Kathy Weckwerth

Everyday Encouragement

In the Grove

When Answers to Prayers Are Bigger & Better

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When  Answers to Prayers Are Bigger & Better!  By Kathy A. Weckwerth

P1010530I walk up the familiar steps to the front door and pulled it open with a hard yank.  It’s sticking now, almost like it’s apprehensive for the day’s events.  As I step into the entry way, I say my familiar phrase that I recite each time I enter the building, “Good Morning, Frank Lake Church, Good Morning, God!”  I continue with, “It’s going to be a great day today!”

As I peruse the table settings, I look with ease at the red and white checkered table cloths, I review the sailboats, seashells, and candles.  Check.  Everything is in order.

I move into the sanctuary and observe that banners that say, “Sink, Swim, or Set Sail!” Bright blues and reds look stunning against the old cream colored tin.

In the kitchen, the Bible study friends have quietly entered the church and are now setting up the lovely tea rings, along with bran muffins, and I breathe in the delicious odor of deep rich coffee brewing.

Everything is set.  The music is playing softly and I have prayed over every pew.  I am ready for the Holy Spirit to reach hearts and minds, and excited as the women begin to enter the church. I hear laughter and small talk from the women as they pick up their folders and check in with Bernadette and Mary.

When the morning begins, I press down on the old white ivory keys of the piano, and hear the flood of voices filling the room and I begin to feel that overwhelming happiness that hits me whenever something is happening at the church.

Upon stepping behind the pulpit, I am totally aware that in 1900, someone stood in that same spot and looked out at the faces proclaiming the gospel.  At times, it makes me feel small, as though I’m no one, so why would God allow me to be doing this now, in this same spot?  At other times, I just feel an overwhelming gratitude for all that is happening and all that has happened.

Throughout the day, I catch glimpses of women laughing, tearing up, and nodding along to what is being taught.  I see the group of women, many from the surrounding communities, hugging one another, encouraging each other and praying together.  I am blessed.

But as we head to the Cashel Township building (the old schoolhouse) across the street, so that I can teach my workshop,  I feel in awe of God.

It was just two years ago that Farmer Dean (my husband) and I headed, hand in hand, to the schoolhouse to try to purchase it.  The board said they’d discuss it, but we knew it was a no.  It was actually okay because after we walked in, I remember that I didn’t feel God’s pleasure.  I felt God saying no to me.

And now, two years later, here I was standing in the center of the schoolhouse.  Blue gingham checkered curtains were at the little windows, while old sturdy oak pews were lined up with women waiting to hear what I had to say about the topic of prayer.

I stood there looking at them, fumbling for words since I’d just taught a one-hour lecture a few minutes before.  I launched in to what I knew … “I prayed right here in this schoolhouse,” I told them.  I prayed for a building to house our ministry and an office to work in.  God said no.  God said, “This isn’t it, Kathy.”  And God handed me a dream on a silver platter 6 weeks later.  Formally known as Frank Lake Covenant Church, we found something so much better than the tiny little schoolhouse.

[callout]God’s provision of an old rural church that had sat empty for 32 years, was nothing short of a miracle.[/callout]

After I felt booted out of my worship arts ministry position, I tried not to feel bitter.

If I had not stepped out with a resignation and walked towards full time nonprofit ministry, I would have missed the opportunity of purchasing a 1900’s church for $1.00 on Craigslist.

If my sweet farmer-neighbors had not suggested looking for “an old church” I would have never thought of it.

 If my sweet husband didn’t have a grove that nothing would grow in, exactly the size of the old church building, I wouldn’t have a place for it.

 If women weren’t coming to Best Life Ministries conferences, I wouldn’t have a need for a building.

BUT … God knew it all, saw it all, orchestrated it all, and loved me enough to bless me … and all of those who have the joy of walking through the sticky door of the old Frank Lake Covenant Church and entering The Church in the Grove, Headquarters for Best Life Ministries.

God is good.  He’s really, really good.

Good Friday

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The story is a familiar one mixed with sadness and joy. My heart never grows weary of reading it and I often place myself in the setting, allowing myself to walk through the last days with the Savior, before His death.  There was no other way that it could go … in order for us to have freedom from our sins.  It was the only way. 

Campaign Photos 025We watch as He agonizes in the garden praying, all the while His friends are asleep. He faces Judas and the betrayal “kiss” while the disciples stand watching.  He goes before Pilate and endures a decree that He will be put to death. And He is crucified.  Alone  …  alone  …  alone. 

