God is good in EVERY way!

GREAT news!! They found out that Jerrod will NOT need to have any chemo or radiation, which ultimately means the tumor is benign!! Praise God!!!

I hope you are keeping up with everything Jerry and Carla have written, and if so you will have seen how much God has worked through them and that God continues to lay incredible lessons on their hearts. Here is the latest from Jerry-it speaks to me on so many levels, as I imagine it will for you:

I feel compelled to write something else briefly. I have always heard the phrase "everything happens for a reason." I have said it too and I totally understand what everyone means when they say it. But I want you to consider something. I really don't believe that everything happens for a reason. What I believe is that everything happens. And for those who love the Lord He will work everything (both good and bad) together for their good. Nothing bad comes from God. We can be thankful to God for everything good. But in my opinion we can't assign blame for anything bad to God. For example, I have made so many bad decisions in my life. I have had so much sin in my life. God certainly did not cause me to sin. But amazingly He can take those bad decisions and those sins and teach me something beautiful. He can use my mistakes to help me teach and minister to others. Who knows why bad things happen - but they do. It rains on the just and the unjust. The sun provides us with vitamin D and too much sun can cause cancer. God provided all things good, but he put a world in motion and we must live in a world that is not our home. We must remember this world is not Heaven. We were never intended to live in these bodies forever. We don't understand everything and we never will, but this I know... God is good and He works all things together for good for those who love him. Both good things and bad things and yes even our sin and mistakes. God is faithful even when we are unfaithful. So, I don't mean to insult anyone in any way if you happen to use the phrase "everything happens for a reason." And I totally understand what you mean and I love the heart that says it, because I believe they mean the very same thing I am saying. It is probably just a matter of semantics. I just want to be sure we are giving God only praise, only glory, only thankfulness for all that is good - and NONE of the blame for anything bad. He loves us and uses our hardships to teach us and pull him closer. But remember there is an enemy who wants to destroy us... just know it's not the God we love, serve and worship. I really hope that is not offensive in ANY way to anyone. I just felt a need in my heart to say those things because I know some people struggle with some of those issues. So, whatever is going on in your life right now, whatever worries you have, whatever challenges you face - take some time to thank God for his goodness. Thank Him for the way He will use those things in your life to bless you and others with what you will learn. But please don't blame Him.

I also find it interesting that the Bible makes reference to our being tested by receiving praise. I don't believe God sends these things as a test. Everything you face in life both good and bad are tests. And I find praise to be a greater test than trials. When I face trial, I have no place to go but to lean on the Lord. When I receive praise I am tempted to have pride. And I have decided that if you trace any sin back to it's root, you will find pride as the seed. I may be wrong about that - in fact I may be wrong about every single thing I just wrote. So, meditate and pray about it - don't take my word for anything. I have found that if I am right 50 percent of the time it's not a bad average. But all I know is that GOD IS GOOD IN EVERY WAY!

So, once again I apologize for sermonizing but it has been on my heart and I just had to put it in writing.

I love you all in ways I didn't know were even within my limited capacity,

jerry