Peace of God

Chapel today was AMAZING! I cried like 3 times probably. Maybe more! And it is not that I am just an emotional girl. It is the move of God in my heart! God has given me a compassion for the hurting, lost, broken people and things in the world and it just moves me to tears when I hear anything of it.
Dr. Rutland was speaking about the peace of God that comes from the Holy Spirit in difficult times.
I have a few stories to share.
He said that there was a woman at his old church he pastored at that had two children. One night she called him and asked him to come to the hospital because her oldest son had been in a very bad motorcylce accident. So he went to the hospital and was ready to go upstairs to see her son when she said she needed to talk to him first. She said, pastor, I think I realized tonight that I do not love my son. And Dr. Rutland said, how could you say that? I have not seen someone with more sacrificial love than you. And she said, but pastor, how could I love my son when I cannot find a bit of worry inside of me about this situation.
Dr. Rutland then discussed how she had the peace of God within her. The Holy Spirit brings peace and comfort in times of trouble. We are to be people who are not fearful or worrisome! Wholeness in the midst of tragedy is the presence of peace.
He also talked about how nothing can separate us from the love of God and how that should cast out any fear that we have.
He told a story of this older lady who had been married for 63 years when her husband died. And how before she was married, she lived with her family. She told him that there was never a day that she slept in her bed without her husband. She said the night that all her family had left after the funeral, she was left alone at home and she was afraid for the first time.
There was a storm that night and it kept her awake into the night because of all the noises it scared her. She finally fell asleep after crying out to God and saying how she did not understand why God could leave her alone after all these years.
She was awakened to a loud shriek of lightning and she looked at the rocking chair by her bed and someone was sitting in it when she heard, my daughter, I am here. And in that moment she felt like a little kid again when she would sit on her daddy's lap.
"The intimacy of His presence is greater than the promise of His answer!" Read that again and really think about that.
The story that really made me cry, besides the one's I share above was the story of a pastor that was in Africa when he was taken prisoner by a group of soldiers. For 150 days the soldiers told him to renounce God and they would let him free and they would not kill any of his congregation.
They told him that if he did not renounce God, then they would kill a member of his congregation everyday in front of his eyes.
The pastor told Dr. Rutland that some of his congregation would plead for their lives, they would beg him to renounce God. And some of his congregation would tell the pastor to not renounce his faith, they were ready to die for the Lord. He clung to the bars of that prison cell and cried day after day as he watched his congregation being killed in front of his eyes, even a baby. And Dr. Rutland said, I don't think I could have that kind of grace to do what he did. But he said that the pastor told him that you don't have that kind of grace until you are in that moment and it is happening to you. And then you see and feel the grace, you feel the presence of the Lord, the peace and comfort that He brings.
Man oh man, some powerful stuff.

"The intimacy of His presence is greater than the promise of His answer!" Knowing that God is there, in all things, is greater than knowing the answer or the solution to all things that we are in or going through!
Nothing can separate us from the love of God!