| Let me introduce myself. My name is America. Something happened to me this week that I want to tell you about. You see, for a long time now, I have looked away from the path that my forefathers started me on. I became arrogant and proud. Proud of whom I had become and how I had become her. That brings me to Tuesday, September 11, 2001. You see, in my pride and arrogance, I didn’t realize that I was drawing ever closer to the edge of the cliff. Then in that moment, I fell. The fall took seconds, but I will never forget it. I looked up and there I was, in the valley. It had been some time since I had been here, but many times in my past, I recalled the decent to the depths which I now know. Slowly I gained my feet and stood. I hurt, oh how I hurt. How could I have fallen? Anger grew inside me and I grew stronger from my anger. I looked to the sheer wall of the other side of the valley and I could see the footholds and the trees. I thought I could climb out. I was driven. I grasped the first tree; its name was anger. I stretched to reach the next tree; its name was hatred. Slowly I climbed; the next tree was bitterness. This tree broke in my hand and again I found myself on the floor of the valley. When I looked up, I saw a tree before me whose name was humility. I stood and leaned upon this tree. I cried out to God and remembered… I remembered… I remembered that my strength is not enough; my anger cannot get me out of this valley. For it is only by God’s grace that I had become a mighty nation. And it is ony in the strength drawn from Almighty God that I may one day scale the mountain before me, though my body achesa nd my flesh is torn. He can heal me and restore me. May I never forget. tsf |
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| If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 |
| We experience different seasons of life. Like new chapters in a book that keep the story going, seasons reflect periods of time in our lives. God has seasons - not like fall, winter, spring, summer - He created those. We're talking something along the lines of chapters in history.
Make no mistake about it - God doesn't do stuff just for the heck of it. He always has a plan and a purpose for everything He does or allows. It is also no mistake to think we are tested and tempted when we are. It is not by fate, coincidence, or just plain bad luck when we encounter valley times in our lives. He (God) has appointed us to enter into the valley at His appointed season. And just like the seasons of the year, our seasons in the valley have specific time frames. Now these time frames, these seasons, may be dependant upon our learning and applying specific lessons to our lives or a need for growth and dependence upon God. I don't think we can just sit around and wait it out. Try that and you/I could be spending a long time in the valley - much longer than we care to. So. . . What do we do? Pursue the heart of God. Asking Him to show us the lesson(s) we are supposed to learn - AND LEARN IT!! We're here in this valley for a season. We're here because God appointed us to be here. We're here because God loves and and desires us to grow in my faith in and knowledge of Him. So. . .make no mistake. . . it's no accident. . .no coincidence. . . that we're in the valley right now. So, we should thank the Lord for loving us enough to want me to learn and grow. Thank you Lord! Thank you for this season of life in the valley. May I learn and grow as you desire May you do the same. |
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| I Watched
Please Remember The Lighthouse She Falls There is My Father If Only I Had My Baby’s Eyes Two Men The Gap This Day He Walked Between the Rows Revolutionary Perspective Welcome Home You Are Faithful I Remember Walls Enter In The Little Lamb The Sail Where the Blood Fell The World at My Doorstep Another Day at the Office The Valley Another Second Chance I Want to Fly The poems on this website were written by my husband. I pray that the Lord will speak to you through them. **Feel free to share these poems with others. We only ask that you leave the TSF at the end of each and that you place a link to our website (http://www.geocities.com/shout_2_the_lord) with it. Thanks. |
| “This is not the end. This is only the beginning. If you put your hand in God’s hand, God can walk you through this and give you a life that you would have never imagined. It’s not over. Even though it seems like it, it’s not over. All you have to do is trust God.” |
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| After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6 , Mark 14-23 ).
"If you can do anything . . . ." It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation? |
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| The Valley |
| ORIGINAL POETRY |
| The Valley |
| God's Seasons |