Study of Galatians

Paul’s teachings are so clear about Grace but we often don’t understand it until someone explains it clearly. I know I never saw it until it was explained to me. Yesterday I studied the book of Galatians, it’s not long, only 6 chapters so I did it all in one study session.

Here are some verses to highlight the message of the book of Galatians:

Galatians 1:6-9 (NKJV):
“Only One Gospel
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”

Paul starts with a warning to those who are leading people astray with the wrong gospel, don’t do it, there is a double curse on you if you do!

Galatians 2:15-16 (NKJV)
“15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

Paul is saying you cannot be saved by “works” in other words by keeping the law.

Galatians 2:17-20 (NKJV)
17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ, therefore, a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Here Paul clearly states that grace DOES NOT give us a license to go out and sin and do as we please. Christ lives in us, and that causes me to not want to sin.

Galatians 2:21 (NKJV)
“21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Paul says that if it was at all possible to be saved by keeping the law, Jesus’ sacrifice was in vain. Then it was not necessary for Jesus to die. So to me, that means if you are trying to keep the law so that you can be justified, then you are rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice for you because you say it was not necessary… Do you understand the implication of this? That means you will go to hell because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Galatians 3:1-5 (NKJV)
Justification by Faith
“3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—”

I think the above verses are self-explanatory. Paul asks them how did they get saved? Did the Holy Spirit reveal it to them by grace or did they get it through keeping the law? I think most people will agree that before you are saved you are sinful, so that makes getting saved by keeping the law impossible….

Galatians 3:10-14New King James Version (NKJV)
The Law Brings a Curse
“10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

By trying to keep the law you are putting yourself under the curse because it is impossible to keep EVERY law ALL the time. IMPOSSIBLE! Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law as He was the only one who was able to keep the law perfectly and He took our place of judgment and gave us his righteousness.

(Romans 8:1-4 (NKJV)
Free from Indwelling Sin
“8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.)”

Galatians 3:21-25 (NKJV)
“21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”

The law has one purpose: to show us that we need a Saviour, Jesus Christ. To show us that it is impossible for us to keep perfectly. Because that is the only way the law can save you. You cannot pick some sins and say, I do not murder, I do not steal, I do not lie, etc but you break others, like the Pharisees did, outwardly they looked like they were righteous, but Jesus could see their hearts and called them a brood of vipers (Matt 3:7, Matt 12:34, Matt 23:33, Luke 3:7)

Galatians 4:4-7 (NKJV)
“4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
We have been adopted as sons (all of us male and female) through Jesus, who kept the law perfectly, and because we are His sons now, we can receive the Holy Spirit and we are now heirs of God, through Jesus’ sacrifice.”

Galatians 5:4-5 (NKJV)
“4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

If you try to be justified by the law (your own works) you alienate yourself from Jesus. You have fallen away from grace. I cannot stress this enough. If you try to get saved or stay saved by keeping the law, you cannot be saved! You cannot go to heaven! Jesus is the only way and ONLY Jesus! John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

But those with the Spirit are righteous by faith.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
Walking in the Spirit
“16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The Holy Spirit will tell you what is right and wrong and will guide you. If you live through the Spirit you will not willfully go and sin. If you know someone who says they are saved and have now a license to sin, they are not sealed with the Holy Spirit, I can promise you that. So that means they are not truly saved.

Bible Prophesies Regarding The End Times:

So many prophesies have come to pass already so I want to share some video’s first about the prophesies that have come to pass first and then those that still need to be fulfilled.

First up is the topic of Daniel’s 70 weeks. In the following video Chris Patrick explains the 70 weeks of Daniel and how the first 69 weeks was fulfilled and the 70th week suspended and kept aside for the final 7 years, also called the tribulation:

Next I want to show you how recent prophesies were fulfilled by the coming together of Israel as a nation again since 1947:

No more prophesies need to be fulfilled before the rapture, but there are a few that might be close to the rapture time, and it seems from the Bible that these will be fulfilled shortly after the rapture:

First up is the covenant with many as mentioned in Daniel:

Daniel 9:27 – “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

This covenant with many is considered by most eschatological scholars to be a peace agreement in the Middle East, and recently efforts has increased again to get this peace agreement in place.

The rebuilding of the third temple:

In this video they argue that the Temple was never on the Temple mount, but close to it, and if the Jews can accept that they can start building their temple immediately. I do not think however that they will accept that very easily though.

