The Adventures and Musings of Peach and Batman x

Peach says: “When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!” — Job 42:10

There are things we go through in life which by ‘rights’ should make us bitter. But, with Christ we can choose so much better. Bitter is not our destination. I propose sweet is.

Job is a book which illustrates suffering. Spiritual growth, through knowledge of self, and more importantly personal knowledge of Father God. Job ends up telling the Lord God basically that he (Job) had heard of Him by the hearing of the ear, before his hurt, losses and tribulation, but now, but now his (Job’s) eye had seen Him. He felt he knew God in a deeper way.

^{I can’t explain enough that the hard times reveal our need for our Savior evermore. They also reveal to us the good and tender and sovereign nature of our Father God to us. As we submit to Him, as we walk hand in hand with Him, as we take our hurts, our shame, our frustrations and disappointments to him, He is then able to do what only He can. Make all things new. He has unlimited ways, and you know this to be true yourself, if you think on it. He heals, restores, improves, moves, redeems, makes better than before. He turns bitter to sweet. We have all seen it, and if we walked with him more than a day we’ve experienced it.}

^{Looking back I can see the path we’ve taken, each of us in our family and the good times are sweet and joyful and filled with thanksgiving. But, the hard times, MOVE US. Move us FORWARD to our Lord, more and more. Where we abandon more of the world, more of our flesh, more of what is not helpful anymore. Making room for more of His Spirit, more of His love (which we need to train ourselves to be conscious of) more of His wisdom and more of His understanding.}

^{These new deposits from Our Lord empower us to live and love more like Him as we are meant to, and more as His Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) as we are also meant to.}

^{The world is hungry to see real followers of Christ. Despite what social media may make things appear at times, the world is not really looking for more hip, cool, worldly Christians.}

^{The world is hungry for Jesus people. People who they may not fully understand, but they KNOW they’ve seen a person who spends time with Jesus, and they are not ashamed of Him. People who are bold and humble, fierce and compassionate, assertive and submitted.}

^{Sadly, waltzing through an idyllic life will not produce the Christ in us, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27).}

^{No, our path is more, “Pick up your cross and follow’ Him. — “}And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him DENY himself, and TAKE UP his cross, and FOLLOW ME ^{.”– Mark 8:34.}

We can trust Our Father to know how much heat we can take, before we burn and become bitter, or warm up to yield that sweet caramelizing result. He is our Maker. He is our Father. He is our Savior. He knows us and is at work bringing us to a good and precious end. The author and finisher of our faith. –-“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who FOR THE JOY that was set before him ENDURED THE CROSS, despising the shame, and IS SET DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD.”

This is His assurance to us, that He is working out a master plan in us–> “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”– Philippians 1:6

Just some thoughts as we have been walking through a complicated and challenging season, that has lasted longer than we would like. And on even the hardest day, I see some of the sweetest blessings! Without fail. We learn, we unlearn, we choose better, higher, more worthy things. We remember the cross. Our gift. The price He paid. We remember He gave all so we could receive life, life more abundantly.

“²³ And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were BIITER: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

²⁴ And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

²⁵ And he CRIED UNTO THE LORD; and the LORD SHOWED HIM A TREE, which WHEN HE HAD CAST INTO THE WATERS, THE WATERS WERE MADE SWEET: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,” — Exodus 15:23-25.

God’s people were at the mercy of the Lord, stranded in the desert for awhile, water was precious and hard to come by. They just discovered the only water they had access to at the time was BITTER. They were panicked.

The man of God cried out to the Lord. The Lord heard him and pointed him to a tree. He took a piece of the tree and placed it in the water. It became SWEET. The tree is a picture of the CROSS. When we bring the cross into our day, into our dilemma, into our hurting heart, our stubborn trouble, these pains can now can be trusted to turn bitter to sweet, by the power of the cross at work for us even now.

Thank you, Lord for bringing Your sweetness to my life and our family! Help us daily pick up our cross and choose to follow You! Thank You that as we do, You bring Your sweetness to bear in our lives, turning water to wine, bitter for sweet, death for life and life more abundantly!

So grateful for life with you, Batman! You are my gift!