Prayer Requests

Please forgive my overlooking my post yesterday, I have been knee deep in writing the Bible study for my Bereaved Mother's Group in the fall.

Please, be in prayer for this with me, and especially for the protection of my home, my family and this ministry as I proceed forward. Pray for God's hedge of protection to be about me and to grant me wisdom for the use of equipping women in their grief.

Dear Lord,

I have no words. I am in awe of You. You part seas and mend fences, you lift the dead from the grave and cause the blind to see. You, Oh Lord, are gracious to Your servants and we honor You alone. Lord be with each woman who visits and reads the words you have given me to post. Help us to walk through this dark season on the arm of Christ and to find victory in the days ahead. You are God and we adore You. Bless us indeed.

In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

This week's passage is from John 3:16 - I will post a pretty quote box by Thursday! "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever should believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life."

Is He Your Everything?

As I was on my way to church I was singing this song with the praise and worship on the radio. It makes me think, do I really want God to be this kind of first in my life? And, as I sang out to Him in church I knew it was true... I want Him to be my everything... As this song ended and another began... I saw a cloud that looked like a handprint in the sky. A few minutes later it was completely gone. I dont' know how to explain it, but I have had many occasions to be in an attitude of total surrender and experience something in nature to remind me that God is with me.

Even in our losses and our most difficult moments, we must be crying out to Him to be our everything... anything less is just an idol... a god we use to replace Him in our life!

Is He your everything?

Share Your Testimony...

What will your cardboard testimony be?

4because we have heard of your faith

in Christ Jesus and of the love you

have for all the saints—

5the faith and love that spring from

the hope that is stored up for you in

heaven and that you have already

heard about in the word of truth, the gospel

6that has come to you. All over the world

this gospel is bearing fruit and growing,

just as it has been doing among you since

the day you heard it and understood

God's grace in all its truth.

27To them God has chosen to make known among

the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,

which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:4-6, 27 (NIV)

18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things

in which it is impossible for God to lie,

we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered

to us may be greatly encouraged.

19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul,

firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary

behind the curtain,

20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered

on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever,

in the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:18-20

Michelle Bentham: "Wayward Prodigal & Grieving Mom" to "Victoriously Redeemed & Helper to the Hurting"

Worship Him as Healer...

Part of our grief journey is acknowledging that God alone has the power to save, to give life and ultimately bring life to an end, He is both sovereign and just and He alone has the power to heal us from everything that we suffer through. He died to set us free - will we live there? Will we?

Worship the Healer and know that nothing is impossible for God, who save, redeems, reconciles and blesses! He alone is God and He alone is good.

This song sends me to my knees when I begin to worship and acknowledge the healing power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By His stripes we are healed.

Book Recommendation: The Shack

Click on the picture for more information about this book!

I am reading The Shack by William P. Young. For those of you grieving the loss of a child, the questions that arise from that pain and the sometimes disjointed and disconnected feelings we have toward God in the aftermath of a such a loss... I would say, "Read The Shack."

This quote is from the back cover summary of the story:

"Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his beter judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he find there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!"

So, with that said, lay down all your preconcieved, religious notions about God, pain and the way tragedy occurs and read The Shack. A novel filled with thought provoking situations faced in the human realm everyday, and an offer to challenge those of us who would put God inside a box, framed only by the statement of faith in our denomination of choice without a relationship born of our faith and His Word. Is The Shack a book to base your doctrine and theology on? Not hardly. Nor would I venture to guess that its writer would want anyone to examine the book and base their faith solely on what he writes. I cannot even readily say that I agree 100% with the premise presented in the story - but it does make me think, search an ask of God what it is I have wrong about Him. And that makes the read much more worth it...

I believe the book presents the proposition of what would happen if we took our questions to God, and in the process stopped viewing Him in purely human terms. It is not for the faint of heart, and perhaps it is not for the unseasoned sojourner in the stream of this life we walk with God. In my heart, this book has provoked me to ask God what is a truth to take to heart, and to comparitively place this book against the Scriptures for evidence of truth. It is something I always do.

When reading the book, "Hinds Feet On High Places," I discovered that the writer later turned to New Age relativism and left the roots of her faith founded in her as a child on the mission field. Does this insight make her allegory less of a story?

There are those who argue that Lewis' "Narnia" fiction or Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" bear the same striking marks of fantasy and absurdism where God is concerned. But that makes them no less valuable to us in the Christian world because we are required to dig in and learn more about God as a result of our perusal. These again are not foundations of doctrine, but highlights and pointers that reveal to us a God worthy of being searched out, worshipped, respected and believed in. All of it must be submitted by standard to His Word and His Work to be marked as valid and pointing to God. Any student of God's Word must examine the claims and the truths as they are presented by anyone who would write about God.

There are a number of arguments that have been raised based on this book - which I do not have the time or the intention to entertain. I see a lot of merit in the story about Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Redemption, Reconciliation and Relationship that makes it a worthwhile read.

Read it with the heart and the eyes of someone reading Fiction - just the way you would read John Grisham or Danielle Steele - then balance that with your study of God's Word, your involvement in the local church and by asking God through prayer to reveal Himself to you in more intimate and real ways as you make this journey.

