Those crystal clear, beautiful, precious moments of God's GRACE!

The following is my first, I have a close second which I may post later.

I had a bad upbringing.
My mother gift pregnant with me out of wedlock. This was shameful for a Muslim family.
She was told to abort me. Taken to the clinic and was in the room.
At the last minute she said no. Her dad insisted but the surgeon refused because she said no.

As a result she was the black sheep of the family.
As a result she whilst getting growing up I suffered the brunt of it.

She never told me she loved me, other than when she was drunk, even then being told she loved me could be followed up with a barrage of abuse.

She threw me out when I was 14, she told the family I was gay and had aids amongst other stuff.

We never talked for about 5 years.

I came back to church after not going for 2 years. I went to one of the leaders and asked if we could meet up. He did not know me but agreed. I was really struggling.

When we meet he said "I've been praying this week and I really feel led to ask you about your mother"

I said what about her (we were not taking at that time) I gave a brief history.

He told me to spend some time. Pray to God and ask him to reveal all the stuff you have not forgiven her for, then pray over that and state that you forgive her, when you have done all that then burn the paper and tell God I'm letting it go.

I set aside a Saturday, started about 10 a.m. I finished about 4 p.m

I was shattered. Got something to eat and went to bed about 6.

I prayed "God thank you for today"

Then I heard God say to me "Bill ask me what I think about your mum"

So I did.

I just started crying. I cried for 8 hours solid, I implored God half way through to let me sleep cause I was tired but no.

For those 8 hours God laid on my heart how he weeps for my mum, he cries over her day and night.
As he started to reveal this I once again says please let me sleep.
He said no, there is more I want to reveal, your mother is a hurting woman, you have no idea what she had been through, you have no idea of her hurt and pain. I do. I love your mother so so much and I hurt because she does. You wrote a lot of stuff down today are you really ready to forgive?

That was the breaker for me, I just wrote down words on paper but they were just words but no love.

Then God says to me "Now pray for your mother"

When I did that I was sobbing lots and found myself imploring God "Please, please heal my mum, I have seen just a fraction of your pain for here, please restore us, I really can't take anymore please let me sleep.

I then feel asleep.

We are now restored

It took a few years, a loving wife who showed me how to love, God working in me to love her and truly let go of the past, my mum still walked in the past during this time. But as I walked in it our relationship is restored.

The defining moment when I knew restoration was complete was when one day when we went to see her. As I was leaving she gave me a hug and said "I love you" and I said it back and it was genuine.

The first time I had says it to her and the first time she says it to me whilst not drunk.

Praise Jesus and even now I'm very emotional typing this.

My mum became a Christian 10 years ago at the age of 60.

And God is truly working in her and continuing to release her from her past.

Sorry if some do not see this as precious moments of grace but for me it is.

It started with "Bill ask me about what I feel your mother"

It's his grace that restored our relationship, it's his grace that released me and my mum.

It's his grace that restored the relationship between him and my mum.

Thank you Jesus for saving my mum.

Not to even slightly minimize some of the incredibly great posts I've read on CC over the years, but THIS post Bill, is the most touching, impactful post that I have read in the almost 5 years I've been here.

Thank you so much for sharing it, and blessing us with recounting it! It really crystalizes God's awesome Grace, and how He works ALL things to His Glory and our good.

I was saved around the age of 11, immediately I found I became very sin
conscious, I use to go to bed every night and ask Jesus to forgive me all over
again. It’s only because I didn’t realise he had already done it all.

But yes you really do get a new heart of flesh instead of stone, there really is
a difference.

My friend went down to Virginia from Pa, last weekend to attend a function for his sister that lives there. He occasionally drives for UBER, and turned on the app on the way home, hitting the "going my way" setting. The app will only ping if a person is heading in the general direction you are going. In his case from Virginia back to Pa.

He got stuck in traffic around DC, but knew some local backroads that would get him out of it. But he forgot to turn off the UBER app.

Sure enough, it pinged for a fare. He absolutely was just going to forget it and move on. But something (the Lord) told him to go pick up the person.

When he got to the pickup he could see a woman in her early 40s coming to get in the car and she was obviously distraught. Some sort of terrible conflict with her husband. She said, "I know I put on the app Wal-mart, but I really want to go to the liquor store next to it". At this point, my friend asked if he could pray for her. So while driving, he held her hand and the Lord led him with uplifting and comforting words.

She got out of the car and headed to the liquor store. She reached the door, and turned around with tears in her eyes and asked my friend if he would just drive her home, and thanked him for showing such kindness.

He didn't think it appropriate to get her contact info, but we continue to pray for her, and his little sidetrack refreshed and renewed him maybe even more than her.

God is indeed wonderful! May we ALL pray that such opportunities will come our way, and when they do, that we respond in kind.

