Getting Personal

God is very personal. I hope everyone who reads this has experienced God personally. He speaks to His children in a way that is undeniably Him. I'm so thankful that I have had the blinders removed from my eyes and have come to know the God that I serve. He is amazing and I pray that for anyone who is still in the dark, any unbelievers out there, that you will see the Light, that is Jesus. I pray that you will be transformed through the salvation that He offers.

God has been confirming my decision to go to Romania. He has already begun to provide financially for it. It's really cool when He does that.

He is also speaking to me very clearly about a situation that Jeff and I have been in with our previous renters in our SC home. Long story short, they made some decisions that led to us feeling very deceived and cheated. We have felt taken advantage of again and again by them and it has been a difficult situation for us. But, God. I stopped with that phrase because it is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. When you read 'but, God' you need to be ready to get out of His way, because He is gonna take over. He told me to start attending Bible study on Sunday afternoons in spite of my incredibly busy life. I teach Sunday school in the morning, lead discipleship in the evening at my home and then lead a 3 hour homeschooling class on Monday mornings. Why would I possibly need to add another thing in on Sunday? Sounds like a really bad idea. Yet, God was leading so I followed and have been there three weeks now. Well, my 'but God' attitude about it has been dissolved completely as God has been talking to just me every week. I mean it is like it is just me and Jesus in that room. He has been showing me in His word what it means to experience grace and to show grace to others. When I hurt and cheat God with my life He responds with grace. When I am hurt and cheated by others, what is my response? And does my response give "praise to the glory of His grace"(Eph 1)? He has so specifically shown me what to do during this trying time and how to know Him more. Without the trials Jeff and I have been through, I wouldn't have the opportunity to praise God for His grace, b/c I wouldn't understand that part of Him. It is something to be thankful for when I am able to know God in a new way and when I discover another reason to praise Him. I encourage you to look at your hardships in terms of relationships in your life and ask, "is this about the relationship and the other person, or is that about me and God?" Remember, you will experience some things in life that make no sense, but that is just where God speaks the most, and you don't want to miss it!

Another way God has been very personal with me and Jeff lately is on the topic of #2. If you read my last post you know what I mean; adoption.
Now I don't know what God is doing except that He is having an awful lot of conversations with us about it. The word adoption is coming out everywhere. It's in blogs I read, its reality in my friends' lives, it's in emails, it's in the Ephesians study on Sundays, it's in concerts we've attended, and it's constantly on my mind. The one I'm most intrigued by lately is the way it is all through scripture. So, over the next coming days I'm gonna spend extra time studying what the Word has to say about it. The one thing I know is that I have more to give and my home has more to offer. I know there are children who have nothing, including no hope, and I know Hope. I know Provider. I know All Sufficient One. If fact, I know Him personally. It is in my heart heavy to bring at least one of those children to Him, and to rescue he/she out of the pit they are in. Jeff is searching God to see if He is leading us in this path. You can pray for us if you are led. God has poured out Himself on us and it is more than we can contain. I want the overflow to fall on orphaned children. I want the hope that I have to blanket one who is hopeless. I want God to reach through us, my family, straight to a child who has none and show Himself through us. This is such a deep desire in me. I know God is not done growing this Hudler crew.

Last thought, we are entering into another contract! It is with the same people. They got all their stuff straight for the loan and are trying again. Of course we have concerns about it falling through again, but it is a lot less likely now. So, please pray for it to go smoothly this time. We should close in March.