{"id":12658,"date":"2022-01-12T15:13:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=12658"},"modified":"2022-01-12T15:13:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:13:00","slug":"stepping-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/12658\/stepping-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

This morning Richard was reading the \u201cSuffering and the Saints\u201d book<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 When he finished the first part, he said that it was so good.\u00a0 He loved how you wrote out the message and how it feels and that it is such a good reminder of how God is in charge of our lives and taking care of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to read what he had just read, so I picked up the book. He was using the book cover to mark the place where he finished reading.\u00a0 When I opened the book, it opened up, not where he had it marked, but two pages before on what he had just read that he said was so good. This is what it said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the key to this kind of steadfastness in faith is a genuine knowledge of God and that the key to that knowledge is the revelation of Creation. When we experience the revelation knowledge of God as Creator, the rope of trust in God is no longer something at which our wondering hearts desperately grasp; rather, faith becomes woven into the fabric of our mind and spirit so that it becomes part of who we are. It becomes our foundation instead of our goal. Then, growing in this grace and knowledge of our Savior, we survey past experiences which we once denounced as evil attacks against us and perceive the short-sightedness of such a view.\u00a0We see those experiences as the very stones upon which we now stand and view the glory of God, as stepping stones which were hewn by caring hands to match our toddling steps. Yes, evil spirits or men may have shoved those stones into our pathway, but they did neither determine the size of those stones nor when in our pilgrimage we would face them.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t believe it!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even know that was in there!\u00a0 Last Spring (sometime before our beach trip in May) I was in the shower and I had a vision in my mind of myself standing on a stone path.\u00a0 Each stone on the path had a trial written on it.\u00a0 I could see each stone being thrown to me in every trial by someone or, something which Jesus sent.\u00a0 Sometimes those stones felt like my heart had been torn out, like when my children were kidnapped.\u00a0 Or they felt embarrassing when I received correction.\u00a0 I saw myself holding the stone and I had a choice to make.\u00a0 I could place the stone down and use it as a stepping stone to get where Jesus was taking me, or I could use the stone to build a wall to protect me from the\u00a0hurt.\u00a0 I could even throw the stone back at the person Jesus was using.\u00a0 The choice was up to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I got out of the shower, I drew out the vision on a piece of paper, with me standing on one side of the stone path and Jesus on the other, and I wrote this down:<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes trials can feel like stones being thrown at you. Don\u2019t use them to build a wall instead place them at your feet and use them as the stepping stones to get where Jesus is taking you. He is sending them, they are the path that leads to him.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved reading these things in the \u201cSuffering and Saints\u201d book this morning and hearing it echoed again in the message tonight. I\u00a0\u00a0am thankful for each of those stones (trials).\u00a0 They are now a blessing to me.\u00a0 I needed each and every one of them, from the biggest, hardest trials to each and every small one.\u00a0 They were perfectly designed by Jesus for me, and I learned to trust him to see me through.\u00a0 I love that!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Goodnight!<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy F.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, This morning Richard was reading the \u201cSuffering and the Saints\u201d book.\u00a0 When he finished the first part, he said that it was so good.\u00a0 He loved how you wrote out the message and how it feels and that it is such a good reminder of how God is in charge of our lives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}