Tell your friend, I'm a bit annoyed with him. I have family in Virginia, so used to go down about 4-6 times a year, facing the dreaded Beltway each time. Beltway, by definition, means hit-or-miss on volume level. So, on occasion John would decide to get off Beltway to take back roads.

Every. Single. Time! We'd end up in some alarming neighborhood in D.C. where we absolutely knew we shouldn't be, and got lost. And since John is a man, (and we all know men do not stop to asks directions lol), we'd drive around for quite sometime, before finding an entrance back onto the Beltway. AND, every single time we'd be behind where we had gotten off and it was STILL a mess.

So your friend is a bit annoying because getting off the Beltway actually worked for him. lol

(Granted. All those trips to VA were before GPS.)

I had one of them moments of God's grace once. It was back when I was trying out alcohol for a year. (SPOILER: It ain't for me. Turns out alcohol is for people who hate their reality and want it to go away for a while. I like my reality.)

One Thursday I spent the day trying it out at some stronger levels of intoxication. The next Sunday the wife of my best friend asked me if I was alright. Yeah, I'm doing fine, why? She said "well, last Thursday I just felt like I should pray for you for some reason."

I acted puzzled, thanked her for her concern but assured her I was doing fine as far as I knew. But that let me know three things.
1. God knew where I was and what I was doing. Well I already knew that.
2. God could tell anybody where I was and what I was doing.
3. God cared about me enough to send me a message about this matter without telling other people all my secrets. He could have told the pastor to call my name from the pulpit and tell everybody what I was doing. But God can give a pointed message and be discrete at the same time if the circumstances need it.

God's ongoing Grace and plan for my life is incredible to look back and see, and to excitedly wait to watch what's next:

I can be a loose canon. Sometimes a loose canon miraculously hits a mark, but MOST times it wildly misses. God put the perfect woman in my life to steady that canon without putting it out of commission.

25 yrs ago today, I married this woman who exemplifies every day, the vows we made then: Truly an ongoing Precious Moment of God's Grace:


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Two recent God moments:
The Flower.
Hubby had a heart attack and wasn't expected to live. He was sent to a hospital in Philadelphia's University City. Might as well call it Hospital City, because there are more hospitals there than universities. I'm from South Jersey, but moved into the city in 1991.

New Jersey -- small state on a peninsula. If I got lost but kept driving, eventually I'd see the Atlantic Ocean, the Delaware Bay, the Delaware River, or a sign that says, "Welcome to New York." I'd be able to figure out which way to go home.

Now, living in Philadelphia, if I get lost, the Mississippi River might be my first sign of which wrong way I'm going. So, it still scares me driving over here.

University City. The most convoluted of all convoluted places in the city! (I have to drive around three sides of a block to get to the next corner to pull into the parking lot where I visit hubby now. I can see it at the first turn away from it.) Nothing but crowded places on top of crowded places divided by a river and expressway. (Both named The Schuylkill.) I felt lost without hubby. I felt more lost going around with hundreds of strangers around me rushing off to do whatever they were doing in that area, and buildings all so tall, I felt like an ant.

Jersey Girl, so when I feel like that I look for trees, grass, some form of God-made, not man-made. And I found it. A tiny pocket garden on top of marble enclosure between two hospitals -- the Children's Hospital and U. of Penn. Hospital. (Also across the street from Pearlman's Cancer Center.) Two five-foot high willow trees surrounded by ground covering and bordered by pansies.

It was Thanksgiving and then Christmas season. I know that ground cover. Lots of it, and it has tiny little purplish-blue flowers in September or October. I smoked on the marble wall specifically aimed at the vegetation, not the people scurrying by. One day I saw a little purple sticking out of the ground cover across the walk from me. (The pocket garden was divided by a walk, and the only place smokers could go for all three hospitals. lol) But something scary was happening with John, I was done my cig and had to rush back. Besides. It's the city, so probably trash.

Next day, I ended up in the exact same spot and saw it again. I went over to look at it.

Right there underneath huge buildings that made me feel like an ant, slightly away from throngs of people scurrying by and hiding out in ground cover was one tiny purplish-blue flower.

That was God telling me, "I see you. I am with you. Even in this crowd of humanity."

The Hallelujah Chorus.
Within that first month, John almost died from a heart attack, he was hooked up to a machine that took out all his blood, filtered it and then returned it for nine days, he got pneumonia, his kidneys stopped functioning (for a few days), and he had an infection so bad the doctor didn't think anyone could make it after what he went through. I'm thinking, "If he made it through that first night, he can make it through anything." But that's optimistic me thinking. I pulled into the parking garage below the Pearlman center asking God if he really would live or was I just getting my hopes up too high.

I first heard it on the elevator that took me to Pearlman's lobby. The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, but let's get real. The elevator had no Musiak and the lobby had no music. My ears were playing tricks on me. By the time we hit the lobby, I knew it really was what I thought it was. The choir was hitting the climax.

