The vertical lines in the first frames suggest an oncoming tornado. Those lines normally would never have appeared and didn’t until the final edits.
When I saw them I was astonished. The Lord said not to remove them. He absolutely is the true Artist of not only all my drawings, but of each of our lives.
What often appear to be mistakes, disappointments, rebukes, shameful failures are things our Creator is engineering in our lives that from His perspective He is working out into something that will become a great Masterpiece. Which His Word declares that each of His children are in Ephesians 2:10. ♥️
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10
May the Lord use this video to encourage you today, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Paths Of Waiting Before The Lord is my latest music album of comforting Christian prayersongs, released last month. This new video recounts through my original art and in my own words the compelling story behind that album.
May the Lord use my story on this video to bless and encourage those who need to be reminded that Jesus loves them, of His forgiveness and grace, and that He answers our prayers in His own way and time, according to our needs, in Jesus’ name, amen.
To listen to the songs on Paths of Waiting follow the link to my Hear & Now Website or listen on your favorite streaming station.
When I first fell about three weeks ago, my whole body was screaming with the worst pain I’d ever felt. I wanted more than anything to die. Throughout my agony in the hospital I cried and prayed for Jesus to please come take me Home and rescue me from this ordeal. Having already fallen flat on my face from a dead faint onto a hardwood floor back in November and miraculously only suffering painful bruising, a black eye, and bloody nose, then losing Mama and my precious sister Nancy, enduring vicious migraines every day, and fierce tension knots, I felt like this new affliction was the last straw. No way did I want to face this new trial.
~~Unlike King David, the man after God’s own heart, who, when God put through a dark trial, he faithfully prayed,
“Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.Then You turned away from me, and I was shattered.I cried out to You, O Lord. I begged the Lord for mercy, saying, “What will You gain if I die, if I sink into the grave? Can my dust praise You? Can it tell of Your faithfulness? Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me. Help me, O Lord.””
Psalms 30:7-10 NLT
No, I was not good like David, for the very last thing I thought of was praising the Lord in my pain, alas. I screamed in bitter agony.
The Bible says that the dead praise not the living God, however He seeks a people who will praise and glorify Him despite their trials.
“The dead cannot sing praises to the Lord, for they have gone into the silence of the grave. But we can praise the Lord both now and forever! Praise the Lord!” Psalms
115:17-18 NLT
I learned that if I truly love the Lord I would endure despite the pain and continue to trust Him believing He will come through in the end. By His Almighty grace, I have determined to seek for ways that I can praise Him during this trial.
For His Word tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
One thing I will praise the Lord for is giving me such a wonderful husband. Ever since I fractured my humerus I’ve had to rely on Mark for assistance in doing everything ~~even doing my hair. Mark finds this task quite difficult and I must admit he has a gift for making really bad hairstyles. They are so awful that they are hilarious and make me laugh. I wish I had been documenting these crazy styles. Even JJ, our Yorkie, noticed him fixing my hair one day. Her little black eyes seemed to pop as she suddenly halted and hopped fast backwards out of the room, We both wish we could’ve documented her reaction on video.
Well, the night he made my hair look like I was wearing an ice bag, I could not stop laughing. I then said, “Honey, can’t you just manage a simple braid?”
I texted a friend about the issue. She told me that her daughter was really gifted at braiding hair and had her own website dedicated to braiding, and she gave me the URL.
I told Mark and sent him to the website. “Here is your chance, honey. Study her techniques and you will soon be braiding my hair!”
I was hopeful as I saw him intently studying two of the braiding videos. But when I noticed how complicated the braids were my heart sank.
Sure enough he soon gave up overwhelmed. Closing his laptop he looked at me and said, “You have two chances for me to ever braid your hair~ fat chance and no chance!”
I pouted. Why could he not have just chosen a video on how to do a simple braid?
Well, the next day the home health care nurse who comes to help me wash my hair and bathe said that she used to run her own hair braiding business on the side till she had her baby!
Would I like for her to braid my hair? She gave me two long beautiful French braids on either side of my head!
Here was my loving God giving me a chance to replace Mark’s fat chance and no chance!
How I praise Him for showing me His love and mercy in that special way!
And that wasn’t the end of the story either.
The next morning my Occupational Therapist came and wanted to braid my hair. She did a beautiful job. Once again, God demonstrated His love and mercy sending two people to braid my hair!
