We've Arrived

Yes, Praise the Lord we have arrived in Bartlesville, OK. The Lord granted us safe travel from Columbia, SC to our new home here in downtown Bartlesville. The Lord has given us much strength as we have unpacked and have set up our household. We pray that this place He has given us will be used for His glory. Please be in prayer as we seek the Lord’s direction for jobs (paid ones). We are still praying about whether the Lord would have us get a job or devote all our time to VOM. Either way, we would be relying on Him to provide, so please pray that He would make this clear to us. Another item of prayer is for a church. We were very blessed to be at Christ Church for 2 years where God’s word is preached with much boldness and without apology. We are praying God’s wisdom as we seek to be where He wants us to be.
The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful Christian woman as a neighbor. No matter what you are talking about, she always brings up the Lord and/or always brings up something from God’s word. We were talking one day and she said something to the effect that it’s okay to do “things” but we must not let “things” get us distracted from the Lord. Then she asked, “Do you know the account of Mary and Martha?” We said, “Yes” and she said, “Well, you know then what happened there.” She is such a godly woman and we’ve been very blessed by her. Apparently the last tenant who was in this house was put off by her because she witnesses so much! We have much to learn from her, praise the Lord!

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men,

I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32

Jehovah-Jireh Provided for our Rent!

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21, NASB)

We praise the Lord for moving in the hearts of several brothers and sisters to contribute financially as we prepare to move. The total amount exceeds the cost of our rent for the next year. We did not ask anyone to do so, so this is all the more encouraging and humbling. To Him be the glory, indeed!

Welcome to Gershom

Why is this blog (and our home) named “Gershom”? Read on…

Moses was willing to dwell with the man [Jethro], and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. Then she gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” (Exodus 2:21-22)

Moses fled in fear from Egypt to Midian after his killing of an Egyptian was found out. Midian proved to be a profitable place for Moses, for there he gained a profession (shepherd), a wife (Zipporah), and, revealed to him first at Mount Horeb, his God (Yahweh), whom he would serve for forty years. Moses named his first-born son “Gershom” for he himself had been “a sojourner in a foreign land.” Christians today, like those titans of the faith named in Hebrews 11, confess they are “strangers and exiles on the earth.” Like Abraham, those whose Lord and Savior is Jesus Christ are “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder are God.” (Hebr. 11:10)

God warns that “the love of money (not money itself) is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Christ allowed Himself to be “pierced through” (Isaiah 53:5) for the transgressions of His people. What and who do you love with all your heart, mind, soul and strength?

So, we are in this world, but not of it, and “we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one to come.” (Hebr. 13:14). In God’s strength, and for His glory, we sojourn.

Trust, Comfort, Contentment

I write the following to give glory to God first and then also that it might be an encouragement to anyone else. Trust, Comfort and Contentment are 3 areas in which the Lord has recently been working on me. First, the trust factor. Coming back from our visit out to Oklahoma in February, I knew it was where the Lord was calling us, but there was still something bothering me. Well, the Holy Spirit revealed it was a lack of trust in my Father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills! He showed me that I was worrying about how bills would get paid and about how we would eat and keep a roof over our heads. The Lord laid on my heart to memorize Matthew 6:25-34 where we are not to worry about such things. The Lord knows all of our needs. A very short sentence in there hit me hard: “You of little faith.” I do not want to be a child of God with little faith! I gave this over to the Lord and told Him He is great and will take care of Joe and I. Well, one or two days later, I was still bothered. I thought maybe I hadn’t really gave over the trust issue to the Lord, but then the Spirit revealed another aspect I needed to ask for forgiveness of: Comfort. Now growing up in a military family, I have moved around quite a bit. And even though I knew I would miss the friends that I had made, I was fine with moving. Now, the longest time I have ever stayed anywhere while growing up in the military had been 4 years. I moved here in 1996 and so I’ve been here for almost 10 years. I had become very comfortable where I was. Now don’t get me wrong. I will indeed miss all the friends I have made here, but the comfortableness of being in one place all these years had gotten in the way of my relationship with the Lord. I am not saying that being comfortable is wrong, but I am saying that if the Lord calls you to go someplace and you tell Him, “well Lord, I am just to comfortable right now, I think here will be just fine”, well, then it becomes a problem and downright sin since you then would be being disobedient to Him. Well, in essence, I had just become so comfortable in where I was at that moving was kind of an inconvienence for me. And lastly: Contentment. Before heading out to visit VOM in Oklahoma, I had already put preconceived notions in my mind as to what VOM would look like, where exactly it would be located, what I would be doing…Notice the “I” and how it was all about what “I” thought it should be. Well, after returning from VOM, nothing was what “I” thought it would be. The place looked different, it was not where “I” expected it to be and “I” was not going to be doing what “I” thought “I” might get a chance to do. While driving one day, the Lord put the word “contentment” in my mind. Now, the previous evening I had attended an on-going women’s Bible study on money and that particular session had to do with contentment. And although I am content with what the Lord has allowed us to have, He showed me that I was not content with doing what He wants me to do. I have to say that I was so saddened that I had all of this in me, BUT I greatly rejoiced also because the precious Holy Spirit had revealed this to me and I was able to give it all over to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. I praise the Lord for what He reveals and the lessons He teaches those that are His. To God be ALL the Glory!!!