I hope this has blessed lots of hearts.   It has blessed my own to relive it.  At the time this was written 2-1/2 years ago, everything in my life seemed to be going haywire all at once,  unendingly for months on end, all right after the death of my beloved Mom.  The floods of life were up around my neck.  My life boat wasn't leaky, it had capsized, and I was adrift, clinging to a broken oar!!!           Weary and defeated doesn't describe it!  I felt like I should have been wearing an "under construction by God" placard around my neck.  What a marvel He is though! It must be a challenge even for Him to take a rough stone like me and overhaul my life and spiffy and sparkle me up enough so His light can shine through!  But, He's done it!!!           You can read the "Lamentations of Lin" in some of my other sites like my humor site, and the actual story of producing these writings in books in Listen, Jesus Is Speaking.  That story you must read as it is a marvelous lesson in learning obedience and trusting God, no matter what!!!           Click the link below to go to my main directory for a listing of most of my sites - 30+, and pages - 200+, all sharing life lessons I've learned in the last few years by sitting at Jesus's feet and fighting along side Him in this battle called 'life'.  God bless you extra special!  Lin

Count it all joy! Praise the Lord and hallelujah!  Another trial!  Another tribulation!  O, goody! I get to exercise more patience and learn more faith!            This is a much more delightful attitude, and I am sure much more pleasing to God.  God's power in me is thereby released.  I will never see His power when my response to trials and tribs is anger, impatience, frustration, and inner screaming about how stupid life is, and what am I doing here anyway?           Just like the birds outside my window in the pouring rain are not daunted and defeated in their task of nest building, I am commanded to go forth into daily battle.  The birds simply shake the water off their feathers, and fly off for another bit of something with which to build.  No wonder God takes care of them!  They go about the business He designed them for no matter what.  No revolting, rebellion, murmuring, or muttering! They sing His praises dawn till dusk without fail, fair weather and foul.           Don't let the little things separate me from God.  Develop a Rock-hard attitude that this IS only life, it IS only the material, physical, temporary world!  I am just passing through.            In the meantime, the war goes on.  I am a spiritual being who, according to God's perfect plan, has been called to fight in a physical body, seemingly ill-equipped to even be present in the filth and slime of a world that makes Sodom and Gomorrah pale in comparison.  But, Jesus was here in the physical.  Why?  So that He could ransom me!  So that one day I could be where He is where there is peace, love and joy eternally.           He has already overcome and won for me, but I still need to do my part:  Stand and fight for His Truth, portray His perfect love in a vile and corrupt world.  I am to let His light shine through me, to help other people understand that He has already ransomed them too.  His is the victory in all of this! Every trial, every battle I am in is just another opportunity for Him to show His mighty power, His work, His miracles through my life.  Without trials and tribulations, others would never see that, nor would I.           It is all perspective and attitude:  Don't think, "God has promised me a wonderful life beginning with this carefree day, so why is all of THIS happening?"  Wrong perspective!  The worse my days are, the more God has an opportunity to shine!  He loves doing miracles and how wondrous it is to see Him do them!!!  Like the Apostle Paul said, "I will praise God for my weakness and my infirmities, and all my undeveloped talents, for then His strength in me is increased."           Is life, God or the enemy giving me fiery trials, the waters of adversity, and the bread of affliction?           COUNT IT ALL JOY!!!           What is God trying to teach me?  What can I learn?  How does God want me to respond?  What lies ahead that will require this additional fortitude, courage, and faith that I am being taught right now?           Has He left me or forsaken me to go through this alone?  Never!  He lives in me and is right here in the midst of every battle.  He wants me to really rely on Him, to always turn to Him for His strength, to show me what I can do and what I can endure with Christ in me!  He wants me to give Him all the cares and problems of my life and be quick about it!  No time to grab them back either! The battle of life rages on.  No sooner am I delivered from one dilemma than another one overflows me!  So what should I expect?  He never promised me a rose garden!!!           