Today has brought news to us. Seemingly very discouraging news. However, we know the author of all things. This story was already written… today has simply proven to be the day that He has revealed this to us. We have the choice now on how we handle it… do we rejoice or do we wane? It obviously came as a surprise to us, but to Him, it has always been—Can we not find peace in that understanding alone? And if He is the author, having always known and is not surprised like we are (by the way, God cannot be surprised), then should we not revel with joy in this day? What new possibilities may we now be able to be part of through this going forward!?
We have learned that we need to add Luciana to our Nulla Osta document, since she has now been born and our colleague has not yet been invited into the Sportello Unico for requesting permission for the family visas. This means that we must now add her to the document, once we have her birth certificate, which will then allow us to apply for her passport, which must be referenced in the document. We then must journey back to the Detroit Consulate to sign in their presence and have certified. Then the document must be mailed to our colleague. This looks to be somewhere close to an additional 4-6 week process.
Even if we do go through this above scenario, will not the Author and Perfector of this script be right beside us orchestrating for His glory, thus our good?!
There is the possibility in all of this that our colleague could be invited in for an appointment before we have this updated document to him. If this becomes the case, he will simply go before them with Lucy’s birth certificate (which should be completed here in Indiana by the end of the week and we will mail to him to have on-hand) and see if that would somehow suffice for him to proceed with our request.
Whichever scenario (maybe something completely outside of these two), let us now bring this chapter of the story before our Creator and Sustainer in prayer.
So, let this be an encouragement to you, no matter what you may be going through right now or soon will be. Though things once feeling secure may now feel like they are unwinding, know that Jesus Christ is before all things and by Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) and rejoice in your afflictions (Rom. 5:3-4) because of the hope that we have in Him (5:5)!
The short song “Spring” is rather fitting for this.
Ike
November 30, 2011 at 4:07 pm
I want to share with you from Hebrews 11:17-24. As you know this is the “heroes of Faith” chapter, but in these verses there is another group of people. They didn’t gain great victories out on the battlefield. They didn’t enter the arena of life before large audiences and perform great feats for God. These are the “others,” and they are the ones who, if you want heroes, are really God’s heroes.
Notice the contrast here. Back in verses 33 and 34 it speaks of victories which were “won”, it spoke of how they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.” How do we explain this? One group by faith escaped the edge of the sword, and another group by faith were slain with the sword.
My friend, if you can walk up and give your testimony and tell how God has healed you-and I will join you in that-or if you can get up and say how successful you have been……I want to remind you that there are multitudes of God’s saints today who are suffering. They are paying a tremendous price. Do you know how they are doing it? They are doing it “by faith.” They have lots more faith than I have, and I think they are choicer saints than I am!
Calvary Bible/Ike