Lord, Is This You?; Yes, It Is!; A Memoir

By Brenda Ann Green

This writing started out as a simple desire to write a person's story of her life experiences based on her testimony. My inspiration evolved into a testimonial for God--seeing how God would move on our behalf to orchestrate events in our lives, working through the people we know or don't know to bring those events to pass.

Orchestration of miracles is a specialty of God's. He's been doing it since the beginning. He orchestrated us having a Savior to bring to us salvation and eternal life through our faith in Him, our Lord Jesus Christ. I've learned that God has already orchestrated many blessings, directions, or actions we're to take in our lives in the heavenly realm that only need to be brought to the natural. We bring things to the natural by faith through prayer, through our taking action on our dreams, and through obeying what we know God has spoken to us to do, and especially if it is on our hearts to do something for someone else.

So what is my opinion about cremation after my experience? I was reminded that God is the greatest Orchestrator of all time. Only He could have arranged the events that I have documented in this writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781685264673

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Ernestine's Story

Meaningful Encounters

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

My Testimony Lord, Is This You? Yes, It Is!

April 2013

Conclusion

Putting It All Together

Encouraging Scriptures

Encouraging Praise Songs

About the Author

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Lord, Is This You?; Yes, It Is!; A Memoir

Brenda Ann Green

ISBN 978-1-68526-466-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68526-467-3 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Brenda Ann Green

All rights reserved

First Edition

The Holy Bible, King James Version Nashville, TN, Broadman & Holman Publishers. Copyright 1982. All rights reserved.

Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved.

The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

(Some names and locations in this work have been changed.)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Acknowledgments

To God be the glory for the things that He has done.

Thank you to Iris Allen and Kaye Plair for their dedication in reading and editing this manuscript before it went to the publisher.

I thank Bishop Garland Heggie for all the spiritual counseling that he gave to me, helping me to answer the question: Lord, Is This You?

Preface

We all probably have a testimony of many miracles and blessings that the Father gives to each of us during our lifetime. Have you had the chance to look back and contemplate on the miracles God has performed? Google defines a miracle as a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency. Google may not know it or may be trying to be politically correct to say, a divine agency. I know it is God who performs miracles.

There are the wondrous miracles of the heavens like how the stars, sun, and moon stay in place and how they know when to come out and let us see them. There is that of a baby being born; remember that day of your child's birth? There are the miracles of daily living like a financial blessing that comes when needed or a relative or friend who comes by at the right time. What about your marriage; how did you meet your spouse? Or a missing child returning home, or deliverance from an addiction after many years of being in bondage to it? There are healing miracles still. He will give you all kinds of miracles. I've experienced the miracle of paying off my home mortgage within five years and a vehicle loan in two; and no, I am not rich. Mostly, I find myself having just been in the right place at the right time to receive a miracle.

There are all of the miracles Jesus performed during his ministry, healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. It is more important to note that He healed all who believed. Then there is the salient one which was the raising of Jesus from the dead. This single miracle made it possible for us to be raised one day to eternal life through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Your miracle could be a full-blown orchestration of an event.

This writing started out as a simple desire to write a person's story of her life experiences based on her testimony. My inspiration evolved into a testimonial for God—seeing how God would move on our behalf to orchestrate events and perform miracles in our lives, working through the people we know or don't know to bring these events to pass. Only a little of Ernestine's story will be told to get there. None of these incidences were a coincidence. The purpose of this writing is to tell about what God did at the end of one person's life, and hopefully you will have hope in what He can and will do in yours at the beginning, at the middle, or at the end—which brings me to my introduction.

Introduction

Iremember my first memorial service for a cremation. There were beautiful vibrant white flowers everywhere on wreaths with bold green stems. Even the lighting was perfect with the afternoon sun shining through the windows just right, making it a lovely atmosphere. The big church was filled with family and friends. As I looked down toward the flowers, I kept feeling something was missing. I looked around the church like one normally does and looked again at the flowers and thought, Something's not there. Where is the body! I kept watching for them to bring in the coffin. It was almost a feeling of why are we here? Then, I saw the urn and realized that the deceased had been cremated. In sort of a daze I sat there thinking, Oh my goodness, they've cremated her. It was strange. Actually, a slight feeling of anger came over me, figuring that the family had done something that the deceased did not want.

Later I learned that this was the request of the deceased; this was something she wanted. I was stunned at first when I heard that. Maybe she was just sitting around talking about it and said that was what she wanted, but she was just talking and really didn't mean it. Just talking, but when the actual time came, it was too late to change her mind. Who would want to be cremated? Why would a person want to be cremated?

The next thing I knew, it seemed like I was going to cremation memorial services all of the time. The growing number of cremations being done among people that I knew concerned me—even touching my own participation in a near decision to have a person cremated. At each memorial service, I had the same thought: Why was cremation chosen? Families that I never thought were for it were cremating their loved ones, mostly because of the person's wishes. Age didn't matter. Most family members just said, He (she) wanted to be cremated. And for some, it was either that there was no life insurance or no money to bury the person or the body of the deceased had become unrecognizable. In the case of Ernestine—the person who inspired this writing—it was considered because there was neither life insurance nor money for a funeral. Along with that, there was not a burial plot which might be considered the most important issue when you're thinking of a burial.

The number of cremations in the United States has risen tremendously. According to the National Funeral Directors Association's (NFDA) projected Cremation and