There has been speculation that the Temple Mount will be shared, and that the Temple will fit in on top even with the current buildings that are already there, and that that may be possible after a peace agreement that might include a sharing agreement of the Temple Mount.

Everything is ready at the Temple institute for a third temple. They are training priests, a red heifer farm is ready, all the temple artefacts have been made and the Ark of the Covenant has even been found and ready for excavation. I posted about the Ark of the Covenant here: https://keepingmyeyesonjesus.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/4868/.

Destruction of Damascus:

Isaiah 17:1 (KJV)
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Jeremiah 49: 23-27 (KJV)
23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

There are a number of other prophesies that need to be fulfilled too, but most are in the final seven years of tribulation and after the rapture. For instance: there will be the rise of the antichrist and the false prophet, the two witnesses, the mark of the beast and the abomination of desolation in the 3rd temple in Jerusalem, just to name a few.

Our time is almost up

I can say a lot on this topic, but this video explains it all so beautifully, so I am just going to post it and let you watch it. Anything I’m going to say will just be a repeat of what is in the video. Robert Breaker is not the only one who teaches about this, you can search on Youtube most end time preachers and a lot of main stream preachers all preach this concept:

Signs of the Times

I don’t know if you have noticed it, but if you just look at natural disasters, and the general state of the world you will notice that there are a lot of disasters at the moment, rumours of World War 3 starting and generally things that were always seen as evil is now made out as good and good is now evil. I have been aware of this for a few years now and have watched things deteriorate over the last few years, so that was what started my research into eschatology (the study of the end times in the Bible)

I’m going to share some scriptures here pertaining to the end times, and you will recognize many things happening today.

2 Timothy 3 (KJV)
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”

Luke 21: 7-11 (KJV)
“7 And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”

These are not all the scriptures but I am sure you get the idea, now have a look at some video’s, I just picked a few, there are so many to choose from:

Archaeological evidence the Bible is true

This is amazing! This man found so many things and places to prove the Bible is true. Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptian army on the bottom of the Red Sea, and so much more!

But the part that blessed me the most was his discovery of the Ark of the Covenant and the blood on it. He first found the place where Jesus was crucified and saw there was a crack in the earth because of the earthquake. Blood from the wound in Jesus’ side seeped through that crack into a chamber below where the Ark of the Covenant is and dropped right onto the Mercy seat. In the Old Testament, the priests sprinkled the blood of animals that were sacrificed right there on the mercy seat, and Jesus’ actual blood was also sprinkled onto the same Mercy seat… Ron Wyatt had the dry blood analyzed and it only has 24 chromosomes, 23 X and 1 Y, proving that it’s Jesus’ blood as He had no earthly father…

The Ark of the covenant is still there to this day, and ready for when the third temple will be built!

Wow! Wow! Wow! Is all I can say.

(I’m busy working on the post for the reasons why I think the rapture will be soon, but it turns out to be more than I thought so I might break it up in a few posts, that way I can post quicker, and the post won’t be too long)

I am back!

I see its more than 3 years since I last wrote a blog post! I can’t believe how time has flown! I doubt any of my regular readers still follow this blog, but according to the stats there are still a few people who visit this blog every day so I’ll post for whoever comes this way…

Let me first give a short update on us:
G-force is 5.5 years old now and in Grade R (the last year of crèche, but it’s at the primary school he will attend next year as his previous crèche does not have the option of Grade R – some do, but not the one he went to)

He is such a joy to us and the absolute light in our lives! I still thank Jesus for the absolutely wonderful blessing of being his mommy.
Here are some pictures of G-force, the first day at the new school in January and the official photo taken at the school in March. As you can see he is a big boy already!

I was pregnant 2 years ago, but our little baby’s heartbeat stopped somewhere around 10.5 weeks. I had the D & C evac at 12 weeks on the 15th of September 2015. Once again a natural conception with no medical help and I was 44 at that stage. I assumed the FS would do genetic tests again on the baby, but it turns out they probably didn’t as I never got any feedback after like with my first pregnancy.

A miscarriage is never easy to deal with, but this time it wasn’t just my feelings and DH’s feelings to take into account but also G-force’s as he still really wants a little brother preferably, but he will be happy with a sister too. He is asking us often why the baby had to die and why he can’t get a little brother or sister, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking for both DH and me.

I am 46 now and we have officially given up on trying to get pregnant again. The reason is that we believe that Jesus is coming to fetch us soon in the rapture and that we will be reunited with our 32 babies in heaven.