COUNT IT ALL JOY!!!           This is war!  This is life.  Life and spiritual warfare are synonymous.  I am to keep my sword up, keep going forward!  He has commanded me to "lift up my weak hands and strengthen my feeble knees!"  Onward into battle!  Love, peace, joy, and  comfort aren't here.  This is the battlefield, for crying out loud!           Fight?  Me?  With a meek and gentle spirit???  No, not always.  Jesus hates lukewarm love and half-hearted work for Him.  I am commanded to be zealous, to be filled with fire and intensity about Him and for Him.  Too many of God's children are too meek and mild.  They have fallen by the wayside, overcome instead of overcomers!  God as set me in the midst of His battle.  He has equipped me with the sword of the word of His Truth, not an empty hand making the peace sign.           There is a time for every purpose under heaven, a time for peace, a time for war . . .           COUNT IT ALL JOY!!!           Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!  His Words of Truth make powerful bullets, and against my shield of faith and the breastplate of His righteousness, the enemy's slings, arrows and fiery darts are nothing!           Now I understand what Paul meant!  I have learned to count it all joy when I suffer trials and tribulations!  The trying of my patience does give me patience in greater abundance for the next skirmish!!!  Just like a muscle, faith is stronger for being exercised!  There is a bigger, fiercer battle coming, and I need to be built up to endure it.  I count it all joy that I have the privilege to fight with My Lord and Savior in His Army!  I count it a great joy and honor to do battle for Him!!!           Jesus wants me to always count it all joy when I suffer trials and tribulations.  He does not want me to sit murmuring my angry complaints, or crying in the dark, or going around in public with a downcast face.  What is that saying to the enemy, and more importantly, what is that behavior saying to the new little sheep that just found Jesus, and is looking to me as an example, the one who is watching to see if His light does shine in me?           COUNT IT ALL JOY!           Jesus has promised me a mansion in paradise with Him by the beautiful sea with palm trees (yes, there are palm trees in heaven!) and every good thing, and Himself sitting right there on that glorious throne, King of Kings and Lord Triumphant forever and ever!!!            In the meantime, I am a stranger in a strange land, and I will keep wielding His sword of Truth, His flame burning brighter and steadier within me for others to see.           "Be careful with that sword now, Lin!  Sheep scare easily when new to the fold," cautioned the voice of the Holy Spirit.           Instantly, I had a vision of sheep dressed in armor and fighting a battle!  It was so amusing that I thought, 'I ought to paint a picture of that!'           In a flash of Holy Spirit insight, another tale was given to me, the whole, long story, in a flash, just like that!!!  That one is book 6, and called Sheep in God's Clothing.  It will be the next one I get onto a web site.  It really is a charming story and would make a wonderful children's video in the style of Veggie Tales.  In fact, I submitted it to them, and they were very gracious, but do not accept unsolicited material.  I hope you will check back to read it.

Part III - "Joy Is Mine!"

This page was last updated on: 8/26/05

I hope this has blessed lots of hearts.   It has blessed my own to relive it.  At the time this was written 2-1/2 years ago, everything in my life seemed to be going haywire all at once,  unendingly for months on end, all right after the death of my beloved Mom.  The floods of life were up around my neck.  My life boat wasn't leaky, it had capsized, and I was adrift, clinging to a broken oar!!!           Weary and defeated doesn't describe it!  I felt like I should have been wearing an "under construction by God" placard around my neck.  What a marvel He is though! It must be a challenge even for Him to take a rough stone like me and overhaul my life and spiffy and sparkle me up enough so His light can shine through!  But, He's done it!!!           You can read the "Lamentations of Lin" in some of my other sites like my humor site, and the actual story of producing these writings in books in Listen, Jesus Is Speaking.  That story you must read as it is a marvelous lesson in learning obedience and trusting God, no matter what!!!           Click the link below to go to my main directory for a listing of most of my sites - 30+, and pages - 200+, all sharing life lessons I've learned in the last few years by sitting at Jesus's feet and fighting along side Him in this battle called 'life'.  God bless you extra special!  Lin

I would love your comments!   Was I the only murmuring, confused, little sheep in God's fold?