Celebration: {Day 15} More from Chuck and Irene

Hurray!  Mr. and Mrs. B. are back with more about the grace God has shown them.  Life isn't all roses, as their testimonies show, but God's grace is still present - perhaps even more beautiful and precious through the difficulties.

 

- - -

 

 

While there is so much grace for our lives, we thought that we might share a summarized list.

 

We both heard the gospel as children, and God has given us the grace to be saved.  We are so grateful as finding grace in His sight, He knows us by name (Exodus 33:17).

 

After the abuse Irene received in her childhood, God has given us the grace to forgive.  Let us forgive as God through Christ has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).

 

I (Chuck) was very shy as a youth, so one of the hardest things in the world was to say anything publicly.  And yet by God's grace and power, He has made me His minister (Ephesians 3:7).

 

After our son, Micah, was killed, we struggled for happiness, and yet we never lost our joy or had any anger in our souls.  Though suffocating in grief, we could finally breathe again through God's "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians 2:16).

 

After a betrayal by allies [ministry partners], God has granted the grace to never quit, and never to grow bitter or defiled (Hebrews 12:15).  Both grace and truth are from our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

 

When our granddaughter, Taylor, was weakened in cancer and pain, standing at her bedside, God has given the grace to keep hoping on.  Boldly, we sought God's throne of grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

 

Standing by the fresh grave of our little grandson, Lincoln, we clung to that grace of the Blessed Hope in resurrection.  People held us in prayer to know God's exceeding grace (2 Corinthians 9:14).  And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ met us in our spirits (Philemon 25).

 

When our little grandson, Asher, was born deaf, we found the grace to be strong and to keep trusting on.  Through faith, God's people are strong through the grace of Christ (2 Timothy 2:1).

 

Both of our daughters gave birth through very difficult, life-threatening experiences, but through grace they lived to raise their families.  God once again has multiplied His grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2).

 

Seeking to serve faithfully in missions, God has led so clearly - but in His time as to where to go.  God gives grace and glory while "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11).

 

We labored where religious traditions have held the masses in deception, yet God has given the grace to weep for their souls.  We trust a remnant shall be saved "according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5).

 

Irene has suffered for years, while waking in nights and limping through life from her pain in a shattered ankle, by grace waiting patiently for a new body to come.  She has found God true, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

 

Through the unnumbered threats of death through fire, accidents, struggling planes, collisions, and the illness of life against our families, God has granted to the living the grace to live another day.  The Lord's grace is exceeding abundant in faith and love (1 Timothy 1:14).

 

When God's children travel through the storms of life, aren't we grateful for His grace to find the harbors and seasons of peace!  Looking for our final harbor, then let us finish our course with joy while testifying of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).

 

"Grace be with you all.  Amen."  (Titus 3:15)

 

Chuck B.