I am sure that when we surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and His teaching through God's Word - we will find Him in a blade of grass, a secular or a worship song, any place where Creation exists - after all, Creation cries out that He exists. The truth is eternity and salvation come through a relationship with God through our faith and by His grace in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our faith is born and brought to maturity by the hearing and applying of God's Word on an individual basis. In light of that truth, I can still recommend this book as a fiction novel that will challenge us to ask God where we have put Him into a box. Read on.

It is finished...

Hello Friends,

I am back. I've been away too long. My curriculum for this fall is finally finished and I have 12 weeks worth of devotions to share with you all this coming fall... My next post will be the first of the twelve. It is the pick up from our last week's Scripture that I did not get a devotion posted for .

Anyway, thanks for your patience and your love. Blessings.

A Few Videos and A Story

I didn't make my regular post last week. I've been consumed. I hope if you are reading, that you are still reading.

I would like to direct you to Life Today on Tuesday, July 22nd at 7:30 AM (CDT) on Daystar and at 1:30 PM (CDT) on TBN for the story of Christina and Steven Barnard. Their story will not only touch your heart, but it will remind you that God's goodness and glory are revealed even in the midst of great tragedy. If you don't catch it on Television - watch it by clicking this LINK. (Click on the video link for July 22nd's Show!)

I am going to be speaking at a Memorial Service held by the support group I have attended these last couple of years now. I have asked that these three videos be played at the service as a time of worship.

Three of the songs, "With HOPE," "His Strength is Perfect," and "I Will Be Here" are sung by Stephen Curtis Chapman whose daughter, Maria died in May after an automobile accident at the families home. The other song, is by Mark Schultz. We played it at Justin's funeral.

A Blessing is Coming...

I'm so excited - I could literally bust! I mean seriously. GOD. IS. SO. GOOD. I must admit I can't give you details right now, but I am just sayin' that God is going to do a mighty work in all our lives and I know that You are going to be blessed beyond measure.

Pray for the coming blessing and most of all... receive it. To Him be the glory forever and ever Amen.

Sharing Our Stories, Building Legacies and Identifying Readers

If you are regularly reading the blog, would you mind leaving a comment with your first name?

Just trying to get a feel for who is out there. If you do not have a blog or do not want to link back to your blog, then feel free to leave a post as "anonymous" and your first name.

I would also love to hear other stories. You can EMAIL me and share your Heart to Heart story if you are willing.

I have been telling my story, which I love to do because I believe it is part of Justin's legacy that his story help others along the way. What is your story? Pictures would be a great encouragement to me to. I am hoping to work up a post about the Heart to Heart children, so do share if you are willing and let me know what you think of this idea.

Thought Filled Thursdays - Cultivating Gratitude

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
Psalm 116:7

In the year leading up to Justin’s death, I prayed many prayers for him. He was a troubled young man trying to find his way in a world that had left him fatherless and searching for an identity that would make him feel complete. Justin knew Jesus. He struggled every week with his mental illness and angry thoughts. He knelt at the altar and honestly reflected on and shared his pain.

It is almost impossible to imagine the pain of losing a child suddenly and traumatically the way most of us have. Yet, with Justin watching him self-destruct up close and personal, and fighting for every inch of his life was almost worse. I remember walking into church in October 2004. I was weary, we had just spent a week unraveling the mess of having to pick him up from the police for breaking curfew. We would learn that week that he had been sneaking out regularly, experimenting with alcohol and prescription medication all trying to turn off his mind. He sat shaking violently as tears were streaming down his face.

“Momma, I need help. I can’t do this anymore.”

It broke my heart. We had been hoping to get him help sooner, but he had been adamant. He didn’t want to be medicated or otherwise labeled as defective. He pretended to be normal while his life spun vigorously out of control. As I felt the tears stinging my eyes that day in church I said, “I don’t even know what to ask for anymore. Would you just pray for my son?”

A few hours later, my friend – and Pastor’s wife – came rushing up to me at the evening service. She thrust a paper in front of me and said, “Michelle, God has given me a word for Justin – It’s continue. You know, like Philippians 1:6 – God will continue the good work He began in him at salvation.”

We immediately went to the prayer room and knelt there hands tightly clasped praying for my prodigal son. We looked up ten or so Scriptures that we prayed over her adult prodigal and my teenage one. All had the word continue in them. We prayed hard, we prayed often, and we prayed believing. His life began to improve.

After the New Year rolled around and 2005 came in full swing, those prayers came more feverishly and more often. Our cry to God became more desperate. My son’s life began to spin again, first slowly and then into full blown mental, emotional and social issues that threatened to destroy my marriage and our family. It was more than I could take. I would lay on my bed at night and weep to the Lord - Crying out in anguish over my child. I would go to Justin in the night to lay hands on him and pray. I had him on prayer chain after prayer chain, as well as in the counsel and company of godly men. I searched Scripture and held fast. Then one night, as we concluded an exercise at Bible study where we were supposed to write our most ardent prayer request on an index card a revelation and a release came.

The instructions were to write out the request, hold it up to heaven and instead of continuing to pray that request over and over again, thank God for the answer by faith instead. I started that night and continued throughout the next few months. That day, as I made my way to the hospital certain of very little except that I needed God’s strength and peace to face whatever lay ahead I found myself praising God for little things… That my son was alive when I got to the hospital, for a family and church that loved us so, that God would ultimately have mercy on my son and provide the peace I would need to carry on. When he died I found myself praising God and thanking Him for the 17 years of life we had with him. My soul finds rest in God alone… He is my hope, my strength and my song.

My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. ~ Psalm 34:2