Egmont Key is one of the barrier islands bordering St. Petersburg. Picture by Celine Sedgele
Our blog is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
How many times in my, yes my, life did I read the line, whatever you ask in my name, I will do, and not believe it?
Or,
I asked with disbelief, and that was even worse because I set myself up for failure from the start.
As we have stated many times, belief is the first requirement in realizing that God is responding to your prayers.
All you have to do is go back to your childhood and remember that when you asked Santa, after the first few years of experiencing Christmas, you knew Santa would almost always deliver.
I remember telling Mike, our oldest son, as if it were today when he asked me, “Is there a Santa?” I said, “No.” He next asked,
Who ate the cookies? We, Gail and I, did!
Who stuffed the socks hanging from the fireplace mantel? We did!
Who put the presents under the tree? We did.
I could see the wheels turning and his world slowly being destroyed. My heart went out to him, but Mike had to know the truth.
Mike left the room, but just before he left, he said, “I suppose you’re going to tell me there’s no Easter Bunny.”
I am relating this story because Mike’s world changed that day, and part of the Joy of Christmas and Easter was taken away.
That’s not true with God as I have known and am again just finding out, and now we are going into the sidebar to complete a different blog.
If you want to join Team Jesus, pray. Thank you, Father, for the difficulties (Name the difficulty……………) you have ALLOWED in my life; I know you will take care of me. Pray this until you smile, and that smile tells you, you are back with the Holy Spirit living in the “Spirit World.”
Sidebar:
Three or four weeks ago, I received a picture, that’s on top of the blog with the following note:
I thank you for putting my grandson on your prayer list. Steve and his family go to our church. He has been anointed twice, miraculously recovered from malaria, and is back to work halftime. The power of prayer!
A week later, I received an email from Bill Emmonds with the sermon by Alistair Begg entitled: The Man on the Middle Cross Said I Can Come, which you can find on YouTube. We talked about the sermon in our 4/19/23 blog. Sidenote; I have watched this sermon many times.
Monday, April 17, I was feeling lousy but decided to see the doctor after we:
I asked Bill Winters, the head of A Catholic Moment, if he could find someone else to fill in because I was afraid, satan, I couldn’t fully edit the 4/19/23 blog.
Next,
I bought sneakers 58 days ago at Fleet Feet, and Fleet Feet has a 60-day wear warranty, so I replaced the sneakers with two days left on the warranty,
and lastly, went to Quick Care.
At Quick Care, the doctor said I was to get myself to the ER NOW!!!
Gail drove me to the ER. We arrived at the ER and I prayed there would be no long lines, and low and behold, there were only two people in front of me, and the first one was finishing up.
Prayer answered!
They said my room was ready in the ER, and I was wheeled in. I noticed three or four people in the hallway. God is taking care of me. I had a private room.
While in the ER room, they told me I would be in the hospital for a few days, and I prayed for a room with an ocean view.
Why not?
This is the same as praying for a safe trip with the car working perfectly and a parking place in front of the destination we are going to. I don’t say this prayer often enough.
God took care of me!
I arrived in a room with an ocean view.
My Blood Pressure at that time was 218/110. I prayed we could get this down quickly.
Tuesday, the Blood Pressure was coming down but Very Slowly. Tuesday AM, I went up for an ultrasound of my kidneys and bladder.
Before the ultrasound, I had thought I had a heart problem, Congestive Heart Failure.
Now I thought, more potential difficulties!
By 2:30 Tuesday afternoon, I, satan, hit a wall. Just then, Father Kevin, who I had known before he became a Priest, poked his head into our room and asked if I wanted to receive the Anointing of the Sick, last rites for those of you who are my age, and Communion.
I thought briefly of the Picture and description of the healing for Steve’s grandson and noticed the grandson was anointed twice. Had Steve not sent the picture with the comment about His Grandson, I’m not positive I would have said “Yes,” for the Anointing of the Sick.
Why, “I can imagine many of your thinking.”
Because in eight-two years, I had NEVER heard of anyone being healed!
Because of Steve’s note with the picture, I said, “Yes.” After the Anointing, and Communion, my mood began to change, I threw out satan, and we were back to our old Joy-filled self.
Joy, by the way, speeds up the healing process.
God taking care of me.
I also recalled the sermon that Bill Emmonds sent and fully realized that if I were to die, it’s not what I have prayed, done, or anything else, it’s what Jesus did on the cross that is going to get me into Heaven, and this knowledge added to my, Joy and Peace. I am relating this to you because, until Tuesday night, the B/P hadn’t started to move meaningfully.
Let’s go back even further because God’s help didn’t start on Monday when I went into the ER.
If I hadn’t said yes to Bill Winters to write our Blog, and the Holy Spirit suggesting we use your pictures, I would never have received Steve’s picture with his description of how his grandson was healed through Prayer and the Anointing of the sick.
God, working in my life.
Bill Emmonds has sent me many interesting emails, but this arrived when I needed it the most.
On April 18, Dave and Sonia visited in the afternoon, and my Joy increased.
I was discharged on April 20 with a catheter inserted. I was blessed to have many visitors and phone calls during my stay in the hospital.
Wednesday, April 26, I went to see the Urologist and prayed the catheter would come out. I had to pass a Vac test. They put in 350 cc of liquids, and I had to evacuate 175. I evacuated 0.
The Catheter was reinserted for another 20 days, which I didn’t want.
BUT,
The discomfort is gone! God IS taking care of me.
I have to TRUST God.
Now the interesting part, at least to me.
That night, I danced with satan for two hours. I was down.
Until,
Our oldest son, Mike, called and reminded me of the prayers we have written about for the past year and a half and told me to “Thank God for the difficulty of the Catheter until I smiled.” We wrote the above Christmas story on Monday; Mike said this to me on Wednesday Night, and as his world changed that Christmas many years ago, my world changed with these new health issues a week ago.
Fascinating!
God taking care of me.
Thursday morning, we started praying, “This is the day, etc., and I thanked God for the difficulty, left the “world,” and rejoined the “Spirit World.”
What a difference!
Friday, April 28, I saw my G.P.:
B/P 114/58/61 Thank You, Father!
Lungs had liquid, now rated at 97%. Thank You, Father!
Kidneys had a lot of water and are now normal. Thank you, Father!
I have lost 15 pounds, and my legs aren’t swollen. Thank you, Father!
My Doctor seemed confident the catheter could come out on May 17. Thank you, Father!
From the Triune God to Gail, my rock of fifty-six years, Bill Winters, Bill Emmonds, Steve Sedgele, Dave and Sonia’s timely visit, Mike, for kicking me in the pants, our family and friends who called, visited, and offered to help in any way, to you readers who have sent pictures and made comments, over the time we have been together, this has been an extraordinary and very spiritual experience. Thank you, and I thank God the Father for bringing all of you into our life.
The bottom line is you will never know when something you do will profoundly affect someone else’s life.
Because of the above experiences, I give all the Glory to God my Father.
Picture:
Egmont Key is one of the barrier islands bordering St. Petersburg. Picture by Celine Sedgele
One last thing! Celine took this photo at Egmont Key, one of the barrier islands bordering St. Petersburg. We were there last week and thought this photo of one of God’s beautiful creatures – the pelican – would be perfect for your blog.
As you read this blog, Steve and Celine, I hope you are discovering the power of what you did.
God working in my life!
Please keep Snapping!
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph; in the comments section at the bottom of our blog, tell me you want to submit a picture, and I will send you my email address in our reply on Thursday. By sending your picture, you consent to allow us to reprint that picture in our next book, God Thoughts 2023, with your name and any comments in the Blog.
