Marching Orders #017

LET THE

SONSHINE

..."Your eyes light up your inward being.

A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul."

Luke 11:34a

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Whitehouse, TX 75791

On A Hill Far Away

Do you have a dream house that you'd like to build or own? I'm convinced that WITH GOD...it is possible!

When I was a little girl, I wanted a brown house with a pink picket fence around it. After being in the ministry for some time and having given up a few houses, and especially after living in a travel trailer for many years, ANY house would have been just fine with me! I took the following verse literally, and apparently God does also, because He gave me, an otherwise impossible, dream home.

"And anyone who gives up HIS HOME, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children or property, to follow me, shall receive a hundred times as much in return, and shall have eternal life." Matt. 19:29...also see Luke 18:29 L/B (emphasis mine)...

Is Jesus speaking literally to the disciples here? In Luke this was said to them right after Jesus had told the disciples that God can do what men can't...That WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! Peter had said, "We have left our homes and followed you." Then, Jesus replied, "Yes, and everyone who has done as you have, leaving home, wife,.....etc. for the kingdom's sake, will be repaid many times over NOW, as well as receiving eternal life in the world to come." (emphasis mine.) So, yes, I take this as literally giving these things up...possibly for a temporary time more so than permanent, because the disciples went back to their families and homes eventually. Has God ever asked you to give something up, or to turn it completely over to Him, to enable you to follow Him? And did you obey?

I recall when He called us into full time ministry...we were living in what I thought to be my dream home...high on a mountain in Northern Arizona overlooking the mountains... It was complete with a surround view deck where you could sit out and read your Bible and breathe Him in as well as all the fresh air your lungs could hold. Then He said, "Sell all you have, give the money to the poor and FOLLOW ME!" He gave us the grace to do it, worked miracles so it could be done, and at the time, He also gave me the above verse in Matthew 19 to hold on to so later I could have another house on a hill.

When we were asked to move to our present location in Texas to take a ministry position in a church, I wasn't sure I wanted to move. We were happy where we were...I was producing the TV show that I so enjoyed and we had a lot of doubts about moving to another state. While doing a crusade at the church in Texas, I took a walk and was praying. I told the Lord that I'd move if it was His will, but I sure was tired of living in that trailer or renting, and I'd like a house of my own. And I reminded Him that He now owed me about 400 houses according to Matt. 19:29. I looked up and saw a fantastic house up on a hill close to the church for sale. I said, "And that house up there will be just fine! Lord, if you will give me that house with no down payment and $2,000 to move with, I'll know it is You leading us and we'll move." (I don't recommend this type of bargaining with God...we want to be obedient no matter what the cost, but this is what I did that time, more in an effort to know His will, sort of like the fleece Gideon put out.)

Right after I prayed one of the deacons of the church pulled up next to me.. I asked him if he knew who owned that house up on the hill...He said, "I do!" WOW! Since I had walked up to get a closer look and JUST KNEW there was no possible way we could ever get that house, I asked him if he was interested in renting it... Oh, me of little faith! He told me he had to sell it in order to pay on the new home he was building... About that time we saw my husband drive up the hill to the house... The deacon followed him to see what he wanted.

I went back to the church and continued praying about whether we were to move or not, and in about an hour Steve arrived with the announcement that he had just bought that house on the hill! There was going to be no down payment since we were to take a second mortgage. The church was going to pay us less salary per month than the house payments were going to be. But, the other thing I had asked for was $2,000 to move with. As it turned out, for the loan to clear and insurance purposes, I had to be put on the church payroll immediately... And, of course the extra amount of money I received was EXACTLY $2,000 from the time we left to go back to N.M. to pack and come back to Texas. And, in addition, the church wanted us to take the position so much that they were willing to raised our starting salary so we could qualify for the first mortgage.

Our move to Texas was definitely one on faith. Even if we got the house, how would we pay those enormous payments? Since we had been traveling for so many years, and had no established credit, and as evangelists, we lived from week to week, and therefore had no money saved...we realized that it was not going to be OUR house, but the Lord's....that with God, all things are possible! We've been through struggle after struggle, but He's always made His house payments, and through a very clever business move, He got the second mortgage paid off, and His payments are now about one fifth the amount they were at the beginning.

I've often wondered if I would still be living in N.M. renting, or in that travel trailer, if I didn't know that He promised to give us back 100 times NOW the things that we have given up to follow Him. Never have I regretted giving up anything He has asked me to, because I've learned that He always has something much better that He purchased for us...on a hill...far away!

In Him and He in me,

Marlene

MARCHING ORDER #17

Marching orders are compiled from paraphrased verses out of the Living Bible. No commentary is added...they are the pure Word of God.

"As Christ's soldier do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who enlisted you in his army." II Timothy 2:4 L/B

O my God, please keep in mind all that I’ve done ... and bless me for it.

The Lord says, I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago and how you loved me and followed me even through the barren deserts. - I will keep the pledge I made to you when you were young. I will establish an everlasting covenant with you forever. - I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised....For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours. - Go to God and confess your sins to him. For he does wonderful miracles, marvels without number. - O Lord my God, many and many a time you have done great miracles for us and we are ever in your thoughts. Who else can do such glorious things? No one else can be compared with you. There isn’t time to tell of all your wonderful deeds.

(Living Bible:)

Nehemiah 5:19.

Jer. 2:2. - Ezek. 16:60. - Jer. 29:10-11.

Is. 55:9. - Job 5:8-9. - Ps. 40:5.

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