That is actually why I want to start this blog up again – I want to share why I think Jesus is coming for us soon. So stay tuned I hope to explain more very soon!

When I’m weak, I’m Strong…

I’ve wanted to blog about this topic for a while now and just when I got ready to sit down and write the post things changed and I felt that I cannot write about it, because what do I know after all? Well, things have changed again, for the worse, and then I got some awesome messages to confirm what I wanted to write about originally, so maybe, maybe it is the right time and circumstances to write about this.

In January I was at my wits end. The festive season had just ended and G-force was totally out of his routine. It was so hard to try to stick to any kind of routine when one is constantly either busy entertaining or invited to visit someone else. When we have visitors or when we visit other people G-force generally does not want to nap in the afternoon, and try as we might, he will fight and fight until we eventually give up. Often he also does not want to go to sleep when it’s his regular bed time.  Being out of routine also resulted in him not sleeping well during the night and many nights he would wake me up 2-4 times, often starting as early as 22h00 or 23h00.

By the middle of January I was completely exhausted and felt like I was going to have a breakdown. Well one night when he was once again struggling to sleep and it was 21h30 or so already I just started crying and said to the Lord: “Lord, I just cannot do this anymore! I am soooo tired! I need sleep, and I need to sleep right through the night! Lord, I give up. I have tried everything and nothing works! I don’t know what else to do. I just cannot do this anymore; I now give this over to you Lord, because I have no idea what to do…”

Eventually G-force went to sleep and I stumbled to bed and fell asleep immediately. Much to my surprise DH woke me up the next morning at 6h30 to get G-force ready for school. For the first time in what felt like forever I had slept straight from about 22h00 to 6h30. Immediately I thanked and praised the Lord because I knew it was only due to His grace. This was not a once off occurrence either. From that night G-force’s sleeping habits changed from waking many times a night most nights and only occasionally sleeping through the night to sleeping through most of the time and only waking up once and then only occasionally.

That was until the somewhere in the beginning of April. Slowly but surely he would start to wake around 4 or 5 in the morning and then often he would wake up anytime from about midnight to 2 also. Once again the nights where he slept through were few and far in between. I was at a loss. What to do, because last time we really did not do anything! How to fix this problem? I asked the Lord to help again, because let’s face it, it was thanks to His doing that things got better.

There was absolutely no explanation why G-force was waking up in the night again. We thought that he might be cold, because it was getting colder, but warming his room did not help. Eventually a week ago I finally figured it out.

G-force told me that there is something in his mouth that is hurting it. Sometimes when he has something stuck between his teeth he will come to me and ask me to remove it by flossing his teeth. He wanted me to do that again, but he was pointing to the back of his mouth where his one molar is. So I washed my hand and stuck my finger in there to pinpoint where the problem is as I couldn’t see anything and what do you know? I felt a new molar peeking through. Poor little guy, I barely touched it but he howled in pain. So now we know what is the most probable cause for the poor sleeping. But you know what? We’ve been giving him teething meds on and off already since that was one of the suspects already. We then started to give it to him regularly and even adding another kind, and it still did not work. In desperation I bought a Baltic amber teething necklace last week and he’s been wearing it since Thursday. So far no improvement yet…

Last night he woke up at 22h00, 1h30, 4h00 and about 5h30. Lately I’m also having trouble getting back to sleep once G-force wakes me, fortunately this morning it was at 5h30 and not one of the other times in the middle of the night… I cannot explain to anyone how tired I am. I’ve been feeling like a zombie for about a month already. DH tries to help, but G-force wants nothing to do with him in the middle of the night. He only wants me and he wants to nurse. He refuses everything else.

In January already, after the incident I described, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the following scriptures:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (AMP):
“7 And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (pre-eminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. 8 Three times I called upon the Lord and besought [Him] about this and begged that it might depart from me; 9 But He said to me, My grace (My favour and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! 10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).”

For the first time I really realized what Paul meant when he said; “for when I’m weak, then I am strong…” When we are weak and know it and rely on Jesus, not on our own efforts – that is when we are strong, not with our own strength, but the strength that we receive through God’s grace.

I knew all this yet it once again took quite some time to admit that I am weak, and that I need God’s grace to make me strong again…Last week I came to that point again, and I’m still there. Thankfully Abba, Father God is so merciful, and one morning I switched on the TV to watch a program on TBN, and God gave me three awesome programs to watch, the one straight after the other. The first one I watched was Cref.lo Dol.lar, the second one Joy.ce Mey.er and then the best one, Jo.seph Prin.ce.

