I’ve shared with all of you before that one of the best gifts Kurt and I have been given during our ministry years is our trip to Israel. Ten days visiting the Holy Land was absolutely amazing. New archeological digs daily revealing and substantiating the Biblical record, a mediterranean diet that I could easily adopt year-round, gazing upon beauty beyond belief in the variety of mountains, deserts, ocean, seas, rivers and plains, ruins dating back to the beginning of time, sites familiar due to their prominence in God’s Word, and all of this in the land where Jesus lived, lead, loved and laid down His life for me!
Walking through history, I worshiped and I wept, but from the very moment I stepped out of the airport, I felt at home. I did. It was as though I belonged. As my Granny Shunk would say, “These are my people.” I am a descendant of Abraham. By faith in the Son of God I have been grafted in. My inheritance is all tied up with these people, this place and the Person of Jesus Christ. Even though I was a first-time visitor, it felt like a return trip. After all, the worn pages of my Bible had taken me here time and again. In coming to Israel, I knew I’d found my way home.
We traveled that small strip of land from top to bottom. We climbed and tunneled, got baptized all over again in the Jordan River and cast nets from a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. We saw the place called Golgotha, stepped into and out of the garden tomb and stood amazed in the upper room where the Spirit of the Living God descended upon those first disciples.
Does this sound like an adventure? You better believe it! Exciting? The most! Spiritually impacting? Beyond! Makes since that I would be sad to go but taxiing down the runway heading back to the US, to the Ville, to my family and to all things normal and familiar, what surprised me was that in my heart of hearts it didn’t feel like I was returning home at all. Instead I had this unexpected sensation of leaving home, leaving the place where so quickly I felt rooted, grounded, connected. In the Land of Promise I traced my new-man ancestry and tasted my majestic inheritance in Christ!
Over the past two years five dear friends have left this earth far earlier than expected. The last being Jeff Stumph on December 31st. All of this has me thinking quite a bit about Heaven and what it will be like. I’ve read parts of Randy Alcorn’s Heaven before but now I’m digging in for keeps.
You know what I hear the Spirit saying loud and clear? Just like our trip to Israel, from our very first footfall in Heaven we’ll feel at home. It’s where we belong. All of the folks there are “our people.” We can follow that ancestry way on back. Abba awaits. And, it’s not where Jesus walked past tense. It’s where He lives, present tense. In Heaven we are immediately rooted, grounded, connected. The ultimate Land of Promise, without a doubt it’s our home.
“But until then,” the old hymn says, “My heart will go on singing, until then, with joy I’ll carry on, until the day, my eyes behold that city, until the day God calls me home.”
These five men are home. We remain and we cry, “Maranatha!” Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We long for You; we long for home.
BLESSED BY THESE WORDS! In your weakness, I feel His strength! Your vision is clear and confident! Your mission, uncompromised! Your heart, fully yielded! Your message, timely! That’s our girl…truest follower of Christ Jesus! All the way Home…LOVING YOU WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE, KRISTEN! Thanks for blessing my day and life!
Kristen,
Although I haven’t been to Israel, I do understand the longing for home. There are also times in our lives when we come face-to-face with ourselves and our God. those times are most precious and life-stirring. We are faced with the realities of this life and the next. I do, at times, long for home, our real home. We are but strangers and pilgrims here on this earth, but what will it be to be there! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Until then…Oh, the beauty!
Blessings to you as you labor for Him!
I absolutely CANNOT wait to be home!!!!
“When we all get to heaven/What a day of rejoicing that will be/When we all see Jesus/We’ll sing and shout the victory!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDjnT9ySAs
Love to sing the old hymns. They always ended with a verse about Heaven and our victory in Christ! Blessings on the Sauders!