The dead praise not the living God but I will praise Him for these special ways He blessed me.
And the praising for His amazing blessings does not end there.
We went to the orthopedic doctor for a check up and while she did not see a great deal of improvement in the fracture as it was huge; she said it was going to take time and to be patient; after testing me she said I had no nerve damage!
This was very encouraging to me! She said with this kind of injury they sometimes see nerve damage in the hand so it was very good that I had none.
Glory to our wonderful God!
And today after Mark had graced me with another awful hairstyle last night that was truly hilarious, I went into the bathroom and prayed to be able to braid my own hair.
And God be praised~ He really helped me do it ~despite my broken arm!
God helped me braid my own hair despite my broken arm! Praise our awesome Lord Jesus Christ!
Fat chance and no chance are God’s chances in the eternal realms of the Almighty.
“Lord, You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give You thanks forever!”
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on
WHATEVER THINGS ARE IS TRUE (focus on what is true about ourselves & other people & our circumstances, & about God)
See Philippians 4: 8
What is HONORABLE, (Look For What is honorable in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8
Fix your thoughts on what is RIGHT, (Seek for what is right about ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8
Fix Your Thoughts on What is PURE, (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8
Seek For things that are LOVELY, (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8
Think about things that are ADMIRABLE. (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8
Seek For whatever is EXCELLENT (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8
Focus on those things that are WORTHY OF PRAISE ” (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God) ~ Philippians 4:8 NLT
*See Philippians 4: 8
God is looking for the good in His redeemed children, not for faults, not for things to condemn.
Christ came not to condemn, but to save us. (*See John 3:17)
What is true about God?
God is love
1 John 4:8
“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds; Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths.You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.”
Psalms 36:5-6 NLT
“The Lord forgives all my sins, and heals all my diseases, He redeems me from death, and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
Psalm 103:3-5 NLT
The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Psalm 103:6,8 NLT
God will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve.
Psalm 103:9-10 NLT
For God’s unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:11-12
The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him. For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”
Psalms 103:13-14 NLT
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten, The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
Psalm 9:18 KJV
What is true about God’s redeemed children?
For one thing, we are a new creature in Christ, old things are passed away. God has done a new thing in us, we are reborn in Christ and He has given to us His own righteousness.
“When anyone belongs to Christ, they become a new person. Their old way of life has gone. Their new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Christ never did any wrong thing, but God punished Him as if He had. He died as punishment for our sins. As a result, we become right with God when we belong to Christ. We become right, because He is right.” 2Corinthians 5:21 Easy English Bible
“Nobody can say that God’s people are guilty. God himself has accepted us as right with him. So nobody can say that God should still punish us. Nobody can say that, because Christ Jesus himself died on our behalf.
And God raised Christ up so that He became alive again after His death. Now Christ is sitting at God’s right side in heaven. He himself is praying to God on our behalf.
Christ will always continue to love us.Nothing can stop that! We may have troubles.
Things may make us sad or afraid.People may do bad things to us.
We may have no food or no clothes. There may be great danger.
People may even try to kill us.
But none of these things can stop Christ from loving us.
As it says in the Bible: ‘Because we are your people, God, people try to kill us all the time. They think that we are like sheep, and we are ready to be killed.’
Because God loves us, none of these troubles can ever beat us.
He makes us win against them. I am sure of this.
Nothing can stop God from loving us.
Death cannot do that. Life cannot do that.
Angels cannot do that, nor can demons do that.
Nothing that happens to us now, or that will happen in a future time can do that.
No powerful spirits can do that.
Nothing that is high above the world can do that,
nor anything that is deep down below the ground.
Nothing else in the whole universe can stop God from loving us.
Because of our Lord Christ Jesus, we know how much God loves us.”
Romans 8:33-39 Easy English Bible
Heavenly Father,
Teach us to learn about and then to focus on whatsoever things are true about You, and ourselves, those things in us that are positive, and virtuous, pure and lovely, worthy of praise and of good report; help us not to look for faults or things to condemn ourselves for and feel guilty over; for You forgive our sins and give us the righteousness of Thy Son Jesus Christ, You love us very much, and look for the good in us. Thank You for being so kind to us to save us from our sins through Thy Son Jesus Christ, in Jesus name, amen.
Peaceangel Song 
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