I specifically want to mention the program of Jo.seph Prin.ce; it’s called: “Great Grace for your greatest weakness – Sermon # 352”. I can highly recommend that every single person reading this gets hold of this sermon and listen to it as many times as possible. He mentions Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife and Zachariah and Elizabeth, and them being barren for so many years, and how in their weakest moments they were able to have a child, but not any child, these children had supernatural favour upon them. He also speaks specifically to people who have lost a child/baby or who have been barren and prophesies how we will birth champions, just like these people in the Bible did.

I was so grateful for this message – I’m sure God was speaking directly to me – as if he inspired Jo.seph Prin.ce to preach this message for me, but I know it’s not only for me, all of you who are reading this blog will also probably feel the same 😉 !

It’s not just the fact that I’m so tired that makes me feel so weak. I’ve felt weak too about conceiving our second child, and I’ve actually also gave that matter all over to the Lord a few weeks ago, as well as other areas in our lives, like our finances, my business and even raising G-force…

I cannot wait to see manifestation of God’s super abounding Grace in these areas!

(I thought I’ve blogged about Paul’s thorn in the flesh before, but it seems that I haven’t. Many people think that Paul’s thorn in the flesh is some kind of sickness caused by God to make him weak – that is not the case. Paul’s thorn was not God’s doing, and if you want to learn more about what it is then please read this message of An.drew Wom.mack)

2014 School Pictures:

When I first saw these pictures I thought – this is not my baby!  His little face has changed so much and he doesn’t look like a baby anymore…  Feeling a little sad about that!

The Father’s Love:

I’ve been feeling a bit despondent at times lately and the other night I read a chapter from Jo.seph Prin.ce’s latest book “The Po.wer of Rig.ht Belie.ving” on the Father’s love and that got me thinking…

I remembered one instance last year when they asked at G-force’s creche that we send them to school in their slippers on a specific day, as part of their holiday program. Only problem was that he did not own any slippers, and it was in the time that DH was unemployed, and to be honest G-force did not really need slippers since he wore onesies to bed and they all had feet on, so his feet were always warm and covered.

So I contemplated sending him to school with normal shoes and to just ignore the request. I mean he was 1.5 years old, surely he would not notice the difference? But then I thought, “What if he does notice and he feels like the odd one out?”

You see the thought of my little boy feeling out was just too much to bear, and I realized that I would rather go without food, than have his little heart unhappy. So I went to a few shops to look for slippers to see how much they were and one day I saw a cute pair of Spider man slippers on sale for R20 (that is less than $2), and that settled the matter for me, I bought them immediately! Thankfully I got them so cheap I did not have to go without food, but I was totally willing to sacrifice that just to keep my little boy happy.

***

Another time last year they wanted to have a picnic at the creche. I told DH about it and he said that I must buy extra things to put into the picnic basket (he was employed by then, so the cost was not such a big factor anymore), because we realized that many parents often forget such things and he was concerned that some of the little kids won’t be able to participate in the picnic. So I put in 6 tubs of yogurt, a whole string of packets of crisps, a big pack of sweets, a whole packet of cookies, etc. There was enough in there to feed at least 6 kids. When I told the teacher she was glad, because there were parents that forgot to bring the picnic baskets, and at the end of the day the basket was completely empty.

On Valentine’s Day this year they decided to have a picnic again, and I misunderstood the letter they sent home. There was a Valentine’s dinner at night which we weren’t going to and I thought the picnic was for the kids at the dinner, but it wasn’t – the picnic was during school time. So when I dropped G-force off at the creche and when the teacher asked where his picnic basket was, was when I only realized my mistake. The teacher ensured me it was OK; they would give him something from one of the other kid’s picnic baskets.

At first I thought that it’s not a problem, there is probably another mommy who did what I did the previous year and there would be plenty for G-force. But it kept bothering me and I realized that I had an unopened little juice box in the fridge, some crisps, sweets and some fruit in the house (this time only 1 of each) and I quickly put it all in a basket and took it to the creche. I got there just after 9h00 and the receptionist told me that they were just starting, so she quickly took it outside to G-force.

