But God: Finding God’S Wisdom in Everyday Life
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About this ebook
Influenced by a sermon many years ago, Pat Stonestreet has learned to look at her life through the words But GOD. With the knowledge that He alone has authored her life story with the usual mixture of joy and sorrow, success and failure, good times and bad, she testifies to how simple daily life has drawn her closer and closer to GOD.
Pat, in turn, invites you to use the lens of But GOD thinking to discover a new way of viewing how God might be working in your own daily life to bring you to a closer relationship with Him.
Foreword by John Stonestreet, a speaker and writer for Summit Ministries and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and the voice of The Point, a daily radio feature on faith, culture, and worldview.
Pat Stonestreet
Pat Stonestreet and her husband of over forty-five years live just outside of Winchester, Virginia. She has spent most of her life enjoying the But GOD moments of being a mother, grandmother, teacher, and executive director of a pregnancy center.
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But God - Pat Stonestreet
Contents
Foreword
Dedication
Introduction
Another Birthday
Words and Thoughts
A Father’s Arm
Sovereignty
New Thing
Doing My Job
A Child’s Wisdom
The Game
At the Foot of the Cross
In His Presence
It Was a Gideon Thing
Daughter
Always the Same
Hidden Gifts
The Elusive Gene
In His Stillness
Ready or Not
One Man—An Open House to the Universe
A Witness to Grace
Prayer for My Children
Gentleness and Grace
Devoted to GOD
Lessons of Truth
Come, Let Us Worship!
Jonah’s Purpose
Wait While You Wait
A Divine Appointment
The Gentle Whisper
The Babies
The Enigma of God’s Glory
GOD’s Classroom
I Believe; Help Me
Our Miracle
The Little Things
It’s What’s Inside
Prayer Warrior
More Than We Could Ask
Am I Listening?
Heroes
From the Ancient of Days
After Good Friday
Foreword
IT’S A LITTLE strange to write a foreword for your mother. I suppose I may as well admit that I’m not a neutral reviewer, and that what I say here will certainly be biased. Nevertheless, I will be blunt: I think you should read this book. I really do.
I think you should read this book not primarily because you will find new insights about God and how He deals with His children, though you likely will. Nor do I think you should read this book because it offers targeted encouragement for those in seasons of winning or losing, though it does. I’m not even suggesting you read this book because the author is a wonderful mother, though she is.
You should read this book because wisdom is hard to find these days, especially wisdom about the real business of living while trusting God. Bumper sticker slogans and cheesy one-liners about faith are easy to come by, but wisdom is not. Solomon suggests wisdom is best found in the counsel of wise guides.
As biased as I may be, I say without hesitation and with all conviction that the author of this book is a wise guide. I watched my mother wrestle with a God who wishes to be known and loved, serve people who often did not deserve it, and rest in grace and hope when certainty was nowhere to be found. I am a witness to the journey that birthed the lessons contained in this book, and they are lessons we all need to hear.
John Stonestreet
May 22, 2011
Dedication
To those who live in the pages of this book:
My husband, who knows me better than anyone and
accepts me as I am;
My children, who have been and still are great teachers;
My parents, who have always believed I can
actually write a book;
My grandchildren, who have filled my life
with joy and laughter;
My staff at AbbaCare, who became my dear friends;
And most of all, My Precious Lord,
Who has sent but GOD
times on this earth to
make me long
for the eternity I will enjoy with Him in heaven.
Introduction
MANY YEARS AGO, I heard a sermon based on Paul and Silas’s miraculous deliverance from prison as recounted in Acts 16. One particular line found its mark in my heart: "But GOD in His mercy sent an earthquake." As I look back over much of my life, I can see how the words but GOD helped me view blessings and challenges alike from His point of view. Twelve years ago I embarked on a new career as the executive director of the local pregnancy center, and I found that the but GOD moments in my life became more defined and more easily recognizable. Although my time at the center ended a year ago, I am more and more convinced that my life has been filled with a myriad of but GOD moments. Writing this book has clarified them in my memory and has also helped me see the present from that viewpoint.
I find that too often we make plans and forge ideas based on our own finite abilities. But GOD wants to amaze and delight us with His blessings and grace, and uses but GOD moments to do just that. It might be a major miracle like the one Paul and Silas experienced in the prison at Philippi, but more often it turns out to be a small revelation designed to personally reach our hearts and perhaps those of a few people close to us. I believe that such small but GOD moments are sent to enhance our relationship with the Sovereign God who instigated them for just that purpose.
My prayer is that the mostly small but a few major but GOD moments that are shared in these pages will help you to find your own such times; and that as you do, you will be drawn ever closer to the God who finds pleasure in making them happen to meet our needs and to glorify His name.
Perhaps you will want to take a minute and write down your but GOD thoughts as you allow your mind to be enticed by His love.
I encourage you to read the context of the Scripture passages given and to allow GOD to speak through them to you. There is a place at the end of each section for you to record those thoughts He sends to you.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®. NIrV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978,1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. Allrights reserved.
Another Birthday
SCRIPTURE:
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be
—Psalm 139:14
black.jpg ONE YEAR ON my birthday, I asked God to give me a special Scripture. This request was made long before I knew that Psalm 139 was where God stated His view on the pre-born. At that time, I thought Psalm 139 was God’s confirmation that He knew exactly what He was doing when He made me and that He had not made a mistake in the life He had given me. Each year, I have returned to that wonderful passage and found new insights into His purpose for my life and His love for my soul.
This year I have joined the ranks of Medicare and Social Security, but my age hasn’t changed the fact that God still has a special reason for the remaining days written in His book just for me. I am challenged to find this reason and to live my days in a way that glorifies and pleases Him. This is not an arduous task for He has promised to go with me and direct my steps, as He has for the first sixty-five years of my life. He brightens my path with a myriad of blessings, both small and large. The earthly gifts of family and friends fill my days with so much pleasure, but GOD has also placed heavenly promises in His Word that are more real to me now as I grow closer to their fulfillment. As I spend time with Him, I see not only what He has done for me but also who He is.
In the last century, Oswald Chambers wrote:
"O could I tell, ye surely