On the night of the crucifixion, all hope seemed lost. Darkness abounded. An innocent Savior was given up to selfish, sinful mankind, and pain and suffering was His, as He hung on a cross, deserted by His disciples and by His Heavenly Father.  It had to be that way.  For the sins of men to be covered, for God to have a bridge between us and Him,  Jesus had to pay the cost.

Luke 23:43 tells us it was 6:00 and darkness came over the whole land until 9:00, and the “sun stopped shining.” Perhaps you’re like many of us who are living in Minnesota’s dreadful winters. Days go by and the sun does not shine. Night passes its baton to the morning.   But without sun, and with snow, it seems dismal as weeks pass into months. During those hours, because a dark veil of blackness signifying death, sin, sorrow, torment and persecution, all hung heavy in the air, in the dark bleakness of something so far more dreary than winter.

Watching His Son die for us, God does not come to His Son’s rescue, for it must be done for us to have eternal life. But God does something wonderful by speaking to us through His beautiful actions regarding the veil in the Holy Temple.

The large blue, purple and scarlet curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, an inner room in the temple that symbolized God’s presence, was the barrier between God and man, and now God tore it from top to bottom (Mk. 15:38). Historians think that this veil was 60-80 feet high.

No man could say that a human had done this. This curtain separated man from God. Only once a year the High Priest was allowed to enter into God’s presence to make atonement for the sins of Israel.

[callout]God has unveiled Himself to allow His Son, Jesus Christ, to stand between us. No more curtains are needed.  Just a Lamb offered up on a cross to atone for our sins. [/callout]

For whatever reason, the words of Christ, before His crucifixion, didn’t seem to be retained in the memory banks of His followers. When He was still with them in Galilee, He told them He would be given up to sinful men to be crucified, and on the third day He would be raised up. They didn’t remember His words, and so they succumbed to the horrific grief of how death holds one captive. Darkness falls to night, and the darkness and nighttime continue for them. There is no hope … or so they believe.

But three days later, just after sunrise, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and Mary Magdalene take spices to anoint Jesus’  body, only to find an angel who tells them “He has risen!” 

Darkness is over. Death has been defeated. Hope is restored.

A vertical curtain has been torn and replaced with a horizontal bridge of

Jesus Christ the Risen Lord.

What amazing hope … what glorious victory … what wonderful encouragement that things may look bleak at night … but joy comes with the morning!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

When You Don’t Know What To Do

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There have been times in my life when I just haven’t known what to do.  Can you relate?

DSCN3140There are days when someone’s waiting for an answer from me and I have no clue how to answer them.  Has this happened to you?

There are moments when someone needs me to pray for them and I don’t know what to say.  Are you with me?

Recently, Dean and I met with several people to discuss some big decisions that we needed to make about our ministry.  We prayed together and knew a basic path that God had set before us.

When we met, we sat across the table and listened to a different path.  It was a lovely path and one that was exciting, interesting, and offered another direction to serve God.

I looked at my husband seated next to me.  His arms rested on the big green table in our dining room.  And as we listened, I quietly and gently pulled back the corner of the tablecloth.  Sound crazy?  Not to me.

As the vision was cast before us, my mind raced back to the many days of life that I sat at this old green table.  I purposely put my husband at the end of the table, and I sat in my dad’s spot.  “Why?” you ask.  Because Daddy had wisdom.  He had it in huge doses.  I’ve never met anyone with wisdom like my father.  And as a small child, I began to take note as to how he answered the unanswerable.  I listened as to how he directed answers to the people needing help, hope, and healing.  Now, if my memory would serve me right, I would be able to open the file cabinets of my mind and pull out the answers that I learned so long ago.

[callout]My father told me that scripture was the basis for all answers.  He said that if we spend time in God’s word each day, we begin to absorb it, think it, believe it, become it. [/callout]

Daddy also told me that anyone can pray and ask God for wisdom.  And he told me that you never rush into any life-changing, course-altering avenues without much prayer, wise counsel, scripture reading, and thought.

The vision across the table continued to whirl in front of us but I had a steady pace in my thought process and I remembered where I sat … in my father’s spot at the table.