I’ve loved your heart, your ministry, your family and the way that you’ve always lead from the abundance of the Spirit. Praying for you daily! All my love, Stacie
Your description of Israel sounds wonderful. I haven’t been but just welcomed home a sweet young friend who spent last year there as a missionary. She had amazing stories to tell! I truly relate to the longing for Heaven. I have so many friends and family already there. Randy Alcorn’s book is so encouraging – you will love it. It comforted me in the loss here of Russell. Thank you for your continued beautiful words and for sharing your faith. May God fill you with strength and peace and healing this new year. I bought a copy of the Red Sea Rules book and I’m really enjoying it – so glad you recommended it. I join with you in crying, “Maranatha – Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”
Dearest Kristen, my sister-friend. Your words are SO TIMELY, “like apples of gold in settings of silver.” I Love you and pray for you every day… I miss you. My daughter, Elizabeth, and I also had the privilege of traveling to Israel; I felt very similar to what you describe. I refer to the “grieving” for Jeff and other saints that have preceded us as “Homesickness.” Mercy Me’s song “Homesick” is point blank accurate. <
Kristen, I read your blog regularly and continue to be so inspired
by your strength, humility, grace and spirit-filled life. The journey you have taken many on through your words is one of beauty. You touch so many, even those of us like me who do not know you. We do know each other, however as we are all so one in Christ. My prayers continue to be uplifted for you and your family. God bless you.
Kristin
Loved Loved this!! To go to Israel is on our bucket list. Your description was so beautiful and how I can only imagine I will feel. Thank you. Love having your beautiful Ivy at the Arts Center. She is a genuine gift to us as we hope that we are to her.
So blessed by your words. Yes, Israel is a wonderful place to visit, to walk, to soak in Jesus but we all so look forward to seeing Him face to face. Prayers and Blessings
Kristen – I love the Gaither’s “Israel Homecoming” DVD…and this beautiful song that fills our hearts with hope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR0Lz_gTSi8
Maranatha!
This could be the dawning of that day!
I love you!
So ditto-ing Nancy A.’s words. I LOVE how you said you visited Israel so many times just by holding the WORD in your hands. So glad you’ve been able to go! Heaven…Hope and Healing Revealed. You BLESSED me today, Amen! Deb
Kristen- it has been a continued blessing to read your blog, so inspiring and such an encouragement. This post was a wonderful reminder to stand firm in the faith, to have heaven on our minds daily, and to remember that we are but visitors here. God willing, we hope to one day get to Israel too. My daughter has been blessed to know your daughter through drama at the arts center and stage one, and we recently got to see her again and meet your other daughter at a Christmas tea! Thanks for blessing our family.
Thanks so much Kristen for sharing about your visit to Isreal and reminding me of what lies before us. I can’t even imagine standing in the Upper Room. WoW!! Lord willing, that is a place I’d like to experience someday. I remember the smile on mom’s face when Jesus lifted her up into his everlasting arms 3 years ago. It left an impression on me like none other. I just know it’s going to be like that when He comes to take us home. She looked like she was discovering for the first time something of the utmost peace and beauty. She left us with the encouraging words…It is worth it! We have such an inheritance waiting for us that is beyond words. Love you and yours so much! Hugs to all!
Kristen, two weeks ago I sat by the bed of a dear friend and we both knew it would be the last time before our reunion in glory. We talked of all things eternal and like giddy school girls discussing the latest trends or the newest boy at school, we reveled in the mystery that awaits. Her son was in the room and it was clear he didn’t appreciate our conversation. I’m sure he felt his mother had “given up” but quite the contrary…she was “looking up”. Your post reminded me of those lovely last moments with my friend and when I learned of her passing, I was saddened but also rejoicing that she was basking in those glories only imagined….no, not imagined. Who can know what beauty and love there is on the other side? Our home.
Kirsten,
What a blessing it is to me to read your blog! I literally use it as part of my devotion time! I am stretched by your words, your insight into Biblical truths, and your amazing courage and faith through this journey. We pray as a family for you so often and you are on my heart always! Blessings to you sweet Kirsten!! He most certainly won the victory and so will we! Praise God!
I was just thinking about you last night. Thank you for the truth you have written. So true. Everyone in heaven is our family.