Sure enough -- a choir of high school kids, and man! They're good! I burst out crying, but with a big smile on my face.

God said, "I'm THAT God! No matter what happens, I'm THAT God."

I wanted to give them a good old fashioned woooooooooooooo when they finished, but you can't wooooo, while choking on tears.

On the way back to my car, I asked the Information Booth person where the choir came from. Back in the 1990's we belonged to a ragtag church, and one of the other members was a sweet teenage girl, who was a believer despite growing up with a heroin addict of a mom. Smart cookie! One of the smartest people I've ever met. And she lived with a good Christian foster family trying to adopt her. She was accepted into one of the first Magnet Schools in the city -- GAMP. That's where the choir was from. I wrote a thank you e-mail to the choir's director. The choir was from my part of the city too!

Hi guys. Wanted to update you on just how the fruit of God is carried forth by the Body of Christ. And how active His incredible Grace is in our lives.

Some of you may remember our men's fellowship group went to Philadelphia to help former CC member Lynn (Depleted) with a few projects at her house. Her, and her husband John were very grateful, and we were very grateful they allowed the Lord to use us to bless them. Usually when someone you have never met before asks if they can do stuff for you, you might be a little hesitant that there may be ulterior motives.

Well they were both in not the greatest health, and had limited funds. But money was not our objective at all. So they were very thankful.

About 2 yrs go by with very limited contact when we got an email from Lynn that her father had passed away and had left her a small inheritance. She and John prayed on it, and decided that they wanted to give a fair amount to our men's group!

Our first thought was not to accept it. But then we thought, who were we to deny giving them the opportunity to bless others?

So a little while passed, and an opportunity came to purchase, with some of Lynn and John's donation, several mattresses for a single mom, with 2 small children, who had many health issues of her own, her having survived, although badly damaged, in a fire.

This past week we learned that one of the group's men, had a granddaughter that was in CHOP (Hospital). She is 2 yrs old, and at first they thought she had an ear infection. But then, she couldn't sit up or walk without falling right over on her side.

After an MRI they saw that she had a golf ball sized tumor on her brain stem/skull. She immediately had very dangerous surgery, and they believe they removed it all from the region. And don't think there was any neurological problems from the surgery. Unfortunately, the tumor is cancerous. Today they are doing a spinal tap which should reveal if cancer cells are present elsewhere in her body. They will then determine further treatment.

Obviously her family is devastated. Not only by the medical condition, but that they had to take FMLA at their jobs. They are not good financially as well.

In the midst of all this tragedy we collected funds for them, and added in the remainder of the money Lynn had sent us. They also did not want to accept it, but finally did, and we are praying this small gesture renewed, or in some cases, brought Him new to some to, a love for the Lord.

Obviously I'd like to ask all to pray for this little girl, (Hadley) her family, and all the Drs. at CHOP. But also to rejoice in seeing how the Lord can, and does bless people far down the line of YOU receiving His blessings and Grace!

We have been involved in several projects that have kept us away from CC for a while. When we returned a few weeks ago, Lynn was no longer active. Thank you for the update. Please pass our love and blessings to her and John.

As many of you know, we were in the western eye wall of hurricane Michael this time last year. Although our church was not usable, our open pavilion to hold services under. By the Sunday morning after the storm, the community working together, had cleared a path wide enough for our members to gather together to hold a prayer service. In two weeks, thanks to a donation from a church in Jacksonville, we were able to restore our sanctuary to a usable meeting place. Today we still have much to do before we finish our restoration. Most of our damage is covered by insurance, but the insurance company has yet to reach an agreement with our contractor's estimate to repair. We have put it in God's hands. He has never failed us. He has continued to provide the resources to continue all of our ministry programs.

The greatest blessings come when we are willing to let God use us. Keep up the good work.

Hadley, and her family are on our prayer list. Please keep us updated.

A while back I related how one of our main product lines was shutting down which caused about 1/3 of the workforce to be laid off.

Well, 8 months later we knew something was up as there were a number of unfamiliar faces in suits milling about.
They decided to shut down the whole facility. Hard news indeed. A very dour mood to all of us remaining.
Yrs ago, I would have been worried, angry, and maybe even bitter. Some here were.

I went back to my work, and said a prayer to God that I trusted Him in this situation. Not 15 minutes later I got a call that my manager wanted to see me. What now, I thought!

I was ushered into a conference room and had the door shut behind me. Some of the upper management from another state was there.

They said that another company, that a product line that I work on, that they were buying, wanted me to go with them, only about 10 minutes further away!

Fantastic right? Well the Lord wasn't finished. They then offered me a retention bonus to stay on through the transition!
Not done!

My current company also said I would get my FULL severance package REGARDLESS when I transferred, even though the final shutdown won't be for 6 months!

to my knowledge, myself, and an engineer were the only ones offered a position.

Truly our heavenly Father loves and cares for us, and I love and thank Him.