That afternoon when I went to pick up G-force the receptionist told me that when she got outside G-force was sitting there with just 1 little sweetie in his hand and looking not too happy, but when she came running and shouting; “Here is G-force’s picnic basket”, his little face just lit up. Well that had me in tears immediately! Just the thought that my little baby almost missed out on an enjoyable picnic, because I had made a mistake was just too much for me. I was so glad that I changed my mind and rushed to get his picnic basket to the creche. The receptionist was also in tears when she told me the story by the way…

***

Now for my last story of G-force: A few months ago there was a helicopter that flew over the area where we live and G-force’s school for quite a few hours. It started around 7h00 when I was getting G-force ready for school, and he asked me what it was that was making the noise. When we got outside I showed him the helicopter, and he asked me a few times what it was and I repeated the word “helicopter” every time he asked. I forgot about the incident and didn’t think about it again for about a week.

Then suddenly one afternoon when we got home, G-force pointed to an aeroplane in the sky (we live close to an airport so there are lots of aeroplanes to see here) and he called it a helicopter. I corrected him and told him it’s an aeroplane. For the next couple of days he pointed out a lot of aeroplanes and called them all helicopters.

The next Saturday DH went to watch rugby at a single friend’s house and since G-force was a bit sick I decided to stay at home with him and let DH go out and enjoy himself. G-force kept talking about a helicopter and asked to see one, but I was at a loss. How can I show him a helicopter? Then I remembered that I can go on to the internet with my phone and show him pictures and videos of helicopters. He was so happy!

So now we have a 2 year old who is obsessed with helicopters. He gets so excited if he sees one, but we don’t often see them in real life here. DH bought him a toy helicopter and he remembered he had a simple little remote control helicopter that he bought for himself years ago. G-force absolutely loves to play with both, and he can fly the remote control helicopter all by himself already.

The other night DH and I were talking about how much G-force loves helicopters and we both agreed that it would make him so happy to see a helicopter up close. We talked about how we would go to great lengths to treat our little guy by taking him to a helicopter and ideally we would love to be able to let him fly in one, but we don’t know where or how to do that. DH has spoken to a pilot he knows already, but he couldn’t help him since he works in a different field at the moment and doesn’t know any helicopter pilots. But we haven’t given up on the idea to somehow make G-force’s wildest imaginations come true.

He has never asked us to take him to one, or to let him fly in one, but we just know that is one of the things that would really, really make him happy, and to be able to treat our little boy and see him happy makes us happy. So we will try our very best to at least get him close to a real helicopter.

***

So when I read about the father’s love for us, I thought back to the above instances, and how much our little boy’s happiness and well being was of utmost importance to me. How just the thought of him being unhappy could get me in tears, and how much I’m willing to sacrifice for him, no matter what the cost.

And that made me think of the following verses:

Luke 11:11-13 (NIV):
11“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

It says here that we cannot compare as parents, to our Father in heaven. We think we may be good parents and treat our children well, and give them what they want or need, but how much more will our Father in heaven give us!

I know I am not a perfect parent – far from it. I think some of it can be seen in my stories above. I forget, or we don’t always have the resources to help, I make mistakes, I get tired and sometimes cranky, but thankfully our Daddy God is not at all like I am.

He has unlimited resources, He does not make mistakes, He does not forget, He is always there for us, and always willing to help us, also so much more than we can ever think or dream off.

Let me tell you, when I thought about all of this, I was in tears again…

I want to finish with this: To really know how much our Heavenly Father loves us, we need to know how much he sacrificed for us. He loves us so much that he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, to be punished for all the sins and inequities of the whole world for all time. Jesus suffered terribly; he gave up EVERYTHING, for us. But you know what? He still would have made the sacrifice for you, if you were the only person on earth…

THAT IS HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU!

Let me tell you, I certainly cannot even think to sacrifice my son for anybody else. Not even 1 person, never mind all of humanity (and thankfully we will not ever have to do that!).

Now don’t you think that if my little boy’s desires and happiness is so important to me, how much more is your happiness and your desires to our Heavenly Father!

I must say that night I felt very miserable. I had a head cold and I was not looking forward to going to bed, even though I was so tired because G-force had been waking a lot during the night again, because every time I laid down I had trouble breathing. Well this night I actually slept quite well. I can’t really remember if G-force slept through or maybe woke up once, but it was a lot better than the previous nights, but the best was that the next morning my head cold was so much better! All in all it took about 2 days to be fully healed and I did not take any medication! That is only by meditating on how much our Heavenly Father loves us!