I love what you have written! I always love your posts, but this touched me particularly. Since my illness and the treatments affected my body so thoroughly over the last six years, I have thought a lot about heaven. I, too, have been reading Randy Alcorn’s book and other books about heaven. I love my family and would not want to leave them, but I am so ready for heaven and all the wonders we will behold! Love and continued prayers.
The other night when I awakened thinking of you, Matt Redman’s Blessed Be Your Name played over and over in my mind. My heart feels so much, but words don’t come. Your spirit is never far from my thoughts. God is using you mightily. Continued prayers for each of you. Thank you…
Your description has made me long all the more to visit Israel, but ah… so much more to be at home, “in a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:10). Years ago in Bible study, I think it was the Experiencing God study, you challenged me to reach out with the gospel to my parents. I was afraid, but did so and was solidly rejected. I prayed for years for an opening, praying until the Lord gave me an opportunity to present the gospel truth one more time when my Dad was very ill. Both my parents received Christ that night, in what was one of the greatest days of my life. My Dad has since gone on to that glorious home with Christ, but I often think about that mysterious moment when he was alive on earth and then suddenly with the Lord. I can’t even imagine the true blessing he experienced in that moment, but the comfort of knowing he is there has sustained me when I miss him. Thank you for being a part of his journey to his real and true home. Praying for you and thanking you for such a beautiful devotion!
Ginny, It’s been so long. How good to hear from you. Thanks for sharing this victory! I’m so excited to hear of the miracle of salvation in your mom and dad. Praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers for me as well. God is working through the powerful prayers of many saints and I/we are so grateful.
What a beautiful, insightful and heartfelt description of Israel, Kristen! So timely too!! Tom just returned today with Dave Stone’s group trip. I was blessed to go with 35 or so other women with Liz Curtis Higgs in 2011. Why God made a way for Tom and I to go separately, is a mystery but delightful to know it was His plan, not ours! While extremely tired, Tom and I did talk about looking down on the Jezreel Valley and tearing up with the sudden realization and confirmation…Israel is God’s country and our Home! As Christians, we are grafted into the Jewish peoples. It is our responsibility to pray for the Israel nation daily. The threats against them is a daily concern. God bless yu, Kurt and your family, Kristen. We always remember yu in prayer here at home, on our travels and with our bible study group. Yu have no idea how much yu are loved and appreciated for all yu have done and all yu continue to do! Yu still touch lives in more ways than yu know! Maranantha Lord Jesus…Maranantha!
I am a friend of Carol Shutts and always find your posts so insightful when she posts them on FB…I had the privilege of witnessing the beautiful ceremony your husband did for Travis and Mollie.
God Bless your family’s wonderful fruitfulness!
Sherrll
Kristen,
I have been following your journey and praying daily since Kathie Hodge called and asked me to join in prayer. She has been my Angel throughout years of pain and sorrow – though they have also been sweet and filled with joy as I have been led through the valley.
Your faith and strength and honesty are a testimony to the true soul of a Christian. You are a mighty warrior and a blessing to those you touch.
Randy’s book sits with my Bible and I have begun to wonder if Christ’s return is very close and that He calls home so many young people He has chosen to have a very special role in His coming!
I also have watched Him perform miraculous healings to leave no doubt that He is not a passive God!
“Fear not.” We are in His will.
Blessings, Joy and Love
P.S. At the same time as prayers were requested for you, I was asked by a dear friend who works with Rick Warren to pray for another young mother with four children, Stacie Maslyn. Her story is on Caring Bridge and your paths are so similar that I always pray for you and Stacie during the same time period.
How timely your post as I mourn two precious sisters who passed in 2013. I sat bedside by my best friend (single and no living family) in Albuquerque NM in August 2013. We laughed, and giggled and prayed and cried. When I was there in 2011 I had the privilege of leading her to Christ. In 2012 I had the privilege of being at her Baptism. As I sat by her bed when she was unexpectedly dying in 2013, she asked me to read to her about heaven, but not about hell. I had my Kindle with me, and on the Kindle I had Randy Alcorn’s book on ‘Heaven for Kids’. When I thought she was sleeping as I read (as the only time it seemed her body quit shaking profusely was when she was asleep) when Randy would pose thought provoking questions or ask the reader to give thanks, my friend would respond! What a sweet memory and honor to be there. And even better to know that we will one day be together again in heaven.
