Conversations with My Fathers: My Earthly Father and My Heavenly Father

By Isabel Burlouse

The two months before Georges unexpected death served as a training ground for his salvation. George made comments almost foretelling his death, asked difficult questions about our heavenly Fathers existence, and claimed to have seen angels when close to death. These life events were undoubtedly orchestrated by our heavenly Father. George was not initiating dialogues with the Father, and his loved ones feared he would depart earth without forming a personal relationship with Him.

This is a real-life, God-inspired, story of how our heavenly Father uses faithful followers to disciple to others. He uses love, hope, and faith to inspire, awaken, and adopt His distant, rebellious, and orphaned children. Through heartfelt, detailed conversations with her earthly and heavenly fathers, Burlouse shares how He reveals His unfailing love for us. Although we have fathers on this earth, He is the only perfect father.

Conversations with My Fathers brings the hope of reconciliation and salvation to readers. It will forever change the way you view relationships with loved ones who are distant and/or do not have a relationship with the Father. It will move you to look and think about your current relationships with your parents, siblings, friends, and even strangers. Conversation questions at the end of each chapter will inspire you to initiate and experience your own conversations with your amazing heavenly Father.

While we may not all have a good earthly father, we all have a great heavenly Father. Life is a journey of discovering our true Fathers heart so we can live in the freedom of being a beloved son or daughter. This is a story of hope, healing, and reconciliation that will reveal the goodness of God in the midst of lifes pain. Isabel has taken her next step to share her story and will inspire you to do the same.

John Stickl, Lead Pastor, Valley Creek Church

Conversations With My Fathers is inspiring, motivating, and reassuring. Reading this book reminds me not to take life and those I love for granted. The beauty of the relationship between Isabel and her earthly and heavenly Father is breath taking. This book will move readers to understand the absolute truth that our heavenly Father is the only perfect father. This is a must read for all who yearn to understand the heavenly Fathers unfailing love for His children. I will heartily share this tender book with anyone who desires a closer walk with their earthly father and/or their heavenly Father.

Tyron Morgan

HEALING Hearts Ministries

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490884202

Isabel Burlouse

Isabel Burlouse is a mental health professional. She has worked in several settings, including outpatient and inpatient clinics, hospitals, and in private practice. She is active in her church small group, considers writing to be a form of ministry for her, enjoys her work in the mental health field, and is a busy mom to her enchanting children when not at work.

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Copyright © 2015 Isabel Burlouse.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8421-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8422-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8420-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015909697

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/20/2015

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue: His Story … My Heavenly Father’s Story

Chapter 1: We Enjoyed Our Day

Chapter 2: He Wants a Relationship with You

Chapter 3: God Is a Good God, Even at a Turtle’s Speed

Chapter 4: God’s Signs

Chapter 5: Conversations with My Father

Chapter 6: If It Is God’s Will, I Will Be There

Chapter 7: My Father’s Illuminating Celebration

Chapter 8: The Reunion with My Sisters

Chapter 9: God Revealed Our Father’s Salvation

Chapter 10: Grief and an Eternal Life: My Father’s PO Box

Chapter 11: I Saw Christ Through My Earthly Father

Chapter 12: Parenting: Through Discipline God Shows Us Our Destinies

Chapter 13: Our Heavenly Father Is The Only Perfect Father

Chapter 14: Conversations with My Heavenly Father And With My Earthly Father

Additional Interesting Anecdotes

Epilogue

Biography

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

—John 15:16

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

—Jeremiah 1:5

… you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

—Romans 8:15–17

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank God for orchestrating the circumstances in my earthly father’s life in the months before his death. I thank God for choosing me as His daughter and for guiding my conversations with my earthly father. My heavenly Father’s conversations with me about my earthly father deepened my faith in Him and led me to see He is the only perfect Father. He turned my sorrow into joy following my earthly father’s death. I saw He desired a relationship with my earthly father. What a privilege that my perfect heavenly Father desired a relationship with my daddy, with me, with you!

I thank God daily for communicating to me that He earnestly wants His children to know Him, to seek Him, and that He, the almighty Father, is always waiting. He does not need us, but He is love and always waits with open arms, regardless of how unworthy we are as sinful humans. My life was enriched by His Father-given insights, and I pray this book inspires conversations and affords readers the chance to be open-minded to His blessing, His desire to call you His son or daughter.

My family and closest friends provided me support and encouragement throughout the making of this book. I am grateful they are a part of my life. I am grateful that we do not have to face this world alone because He walks before us to face life’s trials. We are His children, and He is our Father. I thank Him for my conversations with Him, as they bring purpose to my life. Through the sharing of who He is, our perfect, loving Father, I am grateful that I can be His disciple, honoring Him and sharing His goodness and message with the world. In other words, He desires for you and me to have conversations with Him and with others as led by Him and, thereby, be a blessing, bear fruit, and disciple to the world.

