I want to thank all those who have visited and read this blog site and who have been very supportive. It has been a great joy to be a part of this and share God’s Word and my journey. I give God all the glory for what He has done and is doing in my life. It truly has been “Grace for life!” His Word is life-changing. It is hard to believe, but I will be coming up on three years of being on dialysis. I never thought I would be in this place at this time in my life. Who would? Receiving this treatment requires about eighteen hours my week, including driving time. That may not seem like a lot to most people. I would rather be using that time for something else. I figured that I have had two needles put in my one arm to transfer blood to a machine and put back over 432 times in three years. I have to say it hasn’t been fun. Yet this treatment is keeping me alive in part, but I give God the credit for sustaining me. I also had my gallbladder out a year ago, with complications, and they said several times I had cancer in the gallbladder duct, but God took care of that! No cancer, praise God! ( Psalm 107:20). My wife is a prayer warrior! She is not only a mama bear for her kids but also for her husband. “No Devil, you take your hands off my husband in Jesus’ Name, by the stripes of Jesus he is healed!”Thanks honey! You are the best!
As Christians, we are living in two realms. The natural and the spiritual. In the natural, I am going through this storm in my life. What the doctor says, what the treatment does, and what I need to do naturally to stay healthy. In the spiritual, there is a greater reality than what I’m facing in the natural. This reality needs to be my anchor in life. I’m not asking God to heal me; he already has, according to His Word. I’m not fighting to get healed, but to walk in my healing, fighting against and resisting sickness and disease. In my case, fighting against kidney failure and its symptoms. Despite what I’m dealing with, I am healthy otherwise! I’m living my life. I refuse to be depressed and down. I am pursuing God with all my heart and doing what he has called me to do! My wife and I are doing many things to be a blessing to our family and the body of Christ in whatever way God desires.
Do I ever get tempted to be down, feel like giving up, get weary, question God, or feel like, “Why is it taking so long?” Well, of course, I get tempted. I am human. But I am not just human with feelings and emotions. I am a spiritual being! I have the life of God within me. I am a new creation in Christ, a joint heir with Christ. I am filled with the Holy Spirit. I have to see myself as God sees me in Christ. This is not a denial of what is happening in the natural. I’m saying that it is not the only reality. There is a spiritual reality of the truth of God’s word that supersedes what is happening in the natural. It is the life of faith, hope, and love. Hebrews 11:1 (AMP)-1 NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Faith will bring what is true in the spiritual into the natural realm.(Hebrews 11:3, 2 Cor. 4:18). That is the power of the seed of God’s Word planted in our hearts to bring a harvest of blessings. ( 2 Cor 1:20).
Yes, we face many storms in life. Jesus said we would. ( John 16:33). He also said we would overcome because He has overcome the world, and he tells us to be of good cheer, to have courage and peace no matter what. The Bible tells a story of the disciples when they faced a storm in the evening on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had just finished ministering to the multitudes, and needing rest, he decided to take a trip across the lake in a boat. He said,” Let us go over to the other side.” We read this story in the Gospel of Mark, chapter four. (Mark 4:35-41). It was a mega storm that suddenly came upon them. Huge waves of water were splashing and filling the boats. They were violently tossed back and forth. Mark 4:38 (NKJV)-38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Have you ever said that? Jesus, don’t you care? Don’t you see what is happening? How could you be so indifferent? How could you sleep at a time like this? We are in a storm, and we could die! Here is the spiritual reality amid the storm. “ Let us go over to the other side”. According to Jesus, they weren’t going to drown but go to the other side. It wasn’t a death sentence. It wasn’t the end of his ministry or theirs. They weren’t out of the will of God. Yet the disciples were greatly afraid of their situation at hand. So they woke Jesus up, who was probably in the middle of a good dream. By the way, the pillow he was lying on was a “My Pillow” courtesy of Mike Lindell. No wonder he was sleeping so soundly. Just kidding, of course. Jesus could rest because he knew he was going to the other side. It was a rest of faith during a storm. He prophesied that they would go to the other side. He spoke a faith word, a faith promise, and it was so. Mark 4:39 (NKJV)-39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. He is the prince of peace! He can still any storm, no matter how high the waves. He is the master of the storm! We have to assume that Jesus expected the disciples to speak peace to the storm by what He said to them when he woke up. ( Mark 11:23-24).
What waves of negative thoughts and situations are crashing against your life today? Is it fear, depression, sickness, or financial and relationship problems? How we long to get to the other side. How we desire peace in the middle of the storms. It is interesting in the preceding verses that Jesus was sharing how the Word of God is a seed planted in different hearts, and the potential it has to change an outcome if received and acted upon. ( Mark 4:20). These disciples saw the miracles of Jesus, participated in them as well. Mark 4:40 (NKJV)-40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” It wasn’t that they had no faith, but their hearts were fearful and in unbelief. It was their unbelief that caused their fear, and their fear made them question whether Jesus really cared. They were more focused on what was happening around them. The storm wasn’t the problem, but their unbelief on the inside. Our greatest problems are within us, not around us.
If they had drowned, then Jesus had lied to them? Praise God, he didn’t lie! He is incapable of lying. Psalm 89:34 (NKJV)-34 My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Numbers 23:19 (NKJV)-19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? In Isaiah 55:11, God said His word would not return void but accomplish what it said it would do. What promise has God spoken to you about your storm? What are you trusting and believing in? For me, I can either believe in what the doctors say, what my body says, or what God’s Word says. I believe what is true in the spiritual will become reality in the natural. I don’t look at how long it is taking because in God’s mind, time is not an issue. I never asked God why this is happening in my life right now. I know God is a good God. It is the Devil that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10). Jesus has come to give me life and life more abundantly. Jesus does care, and I believe that every day. You can too! Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)-11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
In many ways, it has been a tough three years. It has been hard for my wife, who had to take over a lot of things, especially in the beginning. I was and am out of work full-time right now. She has been a great blessing and so supportive. Besides Jesus, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She is my best friend. We keep ourselves busy with Church, being with our family, and watching the grandkids. What a joy that is. We are thankful every day for God’s faithfulness and His exceedingly great and precious promises. He is bringing us to the other side! We thank God for His peace, and our eyes are on Him and not on the storm. ( Hebrew 12:1-3).
In the storms of life, we need to focus on the love and goodness of God. We need to cast down fear, unbelief, and doubt. (2 Cor. 10:3-5). We need to stay on God’s side, the side of truth! (John 17:17). We need to focus on what we do know, not on what we don’t know. The Devil will always try to pull us back into the soul realm of fear and doubt, so we need to resist him in Jesus’ Name. (James 4:7). We need to hold fast the good confession of faith. (Heb 10:23). Realizing that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). Our Words are powerful. (Deut. 30:19). We choose to speak life and blessings! Finally, let our pillow be the promises of God that we rest on! (Hebrew 4:1-2). It is the rest of faith! Jesus really cares!
In Christ’s love;
Brent and Linda Bushen
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