Every time I pass your home, which is some times more than once a day, God prompts me to pray for a miracle for you and your family.
Thank you for using your energy to encourage us!!
Kristen,
Chris and I have read every blog since day one but nothing has touched us deeper than this one. We are in awe of your testimony and how you live and breathe your faith so beautifully thru this journey… not to mention the divine words of encouragement sent out by you, Kurt and your amazing children. We are looking so forward to our trip to the Holy Land in the near future and your words will go with us as we experience Jesus life and ministry….my heart has yearned for it for so long!! We have prayed for you as a family and in our home groups that God would do more than we could ask or imagine in your life and your family’s!!
You may never know how many you have touched on this side of Heaven, but on the other side, “When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!!! When we ALL SEE JESUS, we’ll sing and shout the VICTORY.” Love you girl!!
Just had to share this with you, Kristen!!
(Israel)—When Therese Daoud arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital with a huge cancerous tumor, doctors said her only chance of survival would be to amputate the leg. What happened during the following months has left the medical staff and the nation speechless.
“If someone had told me the story of what happened to Therese, I would have said they are crazy and sent them to a mental hospital,” said Professor Yaakov Bickels, head of the Orthopedic-Oncology Department at the hospital. “But I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.”
What the professor saw he described as a malignant tumor “the size of an orange.” The biopsy showed a sarcoma. “This is one of the most aggressive and terrifying of all cancerous tumors,” Bickels explained. “With a tumor developed to this degree, the only treatment we could offer Therese was to amputate her leg.”
“I was in shock when the doctors told me,” said Therese, a junior high school science teacher. “I thought he was talking about someone else. But I had no choice. I began to prepare myself for life with one leg.”
Therese sent lab tests and x-rays to the USA to double check, but they came back with the same prognosis. The leg must be amputated to save her life.
Therese DaoudOn the day of surgery, after waiting in the hospital for three days, Therese was informed that because of “technical difficulties” the operation must be rescheduled. When she went back for the rescheduled surgery, just as she was about to be wheeled into the operating theater, Therese was told again, “the amputation must be postponed.” This time the surgical units were unavailable due to a number of emergency cases. By the time Therese got another date for surgery, her mother had become very sick, and Therese decided to herself postpone the operation in order to take care of her mother. (Photo: Israel Today)
For most of us, postponing a lifesaving surgery would have been overwhelming. Not for Therese. “Three times the surgery was delayed,” she said. “This was a clear sign to me from Heaven that I should not have the surgery.” Israeli TV showed images of Therese praying in a church in the north of the country.
“When she told me that she had decided not to have the leg amputated, it was clear to me. She would soon die,” contemplated Prof. Bickels. “I was sorry about her decision.”
Three months later, a huge smile on her face, Therese walked unaided into Bickels’ office. “What happened to you?” he asked. “I prayed,” she responded.
Stunned, Bickels immediately sent Therese for an MRI, but the results were undeniable. The killer growth had receded dramatically. “This just does not happen,” stammered the professor. “A growth of this kind cannot recede like this.”
Doctors and nurses could not believe the results, so they sent for another biopsy. But…there was no cancer. It had completely left her body. “We kept checking her records over and over,” said an astonished Bickels. “We just could not accept that the cancer had gone without any treatment.”
Israeli news stations have been reporting on the miracle and all admit that it is impossible to explain what happened to Therese, other than the power of her faith.
Hospital staff and reporters even traveled to Therese’s home to look for some other explanation. They tasted the food she eats and checked the water she drinks, but there was no physical explanation. They left contemplating one undeniable, unavoidable and very uncomfortable option—that prayer in Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, still heals today.
Awesome!! Do it again, Lord. Do it again.
Thank you, Judy