The Latest

Right before leaving for church last Wednesday night my parents received some great news about their trial. Their new attorney asked for a 60 day extension on the sentencing and 30 days to reply to the Motion for New Trial and the judge actually granted it! This may seem like nothing to you all, but it's a miracle of gigantic proportions considering this judge! This essentially means that he has agreed to put their sentencing off for 60 days giving the attorney plenty of time to compose a powerful motion for the judge to vacate the judgment due to the fraud committed at trial and us more much needed time to continue to pray for all the details of the case. We didn't even think he would allow my parents to get a new attorney; everything that came in seemed* to indicate that the judge wasn't going to allow anything to postpone sentencing.

*(The Lord has been reinforcing the conviction that a lot of things really are not as they seem in life; faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. Before God parted the Red Sea no one had ever seen it done before. Nothing is impossible with God. Not one thing. Just because the judge has never granted anything in our favor before doesn't mean that he won't grant the things that really matter later. And just because nearly everyone that we know of in our situation has gone to prison, doesn't mean that my parents will.)

The attorney told my parents that he always asks for 60 days, but he never expects to get that many. He expected 30 or less. My parent's response to that was that they'd be doing good if they got 14 days! That's just the way things have gone in the case....until now. God gets all the glory for the good response. We've been praying fervently for this judge. The sentencing is rescheduled for May 1 at 9:00 a.m. We are praying and expecting God to have the entire case expunged. Is this too big for God? God is waiting for us to ask, believing that He will give us the desires of our hearts. He is a prayer hearing, prayer answering God.

I'm completely convinced that God didn't allow my parents to win the trial because that would have been too easy for Him. God wants us to expect great things from Him before He will give us great things. Believing after a miracle occurs is not faith. God wants us to believe before the miracle so He can truly show us His power.

I've said from the beginning that I can't wait to see what God is going to do next. Each time He answers a prayer, my excitement mounts. When I allow God to take away my fear of everything except Him, I find that trials can actually become kind of fun. Each moment of every day is lived in expectancy and anticipation of seeing God's power in my life. God's promises are there for me to claim, but they are not mine until I actively claim them as my own.