Daily Encouragement

Thursday, February 15, 2024

A Lancaster County rural sunrise yesterday morning.

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"My Redeemer Lives"

Message summary: My Redeemer lives! I know He holds my life, my future, in His hands!

Listen to our message on your audio player.

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth" (Job 19:25).

Over twenty years ago I had a serious health season spanning over a year that required four major surgeries with long recoveries, but thankfully I did recover. At that time a blunt truth came to me that I have since repeated often, "You don't pick your problems and you don't schedule them". Well, sometimes problems are an inevitable consequence of choices we make and sometimes we're able to schedule them such as a forthcoming surgery, but many times they are strictly a result of God's providence.

Today we consider a couple, along with their family members, going through a practically unimaginable time. They freely share their story on Facebook which has garnered a lot of prayer and interest in their traumatic situation.

David and Ciara are a young couple with sons, ages 2 & 4, who live in Rock Hill, SC. This last Christmas they came up to Pennsylvania to visit David's parents who live only a few miles from us. Our awareness of this story comes from Phil Huber, a friend who is the General Manager at Audrey's, a company we serve in Lebanon. He taught David in Sunday School when he was a child and remains friends with his family.

While they were visiting family in nearby Elizabethtown, four year old Colton became sick and required hospitalization including two operations performed in Hershey Children's Hospital. Ciara also became sick and was hospitalized in Lancaster. Colton continues to recover but Ciara has been and is going through a practically unimaginable ordeal. Essentially she developed an infection in her blood that thus far has required amputation of all four of her limbs. (Below is a detailed description from their Facebook page.) Additionally, there are several other life-threatening challenges she is dealing with everyday making it hard on the family's hopes.

This is certainly a trial no one would pick if given a list of multiple choice trials to choose from, yet they demonstrate remarkable faith and assurance in the goodness of God even in the midst of a devastating trial that is not short-lived but is permanent and life changing.

This young couple is certainly dealing with the inevitable "why" questions concerning this trial. The kind of "why" questions that cause many to stumble, and for some followers of Christ it may cause them to lose their faith.

But God has given us all that we need to know about Him and the way He works in the hearts of mankind to bring us to salvation. He calls us to humbly trust Him in light of this revelation as we walk by faith day by day. We acknowledge there is much that we will not know or understand on this side of heaven, so it is essential that we trust God for that which is most important: our salvation and eternal future.

Today let us focus on that which we do know. Like Job, who also went through an unimaginable trial, we can declare with bold confidence "I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth".

This Scripture text is one of the greatest statements of faith and assurance in the entire Bible. Most Bible students place Job historically in the time of the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thus he had absolutely none of the written revelation of the Bible as we know it.

He had lost his children, possessions and health. He had endured several conversations with his well-meaning friends which essentially sum up the false or skewed philosophies of this world. And he sure didn't get any support or encouragement from his pesky wife.

Throughout the nineteenth chapter Job recounts his afflictions and they are certainly dreadful on a personal level. Physically, socially, financially: he might say today "I went through the wringer". He sums up his troubles with the descriptive phrase, "I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth" (19:20).

Yet in all this Job kept his faith and makes the great affirmation of today's text. He does so without the benefit of Romans 8:28 and so many other Scriptures of assurance, encouragement and hope that we know and love in our Bible.

Let us examine two sections in the text:

1) "I know that my Redeemer lives". This appears to be the first chronological reference to God as Redeemer in the entire Bible. Job was confident that His Redeemer lives. What a joy to have that same confidence today!

May you be blessed by several specific "I (or we) know…" statements in Scripture:

* "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
* "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me" (2 Timothy 1:12).
* "We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).
* "We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
* "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).

2) "And that in the end He will stand upon the earth". Job made this declaration right in the midst of his sufferings. He didn't know what his personal outcome would be but he was confident that in the end God's will would prevail. Likewise that is an assurance we may all have as well.

What an example Job is to us. He is recognized years later by the prophet Ezekiel as an example of righteousness, along with Noah and Daniel (Ezekiel 14:20). James refers to him as an example of perseverance: "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy" (James 5:11).

Today, in the midst of our "why" questions let's make Job's affirmation of faith our own. What a tremendous peace comes, when regardless of our personal questions and circumstances by faith we declare, "I know that my redeemer lives!"

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, fill our hearts with assurance and hope no matter our personal circumstances or the troubled world in which we live. We are not without hope, for we know that You are a God of hope that fills believers with all joy and peace as they trust in You, so that they may overflow with hope by the power of Your Holy Spirit. It is only through such power that we can still have hope when Satan seeks to destroy and wipe out our hopes, ambitions and dreams. It is by Your grace that we can forge a new way of life and still find joy as we overcome the obstacles that seek to deter us from our Christian testimony. We declare by faith Job's proclamation, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"I've Witnessed It" Watch on YouTube Passion Music featuring Melodie Malone

"Because He Lives (Amen)" Watch on YouTube West Coast Choir

"Sovereign Over Us" Watch on YouTube Shane and Shane

"I Know That My Redeemer Lives" Watch on YouTube Syracuse Baptist Church (A very interesting and edifying presentation from a small church in Indiana)

"I Know That My Redeemer Lives" Watch on YouTube Linda Rowberry (This the traditional hymn)

Here's the background of David and Ciara's story copied from their Facebook page (Ciara & Colton Updates). This is several weeks old and much has happened since then. February 2 Ciara was finally transferred from Lancaster General Health to a major hospital nearer her home in Charlotte, NC. Please include this needy family in your prayers.

