I’ve forgotten how nice it is to sit down with a fellow creative! I am thirsty for this kind of relationship and am so grateful when Erin from Big Day Cakes asked me to help her with her website! As we sat and chatted I devoured the above cookie that she brought. She is a mom and a member of our church and I was so refreshed to remember and be excited over the creative gifts that the Lord has given so many of us!

Transition to this town has been slow.  Just like any other transition in my life, I am reminded just how important it is to rely on my Heavenly father. How easily we forget. I was grateful this spring to go through a women’s bible study at our church and study the Old Testament with the help of Bill Jones and his book “Putting Together the Puzzle of the Old Testament” I am a big picture thinker and I have always used this excuse: I would just understand the bible more if someone sat down and gave me the big picture. I mean seriously! This book really did give me a Big Picture!

Through this study I was quick to be reminded how soon I forget the Lords promises!  He promises to supply my needs, has given me a hope for my future, and yet I doubt. (Jeremiah 29:11) This last year was filled with a lot of unknowns when we were in the search for a new job for Mike. And all the while I said: “It will be better when….” And just like the people of Israel who reached the promise land and had to wait for 40 years before getting to enter because of their doubt, I too make the same mistake! Here I am in the new place that the Lord has provided and I doubt his provision.

In the difficulty of transition when I feel like I don’t have a good friend base yet, or don’t quite feel settled the questioning comes. I doubt…will I ever? Truly I won’t until the Lord returns, However the Lord does have plans to prosper us HERE and I need to be faithful in the waiting. I do have Hope, because before I know it Augusta will feel like home and I will feel a sense of belonging. A belonging that can only be fulfilled through Christ!

Bill Jones in his book not only covers the big picture historically, He also earmarks the most important details that the Old Testament offers: the prophecy of Christ, the complete redemption of God’s Story. Recently I sat down with a friend who told me they believed that the bible was a good historical book but they didn’t believe that Jesus was the savior.  Sure he was a nice guy but other than the moral lessons he taught, why did that matter?

Bill Jones tells us that The Old testament makes over three hundred prophecies for the coming Messiah!  He mentions that although one could argue that anyone after the fact, especially a Jew who grew up hearing these prophesies, could ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and claim to be the Christ. No one can fulfill their own birth and no one can fulfill their own death. Bill Jones suggests this leads to another objection. Could the prophesy of Christ be accidentally fulfilled? As in could it be a coincidence that Jesus came from Bethlehem and died on a cross as foretold in the Old Testament.

In the book Science Speaks the famous mathematician Peter Stoner explains in layman’s terms that the probability of fulfilling only eight of the three hundred prophecies would be the same probability of covering the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars and having a blindfolded person pick a previously marked coin from all the others on his first try. He argues quite convincingly that Jesus Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies could not have been a coincidence.*

The God of the Bile does everything with such intention and purpose.  And he has intention and purpose in our lives! It’s not a coincidence that the Lord placed us in Augusta for such a time as this!  And I need to dwell on resting in that promise. Jesus is the biggest promise that the Lord makes to us and He does fulfill! When we question. When we doubt: will I ever be enough, have enough, love enough, live enough. The answer is yes already and yes not yet. He has given us a plan to prosper in this life and he has given us a plan to prosper in the next! Thankful to be reminded that I am not alone in this trek called life.

Ahemm and all that from a cookie given by a friend….mmmm sorry I couldn’t share all that chocolatey goodness.

* read chapter 3 of Science Speaks HERE if you are interested.