The next night I was nursing G-force in his room just before bed time and I looked at his sweet content little face and I thanked God for this wonderful little boy of ours. I thought back to the revelation of His love for me, and I just prayed out loud: “Father, you know the deepest desires of my heart and you know how much I want another precious baby just like this one. Thank you that you love me so much that my desires are very important to you, and that Jesus has already made provision for our next baby. I just know our next baby is on its way, thank you Lord!”

3 Years Ago:

It was a Sunday. I did not sleep well that night. I was like a little girl waiting for Christmas to finally arrive – so excited, and when I saw the sun coming out around six o’clock I sneaked out of bed and went downstairs to POAS (or rather in a container and dipped the stick). I had bought a super sensitive stick the day before and according to that test one can test as early as 4 days before your period is due, so I tested on CD24. There was no doubt in my mind that I was pregnant, but I realised it was early to test on CD24 so I did not really expect to see a positive.

I nervously held the stick in my hand and watched the pink colour move across the little window, and for a few moments I just put it down and could not look at it anymore. Then the anticipation got too much and I had to look again and there was a really feint second line! So quickly! It felt like my heart skipped a beat, and then I just broke down in tears and praised the Lord! He kept His promise! I was pregnant!

It felt like an eternity before DH woke up and came downstairs. In that time I tested with 2 other but less sensitive tests I had in the house but both of those were negative.

I asked for his opinion about something: “Can you see a second line here?”, while I handed him the stick. He looked and said, “No.” I said, “Look carefully there is a feint line there,” and he replied, “Yes, I see a very feint line, but surely that cannot be positive?”

We had plans to visit family that day, and we could not get to a lab to do blood tests, so I had to wait until the next morning. I tested with my last test (one of the less sensitive ones I tried the previous day), and this time it came up positive! It was so sweet to see that second line! I got dressed quickly to drive to the hospital in our town to have my blood drawn. I phoned my FS’s rooms for my results later in the afternoon and they did not receive it! O, the agony!

Only on the Tuesday morning did the sister phone to say that my Beta was 50. She thought it was a bit low and asked me to be cautiously optimistic, but I was ecstatic, and I tried to explain to her that I tested early, but she did not want to listen to me. Wednesday morning I was off early to the lab again, but this time I went to a hospital in a neighbouring town because the lab at our hospital not only lost my blood results but the nurses that draw the blood were also not very good at their job, and I was black and blue from the previous test.  There was a little bit of spotting when I wiped that morning, so before we left to go to the hospital for the bloods I phoned the sister at the FS, and she suggested I test my progesterone levels too.

This time I did not have to phone the clinic, before I could get too worked up and nervous the sister phoned me and she was almost screaming from excitement because my Beta was 195, almost 4 times more than 2 days before that, and I was only on CD27 of my cycle!

That night we told our parents, our siblings and our closest friends that I was pregnant.

***

I have such wonderful memories from those early days and I have been thinking back on it a lot these last couple of days. I actually thought I was pregnant a few days ago, because AF was late (well … late for me).

I haven’t had a normal cycle since before G-force was born. The first cycle after his birth, at around 10 months was over 30 days (not sure exactly how long), but all the others were quite short cycles anything from 21 days to about 26 days.

This past Sunday I was on CD28 and had a feeling of cramping since Friday, but no blood and no spotting, so I tested with a not very sensitive test. It was negative, but I was not upset since I figured the test was not sensitive enough. I did not have any other tests in the house and could not go to the shops to buy more until Monday afternoon.  Monday night I had a little brown blood when I wiped and I thought I will test the next morning if AF did not start during the night as lately I do spot before AF arrives in full force, but only for an hour or so before.

Tuesday morning there was still some spotting, a little more but really not a lot, so I tested with one of those super sensitive ones I tested with 3 years ago… And it was also negative… An hour or so later AF arrived in full force. I cannot really say I was disappointed, and I was definitely not upset.

At least I had a perfect 29 day cycle, and I’m pretty sure I ovulated around CD14 or CD15 because I had ovulation pains on those 2 days and that means that my lutual phase was around 14 days, which is perfect. Praise the Lord for that! I’m hoping that we will have a positive test really soon now!

I must say I am still absolutely blown away with our wonderful, beautiful little boy the Lord has graced us with! Believe it or not, but I still thank and praise the Lord for him just about every day! I’m still as grateful as I was when we just found out that I was pregnant, and our little boy has turned out so much more than what we ever could have hoped or dreamed of! God is so good! He has blessed us tremendously with this child of ours!