Merry Christmas From the Reid Family!

Thanks to Jennifer for designing the card above...

As we reflect back now over our year and if we could summarize 2016 in a single word for our family, it would be the word "changes."  It has certainly been an interesting year on many levels.  The year began as normal but within a couple of months we found Paul was offered a new job, one that has been a blessing in many ways, for a company called loanDepot in Lake Forest. He is still working in C# programming but has been given more of an software architect title.  He is enjoying the work and the company as well.

At this same time we were approached to host a web TV show on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (www.HSBN.tv) and after praying about it, we could sense God's divine hand in these changes.  We have now taped over twenty-five 30 minute shows that can be watched on HSBN.tv by searching for "The Way it Is" or the shows are available on www.thewayitis.tv.

Another change is that after much prayer and divine guidance, we opened our home permanently to two foreign exchange students.  One was only here for a few months and has since had family move here from Vietnam so we currently only have one 14 year old student from China living with us.  We will most likely have another placed with us soon.  It has been a joy to host them and it has been a help as well, in that the private school that we host with pays a stipend to us.  With all the added hospital bills this year, plus the cost of private school tuition and an additional teen driver to pay for, this has been an amazing and unique way to see God's providence in our lives.  I am learning to trust Him even more in this area.  Having so much hit as once really caused me to just throw my hands up in the air and cry for help, which really is something I should have been doing all along.  He says that we shouldn't worry and that we should "consider the lilies of the field, they do not labor or spin."  I was worrying far to much and not really resting in Him.  The Bible also says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you."  Such an easier way to live, if we really strive to fully rest in pursuing Him.  God is good!

In early April I ended up having a strange series of events that led me to the emergency room twice in one week, the final visit culminating in a serious stroke in which I was paralyzed over half my body, and couldn't speak or even understand words.  Also, my vision was crossed.  They ran multiple tests, none were conclusive, although they believe it was related to an allergic reaction to perfume. However, the stroke has had a profound effect on me in that I had a little "vision" or picture of Jesus just calmly holding my hand through it all.  Also, Jennifer and Paul prayed in faith that God would heal me, because God had already confirmed to us through miracles that we were doing the TV show and hosting students, and how could I do any of that with a stroke or crossed vision?  I am 100% recovered, although I'm taking aspirin everyday and trying to hit the gym a bit more, just as a precaution.  I feel so grateful to God for getting through that experience and it helps us all not take things for granted.

At that same time, our family was in the process of transitioning to a new church as well.  We had one foot in our older church and one in the new for a season.  The change in churches was due to some rather interesting things that the Lord was speaking to us.  We felt clearly led to a church called Southlands in Brea, CA (www.southlands.net).  It is a more Charismatic church than the one we were previously attending. As Paul and I both grew up in a Pentecostal church, this has brought us full circle in a way to our roots.

As for the girls, Jennifer is still attending Azusa Pacific University (www.apu.edu) and is currently a Sophomore there.  She is studying graphic design and finds that the workload of her art classes is quite time consuming but she enjoys them.  She lives on campus and got a job printing ID cards for students and faculty.

Jackie is a Junior at Esperanza High School.  She is in her third year of Japanese (and is reasonably fluent) and spent a couple weeks this past Summer in Japan with some of her classmates.  It was a wonderful experience for her and certainly helped broaden her worldview a bit.  Her hobbies still include art and snowboarding.  Each winter she goes up the local mountain with a group called "The Blue Angels ski and snowboard program" and is able to hit the slopes on the weekends for a couple months.

So on that note, Merry Christmas to all of you.  May God bless you this year and provide for you as you put your hand into His.

Love the Reid Family: Paul, Marla, Jennifer & Jackie

It's all About LOVE. Thank You Jesus for the Reminder!

This blog may be stating the obvious, but sometimes the "obvious" things need to be brought back into the forefront.  I had a nice little reminder of this the past week and felt it was worthy of it's own little blog post.  The topic is something we sing about, talk about, live for, basically it is all encompassing.  In a word, it is LOVE.

A couple weeks ago, while I was worshiping at church (Southland's in Brea), I had a vision.  Lately the Holy Spirit has been giving me a steady stream of visions and it has been so incredibly powerful and helpful in really bringing the Word of God to life in so many ways.  Usually the pictures will confirm something He is teaching me or will give me confirmation of what is even being said later in the sermons, which is amazing and affirming for my faith.  But on this particular Sunday morning the vision was of a giant hand simply writing "love" in cursive on a sandy beach.  I then saw all the grains of sand on the beach lifted up and the sand was suspended in a 3D type affect as it was surrounding me.  I could see through the sand and saw how infinite the stars were in the sky beyond the sand.  I knew in essence that God was giving me a picture of how all knowing and all powerful He was and how infinite His love is.  I thought it was a "cool" picture but in all honesty my reaction was not one of awe or wonder.  Instead I thought this, "That is obvious.  Of course God is all knowing and all powerful and He is love. That is just a fact!"  I mean, my heart was warmed a bit, but I have to admit that I was left with a question of what God was really trying to show me in that.  I have had some visions lately that I felt were just a bit more impressive to me.  Visions of revival with the fire of God falling, Jesus preparing a banquet table, the army of God arising, basically awesome and more awe inspiring stuff.  So to see the word "love" seemed a bit anticlimactic to me.  But I just took the picture and put it in the back of my mind for future reference.  Maybe there was something more He was trying to show me?  There usually is, and lately there seems to be a lesson of some sort involved.


