The JOY of the LORD

The joy of the Lord is my STRENGTH! How true that is, if I could only continue in the joy of the Lord the whole time. I look at circumstances and myself way too much and thus miss His joy, and it only follows that I have no strength. God help me to keep my gaze on HIM and His goodness and holiness!

This past week has been very good in several areas. There has been a revival in the hearts of some of us here on the compound, mine included, and all the glory goes to God. Nothing really bad was happening, but you know how bad attitudes and spiritual depression can set in without you even noticing. But praise God, He has opened our eyes and we are once again gazing on His beauty! It changes life!

Also, if you have read any of the clinic blog for GTH, you probably know of “the foot lady”. She has been coming every day for a year now to get her foot bandaged, and it is almost totally healed now. Yesterday in church, she repented of turning away from God some time back. She said she used to know God, then she left Him, and now He has brought her back! Glory to His name! She has His joy in her face now.

Then, last night, we had a young couple come in for the birth of their child. A year ago, on Dec. 4 (a Sunday as well), they had come into clinic for the birth of their first child. The little girl never breathed well, and died after 48 hours. God used the death of that little baby turn the life of her father around. The couple had gotten pregnant before marriage, and during the pregnancy, the girl gave her life to God. The young man however, was rebellious and very troubled. God opened his eyes through that hard time, and they have both been growing in the Lord, one of the few godly young couples in this area. We were all praying very hard that this birth would go well and that the baby would be healthy. Imagine our joy when the beautiful baby cried! We all laughed! It was almost too good to be true. And, to top it all off, it was another little girl! In this case it is – ”the Lord takes away, and the Lord GIVES, blessed be the name of the Lord”. You can’t replace a child, but it is more than coincidental that this little one was a girl too, born a year after the loss of the first one. She is so very beautiful, more so than most newborns, and I don’t think it is prejudice. Here, you take a look and see what you think…