In Loving Memory
April 29, 1947 - September 5, 2020
Update: On Saturday, September 5th, 2020, the founder, administrator, and head moderator of this forum, Valerie S., went Home to be with the Lord. Her obituary can be found on https://memorials.demarcofuneralhomes.com/valerie-skrzyniak/4321619/index.php.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
2 Timothy 4:7-8
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing .
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/aug2011/marya81.htm
I found this post on 5 doves today
Mary Adams wrote a beautiful message.
It was so beautiful written. Her message made my soul Rejoice in God's Majesty and love.
I pray she will receive her request for healing. I know for sure.. When we get to heaven we will be totally healed as God Promised us.
I can't wait to meet her.. and to see her Jump with Joy of the Lord.. I will hear her sing!
"Fair Use for Information or Discussion"
This morning there were some clouds in the eastern sky as sunrise came. They were not the kind that usually meant rain, but the ones that seem to skip across the sky with no intent or purpose other than to add interesting formations and color to an otherwise bleak and dull scene.
As I studied them, I noticed how still everything was, though occasionally a soft whisper of a breeze graced the tops of a tree. I was captivated by it all--for the world around me was still asleep, oblivious to the majesty of this moment of time. After all, it was five o'clock in the morning!
But it would not last long. This moment of time would switch channels. Another day had dawned.Trucks would soon rumble down the dusty road below my house; car doors would slam and roar off to work somewhere; unleashed dogs would have their morning roam; children would excitedly join their friends to head for the playgrounds. Phones would ring. A seagull scanned a beach looking for breakfast. My television would transfer me to the other side of the world.
Yet, as always, I did not come away from that quiet time empty. There was always a reward awaiting me."Be still and know that I am God" crossed my mind. No wonder that David penned the words, "Early will I seek Thee" and Abraham "got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord". Here I sat thousands of years later, meditating as they had done, watching funny clouds and wondering just when one of them might suddenly appear with the Lord and tens of thousands of His saints as His Word has promised us.
Yet He didn't come that day. Just as I also didn't get a healing when I once expected it.
I then recalled an old Eskimo lady I had met in Fairbanks years ago. She lived alone, yet still went out to chop her own firewood! And she told me, "early each morning I go to my kitchen window to look outside at the sky for a cloud--to see if perhaps Jesus was returning that day".
When I thought about that, I realized that she and I shared a faith that speaks of hope..hope that keeps a heart always anticipating, ever-breathessly awaiting. And it didn't seem to matter that day after day went by without it happening, for it seemed that hope itself was something that mysteriously revived itself during those times when one "stood before the Lord". It was able to penetrate and saturate every emptiness and ignite incredible joy inside myself. She lived until 112!
How important is hope! When we lose it, we become like Job: "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. My life is wind, mine eye shall no more see good".
I recalled the many times I have laid in pain, lonely and despondent, my faith weak as my limbs! How Satan fought my feeble attempts to muster it! But then as I quit my own efforts and totally yielded myself to come as a weak kitten into that secret place of the Most High, it didn't matter that I had not yet seen the answers to my prayers---what mattered was that hope was still alive. And hope would one day become reality, and it did!
And so, this day I was rewarded. I could see that each one of my prayers were like the flickering flames of small lamps. For me to live and overcome the adversities of life meant that I must never fail to meet Him in quiet times until every hope becomes renewed: Hope for healing, hope for breakthroughs, hope for loved ones--hope for a thousand things, including His return. It truly was a tree of life!
Like the lamps in Moses' tabernacle, my only job is to faithfully tend those lamps and to replenish the oil of the thousand flickering ones I almost extinguished by losing hope. If I failed to do so, another day would become one of darkness...even after the sun arises.
Mary E. Adams