I recited in my mind what he taught me about decision making.  Here are the steps to making wise decisions about anything:

When You Don’t Know What To Do~

1.  Pray~ ask God for help and tell Him that you need wisdom. Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”

2.  Seek Wise Counsel~ find several Godly people in your life who are smart and help you think through things. Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

3.  Read your Bible~ God’s word has the answers.  When it comes to wisdom, quote God’s word back to Him and say, Proverbs 8:34, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.”

4.  Look at the pros and cons~ think about what’s happening and look thoroughly at the entire situation. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

5.  Listen for the Holy Spirit~ God talks to us through His Word, through His Spirit, through others, through nature, through music … we must listen. Proverbs 8: 33, “Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.” 

When the vision was cast and Dean and I looked at each other, we gently said we’d discuss it and pray together.

Later that night, Dean and I knew some things after we ran them down the list of 5 things to do:  Pray, Seek Counsel, Read scripture, Look at pros and cons, and Listen for the Spirit.  We knew that this did not fit into the vision God had given us.  There was nothing wrong, it just wasn’t on our path for where God wanted us, our ministry, our church.

Sometimes it’s not that complicated.  Some days it’s deciding to return many phone calls and emails or what to fix for dinner.  But somedays, it’s life changing, course-determining steps and those are the days when you need help!

[callout]God wants us to live our best life and walk in His steps with the course He’s set for us.  He is a God of order and control.  No need to get frantic and cry … He’s got your best in mind. [/callout]

Today, release to Him the decisions you need to make.  Seek Him in a quiet corner of Your life, call smart friends, read your Bible, look at the details of the situation and then listen for the answer from God.

After all He says in Proverbs 14:15, “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent (cautious/wise) man gives thought to his steps.”

Blessings to you today on all your decisions!

 

 

Are You Really Living Life?

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As my family got situated in our theater seats, I pulled my coat off, set my popcorn to the side, and took my phone out to turn it off before the movie started.  I noticed there were some messages on my facebook account and quickly checked those.  It couldn’t be daughter #3, who was pregnant, since she was sitting next to me.  Shouldn’t be daughter #2, who was busy studying for finals.  Wasn’t daughter #1, because she was out grocery shopping. 

Jumping with balloonsI scanned the notifications and looked at my husband, Farmer Dean.  I said, “Deano, our friend is back in the hospital with more cancer treatments, and a kind worship director who I was friends with, died two hours ago of a heart attack.”  I slumped down in my chair in shock. 

The movie began and I silently reviewed life.  Just life.  Not mine or theirs.  Just living life in general.  Scripture tells us in James 4:14, “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes.”   

One morning you are posting your day’s events on facebook, and several hours later, you’re in the morgue.  How is this possible? 

I looked across the rows of seats at the big bump that was sticking out of my child’s coat.  A baby is coming soon … new life.  We will be there at the delivery, we will embrace that child, we will welcome new life into the world, and we will thank God for sending it.  And then what happens? 

We become calloused to the very air we breathe in and breathe out. I don’t think to thank God for the days and nights He blesses me with.   I become expectant that God, in His ever-loving kindness, will give me 78, 88, and 98 years to live on Planet Earth.  Somehow, collectively, we expect that God will grant us good health, great jobs, lovely homes, and perfect worlds.  But we don’t expect to die. 

Sure, sure, it’s in the back of our minds.  Everyone knows that, right?  But somehow, we always believe we will evade it for a very long time. 

One year ago, my Best Life staff showed up in St. Joseph, Missouri, at a lovely little church for one of our conferences.  We prepped and prepared, and our worship leader worked with the church’s worship director, a wonderful man named Dan.  Dan set everything up for us, brought in a band to play (including himself on guitar), was ever-patient with our leader, showed incredible humility, direction, leadership, and authenticity. 

Just shy of his 57th birthday (April 4th), Dan got up on Saturday morning, posted on facebook, and died that same afternoon of a heart attack. 

As I reflected on both him and my girlfriend who has battled cancer for years, I lifted up prayers for the family of Dan and healing for our friend in her hospital bed.  But something struck me and struck me hard.  What am I doing with the hours I have been given?  What am I doing with the days that I fritter by? Do I really embrace and value them?  How will people remember me? 