Well, as the week continued I had forgotten about the vision.  I was drawn to listen to a few messages online by a man named Dan Mohler.  Dan has such a contagious love of Jesus and I really enjoy his testimonies.  He has countless stories of profound miracles, but the main point he drives home over and over is that all the miraculous gifts are certainly not the focus and they should be just a natural extension of us reaching out and being the love of Christ to the world.  As we go, we just need to BE LOVE. We need to love as He has loved us.  As I have been on a journey to "eagerly desire the greater gifts" and have even had some profound words for others given to me by the Holy Spirit, this was a much needed reminder at this point.  

I then remembered an encounter I had with a good friend a couple months prior.  Paul and I have a friend that is a Biblical scholar that enjoys debating scripture more than anyone else I know.  Although I enjoy a good debate, iron sharpens iron so it says, I often find it rather exhausting and futile at times. One night, after a rather long discussion, I had a vision of him.  I saw Jesus reaching to embrace him.  I shared this and I was surprised when he became very agitated, even angry with me.  He said, "That is so elementary!"  I just told him that it was "what I saw."  I can say I wasn't too surprised at his response, but I guess I was grieved because I thought that with all the striving to know the Word of God did he really KNOW Him and His love?  But as I was remembering this encounter with my friend, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the vision I had in church where I saw the word LOVE on the sand.  In a way Jesus was showing me His embrace by showing me the vastness of His love and what was my response?  It really was almost identical as my friend's!  I responded by thinking, "That is so elementary!"  The Holy Spirit has been so good at showing me all these little areas that need refining as of late.  Not always enjoyable, but part of the process and is rather funny if I can see the humor in it all!

So as "elementary" as it is, I am now seeing, learning, feeling, experiencing and all the other ways He loves to engage me, that love must be the driving force behind everything I do.  I was thinking back to all the times that I was guided by love and those were certainly the most powerful moments.  The moment the Holy Spirit brought to the forefront was the time when I was in college working at a preschool.  There was a little girl there that was getting in trouble for "inappropriate touching" of another little boy.  The preschool director was agitated at this little girl and even reprimanding her with talk of even kicking her out, but I knew that it was due to abuse she encountered (Not sure if that was just from the Holy Spirit or gossip in the office.)  Well later that day I felt this overwhelming desire to go to the hallway.  Sure enough there was that little girl.  She had just left the restroom and it was just the two of us in the hallway at this point.  I wrapped my arms around her and told her that she was so loved by Jesus.  That she wasn't a "bad girl" at all and that I was so sad that she had been hurt by someone.  In fact, as I looked into her eyes I told her I understood her because I was abused when I was her age too.  I shed a few tears as did she.  She didn't say anything back.  I am sure at age 4 that would be hard to do anyway.  I have had other "moments" too. They have not been that exciting in regards to the miraculous, but that is where He is the one reaching through us to touch others for sure.

And so it may be completely "elementary" but may I never lose the awe and wonder of my "first love!"  Just recently I have started attending a small group (which isn't at all that small because there are 50 young adults in this group.)  I am so humbled by the purity of the hearts of many of these young men and women.  I was chatting with one last Sunday.  He has only been a Christian for a year and already he is so passionate about just being LOVE to a world that needs the love of Christ.  I wonder at why sometimes those of us that have been Christians for decades do not have even a portion of the passion and love that these do?  I think I used to make a few excuses, to justify my lack of zeal, that "those who have been saved of much love much."  Maybe because I was saved at such a young age was the cause of my complacency?  But perhaps it is simply because in my mind I had, in pride, decided that I was beyond living in that place of unashamed passionate love for Jesus.  I knew, with my head knowledge, that Jesus loved me and the world but I guess I thought it was time to move on to "bigger and better" things.  But what is "bigger and better" than His love?  There is nothing more important to offer and I need to allow Him to purge all things that get in the way of that, so I can truly BE love.  And as I work this out, what would living in His love actually look like?  Well the Bible lays it out pretty clearly.  It says that love is patient and kind, it doesn't envy or boast, it isn't self-seeking, it isn't easily angered and doesn't keep record of wrongs, it doesn't delight in evil but rejoices in truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, love never fails.  And the most profound thing of all is that this list is how Jesus actually loves us!  If I can really grasp how patient, kind, trustworthy, selfless, protecting my Savior is than it should just flow naturally to BE that to others.  And so, may we all grow to know the love of Christ so we can just fully live in it, and be the LOVE that He wants to be to this world.