Laurie's Post

Our minds are too small to fathom how God could take one of life's most devastating loss and use it for His glory and lead you closer to Him. Every time I am faced with a painful, impossible or even tragic situation, I always hear Jesus saying, "Don't be afraid. Believe." (Luke 8:50) and "Didn't I tell you that if you believe that you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40) This is my girlfriend Laurie's post I wanted to share with you. Whether you are dealing with a broken marriage, financial stress, troubled child, sickness, death or anything threatening to steal your joy.....DON'T BE AFRAID. BELIEVE. AND SEE THE GLORY OF GOD! And notice the only thing separating you from FEAR and GLORY is BELIEF!

"I truly believe that most Christians have a crisis in faith at some point in their journey. As I have said before, my own personal journey will forever be divided by "before" and "after" Gage's accident. "Before" I always felt my faith, love, and pure thankfulness was a natural and beautiful thing that flowed directly from my heart. Of course, I had doubts, most everyone does, but my faith always returned to me. It was and always will be my foundation. "After", well, lets just say it has been a mighty struggle. The doubts and confusion took up more than a little space in my head. I kept on and on though. As usual, I turned to my most trusted method.....reading books. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Books on life after death, people who had returned to life after visiting heaven, growing up in heaven, etc... and of course the Bible and my daily devotional. The problem was that I inherited from my father a very analytical mind. There were problems for me with "proof". That horrible night in October, I wasn't "mad" at God but I remember clearly thinking even THREATENING God, “Everything that I have ever known to be true and believed to be true about you, BETTER BE!!!” Of course, you can ask Phil, God and Gage have tried so hard to “prove” it to me in the form of answered prayers, unexplainable moments of pure peace, and “signs” from Gage that were more than mere coincidence. But each thing, each book, still left me wanting something “MORE”. Years ago, I saw that my brother was reading a book entitled The Case for Christ. I asked him about it and he said it was good, but nothing further came from it. Long story short, I picked this book up about a week ago, and all I can say is WOW! I think that small little piece of the puzzle has finally dropped into place for me. Something that will forever leave me convinced that I have truly chosen the right path in my choice for Christianity. Never again will I doubt. This book was written by a crime reporter and atheist who approached the case for Christ like a jury trial. Looking for “evidence” of Christ the man, are the gospels true, is there other, circumstantial evidence that proves that Christ is who He says he is, the true Messiah, the one predicted in the Old Testament, that would reconcile all of humanity with God the Father. Well, if I was sitting on a jury, I would vote a resounding YES! He is! I wrote this because I want others who may be going through a crisis in faith to take a chance, pick up this book and decide for yourself that there is NO DOUBT!!! Although I know that I will forever carry a burden of great sadness for Gage and all that we will miss in this life, I also will carry HOPE AND ASSURANCE that we will be together again one day. And what a glorious day that will be!! P.S. You can watch the documentary on this book online, although, I wasn’t nearly as impressed by the film as I was the book because the book spells out in greater detail answers to some of the toughest questions that non-believers have. It even presents the opposite viewpoint, and how it is so fundamentally flawed. OH! And by the way, the author converted and now travels the world sharing the good news with others. Thank you Jesus for leading me to this book, once and for all erasing all doubt from my mind. "- Laurie Edwards