After the last call from my children, Carla and I started talking about how each child was born in drama – seems to be the story of our life.  If there is something that happens out of the ordinary it happens with us.

Weeks before our first born was due, my manager at Safeway’s told me the date she would be born – it was too early.

Yet, the night before that date I arrive home from work shortly after 2030 to be told by Carla the baby was coming.

As I sat there, in the Labor Room, next to Carla and the midnight hour got closer I asked the nurse if we couldn’t make sure the birth came before midnight. She asked why, I told her that I didn’t want my manager to give the exact date of my child’s birth, it was just too weird.

She laughed and said she didn’t know how he did it, but she ticked off a number of births that he had predicted the date on – many, like ours, were earlier than expected.

She was born 17 minutes into the day he said she would be born.

Our second child – lots of things around him, but I will just cover the most dramatic, at about 0715 Carla told me that the baby was coming, I asked, now?  She said no, it would be several hours.

At about 0740 it became evident that he was coming much sooner.  We dropped our oldest off at our Pastor’s house in route to the hospital.  We arrived at the desk 0755, he was born at 0757.

Around 0500 Carla was in the delivery room with our third child – they didn’t even bother with the Labor room.  She was one of two mothers to be and the doctor wasn’t getting much sleep.

When she started to deliver, the instruments the doctor needed were not available – they hadn’t been sterilized from the other birth, yet. 

He needed something else, but the nurse was too short to get it from the shelf – he told her to get a bucket, turn it over and stand on it.

As he was wheeling Carla and the baby out of the delivery room he asked where the patient’s room was – a nurse looked at him and said, “what patient?”  He wasn’t happy.

Our fourth wasn’t quite so dramatic in the birth.  But the birthing process became a lesson for those nurses that were going through orientation at the hospital.  Before final assignment they had to go through the several different patient care processes.  This was the last night in pediatrics and they hadn’t had a baby yet.

They stayed passed their 2300 end of duty as Dr. Mills pointed out that Carla had strong contractions, it came from a hard working farm girl and most women would have a very difficult time.  ‘It is the reason she has her children so quickly.’

As he was teaching, he also told the story of how he had met Carla’s father in Oklahoma in a small town.  Her father was a first grade student of Mill’s mother – and they met at an annual community reunion – fifty years later.  His mother, 86, was there and recognized Carla’s father, immediately.

Our last child was born at a decent hour.  Carla had been busy all day and when we finished laying carpet down in one of the bedrooms she told me it was time to get to the hospital.

We arrived around 1500.  The nurse hooked Carla up to a monitor, watched it for a moment and said it would be a while before she delivered.

I knew better, tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen and left the room.  A few short minutes later I was calling for the nurse as I caught him, still in the sack, as he came out.

Fortunately, one of Carla’s nurse friends had heard she was there and stopped by as she left work - she took over for me and finished the delivery and clean up – never did see the first nurse again!

There is more to each story, of course, but none of them were ordinary experiences.

Galatians 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

I must confess, this morning I looked at this verse and said, “Lord, how?”

I have so much difficulty in showing the fruits of the Spirit; with living a life of faith that you want me to lead.

I look at the list of fruits and I find myself lacking in every one of them.

I know that allowing you into every corner of my heart means I must allow you to change me, to make me understand how far I need to go to live and walk in your Spirit.

I ask myself if it really makes any difference.  I love you I want to serve, I strive to let you work in me, but I lack so much to live a life Holy as you would have me live.

Is what I am, now, ‘good enough?’

Can people really see your Spirit in us as we live for you?

Those were my thoughts and burdens this morning, knowing that to live such a life is all but impossible for me; to have that Great Spirit shown in all that I do.

Then, as I read the Bible through the Year assignment for today, this verse stood out.

Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

This person was Stephen, one of the first deacons and the first documented martyr for Christ.

Why was his face so lit up that the leaders of the Jews, the council, as they looked on him, felt his face was like an angel?

Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

full of faith and power

Stephen had complete faith in God.  It was unconditional, it didn’t depend on the day, the results of his preaching and teaching; it didn’t depend on the multitudes that were finding Christ under his and others’ preaching.

It was center wholly and completely on God and His Son.

Because of that faith in God, he had the Holy Spirit working within him.  That Spirit shined forth out of his very being and showed through him as he stood before a council that had been given false evidence of his heresy.

When he was asked if he was guilty of the charges, he gave a short dissertation of the history of the Jewish Nation including the failure of the leaders to obey God.

They harangued him and when he proclaimed he saw Jesus, they put him to death.

Acts 7:54-55 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

Lord, how do I have that kind of faith, faith that stands before all my enemies and is proclaimed by not only my words but my demeanor.

I realize that I must yield to the Holy Spirit; that I must listen and do what HE wants. 

There are times I think it is impossible.  I have made so many mistakes in my life, I have failed so many times, how can He possibly use me?  I have so many ups and downs, even today, as I have grown closer to Him, I still fail Him – but in all of this there is a side bar.

Verse 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

whose name was Saul.

The same Saul who we call Paul and who became one of the key leaders for Christ.  He was beaten, He was cast into prison but the Spirit that was in Stephen became the same Spirit in Paul.

The limitations of who we are and what we can do for God, is only in our minds and hearts.  We have to open them up and let God walk in.  I know I am having difficulty yielding completely and many times I am shown, by God’s Spirit and my own inadequacies of actions, that I have not reached that point.

I need to; I need to have the faith that allows the Holy Spirit to shine through me so that others know Jesus lives and God is willing to accept them.

It is not an easy task, but by the Grace of God and the leading of His Holy Spirit is not an impossible one.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again