponder that I found on his website (joelstockstill.com):
"...no matter who you are and what you do....you will always face obstacles to realizing your dreams that you did not anticipate. Maybe you don’t know what happened but the details are not important. The bottom line is this: if you have the heart of a champion you will expect unfairness and every other possible obstacle to come against you and yet in some way you find the heart to prevail..."
Lord, I pray the heart of a champion over Joel tonight. The heart to prevail and be sustained by the power of Your love God, despite these crushing circumstances. And not just for him Lord, but for us all.
Pastor Dino Rizzo, from Healing Place Church, came to speak to our church this past Wednesday. He cancelled their Wednesday services, and came to join ours. It was so touching to have both churches come together in unity during such a time of loss. Pastor Dino encouraged us with a powerful message on 'The Power of God's Sustaining Love.' I believe it was a word straight from the heart of God for our church family. The passage of scripture he used was 1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love. But the GREATEST of these is LOVE." Pastor Dino talked about how when everything else fails, these 3 will remain. But how sometimes faith and hope run out. We have questions and doubts sometimes. Sometimes hope can dwendle. But God's love for us will NEVER dwendle or run out. God's love is still 'red hot' for us, even after 2,000 years!!! God's love goes beyond faith, visions, and dreams.
Song of Songs 8: 6-7 puts it this way: "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealously unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away..."
Dear friend, God loves you this way. With a burning, jealous and unyielding love that is CONSTANT. This is the love that will see us through all despair and all loss. God's love will put us back together when we feel we are in pieces.
When tradegy hits, when things happen that you don't understand (which is certain to happen), you will be left with a decision to make: will you trust the love of God, or will you not?
Many disciples deserted Jesus in John 6: 60-69 when He preached about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in order to have life. They said "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" They could not accept what was going on, and many disciples left. Jesus then turned to his twelve and asked "You do not want to leave too, do you?" And Peter responded to Jesus in verse 68, "Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." I dont know about you but I choose to be like Peter right now. God, I dont understand why Amy was taken. But I trust You. To whom else shall I go? You are Creator. Star-breather. You are the giver of eternal life. And You are good. I will not abandon You or turn from You just because I can't accept or understand this. Please God, show me the sustaining power of Your love. I love you.
I will leave you with a quote from Pastor Joel to ponder that I found on his website (joelstockstill.com):
"...no matter who you are and what you do....you will always face obstacles to realizing your dreams that you did not anticipate. Maybe you don’t know what happened but the details are not important. The bottom line is this: if you have the heart of a champion you will expect unfairness and every other possible obstacle to come against you and yet in some way you find the heart to prevail..."
Lord, I pray the heart of a champion over Joel tonight. The heart to prevail and be sustained by the power of Your love God, despite these crushing circumstances. And not just for him Lord, but for us all.
2 comments:
When I heard about Amy's death I thought about you. We have been praying for the families. Sounds like the services surrounding her death were God honoring and a blessing despite the sadness.
Hey Al, yes the service was unreal in the way it honored God. I have never seen anyhthing like it. People even got saved...5, I believe. Thank you for your prayers. Thanks for the comment too ;)
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