Lastly, I consider it a privilege that such caring people (e.g., editors and the design team) helped create this book so wonderfully. I am forever grateful for the caring and talented individuals who helped develop this book.

PROLOGUE

HIS STORY … MY HEAVENLY FATHER’S STORY

It was about two in the morning when I woke up from a dream. I clumsily reached for the lamp because it was too dark to see. I turned on the lamp, got out of bed, opened the drawer in my nighstand, and reached for a random magazine I noticed. I skimmed the pages, tore off one with some open white space, and feverishly wrote down what I could recall from the dream. I dreamed I was writing the beginning of a book. I woke up after I saw myself close the book and read the title of what is now this book, Conversations with My Fathers: My Earthly Father and My Heavenly Father.

I believe I was merely an instrument, the pen if you will, and my heavenly Father was the author of what I had seen … this book.

This book details my perception of ordinary events made spectacular by my heavenly Father. These life events, like the dream, were no doubt inspired by my heavenly Father. During these events, I had conversations with my earthly father that I believe were inspired and led by Him, my heavenly Father. I believe He was strengthening His relationship with me, forming one with my earthly father, and through our lives, inspiring others to learn about and seek Him in their lives. This is a God-inspired, real-life story that tells of His amazing love and guidance, a kind that only can be provided by God, my heavenly Father.

These chapters tell how my heavenly Father moved in my earthly father’s life, in my life, and in the lives of those around me. At the surface, the main character of this story may appear to be my earthly father, or even me—that is, my thoughts and interpretations of these events. However, my heavenly Father was the orchestrator of these events and coordinator of my conversations with my earthly father. The main character of this story is my heavenly Father.

The conversations God inspired me to have with my earthly father reveal so much of who He is in His perfection, love, and righteousness. Through these conversations and memories of behaviors shown by my earthly father, God also spoke to me. He revealed to me His desire to teach, protect, and mold me so that I could share His ways with my earthly father and others. God was revealing Himself and His desire for my earthly father to want a relationship with his heavenly Father.

My earthly father was not a churchgoer, nor did he pray before every meal. In fact, I hardly ever saw him pray. My earthly father was the type of guy who would give his arm to a friend, if that friend asked for it. He was the life of any party, humorous, and a social butterfly. However, he did have a temper and a strong personality. Despite his temper and opinionated persona, he was very well liked, probably because of his charisma. He said he believed in God. However, besides being a good person and lending a hand to those around him, his statement that he believed in God was as much as I knew about his religious perspective or spirituality.

I didn’t really worry a whole lot about my earthly father’s salvation until I started seeing the steadily increasing whitening of his wavy hair, the more prominent wrinkles on his face, his slowed walk from years of arthritis in his knees, and a general increased gentleness in his spirit, which he did not always possess in his younger years. My father would soon turn sixty-nine, and he still wasn’t talking to me, my mother, or anyone close to him—that I knew—about our heavenly Father. I thought he needed to know God, his heavenly Father. My mother taught me about God at a very early age. I attended church with her since I could remember, and she never lost hope my father would go with us. I could count on fewer than two hands the number of times he attended worship service with us. I had faith that somehow, at some point, he would establish a relationship with Him. If God should take him, whenever that came, I wanted to be sure I would see him again in heaven. My earthly father needed to have conversations with my heavenly Father. This weighed heavily on my heart, and I asked my heavenly Father to hear my prayer and guide my conversations with my earthly father.

I believe my heavenly Father answered my prayers, guided my conversations with my earthly father, and directed our life circumstances in the months before his death. I believe He has the copyright to these conversations and revelations because it is His story to share. This is a story of renewal, transformation, and revelation through conversations with my two fathers: my earthly father and my heavenly Father. The Bible says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17 New International Version). Further, Scripture says renewal only occurs due to and, from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And [that God] … committed to us the message of reconciliation. [That] we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). I think God was making an appeal to my father through our conversations and attempting to reconcile my father to my heavenly Father.

The following chapters tell of how my Father moved in my life and in my earthly father’s life. Through sharing my conversations with my two fathers, I share how my heavenly Father accomplished one of His purposes in our lives. That is, I believe God meant these conversations, these experiences, to be shared and to bring the hope of redemption, reconciliation, and salvation to you. I hope these conversations open your heart to a dialogue with Him, as I believe that is His purpose for you and Him. I believe His ultimate desire for this book is to cause His orphaned, distant, overwhelmed, and/or lost children to be adopted, rekindled, and awakened by the only perfect father, our heavenly Father.

CHAPTER 1

WE ENJOYED OUR DAY

My parents’ vacation in our Richmond, Virginia, home turned out to be training ground for my father’s salvation and the beginning of an undesired nightmare for all involved. In late May 2003, my mother, Alicia, and father, George—or Papausito—decided to visit my fiancée and me before we moved to Texas. Christopher and I had lived in Richmond since 1999, and my parents had not visited me for at least three years. My parents’ finances weren’t good, and it was easier and less