I pulled out my Bible and read the words that I have etched into my mind … the Bible verse that is our premise for Best Life Ministries.  Jesus says in John 10:10b, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”   

[callout]God wants us to live life to the fullest.  God wants us to get up each morning and live like we have one foot here on earth and one foot in Heaven.  Not scared of dying, but not afraid of living. [/callout] 

One moment we’re here … the next we’re not.  I want to live my life to the fullest.  I want to know that each breath is valuable.  I want to embrace each moment as though I can open up the scrapbook of my life and see that day by day, moment after moment, I lived … really lived.

 Care to join me?

Finding Your Way Through Grief

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A few months ago, I was returning home from a speaking engagement.  The church was in a rural community, located a couple hours from my home.  As I looked at the beautiful, orange sun beginning to set, I suddenly panicked.  I didn’t remember the road to get back home. 

P1000666I pulled off onto the side of the road and reached for my GPS in the glove box. And then I remembered, my address doesn’t show up on the radar.  I quickly dialed my husband’s cell and it rang once, going directly to voicemail.  I knew it was turned off.  Oh my, I thought … time to pray. 

But the sun was setting, and I began to fret.  All of a sudden, the bleak miles without farms or any memorable landmarks began to make me feel a deep sense of panic, and a dark blanket of being completely alone surrounded me.  

How long would I be lost?  Should I just pull over again and try to make more calls?  And if I did, how would I describe where I was. 

With the last remains of the sun going down behind the trees and fields, I saw an elderly couple outside and did what any sensible woman in high heels and a cute jacket would do … I  stopped for directions. 

Oddly enough, I wasn’t that far from home after all.  It was just a few miles down the road. 

This morning, as I watched the sun coming up, I remembered that moment in time.  The few minutes where I seemed utterly and hopelessly lost, and it resonated so strongly with where I am today. 

You see, not quite one year ago, I lost my dear friend, Mary, to cancer.  My children so sweetly dubbed her “Grandma Mary” because she was just like a grandmother to them.  She served in the role of cheerleader, companion, mentor, mother, cook, assistant, and our ministries’ Director of Prayer and Care Support for the past six years of my life. 

I have been on a journey of grief.  I seem to have gotten lost.  The more I wanted to stop on the side of the road and rest, the more that life kept me busy, and the more I wandered the farmlands of my life.  I couldn’t seem to find my way through the sadness, through the emptiness, and through that dull ache that happens when that special person in your life is no longer on Planet Earth, operating in the role they were to you, in place that took up space in your world. 

I have to be honest and tell you that yes; I did make a few calls.  But they were calls that were dead ended, much like the forward to the message on a cell phone … no help … no comfort.  I did stop for directions, but no one seemed to know the way back from grief.  There was no GPS to take me from the aching of loss, to the Land of healing … or so I thought. 

For those who expect us to get up and move on suddenly, after a loss, I only sympathize and wonder how they will manage when they get lost on this road called “Grief.” 

For those who didn’t have the ability to deliver comfort or know the way home, I believe some day they will experience this same road without a map. 

But for me, here’s what I learned: 

  1. Grief is part of life.  It’s made up of the pieces of loss and sadness that are consistent with being born and dying.
  2. Grief is painful.  It will hurt, and running from it, ignoring it, or not processing it, will never work.  It continues to leave you stranded on the side of the road.
  3. Grief takes time.  Each person deals with grief differently.  What one person gets over in two weeks, another may not feel comfort for two years.
  4. Grief is a lesson.  Each time I suffer loss, I learn more about loss.  Each time I learn more about loss, I am able to bring comfort to someone because I know it, I get it, I have been lost before.
  5. God is the only True Healer.  I wanted other people to show me the way home to the Land of Comfort.  I wanted a GPS that would program my heart and mind there, and take me directly to feeling better.  I wanted it to go away.  But I learned that God, in His infinite wisdom, has given us His Word and His Spirit as Comforters to our soul.  There really can’t be anything or anyone else that will fill that void….He wants to do that for us. 

Today, if you’re grieving the loss of a parent, a child, a friend, a job, a house that you wanted and didn’t get, a child that you thought you were adopting and it didn’t go through,  or whatever your circumstance, God understands. 

[callout]You see, He’s the One who will get you from wherever you are lost, to wherever you need to go to get back.  And the truth is….you really don’t go back … it’s different … never the same … but God is with us in the “getting lost” … and He’s always about the … “getting found.”[/callout]

 

For More Information About Kathy A. Weckwerth & her ministry, Best Life Ministries, log onto www.bestlifeministries.com