Ciara, David, and their two boys drove up to PA to be with his family for Christmas. Colton became sick and started to have severe pain in his neck. On Tuesday, December 26, Ciara took him to urgent care and then he was sent to the emergency room. After some testing they found that he had coronavirus and strep. They also found two abscesses of infection in his neck.

When David came to join them in the emergency room, Ciara went back to the house to lie down as she was feeling ill. Two days later, December 28, David's mom drove her to the emergency room. It was discussed whether she should go to urgent care or to the emergency room. The choice to go straight to the emergency room saved her life.

David had been staying in the room with Colton. As soon as he heard Ciara was in the emergency room, he came down to see her. She already had a room full of doctors and nurses and was hooked up to breathing machines. David was told she is a 10 out of 10 sick and that it was very very serious. She was immediately sent up to the ICU. It wasn't until one of the doctors was talking to David upstairs and said, "I trust by now you have read between the lines" and he saw that there was a chaplain in the room that he finally comprehended just how serious it was.

Ciara ended up having influenza b, group a strep, severe pneumonia. Toxins got into her blood stream which sent her into toxic shock (sepsis). The doctors quickly realized where things were heading, so they decided to put her on ecmo (life support), which completely took over the heart and lung functions for her. Her organs ended up shutting down. This was a very traumatic experience. At one point, we were told there was a very high mortality rate for someone in this state.

At this point most of Ciara's and David's family had traveled to be with them. The conference room was full of heartbroken people. We prayed and wept. In groups of two we went into Ciara's room and essentially said our goodbyes. A little later, one of the staff came and got David and Ciara's mom and said they were needed in the room immediately. As soon as they got to the room they could hear the defibrillator being used. Her heart had stopped beating and they tried shocking her heart to get it beating again. However, they were not successful. Thankfully they had already put her on ecmo, meaning, they could still keep her alive even with her heart not beating. It would just be a waiting game until her heart could start to heal.

The next day, it was decided that it would be best to transfer Colton from Lancaster General, where both he and Ciara were, to the Hershey children's hospital. The reasoning behind this is that hospital has an ICU specifically for children. We were told that they may end up treating Colton the exact same way that he was being treated at Lancaster General, but due to Ciara's condition, they didn't want to take any chances, should things worsen for Colton and there be a need for the ICU. At Hershey, he would have access to more specialized care.

After some further scans, it was determined that Colton had two abscesses of infection in his neck. He ended up having two surgeries to drain the fluid. For the first surgery they were able to access the abscess through his mouth. The second surgery required interventional radiology, as it was in a harder to reach spot (top of the spine next to the skull). The day after the second one was drained, it was a night and day difference in Colton's mood. He was laughing, moving around, playing. Inflammation from the abscess pushed one of his vertebrae over, which is the cause of his needing to wear the neck brace. We were told he'd need to have that on for 4-6 weeks. He has a follow up appt. on Feb 6, and hopefully things will look positive and he can have it removed!

Ciara's fight has been an ongoing one. There have been so many ups and downs. Due to how bad her toxic shock was, she had to be place on very high levels of blood pressure medicine. These meds narrow the blood vessels in order to increase pressure. We were told from the very beginning that her extremities would be at risk, due to lack of blood flow and oxygen, and that she would most likely lose them. But that was a sacrifice that had to be made in order to save her life. We were obviously most concerned about life. We rejoice that she is still alive. Without these meds, the ecmo machine, dialysis, the doctors, nurses, and prayers of so many, Ciara would not be with us today. We had been told many times, that Ciara was on as much support as is possible. There is nothing further medically speaking that is available. Beyond that, we would have to pray for a miracle.

Each day we have seen small steps of progress. And we rejoice in that. We have also seen dry gangrene take over her arms and legs. As mentioned before, we've known that amputation was most likely on the table. But since it didn't impose any risk on her life, there was no reason to rush to amputation. The goal has been to give it enough time to get a clear mark of what would still be viable and what had died and would need to be removed. Any sign of wet gangrene however, would speed up the need to amputate, which is what ended up happening with the legs. Allowing an infection like that to continue, would put her life at risk. At the moment, we don't see signs of infection in her arms, however the need for amputation is very clear. They are currently working on scheduling for that. Will most like take place later this week or early next week.

The doctors, nurses, and staff at Lancaster General have been amazing. They have put Ciara in a room that has a private nook in the back with a desk. There are only 2 rooms in the unit like this, and they moved her to one of those rooms so David could continue to log in some remote hours for work. Staff has been in to pray with Ciara, talk to her, listen to music with her, and have written her cards. This morning, they put on spa music and shampooed and braided her hair. We've had nurses on her care that are excellent at lip reading and communicating with her. The doctors take as long as we need to talk with them and answer questions. We've never felt rushed. We've been stopped in the cafeteria by staff we've never met before asking how Ciara is doing and how we are doing. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Please continue to pray. This truly has been an hour by hour journey. We need God's strength and comfort to continue through this battle. Thank you so much!

The story and video from a news station showing Lancaster General hospital staff lining hallway when Ciara was transferred to a hospital in Charlotte near her home Video

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