I am not one to preach, so I won’t. I will leave that up to one of my two Pastors, Pastor Matt.
Today I was blessed by his sermon, er, rather “confession”, as he put it.  If you would like to hear a refreshing sermon, I invite you to listen with an open heart and mind. Instead of me preaching, I am going to share why today, for me, was a gloriously beautiful day.

I don’t believe in coincidences, maybe it is because I have faith, I don’t know. But I believe everything happens for a reason. Yes, I know that is cliche but so true to me. My belief in “no such thing as a coincidence” was reaffirmed after hearing what Matt had to share with us today. Matt said something that hit me in the heart and made so much sense. Right now, I can’t quote him due to my terrible short term memory but please, I urge you to listen to his sermon as soon as it is up in their podcasts. It will be #45 by Matthew Gamble at this site. You can also subscribe to the 24 Seven Ministry Center sermons in iTunes It was a revelation, if you will.

For anyone who has read my previous entries, you will know that we recently had a loss that was heartbreaking to us. I chose to write about it not only because it helped me to have a sense of healing but also, what I did not tell anyone, I believed that God was urging me to share what happened to us. Not so we would get sympathy, but so that we could share our faith in God and the ability to give Him glory through our pain.

When I was writing about the pain I was feeling, I wanted to wallow in it, I wanted to sink deep and not come back up. I wanted to be depressed, to feel sorry for myself. Instead of doing that, I listened to that “inner voice” telling me, share your story, write it down, it will heal you. I wanted to ignore it because it felt good to wallow. But I know He was telling me “you have two beautiful kids that need you, get up, feel my arms around you, it’s OK.” So, I turned that sorrow I was feeling into words, hoping to show that through my faith in God, He would help me through it. I did not believe it would help at first, I will admit to that. I have struggled with my faith for a while and I almost doubted that He would be there for me. Instead, the words poured out, and I felt Him holding me that much closer, and I felt so much peace. He was not going to let me go through this on my own.

I have found in the weeks since, that my faith has only grown and my hope along with it. I won’t try to quote Matt but he said something like this, God allows us to go through a funk because He knows that when we can lift ourselves out of it through our faith in Him, that we will be able to share the Glory with so many others that are going through a dark time and it will only deepen our faith.

It was such a beautiful day because I got to spend a sunny evening at the beach with my family and our good friends and be there when the blazing sun fell behind the mountains. Also, the Word that Matt had for us today enveloped all I have been feeling for two weeks. It was not a coincidence.

Romans 5:1-5
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I know some of you don’t believe in God and that is OK I am not here to convert anyone nor judge, that is not my right or duty. I just wanted to share something that brought me great joy today. Not everyday will be full of sunshine and smiles, I am not ignorant to that. But today- was a good day. Thank God for that.