God is opening up new paths for me that never entered my mind, including writing a blog. None of it on my radar screen at all! The things I had thought were part of the plan aren’t working out at all – at least not now. It’s been confusing and I’ve really wondered if I had the strength to do it. Through a song Sunday I heard this message: Here in the power of Christ I stand.

Confirmed by another song today: Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. Martin Luther

Being blessed and encouraged by Robert J. Morgan’s book, The Jordan River Rules. He’s about a year ahead of me in this grieving process, meaning this book was written when he was where I am now. Also, his book, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Robert Morgan talks about Joshua meeting a man and asking him: Are you for us or for our enemies? The Man replied, Neither, I have now come as a commander of the Lord’s army.

The question then becomes are we for Him or against Him?

Josh. 5:14 says: Joshua fell on his face . . . and worshipped, and said to Him, What does my lord want to say to His servant?

That’s a great question to keep in front of us. The verse says to me that worship, listening, and following are inseparable. Listening and following are worship.

Morgan says: “Joshua came face to face with Yeshua.” That’s Holy Ground.

. . . the place you are standing is holy. . .  Josh. 5:15

The place – not another place. IS holy. God is there.

Morgan continues: “Whenever you have an obstacle you cannot overcome, you’re standing on holy ground. The Lord is unusually near. He descends to deliver. He arrives with a plan, which will be unlike anything you imagined, and it’s a special opportunity to experience His holy and blessed presence.”

I look for confirmation – which I find when God speaks the same word to me more than once – from different people, different books, different verses. This was confirmation. I am on holy ground.

I must admit that I had been so happy where I was, being happy in a different place was hard to imagine and hard to accept. But God is helping me see and believe.

Another chapter in The Jordan River Rules also spoke to me about the great impact of Joe’s life and God’s purpose for the rest of my days.

“. . . We’ll leave behind all the work we’ve done, the words we’ve said and written, the people we’ve touched, the causes we’ve sustained, the missionaries we’ve sent, and the funds we’ve invested in the Kingdom. It all has a ripple effect that expands until Christ returns.”

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord . . . they will rest from their labors, and their works will follow them. Rev. 14:13

“Don’t underestimate how the next stage of your life will influence generations yet unborn. Find a way to preserve a testimony.”

A river reaches places which its source never knows . . . Oswald Chambers