News about the house we are buying!

As many of you may know we have been searching for a house for quite a while now in and around Lehigh Acres. I will not lie, our search has not been without set-backs, discouragement and quite a bit of doubt. God told us quite a while ago, that we were to move out there. However, when things were not falling into place right away and we were not seeing any homes that would work, there was a lot of doubt.
Each time we would doubt the Lord would, ever so gently, tell us to wait on Him. That He really did have a plan and that His plan has a perfect timing. The last house that I blogged about here was a very good find, but the price wasn’t quite right for us. The Lord told John that this was our home, but he never really got a solid confirmation about a price. I did get confirmation on a price, but it seemed highly unlikely that the bank would come down to that when it had only been on the market for 5 days. We initially made a full price offer on the house and if you read my last post about it you will know how much I wrestled with it. The cool praise behind it was that the bank refused our terms, so we walked away, watched and waited. After a period of time, we digressed and began looking at other properties, with the impression the Lord closed that door. At this point, our doubting became an action of disobedience. We widened our search area to include the east side of Fort Myers, and looked outside the area God told us. We actually did find 2 homes in North Fort Myers that were very neat and tugged at our flesh! However, one was a bit out of our price range and the other was an older home. Either one would have been an excellent purchase/deal, but God was silent. We were trying too hard to make his will come to pass in an area we were not suppose to be!
After about a month went by and Christmas came and went, we noticed the price went down over $10,000. This brought the home into our price range. However, we were guarded with that because sometimes there are reasons why the price falls due to vandalism and key elements being stolen. This was not the case though. After seeking the Lord on it we made an offer with the seller paying 6% commission. They responded back saying that there would be no offer they would accept unless they only had to pay 3%. This was the reason why they refused our first offer! Basically it is the banks way of making sure you can afford the property. SO we countered a reduced price as if they were paying the full 6% and they accepted!
Buying a foreclosure, while it is a great deal, is very tedious! Many of the common fees paid for by the seller have been on top of their 3% and an additional portion of our transaction. While unexpected and weird because it is unlike any other house buying experience, the Lord has been guiding the whole process. The whole reason I waited to blog about it was because our realtor and mortgage broker kept warning us that the deal may fall through. Due to all the foreclosures and cash flow that is easier to deal with than waiting for loans, many deals like ours are not going through for some reason or another. So with all the nightmare stories we heard, we kept our hearts open to the fact that just maybe God might have another plan. Inspections have been done, surveys are complete and insurance was acquired on the property. Closing is suppose to take place on February 5th. So we wanted to share our new home with you! These are definitely the BEFORE pictures as we know this house needs A LOT of tender lovin care! Hopefully once we paint and replace some things it will be cute! Here is a picture of the front at the Real estate listing link. The rest are on a slide show I will place below!
CastleStone house

If any of you would like to see the layout much like the ones you get when deciding on a model home, I have a schematic that I drew on word that I can send you via e-mail as an attachment!

Click here to view these pictures larger

I was having trouble viewing these photos so you may have to use the "Click here to view there pictures larger" link! Thanks for all your prayers during this process! As you can see, we needed it!

Hello Lord

Hello Lord By Sarah Groves:





I saw these lyrics on another blog today here. Dont forget to mute my music on the side bar if you want to hear the song above.
Not sure how many of you have ever felt this way, but these lyrics were so reminiscint of our journey to find the home God has for us here in Florida. I am working on a blog about the home we think the Lord blessing us with, however, I would like to wait for more details to share!
For those of you maybe in the same boat. Maybe you are waiting to hear the Lord but not sure if He is whispering. Don't lose heart! He wants to speak to any heart wanting to hear His sweet voice!

Here are the lyrics:

Hello Lord, it’s me your child
I have a few things on my mind
Right now I’m faced with big decisions
And I’m wondering if you have a minute, cuz
Right now I don’t hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you’re saying but
Right now, I just can’t hear you.

I don’t doubt your sovereignty
I doubt my own ability to
Hear what you’re saying
And to do the right thing
And I desperately want to do the right thing
But right now I don’t hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you’re saying but
Right now, I just can’t hear you.

