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 Chapel
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Valleys
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The year was about 1973. Our situation was what I considered grave. We were trying to buy 2 little houses in Florida, and we were renting the smaller of the two in order to be able to make the payments on both of them. The only problem was, the last tenants had moved out abruptly, leaving the house in a shambles, and with a termite infestation that noone had bothered to mention.
When I walked into the little house, I got sick. Termites had destroyed the bathroom floor until the commode was tilted with half of the base fallen through. The old metal shower stall was completely demolished, and the kitchen was virtually destroyed. The most disheartening aspect of the whole situation was the fact that we had no money, and without the income from the smaller house we couldn't even pay the rent. The problems seemed desperate and hopeless. Prayer was our only option, and we made complete and constant use of it.
Suddenly, for some strange reason, the store I worked in decided to remodel, and that required getting rid of a number of very sturdy, formica-covered display cases which were quite large. When I asked for them, the manager gave them to me for nothing. At about the same time, one of the local churches was remodeling, and had a number of partial sheets of drywall left over... guess who got them for nothing. Finally, my brother-in-law had gathered a number of pieces of beams from the work he did, which was aluminium installation.
Being somewhat of a "Jack of all trades", I immediately set to work rebuilding our little rental house with all the materials God had so graciously provided. On weekends and evenings I was able to restore the structure to a much better condition than it had ever been in before. My brother, who had rented it at one time, walked in and said: "I don't believe this!" The place was actually beautiful, especially the bathroom, which now had a termite-proof aluminium based floor support, and a bathtub/shower that my brother-in-law had found in somebody's trash pile. The kitchen had formica-covered wall cabinets and a kitchen sink cabinet made from the display cases the store had discarded.
One evening, when I was nearly finished with the work and was feeling quite happy about the results, I gathered my tools and started across the yard to the other house. Suddenly I saw a vision before me! I was looking down a valley where the path was rising to high ground. At the very top of the valley's end, I saw the Lord himself, sitting on his throne and smiling.
He said: "I've just been sitting here waiting for you to come through." Then the vision vanished.
Are you in a deep, dark valley in your life where both sides seem insurmountable... impossible to climb? Does the path ahead seem impassable, covered with obstructions and thorny brush? Does it seem there is no way out? Well, remember this, somewhere farther along, this path will open up more and more, and the light will begin to come through. There, at the very end, you'll find the Lord, watching over your journey and waiting patiently for you to make it through. The important thing to know is that He is there, and you have never been out of his sight. Whatever you need will be given, one way or the other. Remember what His Word says...
Hebrews 13:5... "...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
...And God's Word is never wrong.
In Jesus' Name,
AMEN
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