The Loss of My Dearest Property

I'm visiting Chicago these days.
Sunday while I was in Church, my sister's bag was stolen.

In the bag was my Bible. I didn't know it was so dear to me that I'd cry when loosing it. But it was.
It's the one thing in my life I need the most. Not because it's a book. It's more than a book.

It is the living,

life changing,

peace restoring,

strength giving,

never failing,

joy restoring Word of God.

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Even if I am very sorry for loosing my Bible, what's happened is a blessing to me. A blessing because it was an answer to my prayer to love the Word of God.

I've wanted deeply to be addicted to it,

to believe it,

to cherish reading it,

to be drawing my strength from it.

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Please pray for the new owner of my Bible, he needs prayers very much, and God loves him just as much as He loves me. I am nothing better than he (or she) who stole my things, because I am just as much a sinner. I was, I am and I will continue to be a sinner for as long as I live. I am only righteous through God's grace. And I am blessed through this loss, because it led me closer to God. It doesn't mean that stealing my sister's bag was a good thing to do. It simply means that God turned evil into blessing.

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What a beautiful God I serve!

He knows my every need, He hears my hearts every sigh.

He provides my everything,

He let me die to sin and raise to a new life in Him,

a life in which the blessings are many.

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I got a new Bible from the church I was in. Another blessing.

Praise The Lord.

The Name of a Hot Stone

I have been praying for almost half a year to find where The Lord wanted me go after finishing school and what He wanted me to do.

He answered me just a few weeks ago, and after that, things have went so fast and worked out so well that I stand puzzled and amazed back, shaking my head in wonder.

I'm going to be an au pair in Ireland.

I have never been to the country before and even if I speak English fluently my name is unpronounceable in English. People rarely understand it's a name at all.

So I was sitting in the backseat of car, thinking about what on Earth I was going to call myself next year.

I was just about to pray that The Lord would give me a name, when He did.

Rizpah.

I knew it was a Biblical name, so I sat down on the computer later, to try to look up it's meaning.

Rizpah is Hebrew, meaning coal or hot stone.

I remember leaning my head back asking: Lord, why did you give me the name of a hot stone?

He didn't answer right away, but later when I sat by myself on the coach in the living room, I understood why:

Coal is the material which after many years and hard pressure turns into a diamond.

Oh Lord, I thank you that you have given me a name that promises that you will continue the good work you have started in me! You are my peace, my joy and my strenght. I know you will guide me.

Peace be with all of you

Your sister in Christ,

Rizpah