And somewhere in the back of my mind
I think you are telling me to wait
And though patience has never been mine
Lord, I will wait to hear from you
Oh Lord, I’m waiting on you

Right now I don’t hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you’re saying but
Right now, I think you’re whispering

Uncommon New Years goals

This Sunday I got to go to church………….. Here are some things I thought were pretty neat to ponder on.
The pastor started off by asking how many of us thought 2009 was a good year? I thought it odd that no one raised their hand because I didn’t think 2009 was bad, per-say. I do not live in a bubble and realize there are some pretty major things that made 2009 not very pleasant:
~America is beginning to realize the weight of their poor presidential choices when they elected a man that wasn’t qualified to take the presidential office. However, due to that poor choice we are seeing end times prophecy fulfilled very quickly!
~We live in an area of Florida that has been hit hard by the economy and people have lost homes and jobs all around the USA. Despite this, God still continues to use trials to strengthen our faith and take care of His people all over the globe, even if it is not the same way He used to take care of them!
The pastor went on to say that this year 2010 IS whatever we chose to make of it. We can choose to have joy and show others, that the light of the Lord lives in us OR we can choose to focus on circumstances which either rob us of our joy and/or get our focus off the Lord. To further his point of choosing joy in the New Year he went to the be-attitudes in Matt 5:3-16 to get the full understanding of what we should seek after.
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
I love that he pointed out the fact that these things that follow "Blessed are the……." in the passages above, are not typically on the "goals list" for the New Year. He joked that if he held a seminar titled with the following list he probably wouldn’t get any takers. :o) To be poor in spirit (spiritually bankrupt), to mourn, to be meek(power under control), to be persecuted, to have lies spread about you because of the Jesus………. Hmmmm, these are usually never things we aspire to, or ask for. However, what if we did ask for these things? Would we then have the radiant love of Christ that could not be masked by circumstance, trial or menial everyday tasks? Wouldn’t Jesus be faithful to fulfill them through us!
Then came his analogy on verse 6, about hunger and thirsting for righteousness. The word Righteousness here, from the Greek, means Equity of Character. If we are to have a life that is hungering and thirsting for a character that has worth or equity, the only way we can achieve such a character is to seek spiritual food. The Bible.
When an infant is born it needs to eat often, but he doesn’t really eat much each time. Likewise a baby Christian, NEEDS to be nourished by the word more often than just once a day. Since new believers are fighting many spiritual battles with old worldly patterns of behavior, their intake of the word may need to be frequent and in short spurts. This can be accomplished by listening to bible studies, posting scriptures around the house to memorize them, accountability groups and time alone with the Lord.
As the child grows into adulthood, his meals get larger, but he eats less frequently. As an older believer, I know I can become slack in nurturing my spiritual life and taking in the larger portions. Sometimes we can be fooled into thinking the snack-sized portions are good enough because we already know a lot of what the bible says. This misconception of necessity, doesn’t take into account our continual spiritual bankruptcy! It doesn’t consider, that God uses his word, daily, to speak to us personally according to whatever our current situation is. God, in His foreknowledge, also sees what will be coming ahead of us and if we are seeking after Him for those larger portions, we may not miss His gentle warning or preparation of what is to come. The verse here says we are to continually hunger and thirst for righteousness. We are not to snack on or nibble on it, but to really seek after the meat found in the word. If we do not, we will not be filled, prepared or focused for what God has in store. He wants us to desire larger portions, dig deeper, study more and get to the heart of what God is telling us, rather than being satisfied to our current head knowledge or daily reading. Many times this means getting out of our comfort zones and when we "don’t feel like it" pray and ask the Lord to renew our hunger and thirst!
Another analogy he used was a boxing analogy. You have 2 boxers of equal skill that are scheduled to fight. One is eating in order to be competitive bulking up on protein, carbs and veggies, while the other is just snacking on bread. The one who is eating to compete will win because he will have the energy needed to complete the task. It is the same with our daily intake from the word. If we are eating to win the race and to keep our focus on the Lord, our portion with the Lord will be complete so that our walk be a living witness to others. If we are just nibbling or snacking, weariness has the ability to take over and take out focus off the Lord. Thresult of this is similar to the salt that has lost its flavor and a light put under a basket.
If many of us who make those New Years resolutions, did so by sticking to the words in this passage alone, could we be the salt and light that was referred to in the verses 13-16? Never thought my New Years goals would have to do with those things but it is apparent that if we want to radiate Christ and be effective in our walks, these are the qualities that God says we need!