Hotel Day 3 - Healing and Rejoicing!

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 - "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. "

Rejoicing! What a joyful precept of God's word! Because Jesus has sufferred, we are encouraged, commanded and enabled to rejoice. In this passage, we have an imperative command to rejoice, and we ought even to rejoice at the mention of a command to rejoice. Here, the apostle, Paul, speaks to the church of the Thessalonians of rejoicing as a personal, present, permanent duty to be always carried out by the people of God. The Lord has not left it to our own option whether we will sorrow or rejoice, but He has pinned us down to it by positive injunction here in 1 Thessalonians —“Rejoice evermore.” This command to rejoice is set in the midst of a passage of duties, and just after the text, comes a flavor of trouble and bitterness and a command to "hold fast to what is good."

A quote from C.H. Spurgeon pertaining to this passage comes to mind: " Suppose some other kind of trial should come upon you? You are still to rejoice in the Lord always. The dearest friend is dead—“rejoice evermore.” The sweet babe is sickening, the darling of your household will be taken away— “rejoice evermore.” Trade is ebbing out, prosperity is disappearing from you—you may even be brought to poverty— but, “rejoice evermore.” Your health is affected, your lungs are weak, your heart does not beat with regularity, very soon you may be sick unto death, but, “rejoice evermore.” Shortly you must put off this tabernacle altogether! Tokens warn you that you must soon close your eyes in death, but, “rejoice evermore.” There is no limit to the exhortation! It is always in season! Through fire and through water, through life and through death, “rejoice evermore.”

So how do we rejoice in such a time of sufferring? Think upon none other than that Holy and lovely one, whom gave Himself for thee, on Golgotha's hill. Think of the love of the Father, who gave this, His one begotten Son for the ones of His that would be saved. Think of the Father's love flowing down from his merciful and gracious hand of perfection, sovereignty, and abounding beneficence toward me and you, His people. People of our God, we must rejoice in His promises, rejoice in His being, and rejoice in His dear son, the one who is altogether lovely, Jesus Christ. Children of God, think of the Holy Spirit and rejoice in Him as dwelling in you, quickening you, comforting you, illuminating you,and abiding with you forever. Think of the Triune God and be blessed. I believe in our right mind, every doctrine of Gospel will give us due reason to rejoice, every promise will make us glad, and every precept will fulfill our every longing for joy. Rejoice with us in Christ Jesus, as we conquer and overcome, just as we rejoiced in the midst of the sufferring. Victory in Chirst is sweetest when the depth of sufferring is deepest and the height of His revealed glory is highest!

Today has been even slightly better than yesterday and Lacey continues to need less and less pain meds, although she is still hurting severely at times. Food proves to be moving through her system as desired by the surgical team(and designed by God!) and she was able to get out to a baby boutique today and do a little looking around. She enjoyed the outing and we continue to praise God for his many blessings, which are too numerous to name. As this begins to end and our time for departure home draws near, we continue to count our many blessings and attempt to name them one by one. As we do this, we see and know that God has been extremely gracious to us and we continue to thank Him.
Lacey intended to be the blogger tonight and she is not feeling that great at the time so I decided to take advantage of another opportunity to blog (as you all may well know by now how much I enjoy it). Her blood sugars continue to be "out of whack" and are difficult to control. Once a day for the past 3 days she has had an episode of low blood sugar and today it was 51 and she almost lost consiousness. We are good at feeding her sugar until she comes around the sugar returns to a normal level. We are hoping to get some better management formulas from the surgeon, and the nurse today informed me that the islets were working some and that is the reason the sugar is so hard to control. This is a good problem to have at this point and we are thankful that the transplanted islets are seemingly working. Look for info on tomorrow's blog for a possible homecoming date and we are really hoping to be heading south by early to mid next week. I can't thank you all enough for your continued love, support, and prayers for Lacey and me as we continue to endure this difficult but yet glorious time.